, straight
from her warm heart, and she was leaning forward in the intensity of her
sympathy and excitement.

"Which, Madame? Why, M'sieu the factor, surely."

And Maren looked into the red heart of the fire.

With a sudden impulse this daughter of Erin dropped her plank in the
ashes, and coming swiftly forward, fell on her knees with her arms
around the girl's neck.

"Saints be praised!" she cried, weeping openly. "Saints be praised, ye
have him safe! An' there can nothin' ha'arm ye now, with us goin' yer
ways so close! An' there'll be a weddin' av coorse whin th' poor lad
comes round! F'r a flip av ale I'd command Terence to turn aside an'
go triumphant entry-in' to this blessid fort av yours and witness th'
ceremonies!"

Maren smiled sadly and laid her hand on the black head tucked into her
neck. It was a caress, that touch, tender and infinitely sweet, for with
the quick heart of her she knew the little woman to be of the gold of
earth, and she was conscious of a longing to keep her near, who was so
soon to sail "into the risin' sun" and who had been so short a time her
friend.

Friend, assuredly, for friendship was not a thing of time, but hearts
alike, and they had turned together with the first look.

So they sat a while, these two from the ends of the earth, and the warm
Irish heart cleared itself of tears, like April weather, to come up
laughing in another moment.

"An' to think ye niver told us your name, asthore!" she said, wiping her
eyes; "nor yer home place! Were ye raised in this post av haythins?"

"Maren Le Moyne of Grand Portage. My father--was a smith."

"Of Grand Portage! An' ye are so far inland! I am Sheila O'Halloran,
av all Oirland, an' wife to Terence th' same,--yer fri'nd for always,
asthore, f'r niver will I be forgettin' this time!"

She turned to the fair woman, smiling and alight.

"Did ye iver dhrame av such romance, my dear?" she asked. "An' isn't it
just wonderful to find a real live heroine in th' wilderness?"

The woman was toying with a bunch of grass, winding the slim green
blades around her pale fingers, and she looked back with peculiar
straightness.

"It is all very wonderful, Sheila, and commands admiration, of course;
but, for my part, a strange woman alone on the rivers with a party of
men must have something beside her own word to vouch for her before
I should take her in with open arms. You are too ready to believe
anything. How do you know this venturess is