"You did not take another place, then?"
"No; I sailed on the next ship, and then worked out in New York until I came across Latimer—and was fool enough to marry him."
"I hope you don't regret it."
"Humph! don't I? But I'm glad to know who you are. There won't be no more races, but I'll do all I can for you, an' help you to fix things, too, when they get your house built. I took an awful fancy to you when you was a kid, even if I was a leetle rough."
"I felt sure I knew you from the first," said Helen earnestly. "I must again thank you for your kindness, and I am sure we shall be very good friends."
"It is just a joy to see you when I think it out. The long ago is only like yesterday. Just to think that the first white woman's face I should see in four months should be that of the little rosy-faced darling that I dangled in my arms and round my neck twenty long year ago. Ah, there comes Latimer agin!" And her face hardened. "What does he want now, I wonder? Why can't he let us be?"
CHAPTER XXV.
The woman went out to interrogate her husband, and Helen returned to her writing, but in a few minutes Latimer came in again.
"Is them letters you are at?" he asked, as she folded a sheet and slipped it into her reticule.
"Yes," she replied. "I hope to send them away when the lake opens."