The Mena weekly star., 1917-10-18
.6ER7RAND ".
copxrlaht, tste. by LlttIe. Brown & co.

hairs invited restful lounging. The floor was overlaid with thick rugs which deadened her footballs. With no pretense of ornamental decoration. the room held an air of homely com fort.
 Come in here and lay off your things" Mrs. Howe beamed on her. If I'd "a known you were livin' 80 close we'd have been acquainted a week ago, though I ain't got rightly settled here myself. My land, these men are such clamsl I never knowed dll this mornin' there was any white woman at this end of the lake besides myself"
 She showed Stella into a bedroom. It boasted an enamel washstand with taps which yielded hot and cold water, neatly curtained windows and deep seated morris chair. Certainly Fyfes household accommodation was far su- perior to Charlie Benton's. Stella ex- pected the mans home to be rough and ready like himself and in a measure it was, but a comfortable sort of rough and readiness. She took off her hat and had critical survey of herself in mirror, after which she had just time to brush her hair before answering Mrs. Howe's call to "cup of tea"
 The cup of tea resolved itself into a well cooked and we'll served meal, with china and linen and other unexpected table accessories which agreeably sur prised her. Inevitably she made com parisons. somewhat tinctured with nat nral envy. If Charlie would fix his place with few such household lux uries life in their camp would be more nearly bearable despite the long hours of disagreeable work. As it was-well, the unrelieved discomforts were begin ming to warp her outlook on every thing.
 Fyfe maintained his habitual sparsity of words while they ate the food Mrs. Howe brought on tray hot from the cooks outlying domain. When they fin ished he rose, took up his hat and help ed himself to a handful of cigars from a box on the fireplace mantel
 'I guess you'll be able to put in the time, all right" he remarked. Make yourself at home. If you take a notion to read there's lot of books and mag azines fin my room. Mrs. Howe Il show you
 He walked out, Stella was conscious of a distinct relief when he was gone. She had somehow experienced recur- renee of that peculiar feeling of need ing to be on her guard as if there were some curious, latent antagonism be- tween them. She puzzled over that little.
 But she did not spend much time puzzling over Jack Fyfe. Once out of her sight she forgot him. It was balm to her lonely soul to have some one of her own sex for company. What Mrs. Howe lacked in the higher culture she made up in homely perception and un- assuming kindliness. Her husband was Fyfe's foreman. She herself was not permanent fixture in the camp. They had cottage at Roaring Springs, where she spent most of the time so that their three children could be in school
 T was up here all through vacation" she told Stella. But Lefty he got to howlln' about bein' left alone shortly after school started again, so I got my sister to look after the kids for spell while I stay I'll be goin' down about the time MT. Benton's through here"
 Stella eventually went out to take look around the camp. A hard beaten path led off toward where rose the dis tant sounds of logging work, the pom derops crash Qf trees and the puff of the donkeys. She followed that little way and presently came to knoll some 300 yards above the beach. There she paused to look and wonder curiously.
 A noble stretch of lake and mountain spread out before her gaze. Straight across the lake two deep clefts in the eastern range opened on the water five miles apart She could see the white ribbon of foaming cascades in each. Between lifted a great mountain, and on the lakeward slope of this stood a terrible scar of q slide, yellow and brown, rising 2,000 feet from the shore. A yaporous wisp of cloud hung along the top of the slide and above this aerial banner a snow capped pinnacle thrust itself high into the infinite blue
 She went back to the house to con verse upon domestic matters with Mrs Howe until the shrilling of the donkey whistle brought forty-odd lumberjacks swinging down the trail.
 Behind them litle way came Jack Fyfe with sagging creel. He did not stop to exhibit his catch, but half an hour later they were served hot and crisp at the table in the big living room, where F'yfe, Stella and Charlie Benton, Lefty Howe and his wife sat down together.
 A man from the camp kitchen served the meal and cleared 1t away. For an hour or two after that the three men sat about in shirt sleeved ease, pulling at Jack Fyfe's cigars. Then Benton excused himself and went to bed When Howe and his wife retired Stella did likewise. The long twilight had dwindled to misty patch of light sky in the northwest and she fell asleep more at ease than she had been for weeks. Sitting fin Jack Fyfe's living room through that evening she had be gun to formulate philosophy to fit her enforced environment--to live for the day only and avoid thought of the flu ture until there loomed on the horizon