ng to her
charms, Clark, for the first time in his life, felt that he must go
slow. It was a new country to him. Previous experience had left no
landmarks here.

They were drifting lazily along the shore, miles from the others, when
Elsie, after a long pause, glanced at him curiously.

"Will you tell me just what you find in music?"

"But I don't know anything about it."

"Perhaps not, but you feel it, and that's what counts. I've only heard
you play twice."

"Once," he corrected.

"No, I was out on the bay one night, below the blockhouse, when you
were playing." Belding's name was on the girl's lips but at the moment
Belding did not fit and she went on evenly, "It is something like the
rapids."

"I'm glad you think that. It's the response that one gets."

"That's what I feel. You're an American, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"I thought so. You see your people are more responsive than we are,
and you don't seem so ashamed of enthusiasm."

"We can't help it, but it's a little awkward sometimes," his eyes
twinkled, "that is in Canada. Now talk about yourself."

"There's so little to say. I was asleep for years like every one else
in St. Marys, till you came and woke us all up.

"And then?"

"I realized that life was rather thin and that I wanted a lot of things
I'll never get."

"Why never,--and what do you want?"

"To be part of something bigger than myself," said the girl very slowly.

Clark felt an answering throb. That was what he had felt and wanted
and achieved.

"To feel what the world feels and know something of what the world
knows," she added intensely. "I want to work."

"That sounds strenuous."

She flushed a little. "Won't you take me seriously?"

"I beg your pardon. As a matter of fact I've always taken you
seriously."

"Have you, why?"

"Perhaps because I don't know anything about your sex," he answered
teasingly. "I never had time,--they're sealed books to me."

"So this is your first exploring trip?"

"The very first,--and it's not at all what I expected."

A question moved in Elsie's eyes but she did not speak. Clark, taking
in the supple grace of her figure and expanding to the candor of her
spirit, wondered if now, at the apex of his labors, the color of his
future life was being evolved by this girl who was as free and
untainted as the winds of Superior. He had at times attempted
friendships of another kind and found them unsatisfying and pondered
whether t