n, with a
hole in the centre; the upper stone is rounding, and fits in the bowl,
and has a hole in it about four inches from the edge, in which a stout
wooden handle is inserted, with which to turn it. The two stones are
ground together until they become smooth. Then they are placed on four
other stones as rests, and a blanket or cloth is spread underneath to
catch the meal. The grain is poured around the edge of the upper
stone, and works down. It makes a very tolerable flour."

"How handy you are!" she said. "Isn't it a good thing we hadn't
civilized the whole world to such a degree that only patent high-grade
flour was used? Where should we be now without the simple devices of
the good people of the Stone Age, and their survivors on whom we
looked down with so much scorn?"

The snapping of the corn was an easier matter, and it was piled in the
tunnel till they should be ready to shell it. Then Adam did what he
called his "fall plowing," and left the bare brown sod to lie fallow.

So far as possible, they had retained the manners and customs of the
world that had left them. There was a tolerable supply of clothing,
and a good deal more household linen than could have been expected.
Robin concluded that the owners of the cabin had not been long
married, and the bride, knowing to what kind of a place she was
coming, had thought more of her house than of herself. All the
feminine garments had to be re-fashioned. Robin made her skirts short
enough for mountain climbing, and dreading the time when her one pair
of shoes should give out, she wore sandals fashioned from yucca leaves
by Adam's clever fingers. As the hair-pins lost themselves, she
braided her hair in a long queue, the curling ends of which fell far
below her waist.

The little house was kept as neat and clean as if it were headquarters
for all the labor-saving inventions in the world, and their meals were
as well served as if a corps of servants had been in attendance. They
were simple, and often a little monotonous, as meals must be where
there is nothing save what grows on one's own plantation. They had no
tea, coffee, sugar, spices, or foreign fruits. However, the hardship
of manual labor and plain food would cure most cases of dyspepsia, and
they did not suffer.

One day early in December, Robin woke to the consciousness of a steady
drip, drip of rain, accompanied by an indescribably mournful wind. In
the other room she heard Adam piling on the logs,