n to climb, and he did not reach the agency till long after Curtis
had gone to bed, but he found his anxious mother waiting for him,
together with the captain of police, who took the bag of mail to the
office. As he drove into the big corral out of the wind the boy said, in
his quaint English: "Me no like 'um blizzard. Fleeze ears like buffalo
horn."

Curtis came to the office next morning with a heavy heart. He knew how
hard the bitter cold pressed upon his helpless wards, and suffered
acutely for sympathy. He spoke to all of those he met with unusual
tenderness, and asked minutely after the children, to be sure that none
were ill or hungry.

As Wilson, his clerk, laid the big package of letters and papers on his
table, the pale-blue, square envelope which bore Elsie's handwriting was
ostentatiously balanced on top. Wilson, the lovelorn clerk, sighed to
think he had no such missive in his mail that gloomy morning. Looking
in, a half-hour later, he found Curtis writing busily in answer to that
letter, all the rest of his mail being untouched. "I thought so," said
he; "I'd neglect any business for a sweet little envelope like that,"
and he sighed again.

Curtis had opened the letter eagerly, but with no expectation of
comfort. As he read he forgot the storm outside. A warm glow crept into
his blood. Lover-like, he got from the letter a great deal more than
Elsie had intended to say. He seized his pen to reply at once--just a
few lines to set her mind at rest; but his thought ran on so fast, so
full of energy, that his writing became all but illegible:

"DEAR MISS BRISBANE,--You have given me a great pleasure by
your letter, and I am replying at once to assure you that I did
not lay your words up against you, because I felt you did not
fully understand the situation. Your letter gives me courage to
say that I think you are unjust in your attitude towards these
primitive races--and I also hope that as fuller understanding
comes you will change your views.

"Here they are, fenced in on the poorest part of this bleak
reservation, on the cold slope of the range, exposed to the
heat and drought of summer and the storms of winter. This
morning, for example, the wind is rushing up the converging
walls of this valley--which opens out to the northeast, you
remember--and the cold is intense. I am just sending out
messengers to see that no children are freez