d
woman, were to end their present journey, for the man had been there
before and knew what there to seek and what to find.

And there was a creaky turn of the wagon, a disembarkment, and an
unloading of various things. There was all the kit for a hunter of the
northern woods, and there were things in addition which indicated that
the hunter was not alone this time. There was a tent which had more
than ordinarily selected fixtures to it, and there were two real
steamer-chairs with backs, and there were four or five of what in the
country they call "comforts," or "comforters," great quilts, thickly
padded, generally covered with a design in white of stars or flowers on
beaming red, and there were rods and guns and numerous utensils for
plain cooking.

The wagon with its horses and its driver turned about and tumbled along
the roadway on its return, and there were left alone in the forest,
miles from civilization, miles from any human being save the driver
fast leaving them, the man and woman and the setter dog.

They did not appear depressed or alarmed by the circumstance.

The load from the wagon had been left in a heap. The man pulled from
it a camp-chair with a back, and opened it, and set it up on the grass
very near the edge of the glade, and announced that the throne was
ready for the Empress, not of Great Britain and India, nor of any other
part of the earth, but of the World; it was ready, and would she take
her seat?

He explained that, as, at present, there were some things she didn't
know anything about, she might as well sit in state. So the Empress,
who was not very big, sat in state.

The dog had pursued a rabbit, and was making a fool of himself. The
man selected from among the baggage left an ax, heavy and keen, and
attacked a young spruce tree near. It soon fell with a crash, and the
Empress leaped up, but to sit down again and look interestedly at what
was going on.

The man, the tree fallen, sheared off its wealth of fragrant tips, and
laid the mass of it by the side of the great tree. Then from out the
wagon's leavings he dragged a tent, a simple thing, and, setting up two
crotched sticks with a cross-pole, soon had it in its place. He
carried the mass of spruce-tips by armfuls to the tent and dumped them
within it until there was a great heap of soft, perfumed greenness
there. Then, over all, he spread a quilt or two, and announced, with
much form, to her majesty, that her couch was