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He held out his arain!" he exclaimed, in deep voice, as he kissed her "I'd have knowed you anywhere!"

"Uncle Al!" h I was only four"

"Wal, wal,--that's fine," he replied "I rehter--an' curly It ain't neither now Sixteen years! An' you're twenty now? What a fine, broad-shouldered girl you are! An', Nell, you're the handso, and withdrew her hands from his as Roy stepped forward to pay his respects He stood bareheaded, lean and tall, with neither his clear eyes nor his still face, nor the proffered hand expressing anything of the proven quality of fidelity, of achievement, that Helen sensed in him

"Howdy, Miss Helen? Howdy, Bo?" he said "You all both look fine an' brown I reckon I was shore slow rustlin' your uncle Al up here But I was figgerin' you'd like Milt's camp for a while"

"We sure did," replied Bo, archly

"Aw!" breathed Auchincloss, heavily "Leirls to the rustic seat Dale had built for the pine

"Oh, you must be tired! Ho are you?" asked Helen, anxiously

"Tired! Wal, if I am it's jest this here minit When Joe Beeot I was a worn-out old hoss Haven't felt so good in years Mebbe two such young an' pretty nieces willand well to , too, and--"

"Ha! Thet 'll do," interrupted Al "I see through you What you'll do to Uncle Al will be aplenty Yes, girls, I'e! Mebbe thet's reaser Beasley--"

In Helen's grave gaze his face changed swiftly--and all the serried years of toil and battle and privation shoith soic as both

"Wal, never ht returned to his face "Dale--come here"

The hunter stepped closer

"I reckon I owe you more 'n I can ever pay," said Auchincloss, with an arm around each niece

"No, Al, you don't owe htfully, as he looked away