They breathed much easier when the cow was off their hands.

Spring was in sight when June became strong enough to take up her
duties, and she was surprised to find her hotel running as usual, also a
flour-sack full of currency beneath her bed, together with a set of
books showing her receipts. It was signed by Llewellyn and witnessed by
the other Wags. There was no record of disbursements.

One day Whiting advised her to get out in the air, and the Scrap Iron
Kid volunteered to take her for a dog ride.

"I didn't know you had a team," she said.

"Who? Me? Sure! I got as good a team as ever you see," he declared, and
when she accepted his invitation he proceeded to get his dogs together
in a startling manner. He tied a soup-bone on a string and walked the
back streets; then, when he beheld a likely-looking husky, he dragged
the bone behind him, enticing the animal by degrees to the Wag-boys'
cabin, where he promptly tied it up. He repeated the performance seven
times. The matter of harness and sled was but a detail; so June enjoyed
a ride that put pink roses into her cheeks and gave the Scrap Iron Kid a
feeling of pure, exalted joy such as he had never felt in all his
adventurous career.

The day she walked over to the Wag house unassisted was one of such wild
rejoicing that she was forced to tell them shyly of her own happiness, a
happiness so new that as yet she could scarcely credit it. She was to be
Mrs. Harry Hope, and asked them to wish her joy.

Llewellyn made a speech that evoked the admiration of them all, even to
the Kid, who was miserably jealous, and June went home with her heart
very warm and tender toward these six adventurers who had been so true
to her.

It was to be expected that Hope would share in his sweetheart's
extravagant gladness, for he loved her deeply, with all the force of his
big, strong nature, yet he acted strangely as time went on. Now he was
sad and worried, again he seemed tortured by a lurking disquietude of
spirit. This alarmed the Wag-lady, and she set out to find the secret of
his trouble.

The ice was breaking when he made a clean breast of it, and when he had
finished June felt that her heart was breaking also. It was the
commonplace story of a young man tempted beyond his strength. Hope's
popularity had made him a host of friends, while his generosity had made
"no" a difficult answer. He had plunged into excesses during the early
winter; gambled wildly, not to win, but