Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-12

now with one arm as easily as II she
| were no heavier than a stick Of wood.
Together they resumed their studies
devoting hours to them each day, and
through all that summer he taught her
to play upon his violin. The warm months
were a time Of idleness at Lac Balm, and
Jan made the most Of them in his teach
ing of Melissa. She learned to read the
books which he had used at Fort Church
i'll, and by midsummer she could read
those which he had used at York factory
At night they wrote letters to each other
and delivered them across the table in
the cabin. while Cummins looked on and
smoked. laughing happily at what they
read aloud to him.
One night. late enough in the season
for fire to be cracking merrily in the
stove, Jan was reading one Of these let
tiers. when Melissa cried:
stop. Jan-stop there.
Jan caught himself and he blushed
nightly when he read the next lines:
~ think you have beautiful eyes. I
love Them q"
What is it?" cried Cummins, interest
eddy. Read on. JAM"
''Dont!" commanded Melissa. springing
to her feet and running around the table.
II didn't mean you to read that!''
She snatched the paper from JAMS hand
and threw it into the fire.
JAMS blood filled with pleasure, and at
the bottom OF his next letter he wrote
back:
Il think you have beautiful hair. I
love it,
That winter Jan was appointed post
hunter, and this gave him much time at
home, for meat was plentiful along the
edge of the barrens. The two continued
at their books until they came to the end
Of what Jan knew in them. After that,
like searchers in strange places, they felt
their way onward, slowly and with eau
ton. During the next summer they Ia
in the little box in the corner Of the
cabin.
It was Melissa who now played most
on the violin. and Jan listened, his eyes
glowing proudly as he saw how cleverly
her little fingers danced over the strings
his face flushed with a joy that was
growing stronger in him every day. One
day she looked curiously into the F hole
of the instrument, and her pretty mouth
puckered itself in round, red "O'' OF as
the violin from her hands.
"Excusez-moi. ma belle Melisse." he
laughed at her in French. II am going
to play you something newt"
That same day he took the little cloth
covered roll from the violin and gave it
another hiding place.
It recalled to him the strange spirit
which had once moved him at Fort
Churchill. ana which had remained with
him for a time at Lac Balm. That spirit
was now gone, Turing him no longer.
Time had drawn a softening veil over
things that had passed. He was happy.
The wilderness became more beautiful
to him as Melissa grew older. Each sum-
mer increased his happiness: each sue
ceeding winter made 1t larger and more
complete. Every fiber Of his being sang
In joyful response as he watched Melissa
pass from childhood into young gfrlhood.
He marked every turn In her develop
ment. the slightest change in her trans
formation. as IL she had been a beautiful
flower.
He possessed none of the quick i'm
petuosity Of Jean de Gravois. Years gave
the silence of the north to his tongue.
and his exultation was quiet and deep in
his own heart. With an eagerness which
no one guessed he watched the growing
beauty of her hair. marked it's Frightening
luster when he saw 1t falling in thick
waves over her shoulders, and he knew
that at last It had come to be like the
woman's. The changing lights In her
eyes fascinated him, and he rejoiced again
when he saw that they were deepening
into the violet blue Of the bakneesh now-
ers that bloomed on the tops Of the
ridges.
To him Melissa was growing into every
thing that was beautiful. She was his
world. his life. and at Post Lac Balm
there was nothing to come between the
two. Jan noticed that in her thirteenth
year she could barely stand under his
outstretched arm. The next year she had
grown so tall that she could not stand
there at all. Very soon she would be a
woman!
Tho thought leaped from his heart and
he spoke It aloud. It was on the sirls
fifteenth birthday. They had come UP
to tho top Of tho ridge on which he had
fought the missionary. to gather Teo