With this reassuring reflection he set about replenishing the fire, and presently his companion reappeared. The large, flapping hat sat oddly upon her small head with its tightly drawn-back hair, but the straight lines of the all-enveloping pink gown brought out the slender curves of her childish figure, and she didn't seem quite so gawky, after all, as she moved toward him over the rocks. "My, you look nice!" he said cheerfully. "I've brought some rolls from----" "We'll keep them for later," Lou interrupted him firmly. "There's still the end of the bread left, and goodness knows where we'll eat again!" They breakfasted gaily, drinking the remainder of the milk first and then boiling the eggs in the pan, but Lou's remark about their next meal had made Jim think seriously of the immediate future. He had assumed a responsibility which he must fulfill, and his progress thus far under the handicaps he had spoken of had been difficult enough alone. The little pink apron-frock had cost half of his capital, the hat twenty-five cents more, and the ribbon a dime. Five cents in addition for the rolls had left but thirty-five of the preciously hoarded pennies, and he was ninety miles from home, with a host of petty, but formidable, restrictions barring his way, and an adopted orphan on his hands. He had been forced to turn his head sharply away when he passed the village tobacco store, for every nerve cried out for the solace of a good pipe, but he felt more than repaid for the sacrifice by Lou's honest rapture over the poor things he had been able to get for her. Breakfast finished, and the remainder of the ham stowed away in the milk-pan, they carefully skirted the house on the rise of the hill, and coming out once more upon the road, they forged ahead. The strained muscles of Jim's back and side were still sore, but they troubled him less than the lack of a smoke, and for Lou it was as though a new world had opened before her eyes. The pleasant, wheat-growing valley had been left behind them, and the road from being hilly grew steeper and more steep until it became a mere rutted trail over the mountains. More or less dilapidated farm-houses, each with its patch of cleared ground, appeared now and then, and before the gate of one of these a huge, canvas-covered wagon stood, bearing the ambitious legend: TRAVELING DEPARTMENT STORE BENJ. PERKINS A genial-looking fat man in a linen duster and a wide-brimmed hat was just clambering in over the wheel when he spied the two pedestrians gazing at the turnout, and called good-naturedly: "Want a lift? I'm goin' inter New Hartz." "Thanks. That is just where we are going, too," Jim replied promptly. "It's awfully good of you to take us along." "Git right in; plenty of room with me on the front seat here," the proprietor of the extraordinary department store responded heartily. "Yer sister 'd be nigh tuckered out ef you tried ter walk her inter town on a hot day like this."