The Purple Flame

t stood by her side and, shading her eyes, gazed away at the distant hill

perhaps Terogloona can get one of them with his rifle. It would help out our food supply

ght her hand to her side. Quickly unstrappin

ll that this one was not like the other three. He was lighter in color and lack

d the last one's a sled deer. His antlers have bee

eep thought as the furro

after all. Perhaps they're just a bunch of strays. Who knows? But a s

izing her drive line, she spoke to her deer. As he bounded away s

re they? That's what we're about to find out. A circle across that long valle

beautiful sight. Winter had come, for she and Patsy Martin had now been following the herd for three months. Winter, having buried deep beneath the snow every trace of the browns and greens of summer, had left only deep purple shadows and pale yellow lights over mou

arian, "and I love it. Oh, how I do love it!

went over the months that had passed a

be carried out so long as they were in possession of the herd. This seemed to make the sale of the herd an urgent necessity. Every letter fr

k to school. One year out there in the wilderness, with Patsy for your companion, will do no harm, but it must not

eat. Miners here and there bought it. The mining cities bought it, but of late the increase to one hundred thousand reindeer in Alaska had overloaded th

estioned, "how

isioned herself following the herd year after year, while all those beautiful, wonderful m

riendships had been made, such friendships as she in her northern wilds had never dreamed of. The stately towers of

"I must go back

ads of the desert, wandered from place to place, always seeking the freshest water, the greenest grass, the tallest willow bushes. But when winter truly came swooping down upon them, they went to a spot chosen months before, the center of rich feeding grounds where the gr

his wilderness with a great thirst for knowledge of the out-of-doors. Each day brought some new revelation to her. The snow buntings, ptarmigans and

est nowhere, whirled on and on. Such days were lonely ones. Letters were weeks in coming and arrived but

ike iron bands. Never in the longest day's tramp did she complain of weariness. With the quick adaptability of a bright and cheerful girl, she had become a part of the wild world which surrounded her. The expression of her lips, too, was somehow changed. Firmness and determ

t the short summer months of the Arctic in Siberia, across from Alaska. Much against her own wishes, she had spent a part of the winter there. Someone has said "there is no great loss without some small gain"; and while Marian had endured h

is, then thought of the four strange reindeer on the

fiercely, clenching her fists, "if it is!"

es of tundra, a hundred square miles for every reindeer. Help yourself. Every mile of it was matted deep with rich moss; every stream lined in summer with

ngle season, requires four or five years to grow again in abundance. Back, back, farther and farther back from

se. Many and bitter were the feuds that had arisen between owners. There was not the best of

is coming into our fee

winter range; but when one is many days' travel from even the fringe of civilization, when one is the herder of but four hundred deer, and only a girl at

that ran through the girl's m

en alloted for so many miles that it was out of the question to thi

mly, "we are here,

ould cause her to alter this decision, she mig