wrists and little toil-hardened hands. She who had been a
high-spirited girl with the world at her feet then, was now one of the
obscure toilers whose work was never done. Still, because it was only
on rare occasions that work left her leisure to think about herself, it
had not occurred to her that she had lost but little by the change.
The hands that had once been soft and white were now firm and brown,
the stillness of the great firs and cedars had given her a calm
tranquillity in place of restless haste, and frost and sun the clear,
warm-tinted complexion, while a look of strength and patience had
replaced the laughter in her hazel eyes.

Suddenly, however, there was a trampling in the snow and a sound of
voices, followed after, an interval by a knocking at the door. It
swung open, and two whitened objects loaded with bags and packages
strode into the room. The blast that came in with them set the lamp
flickering, and sent a chill through the girl, but she rose with a
smile when rancher Alton stood, a shapeless figure, with the moisture
on his bronzed face, beside the stove.

"Take those things through into the kitchen, Charley," he said. "I
think we've got them all, Miss Townshead. I hope, sir, you are feeling
pretty well."

Townshead made some answer with a slight bend of his head, but Alton
appeared a trifle dubious when the girl offered him hospitality.

"I'm afraid the beasts are used up, or I wouldn't think of it," he said.

Nellie Townshead's eyes twinkled as she glanced at him. "Could you not
have put it in another way?" she said.

Alton laughed, and brushed his fingers across the top of the stove.
"Well, it doesn't sound quite right, but after all the meaning's the
great thing," he said. "This place isn't warm enough for you, Miss
Nellie."

He turned and walked to the wood-box, and after glancing into it
carefully straightened out its covering. Then he strode towards the
door, and stopped a moment before he opened it. "Excuse!" he said
simply. "No, don't you worry; I know just where the saw and lantern
are, and Charley, who comes from the old country, can talk to you for
me."

He went out in another moment, but the fact that he was very weary did
not escape the attention of the girl, who also noticed the absence of
any unnecessary questions or explanations. Alton was, she knew
already, one who did things the better because he did them silently.
Still, it was Seaforth whom, when nobody