I got
another flash from that man I didn't like, though his words were
hearty. He left, soon after, on the last boat.
"Soon as ever the ground froze we began to sink. In those days steam
thawers wasn't dreamed of, so we slid wood down from the hills, and
burned the ground with fires. It's slow work, and we didn't catch
bed-rock till December, but when we did we struck it right. Four
feet of ten-cent dirt was what she averaged. Big? Well, I wonder!
It near drove Morrow crazy.
"'Billy, old boy, this means I'll see her next summer!'
"Whenever he mentioned her name, he spoke like a man in church or out
of breath. Somehow it made me feel like takin' off my cap--forty
below at that, and my ears freeze terrible willing since that winter
on the Porcupine.
"That evening, when I wasn't looking, he sneaked the locket out of
his shirt and stared at it, famished. Then he kissed it, if you
might rehabilitate such a scandalous, hold-fast-for-the-corner
performance by that name.
"'I must let her know right away,' says he.
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