It was a wonderful night that the two spent wading the sea of moonlight

together on the plain. The almost unearthly beauty of the scene grew upon

them. They had none of the loneliness that had possessed each the night

before, and might now discover all the wonders of the way.

Early in the way they came upon a prairie-dogs' village, and the man would

have lingered watching with curiosity, had not the girl urged him on. It

was the time of night when she had started to run away, and the same

apprehension that filled her then came upon her with the evening. She

longed to be out of the land which held the man she feared. She would

rather bury herself in the earth and smother to death than be caught by

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him. But, as they rode on, she told her companion much of the habits of

the curious little creatures they had seen; and then, as the night settled

down upon them, she pointed out the dark, stealing creatures that slipped

from their way now and then, or gleamed with a fearsome green eye from

some temporary refuge.

At first the cold shivers kept running up and down the young man as he

realized that here before him in the sage-brush was a real live animal

about which he had read so much, and which he had come out bravely to

hunt. He kept his hand upon his revolver, and was constantly on the alert,

nervously looking behind lest a troop of coyotes or wolves should be

quietly stealing upon him. But, as the girl talked fearlessly of them in

much the same way as we talk of a neighbor's fierce dog, he grew gradually

calmer, and was able to watch a dark, velvet-footed moving object ahead

without starting.

By and by he pointed to the heavens, and talked of the stars. Did she know

that constellation? No? Then he explained. Such and such stars were so

many miles from the earth. He told their names, and a bit of mythology

connected with the name, and then went on to speak of the moon, and the

possibility of its once having been inhabited.

The girl listened amazed. She knew certain stars as landmarks, telling

east from west and north from south; and she had often watched them one by

one coming out, and counted them her friends; but that they were worlds,

and that the inhabitants of this earth knew anything whatever about the

heavenly bodies, she had never heard. Question after question she plied

him with, some of them showing extraordinary intelligence and thought, and

others showing deeper ignorance than a little child in our kindergartens

would show.

He wondered more and more as their talk went on. He grew deeply interested

in unfolding the wonders of the heavens to her; and, as he studied her

pure profile in the moonlight with eager, searching, wistful gaze, her

beauty impressed him more and more. In the East the man had a friend, an

artist. He thought how wonderful a theme for a painting this scene would

make. The girl in picturesque hat of soft felt, riding with careless ease

and grace; horse, maiden, plain, bathed in a sea of silver.




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