Hidden Creek

r had she felt such well-being of body, mind, and soul. Never had she known such dawns and days, such dusks, such sapphire nights. Sleep

e grew rosy brown; her hair seemed to sparkle along its crisp ripples; her little throat filled itself out, round and firm; she walked with a spring and a swing; she sang and whistled, no Mrs. Hudson near to scowl at her. Dish-washing was not drudgery, cooking was a positive pleasure. Everything smelt so good. She was always shutting her eyes to enjoy the smell of things, forgetting to listen in order to taste thoroughly, forgetting to look in the delight of listening to such musical silences, and forgetting even to breathe in the rapture of sight ... Miss Blake and she put up preserves, and Sheila had to invent jests to find so

gun to cut and stack her wood for winter, and to use it for a crackling hear

Events" were regularly taken by her and most thoroughly digested. She read with keen intelligence; her comments were as shrewd as a knife-edge. The chair she sat in was made from elk-horns and looked like the throne of some Norse chieftain. Behind her on the wall hung the stuffed head of a huge walrus, his tusks gleaming, the gift of that exploring brother who seemed to be her only living

of red sparks which might at any instant break into flame. Sheila was wearing one of her flimsy little black frocks, recovered from the wrinkles of its

with a faint rattle of chains. Sometimes there would be a distant rushing sound, a snow-slide thousands of feet above their heads on the mountain. Above these familiar sounds there came, at about

ht and snatched off her

ith a ha

ing out invitations

. She could guess whose horse's hoofs w

e's eyebrows came down over her eyes. A man's step stru

lake. She spoke it lik

e stood Cosme Hilliard,

wing the big wh

's belt clung to his supple waist, the leather chaps were shaped to his Greek hips and thighs. No civilized man's costume could so have revealed and enhanced his beautiful strength. And above the long body his face

you?" demanded Miss Bla

, Miss Blake-after I'd lost my horse, you know." There was some urgency in Sheila's tone,

e frosting us all, is there?" She resumed her specta

h. He had been riding, it would seem, in the thin silk shirt and had found the night air crisp. He rolled a cigarette with the hands that had first drawn Sheil

h me, ma'am," he said, "becaus

's t

n here below you on Hidden Creek a wa

ith dark blood. She said n

aimed delightedly, "T

during the rest of his visit. "I've built me a log house-a dandy. I had a man up from Rusty to help me.

to call on us?" She

given him his head." His look had come back to her face and dwelt there speaking for him a language headier than that of his tongue. "I thought I'd tie the dern fool down to some good tough work and test him out. Well, ma'am, he hasn't quit on me this time. I think he won't. I've got a ball and chain round about that cloven foot." He drew at his cigarette, half-veiling in smoke the ardor of his look. "I'd like to show you my house, Miss Arundel. It's fine. I worked with a builder one season when I was a lad. I've

he contagion of his blush. She wished that he would not look as if he had seen the blush and was pleased by it.

an absurd distance from the floor and laughed-"just the size

and sat down, broad and solid and unabashed by absence of

like your

eadful way it e

not look

ink your _

a colla

ed it ve

up and came c

tch up Dusty, won't you, please? It's moonlight. I'll be going." He repeated this very loud for Miss

d to his mouth and bolted. Sheila, following, found him around the corner

la ran to the edge of the clearing t

e two children till the

was serio

," he said weakly, "to laugh a

it almost seriously. "Sh

rks you," he

a bit too har

y fine, that's a fact. Better than you

uncaught by the twinkling aspen leaves, splash down on her face.

n't tell me.... Funny idea, you being

"I thought asking questions wa

make me angry! I've got a

hite trunk of the tree near which she st

nderstand how you got any such right.

on of her suspicion. She felt a little ashamed when she saw him wince. He slap

his ill-humor aside and was sweet and cool again like

n't k

ll so expressively, so u

-turning from her, "I wa

ng process. "Of course I

re i

let Hilliard mount her on the shining glossy back and rode slowly abo

and not feel it." He looked about the silver meadow. "Good feed h

own. They left t

ed. Do you think Miss Bl

ly lost by a sudden o

what a breed! Isn't that awful! Why does she kee

," she said. "She has a dreadful whip. She likes to bully them. I think she's ra

one on the bea

es

out here in the cold. I'll go. Good-night. Thank you for keeping the horse. Will you come down to see

se, her hand crushed and aching with his good-b

ddle on the hearth, he

," she said; "it's eleven o'c

e climbed up the ladder to the little gabled loft which was her bedroom. Halfway up she paused to

ross the room and out of the door. The whip with which she beat the dogs swung in her hand. A moment

s. When it was over she crept into bed. She felt, though she chided herself for the absurd