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Teeks of lonely solitude in the forest had worked incalculable change in Ellen Jorth

Late in June her father and her two uncles had packed and ridden off with Daggs, Colter, and six other men, all heavily arriiven any orders Her father had forgotten to bid her good-by or had avoided it Their dark one and, keen as had been Ellen's pang, nevertheless, their departure was a relief She had heard thereat Jorth-Isbel war Barking dogs did not bite Somebody, perhaps on each side, would be badly wounded, possibly killed, and then the feud would go on as before, mostly talk Many of her former impressions had faded Development had been so rapid and continuous in her that she could look back to a day-by-day transforht of herself and when the dawn ca

Jorth had left Ellen at home with the Mexican woman and Antonio Ellen saw them only at meal times, and often not then, for she frequently visited old John Sprague or ca

It was but a short distance up to Sprague's cabin, and since she had stopped riding the black horse, Spades, she walked Spades was accustos he would come down to the ranch and whistle Ellen had vowed she would never feed the horse and bade Antonio do it But oneAntonio was absent She fed Spades herself When she laid a hand on hiainst her shoulder she was not quite so sure she hated him "Why should I?" she queried "A horse cain't help it if he belongs to--to--" Ellen was not sure of anything except that ood to be alone

A whole day in the lonely forest passed swiftly, yet it left a feeling of long tiht, sunny, sweet and fragrant and colorful, and her mood was pensive, wistful, dreaht intruded upon her happiness, and thought brought ht Sunset after sunset she had dragged herself back to the ranch, sullen and sick and beaten Yet she never ceased to struggle

The July storms came, and the forest floor that had been so sear and brown and dry and dusty changed as if bythe canyon beds of lacy ferns swayed in the wind and bent their graceful tips over the amber-colored water Ellen haunted these cool dells, these pine-shaded, mossy-rocked ravines where the brooks tinkled and the deer carew to be company in the aspens and the music of the little waterfalls If she could have lived in that solitude always, never returning to the ranch hootten and have been happy