h to feed consuming passion."

"Consuming passion," repeated the Girl. "David you never lie, and you
never exaggerate. Do you honestly mean that there is something----oh,
there is! I can see it! You are really suffering, and if I come to you,
and try my best to comfort you, you'll only call it baby affection that
you don't want. David, what am I going to do?"

"You are going to the cabin," said the Harvester, "and cook us a big
supper. I am dreadfully hungry. I'll be along presently. Don't worry,
Ruth, you are all right! That kiss was lovely. Tell me that you are not
angry with me."

Her eyes were wet as she smiled at him.

"If there is a bigger brute than a man anywhere on the footstool, I
should like to meet it," said the Harvester, "and see what it appears
like. Go along, honey; I'll be there as soon as I load."

He drove to the dry-house, washed and spread his reaping on the big
trays, fed the stock, dressed in the white clothing and entered the
kitchen. That the Girl had been crying was obvious, but he overlooked
it, helped with the work, and then they took a boat ride. When they
returned he proposed that she should select her favourite likeness of
her mother, and the next time he went to the city he would take it
with his, and order the enlargements he had planned. To save carrying
a lighted lamp into the closet he brought her little trunk to the
living-room, where she opened it and hunted the pictures. There were
several, and all of them were of a young, elegantly dressed woman of
great beauty. The Harvester studied them long.

"Who was she, Ruth?" he asked at last.

"I don't know, and I have no desire to learn."

"Can you explain how the girl here represented came to marry a brother
of Henry Jameson?"

"Yes. I was past twelve when my father came the last time, and I
remember him distinctly. If Uncle Henry were properly clothed, he is
not a bad man in appearance, unless he is very angry. He can use proper
language, if he chooses. My father was the best in him, refined and
intensified. He was much taller, very good looking, and he dressed and
spoke well. They were born and grew to manhood in the East, and came out
here at the same time. Where Uncle Henry is a trickster and a trader
in stock, my father went a step higher, and tricked and traded in
men----and women! Mother told me this much once. He saw her somewhere
and admired her. He learned who she was, went to her father's law office
and pretended he