p the trail with the swinging trot peculiar
to the Hopi women, the full jar on her back, and she was singing, not
the old song that her mother still sung, but a Christian hymn, "A little
talk with Jesus makes it right, all right."

Helen watched her until she vanished behind the first cluster of grey
houses. Talavenka had gone back to her people for awhile. But her torch
was aflame, the torch of that faith that is destined in time to kindle
the grey rock of Oraibi into a beacon of illumination that shall give
healing and salvation to all those darkened minds and make the desert to
blossom like the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley.

The second day Elijah Clifford and Paul began to pack up, ready to break
camp the following morning and start back to Oraibi. Van Shaw's
condition was not much changed except that he was more rational. This
was a hopeful symptom and the doctor made the most of it, encouraging
Mrs. Van Shaw all he could.

Mr. Van Shaw was expected the next day, coming from Winslow. Van Shaw's
friends, after learning that there was nothing special for them to do,
had already made their plans to leave when the Tolchaco party went,
going in company with Clifford.

Helen was nervous and unhappy. She had begun to brood over matters. Her
mother had not said any more after that night's talk, but she could
easily see that Helen was still going over the same ground, and that the
chapter had not yet been closed for her. The thought gave Esther much
uneasiness and yet she thought it unwise to open the subject again and
so maintained a discreet silence, trusting to absence from the scene and
the return to Milton to do what only time could effect in the girl's
mind.

It lacked an hour or two of the time for departure the next morning when
Mrs. Van Shaw came over to the camp with marks of trouble in her looks
as she came into the tent where Mrs. Douglas and Helen were sitting.
Mrs. Douglas was an energetic camper and had completed her packing early
and was ready for the wagons as soon as the horses had been hitched in.

Mrs. Van Shaw was a showy woman who had done her best to spoil her son
ever since his birth, by giving him everything he wanted, simply because
he asked for it.

On this occasion she came at once to the point of her errand.

"Mrs. Douglas, my boy wants to see Miss Douglas before you go. He says
he wants to say something to her in our presence. He has been begging me
to come and see you all