“I am not so sure. It seems to me you have arranged your room in a satisfactory and at the same time a picturesque fashion.”
“Oh, my belongings are few and simple after the grandeur of your cabin. I only brought a bed and a table and a chair and some books along with me. Since, I have been lucky enough to get hold of a few possessions left behind in the North woods by fellows who once were in pretty much the same fix I am. I have made the rest of the furniture myself from the wood I bought at a lumber camp not far off. See that book shelf to the left of the mantle; it was given me by a backwoods preacher, an old man who says it once belonged to Robert Louis Stevenson. You know Stevenson spent a winter in the Adirondacks for his health, don’t you? He and my old woodsman, who was a young fellow then, became friends.”
Gill nodded, but not so impressed as her companion had expected and hoped.
“Yes, I heard Mrs. Burton and Bettina Graham talking of the famous men and women who have lived in the Adirondack forests. Besides Stevenson there was a ‘Philosopher’s Camp’ with Emerson and James Russell Lowell and Professor Agassiz as members. Perhaps they may be an inspiration to you, but I cannot say I feel any deep interest. I told you I was not in the least literary and that I cared for the outdoors and not for books.”
Whether or not she intended this, there was a slightly contemptuous note in the girl’s voice.
Her companion, having removed her snowshoes, rose quickly with his face slightly flushed.
“You’ll have a cup of tea with me. The water is boiling so I can have it ready in a few minutes. It will warm you after your walk.”
As Gill nodded acquiescence, quickly and deftly as a girl Allan Drain set about his preparations.
His tea service consisted of a brown earthenware teapot, two cups and saucers, a cheap little pitcher and a silver sugar bowl of rare beauty, evidently an heirloom.
He had placed on the table a pot of gooseberry jam and now undertook to make the toast by opening his stove door and toasting the bread at the end of a long fork.