f your friend
are for a purpose. They're not much different from us, dear."

"Well, I wouldn't stand there and let them see me looking at them as if
I couldn't bear them out of my sight for a moment," said Kate, whisking
herself out of the room. "They're conceited enough, Heaven knows,
already."

That evening, at dinner, however, the two men exhibited no trace of the
restraint or uneasiness of the previous day. If they were less impulsive
and exuberant, they were still frank and interested, and if the term
could be used in connection with men apparently trained to neither
self-control nor repose, there was a certain gentle dignity in their
manner which for the time had the effect of lifting them a little
above the social level of their entertainers. For even with all their
predisposition to the strangers, Kate and Mrs. Hale had always retained
a conscious attitude of gentle condescension and superiority towards
them--an attitude not inconsistent with a stronger feeling, nor
altogether unprovocative of it; yet this evening they found themselves
impressed with something more than an equality in the men who had amused
and interested them, and they were perhaps a little more critical
and doubtful of their own power. Mrs. Hale's little girl, who had
appreciated only the seriousness of the situation, had made her own
application of it. "Are you dow'in' away from aunt Kate and mamma?" she
asked, in an interval of silence.

"How else can I get you the red snow we saw at sunset, the other day, on
the peak yonder?" said Lee gayly. "I'll have to get up some morning very
early, and catch it when it comes at sunrise."

"What is this wonderful snow, Minnie, that you are tormenting Mr. Lee
for?" asked Mrs. Hale.

"Oh! it's a fairy snow that he told me all about; it only comes when
the sun comes up and goes down, and if you catch ever so little of it
in your hand it makes all you fink you want come true! Wouldn't that be
nice?" But to the child's astonishment her little circle of auditors,
even while assenting, sighed.

The red snow was there plain enough the next morning before the valley
was warm with light, and while Minnie, her mother, and aunt Kate were
still peacefully sleeping. And Mr. Lee had kept his word, and was
evidently seeking it, for he and Falkner were already urging their
horses through the pass, with their faces towards and lit up by its
glow.

CHAPTER VIII

Kate was stirring early, but not as early