Judsonia weekly advance., 1918-04-03

a woman can't always put into words. Last fall you hurt my pride and nearly scared me to death by carrying me off in that lawless, headlong fashion of yours. But you seemed to know just fairer than any man ever knew would have done under the same cir cumstances. I didn't realize 1t until I got back into the civilized world. And then all at once I found myself longing for you-and for csc old forests and the mountains and all. So I came back"
 "Wise girl,", he k'ssed her. You'll never be sorry, hope. It took some nerve, too. It's long trail from here to the outside. But this north coun- try-it gets in your blood-if your blood's red-and don't think there's any water in your veins, little person. Lord! Pm afraid to let go of you for fear you'll vanish into nothing, like Q Hindu fakir stunt"
 "No fear" Hazel laughed. i've got a pony tied to tree out there, and four Siwashes and a camp outfit over by Crooked lake. If I should vanish I'd leave plain trail for you to fol- low"
 "Well," Bill said, after short si- lence, tits a hundred and forty miles to Hudson's Bay post where there's mission and preacher. Let's be on our way and get married. Then we'll come back here and spend our honey moon, eh?"
 She nodded assent.
 Are you game to start in half an hourT he asked, holding her oil at arms length admiringly.
 '.Im game for anything, or wouldn't be here," she retorted.
 "All right. You just watch an ex- hibition of speedy packing" Bill de- clared-and straightway fell to work.
 Hazel followed him about, helping to get the kyaks packed with food. They caught the three horses, and Bill stripped the pony of Hazel's riding gear and placed pack on him.
 He's your private mount hence forth" Bill told her laughingly. You'll ride him with more pleasure than you did the first time, won't you?"
 Presently they were ready to start, planning to ride past Limping Georges camp and tell him whither they were bound. Hazel was already mounted. Roaring Bill paused. with his toe in the stirrup, and smiled whimsically at her over his horses back.
 'T forgot something" said he, and went back into the cabin-whence he shortly emerged, bearing in his hand sheet of paper upon which some thing was written in bold, angular characters. This he pinned on the door. Hazel rode Silk close to see what it might be, and laughed amused ly, for Bill had written:
 "Mr and Mrs. William Wagstaff will be at home to their friends on and after June the twentieth"
 He swung up into his saddle, and they logged across the open. In the edge of the first timber they pulled up and looked backward at the cabin drowsing silently under It's sentinel tree. Roaring Bill reached out one arm and laid 1t across Hazeps shoul- ders.
 Little person." he said soberly, There's the end of one trail, and the beginning of another-the longest trail either of us has ever faced. How dOef 1t look to you?"
 She caught his fingers with quick. hard pressure
 "All trails look alike to me-" she said, with shining eyes. "just so we hit them together"
 "What day of the month is this, Bill?" HaZe' asked.
 Haven't the least idea," he an- swered lazily. "Time is of no conse- quence to me at the present moment"
 They were sitting on the warm earth before their cabin, their backs propped comfortably against log, watching the sun sink behind distant skyline all notched with purple mountains upon which snow still fingered. Beside them a smudge dribbled a wisp of smoke sufficient to ward of pesti- lential swarm of mosquitoes and black flies. In the clear, thin air of that altitude the occasional voices of what bird and animal life was abroad in the wild broke into the evening hush with astonishing distinctness-a lone goose winged above in wide circles, uttering his harsh and solitary cry. He had lost his mate, Bill told her. Far off in the bush fox parked. The evening flight of the wild ducks from Crooked lake to chain of swamps passed in- termittently over the clearing with a sibilant whistle of wings. To all the wild things, no less than to the two who watched and listened to the forest kxaa l. o4 uA