followed him in reluctant protest.

"Do you see that tall pine outlined against the sky over there on Paradise
Ridge, Woman?" asked Adam, with the Pan lights and laugh coming back into
his farmer eyes and voice. "I have got to be there an hour before dawn,
and it is fifteen good miles or more. I want to roll against a log
somewhere and sleep a bit, and it is now after ten o'clock. Go get your
bundle, and I'll hang it on my stick, and we will disappear into the forest
forever. I know a hermit who'll put us in marriage bonds. Come!" As he held
out his arms Adam began to chant the weird tune to that mate song of his
own invention.

"You know I can't do that," I said as I went into his embrace and drank the
chant down into my heart. "There are so many live things that I must stay
to watch over. I--I'm their--mother as well as--as yours. They must be
fed."

"God, there really is such a thing as a woman," said Adam as he hid his
smouldering eyes against my lips. "You'll be waiting when I come back, and
you'll go with me the minute I call, if it's day or night? You'll be ready
with your bundle?"

"You don't mean at daylight to-morrow, do you, Pan, dear?" I asked, with
one of the last laughs that my heart was to know, for sometimes, it seemed
forever, rippling out past his crimson crests.

"No; listen to me, Woman," said Adam, as he held me tenderly on his right
arm and took both my hands in his and held them pressed hard against my
breast. "I am going away to-night, and I don't know when I can get back. I
only knew to-day I'd have to go; that's why I--I took you and put my brand