hard"

"You--haven't had much chance," said he, looking at her pityingly.

She gave him a quick glance. Had she really thought he pitied her she
would have bitterly resented it.

"Had th' same chance other mounting girls have," she said quickly,
defending, not herself, but her country and her people.

She stood, now, at a distance from the fire, for it was blazing merrily,
but her face was flushed by its radiant heat, its lurid blaze made a
fine background for the supple, swaying beauty of her slim young body.
She raised her arms high, high above her head, with that same
genuineness of gesture, graceful and appealing, which he had seen in all
her movements from the first and then clasped them at her breast.

"But oh," said she, "somehow, I want to learn, now, terrible!"

"Let me help you while I'm in the mountains," he replied, impulsively.
"I'll be glad to help you every day."

"Would you?" she said. "I would be powerful thankful!" Her bright eyes
expressed the gratitude she felt.

While they had talked a strange paradox had come about there by the fire
without their notice. The long, black outcropping of rock against which
they had brought the old man's blaze to life, had, instead of keeping
the fire from spreading to the undergrowth, strangely permitted it to
pass.