ws up here--they're
a good sort all right--but they're a rough, cursing lot. And of course,
a fellow has to curse too; and talk big just to keep his end up--chuck
a bluff, you know, or they'll think you're a molly. And I just love to
laugh, and act foolish; and I always have to hold myself in. Sometimes
I near bust!"

"I get like that myself," said Garth encouragingly.

There was something else on Charley's mind; but for a long time his
tongue sheered off at every approach to it. Finally, rolling over, he
hid a hot cheek on Garth's shoulder; and it came out with a rush.

"Say! I think she's the prettiest girl I ever laid eyes on!"

Garth's arm tightened about the boy's shoulders "She's the first white
girl I've seen in nearly two years," he floundered on; "and girls meant
nothing to me then. But I know darned well she's no ordinary white girl.
Isn't it wonderful, the different ways she looks; and all that her voice
seems to mean besides the words she says; and the way she walks and sits
down; and the way she lifts her arm? Isn't it a pretty arm? And the
finest thing about her is, she deals plain with you like a fellow;
no silly fuss and make-believe, and hanging-back about her!"

If Garth liked the boy before, he was prepared to love him for this.

"Did you mark how she called me Mr. Landrum?" continued Charley eagerly.
"She just did that to please me, I know. Didn't it sound funny? My chest
expanded two inches, I swear it did! Wasn't she kind to me? She had
no call to be so kind to me. It just makes me want to do something
terrific! Oh, if I could only do something for her!--wouldn't I
just be glad of the chance!"

He was silent for a while, tossing uneasily in his blanket. "Say,
there's something I want to tell you," he blurted out at last. "I'm
certainly good and ashamed of myself! There's a girl down the shore, her
name is Julia; she's not a bad-looker for a breed. She came around my
cabin sometimes. I was kind of lonesome, you see; and she was young,
like me--"

Garth let him see that he understood--and he did understand, both the
pitiful little tale, and the boy's reason for wishing to tell him.

"And to think of _her_ asleep in there now!" he continued remorsefully.
"It makes me sick and disgusted with myself. I'd give anything if it
hadn't happened! You bet I'll have no truck with them in future!"

"Every man makes mistakes, old boy," said Garth.

Charley, his mind relieved by confession, in the mids