"He wasn't sick," rejoined Nels. "Tree fell on him."
"What you do with him?"
"Died before we come out. Whole woods was afire up in there."
"I see the smoke a while back," said she unemotionally, nodding and gazing out of the window toward the distant landscape. "Died, did he? Did you bring him down?"
"The wind has changed," said Nels sententiously. "Before night, won't be nothing to bring down. We left him in his tent."
"Who set that fire, Nels?" she demanded of her husband after a time.
"The same people that burned out Sim Gage and Wid Gardner. All of 'em had cleared out but that one."
"How about that woman, Nels?"
"We brung her down with us. She'd spent the night in the woods alone. Doctor's got her in bed over at Sim's place now." He turned his heavy face upon her frowningly, apparently passing upon some question they earlier had discussed. "I say it's all right, Karen, about her."
"Well, are they going to be married?" she demanded of him. "That's the question. Because if they ain't——"