A Prairie Courtship

ed was at least still, and she was not kept awake by the distressful vibration that had disturbed her in the Colonist car. Awakening refreshed in the morning, she sallied out to purch

gave her all the information in his power, she spent the day offering her services at stores and hotels and offices up and down the city. Nobody, however,

rments to one of the Jew dealers who then occupied a row of rickety wooden shacks near the station at Winnipeg. He gave her remarkably little for them; and one night she sat

yet?" s

"I have heard of nothing th

est of us. You're almost as good-looking as I am." She lowered her voice

e to the frost had been hanging about the emigrant quarters for a day or two preceding the disappearance of

ow. It's quite straight. We're to be married in the morning. He says he's got a nice house, and he looks as if he'd treat me decently." S

able sense of disgust, but in another moment or two the blood sur

on't say any more about it. Besides, I had only a minu

ecuted, living somewhere within reach of a station which she had discovered was situated about three hundred miles down the line, and Florence might take her in, for a time at least. She decided to set out and try to find her the next day. Rising with sudden determination, she walked across to the station to make inquiries about the train, and as she reach

off his wide gray hat, and his intona

n my name?" Aliso

rstairs to get me an introduction, and to tell the truth I wasn

he felt that she could have struck him. That feeling, however, passed. There was a hint of deference in his attitude; he met the one

ake an attempt to plead my

desperation, though she was quite aw

seemed to beseec

ut in the first place I'd better-clear the g

on, "how dare yo

n in her eyes. "Give me a minute or two, and then if you think it justified you can be angry. I want to say just this. We live in a pretty primitive fashion on our hundred-and-sixty-acre holdings out on the prairie, and conventions don't count for much with us. What is more to the purpose, we are forced to make some irregular venture of this kind if we think of marrying. Now, I have a comparatively decent place about two

im. The man did not look as if he would be unkind to any on

. I'd try to satisfy you as to-we'll say my mode of life and character, and you could, perhaps, form some idea of me. I don't want to form any idea of you-I've done that already. Then if my

ld see the ludicrous aspect of the situation, but that was not her clearest impression, for she felt that this most unconve

. "What you suggest is, howev

it seemed, almost sorry that she had been compelled

t's a compliment-I shall go back alone. There's just another matter. If you

the proposal. She felt that it would be equally imp

s generous of you, but I

had, made in a deserted, half-lighted station by a man to whom she had never spoken until that evening. She was to learn, however, that the strangeness of any event natura

the unfenced track, which ran straight as the crow flies across a bare, white waste of prairie. As the train sped out along this and grew smaller and smaller Alison stood forlornly beside the half-empty trunk which contained the remnant of her few possessions. Sh

?" he said in a manner which made the word

r who lived near Graham's Bluff, and ho

the man replied. "The boys drive in now and then, and a f

and added, as though someth

to-day or to-morrow, and it's quite likely that he'd drive you o

d it, for there was no semblance of a street and the space between the houses and elevators was torn up and deeply rutted by wagon wheels.

nto the hotel and entered a long and very barely furnis

soil, while the dilapidated skin coats thrown down here and there evidently belonged to them. Some were just finishing breakfast and the others stood lighting their pipes about a big rusty stove. The place reeked of the

orne here just now?

with some astonishment when she walked in, and it was clear t

r you," said one, and a man who had been sur

habitants of the prairie seemed to be, and the state of his attire was not calculated to impress a stranger in his favor. His long boots were caked with mire and the fur was coming off the bat

orne?"

ful inclination, which was

ommand," h

h it was weary and a little anxious then, and she had fine hazel eyes. Still, the red-lipped mouth was somehow determined and there was a hint of decision of character in the way she looked at him from under straight-drawn brows. Her hair, as much as he could see of it, was neither

he said. "The man at the station to

en possessed of the means to pay for such rude accommodation as the place provided, which was not the case. In the meanwhile it occurred to the man

ke it will be quite a long drive. I had thought of starting this af

irl who was gather

et this lady some b

avorite in the place that food was presently set before her. The average Westerner gets through his breakfast in about ten minutes; and as a rule

unlike an English breakfast, but she was to learn that there is very little difference between any of the three daily meals served in that country. Its inhabitants, who rise for the most part at sunup, do not require to be tempted by

resh pang of anxiety that she had now just a dollar and a half in her possession, and she scarcely dared contemplate what might happen if Florence Hunter should not be disposed to welcome her. Besides this, there was the u

it violently into the side of the hotel. There are various rigs, as they term them-buckboards, sulkies and the humble bob-sleds-in use in that country, but t

ng himself into the vehicle several lo

an the gramophone? You'd get him

in the vicinity was open to purchase some hair-restorer. Alison did not know then that, probably because

who was standing near the door, he leaned down and

s bloom like peaches if you rub it in," he informed her. "I sold some round Stanbury down the

and one of them was cross-

uts. It seemed to leap into the air when the wheels struck the rails as they crossed the track, and then Thorne's arms grew rigid and there was a further kicking and plunging as he pulled the team up outside the little sta

ight a pale silvery gray. There was not a trail of smoke or a house on it, only here and there a formless blur that was in reality a bluff of straggling birches or a clump of willows, and

g grimness. It had no limit or boundary; one felt free out there and cares and apprehensions melted in the sunshine that flooded it. She began to understand why she had seen no pinched and pallid faces in this new land. Its inhabitan

suggestive cleanness about his deeply bronzed skin which was the result of a simple and wholesome life led out in the wind and the sun. Alison was puzzled, however, by something in both his manner and his voice that hinted at a care

before you were quite re

an la

cs among the rest. They are"-his eyes twinkled humorously-"quite harmless. Anyway, I've no doubt I ca

ou sell

however, isn't a thing you can do very frequently, which is why some folks in my profession fail disastrously. They can't realize that if you sell a man what he doesn't want too often he's apt to turn ou

u?" Alison inquired, for she was ha

d have been singularly easy to have affixed a different label to my unrivaled peach-bloom cosmetic and have supplied him with a sure-to-heal embrocation. As it was, I got

d you use for t

Thorne dryly, "a

ult thing? How did you k

d seen

he pr

a rather curious smile; "

oint. It occurred to her that if he had been a patient in the hospital the injured man would in all probability not have been treated in his sight, while it seemed somewhat st