Waashin'ton waitin' for the Ranger man t'
come back; an' th' goin's on raported in the paphers. Ah, h' waz a
baad man, wuz the Ranger, faather said."

"Do _you_ read the paper, little one?" broke in Matthews.

"_Nut_ the print, sor, but I do th' pitchers; an' th' murthers; an'
thim's all pitchered out plain so I can read! Faather sez he wun't
have his independence proposed upon; if th' don't give him twinty
thousan' fur settin' toight here, he'll peach; but about th' mine, th'
Ranger man iz expected t' make throuble, an' faather iz all powerful
quick with his fist, sor, 'specially when he's in drink; an' he's t' be
on hand. It ain't th' truth I'm tellin' y', sor; it's ownly what I've
heerd."

"And if you sit tight here for five years, you are going to be
wealthy?" asked Eleanor, taking her by the hand and leading her out to
the woods.

The unwonted act almost startled the little face. She looked up at
Eleanor questioningly. "Y's, mam, waal-thy," she said. "Faather sez
when we're waal-thy, he'll be a gen'leman an' Oil be a loidy."

"All you need, to be a lady, or a gentleman is, to be wealthy? Is that
it?" asked the old frontiersman laughing.

"Yes, sor," said the child solemnly, "Faather wull shure be a
gen'leman."

"Do you like living here?" asked Eleanor.

"No, mam, I don't think much of it! In Smelter City, there wuz
curcuses; an' elephants on _all_ the bills of fare; an' loidies dancin'
on th'r heads! Faather sez if I keep on dancin' as foine as I do now,
mebbie I'll be able t' dance on m' head; but I wouldn't like to dance
without any skeerts, wud y'?"

"No, A wouldn't," answered the preacher quickly; and Eleanor laughed.

It was all so ludicrously pathetic. They asked her if she would not
like to come down with them to the Indian School; and she looked
wistfully and did not answer. Oh, God of Little Children, where are
You? Are the Lambs outside the fold not Yours also?

When they pointed out the creatures of the woods to her, they found she
did not know a squirrel from a chipmunk; and she pronounced the merry
chattering "odjus." When a cat bird came tittering on his tail,
squeaking out every imaginary note of gladness and the frontiersman
explained that this fellow sang only _after_ his family had been raised
whereas the other birds sang _before_, she said he "wazn't as
interestin' as th' elephants on the bill o' fare."

"Let's see! There's three trails here about!" Matthews was cogi