re, the bottom drops
out of the boom; but I suppose he can afford it, and he has been trailing
around lately with two surveyors behind him. Laid hands on the timber lots
about the Day Spring, which is sending up very low-grade, ore. Perhaps you
know, though he won't tell any one, why he is doing it."

I showed the letter to Aline, and she looked remarkably wise; then,
putting her head on one side, she nodded twice.

"I've a great respect for Uncle Martin's sagacity," she said. "He's
planning something for the benefit of Colonel Carrington, and I've a faint
inkling of what it may be. But don't worry me with questions. He won't
show a single person what he means to do until he is ready."

I had no ideas at all on the subject, though I did not tell Aline so. For
her age she was rather too vain of her superior perception, and it struck
me as becoming that a younger sister should look up to her brother. I was
proud of Aline, but she had her failings.

It was not long afterward, when returning from Jasper's at night, I found
the remains of a meal on the table, and my sister waiting with news for
me.

"I'm glad you didn't come home earlier, Ralph," she said. "I am quite
ashamed of my inconsistency. It's nice to think oneself inflexible, isn't
it? And then it's humiliating to resolve on a certain course and do the
opposite."

She paused, either to excite my curiosity or to afford an opportunity for
considering the sentiment.

"Never mind all that. Come to the point, Aline," I said. But she stirred
the stove, and dusted some plates that did not require it, before she
continued:

"I had made up my mind to hate Mrs. Fletcher forever, and, do you know, I
let her kiss me scarcely half an hour ago."

"Minnie here again! Oh, confound her!" I said, banging back my chair.

"It's wicked to lose your temper, Ralph," Aline answered sweetly, "and
very unbecoming in an elder brother. It isn't poor Minnie's fault that her
husband is what you call a bad egg, is it? Yes, she came here in a sleigh
with two tired horses, and one was lame. She was going to meet her husband
somewhere. He has become a teetotaler, and promises to turn out quite a
virtuous character. She hinted at something which I didn't know about that
happened at the trial--it was too bad of you to burn those papers--and
said he was going to Dakota, across the border. She was almost frozen, had
only fall clothes on, and she was very hungry. It wouldn't have been right
t