, leaning over the bunk, caressing the
dog; possibly he was crying. Her face lighted with a light that was high
and beautiful and half divine.

She turned, held the gold out to Poker Jake.

"No!"

"And then is it mine? all mine, to do as I like with it?"

"Yours, lady. Yours to take and go home and git from out of the canon,
out of this hole in the ground, and live like a Christian, as yer are,
and not live here like a wild beast in a carawan."

The man stood up as he spoke, and was proud of his speech, and the men
cheered and cheered and said:

"Bully for Poker Jake!"

Then the little Widow turned again, went back to the boy leaning over
the bull-dog, thrust it in his arms as he rose to look at her, and
turning to the men was gone.

They looked at each other in amazement and disgust. They could hardly
believe their senses.

"How dare she do it before us all?" said one.

CHAPTER XVI.

WAS THE WOMAN INSANE?

As the boy left the saloon one of the men said, "Now I guess the little
cuss will git up and dust." And that thought was their consolation. Not
that they hated this boy, but they felt that he was out of place in the
cabin of their "Widder."

Other, and equally ingenious ways, all quite as innocent, had been used
by the miners to force their gifts upon the one sweet woman, the patron
saint of the camp, until she might have been almost as wealthy as the
good old saint who lies mouldering before the eyes of all who care to
pay a five-franc note, in the mighty cathedral at Milan. But now they
would do no more.

Nuggets, and bars, and scales, and specimens, and dust in her home in
profusion. And why did the little woman remain in the wilderness? Why
did not this little woman rise up some morning, smile a good-bye to
those about her, leave the business to Washee-Washee, take her great
big bodyguard, mount a mule, turn his head up the corkscrew trail toward
the clouds, toward the snow, and find a milder clime?

Who could she have been, this half hermit, this little missionary who
had in one winter half civilized, almost christianized, a thousand
savage men without preaching a single sermon?

Possibly she knew how rare manhood is where men are thickest, how scarce
men are where they stand heaped and huddled up together in millions, and
was content to remain with these rough fellows, doing good, receiving
their homage.

Possibly there was a point of honor in thus remaining with these men of
the