Part 27 (2/2)

was took when he was most a boy His hair was thick an' he hadn't no s hard As I was sayin', I'oin' to show it around soot yarnin' to you Mebbe you ken locate hiraph from his pocket and thrust it into Nevil's hand

The wood-cutter took it with a great assu down on a result of early photographic art It was the picture of a very young man with an overshot mouth and a thin, narrow face But, as Seth had said, he wore no moustache, and his hair was still thick

Nevil looked long at that picture, and once or twice he licked his lips as though they were very dry All the time Seth's steady eyes were upon his face, and the shadow of a smile was still about his lips

At last Nevil looked up and Seth's eyes held his For a moment the two raph and shi+fted his gaze

”I've never seen the original of that about these parts,” he said a little hoarsely

”I didn't figger you had,” Seth replied, rising and proceeding to tighten up the cinches of his saddle preparatory to departing ”The lawyer feller gave me that Y' see it's an old pictur' 'Tain't as fancy as they do 'e into his saddle Nevil had also risen as though to proceed with his work

”Itfor hihed; he had almost recovered hihty bad thing Y' can't never tell how dollars 'll fix a man Dollars has a heap to answer for”

And with this vague remark the plainsman rode sloay

CHAPTER XX

SETH PAYS

As the weeks crept by and the torrid heat toned down to the delightful tean to reach White River Farland After the first excitement of her arrival had worn off, Rosebud settled down to a regular correspondence

Even her return to the scenes of her childhood in no way aided her memory

It was all new to her As her letters often said, though she knew she was grown up, yet, as far as memory served her, she was still only six years old Servants who had nursed her as a baby, who had cared for her as a child of ten, aunts who had lavished childish presents upon her, cousins who had played with her, they were all strangers, every one

So she turned with her confidences to those she knew;--those old people on the prairie of Dakota, and thatto her To these she wrote by everythem of her new life, of her pleasures, her little worries, never forgetting that Ma and Pa were still her mother and father

Thus they learned that the lawyer's prophecies had been fulfilled

Rosebud was in truth her father's heiress The courts were satisfied, and she was burdened with heritage under certain conditions of the will These conditions she did not state, probably a girlish oversight in the rush of events so swiftly passing round her

The winter stole upon the plains; that hard, relentless winter which knows no yielding till spring drives it forth First the fierce black frosts, then the snow, and later the shrieking blizzard, battling, tearing for possession of the field, carrying death in its breath for belatedthe snow into sh, in its bitter fury at the presence of ht where its blast proved powerless to destroy them

Christmas and New Year were past, that time of peace and festivity which is kept up wherever h these darktheir stockade, hauling the logs, cutting, splitting, joining The weather made no difference to them The fiercest storm disturbed them no further than to cause them to set a life-line froht be No blizzard could drive them within doors as to be done This was the life they knew, they had always lived, and they accepted it uncoly, just as they accepted the fruits of the earth in their season

No warning sound caot the recent episode, forgot the past, which is the way of human nature, and lived in the present only, and looked forward happily to the future

Seth and Rube minded their own affairs They were never the ones to croak

But their vigilance never relaxed Seth resuh no trouble had ever occurred He went on with his Sunday work at the Mission, never altering his tactics by one iota And in his silent way he learned all that interested him

He learned of Little Black Fox's protracted recovery, his lately developed moroseness He knehenever a council of chiefs took place, and much of what passed on these occasions The presence of Nevil Steyne at such s was a matter which never failed to interest hient, yet a quiet understanding existed between them, and he frequently possessed nehich only Parker could have ieneral opinion of the settlers, Seth, and doubtless Rube also, had their own ideas on the cal them