s companionship of mind--what it
could be like!"

He brushed the twigs from the lichens between them and made no answer.

"Fate--call the power what you will"--she met the disclaimer that
puckered the corners of his mouth--"fate brought us together. It was the
response to my longing for such a friendship!"

"It was the Yellow Cat!"

"The Yellow Cat plus fate! While I sat there by your fire I recognized
you for that friend!"

Far below over the tree tops cloud shadows and sunlight were playing
some wonderful game of follow-my-leader; a hawk hung poised on tilting
wings; and on the veil of mist that was the spirit of the brook where it
cast itself from the ledge curved the arch of a rainbow. The man pointed
to the augury.

"You might try me," he said, and they shook hands on the compact,
laughing half shamefacedly at their own solemnity.

"As woman to woman," he offered.

"Let it be rather as man to man," she shrugged.

"As you like--as women we should have to begin by explaining ourselves."

"Precisely, and men companion each other on impersonal grounds."

"Then it is a man's friendship?"

"Better still," she mused, "we'll pattern it after the ideals of the
disembodied! We'll make this summer, you and I together, a gem from the
heart of life--I will have it so!"

So it came about that like two children they played together, worked,
walked, or read and talked by the open fire when cold storms came. Every
morning she came over the wood-road that led by winding ways from her
valley, and at sunset she went back over the trail alone. He might go as
far as the outlook half way over the mountain where the path begins to
go down, but no farther; as for any fear, she seemed to know nothing of
its workings, and the revolver she wore in a case that hung from her
belt was a mere convention.

One morning she came with eyes dancing--it was to be an especial day--a
fete--and the gods had smiled on her planning and given them perfect
weather. Never such sunshine, such crystal air, such high-hung clouds!
Breakfast over, they hurried about the miniature housework, and packed
the kit for a long day's tramp. Then they started forth, the cat
following, tail aloft. Beyond a dim peak, where the clove opens
southward, by the side of a tiny lake they lunched and took their
noonday rest. She watched the smoke curl up from his pipe where he lay
at peace with the scheme of things.

"Do you know, Man, dear," she said, "I am glad I