ast night, she had trusted
this stranger, a hunter of the White Mountains, who appeared ready to
befriend her. And she had felt an exceeding gratitude. Still, she had
looked at him impersonally. But it began to dawn upon her that chance
had thrown her in the company of a remarkable man. That impression
baffled her. It did not spring from the fact that he was brave and kind
to help a young woman in peril, or that he appeared deft and quick at
camp-fire chores. Most Western men were brave, her uncle had told her,
and many were roughly kind, and all of them could cook. This hunter was
physically a wonderful specimen of manhood, with something leonine about
his stature. But that did not give rise to her impression. Helen
had been a school-teacher and used to boys, and she sensed a boyish
simplicity or vigor or freshness in this hunter. She believed, however,
that it was a mental and spiritual force in Dale which had drawn her to
think of it.

"Nell, I've spoken to you three times," protested Bo, petulantly. "What
're you mooning over?"

"I'm pretty tired--and far away, Bo," replied Helen. "What did you say?"

"I said I had an e-normous appetite."

"Really. That's not remarkable for you. I'm too tired to eat. And afraid
to shut my eyes. They'd never come open. When did we sleep last, Bo?"

"Second night before we left home," declared Bo.

"Four nights! Oh, we've slept some."

"I'll bet I make mine up in this woods. Do you suppose we'll sleep right
here--under this tree--with no covering?"

"It looks so," replied Helen, dubiously.

"How perfectly lovely!" exclaimed Bo, in delight. "We'll see the stars
through the pines."

"Seems to be clouding over. Wouldn't it be awful if we had a storm?"

"Why, I don't know," answered Bo, thoughtfully. "It must storm out
West."

Again Helen felt a quality of inevitableness in Bo. It was something
that had appeared only practical in the humdrum home life in St. Joseph.
All of a sudden Helen received a flash of wondering thought--a thrilling
consciousness that she and Bo had begun to develop in a new and wild
environment. How strange, and fearful, perhaps, to watch that growth!
Bo, being younger, more impressionable, with elemental rather than
intellectual instincts, would grow stronger more swiftly. Helen wondered
if she could yield to her own leaning to the primitive. But how could
anyone with a thoughtful and grasping mind yield that way? It was the
savage who did not think.