The Forester's Daughter

ht down the creek!" Breathing a prayer of thankfulness, the boy sat up and looked about

and fanned the embers into a blaze with his hat. It was heartening to see the flames leap up, flinging wide their gorgeous banners of heat

leep?" asked t

g the latter part of the n

hat Adirondack bed of yours

em a trifle thin,"

man wants to wake up refreshed, not tired out with figh

the fire, so that the wind drew through them properly, then placing his dutch-oven cover on the fire, he laid the bottom part where the flames touched it. Next he filled his coffee-pot with

alf yawn, half complaint, came from the tent

It's going toward noon. You get

get you anything, Miss Berrie?

ed McFarlane, before

n," replied

e should ask for warm water to was

hink daddy has no feeling for m

rted her father. "Ice-cold water is what you need. And if you don'

the eyes. From the waveless surface of the water a spectral mist was rising, a light veil, through which the stupendous cliffs loomed three thousand feet in height, darkly shadowed, dim and far. The willows along th

charming, and at the moment she was rallying him on his method of bread-mixing. "You should rub the lard into the f

ead for twenty years

him. "That's another thing you must learn," she said to Wayland. "You must know

ts flooded them with warmth and good cheer, and the frost melted like magic from the tent, the experience had all the satisfying elements of a picnic. It seemed that nothing remaine

as down and folded, the panniers filled and closed, and the fire carefully covered. Then the girl said: "I hope the horses haven't been stampe

I go an

addle-horse, so he's not afoot. Nobody can teach him anything about trailing

esponsibility. "Let's see if we c

ke-where the trout could be seen darting to and fro on the clear, dark f

ed the girl. "I don't be

iling in from the west, all centering about Chief Audobon, and the experienced girl looked often at the sky. "I don't like the feel of the air. See that gray cloud spreading

can

e and get dinner for him. He'l

g out the dishes, thunder broke from the high

! We must reset the tent a

food stored safely; but they were none too soon, for the thick gray veil of rain, which had clothed the loftiest crags for half an hour, swung out over the water-leaden-gray under its folds-and with a roar which began in the tall pines-a roar

had it not been for the thought of the Supervisor. "I hope he took his slicker," the girl

ave thought it could rain like th

snowing on the high divide. Looks now as though those cayuses pulled out sometime in the night and have hit the trail for home. That's the trouble with stall-fed stock. The

our father d

nder a balsam somewhere, waiting for this ice to spill out. The only point is,

visor might not be able to return entered Way

ming the roar died away and the forest became as silent as a grave of bronze. Nothing moved, save t

warned the girl. "It will be ha

nches which hung beneath, working almost as effectively as a man. Wayland insisted on taking a turn with the tool; but his efforts were

nd finally to mist; but up on the heights the clouds still rolled

lessened she resumed the business of cooking the midday meal, and at two o'clock they were able to eat in

face. "The landscape is like a Christmas card. In its way i

y responded. "Daddy will be wet to the skin, for I found he didn't take his slicker.

at cooking. At her suggestion he stripped the tarpaulin from her father's bed and stretched it over a rope before the tent, thus providing a commodious kitchen and dining-

tural world in which she lived. As the companion of her father on many of his trips, she had absorbed from him, as well as from the forest, a thousand observations of plant and an

First I thought I'd let drive at him; but the chances were against my getting him from there, so I climbed up above him-or where I thought he was-and while I was looking for him I happened to glance to my right, and there he was about fifty feet away looking at me pleasant as you please. Didn't seem to be mad at all-'peared like he was just wondering what I'd do next. I jerked my gun

"You foolish girl!

hat she could just as well sneak up and drop on me from above as not. So I got down and left her a

I never heard of such folly. Did y

I told

rbid your hun

obably was a lioness, and that it was just as

er-does she approve

; but then she knows it don't do any good. I'm

tnessed a display of her skill with a rifle, he was ready to believe that she could shoot as well as her sire. Nevertheless, he liked her

of city friends. "I just have to own up that about all the schooling I've got is from the magazines. Sometimes I wish I had pulled out for town when I was about fourteen; but, you see, I didn't f

rn masses of vapor still clouded the range. "Father has surely had to go over the divide," she said, as they walked

illows. "The grouse come down to feed about th

e walked this wilderness with this intrepid huntress whose alert eyes took note of every moving thing. She

we need," she said, "and I don't believe in killing for the sake of killing. Rangers should set good

and iron, with sulphurous caves and molten glowing ledges. This grandiose picture lasted but a few minutes, and then t

ined tranquil. "Those horses probably went clean back to the ranch. If they did, daddy