lfred gazed upon the unending panorama. In those corded
tents he saw the pioneer family already in possession of the new land;
in the stacks of pine boards he beheld houses already sending up the
smoke of peace and prosperity from their chimneys; and in the men and
women who streamed by, their faces alight with hope, their bodies ready
for the grapple with drought, flood, cyclone, famine, he saw the
guaranty of a young and dominant state.

Strangers greeted one another with easy comrade-ship. Sometimes it was
just, "Hello, neighbor!"--and if a warning were shouted across the
street to one endangered by the current of swelling life, it might be--
"Look out there, brother!" The sense of kinship tingled in the air,
opening men's hearts and supplying aid to weaker brethren. Those who
gathered along the track awaiting the arrival of the trains had already
the air of old-timers, eager to extend the hospitality of a well-loved
land.

In such a crowd Wilfred was standing when he first caught sight of
Lahoma among those descending to the jostling platform. He had not
known how she would look, and certainly she was much changed from the
girl of fifteen, but he made his way to her side without the slightest
hesitation.

"Lahoma!"

She turned sharply with a certain ease of movement suggesting fearless
freedom. Her eyes looked straight into the young man's with
penetrating keenness which instantly softened to pleasure. "Why I how
glad I am to see you!" she cried, giving him her hand as they withdrew
from the rush. "But how did you know me?"

"How did YOU know?" he returned, pleased and thrilled by her glowing
brown hair, her eloquent eyes, her warm-tinted cheeks, her form, as
erect as of yore, but not so thin--as pleased and thrilled as if all
these belonged to him. "How did you know ME?" he repeated, looking and
looking, as if he would never be able to believe that she had turned
out so much better than he had ever dreamed she would.

"Oh," said Lahoma, "when I looked into your face, I saw myself as a
girl sitting under the cedar trees in the cove, with Brick and Bill."

"Just you three?" demanded Wilfred wistfully--also smilingly.

"Oho!" exclaimed Lahoma, showing her perfect little teeth as if about
to bite, in a way that filled him with fearful joy, "and so they showed
you that letter!"

"JUST you three?" repeated Wilfred. "Just room enough in the cove for
you--and Brick--and Bill?"

"Listen to me, Wilfred, a