tchen just then. She still looked scared and
uncertain, until, through the half-open door of the pantry, she heard
soft, whispery sounds like kissing--when the kissing is a rapture rather
than a ceremony. Mrs. Kate had only been married eight years or so, and
she had a good memory. She backed from the kitchen on her toes, and
pulled the door shut with the caution of a thief. She did more; she
permitted dinner to be an hour late, rather than disturb those two in
the pantry.

* * * * *

The uphill climb was no climb at all, after that. For when a man has
found the one woman in the world, and with her that elusive thing we
call happiness, even the demon must perforce sheathe his claws and
retire, discomfited, to the pit whence he came.

There was a period of impatient waiting, because Josephine and Mrs. Kate
both stoutly maintained that the "real wedding" could not take place
until Chester came back. After that, there was a Mrs. foreman at the
Double Cross until spring. And after that, there was a new ranch and a
new house and a new home where happiness came and dwelt unhindered.

THE END

STORIES OF RARE CHARM BY
GENE STRATTON-PORTER

May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.

_THE HARVESTER_ Illustrated by W. L. Jacobs

"The Harvester," David Langston, is a man of the woods and fields, who
draws his living from the prodigal hand of Mother Nature herself. If the
book had nothing in it but the splendid figure of this man, with his
sure grip on life, his superb optimism, and his almost miraculous
knowledge of nature secrets, it would be notable. But when the Girl
comes to his "Medicine Woods," and the Harvester's whole sound, healthy,
large outdoor being realizes that this is the highest point of life
which has come to him--there begins a romance, troubled and interrupted,
yet of the rarest idyllic quality.

_FRECKLES._ Decorations by E. Stetson Crawford

Freckles is a nameless waif when the tale opens, but the way in which he
takes hold of life; the nature friendships he forms in the great
Limberlost Swamp; the manner in which everyone who meets him succumbs to
the charm of his engaging personality; and his love-story with "The
Angel" are full of real sentiment.

_A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST._ Illustrated by Wladyslaw T. Brenda.

The story of a girl of the Michigan woods; a buoyant, lovable type of
the self-reliant American. Her philosoph