polite. At last the dinner was
served, and, sharp to time, Jimmy Parker returned. He came by himself, and
blustered into the warm room bringing with him that brisk atmosphere of
the outside cold which, in winter, always makes the inside of a house on
the prairie strike one as a perfect haven of comfort. He greeted Seth
cordially as he shook the frost from his fur-coat collar, and gently
released his moustache from its coating of ice.

Seth deferred his business until after dinner. He never liked talking
business before womenfolk. And Miss Parker, like most of her sex in the
district, was likely to exaggerate the importance of any chance hint about
the Indians dropped in her presence. So the boil of silverside and
dumplings was discussed to the accompaniment of a casual conversation
which was chiefly carried on by the Agent's sister. At length the two men
found themselves alone, and their understanding of each other was exampled
by the prompt inquiry of Parker.

"Well?" he questioned. Seth settled himself in his chair and, from force
of habit, spread his hands out to the fire.

"We're finishing our job with white labor," he said. Then as an
afterthought, "Y' see we want to git things fixed 'fore spring opens."

The Agent nodded.

"Just so," he said.

The beads on his moccasins had much interest for Seth at the moment.

"I'd never gamble a pile on Injuns' labor," he remarked indifferently.
Parker laughed.

"No. It would be a dead loss--just now."

Seth looked round inquiringly.

"I was wondering when you would give them up," the Agent went on. "I've
had a great deal of difficulty keeping them at it. And we're liable, I
think, to have more."

The last was said very gravely.

"Kind o' how we've figgered right along?" Seth asked.

"Yes."

The two men relapsed into silence for a while, and smoked on. At last Seth
spoke with the air of a man who has just finished reviewing matters of
importance in his mind.

"We've taken in the well in fixin' that corral."

"Good. We've got no well here."

"No."

"I was over at Pine Ridge to-day."

"That's what your sister said."

"I went for two reasons. Jim Crow has smelt out preparations for
Sun-dances. We can't locate where they are going to be held, or when. I
went over to consult Jackson, and also to see how he's getting on over
there. He's having the same trouble getting the Indians to look at any
work. Little Black Fox is about again. Also he sees a heap too