logs. Over the sickening upheaval he bounded this way and that,
with miraculous sure-footedness. He reached the pitching log whereon
Rosy-Lilly still clung. He clutched her by the frock. He tucked her
under one arm like a rag-baby. Then he turned, balancing himself for
an instant, and came leaping back towards shore.

A great shout of wonder and joy went up--to be hushed in a second as a
log reared high in McWha's path and hurled him backwards. Right down
into the whirl of the dreadful grist he sank. But with a strength that
seemed more than human he recovered himself, climbed forth dripping,
and came on again with those great, unerring leaps. This time there
was no shout. The men waited with dry throats. They saw that his ruddy
face had gone white as chalk. Within two feet of shore a log toward
which he had jumped was jerked aside just before he reached it, and,
turning in the air as he fell, so as to save the child, he came down
across it on his side with stunning violence. As he fell the Boss and
Brackett and two of the others sprang out to meet him. They reached
him somehow, and covered with bruises which they did not feel,
succeeded in dragging him, with his precious burden, up from the
grinding hell to safety. When his feet touched solid ground he sank
unconscious, but with his arm so securely gripped about the child that
they had difficulty in loosing his hold.

Rosy-Lilly, when they picked her up, was quivering with terror, but
unharmed. When she saw McWha stretched out upon the bank motionless,
with his eyes shut and his white lips half open, she fought savagely
to be put down. She ran and flung herself down beside her rescuer,
caught his big white face between her tiny hands, and fell to kissing
him. Presently McWha opened his eyes, and with a mighty effort rose
upon one elbow. A look of embarrassment passed over his face as he
glanced at the men standing about him. Then he looked down at
Rosy-Lilly, grinned with a shamefaced tenderness, and pulled her
gently towards him.

"I'm right--glad--ye--" he began with painful effort. But before he
could complete the sentence his eyes changed, and he fell back with a
clicking gasp.

Jimmy Brackett, heedless of her wailing protests, snatched up
Rosy-Lilly, and carried her back to the camp.

Melindy and the Lynxes

The deep, slow-gathering snows of mid-February had buried away every
stump in the pasture lot and muffled from sight all the zigzag fences
of