out that night she spent there with the
dead, in the midst of the wrecked and plundered train, but when a number
of border men, alarmed about the emigrants, pushed on the next day to
save them if possible, what do you suppose they found her doing?"

"I can't guess."

"She had got a spade somewhere from one of the wagons, and, little as
she was, she was trying to bury her own dead. She was so busy that she
didn't see them ride up, and William Plummer, their leader--he was a
young man then--actually shed tears, so they say. Well, these men
finished the burial, and Mr. Plummer put Sylvia on his horse before him
and rode away. He adopted the little thing as his daughter. He said she
was the bravest creature he had ever seen, and, as he was not likely to
have any real daughter, she should take a place that ought to be filled.

"Were the Utes who did this massacre punished?"

"No one knows; the soldiers killed a number of them in battle, but
whether the slain were those who ambushed the train is not decided in
border history."

"I think I understand the rest of the story of Mr. Plummer and Miss
Morgan," said Harley.

"Yes, it is not hard to guess. Mr. Grayson and her other relatives
farther East did not hear of her rescue until long afterwards; they
supposed her dead--but no one could have cared for her better than Mr.
Plummer. He kept her first at his mining-hut in the mountains, but after
two or three years he took her into town to Boise; he put her in the
care of a woman there and sent her to school. He loved her already like
a real daughter. She was just the kind to appeal to him, so brave and so
fond of the wild life. They say that at first she refused to stay in
Boise. She ran away and tried to go on foot to him away up in the
mountains, where the mining-camp was. When he heard of it, they say he
laughed, and I suspect that he swore an oath or two--he lived among
rough men you know--but if he did, they were swear words of admiration;
he said it was just like her independence and pluck. But he made her
stay in Boise."

"He knew what was right and what was due both him and her, because now
he was becoming a great man in the Northwest. He rose to power in both
financial and public life, and his daughter must be equal to her
fortune. But he spoiled her, you can see that, and how could he help
it?"

"She was fifteen before we heard that she was alive, and then Mr.
Grayson and her other relatives wanted to take her