t Alluna. It wasn't the style to marry squaws where we came
from, and neither of us ever thought about it much. We were happy with
each other, and we've been man and wife to each other just as truly as
if a priest had mumbled over us."

"But why didn't you marry her when I came? Surely you must have known
what it would mean to me. It was bad enough without that."

The old man hesitated. "I'll own I was wrong," he said, finally,
staring out into the sunshine with an odd expression. "It was
thoughtless and wrong, dead wrong; but I've loved you better than any
daughter was ever loved in this wide world, and I've worked and starved
and froze and saved, and so has Alluna, so that you might have
something to live on when I'm gone, and be different to us. It won't be
long now, I guess. I've given you the best schooling of any girl on the
river, and I'd have sent you out to a convent in the States, but I
couldn't let you go so far away--God! I loved you too much for that--I
couldn't do it, girl. I've tried, but you're all I've got, and I'm a
selfish man, I reckon."

"No, no! You're not," his daughter cried, impulsively. "You're
everything that's good and dear, but you've lived a different life from
other men and you see things differently. It was mean of me to talk as
I did." She put her arms around his neck and hugged him. "But I'm very
unhappy, dad."

"Don't you aim to tell what started this?" he said, gently, caressing
her with his great, hard hand as softly as a mother. But she shook her
head, and he continued, "I'll take the first boat down to the Mission
and marry your ma, if you want me to."

"That wouldn't do any good," said she. "We'd better leave things as
they are." Then she drew away and smiled at him bravely from the door.
"I'm a very bad to act this way. S'cuses?"

He nodded and she went out, but he gazed after her for a long minute,
then sighed.

"Poor little girl!"

Necia was in a restless mood, and, remembering that Alluna and the
children had gone berrying on the slopes behind the Indian village, she
turned her way thither. All at once a fear of seeing Meade Burrell came
upon her. She wanted to think this out, to find where she stood, before
he had word with her. She had been led to observe herself from a
strange angle, and must verify her vision, as it were. As yet she could
not fully understand. What if he had changed, now that he was alone,
and had had time to think? It would kill her if she saw a