rom
spendin' his dust, he sees the crucifix same as always, and he says,
'Didn't I tell yu' to take that down?' 'You did,' says Willomene,
lookin' at him very quiet. And he quit.

"And Honey Wiggin says to him, 'Hank, leave her alone.' And Hank, bein'
all trembly from spreein' in town, he says, 'You're all agin me!' like
as if he were a baby."

"I should think you would run him out of camp," said I.

"Well, we've studied over that some," McLean answered. "But what's to be
done with Willomene?"

I did not know. None of us seemed to know.

"The boys got together night before last," continued McLean, "and after
holdin' a unanimous meetin', we visited her and spoke to her about goin'
back to her home. She was slow in corrallin' our idea on account of her
bein' no English scholar. But when she did, after three of us takin'
their turn at puttin' the proposition to her, she would not accept
any of our dust. And though she started to thank us the handsomest she
knowed how, it seemed to grieve her, for she cried. So we thought we'd
better get out. She's tried to tell us the name of her home, but yu'
can't pronounce such outlandishness."

As we went down the mountains, we talked of other things, but always
came back to this; and we were turning it over still when the sun had
departed from the narrow cleft that we were following, and shone only
on the distant grassy tops which rose round us into an upper world of
light.

"We'll all soon have to move out of this camp, anyway," said McLean,
unstrapping his coat from his saddle and drawing it on. "It gets chill
now in the afternoons. D' yu' see the quakin'-asps all turned yello',
and the leaves keeps fallin' without no wind to blow 'em down? We're
liable to get snowed in on short notice in this mountain country. If the
water goes to freeze on us we'll have to quit workin'. There's camp."

We had rounded a corner, and once more sighted the cabin. I suppose it
may have been still half a mile away, upon the further side of a ravine
into which our little valley opened. But field-glasses were not needed
now to make out the cabin clearly, windows and door. Smoke rose from it;
for supper-time was nearing, and we stopped to survey the scene. As we
were looking, another hunter joined us, coming from the deep woods to
the edge of the pines where we were standing. This was Honey Wiggin. He
had killed a deer, and he surmised that all the boys would be back soon.
Others had met luck bes