m?" asked Charley in concern. "I always thought he was
a pretty smart one. No!" he added suddenly. "I don't like him either.
He's coarse!"

Supper was an affair of joint contributions; Garth's jam for Charley's
bread. In the meantime Charley had surreptitiously swept up the chips;
and had then slipped away to the river bank, for a wash and a tidy-up.
He reappeared with his hair well "slicked," his tip-tilted nose as pink
as his shiny cheeks, and a smile that extended to the furthest confines
of his face. But he was distressed that he had no white collar to honour
the board; and his gratitude was silent and boundless, when Garth
produced one for him from his duffle-bag.

It was a jovial meal that followed; the spirit of youth presided; and
wisdom and grave speech were thrust under the table. Charley recovered
of his bashfulness so far that he could occasionally nerve himself to
look at Natalie. For all the boy's giddy jollity, his blue eyes had a
kind of stricken look when they rested on her face. But his appetite did
not suffer appreciably; and it did Garth's and Natalie's hearts good to
see the bread and jam disappear between Charley's business-like jaws.
Jam, they agreed, had surely never before been so successful in tickling
the human palate. "Just do without it for a couple of years and see for
yourself," Charley rejoined.

Afterward the cabin was further swept and garnished for Natalie's use;
and a heap of fragrant hay brought from the stable on which to spread
her blankets. The house was to be yielded up to her for the night. Garth
and Charley shared the little tent outside. Garth, with his simplicity,
and his air of quiet understanding, was above all one to win a boy's
confidence; and by bedtime they were as friendly as brothers--or perhaps
more like a very young father and his oldest son.

When they rolled up side by side in their blankets Charley seemed to
put off several years. He hunched closer to his bedfellow; and pressed
his shoulder warmly against Garth's.

"Are you sleepy?" he asked diffidently.

Garth's heart warmed to the act and the speech. "Why, no!" he said.
"Believe I'll have another smoke before dropping off. Fire away, old
boy!"

"Say, it's simply great to have somebody young to talk to," said poor
Charley. "Somebody that understands; and that you can let yourself go
with, and say whatever comes into your head to. Say, I never had such
a good time in all my life as to-night. All the fello