n ready while I carve
a few slices. I am going to help you get breakfast this morning. We
will give the Colonel and Miss Sterling a great surprise."

And surprised father and daughter certainly were when at length they
came out of the house and saw the nicely-browned slices of steak lying
in the frying-pan.

"So this is what you have been up to, young man," the Colonel smilingly
remarked. "I understand now why you refused to remain here last night.
Is this moose or deer steak?"

"Moose, and there is plenty more where this came from. I am astounded
that you have not been feasting upon game before this, as the forest is
full of birds and animals."

"I am afraid that we are poor hunters," the Colonel replied. "I, at
any rate, know very little about woodland ways."

"Then I shall teach you," Dane declared. "But first of all, I want you
to try this steak. Then we must get the men to go with me to bring in
that moose. It will not do to leave it long out there. If we do, the
bears and other animals will soon finish it."

Jean said very little during breakfast, leaving her father and Dane to
do most of the talking. But her heart was happy and light. To her
this visitor was more than an ordinary man. She was of an
impressionable nature, and naturally surrounded Dane Norwood with the
glamour of romance. His buoyant, free-from-care manner, and the roving
life he led thrilled and enthralled her very soul. To her he was the
living embodiment of valiant knights and princes who figured in tales
she had heard and read, especially those of the Arthurian Legends.
Malory's "Morte d'Arthur," notwithstanding its quaint language and
quainter pictures, had so enkindled her mind that she herself at times
had seemed the heroine in many a stirring scene. It was largely due to
these impressions that she relished the life in the wilderness, and
looked upon the King's courier as a hero of more than ordinary mettle.

Breakfast over, the Colonel summoned the men of the settlement, and,
guided by Dane, they went at once to the lake after the moose. Jean
obtained her father's permission to accompany them, and she thoroughly
enjoyed the trip. The men were like a crowd of boys just out of
school, and the forest resounded with laughter and animated talk. The
prospect of an abundance of game during the fall and winter elevated
their spirits, and made them forget the days and weeks when food had
been scarce. To them Dane was a God