Part 35 (1/1)

The trapper said he wouldn't and hastened off with his prisoner, delighted indeed to be the first to pass the good word of their deliverance through Bradleyburg Bill ell known and liked through all that portion of the North, and his supposed death had been a real blow to the townspeople

Bill felt wholly able to follow the broad snowshoe track the half-rown faint and died away,--and Virginia and he were left together on the hill

They had nothing to say at first They sihts sprang up one and one over the town Bill bent, and the girl raised her lips to his

”We o on,” he said ”You're cold--and tired”

”Yes I can't believe--I'ood-by to the spruce”

”And you're not, Virginia!” The man's voice was vibrant and joyful

”We'll have to co of the mine--half of every year at least--and we can stay at the old cabin just the same The woods are beautiful in summer”

”They're beautiful now”

And they were She told the truth For all their savagery, their fearful strength, their beauty could not be denied

They saw the church spire, tall and ghostly in the twilight, and Bill's strong arirl close She understood and smiled happily

”Of course, Bill,” she told hi enough to stand beside you--at the altar”

So it was decided They would be , in the shadow of the spruce

They would return, these two The North had claimed them--but had not ain the caribou feeding in the forest, the whirling snows, and the spruce trees lifting their tall heads to the winter stars They would know the old exultation, the joy of conflict; but no blustering storm or wilderness voice could appall them now In the security and harbor of their love, no as keen enough to chill them, no darkness appall their spirits

The Northern Lights were beginning their ht sky Far away a coyote howled disconsolately,--a cry that was the voice of the North itself And the two kissed once