a bow
and arrow, a shirt-collar, and a pair of spurs?" asked Hal.
The roar of laughter that greeted this query made Jean fairly frantic. "You're worse than a lot of savages yourselves," she cried. "If I had my way, I'd go back to that lodge in the wilderness and stay there!"
Jean climbed into the wagon, buried her face in her hands, and abandoned herself to a deep, absorbing reverie. " Oh, mother dear," she said softly, "if you could speak, you would sympathize with me, I am sure. If I only had your love and sympathy, I wouldn't care what anybody else might think or say,—not even daddie. A new light and a new life have come into my soul. Though a cruel fate may separate us through this life, we shall always be one. But God made us for each other, and we shall surely meet again."
There was no longer any game to be had for the shooting; the little extra food the company could purchase from the Indians, or from the few white borderers at infrequent trading-posts, was held at almost prohibitive prices. Dead cattle continued to abound at the roadside, filling the air with an intolerable stench through every hour of the day and night. No camping-spot could be found where the surroundings were not thus polluted. Captain Ranger's teams were giving out from sheer exhaustion, induced by starvation rather than overwork, and two or more of his weaker oxen were dying daily.
"I'll break the horrible monotony of this diary," said Jean at last, "or I'll die trying." And for many days her jottings were confined to minute, and sometimes glowing, descriptions of snow-capped mountains, bald hills, tree-studded lesser heights, and vast and desolate wastes of sand and sage and rocks. Sterile valleys, verdant banks of little rivers, mighty streams, and running brooks received attention, in their turn, from her pen, the whole
