nothing and always looked straight
ahead, he was, in a way, spice in the feast of her enjoyment.

When they stopped for their meals, they drew aside from the trail, if
possible near some spring or river-bed in which pools of water
lingered, but such stopping-places were far apart in the desert
country. At night there was a cheerful bonfire, followed by zestful
talk as they lay on the ground, before falling asleep in their
tarpaulins--talk eagerly monopolized by Brick and Lahoma, and to which
Atkins seemed in a manner to listen, perhaps warming his heart at the
light of their comradeship even as they warmed their hands in the early
morning at the breakfast fire. Atkins had brought with him one of his
books, and at the noon hour's rest, and at evening beside the bonfire,
he kept his nose buried in its pages.

Lahoma did not think life would have been too long to devote to such
pilgrimages. In the settlements, she was bewildered, but never
satiated, with novelties, and on the way back, everything she had seen
was discussed, expounded and classified between her and her "cousin."
Sometimes her questions drove Brick up against a stone wall and then
Bill Atkins would raise his voice and in three or four words put the
matter in its true light.

"Bill, he's saw more of life than me," Brick conceded admiringly. "He
has come and went amongst all sorts of people, but my specialty has in
the main been low."

"Yes, I've seen more of life," Atkins agreed; "that's why I try so hard
to keep away from it."

"The more I see, the more I want to see!" cried Lahoma eagerly.

"Yes, honey," Brick explained, "that's because you're a WOMAN."

Once more back in the cove, Lahoma dreamed new dreams, peopling the
grassy solitude with the figures she had encountered on her travels,
likening the rocks to various houses that had caught her fancy. She
turned with absorbed interest to the primer and elementary arithmetic
with which Brick had supplied himself as the first tools for his mental
kit.

The journey hack home had been far easier than the descent into Texas
because both Willock and Atkins had supplied themselves with
ponies,--animals that sold ridiculously cheap at the outlying posts of
the settlements. Brick Willock brought back with him something else to
add cheerfulness and usefulness to approaching winter. This was a
square window-sash, set with four small panes of good glass. It was
hard work to place this window in Lahoma's