old friend
critically; then frankly, if laughingly, remarked:

"Abel, you dear, you can beat Mercy talking, by a great length. It's
funny to hear you blaming her for the very thing you do. But I like
it. You can't guess how I like it, and how it brings back my childish
days in the forest. Now come in and get something to eat. Then we can
have another talk."

"I ain't hungry. I had some doughnuts in my saddle-bags, and I munched
them along the road. Say, Kit. Don't tell Mercy; but I didn't try to
sell. Just put the question once, so to satisfy her when she asked. We
hain't no need. She's got a lot of money in a buckskin bag tied round
her waist. The land's all right. It's a good investment. I'll let it
stand. This country is bound to grow. Some day it will be worth a
power, and then I'll sell out, if I'm livin'; and if I ain't, you can.
One of the reasons I came was to fix things up for you. I always meant
to make you my legatee. We've no kith nor kin nigh enough to worry
about, Mercy an' me; an' I 'low she'd be agreeable. So we'll let the
land lie. Oh, bosh! There she is, calling again. May as well go in for
she won't stop till we do."

After all, there was real pleasure in the faces of both husband and
wife at their reunion, short though their separation had been, and
bitter though their words sounded to a stranger; and, already, there
was a personal pride in Mercy's tones as she exhibited the house over
which the Sun Maid presided, and explained the details--supplied by
her own imagination--of its purposes.

"But about Gaspar, Mercy. Has she told you anything about him yet? I'm
'lowing to have him help me keep tavern if he's grown up as capable as
he promised when he was a little shaver."

"No. She hain't said a word. Fact is, I hain't asked. We've been too
busy with other things. Likely he's round somewheres. Maybe off
hunting with them lazy soldiers. Shame, I think. The Government
keepin' 'em just to loaf away their time."

"Hmm! What on earth else could they do with it? I met a man, coming
along, said there'd been a right sharp lot of wolves prowlin' this
winter an' spring. They're gettin' most too neighborly for comfort for
the settlers across the prairies, so the military are trying to clear
them out. That's not a bad idee. But don't it beat all! That little
sissy, that used to have to stand on a three-legged stool to turn the
stirabout, grown like she has? I never saw a finer woman, never; and
her hair's