r heart would break. There were
times when Jim's nerves were shaken in his struggle against the unseen
foe, and he had spoken to her querulously, almost sharply. Yet in her
tears there was no reproach for him, rather for herself--the fear that she
might lose her influence over him, that she could not keep him close to
her heart, that he might drift away from her in the commonplaces and
monotony of work and domestic life. Everything so depended on her being to
him not only the one woman for whom he cared, but the woman without whom
he could care for nothing else.

"O, my God, give me his love," she had prayed. "Let me keep it yet a
little while. For his sake, not for my own, let me have the power to hold
his love. Make my mind always quiet, and let me blow neither hot nor cold.
Help me to keep my temper sweet and cheerful, so that he will find the
room empty where I am not, and his footsteps will quicken when he comes to
the door. Not for my sake, dear God, but for his, or my heart will
break--it will break unless Thou dost help me to hold him. O Lord, keep me
from tears; make my face happy that I may be goodly to his eyes, and
forgive the selfishness of a poor woman who has little, and would keep her
little and cherish it, for Christ's sake."

Twice had she poured out her heart so, in the agony of her fear that she
should lose favor in Jim's sight--she did not know how alluring she was,
in spite of the constant proofs offered her. She had had her will with all
who came her way, from Governor to Indian brave. Once, in a journey they
had made far north, soon after they came, she had stayed at a Hudson Bay
Company's post for some days, while there came news of restlessness among
the Indians, because of lack of food, and Jim had gone farther north to
steady the tribes, leaving her with the factor and his wife and a
half-breed servant.

While she and the factor's wife were alone in the yard of the post one
day, an Indian chief, Arrowhead, in war-paint and feathers, entered
suddenly, brandishing a long knife. He had been drinking, and there was
danger in his black eyes. With a sudden inspiration she came forward
quickly, nodded and smiled to him, and then pointed to a grindstone
standing in the corner of the yard. As she did so, she saw Indians
crowding into the gate armed with knives, guns, bows, and arrows. She
beckoned to Arrowhead, and he followed her to the grindstone. She poured
some water on the wheel and began to tu