the earth?"

Her crumpled head nodded against his breast.

"And leave Father John?"

"Yes, for you. But I think--sometime--he will come to us."

Her fingers touched his cheek.

"And there must be forests, big, beautiful forests, in some other part
of the world, Roger."

"Or a desert, where they would never think of looking for us," he
laughed happily.

"I'd love the desert, Roger."

"Or an uninhabited island?"

Against him her head nodded again.

"I'd love life anywhere--_with you_."

"Then--we'll go," he said, trying to speak very calmly in spite of the
joy that was consuming him like a fire. And then he went on, steadying
his voice until it was almost cold. "But it means giving up everything
you've dreamed of, Nada--these forests you love, Father John, Yellow
Bird, Sun Cloud--"

"I have only one dream," she interrupted him softly.

"And five years will pass very quickly," he continued. "Possibly it
will not be as bad as that, and afterward all this land we love will be
free to us forever. Gladly will I remain and take my punishment if in
the end it will make us happier, Nada."

"I have only one dream," she repeated, caressing his cheek with her
hand, "and that is you, Roger. Where-ever you take me I shall be the
happiest woman in the world."

"_Woman_," he laughed, scarcely breathing the word aloud.

"Yes, I am a woman--now"

"And yet forever and ever the little girl of Cragg's Ridge," he cried
with sudden passion, crushing her close to him. "I'd lose my life
sooner than I would lose her, Nada--the little girl with flying hair
and strawberry stain on her nose, and who believed so faithfully in the
Man in the Moon. Always I shall worship her as the little goddess who
came down to me from somewhere in heaven!"

Yet all through that day, as they waited for Father John's return, he
saw more and more of the wonder of woman that had come to crown the
glory of Nada's wifehood, and his heart trembled with joy at the
miracle of it. There was something vastly sweet in the change of her.
She was no longer the utterly dependent little thing, possibly caring
for him because he was big and strong and able to protect her; she was
a woman, and loved him as a woman, and not because of fear or
helplessness. And then came the thrilling mystery of another thing. He
found himself, in turn, beginning to depend upon her, and in their
planning her calm decision and quiet reasoning strengthened him with
new confidence