sible purchase now. Hendrick looked somewhat aghast at such a
bridge-burning move. But a purchaser for his farm was found with
unexpected promptness, one who was not on farming bent and the way kept
opening up.

The wedding did not take place till another year, when Annette was
nineteen and Rolf twenty-one. And the home they moved to was not exactly
a castle, but much more complete and human.

This was the beginning of a new settlement. Given good land in plenty,
and all the rest is easy; neighbours came in increasing numbers; every
claim was taken up; Rolf and Hendrik saw themselves growing rich, and
at length the latter was thankful for the policy that he once thought so
rash, of securing all the land he could. Now it was his making, for in
later years his grown-up sons were thus provided for, and kept at home.

The falls of the river offered, as Rolf had foreseen, a noble chance for
power. Very early he had started a store and traded for fur. Now, with
the careful savings, he was able to build his sawmill; and about it grew
a village with a post-office that had Rolf's name on the signboard.

Quonab had come, of course, with Rolf, but he shunned the house, and the
more so as it grew in size. In a remote and sheltered place he built a
wigwam of his own.

Skookum was divided in his allegiance, but he solved the puzzle by
dividing his time between them. He did not change much, but he did
rise in a measure to the fundamental zoological fact that hens are not
partridges; and so acquired a haughty toleration of the cackle-party
throng that assembled in the morning at Annette's call. Yes, he made
even another step of progress, for on one occasion he valiantly routed
the unenlightened dog of a neighbour, a "cur of low degree," whose ideas
of ornithology were as crude as his own had been in the beginning.

All of which was greatly to his credit, for he found it hard to learn
now; he was no longer young, and before he had seen eight springs
dissolve the snow, he was called to the Land of Happy Hunting, where the
porcupine is not, but where hens abound on every side, and there is no
man near to meddle with his joy.

Yet, when he died, he lived. His memory was kept ever green, for Skookum
Number 2 was there to fill his room, and he gave place to Skookum 3, and
so they keep their line on to this very day.

Quonab Goes Home

The public has a kind of crawlin' common-sense, that is always right and
fair in the end, on