t's It! Call it God if you like. But what stalls me
is--where was that Spirit when this earth was a ball of fiery gas? Where
will that Spirit be when all life is frozen out or burned out on this
globe an' it hangs dead in space like the moon? That time will come.
There's no waste in nature. Not the littlest atom is destroyed. It
changes, that's all, as you see this pine wood go up in smoke an' feel
somethin' that's heat come out of it. Where does that go? It's not lost.
Nothin' is lost. So, the beautiful an' savin' thought is, maybe all
rock an' wood, water an' blood an' flesh, are resolved back into the
elements, to come to life somewhere again sometime."

"Oh, what you say is wonderful, but it's terrible!" exclaimed Helen. He
had struck deep into her soul.

"Terrible? I reckon," he replied, sadly.

Then ensued a little interval of silence.

"Milt Dale, I lose the bet," declared Bo, with earnestness behind her
frivolity.

"I'd forgotten that. Reckon I talked a lot," he said, apologetically.
"You see, I don't get much chance to talk, except to myself or Tom.
Years ago, when I found the habit of silence settlin' down on me, I took
to thinkin' out loud an' talkin' to anythin'."

"I could listen to you all night," returned Bo, dreamily.

"Do you read--do you have books?" inquired Helen, suddenly.

"Yes, I read tolerable well; a good deal better than I talk or write,"
he replied. "I went to school till I was fifteen. Always hated study,
but liked to read. Years ago an old friend of mine down here at
Pine--Widow Cass--she gave me a lot of old books. An' I packed them up
here. Winter's the time I read."

Conversation lagged after that, except for desultory remarks, and
presently Dale bade the girls good night and left them. Helen watched
his tall form vanish in the gloom under the pines, and after he had
disappeared she still stared.

"Nell!" called Bo, shrilly. "I've called you three times. I want to go
to bed."

"Oh! I--I was thinking," rejoined Helen, half embarrassed, half
wondering at herself. "I didn't hear you."

"I should smile you didn't," retorted Bo. "Wish you could just have seen
your eyes. Nell, do you want me to tell you something?

"Why--yes," said Helen, rather feebly. She did not at all, when Bo
talked like that.

"You're going to fall in love with that wild hunter," declared Bo in a
voice that rang like a bell.

Helen was not only amazed, but enraged. She caught her breath
preparatory to