"Perhaps a month or six weeks. Could you pull through the winter on eggs
and dried apples--and candles?"

"If necessary."

He laughed. "I believe you could! You are an angel, a Spartan, and a
sport. Your nature is simply an extravagant profusion of the highest
human attributes. And the worst of it is, you look it. You are too
beautiful--in a superior, overtopping way. You scare me."

She pushed back her chair. "You have said all that before."

"You remember the frog who was in love with the moon?"

She regarded him from the corners of her eyes, but made no reply.

"He used to sit in his puddle and adore her. One pleasant evening she
came down out of the sky and kissed him."

"That was very good of her. And then what happened?"

"It killed him."

Elinor pushed back her chair, arose from the table and stood beside him.
"Do you think it was a happy death?"

"Of course it was! Lucky devil!"

"Well, close your eyes and dream that I am the moon looking down at
you."

With face upturned, just enough to make it easier for the moon, Pats
closed his eyes. In serene anticipation he awaited the delectable
contact that never failed to send a thrill of pleasure through all his
being. But the tranquil, beatific smile changed swiftly to a very
different expression as he felt against his lips--a slice of dried
apple. And the cold moon stepped back beyond his reach, and laughed.

* * * * *

When the table had been cleared and the dishes washed Pats, Elinor, and
Solomon went out behind the house and stood near the edge of the cliff.
Eastward, across the bay, Pats pointed to a distant headland running out
into the Gulf, the highest land in sight.

"As near as I can guess that hill is about twenty miles away. If there
is nothing between to hinder I can walk it in a day. Now, from that
highest point I can probably get a view for many miles. Who knows what
lies beyond? There may be a settlement very near. In that case we are
saved."

"And suppose there is none?"

"Then I return, and we are no worse off than we were before."

Elinor stood beside him, regarding the distant promontory with
thoughtful eyes. He put his arm around her waist. "You see the sense of
it, don't you?"

"Yes, I suppose so. How long would you be gone?"

"Not over three days."

"That is, three days and two nights."

"Yes."

"And if the ground is very rough, and there are swamps, and divers
things, i