u wouldn't understand if I tried
to tell you."

"Loving makes me onderstan' moch," she softly pleaded.

He was silent.

"Have you any sisters outside, 'Erbe't?" she gently persisted.

"No," he said.

"Your mot'er, she is not dead?"

"No."

"She mos' be ver' nice, I think."

"She's a lady!" he blurted out.

Rina nodded wisely. "I know what that is," she said. "A lady is a ver'
nice woman." Her voice dropped very low. "'Erbe't," she whispered, with
infinite, passionate desire in her voice--stroking his cheek, "will you
teach me to be a lady?"

He laughed. "You 'tend to your work about the place," he said, "and
don't bother your head over that."

Tears slowly welled up in Rina's eyes, and stole one after another down
her cheeks. "I do so ver' moch want to be a lady," she whispered, more
to herself than to him. He did not know she wept, she was so still.

By and by she raised her head, and shook the tears away. "To-morrow, I
will begin to fix things nice for you, 'Erbe't," she said with renewed,
soft tenderness.

He vented his hopeless, jeering chuckle. "Nice!" he echoed. "My God,
Rina! What are you going to begin on?"

"I show you!" she said eagerly. "I have a whole tanned buckskin my
father give to me when I go 'way; and my mot'er, she give silk, all
colours. I make seven, eight, maybe ten pairs of glove, with cuffs; and
work them with silk flowers! No woman can work so good with silk than
me! I work all the time there is light; and when all are done I get
forty dollar in trade at the store! And I buy cartridges and traps and
grub, and another skin to work. Not any more will you be poor, 'Erbe't!"

"Lord! How will we ever drag out the winter in this God-forsaken spot!"
he grumbled--unconsciously shifting the initiative to her shoulders.

Her arm tightened about him. "We will do fine!" she said eagerly. "We
will mak' moch money. There is no plentier place for fur; and we will
have it all! Me, I can set traps and snares as good as Michel Whitebear.
Maybe I will get a silver fox, or a black one. I know the fox! In the
spring we will have plenty good credit at the store. We can travel to
the Settlement then, and you will not be lonesome. There are many white
men. We could stay in the Settlement all summer; and I would cook meals
for the freighters and the travellers and mak' more money. I am a good
worker, 'Erbe't. Everybody say so!"

Mabyn partly roused himself. "That's not a bad idea," he said. "Under