do say in the Settlements as how Joe Godding hain't kith nor kin
in the world, savin' an' exceptin' the kid only," continued Johnson.

McWha nodded indifferently.

"Well," went on Johnson, "we can't do nawthin' but take her on to the
camp now. Mebbe the Boss'll decide she's got to go back to the
Settlement, along o' the fun'ral. But mebbe he'll let the hands keep
her, to kinder chipper up the camp when things gits dull. I reckon
when the boys sees her sweet face they'll all be wantin' to be
guardeens to her."

McWha again spat accurately into the crack of the grate.

"I ain't got no fancy for young 'uns in camp, but ye kin do ez ye
like, Walley Johnson," he answered grudgingly. "Only I want it
understood, right now, I ain't no guardeen, an' won't be, to nawthin'
that walks in petticoats! What I'm thinkin' of is the old cow out
yonder, an' them hens o' Joe's what I seen a-roostin' over the
cowstall."

"Them's all Rosy-Lilly's, an' goes with us an' her to camp to-morrer,"
answered Johnson with decision. "We'll tell the kid as how her daddy
had to be took away in the night because he was so sick, an' couldn't
speak to nobody, an' we was goin' to take keer o' her till he gits
back! An' that's the truth," he added, with a sudden passion of
tenderness and pity in his tone.

At this hint of emotion McWha laughed sarcastically. Then knocking out
his pipe, he proceeded to fill the stove for the night, and spread his
blanket on the floor beside it.

"If ye wants to make the camp a baby-farm," he growled, "don't mind
me!"

II

Under the dominion of Rosy-Lilly fell Conroy's camp at sight,
capitulating unconditionally to the first appeal of her tearful blue
eyes, and little, hurt red mouth. Dan Logan, the Boss, happened to
know just how utterly alone the death of her father had left the
child, and he was the first to propose that the camp should adopt her.
Fully bearing out the faith which Walley Johnson had so confidently
expressed back in the dead man's cabin, Jimmy Brackett, the cook, on
whom would necessarily devolve the chief care of this new member of
his family, jumped to the proposal of the Boss with enthusiastic
support.

"We'll every mother's son o' us be guardeen to her!" he declared, with
the finality appropriate to his office as autocrat second only to the
Boss himself. Every man in camp assented noisily, saving only Red
McWha; and he, as was expected of him, sat back and grinned.

From the first, Ro