"
"You are on the right track then. Only you've come by the foot-
path." Madge stood up to direct him, pointing up the canyon a
quarter of a mile. "You see that blasted redwood? Take the little
trail turning off to the right. It's the short cut to her house.
You can't miss it."
"Yes'm, thank you, ma'am," he said. He made tentative efforts to
go, but seemed awkwardly rooted to the spot. He was gazing at her
with an open admiration of which he was quite unconscious, and
which was drowning, along with him, in the rising sea of
embarrassment in which he floundered.
"We'd like to hear you tell about the Klondike," Madge said.
"Mayn't we come over some day while you are at your sister's? Or,
better yet, won't you come over and have dinner with us?"
"Yes'm, thank you, ma'am," he mumbled mechanically. Then he caught
himself up and added: "I ain't stoppin' long. I got to be pullin'
north again. I go out on to-night's train. You see, I've got a
mail contract with the government."
When Madge had said that it was too bad, he made another futile
effort to go.
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