e with Aunt Collins.
Lovingly, BELLE.

Then she put it in his tobacco jar, where he would be certain to see it
on coming home for dinner, and where Ma Boyd would never dream of
looking.

When Jim returned she carried a hand-bag: "Some things I need," and she
laughed happily as he lifted her into the rig and inquired if she wasn't
taking a trunk. Then away they went, as they had so many times before.

Youth and health, love and beauty; October and the Dakota Hills--what a
wonderful conjunction! The world can do no better to multiply the joy of
being alive. If either had a care, it was quickly buried out of sight.
Jim was in rollicking mood. Not a prairie dog sat up and shook its tail
in time to its voice, but Jim's humour suggested resemblances to some
one that they knew; this one looked like Baxter, the fat parson of the
Congregationalists; "that little one's name is likely Higginbotham; see
how Hannah makes him skip around. And there goes Lawyer Scrimmons," he
chuckled, as a blotched, bloated rattlesnake oozed along and out of
sight at the hint of danger. Two owls that gazed and blinked in silence
were named for a pair of fat twin sisters of their church; perfectly
well-meaning, but without a word of conversation or any expression but
their soulful eyes. And a solitary owl that gazed from the top of a post
straight up in the sky was compared to an old-time Methodist woman with
her eyes uplifted in prayer while the collection plate was shoved under
her nose.

Bylow's Corner was reached all too soon. As Jim was about to draw up
Belle said: "Let's go on farther; we can take them in on the road back.
Let's go as far as Lookout Mountain." And Jim was happy to go.

They were six miles from Cedar Mountain now, with no more houses by the
road for miles. Belle had fallen silent. It was all as she had planned,
but somehow the firm resolve of the night before seemed open to question
now. She gazed absently away over the level, toward a distant hillside,
and the smile faded from her lips. To his next light speech she barely
made response. He threatened to charge a "thank you ma'am" at high speed
if she didn't laugh. Then, getting no response, he burst out:

"What the divil is the matter with my little girl to-day? Have ye
anything on your mind, Belle?"

This was the fork in their trail: either she must tell him or give him
up. For a fraction of an instant she lived through the agony of doubt.
Then, with a certainty sh