have power,' said the Man, 'to lay down my life
and I have power to take it again.' Do you not think, old trapper, that
a man can die when he wills?"

"I don't understand ye," answered the trapper.

"The soul rules the body," replied the stranger. "The soul is not bound
to the body; it lives in it as a man lives in his house. My body is only
my environment. I can quit it at will. I can go out of it."

"Do you mean to say," asked Herbert, "that we can leave our bodies
through determination of purpose and mental decision?"

[Illustration: "_The four sat in silence by the fire._"]

"There have been such cases," answered the man, "and such cases there
might be continually. If the relations between the soul and the body are
recognized and the supreme authority of the one over the other allowed
full action, the soul can do anything it pleases. It can come and it
can go. This is my faith."

While the foregoing conversation was being conducted, the girl had
remained silent. Herbert sat opposite to her; and as the firelight
flamed her face into sight, he could not but note the expression of it.
The look of her face was that of one who was listening to what she had
heard before--perhaps many times before, and which, upon the hearing,
she had combated and was determined to continue to combat. And at this
point she suddenly spoke up.

"I think, sir,"--and she lifted her eyes to the face of the man,--"that
the living should live for the living rather than die for the dead; for
the dead have no wants, neither of the body nor of the heart, neither of
the mind nor the soul; for, if they want, God feeds them. But the living
want and crave and have deep needs and God feeds not at all, unless
through us who live; and it is our duty to do, and not to die."

The words were clearly and slowly spoken, spoken in a quiet but
determined tone. The old trapper raised his face and looked at the girl,
as if surprised at the wisdom of her speech. Herbert was already
looking at her. The man slowly turned his face towards her, and said:

"Mary, we have argued that point before."

The tone in which he spoke was not one of rebuke, and yet it conveyed
the idea that the point was settled and was not to be reopened. The girl
waited a moment respectfully, as if she felt profound deference for the
other's character and would not willingly oppose his wish, and then she
said:

"I know, sir, we have discussed it before; but it is not settled, and
ne