At the Foot of the Rainbow

his tenth trap, weighted with a struggling muskrat, from the Wabash. "Varmint

s feet and fingers were almost freezing, and that every rat of the ten now in the bag on his back had made him thirstier. He shivered as the cold wind sweeping the curves of the river struck him; bu

in' Melwood, be gorry, Chickie, you'd see a mermaid named Jimmy Malone sittin' on the Kingfisher Stump, combin' its auburn hair with a breeze, and scoopin' whiskey down its gullet with its tail fin. No, hold on, Chickie, you wouldn't either. I'm too flat-chisted for a mermaid, and I'd have no time to lave off gurglin' for the hair-combin' act, which, Chickie, to me notion is as issential to a mermaid as the curves. I'd be a sucker, the biggest sucker in the Gar-hole, Chickie bird. I'd be an all-day sucker, be gobs; yis, and an all-night sucker, too. Come to think of it, Chickie, be domn if I'd be a sucker at all. Look at the mouths

as he held up the rat by one foot, and gave it a sharp rap over the head with the trap to make sure it was dead. "Dannie could no more hear a rat fast in one of me traps and not come over and put it o

ing, and catching up his bag, shoved in the rat. As he reset the trap, a big crow dropped from branch to branch on a sycamore abov

kins, times fifteen cints apiece, one dollar sixty-five. That will buy more than I can hold. Hagginy! Won't I be takin' one long fine gurgle of the pure stuff! And there's the boys! I might do the grand for once. One on me for the house! And I might pay something on my back score, but first I'll drink till I swell like a poisoned pup. And I ought to get Mary that milk pail she's been kickin' for this last month. Women and cows ar

trap. And by that token, Dannie Macnoun, resetting an empty trap a quarter of a mile below, knew that Jimmy was coming, and that as usual luck was with him. Catching his blood and water drippi

nie?" called J

ered Dannie.

a bit of unconscious swagger.

sfy ye?" asked Dan

working in a double shuffle as he walked. "Thra

uld," answe

nstroke in the ridness of your face, and the whiteness about your mouth; but the frost on you

to get him in the water, and a scum froze over while he was under. Pete came up shakin' like the feeder on a thrashin' machine, and whin he could spake at all, 'Bless Jasus,' says h

of cold would not chill and pinch him either. But being Dannie, he neither thought nor said it. '"Why, I'm frozen to me sowl!" cried Jimmy, as

red Dannie. "Where do ye su

t you remimber the time whin I put on three big cut-worms, and skittered thim beyond the log that lays across here, and he lept from the water till we both saw him the best we ever did, and nothin' but my old rotten line ever saved him? Or he might be where i

n the fifteenth of December, he saw one fly across a little pond juist below Winchester. I believe they go south sl

ound! I am going to have that Bass this summer

ght most everything else in the Wabash, and our reputation fra taking guid fish is ahead of a

t I am going to hook him t

take a try at him mysel'?" questioned Dannie.

ieve I hear a rat in my next trap. That will make me twilve, and it's good and glad of

asked Dannie. "It's getting dark, and if ye are so late ye canna see the drifts, ye never can

, or I'll be havin' to ask c

your rats over to me richt noo. I'll g

for decency sake, though his eyes were be

nnie. "I like to take my time to it, an

ty because he could not stand quietly while Dannie pulled off his mittens, got out and un

hat's enough, I think," he said. "I wish I'd staid out of matrimony, and then maybe I could iver have a cint of me own.

nsume much but calico and

vishly, as he shoved the money into his pocket, and pulled on his

ll break up on tha

. So long as he could set Dann

n sore self-pity, as he remembered the quar

ye dinna start home by seven, I'll be c

u?" asked Jimmy, tighteni

e, your teeth are chattering noo. A little more exposure, and

a snow slide, and breaking into a w

or all the rest of Dannie's were full, and all of Jimmy's were empty. But as he was gone, it was not necessary for Dannie to slip across and fill them, as was his custom when they worked together. He would divide the rats at skinning time, so that Jimmy would have just twice as many as he, because Jimmy had a wife to sup

erently. "Hoo beaut

d the trees of their loads as it had those along the river. The willows, maples, and soft woods bent almost to earth with their shining burden; but the stout, stiffly upstanding trees, the oaks, elms, and cottonwoods defied the elements to bow their proud heads. While the three mighty trunks of the great sycamore in the middle looked white as the snow, and dwarfed its companions as it never had in summer; its wide-

good he was to tramp to town and back after five miles on the ice. He thought of Mary with almost a touch of impatience. What did the woman want that was so necessary as to send

om there he caught the gray curl of smoke against the sky from one of two log cabins side by side at the top of the embankment, and he

ed a big load of wood in his arms, and stamping the snow from his feet, called "Open!" at the door. Dannie stepped i

ine skins frae his traps before he started to town, and

e all pink and warm and tidy in her fresh blue dr

y go to town f

s ye wanted," a

I wanted?" pe

replied Dannie, an

y, and she stooped and

ilk, feed, and water. Both the teams must be fed and bedded, a fire in his own house made, and two dozen rats skinned, and the skins put to stretch and cure. And at the end of it

sh ye wadna." And he was not thinking of h

carcely half the rats finished, went out into the storm and hitched to the single buggy. Then he tapped at Mary Malone's door, quite softly, so that he would not disturb her if she had gone to bed. She was not sleeping, however, and the loneliness of her slight figure, as she stood with the lighted room behind her, struck Dannie forcibly, so that his voice trembled w

Mary, "I won

lenty of wood to keep ye warm,

Her eyes were wide and blue, her cheeks pink, and her hair black and softly curling about her face and neck. The room in which she stood was neat as its keeper. The walls were whitewashed, and covered with prints, pictures, and some small tanned skins. Dried grasses and flowers

Slowly Mary advanced, her gaze fast on the serene pictured face of the mother clasping her child. Before it she st

ou tell me why?" she demanded. "Oh,

tily made the sign of the cross, and slipping to the