here he
should plant his orchard, and he was mentally building an addition to
the cabin and screening a porch wide enough to hang a hammock inside,
and he was seeing Billy Louise luxuriously swinging in that hammock
while he sat close, and smoked and teased and gloried in his possession
of her companionship.

His thoughts shuttled to his little mine, though he seldom dignified it
by that title. He speculated upon the amount of gold he might yet hope
to wash out of that gravel streak, though he had held himself sternly
back from such mental indulgence all the spring. He felt that he was
going to need every grain of gold he could glean. He wanted his
wife--he glowed at the mere thinking of that name--to have the nicest
little home in the country. He decided that it would be pleasanter
than the Cove, all things considered; he had a fine view of the rugged
hills from his cabin, and he imagined the Cove must be pretty hot
during the days, with that high rock wall shutting off the wind and
reflecting the sun. His own place was sheltered, but still it was not
set down in the bottom of a well. She had liked it. She had said...

They rode over the crest of the bluff and down the steep trail into the
Wolverine. However cloudy the atmosphere between the two, the ride had
seemed short--so short that Ward felt the jar of surprise when he
looked down and saw the cabin below them. He glanced at Billy Louise,
guessed from her somber face that the villainous mood still held her,
and sighed a little. He was not deeply concerned by her mood. He
understood her too well to descend into any slough of despondence
because she was cross. Then he remembered the reason she had
given--the reason he had not believed at the time. They were down by
the gate, then.

"Head still ache, William?" he asked, in the tone which he could make a
fair substitute for a caress.

"Yes," said Billy Louise, and did not look at him.

Ward was inwardly skeptical, but he did not tell her so. He swung off
his horse, set down the pail of currants, and took Blue by the bridle.

"You go on in. I'll unsaddle," he commanded her quietly. And Billy
Louise, after a perceptible hesitation, obeyed him without looking at
him or speaking a word.

If Ward resented her manner, which was unreasonably uppish, he could
not have chosen a more effective revenge. He talked with Mrs.
MacDonald all through supper and paid no attention to Billy Louise.
After supper h