fatted little things, blissfully innocent and
criminally ignorant. They are not natural or strong; nor can they
mother the natural and strong."

She stopped abruptly. They heard somebody enter the hall, and a heavy,
soft-moccasined tread approaching.

"We are friends," she added hurriedly, and Corliss answered with his
eyes.

"Ain't intrudin', am I?" Dave Harney grinned broad insinuation and
looked about ponderously before coming up to shake hands.

"Not at all," Corliss answered. "We've bored each other till we were
pining for some one to come along. If you hadn't, we would soon have
been quarrelling, wouldn't we, Miss Welse?"

"I don't think he states the situation fairly," she smiled back. "In
fact, we had already begun to quarrel."

"You do look a mite flustered," Harney criticised, dropping his
loose-jointed frame all over the pillows of the lounging couch.

"How's the famine?" Corliss asked. "Any public relief started yet?"

"Won't need any public relief. Miss Frona's old man was too forehanded
fer 'em. Scairt the daylights out of the critters, I do b'lieve.
Three thousand went out over the ice hittin' the high places, an' half
ez many again went down to the caches, and the market's loosened some
considerable. Jest what Welse figgered on, everybody speculated on a
rise and held all the grub they could lay hand to. That helped scare
the shorts, and away they stampeded fer Salt Water, the whole caboodle,
a-takin' all the dogs with 'em. Say!" he sat up solemnly, "corner
dogs! They'll rise suthin' unheard on in the spring when freightin'
gits brisk. I've corralled a hundred a'ready, an' I figger to clear a
hundred dollars clean on every hide of 'em."

"Think so?"

"Think so! I guess yes. Between we three, confidential, I'm startin'
a couple of lads down into the Lower Country next week to buy up five
hundred of the best huskies they kin spot. Think so! I've limbered my
jints too long in the land to git caught nappin'."

Frona burst out laughing. "But you got pinched on the sugar, Dave."

"Oh, I dunno," he responded, complacently. "Which reminds me. I've
got a noospaper, an' only four weeks' old, the _Seattle
Post-Intelligencer_."

"Has the United States and Spain--"

"Not so fast, not so fast!" The long Yankee waved his arms for
silence, cutting off Frona's question which was following fast on that
of Corliss.

"But have you read it?" they both demanded.

"Unh huh, every l