nce all the time.
Don't be thinking of sacrifices and duties--isn't there some way we can
plan just to get some plain joy out of life as we go along? I believe
that's my religion, if I've got any."

"I often wish I could see the mountains," said she, vaguely.

He rose suddenly. "Come with me, then! I'll take you out into the
sunlight. I'll tell you all about the mountains. I'll show you
something of the world. I couldn't live out here if it wasn't for the
sheer beauty of this country. It's wonderful--it's so beautiful."

"What was it you put down by the door as you came in?" she asked of him
curiously.

He turned to her with like curiosity. "How do you know?" said he.
"Are you shamming? That was my fishing rod and my fish basket I put
down there; but I didn't think you'd know anything about it."

"I'm beginning to have abnormally acute senses, I suppose. That's
necessity."

"Nature is a very wonderful old girl," said Doctor Barnes. "But come
now, I'm going to ask you to go down to the stream with me and have a
try about those grayling. I told Sim Gage I was going to some time,
and this will be about my last chance. If we have any luck I'll show
you there's something in this country beside bacon and beans."

"I'd love to," said Mary, eagerly. "Why, that'll be fine!"

She rose and went directly to her sunbonnet, which hung upon a nail in
the wall--the sunbonnet which Mrs. Jensen had fashioned for her and
promised her to be of much utility. But she stumbled as she turned.

"I can tell where the window is, and the door," said she, breathlessly.
"I miss the reading most of all--and friends. I can't see my friends."

"Well, your friends can see you, and that's much of a consolation,"
said Major Allen Barnes. "I stare shamelessly, and you never know.
Come along now, and we'll go fishing and have a bully time."

He took her arm and led her out into the brilliant sunlight, across the
yard, across the little rivulet which made down from the spring through
the thin fringe of willows, out across the edge of the hay lands to the
high, unbroken ridges covered with stubby sage brush which lay beyond
between the meadows and the river. The little Airedale, Tim, went with
them, bounding and barking, running in a hundred circles, finding a
score of things of which he tried to tell them.

It was no long walk, no more than a half mile in all, but he stopped
frequently to tell her about the country, to explain