r, tender and indulgent.

Bringing her to the only home he had to offer, he had made all
possible provision for her comfort and happiness. The most recent
books were sent to her, and the latest music found its way into the
wilderness for her amusement. Himself a well-educated man, Ralph
Darrell devoted his abundant leisure to her instruction, and to the
study of her tastes. Only two of the girl's expressed wishes were left
ungratified, and both of these he had promised to grant when she
should be eighteen years of age.

One of them was that they might return to the home of her childhood.
To this her father's unvarying answer was that business and a regard
for her future welfare compelled him to remain where they were until
the expiration of a certain time. When it should be elapsed, he
promised that she should lead him to any part of the world she chose.
Cheered by this promise, she planned many an imaginary journey to
foreign lands, and many a long hour did Mary and her father beguile in
arranging the details of these delightful wanderings.

Her other wish was for a companion of her own age; but this was so
decidedly denied that she knew it would be useless to express it again
after the first time.

"It would mean ruin, absolute ruin and beggary for us both," said Mr.
Darrell, "if I were to allow a single stranger, young or old, of even
ordinary intelligence, to visit this place. From the time you are
eighteen years of age you shall have plenty of friends of your own
choosing; but until that date, dear, you must be content with only the
society of your old dad."

So Mary Darrell studied, sang, read, rode, and thought the fanciful
thoughts of girlhood alone, but always with impatient longings for the
coming of the magic hour that should set her free. And yet she was not
wholly alone, for her father would at any time neglect everything else
to give her pleasure, while she also had both "Sandy," her stag-hound,
and "Fuzz," her pony, for devoted companions.

She was allowed to ride when and where she pleased, with only these
attendants, on two conditions. One was that she should never visit,
nor even go near, a human residence; and the other that, when on such
excursions, she should, for greater safety, dress as a boy. When she
was thus costumed her father was very apt to call her by her middle
name, which was Heaton; and so it was generally supposed by the few
miners who caught glimpses of her that the old man had