e how proper the
kiddies'll grow." He turned and held out his hand to his benefactor.
"I'm 'bliged, Sunny; I sure can't never thank you enough."

Sunny disclaimed such a profusion of gratitude, but his dirty face
shone with good-natured satisfaction as he gripped the little man's
hand. And after discussing a few details and offering a few
suggestions, which, since the acceptance of his efforts, seemed to
trip off his tongue with an easy confidence which surprised even
himself, he took his departure. And he left the hut with the final
picture of Scipio, still studying his pages of regulations with the
earnestness of a divinity student studying his Bible, filling his
strongly imaginative brain. He felt good. He felt so good that he was
sorry there was nothing more to be done until Wild Bill's return.

CHAPTER XVII

JESSIE'S LETTER

Scipio's long day was almost over. The twins were in bed, and the
little man was lounging for a few idle moments in the doorway of his
hut. Just now an armistice in his conflict of thought was declared.
For the moment the exigencies of his immediate duties left him
floundering in the wilderness of his desolate heart at the mercy of
the pain of memory. All day the claims of his children had upborne
him. He had had little enough time to think of anything else, and
thus, with his peculiar sense of duty militating in his favor, he had
found strong support for the burden of his grief.

But now with thought and muscles relaxed, and the long night
stretching out its black wings before him, the gray shadow had risen
uppermost in his mind once more, and a weight of unutterable
loneliness and depression bore down his spirit.

His faded eyes were staring out at the dazzling reflections of the
setting sun upon the silvery crests of the distant mountain peaks. In
every direction upon the horizon stretched the wonderful fire of
sunset. Tongues of flame, steely, glowing, ruddy, shot up and athwart
the picture in ever-changing hues before his unseeing eyes. It was all
lost upon him. He stared mechanically, while his busy brain struggled
amongst a tangle of memories and thought pictures. The shadows of his
misfortune were hard besetting him.

Amidst his other troubles had come a fresh realization which filled
him with something like panic. He had been forced to purchase stores
for his household. To do so he had had to pay out the last of his
fourth ten-dollar bill. His exchequer was thus reduce