prepared for her, and
that she could sit in the front of the tent if she wished.

And he cut and put in place two more forked stakes, with a cross-bar,
and hung a kettle and built a fire beneath, and brought water and got
out a frying-pan and bread and prepared for supper. All articles not
demanded for immediate use were stowed away just back of the tent.
"And," he remarked, "there you are."

The Empress rose from her camp-chair and investigated.

"Are we to sleep in the tent, Grant?"

"Yes."

"What will we do if it rains?"

"Stay in the tent."

"But we'll get wet, won't we?"

"No; we'll be upon the spruce-tops; the water will run under us."

"Aren't there animals in the wood?"

"Yes."

"What will you do if they come about?"

"I think I'll kiss you."

The Empress of the World did not seem to fully enter into the spirit of
his carelessness.

She had her imaginings, after all. She knew that she was all right,
somehow, yet she did not quite comprehend. But she knew her royalty.

She rose and went to the entrance of the tent, and stepped in daintily,
and sat down in another chair which had been placed there for her
reception, and then inhaled all the sweetness of the spruce-tips, and
pitched herself down upon the quilts, and curled herself up there for a
moment or two, and then rose and came out again into the open, where
her husband stood watching her.

"Do you like the woods, dear?" he said.

"Don't you see?"

He said nothing, but led her majesty to a seat for a time, while he got
ready for the evening meal--of food from the town for this first
time--and then, in a courtier's way, of course, suggested, that she aid
him.

They cooked and ate the strips of bacon with the soft stale bread he
had brought, and drank the tea, and the shadows of the trees lengthened
across the glade, and the chestnut-hued setter came back to camp and
was gravely reprimanded by his master, and it soon became night, and
time passed, and the fire flashed against the greenery strangely, and
the man took the woman by the hand and led her to the entrance to the
tent, and said:

"We must rise early."

She entered the tent, and not long later he entered, also, or thought
to do so. He lifted the flap, which he had let down, and looked inside.

She lay there upon the cushioned spruce-tips, and, as he raised the
white curtain, the moonlight streamed in upon her.

She looked up at him, and smiled.

The loving face of h