ry men. I've seen your face
scorched, and sometimes you burn your hands. Then your being forced to
wear those faded and mended dresses makes me angry."

She laughed, but the careless note in her voice was rather forced.
"Don't be foolish, Jim! If I had lots of smart clothes, I couldn't
wear them while I work about the fire."

"That is so," he said, frowning. "You oughtn't to work about the fire."

"Oh, well, it's too late to bother now. For one thing, I have educated
the boys; they wouldn't eat the hash you or Jake could cook. But I
expect you want to get to work and we had better make the camp."

When they reached the camp Jim got to work. He was anxious, but
admitted that the fire might die out on a stony belt where the bush was
thin, and perhaps he need not fear much trouble unless a Chinook wind
drove the flames up the valley. Moreover, since there was a risk of
his being stopped, it was prudent to push on.

For two days he strained his muscles and urged the men; and then, one
evening, sat in his usual place, listening rather moodily while Jake
and Carrie talked. The evening was calm and the smoke had not
advanced, although it now covered much of the sky. The men had not
gone to fish and lounged about the shack. They were tired and quiet,
for Jim had driven them hard all day. He let his pipe go out and
pondered. Perhaps his disturbance was not logical, but his habit was
to concentrate on the work he undertook and it would hurt to own
himself beaten and let the contract go. He had not been badly beaten
yet, and he had a vein of rather grim tenacity.

After a time, Carrie's laugh banished his moody reflections and he
looked up. The firelight touched her, and although her eyes sparkled
her pose was slack. Now he studied her carefully; her face was getting
thin. She was obviously playing up to Jake, and he imagined their
banter was meant to cheer him. Carrie's clothes were shabbier than he
had thought, but they did not spoil her unconscious grace. It was
unconscious grace, because Carrie did not pose. She looked at home and
somehow made the camp look homelike. She was unembarrassed in the
woods, as she was at the store. Jim wondered whether, if they carried
out the contract and earned the pay, she would hold her own in
different surroundings; among fashionable women at summer hotels, for
example. Somehow he thought she would. Then a curious feeling of
tenderness moved him. Carrie looked ti