beat high as she followed the porter
inside, with Uncle Henry directing the taxicab driver and a second
porter how to dispose of the trunk for the night.

Nan had her bag in which were her night clothes, toilet articles, and
other necessities. The porter carried this for her and seated her on
a comfortable lounge at one side while Uncle Henry arranged about the
rooms.

To do honor to his pretty niece the lumberman engaged much better
quarters than he would have chosen for himself. When they went up to the
rooms Nan found a pretty little bath opening out of hers, and the maid
came and asked her if she could be of any help. The girl began to feel
quite "grown up." It was all very wonderful, and she loved Uncle Henry
for making things so pleasant for her.

She had to run to his door and tell him this before she undressed. He
had pulled off his boots and was tramping up and down the carpeted floor
in his thick woolen socks, humming to himself.

"Taking a constitutional, Nan," he declared. "Haven't had any exercise
for this big body of mine all day. Sitting in that car has made me as
cramped as a bear just crawling out of his den in the spring."

He did not tell her that had he been alone he would have gone out and
tramped the snowy streets for half the night. But he would not leave
her alone in the hotel. "No, sir," said Uncle Henry. "Robert would
never forgive me if anything happened to his honey-bird. And fire, or
something, might break out here while I was gone."

He said nothing like this to Nan, however, but kissed her good night and
told her she should always bid him good night in just that way as long
as she was at Pine Camp.

"For Kate and I have never had a little girl," said the big lumberman,
"and boys get over the kissing stage mighty early, I find. Kate and I
always did hanker for a girl."

"If you owned a really, truly daughter of your own, Uncle Henry, I
believe you'd spoil her to death!" cried Nan, the next morning, when she
came out of the fur shop to which he had taken her.

He had insisted that she was not dressed warmly enough for the woods. "We
see forty and forty-five below up there, sometimes," he said. "You think
this raw wind is cold; it is nothing to a black frost in the Big Woods.
Trees burst as if there were dynamite in 'em. You've never seen the
like.

"Of course the back of winter's about broken now. But we may have some
cold snaps yet. Anyhow, you look warmer than you did."

And