n
of her sex; on the shelf above him a loathsome collection of flies
and tarantulas in dull green bottles: a slab of ginger-bread for light
nocturnal refection, and her own pot of bear's grease. Perhaps it was
the piteous defencelessness of youthful sleep, perhaps it was some
lingering memory of her father's caress; but as she gazed at him with
troubled eyes, the juvenile reprobate slipped back into the baby-boy
that she had carried in her own childish arms such a short time ago,
when the maternal responsibility had descended with the dead mother's
ill-fitting dresses upon her lank girlish figure and scant virgin
breast--and her hand fell listlessly at her side.

The sleeper stirred slightly and awoke. At the same moment, by some
mysterious sympathy, a pair of beady bright eyes appeared in the bulk
of fur near his curls, the cat stretched herself, and even a vague
agitation was heard in the bottles on the shelf. Richelieu's blinking
eyes wandered from the candle to his sister, and then the guilty hand
was suddenly withdrawn under the bedclothes.

"No matter, dear," said Minty; "it's mar's, and you kin wear it when you
like, if you'll only ask for it."

Richelieu wondered if he was dreaming! This unexpected mildness--this
inexplicable tremor in his sister's voice: it must be some occult
influence of the night season on the sisterly mind, possibly akin to a
fear of ghosts! He made a mental note of it in view of future favors,
yet for the moment he felt embarrassedly gratified. "Ye ain't wantin'
anything, Minty," he said affectionately; "a pail o' cold water from the
far spring--no nothin'?" He made an ostentatious movement as if to
rise, yet sufficiently protracted to prevent any hasty acceptance of his
prodigal offer.

"No, dear," she said, still gazing at him with an absorbed look in her
dark eyes.

Richelieu felt a slight creepy sensation under that lonely far-off gaze.
"Your eyes look awful big at night, Minty," he said. He would have added
"and pretty," but she was his sister, and he had the lofty fraternal
conviction of his duty in repressing the inordinate vanity of the sex.
"Ye're sure ye ain't wantin' nothin'?"

"Not now, dear." She paused a moment, and then said deliberately: "But
you wouldn't mind turnin' out after sun-up and runnin' an errand for me
over to The Lookout?"

Richelieu's eyes sparkled so suddenly that even in her absorption
Minty noticed the change. "But ye're not goin' to tarry over ther