A Daughter of the Snows

ame quite used to strong language on the part of other men, even in the most genial conversation. Carthey, a little Texan who went to work for him for a while, opened or closed every second se

it, but to like it, and to wait for it eagerly. Once, Carthey's wheel-dog lost an ear in a hasty contention with a dog of the Hudson Bay, and when the young fellow bent over the animal and discovered the loss, the blend

side. As the country was too young for club-life, the masculine portion of the community expressed its masculinity by herding together in the saloons,-the ministers and missionaries being the only exceptions to this mode of expression. Business appointments and deals were made and consummated in the saloons, enterprises projected, shop talked, the latest news discussed, and a general good fellowship maintained. There all life rubbed

na it was different. She had a code of her own, quite unlike that of the community, and perhaps believed woman might do things at wh

the sled, harnessed her team of huskies, and flew down the river trail. As soon as she cleared the town she was off and running. And in such manner, running and riding by turns, she swept through the Indian village below the bluff's, made an eight-mile circle up Moosehide Creek and back, cr

the precipitous walls and hugged them closely around the abrupt bends. And so, at the head of her huskies, she came suddenly upon a woman sitting in the snow and gazing across the river at smoke-canopied Dawson. She had been

ook her head. "But you mustn't sit there. It is nearly seventy below, and you'll freeze in a few minutes. Your cheeks are bitt

u, but I am perfectly warm, you see" (settling the fur cape more closely abo

, the make of the gown, and the bead-work of the moccasins which peeped from beneath. And in view of

went on. "Just a mood, that was all, lo

much of sadness in such a landscape, only it never comes that way to me.

ventured, reflectively. "It is not what the landscape is, but what we are. If we were not,

in ourselves; i

ngs, whate'er yo

ed, and she went on t

n inmost cen

ides in fulnes

oes it go? I h

l, the gross fl

ss ring to it which made Frona inwardly shiver. She moved as though to go back to her dogs, but the

ng since I have met a woman"-she paused while her tongue wandered for the word-"who could quote 'P

e, this woman and she? Her five senses told her not; by every law of life they were no; only, only by the fast-drawn lines of social caste and social wisdom were they not the same. So she thought, even as for one searching moment she studied the other's face. And in the situation she found an uplifting awfulness, such as comes when the veil is thrust aside and one gazes on the myst

get the blood moving again. I had no idea it was so cold till I stood still." She turned to the dogs: "Mush

kept up the needful circulation and no more. I saw you when you leaped off the sled below the hos

wered, simply. "I was

rs of th

's bitter knowledge, for her own soul's sake and sanity, draw the pregnant human generalizations which she must possess. And over her welled a wave of pity and dist

sterly, "tell me about yourself. You are new to the

sfully feigned girlhood innocence, as though she did not appreciate the other or underst

d Frona's companion pointed ahead to where the walls receded and wrinkled to a gorge, out of whi

on?" Frona queried. "It is growing

. . I

tion of her own thoughtlessness. But she had mad

d, bravely. And in candid all-knowl

the woman's cold face, and her hand w

f you . . . I . . . I prefer to continue my wal

er's had flamed. A light sled, dogs a-lope and swinging down out of the gorge, was ju

ow and brought the sled to a halt. "What are you doing over h

s he shook hands with her. "But Carthey is leaving me,-going prospecting somewhere arou

tragedy. The woman met his gaze with a half-shrinking, as from an impending blow, and with a softness of expression which entreated pity. But he regarded her long and coldly, then deliberately turned his back. As he did this, Frona noted her face go tired and gray, and the hardness and recklessness of her laughter were there painted in ha

and Corliss swung in his dogs abreast of hers. The smouldering rebellion fl

bru

ce like the lash of a whip. The unexpectedness of it, and the

coward! Y

Listen

ve nothing to say. You have behaved abominably. I

at she should walk with you, have

des you, do I exclude you

is a fitnes

"If she is unfit, are you fit? May you cast the fir

to me in this fashio

the midst of her anger she noticed

ot? You

ip briskly, she rose to her knees on the sled and called frantically to the animals. Hers was the better team, and she shot rapidly away from Corliss. She wished to get away, not so much from him as from herself, and she encouraged the huskies into wilder and wilder speed. She