to secure the claim. I've got
three hundred acres, and it has cost me just three hundred dollars to
take it up and to build my house and Comrag's stall. I could sell out
to-morrow for five hundred dollars, but I don't know that I would sell
for five thousand. Because I have such a beautiful time here. I feel
somehow as if I had struck root."

Sir Bryan knew exactly what she meant. In spite of the sailor hat and
shirt waist, she had the air of having grown up among the rocks and
glowing oak leaves. He said nothing, but his attentive attitude asked
for more.

"Oh, yes! and about Brian Boru," she proceeded. "I found him last June,
lying up against a tree with his leg broken. I fed him until his leg was
mended, and--and"--with a little catch in her breath--"he adored me! See
how green it looks off to the south," she hastened to add, brushing her
hand across her eyes.

An hour after dinner, as Sir Bryan still labored at that contumacious
grave, his hostess came and seated herself upon the rock, whence he, in
the first flush of triumph, had surveyed the dead bear. Sir Bryan could
not but feel flattered by this kind attention, and, being particularly
anxious to acquit himself creditably before so distinguished a
spectator, he naturally became more and more awkward at his work.

The young lady considerately divided her attention between the futile
efforts of the amateur grave-digger and the flippant behavior of a black
and white magpie, which was perched on the branch of a dead pine near
by, derisively jerking its long tail. She wondered whether the magpie
perhaps shared her astonishment, that an able-bodied son of Erin should
not take more naturally to a spade. She had supposed that, if there was
one weapon that an Irishman thoroughly understood, it was that which her
new acquaintance was struggling with. She cocked her head on one side,
with something of a magpie air, while a little crease appeared between
her eyebrows.

"Why don't you coax it a little more?" she suggested.

Sir Bryan straightened himself up and stood there, very red in the face,
trying to make out whether she was laughing at him. Then he laughed at
himself and said, "I believe you are right. I was getting vindictive."

After that he seemed to get on better.

They buried the bear just as the heavy shadow of the mountain fell
across their feet. By the time the last clod of earth had fallen upon
the grave, the mountain shadow had found its way a hundr