us, and I feared I had bungled. Yet my
meaning should have been transparent even to a child. To make sure she had
not misconstrued me I explained:

"You know what I mean, no matter how I appear to measure you. In making a
new country a woman on the edge of things must have certain qualities that
the town woman does not possess, does not need to possess. It's because of
these qualities that the new country becomes possible as a place to live
in; then the town woman develops. Two hundred miles east are conditions
that resulted from the rugged qualities of the first women on the first
frontier.

"Those first women helped to make it safe for their children's children.
Now it's behind the frontier and women of your kind live there. In other
words"--I was growing a trifle desperate, for her gaze, while persistent,
was rather blank--"you don't fit in out here. I doubt if you know how to
run bullets or load a gun or throw an ax. I'm sure you'd find it very
disagreeable to go barefooted. It isn't your place. Your values shine when
you are back in town. That's why I'm sorry you're here."

"I haven't shot a rifle, but I could learn," she quietly remarked.

"I believe that," I heartily agreed. "But could you take an ax and stand
between a drove of children and what you believed to be a band of Indians
about to break from cover and begin their work of killing? I saw the Widow
McCabe do that. I saw the little Moulton woman, armed with an ax, run to
meet the attack."

"It's hardly sensible to ask if I could have done this or that. Who knows
what I could have done? I shall never have to deal with what is past. And
there was a time, I suppose, when all these women were new to the
frontier. At least I should be allowed time to learn certain things before
you apply your measuring-rod, sir!"

"That's right," I admitted. "I was rather unjust, but the fact remains
that just now you are out of place and not used to this life and its
dangers."

"I feel very cross at you. You pass over my father's great work for the
settlement with scarcely a word. You complain because I am here and look
different from Mrs. Davis. I can't help my looks."

"You are adorable. Already see the havoc you've wrought among the
unmarried men. Observe how many times each finds an errand that takes him
by this cabin door. How slow they are to scout the woods and seek signs.
No; you can't help your looks, and it results there are few men who can
resist loving you