"To stay?" Peter asked, quickly.

Cherry shrugged.

"As much as he stays anywhere!" she answered, drily.

"H'm! Does that mean you?" Alix asked.

"I suppose that's the plan," Cherry said, lifelessly.

"It's a rotten country," Peter offered, thoughtfully. "At least I
should think it would be," he added, more moderately, "to select
for a permanent home."

"I always say that a place where the natives are black, or yellow,
isn't fit for white people, or the natives would BE white!" Alix
explained, brightly.

"All mining towns are horrible!" Cherry said with gloomy fervor.
"They're raw, crude, coarse places, and the people in them are
just as bad!"

Peter had a moment of pity for her, so young, so helpless, so
tied.

"Perhaps he won't want you until he is sure of staying!" he
offered.

"Oh, Mart always thinks the last thing is the permanent thing!"
his wife answered, wearily. "He says he'll want me to join him