ven lay down on the floor to laugh, and rolled about
until his head lay among the folds of satin. Then he sat up, and
taking the material between his fingers felt of it, while the big man
looked down on him, gravely discomfited.

"And what did you bring for Madam Manovska?"

"Black, man, black. I'm no fool, I tell you. I know what's discreet
for an elderly lady." Then they gravely and laboriously folded
together the yards of gorgeous satin. "And I'd have been glad of your
measure to get you the suit of clothes you're needing. Lacking it, I
got one for myself. But for me they're a bit too small. You'll maybe
turn tailor and cut them still smaller for yourself. Take them, and if
they're no fit, you'll laugh out of the other corner of your mouth."
The two men stood a moment sheepishly eying each other, while Harry
held the clothes awkwardly in his hands.

"I--I--did need them." He choked a bit, and then laughed again.

"So did I need them--yours and mine, too." Larry held up another suit,
"See here. Mine are darker, to keep you from thinking them yours. And
here are the buckskins for hunting. I used to make them for myself,
but they had these for sale, and I was by way of spending money, so I
bought them. Now, with the blouses the women have made for you, we're
decent."

All at once it dawned on Harry what a journey the big man had made,
and he fairly shouted, "Larry Kildene, where have you been?"

"I rode like the very devil for three days. When once I was started, I
was crazed to go--and see--Then I reached the end of the road from the
coast this way. Did you know they're building the road from both ways
at once? I didn't, for I never went down to get news of the cities,
and they might have put the whole thing through without my even
knowing of it, if you hadn't tumbled in on me and told me of it.

"It stirred me up a bit. I left my horse in charge of one I thought I
might trust, and then took a train and rode over the new rails clean
through to San Francisco, and there I groveled around a day or two,
taking in the ways of men. They're doing big things. Now that the two
oceans are to be united by iron rails, great changes will come like
the wind,--the Lord knows when they will end! Now, the women will be
wanting us to eat, I'm thinking, and I'm not ready--but eat we must
when the hour comes, and we've done nothing this whole morning but
stand here and talk."

Thus Larry grumbled as they tramped down to the cabin