A Ticket to Adventure / A Mystery Story for Girls

p of a forest giant. Fully three feet across it stood there, roots embedded deep, while all about it were pigmies of the tree world. There was not

ot been felled by some woodsman's axe. Why had they cut it down? That they might build its logs i

nted them there. These must, from year to year, have replanted themselves, for, even in June, the vines were beginning to droop over the edge of t

and thinking of it with renewed wond

a bench. "Now for the planting." Then, to his cousin's rene

sisting that we can raise tomatoes here when Mrs.

an," Mark gri

ow

hat stump as if it hid some str

ce sat

Mark began. "Well, while we were in Anchorage I got to prowling round and stumbled up

reenhouse. Some new vegetable or flower, a strange form of moss

d y

ll in blossom, dozens an

t w

e gardener in a town down south, half way to Seattle. Something ha

they

I am quite sure, they are still. They can be bought cheap, probably four

where the sun will be shining almost twenty-four hours a day, they should just boom along. Have ripe tomatoes in six weeks. Then how those well-to-do people

there is

t. That happens sometimes. It's a chance we'll have to

r the things you eat and wear, to say nothing of tools, machinery, an

g anyone else. But, as for the Hughes family, we're going to pay as we go if we can, and who

orence echoed e

ng like a magic lantern above the snow-capped mountain. The lake reflected both mountains and moon

ch for gold. And why not? Had not the aged prospector appeared once more at their door? Had she not feasted him on

ot? He had lost a rich gold mine. She was strong as a man, was Florence. No man, she was sure, could follow

occasions, flinging her arms wide to ta

a voice clos

! It's you, Mark." She made a place f

toes and all the rest. A shelter for old Boss, everything that

Mark's vo

the log cabin for a fine home, to have cattle and sheep and broad pasture and-" she hesitated, then went on, "and children, boys and girls, happy in their home

s voice. "Yes, I suppose that is it. Awfully g

n glorious. And we are succeeding so well. Already the t

ice was husky. "

, and not so long ago, when I thought to myself, 'Life's stream must g

joy of living. "Now you must know t

k laughed softly. "Those ar

me power behind them began to set them on fire. Redder and redder they shone, then they began to fade. Salmon colored, deep pink, pale pink, they faded and faded until like a ghost's winding sheet they vanished. Lighter and brighter. Oh, Mark! how grand and beautiful life c

with thoughts of days that were to come, t

lorence

land-locked salmo

dn't

re? Oh, sure! I've

fish. Couldn't we

hooks. I'll cut the handle off a silver-plated spoon. It'll sp

do and, seeing, she found fresh adventure that might have ended badly h