she had come to him quietly, all of the pretty triumph and
playfulness gone, so that she stood like an angel in the soft glow of
the skies, much older than he had ever seen her before, and smiled at
him with a new and wonderful tenderness as she held out her hands to
him.

Not until she lay in his arms, looking up at him from under her long
lashes, did he dare to speak. And then,

"Is it true--what Father John has told me?" he asked.

"It is true," she whispered, and the silken lashes covered her eyes.

Her hand crept up to his face in the silence that followed, and rested
there; and with no desire to hear more than the three words she had
spoken he crushed his lips in the sweet coils of her hair, and
together, in that peace ands understanding, they listened to the gentle
whisperings of the night.

"Roger," she whispered at last.

"Yes, my _Newa_--"

"What does that mean, Roger?"

"It means--beloved--wife"

"Then I like it. But I shall like the others--one of the others--best."

"My--_wife_."

"That--that makes me happiest, Roger. Your _wife_. Oh, it is the sweetest
word in the world, that--and--"

He felt her warm face hide itself softly against his neck.

"Mother," he added.

"Yes--Mother," she repeated after him in an awed little voice. "Oh, I
have dreamed of Mothers since I have been old enough to dream, Roger!
My Mother--I never had one that I can remember, except in a dream. It
must be wonderful to--to--have a Mother, Roger."

"And yet, I think, not quite so wonderful as to BE a Mother, my Nada."

"Listen!" she whispered.

"It is the Leaf Bud singing."

"A love song?"

"Yes, in Cree."

She raised her head, so that her eyes were wide open, and looking at
him.

"Since we came up here all this wonderful world has been promising song
for me, Roger. And since you came back to me it has been
singing--singing--singing--every hour of night and day. Have you ever
dreamed of leaving it, Roger--of going down into that world of towns
and cities of which Father John has told me so much?"

"Would you like to go there, Nada?"

"Only to look upon it, and come away. I want to live in the forests,
where I found you. Always and always, Roger."

She raised herself on tip-toe, and kissed him.

"I want to live near Yellow Bird and Sun Cloud--please--Mister Jolly
Roger--I do. And Father John will go with us. And we'll be so happy
there all together, Yellow Bird and Sun Cloud and Giselle and I--oh!"