yesterday. This surely will be a rich and thickly settled country some day."
"But it is all Indian country, my dear. I wish you would talk about something else."
They returned to the camp in silence.
"I wish the girls were as tractable as you are, Annie," he said an hour later, after having had a heated dispute with his daughters over some trifling disagreement. "They are as headstrong as mules."
'* Being girls, they take after you, John," replied his wife, with a smile. "I 'm afraid their husbands won't find them as tractable as I have been."
"Bring on more of your flapjacks and bacon. Miss Mary," cried Scotty, as Mary poised a big pile of the steaming cakes over the heads of the hungry men who knelt at the mess-boxes.
"You seem to be regaining your lost appetite," exclaimed Sawed-off. "Have you and the widder cried quits?"
"That's our business," was the curt reply.
It was late when Mary sought her mother's couch for a brief visit that night. She was weeping silently, and her mother caressed her tenderly. "I know your heart is troubled, darling," said Mrs. Ranger," but do not be discouraged. Be of good cheer. Every cloud has a silver lining." And Mary's heart was comforted, though her reason could not tell her why.
