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 to understand the requirements, much less the motives, of outlandish venturers into these unfrequented regions.

Paul laughed. "Well, when you haven't had anything to eat for hours and hours, it doesn't much matter what, does it? I half hoped I'd find some sort of inn."

"Inn?" she echoed, as though she found the word "affected." Perhaps it struck her as biblical, Paul reflected, for she must have heard the famous sentence, "There was no room for them in the inn." He remembered now that the word was not current in North America; his own vocabulary comprised the currency of twenty countries.

In the end she invited him to take pot-luck with her. The men-folk were in the fields. "There ain't much," she concluded, "but you're right welcome."

Paul thanked her and got out of the carriage.

"Not much used to horses, are you?" she commented, as he looked doubtfully from the reins to the fence.

"No. My first impulse was to anchor the beast, but I suppose the thing to do is moor him with this bit of line."

Blushing and giggling, the girl came through the gate to take over the hitching operation, and Paul thoroughly enjoyed his sense of dependence.

"Come in," she commanded, in a tone which added, "Mere man that you are."

"If you want to wash, there's a pump round at the back, with a basin and soap."

On entering the kitchen a few minutes later he was greeted by the odour of frying meat. "Fee-fo-fi-fum!" he exclaimed.

"It's a bear steak," she informed him, "But you're not to tell anybody. Bear's out of season. Pa killed him for stealing our honey."

She ran into the garden and came back with a handful of roses, which she arranged, diffidently, in a heavy