attracted their attention. They were still staring at them when Mr. Carr
anticipated their curiosity.
"I ought to tell you that the young men confided to me the fact that
there was neither bed nor mattress to be had on the Ford. They have
filled some flour sacks with clean dry moss from the woods, and put half
a dozen blankets on the top, and they hope you can get along until
the messenger who starts to-night for La Grange can bring some bedding
over."
Jessie flew with mischievous delight to satisfy herself of the truth
of this marvel. "It's so, Christie," she said laughingly--"three
flour-sacks apiece; but I'm jealous: yours are all marked 'superfine,'
and mine 'middlings.'"
Mr. Carr had remained uneasily watching Christie's shadowed face.
"What matters?" she said drily. "The accommodation is all in keeping."
"It will be better in a day or two," he continued, casting a longing
look towards the door--the first refuge of masculine weakness in an
impending domestic emergency. "I'll go and see what can be done," he
said feebly, with a sidelong impulse towards the opening and freedom.
"I've got to see Fairfax again to-night any way."
"One moment, father," said Christie, wearily. "Did you know anything of
this place and these--these people--before you came?"
"Certainly--of course I did," he returned, with the sudden testiness of
disturbed abstraction. "What are you thinking of? I knew the geological
strata and the--the report of Fairfax and his partners before I
consented to take charge of the works. And I can tell you that there is
a fortune here. I intend to make my own terms, and share in it."
"And not take a salary or some sum of money down?" said Christie, slowly
removing her bonnet in the same resigned way.
"I am not a hired man, or a workman, Christie," said her father sharply.
"You ought not to oblige me to remind you of that."
"But the hired men--the superintendent and his workmen--were the only
ones who ever got anything out of your last experience with Colonel
Waters at La Grange, and--and we at least lived among civilized people
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