living death. And he would have died, any way.
The wolves are awful troublesome this spring. We've lost more than
twenty of our hogs and the only pair of sheep we had. So husband
joined a party and went out to hunt them. What will he say, what will
he say, when he comes back!"

In Gaspar's heart there sprang up a great happiness. The ill which
had happened here was so much less than he had anticipated that he
took courage for himself. After all, the Sun Maid might be safe, as
Abel had declared she said she should be. He remembered, at last, that
not all men are evil, even red ones; and in the reaction of his own
feelings, he exclaimed:

"What can he say, but give thanks that no worse befell him!"

However, now that her child was safe within her arms, the woman began
to suffer in advance the torment she would have to undergo when she
faced her indignant husband; and she retorted sharply:

"Worse! Well, I suppose so. But I don't see why in the name of common
sense I was let to be such a fool in the first place. He won't,
neither. It's all very well when you've lost half your property to
give thanks for not losing your life, too; but I don't see any cause
for losing ary one."

This sounded so like Mercy and her philosophy that Gaspar threw back
his head and laughed; which angered his new friend first, and then
affected her, also, with something of his mirth.

"I can't see a thing to laugh at, I, for one," she remarked, trying to
be stern.

"Oh! but I can. And I'm not a laughing man, in ordinary. But there's
one thing I know--I'm powerful hungry. Can't we make another fire, one
that we can control, and get a bit of supper? If there's anything in
the house to cook, I can cook it while you tend baby. Then we'll talk
over your affairs."

"There's plenty to cook, but you'll not cook it, sir. I owe you my
child's life, and now things are getting straighter in my muddled
mind. I lost the barn for Jacob, and I must help replace it. I've been
a hard worker always, but I can stretch another point, I guess. Pshaw!
I believe it's getting daylight. It'll be breakfast instead of supper,
this time."

It was daylight, indeed; and in a half-hour the simple meal was
smoking on the table, and Gaspar sitting to eat it with the hearty
appetite of a man who has lived always out-of-doors. But he could talk
as fast as eat, when he was anxious as on that morning; and before he
had drained his last cup of the "rye coffee" he had learned