hey seemed to express in some indescribable
fashion so much of dull and patient pain, and they were so much at
variance with the free grandeur of the scene surrounding them. It was as
if a new element were introduced into the very air itself. Black Creek
was too young yet to have known hunger or actual want of any kind. The
wild things on the mountain sides had scarcely had time to learn to fear
the invaders of their haunts or understand that they were to be driven
backward. The warm wind was fragrant with the keen freshness of pine
and cedar. Mountain and forest and sky were stronger than the human
stragglers they closed around and shut out from the world.

"We don't see anything like that in Lancashire," said Langley. "That
kind of thing is new to us, my lad, isn't it?" with a light gesture
toward the mountain, in whose side the workers had burrowed.

"Ay, mester," raising troubled eyes to its grandeur--"iverything's new.
I feel aw lost some-toimes, an' feared-loike."

Langley lifted his hat from his brow to meet a little passing breeze,
and as it swept softly by he smiled in the enjoyment of its coolness.
"Afraid?" he said. "I don't understand that."

"I dunnot see into it mysen', mester. Happen it's th' bigness, an'
quiet, an' th' lonely look, an' happen it's summat wrong in mysen'. I've
lived in th' cool an' smoke an/ crowd an' work so long as it troubles me
in a manner to--to ha' to look so high."

"Does it?" said Langley, a few faint lines showing themselves on his
forehead. "That's a queer fancy. So high!" turning his glance upward
to where the tallest pine swayed its dark plume against the clear blue.
"Well, so it is. But you will get used to it in time," shaking off a
rather unpleasant sensation.

"Happen so, mester, in toime," was the simple answer; and then silence
fell upon them again.

They had not very far to go. The houses of the miners--rough shanties
hurriedly erected to supply immediate needs--were most of them
congregated together, or at most stood at short distances from each
other, the larger ones signifying the presence oL feminine members in
a family and perhaps two or three juvenile pioneers--the smaller ones
being occupied by younger miners, who lived in couples, or sometimes
even alone.

Before one of the larger shanties Langley reined in his horse. "A
Lancashire man lives here," he said, "and I am going to leave you with
him."

In answer to his summons a woman came to the door--a y