e sun and burned candle fat and bacon
grease thereon; and in the unfenced yard, by the long-legged cache, made
a frost devil, which he was wont to make faces at and mock when the
mercury oozed down into the bulb. All this in play, of course. He said
it to himself that it was in play, and repeated it over and over to make
sure, unaware that madness is ever prone to express itself in
make-believe and play.

One midwinter day, Father Champreau, a Jesuit missionary, pulled into
Twenty Mile. Bonner fell upon him and dragged him into the post, and
clung to him and wept, until the priest wept with him from sheer
compassion. Then Bonner became madly hilarious and made lavish
entertainment, swearing valiantly that his guest should not depart. But
Father Champreau was pressing to Salt Water on urgent business for his
order, and pulled out next morning, with Bonner's blood threatened on his
head.

And the threat was in a fair way toward realization, when the Toyaats
returned from their long hunt to the winter camp. They had many furs,
and there was much trading and stir at Twenty Mile. Also, Jees Uck came
to buy beads and scarlet cloths and things, and Bonner began to find
himself again. He fought for a week against her. Then the end came one
night when she rose to leave. She had not forgotten her repulse, and the
pride that drove Spike O'Brien on to complete the North-West Passage by
land was her pride.

"I go now," she said; "good-night, Neil."

But he came up behind her. "Nay, it is not well," he said.

And as she turned her face toward his with a sudden joyful flash, he bent
forward, slowly and gravely, as it were a sacred thing, and kissed her on
the lips. The Toyaats had never taught her the meaning of a kiss upon
the lips, but she understood and was glad.

With the coming of Jees Uck, at once things brightened up. She was regal
in her happiness, a source of unending delight. The elemental workings
of her mind and her naive little ways made an immense sum of pleasurable
surprise to the over-civilized man that had stooped to catch her up. Not
alone was she solace to his loneliness, but her primitiveness rejuvenated
his jaded mind. It was as though, after long wandering, he had returned
to pillow his head in the lap of Mother Earth. In short, in Jees Uck he
found the youth of the world--the youth and the strength and the joy.

And to fill the full round of his need, and that they might not see
overmuch