dangerous in their proximity within that
secret circle. The eyes of both confessed it.

"Will you eat?" asked Bela, "I have bread and fish."

He shook his head. "I have to go soon," he replied with a glance at
the sun.

Her face fell. "I lak feed anybody come to my place," she said
wistfully.

"Oh, well, go ahead," assented Sam, smiling.

She hastened to prepare a simple meal. Self-consciousness did not
trouble her if she might be busy. Sam loved to follow her graceful
movements by the fire. What harm? he asked the watch-dog within. This
dog had grown drowsy, anyhow.

Bela's curiosity in turn began to have way.

"Where you live before you come here, Sam?" she asked.

"In a city. New York. It isn't real living."

"I know a city!" she exclaimed. "Musq'oosis tell me. They got houses
high as jack-pines. Windows wide as a river. At night a thousand
thousand moons hang down to give the people light."

"Right!" said Sam. "What would you say to a sky-scraper I wonder?"

"What is sky-scraper?"

"Like fifty houses piled up one on top of the other, and reaching to
the sky."

Bela pouted. "You mak' fun I think because I know not'ing."

"Honest to goodness!" he swore.

"What good to be so high?" she asked. "High roof no good."

"There are different floors inside. Fifty of them."

"How do people get to the top?"

"In an elevator. Kind of box you get into. Whiz, up she goes like
that!"

Bela's face showed strong incredulity. She let the subject drop.

"You got fat'er, mot'er out there, Sam?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Both dead."

"You got no people 'tall?" she asked, quick with sympathy.

"Brothers," he said grimly. "Three of them. They don't think much of
me."

One question followed another, and the time flew by. They were making
famous progress now. They ate. Afterward Sam stretched out in the
grass with his hands under his head, and told his story freely.

"Gad, what a relief to talk!" he said. "I haven't really opened up
since we left Prince George. Those fellows, they're all right in their
way, but pretty coarse. We don't hit it off much. I keep mum to avoid
trouble."

"I lak hear you talk," murmured Bela softly.

"My brothers are all a lot older than I," Sam went on. "I was the baby
of the family. It's considerable of a handicap to a kid. They baby you
along until after you're grown up, then all of a sudden they expect
you to stand alone.

"I was always a kind of misfit somehow. I neve