Part 20 (1/2)
”We shouldn't,” he declared ”But ht One never can tell what's ahead Life takes queer and unexpected turns soot to live pretty close to each other, depend absolutely on each other in many ways--and that's the acid test of human companionshi+p By and by, when the novelty wears off-- the same old Bill around and nobody else
You see I've always been on ood behavior with you Do you like htened with a quick and powerful pressure, then suddenly relaxed to let her lean back and stare up at his like that,” she pouted ”Only I can't think of any effective method Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof--and there is no evil in _our_ days”
”Amen,” he whispered softly--and they fell to silent conteold that spread in a wonderful blazon over all the western sky
”Twenty-fifth of July, eh?” he one already I didn't realize it We ought to be stirring pretty soon, lady”
”Let's stir into the house, then,” she suggested ”These miserable little black flies have found a tender place on hed, and they took refuge in the cabin, the doorways and s of which were barricaded with cotton rily without Ensconced in the big chair by the fireplace, with Bill sprawled on the bearskin at her feet, Hazel came back to his last re, Billum?”
”Because these Northern seasons are so blessed short,” he answered
”We ought to try and do a little good for ourselves--make hay while the sun shi+nes We'll needa da hed ”What do we needto live up here Why this sudden desire to pursue the dollar? Besides, how are you going to pursue it?”
”Go prospecting,” he replied promptly ”Hit the trail for a place I knohere there's oodles of coarse gold, if you can get to it at loater How'd you like to go into the Upper Naas country this fall, trap all winter, work the sand bars in the spring, and coold it would take a horse to pack?”
Hazel clapped her hands
”Oh, Bill, wouldn't that be fine?” she cried Across her nant with adventure, across the wild hinterlands--they two together ”I'd love to”
”It won't be all s trip and a hard one, and the winter will be longer and harder than the trip We won't have the se shot Still, there's a chance for a good big stake, right in that one trip”
”But why the necessity for htfully, after a lapse of fiveabouton? And we surely have that We've got over two thousand dollars in real money--and no place to spend it--so we're co over his head and watched it vanish up toward the dusky roof beams before he answered
”Well, little person,” said he, ”that's very true, and we can't truthfully say that stern necessity is treading on our heels The possession ofneed witha lone hand, and I generally let the future take care of itself It was always easy to dig upI wanted Now that I've assuun to dawn on me that we'd enjoy life better if ere assured of a competence We can live on the country here indefinitely But on't stay here always I'm pretty much contented just now So are you But I know fro as tiet loneso in the world
And e go out to mix with our fellow humans ant to meet theood clothes on, and a fat bank roll in our pocket The best is none too good for us, lady And the best costs , or, rather,married has opened up new vistas of pleasure for us that call for dollars And last, but not least, old girl, while I love to loaf, I can only loaf about so long in content_; whether it was profitable or not has never mattered, just so it was action”
”I sabe, as you call it,” Hazel smiled ”Of course I do Only lazy people like to loaf all the tiht stay here for years and be satisfied But--”
”But we'd be better satisfied to stay if we knew that we could leave it whenever anted to,” he interrupted ”That's the psychology of the huht We don't like to be coerced, even by circuranted health, one can be boss of old Dame Circumstance, if one has the price in cold cash It's a s of the world can only be had for a consideration”
”If you , we could travel--one could do lots of things,” she reflected ”I don't think I'd want to live in a city again But it would be nice to go there soreed ”With a chuot hts by myself--it was too lonesome I used to prowl around by myself with an analytical eye upon hu into a lot of sordidness and suffering that I couldn't in the least reave me a bad taste in my mouth Then I'd beat it for the woods--and they always looked good to me The trouble was that I had tooto do when I hit a live town It would be different now We can do things together that I couldn't do alone, and you couldn't do alone Reet the ithal
And since I kno to e that with a minimum amount of effort, I'd like to be about it before soh there's small chance of that”
”We'll be partners,” said she ”Hoe divide the profits, Billum?”
”We'll split even,” he declared ”That is, I'll make the money, and you'll spend it”
They chuckled over this conceit, and as the dusk closed in slowly they fell to planning the details Hazel lit the lalow pored over maps while Bill idly sketched their route on a sheet of paper His objective lay east of the head of the Naas proper, where ale of mountains and mountain torrents three turbulent rivers, the Stikine, the Skeena, and the Naas, took their rise A God-forsaken region, he told her, where fehite men had penetrated