Gabriel Conroy

he swollen limb. Then he knocked over a quail in the bushes and another duck, and clearing away the brush for a camping spot, built a fire, and tempted the young

ht a damp breeze stirred the pine needles above their heads, and an om

lle of spring!"

-even a lover's. She let her head d

n, dear, and l

ra

ome back. I fear no danger now. I a

d once before spoken in the same way, but it jarred upon a certain quality in his nature which he was pleased to call his "common sense." Philip real

m to which he was taking her; and yet here, at the moment of their possible deliverance, she was fretting about two dying people, who, without miraculous interference, would be dead before she could reach them. It was part of Philip's equitable self-examination-a fact of which he was very proud-that he always put himself in the position of the person with whom he differed, and imagined how he would act under the like circumstances. Perhaps it is hardly necessary to say that Philip always

time all will be over. They have either been saved or are beyond the reach of help. This sounds harsh, Grace, but it is no harsher than the fact. Had we stayed, we would, without helping them, have only shared their fate. I might have been in your brother's place, you in your s

suggestion, and observe that it did not refute Philip's argument. She looked at him with a half frightened air. Perhaps it was the tears that dimmed her eyes, but his few words seemed to have removed him to a

n, and half interpreted it.

id with something of his old bitterness. "This accident may keep us here some days, and we know not as ye

m frankly all the doctor had said, even his suspicions of Philip himself. And then Philip would have been sure to have told her his plans, and they would have gone back with help, and Philip would have been a hero whom Gabriel would have inst

and ice, the waste and ware of many a mile. Occasionally a large uprooted tree with a gaunt forked root like a mast sailed by. Suddenly Philip, who had been sitting with his chin upon his hands,

self. If we are to be saved, it is by her methods. She brought us here t

beside her his rifle and provisions, and leaping himself on the bow of this strange craft, shoved it off with a broken branch that he had

ilip's energy and undivided attention to keep the tree in the centre of the current. Grace sat silen

log? We are nea

e forbore to speak to Philip again upon that subject, and in his new occupation he seemed to have forgotten her. It was with a little thrill of joy that at last she saw him turn, and balancing himse

, I have somethi

t she did not dare to lift her long lashes toward

men and-perhaps women. Strangers certainly-not the relatives you have known, and who know you-not the people wi

at him, but d

knowing this, they might put their

he world will accept more readily than any other, and the truth to many would seem scarcely as natural. For this reason it must not be told. I will

and for an instant, with parted lips, she hung br

e my sister-

patiently for her reply. When she lifted her face again, it was quiet and calm-there was even a slight f

are r

n the river, and then drifted slowly into a broad, overflowed valley, sparkling with the emerald of gently sloping hillsides, and dazzling wit