ittle fortress in the
wilderness, as it were, with its barred doors and windows--on the top of
Cloudy Mountain. To be sure, it was not the first time that she had
followed the trail alone: Day and night, night and day, for as long,
almost, as she could remember, she had been doing it; indeed, she had
watched the alders, oaks and dwarf pines, that bordered the trail, grow
year by year as she herself had grown, until now the whispering of the
mountain's night winds spoke a language as familiar as her own; but
never before had she climbed up into the clean, wide, free sweep of this
unbounded horizon, the very air untainted and limitless as the sky
itself, with so keen and uncloying a pleasure. But there was a new
significance attached to her home-coming to-night: was she not to
entertain there her first real visitor?

At the threshold of her cabin the Girl, her cheeks aglow and eyes as
bright, almost, as the red cape that enveloped her lithe, girlish
figure, paused, and swinging her lantern high above her head so that its
light was reflected in the room, she endeavoured to imagine what would
be the impression that a stranger would receive coming suddenly upon
these surroundings.

And well might she have paused, for no eye ever rested upon a more
conglomerate ensemble! Yet, withal, there was a certain attractiveness
about this log-built, low, square room, half-papered with gaudy
paper--the supply, evidently, having fallen short,--that was as
unexpected as it was unusual.

Upon the floor, which had a covering of corn sacks, were many beautiful
bear and wolf skins, Indian rugs and Navajo blankets; while
overhead--screening some old trunks and boxes neatly piled up high in
the loft, which was reached by a ladder, generally swung out of the
way--hung a faded, woollen blanket; from the opposite corner there fell
an old, patchwork, silk quilt. Dainty white curtains in all their
crispness were at the windows, and upon the walls were many rare and
weird trophies of the chase, not to mention the innumerable pictures
that had been taken from "Godey's Lady Book" and other periodicals of
that time. A little book-shelf, that had been fashioned out of a box,
was filled with old and well-read books; while the mantel that guarded
the fireplace was ornamented with various small articles, conspicuous
among which were a clock that beat loud, automatic time with a brassy
resonance, a china dog and cat of most gaudy colours, a whisky bottle