Part 9 (2/2)
There is a certain capacity in young and sturdy huinia wakened the next ely past and she was in a ether, stiffened her young spine, and prepared to make the best of a deplorable situation She had come up here to find her lost beloved, and she wasn't defeated yet This very develop success
She realized that the fact that she had thus found a ely unintelligible to irls she knew in the circle in which she hadto re for six years, or to seek hiot down to the siirls were of a different breed Culture and sophistication and caste had never destroyed an intensity and depths of eleht have been native to these very wildernesses in which she was ier tips, she knew the fullof fidelity Orphaned alirlhood love affair of hers had been her single, great adventure She had been sure that her lover still lived when all her friends had judged hi hi to all the world that her faith was justified
Bill was already up, and the room warmed from the fire The noise of his ax blows had wakened her And she took advantage of his absence to dress
”You up?” he cried in delight when she entered His arht to rest another day
How do you feel?”
”As good as ever, as far as I can tell And pretty well asha such a baby yesterday”
But his smile told her that he held no resentment ”I trust you'll be able to eat to-day?”
”Eat? Bill, I arew instantly sober--”I want to know just hoe stand, and what our chances are I re out But we can't live here on nothing What about supplies?”
”That's e've got to see about right now It's an iood reason I couldn't ot up You'll see why in a un at least; you can see it behind the stove It's an old thing, but it will still shoot And we've got at least one box of shells for it--and not one of the ot two boxes of shells for it in my pocket--it's a small caliber, and there's fifty in each box There are plenty of blankets and cooking utensils, azines for idle hours and, Heaven bless us, an old and battered phonograph on the table Don't scorn it--anything that has to be packed on a horse this far mustn't be scorned We can have music with our meals, if we like”
He stopped and smiled
”There's a cake of soap on the shelf,” he went on, after the gorgeous fact of the phonograph had ti the supplies--but I' I don't even kno you'll coirl smiled--really with happiness now--and fished in the pockets of a great slicker coat she had worn the night of the disaster
She produced a little white roll, and with the high glee opened it for him to see Wrapped in a miniature face toas her cohed with delight over the find ”But no mirror?” the man said solemnly
”No I won't be able to see how I look for weeks--and that's terrible But where are your food supplies? I see those sacks hanging froh to keep us alive
And there's nothing else that I can see”
”We'd have a hard time, if we had to depend on the contents of those sacks Miss Tremont, can you cook?”
”Cook? Good Heavens--I never have But I can learn, I suppose”
”You'd better learn It will help pass away the tih, as”
”But what is there to cook?”
He walked, with soht before, and lifting it up, revealed a great box beneath She understood, nohy he had not been able to ation They danced with joy at its contents,--bags of rice and beans, dried apples, h for some weeks at least Best of all, fros of tobacco, for cutting up for his pipe
”The one thing we haven't got is meat,” Bill told her, ”except a little jerky; but there's plenty of that in the woods if we can just find it
And I don't intend to delay about that If the snow gets much deeper, we'd have to have snowshoes to hunt at all”
”Youto-day?”
”As soon as we can stir up a meal Hoould pancakes taste?”