l, now, he ain't likely to. I reckon
I saw that Norsk go by here that very day, an' I says to Cap'n, says I,
'If that feller don't reach home inside an hour, he'll go through
heaven a-gittin' home,' says I to the Cap'n."

"Well, now," said Anson, stopping the old woman's garrulous flow, "I've
got to be off f'r Summit, but I wish you'd jest look after this little
one here till we git back. It's purty hard weather f'r her to be out,
an' I don't think she ought to."

"Yaas; leave her, o' course. She'll enjoy playin' with the young uns. I
reckon y' did all y' could for that woman. Y' can't burry her now; the
ground's like linkum-vity."

But as Anson turned to leave, the little creature sprang up with a
torrent of wild words, catching him by the coat, and pleading
strenuously to go with him. Her accent was unmistakable.

"You wan' to go with Ans?" he inquired, looking down into the little
tearful face with a strange stirring in his bachelor heart. "I believe
on my soul she does."

"Sure's y're born!" replied Mrs. Burdon. "She'd rather go with you than
to stay an' fool with the young uns; that's what she's tryin' to say."

"Do y' wan' to go?" asked Ans again, opening his arms. She sprang
toward him, raising her eager little hands as high as she could, and
when he lifted her she twined her arms around his neck.

"Poor little critter! she ain't got no pap ner mam now," the old woman
explained to the ring of children, who still stared silently at the
stranger almost without moving.

"Ain't he her pa-a-p?" drawled one of the older girls, sticking a
finger at Anson.

"He is now," laughed Ans, and that settled the question over which he
had been pondering for days. It meant that as long as she wanted to
stay she should be his Flaxen and he would be her "pap." "And you can
be Uncle Bert, hey?" he said to Bert.

"Good enough," said Bert.

CHAPTER V.

FLAXEN BECOMES INDISPENSABLE TO THE TWO OLD BACHELORS.

They never found any living relative, and only late in the spring was
the fate of the poor father revealed. He and his cattle were found side
by side in a deep swale, where they had foundered in the night and
tempest.

As for little Flaxen, she soon recovered her cheerfulness, with the
buoyancy natural to childhood, and learned to prattle in broken English
very fast. She developed a sturdy self-reliance that was surprising in
one so young, and long before spring came was indispensable to the two
"old bache