udacious but wonderfully pretty
face; "and supposing he IS my uncle, that ain't any cause for their
bedevilin' my poor old cousins Hiram and Sophy thar!" For all the
indignation of her words, her little white teeth flashed mischievously
in the dancing light, as if she rather enjoyed the embarrassment of
her audience, not excluding her own relatives. Evidently cousin Sophy
thought so too.

"It's all very well for you to laugh, Flo, you limb!" she retorted
querulously, yet with an admiring glance at the girl, "for ye know thar
ain't a man dare touch ye even with a word; but it's mighty hard on me
and Hiram, all the same."

"Never you mind, Sophy dear," said the girl, placing her hand half
affectionately, half humorously on the old woman's shoulder; "mebbe
I won't always be a discredit and a bother to you. Jest you hold
your hosses, and wait until uncle Harry 'holds up' the next Pioneer
Coach,"--the dancing devil in her eyes glanced as if accidentally on
the young expressman,--"and he'll make a big enough pile to send me to
Europe, and you'll be quit o' me."

The embarrassment, suspiciousness, and uneasiness of the coach party
here found relief in a half hysteric explosion of laughter, in which
even the dogged Hiram and Sophy joined. It seemed as impossible to
withstand the girl's invincible audacity as her beauty. She was quick to
perceive her advantage, and, with a responsive laugh and a picturesque
gesture of invitation, said:--

"Now that's all settled, ye'd better waltz in and have your whiskey and
coffee afore the stage starts. Ye kin comfort yourselves that it ain't
stolen or pizoned, even if it is served up to ye by Snapshot Harry's
niece!" With another easy gesture she swung the demijohn over her arm,
and, offering a tin cup to each of the men, filled them in turn.

The ice thus broken, or perhaps thus perilously skated over, the
passengers were as profuse in their thanks and apologies as they had
been constrained and artificial before. Heckshill and Frenshaw vied with
each other for a glance from the audacious Flo. If their compliments
partook of an extravagance that was at times ironical, the girl was
evidently not deceived by it, but replied in kind. Only the expressman
who seemed to have fallen under the spell of her audacious glances, was
uneasy at the license of the others, yet himself dumb towards her. The
lady discreetly drew nearer to the fire, the old woman, and her coffee;
Hiram subsided into his