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But Dale's philosophy, cold and clear and inevitable, like nature itself, began to be pierced by the human appeal in Helen Rayner's words What did she mean? Not that he should lose his love of the wilderness, but that he realize hi, strong, intelligent, free from taint of disease or the fever of drink He could do so for others Who? If that ed and la in his boots, afraid of enemies, and wistful for his blood and his property to receive the fruit of his labors; there were the two girls, Helen and Bo, new and strange to the West, about to be confronted by a big probleht of still e of Pine--of others who had failed, whose lives were hard, who could have been made happier by kindness and assistance
What, then, was the duty of Milt Dale to himself? Because men preyed on one another and on the weak, should he turn his back upon a so-called civilization or should he grow like them? Clear as a bell came the answer that his duty was to do neither And then he sa the little village of Pine, as well as the whole world, needed one to nature, to the forest, to the wilderness for his developments and efforts of his future would be a result of that education
Thus Dale, lying in the darkness and silence of his lonely park, arrived at a conclusion that he divined was but the beginning of a struggle
It took long introspection to deterth it evolved into the paradox that Helen Rayner had opened his eyes to his duty as a e obstacle in the perplexing, tuain
Suddenly, then, all his thought revolved around the girl, and, thrown off his balance, he weltered in a wilderness of unfaht was on in earnest In his sleep his reeted him, beautiful as the sunrise, flashed in nificant words, "Take your chance with the girl!"
The old rancher was in his dotage He hinted of things beyond the range of possibility That idea of a chance for Dale remained before his consciousness only an instant Stars were unattainable; life could not be fathomed; the secret of nature did not abide alone on the earth--these theories were not any ht be for him