whose young are in trouble so i turned to her and said man has been of women dealt unfair shall i give him of our a portion i saw her eyes light as with quick pleasure but she looked long at the man and at me and her mouth drew close and hard and she said no the salt water is afar off and death lies in wait better it is that he take this stranger man and let my man pass so the man went away in the silence toward that night she wept never had i seen her weep before nor was it the smoke of the fire for the wood was dry wood so i at her sorrow and thought her woman s heart had grown soft at the darkness of the trail and the pain life is a strange thing much have i thought on it and pondered long yet daily the strangeness of it grows not less but more why this longing for life it is a game which no man wins to live is to toil hard and to suffer sore till old age heavily upon us and we throw down our hands on the cold ashes of dead fires it is hard to live in pain the babe his first breath of women i in pain the old man his last and all his days are full of trouble and sorrow yet he goes down to the open arms of death stumbling falling with head turned backward fighting to the last and death is kind it is only life and the things of life that hurt yet we love life and we hate death it is very strange we spoke little and i in the days which came in the night we lay in the snow like dead people and in the morning we went on our way walking like dead people and all things were dead there were no no no � nothing the river made no sound beneath its white robes the sap was frozen in the forest and it became cold as now and in the night the stars drew near and large and leaped and danced and in the day the sun dogs us till we saw many and all the air flashed and sparkled and the snow was diamond dust and there was no heat no sound only the bitter cold and the silence as i say we walked like dead people as in a dream and we of women kept no count of time only our faces were set to salt water our souls strained for salt water and our feet carried us toward salt water we by the and knew it not our eyes looked upon the white horse but we saw it not our feet trod the of the but they felt it not we felt nothing and we fell often by the way but we fell always with our faces toward salt water our last went and we had shared fair and i but she fell more often and at crossing her strength left her and in the morning we lay beneath the one robe and did not the trail it was in my mind to there and meet death hand in hand with for i had grown old and had learned the love of woman also it was eighty miles to mission and the great far above timber line reared his storm swept head between but spoke to me low with my ear against her lips that i might hear and now because she reed not fear my anger she spoke her heart and of women cold me of her love and of many things which i did not understand and she said you are my man and i have been a good woman to you and in all the days i have made your fire and cooked your food and fed your dogs and lifted or broken trail i have not complained nor did i say that there was more warmth in the lodge of my father or that there was more on the when you have spoken i have listened when you have ordered i have obeyed is it not so and i said ay it is so and she said when first you came to the nor looked upon me but bought me as a man a dog and took me away my heart was hard against you and filled with bitterness and fear but that was long ago for you were kind to me as a good man is kind to his dog your heart was cold and there was no room for me yet you dealt me fair and your ways were just and i was with you when you did bold o of women deeds and led great and i measured you against the men of other and i saw you stood among them full of honor and your word was wise your tongue true and i grew proud of you till it came that you filled all my heart and all my thought was of you you were as the sun when its golden trail runs in a circle and never leaves the sky and whatever way i cast my eyes i beheld the sun but your heart was ever cold and there was no room and i said it is so it was cold and there was no room but that is past now my heart is like the in the spring when the sun has come back there is a great and a bending a sound of running waters and a and of green things and there is of and songs of and great music for the winter is broken and i have learned the love of woman she smiled and moved for me to draw her closer and she said i am glad after that she lay of women quiet for a long 