A Prairie Courtship

g in the breeze stood on a slight rise, with sundry piles of boards and framed timber lying on the grass about it, while Thorne and a young lad stood beside a fire above which a four-gallon coal-oi

er, a thin birch bluff in full leaf straggled up the rise, and a little creek of clear water wound through a deep hollow not far away. The situation, she decided, was an attractive one. Then she glanced at the piles of timber, which seemed to be arranged in carefully planned order, and surmised from the quantity of

ard and joined the g

g, it's just as well," Thorne was explaining. "Still, the bread ought to be ready, an

ey?" Mrs. Far

stooped over the

they're here. Dave should have

ldron and saw to her astonishment what

e you boiled them wit

In fact, I put them in to bring their feathers off, though I've hither

o his young

k! Fish

hen a number of dripping birds were strewed u

ir heads gone?"

pt at dressing fowls," chuckled Thorne. "I just sent his employer

ed, for he wa

of us just out from Toronto, and we didn't know how to set about the thing." He paused and lo

me he made Stepney use

y-and that wasn't very muc

urned to

et out the bread and what crockery there is. The boys will probably b

lison sat down on t

ive in some respects," she commented. "Shall we all have

ch of him. He has been working his fingers off for the last six weeks, and as there has been moonlight lately it's ve

, and now it struck her that his face was leaner and browner than it had been and that there were

e all that?

sn't very often. I believe he has done about twice as much as Harry consid

led her to the oven, which she opened with a spade, and they raked out several big and somewhat blackened l

and daughters also brought baskets with them. They were evidently acquainted with the limitations of bachelor housekeeping. For the most part, however, the new arrivals were young men,

to get that later. In the first place you have to earn your supper." He

ing to the best man on the ground. I'll take m

rne walked round and examined the piles of timber. Then he sent the men to their places; one with a hammer here,

ready we'll get the house on en

a dwelling could be built in a night; but the men were clearly on their mettle, and they worked with an almost bewildering activity. They were on the ground one minute, hauling ponderous masses of timber, and the next climbing among the framing; were standing with one foot on a slender beam, or crawling along another on hands and knees. There was a constant thudding of ax-heads on wooden pegs, a sharper ringing of hammers on heavy nails; curt ord

pinned down before your s

from across the creek get ahe

ard with both ha

shouted. "Get them in! I can'

lantly, and the pace became faster still, unt

id. "You've done 'most twice as much as I

ng to stop. Hammers, saws, and axes were flung together, and the men stood in

ar enough," he said. "What makes the thing seem more

waited until he turned to Mrs. Farquhar,

ll ask you to come in

behind; but it seemed that the selection he had made did not

man already! It is

t, Mrs. Farquhar either moved or was quietly pushed aside, and she and Thorne were left to cross the threshold together

you manners in the old country, Mavy? Wh

ignificance to the fact that she was the first woman to enter his new house with him. Dismissing the question as troublesome, she glanced about her and saw the roof framing cutting black against the soft blue of the night overhead. The house,

xclaimed. "I suppose you had everything ready, bu

e lau

le who haven't the least use for them ought to be

, the man who's smart at business is good at nothing else. Most of those who are couldn't

ther man round here who could start off for a month's drive

al ability lies not in the sales but in the margin after them, and you never seemed to get much richer by y

s of assent, and Alison was conscious of a little thr

n if I were quite convi

les, and though the dew was falling they sat down on the grass, while a full moon that had sailed half-way up the heavens poured down a silver light on them. The crockery proved insufficient, an

re not bronzed like the men, and even in the moonlight it struck her that their faces lacked the delicate bloom of the average Englishwoman's skin. Their hands were hard, and in most cases redd

her. The girl, she confessed, was not ungraceful, although slighter and generally straighter in figure than most young Englishwomen, and she had rather fine hair. It shone lustrously in the moonlight, and there were

eemed preoccupied, and soon afterward he and the girl she had already noticed once more drew apart from the rest. Alison watched them sitting out two dances in the sh

d what Jake has done is goi

tay here, and he allowed that, one way or another, he'd paid off all he owed," the girl

a great deal in his favor. The trouble is that they could jail him for selli

looke

ff his mortgage first. When he died he left us nothing but the teams and implements, and mother and I tried to run

e a sign o

ing away to work on the new branch line until he can ge

t of it. Only-" and she looked up at him with appealing eyes-"Jake hasn't g

re i

nd pointed to

nde

ill again, rather grim in fac

into the settlement for some it would put the troopers on to his trail." She

t would be better for several reasons that Jake shouldn't see me, but if you'll stuff a basket with eatables I'l

he way he moved that aroused Alison's curiosity, and she walked forward a few yards until she reached the crest of the slope, from which she saw him saddle one of the two hobbled horses that browsed apart fr

grew rapidly louder and two shadowy figures materialized out of the prairie. Then the music stopped as a couple of mounted po

nthrop here

strode forward; "he certain

seen him

" was the q

was seen heading for this bluff two or three hours ago, and tha

saddle and look

ve me any i

ng to conceal; but the corporal did not look quite satisfied with the assurances they

to lead up your horses,

en the corporal was convinced that not

team here,

e carelessly, though he

s companion, who had quietly slipped away

e creek," announced the trooper.

al looked

ike making any

hing against me I'll

en turned to on

here did you pu

ound with

u produ

well allow that I can't, if the tr

looked at h

l is to pick up Winthrop's trail. It's quite lik

airie. When they disappeared, Thorne called to the fiddle