afing hurt, and Luther fought off the hands that
rubbed so tenderly.

Gradually Luther Hansen awoke to his surroundings. Delirium and reality
mixed helplessly for some moments. He remembered his struggles to reach
the Hunter house, but the gap in the train of his affairs made him suspect
that this was a phase of delirium and that he was in reality freezing. He
was stinging all over. He wanted to find out where he was, and tried to
get upon his feet.

"You are right here in my house, Luther," Elizabeth said, holding him on
his pillow.

Luther relaxed and lay looking at her for some time before he asked:

"How did I get here, Lizzie?"

"I don't know, Luther," she replied. "I heard you fall on the doorstep. I
never was so surprised. How did you come to be out--and without mittens
too?"

She removed the wet towel from one of his hands, and he drew it away with
a groan.

"I expect, Lizzie, it's frozen. You better rub it with snow."

The question of how he reached her house puzzled Luther throughout the
long afternoon and evening, while they listened to the roar of the wind
and talked of the unsheltered cattle in the many Kansas stalkfields.

"The only thing that kept our cattle from being out of doors was the fact
that Jake had to go to Iowa and John had to take him to town," Elizabeth
had said at one point.

"Has Jake left for good?" Luther asked hesitatingly. He knew John's
unpopularity with the men who worked for him and was a little afraid to
ask Elizabeth, who might be sensitive about it.

"No. Jake has lost his mother, but he'll come back for the spring seeding.
Jake's a good man; he and John seem to get along pretty well." It was
Elizabeth's turn to speak hesitatingly. She did not know how much Luther
knew of John's affairs with his men, nor what opinion Jake might have
expressed to Luther.

"Jake's a curious cub! He's been your dog, Lizzie, ever since that school
business. I've heard 'im tell it over twenty times."

"I wish we could find another like him," Elizabeth said wistfully. "John
isn't able to take care of all this stock unless he gets a man in
Colebyville to-day, and--and if he did, the man, as likely as not,
wouldn't stay more than a week or two."

Luther Hansen looked up eagerly.

"Lizzie, I've found th' very man for you folks. He'll stay too. He's a
fellow by th' name of Noland--workin' for Chamberlain, an' wants a job
right soon--got a lot of book-learnin'--just your kind."

"I'll ha