tove to warm the house, but they kept up a
fiction of parlor and dining room, kitchen and bed chamber. Even the
library was there, although it encroached dreadfully on the parlor,
bedroom and kitchen, all three, for it consisted of space enough for two
chairs, one footstool, and a tiny lamp-stand, beside which they spent
their evenings.

"Who's likely to drop in tonight, and what's the program for the evening:
charades, music, readings, dancing, cribbage, or political speeches?"
Asher inquired.

They had invented all sorts of pastimes, with make-believe audiences, such
as little children create for their plays. For these two were children in
a big child world. The wilderness is never grown up. It is Nature's
little one waiting to be led on and disciplined to mature uses. Asher and
Virginia had already peopled the valley with imaginary settlers, each one
of a certain type, and they adapted their pastime to the particular
neighbors whom they chose to invite for the evening. How little the
helpless folk in the city, bored with their own dullness, and dependent on
others for amusement--how little could such as these cope with the
loneliness of the home on the plains, or comprehend the resourcefulness of
the home-makers there!

"Oh, let's just spend the evening alone. It's too stormy for the Arnolds
and Archibalds beyond the Deep Bend, and the Spoopendykes have relatives
from the East and the Gilliwigs are all down with colds."

Virginia had tucked herself down in the one rocking chair, with her feet
on the footstool.

"It's such a nice night to be to ourselves. Watch the rain washing that
west window. It's getting worse. I always think of Jim on nights like
this."

"So do I," Asher said, as he sat down in the armed chair he had made for
himself of cottonwood limbs with a gunny sack seat. "He's all alone with
his dog these dark nights, and loneliness cuts to the heart of a man like
Jim. I'm glad I have you, Virginia. I couldn't do without you now. The
rain is getting heavier every minute. Sounds like it was thumping on the
door. Listen to that wind!"

"Tell me about Jim, Asher. What made him come out here anyhow?" Virginia
asked.

"I don't know all the story. Jim has never seemed to want to tell me, and
I've never cared to ask him," Asher replied. "When we were away together
at school, he was in love with one of the prettiest girls that Ohio ever
grew. She lived in the country up the valley from Cloverdale. Her nam