--far's you've got?"

"Not very much," replied his wife, candidly. She was a handsome woman,
but looked tired and a little cross, at the moment. "I guess I'll get
out and ride with you," she added.

"Why, no! What for?" asked Rivers, hastily. "Why not go right along out
to the store with us?"

"Why, yes; that's the thing to do, Blanche. We'll be along soon," said
Burke. "Stay where you are."

She sat down again, as if ashamed to give her reason for not going on
with these strange men.

"I was just in the middle of a story, too," added Rivers, humorously.
"Well, so long." And, cracking his whip, he started on. "We'll have
supper ready when you arrive!" he shouted back.

Burke could not forget the look in his wife's eyes. She was right. It
would have been pleasanter if she had stayed with him. They had been
married several years, but his love for her had not grown less. Perhaps
for the reason that she dominated him.

She was a fine, powerful girl, while he was a plain man, slightly
stooping, with thin face and prominent larynx. She had brought a little
property to him, which was unusual enough to give her a sense of
importance in all business transactions of the firm.

She had consented to the sale of their farm in Illinois with great
reluctance, and, as Burke rode along on his load of furniture, he
recalled it all very vividly, and it made him anxious to know her
impression of his claim. As he took her position for a moment, he got a
sudden sense of the loneliness and rawness of this new land which he had
not felt before. The woman's point of view was so different from that of
the adventurous man.

Twice they were forced to partly unload in order to cross ravines where
the frost had fallen out, and it was growing dark as they rose over the
low swell, from which they could see a dim, red star, which Burke
guessed to be the shanty light, even before Bailey called, exultantly:

"There she blows!"

The wind had grown chill and moist, the quacking ducks were thickening
on the pools, and strange noises came from ghostly swells and hidden
creeks. The tired horses moved forward with soundless feet upon the sod,
which had softened during the day. They quickened their steps when they
saw the lantern shine from the pole before the building.

The light of the lamp, and the sight of Blanche standing in the doorway
of the cabin at the back of the store-room, was a beautiful sight to
Burke. Set over against the wet, dark