Frontier Stories

ian Spring, had made a slight détour to enable him to ostentatiou

n Spring. In passing this emporium, Miss Nellie's quick eye had discovered a cheap brown linen duster hanging in its window. To purchase it, and put it over her delicate cambric dress, albeit with a shivering sense that she looked like a badly-folded brown-paper parcel, did not take long. As she left the shop it was with mixed emotions of chagrin and security that she noticed that her passage through the settlement

hought of buying a coarser pair at Indian Spring, but once face to face with their uncompromising ugliness, she had faltered and fled. The sun was unmistakably hot, but her parasol was too well known and offered too violent a contrast to the duster for practical use. Once she stopped with an exclamation of annoyance, hesitated, and looked back. In half an hour she had twice lost her shoe and her temper; a pink flush

ture of disgust, she tore off her hapless duster and flung it on the ground. She then sat down sobbing, but after a moment dried her eyes hurriedly and started to her feet. A

ppened?" he

rching the ground with her eyes, as if she had

wish it," he said, flushing slightl

ust and heat were ruining her complexion. It was therefore with a half-confident belief that her troubl

meeting," said the young man, with that persistent logic which exaspera

ff," murmured the young

actedly; but after a moment's contemplation of her half-averte

self of her father's warning, but now she felt she would no

name," he rep

ation of a stupid nickname. They mig

said you

n't you see-I-oh dear!

outhful symmetry. Miss Nellie looked at him from under her eyelids, and then half defiantly raised her head and her dark lashes. Gradually an almost magical change came over her features; her eyes grew larger and more and more yearning, until they seemed to draw and absorb in their liquid dep

er closer to his embrace, felt them tighten around his neck. "But wh

t be any more practical, and you wouldn't want others to call me dar-" Her fingers loosened around his neck, she drew her head back, and a singul

o?" she added earnestly.

embrace, she said, "I don't care, at least no woman has kissed you like that." Happy, dazzled, and embarrassed, he was beginning to stammer the truthful protestation that rose to his lips, but she stopped him: "No, don't protest! say nothing! Let me love y

accompany y

t go as I

Nel

h practical decision, incompatible with her pr

must be seen together ev

talk of that now. Come, while I am here under your own roof"-she pointed to the high interlaced bough

thought it would be until th

nt. "Take me somewhere," she said inquisitively, "where you stay most; I do not seem to see you here," she added, lo

ll over the place-at any spot where I

ng?" quer

he herbarium

g in his eyes-"something about your keeping your things like a squirrel in a tree. Could we not go there? Is t

I will show you a spring known only to myself, the wood ducks, and the squirrels. I discovered it the first day I saw you, and gave it your name. But you shall christen it yourself. I

few paces into the ferns and underbrush, and then stopped with his finger on his lips. For an instant both remained motionless; then, with his intent face bent forward and both arms extended, he began to sink slowly upon one knee and one side, inclining his

t?" she as

" he continued, moving forwa

gnetic attraction. "How did you find it?" again asked the half-awed girl, her voice unconsciously falling to a whisper. Still silent, Low kept his rigid

nd nose," repli

your

I smel

ve something more irritating to her feelings than even that absurd anti-climax. She looked at

ten minutes now

have to smell y

the young girl's sarcasm slipping harmlessly from

old nostrils refused to t

ar it?

une of having been brought up un

I am alone, and I seem to hear it in my dreams. There is no music as sweet to me as its song. When you sang with me that day in church, I seemed to hear it ripple in your voice. It says to me more than the birds do, more than the rarest plants I find. It seems to live wi

et that she had not known before that she had been indebted to the great flume and ditch at Excelsior for the pleasure of his acquaintance. This pert remark occasioned some explanation, which ended in the girl's accepting a kiss in lieu of more logical argument. Nevertheless, she was still conscious of an inward irritation-always distinct from her singular and perfectly material passion-which

annoys you, I can get it changed by the legislature, you know, and I can find out what my father

an Indian?" said Nellie, "a

," said Low with grave astonishment. "Don't y

." But she was obliged to drop her eyes before

you should have your own way in disposing of a name that I

d if we are not going forward"-

that subject" (Nellie looked at her watch), "I've been offered the place of botanist and naturalis

et," broke in Nellie, with a

N

alk of it now," she

ly lifted her like a child to his shoulder. "There," he continued, placing her arm around his neck, "you are clear of the ferns and brambles now, and we can go on. Are you comfortable?" He looked up, read her answer in her burning eyes and the warm

tiest brethren, having borne down a lesser tree in the arc of its downward path. Two of the roots, as large as younger trees, tossed their blackened and bare limbs high in the air. The spring-the insignificant cause of this vast disruption-gurgled, flashed, and s

on that very night-for it happened a little after midnight, when all sounds are more audible-I was troubled and oppressed in my sleep by what you would call a nightmare; a feeling as if I was kept down by bonds and pinions that I longed to break. And then I heard a crash in

nded it to her. But the young girl leant over the pool, and pouring

tand you," he s

d dusty. The water loo

?

tain

elf on the bank, and removed her shoes and stockings. When she had d

just as wel

tain

n, and why didn't you think of telling father that y

," hesitated

father convert you, baptize you, and

thought,"

ught. Aren't y

ppose

ve you no convictio

that I could ever be anything to a man who did not believe in justification by

icately veined quartz, he stopped embarrassed. Miss Nellie, however, leaped to one foot, and, shaking the other over the pool, put her hand on

perhaps expected, offe

n," he said gravely, "you must learn

bury her feet in the dried mosses and baked withered grasses that were bleaching in a hollow. The y

a moccasin filled with it after a day

emed to be thinkin

he squaws bathe an

forget I was a bo

sure you nev

on

wn for several minutes among the grasses in the hollow; then, after a pause, s

an, but the first human

w n

with a heightened color, a slight exchange of sentiment, and a strange curiosity. The sun had painted their half-embraced silhouettes against the slanting tree-trunk, and began to decline unnoticed; the ripple of the water mingling with their whispers came as one sound to the listening ear; even their eloquent silences were as deep, and, I wot, perhaps as dangerous, as the darkened p

ree-trunk, and running half-way up its incline with the agility of

ly startled girl, it seemed

; "he's going by the we

ri

ips with a poorly restrained gesture

anger," r

me such a fright?" she said pettishly. "Are you nerv

s seeking or expecting some one, for he stopped frequently and waited or listened. He had not walked far, for he wore spurs that tinkled and caugh

you listened just now?" ask

face. "Certainly, I'll bet my life on what I say. Tell me: do y

of a certain ill-defined un

or he added, "You must go at once, and lest you have been followed I will show you another way back to Indian S

ween them, and was half perplexed and half frightened. At the end of ten minutes he seated her upon a fallen branch, and telling her he would return by the time she had resumed her shoes and stockings glided from her like a shadow. She would have utter

like that?" he asked, handing her a few torn

by Mr. Jack Brace on festive occasions, but a strange yet infallible instinc

she

tor's stuff like cologne?" continued Low, wit

dolent her little parlor, but again she avowed no knowledge of its possessor. "Well," returned

owing an almost effaced mule track along a slight depression of the plain, deep enough, however, to hide them from view, he accompanied her, until, rising to the level again, she saw they w

y, parting carelessly, as if they had been chance met travellers. But Nellie could not restrain a parting backward glance as