“Oh, yes. I will show you to-morrow where I hid. It is up there in the rocks; another cave like the one you found—but you could never find this one unless I showed you, it is so cunningly hid. And every day I watched you. And one day I saw you go into the forest and come back with a strange, terrible beast bigger than a black bear following you, and I was afraid and screamed. I thought that it would eat you and—”
“Beast?” asked Sheldon.
“Yes. But you had caught it and tied a rope around its neck and were its master. Oh, I was glad I was so far away you didn’t hear me. And proud that you were so strong a man, so brave a man to capture a big beast, bigger than a bear—”
“Buck! It was my horse, child! And you don’t even know what a horse is?”
“No,” answered Paula, wondering. “Do they bite?”
“This one you shall ride—”
“I won’t!” cried Paula. “I’ll run away!”
Laughing, they turned together to the cabin, where he soon had a splendid fire going.
“Why did you wait all these days before coming back?” he asked her.
“Because,” she told him, “I was afraid at first. But I saw you were good; you did not hurt things just to be bad; when you passed close enough to me I could see that your face was kind.”