was now prospecting, the smaller ones began to rattle
together and slide from the seat beside him. Finally, as the cart
slipped against a stone, the level bounced into a puddle. He was about
to jump out when a bold, ringing voice called to him:

"Set still--A'll pick hit up."

Then a figure slid down the rocky bank at his right, her one garment
wrinkling from her bare, sturdy legs during the performance.

Gilman had never seen anything like her in his thirty years of varied
experience.

She was very tall. A curtain of rough, glittering curls hung to her
knees. Her face, clear with that clearness which only a mountain wind
can bring, was white as a seagull's breast, except where a dark, yet
vivid pink melted into the blue veins on her temples and throat. Her
round, fresh lips, smooth as a peony-leaf, were parted in a wide
laugh, over teeth large and yellow-white, like the grains on an ear of
corn. She wore a loose tunic of blue-gray stuff, which reached to the
middle of her legs, covered with grass stains and patches of mould.
Her bare feet, somewhat broadened by walking, were well-shaped, the
great toe standing apart from the others, the strong, round ankles,
although scratched and bruised, perfectly symmetrical. Her arms, bare
almost to the shoulder, were like those with which in imagination we
complete the Milo. Eyes, round and colored like the edges of broken
glass, looked out boldly from under her long black eyebrows. Her nose
was straight and well cut, but set impertinently.

As she picked up the muddy level she laughed boisterously and wiped it
on her frock.

"Thank you," said Gilman, and then, after a second's hesitation,
added: "Where are you going? Perhaps I can give you a lift on your
way? Will you get in?"

"Well, a done keer ef a do," she said, still staring at him.

She got in and took the level on her knee, then burst out laughing
again--

"A reckon yuh wonders what a'm a haw-hawin' at?" she asked, suddenly.
"Well, a'll tell yuh! 'Tiz case a feels jess like this hyuh
contrapshun o' yourn. A haint hed a bite sence five this mawnin', and
a've got a bubble in th' middle o' me, a ken tell yuh!"

She opened her flexible mouth almost to her ears, showing both rows of
speckless teeth, and roaring mirthfully again.

"I've got some sandwiches, here--won't you have one?" said Gilman.

"Dunno--what be they?" she asked, rather suspiciously, eyeing him
sidewise.

He explained to her, and she accepted o