A Daughter of the Snows

gh I'm sorry we can't spare

alacrity and came to th

, "and gold-rushers are such

m sorry for the trouble I am giving you, but-but-" She turned quickly and pointed to the shore

e muttered, sympathetically, as he

onkey-engines were hurrying the misassorted outfits skyward. On either side of the steamer, rows of scows received the flying cargo, and on each of these scows a sweating mob of men charged the descending slings and heaved bales and boxes about in frantic search.

argo over to the passengers and quit work. But we're not so unlucky as the Star of Bethlehem," he reassured her, pointing to a steamship at anchor a quarter of a mile away.

hitehall which hovered discreetly on t

en; but the boatman shot nervily across her bow, and just as he was clear, unf

the first off

the Whitehall against the barge. The boatman had unshipped his oars in time, but his small craft groaned under the pressure and threatened to collapse. Whereat he came to his feet, and in short, nervous phrases co

hem shouted. "Why don

into the other craft. The miner nearest him tugged vigorously at a revolver which had jammed in its shiny leather holster, while his brother argonauts, laughing, waited the out

, the first officer had stolen a glance at the girl by his side. He had expected to find a shocked and frightene

orry,"

, "No, no; not at all. I am enjoying it every bit. Thou

ing ashore." The first officer laug

alongside. "He agreed to charge only twenty dollars for putting you ashore. Said he'd have made it twenty-five had it b

rd landing and dropping one of his oars over-side. "You've no call to be flingin' names

ars, my man," bega

fist," the ot

ready t

m I? And you with a thousand passengers packed like sardines! Charge 'em double firs

head over the rail above

shore as fast as God'll let you! I'm losing a thousand dollars a day, and I won't stand it! Do you hear? I won't stand it! You've robbed me right and left from the time you cleared dock in Seattle, and by the hi

e boatman solilo

e with you, and as far as the store, but you see how busy we are. Good-by, and a lucky trip to you. I'll te

lurch, and the water hurtled across the bottom boards to her shoe-tops: but she took

ver do, Miss Welse. Come on back, and I'll

ven first," retorted th

" he thr

s chivalry had his knuckles rapped sharply by the oar-blade. Then he

more dignified," she called back to him

not analytical; he did not know why; but he knew that with her he could travel to the end of the earth. He felt a distaste for his profession, and a temptation to throw it all over and s

er full in the face. "Hope you don't mind it, miss," he ap

she answered,

seemed the likeliest way. I oughter 'a ben in Klondike by now, if I'd had any luck at all. Tell yo

om her eyes, squirming the while as

"You're the right stuff for this

ded che

I'm no worse than the rest, miss, sure. I had to dig up a hundred for this old tub, which ain't worth ten down in the States. Same kind of prices everywhere. Over on the Skaguay Trail horseshoe nails is just as good as a quart

untry again after such an experience. Won't you

we run across each other, remember I'd give you the la

mile; for she was a woman who loved the

fish about in the water around

bailin'," he ordered

' worse since

the land-locked arm of the sea in which a score or so of great steamships lay at anchor. From each of these, to the shore and back again, flowed a steady stream of scows, launches, canoes, and all sorts of smaller craft. Man, the mighty toiler, reacting upon a hostile enviro

ctuated the silence with splashes fro

r name," he suggested, w

e," she answered

a greater and greater awe. "You-are-Frona-Welse?" he en

Welse's daughter,

topped rowing. "Just you climb back into the stern and take your

tisfactorily?" she d

' all right; but,

s. Now you go on rowing,-that's your shar

mured ecstatically, ben

our old man? I oughte

opped long enough to shake hands with her ferryman. And though such a proceeding on the part of his feminine

rub is yours," he reassured

t shirt, too;

ackerjack!" he explode

ur

than one gold-rusher, shooting keen glances at her ankles and gray-gaitered calves, affirmed Del Bishop's judgment. And more than one glanced up at her face, and glanced again; for her gaze was frank, with the frankness of comradeship; and in her eyes there was always a smiling light, just trembling on the verge of d

o the earth. Every back had become a pack-saddle, and the strap-galls were beginning to form. They staggered beneath the unwonted effort, and legs became drunken with weariness and titubated in divers directions till the sunlight darkened and bearer and burden fell by the way. Other men, exulting secretly, piled their goods on two-wheeled go-carts and pulled out blithely enough, only to stall at the first spot where the great round boulders invaded the trail. Whereat

and men tramped ceaselessly up and down, grinding the tender herbage into the soil and mocking the stony silence. And just up the trail were ten thousand men who had passed by, and over the Chilcoot were ten thousand more. And behind, all down the island-studded Alaskan coast, even to the Horn, were yet ten thousand more, harnessers of wind and steam, hasteners from the ends of the earth. The Dyea

h the window, the mail heaped up from floor to ceiling. And it was for this mail the men were clamoring so insistently. Before the store, by the scales, was another crowd. An Indian threw his pack upon the scales, the white owner jotted down the weight in a note-book, and another pack was thrown on.

ained expression came into his face, and he looked about him anxiously. The sympathetic light in Frona's eyes caught him, and he regarded her with intent blankness. In real

er pay them the forty cents," she advised

to give in, the packers jumped the price on him to forty-five cents. He smiled after a sickly fashion, and nodded his head in token of surrender. But another Indian joined the group and began whi

e constable and arrest for vagrancy would have been immediate. "French Louis," the tenderfeet whispered and passed the word along. "Owns three Eldorado claims in a block," the man next to Frona confided to her. "Worth ten millions at the very least." French Louis, striding a little in advance of his companions, did not

ow?" Frona ask

s for the last six weeks. See!" He unfolded a newspaper. "And a pretty good

she queried, tacitly acceptin

essed sorrowfully, then tapped the shoulder of the man next to him. "Who is the

ittle cry and darted forward. "M

d heartily, though he did not know h

And don't you dare say you do! If there weren

ome to the Little Bears

ere very hungry. And Bi

.' And one Little Bear

mon, and t'other Little

'Whoof! Whoof!' and

n!

ace, and, when she had finished, his eyes wrinkled

know ye," he explained;

ut me fin

the store and wat

ion changed to disappointment. "It cuddent be. I mistook ye. Ye cud niver

d her head

with the goold hair I combed the knots out iv many's the time? The

he corroborat

dead o' winter for to see where the world come to an ind on the ither si

! Remember the time I

s from the

ye out by the h

of your new

n' immodest affair it was! An' the boots was

to the Inside, and we never heard a wo

old Matt good-by. But ye did in the ind," he exclaimed, triumphantly,

only

ear I've spint on the Inside, with ni

big as you,"

, an' all that." He looked her over critically. "Bu

not at twenty. Feel my arm, you'll see." She

admiringly over the swelling bunch; "just as

ively striking the typical postures; "and swim, and make high d

I thought ye wint away for boo

ng, now, Matt, and they don't tur

ey can't carry it all! Well,

Frona asked. "How has the world

han iver I saw in all me life before. Me intintion for makin' this trip to the States is to look up me ancestors. I have a firm belafe that they wance existed. Ye may find nuggets in the Klondike, but niver good whiskey. 'Tis likewise me intintion to h

att, who never grows

opher's brains. But let's wander inside on the heels of Louis an' Swiftwater. Andy's sti

as a bad habit she had of seizing the hands of th

lowed easily in the lee of his bulk. The tenderfeet watched them reverently, fo

e door she caught the opening of the answer: "Jacob Welse's daughter