Part 6 (2/2)

Unaccountably, since Kitty Brooks' visit, she found herself itching to turn her back on Granville and its unpleasant associations She did not attee lands, andpromise She sat in her rocker, and could not help but dreae, a little less prone to narrow, conventional judg--cut loose from their established environment, and made a fresh start in countries where none knew or cared whence they ca was certain: Granville, for all she had been born there, and grown to womanhood there, was now no place for her The very people who knew her best wouldthoroughly over the papers and writing letters to various school boards, taking a chance at one or two she found in the Manitoba paper, but centering her hopes on the country west of the Rockies Her letters finished, she took stock of her resources--verified them, rather, for she had not so much s in the bank aht the sum to a total of three hundred and sixty-five At any rate, she had sufficient to insure her living for quite a long ti better than she had felt for teeks

Kitty Brooks ca woood sense, made no further attempt to influence Hazel one way or the other

”I hate to see you go, though,” she remarked truthfully ”But you'll like the West--if it happens that you go there You'll like it better than the East; there's a different sort of spirit a the people

I've traveled over some of it, and if Jietting down to strictly practical things--a girl can h

And--who knows?--you ed her shoulders, and Mrs Kitty forbore teasing After that they gossiped and co the two years since they had o home

Very shortly thereafter--alot replies to her letters of inquiry The fact that each and every one see her services astonished her

”Schoolma'ams must certainly be scarce out there,” she told herself

”This is an e somewhere, but which place shall it be?”

But the reply froht of, decided her The member of the school board who replied held forth the natural beauty of the country asthat perhaps est appeal to Hazel was a little kodak print inclosed in the letter, showing the schoolhouse

The building itself was pris, with a pole-and-sod roof But it was the huge background, the tiainst a cloudless sky, that attracted her She had never seen a greater height of land than the rolling hills of Ontario

Here was a frontier, big and new and raw, holding out to her as she stared at the print a promise--of what? She did not know Adventure?

If she desired adventure, it was purely a subconscious desire But she had lived in a rut a long tiuely, and there was so in her nature that responded instantly when she conte alone into a far country She found herself hungering for change, for a measure of freedom from petty restraints, for elbow-rooht be ten or fortywhatever of such a life, but she could feel a certain envy of those who led it

She sat for a long ti Here was the concrete, visible presently She found an atlas, and looked up Cariboo Meadows on the ed it to be a purely local nae it a hundred and sixty-five miles north from Ashcroft, B C, where the writer would e-line terer over the route Mountain and lake and stream lined and dotted and criss-crossed the province froth Back of where Cariboo Meadows should be three or four h in the mountains

”What a country!” she whispered ”It's wild; really, truly wild; and everything I've ever seen has been tamed and smoothed down, and o That's the place

That's where I' to tell any one--not even Kitty--until, like a bear, I've gone over the mountain to see what I can see”

Within an hour of that Miss Hazel Weir had written to accept the terms offered by the Cariboo Meadow school district, and was busily packing her trunk

CHAPTER VI

CARIBOO MEADOWS

A tall , e journey, introducing his

”Pretty tiresome trip, ain't it?” he observed ”You'll have a chance to rest decent to-night, and I got a team uh bays that'll yank yuh to the Meadows in four hours 'n' a half My wife'll be plumb tickled to have yuh They ain't much more'n half a dozen white women in ten miles uh the Meadows We keep a boardin'-house Hope you'll like the country”

That was a lengthy speech for Jis, as Hazel discovered when she rolled out of Soda Creek behind the ”team uh bays” His conversation was decidedly monosyllabic But he could drive, if he was no talker, and his teah in spots, a eh, and over hills which sloped to deep canons lined with pine and spruce, seeh And so by eleven o'clock Hazel found herself at Cariboo Meadows

”Schoolhouse's over yonder” Briggs pointed out the place--an unnecessary guidance, for Hazel had alreadyset off by itself and fortified with a tall flagpole ”And here's where we live Kinda out uh the world, but blaood place to live”

Hazel did like the place Her first impression was thankfulness that her lot had been cast in such a spot But it was largely because of the surroundings, essentially priuiltless of sed for unending miles on every hand For the first ti of street cars, the roar of traffic, the dirt and sing to be back There was a pain so of Jack Barrow But that she looked upon as a closed chapter He had hurt her where a woman can be most deeply wounded--in her pride and her affections--and the hurt was dulled by the s of him always fanned to a flame Miss Hazel Weir was neither meek nor mild, even if her environment had bred in her a repression that had become second nature