FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184  
185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   >>  
here came a smile with the tears, and Jolly Roger--turning from Father John to find her thus--gathered her close in his arms, and Peter wagged his tail and went out into the sun-filled day, where he heard a red squirrel challenging him from a stub in the edge of the clearing. A little later he saw Nada and his master come out of the cabin, and walk hand in hand across the open into the sweet-smelling timber where Father John had been chopping with his axe. On a fresh-cut log Nada sat down, and McKay sat beside her, still holding her hand. Not once had he spoken in crossing the open, and it seemed as though little devils were holding his lips closed now. With her eyes looking down at the greening earth under their feet, Nada said, very softly, "Mister--Jolly Roger--are you glad?" "Yes," he said. "Glad that I am--your wife?" The word drew a great, sobbing breath from him, and looking up suddenly she saw that he was staring over the balsam-tops into the wonderful blue of the sky. "Your WIFE," she whispered, touching his shoulder gently with her lips. "Yes, I'm glad," he said. "So glad that I'm--afraid." "Then--if you are glad--please kiss me again." He stood up, and drew her to him, and held her face between his hands as he kissed her red lips; and after that he kissed her shining hair again and again, and when he let her go her eyes were a glory of happiness. "And you will never run away from me again?" she demanded, holding him at arm's length. "Never?" "Never!" "Then--I want nothing more in this life," she said, nestling against him again. "Only you, for ever and ever." Jolly Roger made no answer, but held her a long time in his arms, with the soft beating of her heart against him, and listened to the twitter and song of nesting and mating things about them. In this silence she lay content, until Peter--growing restless--started quietly into the golden depths of the forest. It was Pied-Bot's going, cautious and soft-footed, as if danger and menace might lurk just ahead of him, that brought another look into McKay's eyes as Nada's hand crept to his cheek, and rested there. "You love me--very much?" "More than life," he answered, and as he spoke he was watching Peter, questing the soft wind that came whispering from the south. Her finger touched his lips, gentle and sweet. "And wherever you go, I go--forever and always?" she questioned. "Yes, forever and always"--and his eye
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184  
185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   >>  



Top keywords:

holding

 

Father

 

forever

 

kissed

 

beating

 

twitter

 

listened

 

nesting

 
happiness
 

length


mating
 

demanded

 

answer

 
nestling
 

forest

 
answered
 
rested
 

watching

 

gentle

 

touched


questioned

 

finger

 
questing
 

whispering

 
brought
 

restless

 

growing

 

started

 
quietly
 

golden


content

 

silence

 

depths

 

menace

 

danger

 

footed

 

cautious

 

things

 
balsam
 
chopping

timber

 

smelling

 

crossing

 

spoken

 

master

 

gathered

 

wagged

 

turning

 

clearing

 

challenging