You with the voice so light and gay!
Yours is a heart that laughter cheers,
Mine is a heart that's full of tears.
Long have I loved, I love her yet;
Leave her I can, but not forget."]

A moment later they heard him expostulating with some one at the
water's edge, and then a child's treble rose on high.

"No, no! I'm goin', too! I'm goin', too-o-o-o--"

"Hey! John Gale!" called Poleon. "Come 'ere! Ba gosh! You better horry,
too! I can't hol' dis feller long."

When they appeared on the bank above him, he continued, "Look 'ere w'at
I fin' on my batteau," and held up the wriggling form of Johnny Gale.
"He's stow hisse'f away onder dem blanket. Sacre! He's bad feller, dis
man--don' pay for hees ticket at all; he's reg'lar toff mug."

"I want to go 'long!" yelled the incorrigible stow-away. He had brought
his gun with him, and this weapon, peeping forth from under Poleon's
blanket, had betrayed him. "I want to go 'long!" shrieked the little
man "I like you best of all!" At which Doret took him in his arms and
hugged him fiercely.

"Wal, I guess you don' t'ink 'bout dem beeg black bear at night, eh?"
But this only awoke a keener distress in the junior Gale.

"Oh, maybe de bear will get you, Poleon! Let me go long, and I'll keep
dem off. Two men is better dan one--please, Poleon!"

It took the efforts of Necia and the trader combined to tear the lad
from the Frenchman, and even then the foul deed was accomplished only
at the cost of such wild acclaim and evidence of undying sorrow that
little Molly came hurrying from the house, her round face stained and
tearful, her mouth an inverted crescent. She had gone to the lame puppy
for comfort, and now strangled him absent-mindedly in her arms,
clutching him to her breast so tightly that his tongue lolled out and
his three legs protruded stiffly, pawing an aimless pantomime. When
Johnny found that no hope remained, he quelled his demonstrations of
emotion and, as befitted a stout-hearted gentleman of the woods, bore a
final present to his friend. He took the little air-gun and gave it
into Poleon's hands against that black night when the bears would come,
and no man ever made a greater sacrifice. Doret picked him up by the
elbows and kissed him again and again, then set him down gently, at
which Molly scrambled forward, and without word or presentation speech
gave him her heart's first treasure. She held out t