"Look here, Stella," he said earnestly. "This joint probably strikes you
as about the limit, seeing that you've been used to pretty soft
surroundings and getting pretty nearly anything you wanted whenever you
expressed a wish for it. Things that you've grown into the way of
considering necessities _are_ luxuries. And they're out of the question
for us at present. I got a pretty hard seasoning the first two years I
was in this country, and when I set up this camp it was merely a place
to live. I never thought anything about it as being comfortable or
otherwise until you elected to come. I'm not in a position to go in for
trimmings. Rough as this camp is, it will have to go as it stands this
summer. I'm up against it for ready money. I've got none due until I
make delivery of those logs in September, and I have to have that
million feet in the water in order to make delivery. Every one of these
men but the cook and the donkey engineer are working for me with their
wages deferred until then. There are certain expenses that must be met
with cash--and I've got all my funds figured down to nickels. If I get
by on this contract, I'll have a few hundred to squander on house
things. Until then, it's the simple life for us. You can camp for three
or four months, can't you, without finding it completely unbearable?"

"Why, of course," she protested. "I wasn't complaining about the way
things are. I merely voiced the idea that it would be nice to fix up a
little cosier, make these rooms look a little homelike. I didn't know
you were practically compelled to live like this as a matter of
economy."

"Well, in a sense, I am," he replied. "And then again, making a place
away out here homelike never struck me as being anything but an
inconsequential detail. I'm not trying to make a home here. I'm after a
bundle of money. A while ago, if you had been here and suggested it, you