l for six months, as I heard
day before yesterday."

"I'm glad on't; yis, I'm glad on't," answered the Trapper; "and I hope
they'll keep him there till they've larnt him how to work. I've had my
eye on the knave for a good while, and the last time I seed him I told
him ef he fingered any more of my traps, I'd larn him the commandments
in a way he wouldn't forgit; and, as I had him in hand, and felt a
leetle like talkin' that mornin', I gin him a piece of my mind,
techin' his treatment of his wife and leetle uns, that he didn't
relish, I fancy, fur he winced and squirmed like a fox in a trap. Yis,
I'm glad they've got the knave, and I hope they'll keep him till he's
answered fur his misdoin'; but I'm sartinly afeered the poor woman be
havin' a hard time of it."

"I fear so, too," answered Wild Bill; "and if I can do anything to
help you in your plans, jest say the word, and I'm your man to back or
haul, jest as you want me."

And so it was arranged that they should go over the mountain together
on the morrow, and take the provisions and the gifts that were in the
box to the poor woman. And, after talking awhile of the happiness
their visit would give, the two men, happy in their thoughts, and with
their hearts full of that peace which passeth the understanding of the
selfish, laid themselves down to sleep; and over the two,--the one
drawing to the close of an honorable and well-spent life, the other
standing at the middle of a hitherto useless existence, but facing the
future with a noble resolution,--over the two, as they slept, the
angels of Christmas kept their watch.

II.

On the other side of the mountain stood the dismal hut; and the stars
of that blessed eve had shone down upon the lonely clearing in which
it stood, and the smooth white surface of the frozen and snow-covered
lake which lay in front of it, as brightly as they had shone on the
cabin of the Trapper; but no friendly step had made its trail in the
surrounding snow, and no blessed gift had been brought to its solitary
door.

[Illustration: "On the other side of the mountain stood the dismal
hut."]

As the evening wore on, the great clearing round about it remained
drearily void of sound or motion, and filled only with the white
stillness of the frosty, snow-lighted night. Once, indeed, a wolf
stole from underneath the dark balsams into the white silence, and,
running up a huge log that lay aslant a ledge of rocks, looked across
and ro