The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1918-05-30
CHAPTER XII.
Four Walls and a Roof.

Hazel WOuld have found that BOOK III
the Klappan range a pleasant enough
place. She could not deny its beauty.
But she was far too trail weary to APP
preci"+e the grandeur of the Klappan
range. She desired nothing so much
as rest and comfort, and the solemn
mountains were neither restful nor
soothing. They stood too grim and
aloOf In a lonely land.
There was so much to be DONE work
of the hands; cabin to build, and
stable; hay to be cut and stacked so
that their horses might live through
the long winter-which already her
aided his approach with sharp, sting
Ing frosts at night, and flurries of
snow along the higher ridges.
Bill staked the tent beside the
spring, fashioned a rude fork out of
pronged willow, and fitted a handle
to the scythe he had brought for the
purpose. From dawn TO dark he swung
! the keen blade In the heavy grass
Awhich carpeted the bottom. Behind
him Hazel piled it In little mounds
with a fork. She insisted on this,
though 1t blistered her hands and
brought furious pains to her back. If
her man must strain every nerve she
would tighten the burden with what
strength she had And with two pair
of hands to the task, the piles of hay
gathered thick on the meadow. When
Bill judged that the supply reached
twenty tons, he built a rude sled with
a rack on 1t, and hauled in the hay
with saddle horse.
"Amen !" said Bill, when he had emp
tied the rack for the last time, and
the hay rose in neat stack. That's
another load off my mind. / can build
cabin and a stable In six feet Of
snow If / have TO, but there would
have been a slim chance of haying once
a storm hit us. We wouldn't go hun
gry-there's moose enough to feed an
army ranging in that low ground to the
SOUTH"
There's everything that one needs,
almost, in the wilderness, isn't thereT
Hazel observed reflectively. "But still
the law of life is awfully harsh, don't
/
thing when 1t is so absolutely COM
plete. Suppose something went wrong?
There's no help, and no mercy-abso-
lutely none. Nature, when you get
close to her, is so inexorable."
Bill eyed her a second. Then he put
his arms around her, and patted her
hair tenderly.
as it getting on your nerves already,
little person?" he asked. "Nothing's
going to 60 wrong. I've been in wild
country too often to make mistakes or
get careless. Life isn't a bit harsher
here than in the human ant heaps.
What does the DID, settled country do
to you when you have neither money
nor job? 1t treats you worse than the
worst the North can do; for, lacking
the price, 1t denies you access to the
abundance that mocks you in every
shop window, and bars you out of the
houses that line the streets. Here
everything needful is yours for the TAX
ing. No, little person, 1 don't think
the law Of life is nearly so harsh here
as it is where the mob struggles for its
daily bread. It's more open and
aboveboard here; more up to the indi.
vldual. But it's lonely sometimes.
guess that's what ails YOU"
"Oh, pouf" she denied. I'm not
lonely, so long as I've got you. But
sometimes / think of something hap.
pening to you-sickness and accidents
and all that"
Forget It'll" Bill exhorted. THAT'S
the worst of living in this big. still
country-it makes one interpretive
and so confoundedly conscious of what
puny atoms we human beings are
after all. But there's less chance OF
sickness here than any place. Wait
till / get that cabin built, with a big
fireplace at one end. Wen be more
comfortable, and things will look q
little roster. This thing OF everlasting
hurry and hard work gets on every.
body's nerves"
The best of the afternoon was still
unspent when the haystacking terml
mated, and Bill declared a holiday.
When the fire had sunk to dull EN-
bers, and the stars were peeping shyly
in the open flap OF their tent, she wills
pered in his ear:
''You mustn't think I'm complaining
: or lonesome or anything, Billy-boy
Z when make remarks like did today
love you a heap, and I'd be happy
! anywhere with you. And I'm really
and truly at home In the wilderness
Only-only sometimes have funny
, feeling; as II were afraid. I look UT
/ at these big mountains, and they seen
, TO be scowling-as II we were tres
passers or something"
81 know" Bill drew her close Il
him. "But that's Just mood. I've fel
| that same sensation up here-a foolish
r indefinable forebodlng. All the out
3 of-the-way places OF the earth produc,
! that effect, If one is at all imaginative
2 It's the bigness of everything. and tn,
/ eternal stiffness. II would be hard oil
: the nerves to live here always. Blu
: we're only after stake-then all tn,
a pleasant places Of the earth are oper