eads,' and the
new ways of marking timber, and the grazing and free-use permits, the
office work has doubled. And this is only the beginning. Wait till
Colorado has two millions of people, and all these lower valleys are
clamoring for water. Then you'll see a new party spring up--right here in
our state."

Berrie was glowing with happiness. "Let's stay here till the end of the
week," she suggested. "I've always wanted to camp on this lake, and now
I'm here I want time to enjoy it."

"We'll stay a day or two," said her father; "but I must get over to that
ditch survey which is being made at the head of Poplar, and then Moore is
coming over to look at some timber on Porcupine."

The young people cut willow rods and went angling at the outlet of the
lake with prodigious success. The water rippled with trout, and in half
an hour they had all they could use for supper and breakfast, and,
behold, even as they were returning with their spoil they met a covey of
grouse strolling leisurely down to the lake's edge. "Isn't it a wonderful
place!" exclaimed the happy girl. "I wish we could stay a month."

"It's like being on the Swiss Family Robinson's Island. I never was more
content," he said, fervently. "I wouldn't mind staying here all winter."

"I would!" she laughed. "The snow falls four feet deep up here. It's
likely there's snow on the divide this minute, and camping in the snow
isn't so funny. Some people got snowed in over at Deep Lake last year and
nearly all their horses starved before they could get them out. This is a
fierce old place in winter-time."

"I can't imagine it," he said, indicating the glowing amphitheater which
inclosed the lake. "See how warmly the sun falls into that high basin!
It's all as beautiful as the Tyrol."

The air at the moment was golden October, and the dark clouds which lay
to the east seemed the wings of a departing rather than an approaching
storm; and even as they looked, a rainbow sprang into being, arching the
lake as if in assurance of peace and plenty, and the young people, as
they turned to face it, stood so close together that each felt the glow
of the other's shoulder. The beauty of the scene seemed to bring them
together in body as in spirit, and they fell silent.

McFarlane seemed quite unconscious of any necromancy at work upon his
daughter. He smoked his pipe, made notes in his field-book, directing an
occasional remark toward his apprentice, enjoying in his tranquil,