The Man of the Forest

for Helen to believe that hours had passed. Bo appeare

bright. Isn't the morning perfectly lovely?... Couldn't you

es if your appetite holds," said Helen, as she tried to

e's a big d

with long, drooping ears. Curiously he trotted nearer to the door of their hut and then stopped to ga

n-we won't hurt you," called

u're simply delicious," she sa

he's Dale's. Of c

d themselves at the camp-fire they espied their curious canine visitor

girls up," said Dale, after gre

t exactly scare me. He did Nell, though.

Helen, ignoring her sister's sally.

n' Tom are jealous of each other. I had a pack of hounds an' lost all but

, of almost stern aloofness, and manifestly not used to people. His deep, wine-dark

bserved Helen, as she smo

onded Dale. "Come, an' while you

rode to Show Down and Pine, and the camp of the Beemans' and with them he trailed some wild horses for a hundred miles, over into New Mexico. The snow was flying when Dale got back to his camp in the mountains. And there was Pedro, gaunt and worn, overjoyed to welcome him home. Roy Beeman visited Dale that October and told that Dale's friend in Snowdrop had not been able to keep Pedro. He broke a chain and scaled a ten-foot fence to escape. He trailed Dale to Show Down, where one of Dale's friends, recognizing the hound, caught him, and meant to keep him until Dale's return. But Pedro refused to eat. It happened that a freighte

f him after that. He's turned out to be the finest dog I ever knew. He knows what I say

laimed Bo. "Aren't animals gre

and swallowed hard, and dropped his gaze. She knew something of the truth about the love of d

bent upon Pedro. But the hound did not deign to notice him. Tom sidled up to Bo, who sat on

" she said. "But when he's cl

ikes an' dislikes. I believe Tom has taken a shine to you an

Bud?" inq

Now, soon as I get the work done

eclared B

ou sore a

sed to go out to my uncle's farm near Saint Joe

what will your sister like to do?

watch you folks-and

d Dale, seriously. "You must do things. It doesn'

idle here in this beautiful, wild place? just t

An' right now I would love nothin' more than to forget my work, my

the beauty and color-the wild, shaggy slopes-the gray cliffs-the singing wind-the

most. It's what makes a lone hunter of a man. An' it

ld never bind ME. Why, I must live and fulfi

le almost imperceptibly sh

e's just as keen to wean you back to a savage state as you are to be civi

hocked Helen and yet

med. "But, if that were possible

female of any species has only one mission-to reproduce its kind. An' Nature has only one mis

itual development of man

hysical. To create for limitless endurance for eternal life. Th

oul!" whis

fe we mean the same. You an' I will have some tal

ile. She had been rendered grave and thoughtful.

hing them with h

s to make a savage of you," she

Don't you remember that school-teacher Barnes who said you wer

red in her cheeks. "Nell, I wish you'd no

rs ago," expostulated

o broke up abruptly, and, tossing her head, she gave Tom

llowed l

r little green ledge-pole hut, "do you know that

d," replied Helen. "What surprises me is that in spite of his e

an learn more from him than you ever learned in y

ached carrying some bridles, the

er ride the horse yo

I hope you let me rid

tches a little," he rejoined, and turned away toward t

Stay with me,"

n facing the park, and there composed herself for what she felt would be slow, sweet, idle hours. Pedro curled down beside her. The tall form of Dale stalked across the park, out toward the straggling horses. Again she saw a deer grazi

own upon the fragrant pine-needles and stretched herself languorously, like a lazy kitten. There

f that Las Vegas cowboy would happen somehow to come, and then an earthq

r say to such talk as

wouldn't i

ld be t

ul country of wild places. You need not tell me! Sure it's happened. With the cliff-dwellers and the Indians and then white people

and sensible, t

e DID get shut up here with Dale and that cowboy we saw from the train. Shut in without any hope of ever climbing out....

d Helen, surprised at a strange, deep thrill in t

't want anything like that to happen. But, just

lking Dale returne

n' saddle your ow

d to say I can'

Come on. Watch me fir

thed the back of the horse, shook out the blanket, and, folding it half over, he threw it in place, being careful to explain

u try,"

e been a Western girl all her days. But Da

n learn that with a light one. Now put the bridle on again. Don't be afraid of your

ontinued: "You went up quick an' l

ff a little distance. When Bo had gotten out of earshot Dale said to Helen: "She'll

curls damp on her temples. How alive she seemed! Helen's senses thrilled with the grace and charm and vitality of this surprising sister, and she was aware of a sheer physical joy in her presence. Bo rested, but she did not rest long. She was soon o

for her. After she realized the passing of those hours she had an intangible and indescribable feeling of what Dale had meant about dreaming the hours away. The nature of Paradise Park was inimical to the kind of thought that had habitually been hers. She found the new thought absorbing, yet when she tried to name it she foun

t you're grow

adowy or the darkness so charged with loneliness. It was their environment-the accompaniment of wild wolf-mourn, of

any point it looked so small. The atmosphere deceived her. How clearly she could see! And she began to judge distance by the size of familiar things. A horse, looked at across the longest length of the park, seemed very small indeed. Here and there she rode upon dark, swift, little brooks, exquisitely clear and amber-colored and almost hidden from sight by the long grass. These all ran

he must regard herself as a fugitive. "Will it be safe to

side is accessible only from that ridge. An' don't worry about bein' found. I told

of dread. In spite of this, she determined to make the most of her opportunity. Bo was

little, she dozed under her pine-tree, she worked helping Dale at camp-fire tasks, and when night came she said she did not know herself. That fact haunted her in vague, deep dreams. Upon awakening

t; the sunset was rosy, glorious; the twilight was sad, changing; and night seemed infinitely sweet with its stars and silence and

be seen, nor any of the other pets. Tom had gone off to some sunny ledge where he could bask in the sun, after the habit of the wilder brothers of his species. Pedro had not been seen

e been fighting. Com

piece of what looked like mussel-shell embedded deeply between the toes. The wound was swollen, bloody, and evidently very painful. Pedro whined. Helen had to exert

howing the piece of shell, she asked: "Where did t

sea," replied Dale. "I've found

ge fact, but a vastly different one to realize it here among these lofty peaks.

ay. "What do you make of t

forest here encroached upon the park with its straggling lines of spruce and grove

t a tiny grove of aspens-some very small, some larger, but none very big.

ake you think

ertainly does no

lfishness, as you will find in the forest," he said. "Now

, with enthusiasm. "He'll

ent with them to the l

but not so much over these four next to him. They all stand close together, very close, you see. Most of them are no larger than my thumb. Look how few branches they have, an' none low down. Look at how few leaves. Do you see how all the branches stand out toward the east an' south-how the leaves, of course, face the same way? See how one branch of one tree bends aside one from another tree

e grove, illustrating his words by

s branches aside an' choke them. Only perhaps half of these aspens will survive, to make one of the larger clumps, such as that one of full-grown trees over there. One season will give advantage to this saplin' an' next year to that one. A few seasons' advantage to one assures its dominance over the others. But it is never sure o

m an even more striking exam

At the edge of timber-line he showed a gnarled and knotted spruce-tree, twisted out of all semblance to a beautiful spruce, bent and storm-blasted, with almost bare branches, all reaching one' way. The tree was a specter. It

s mysterious as it was inspiring. At that moment there were both the sting and sweetness of life-the pain and the joy-i