Jo’s conception of honesty would not permit her to build a fire in the monster until every cent was paid, but she had polished it, almost worshipped before it, and had silently vowed that upon the day when she was free from all debt to man she would revel in such warmth and glory as she had never known before. "No more roasted fronts and frozen backs," Mam’selle had secretly sworn. "No more huddling in the kitchen and scrimping of fires. From the first frost to the first thaw I’ll have two fires going. The new stove will heat the north chamber and perhaps the upper room as well. ’Tis a wondrous heater, I’m told." But the red cow’s affairs had postponed the thrilling event. Still neither Jo nor Nick ever expected perfection in fulfillment and they took the delay with patient dignity. Later they again started for the cow shed, this time guided by a lantern, for night had fallen upon Point of Pines. Jo took a seat upon an upturned potato basket with Nick close beside her, and so they waited. Waited until all need and danger were past; then, tenderly stroking the head of the newly-made mother, Jo spoke in the tone that few ever heard. Margot Gavot had heard it as she drifted out of life, her hungry eyes fastened on Jo and the sobbing boy—Tom. Marcel Longville had heard it as she clung to the hard, rough hand that seemed to be her only anchor when life and death battled for her and ended in taking her babies. The little red cow had heard it once before and now turned her grateful eyes to Mam’selle. "So! So, lass," murmured Jo; "we don’t understand, but we had to see it through. Brave lass, cuddle the wee thing and take your rest. So, so!" Then back to the house went Jo and Nick, the lantern swinging between them like a captured star. A wonderful, uplifted feeling rose in Jo Morey’s heart. She was unlike her old, unheeding self, she heeded everything; she started at the slightest sound and drew her breath in sharply. She was almost afraid of the sensation that overcame her. Depression had fled; exhilaration had taken its place. A sense of freedom, of adventure, possessed her. She was ready at last to fling aside the bonds and go forth! Then Nick stopped short and strained forward as if sensing something in the dark that not even the lantern could disclose. "So, Nick!" laughed Jo, "you feel it, too? It’s all right, old man. The mystery of the shed has upset us both. It’s always the same, whether it comes to woman or creature. Something hidden makes us see it, but our eyes are blind, blind to the meaning." Then Jo resorted to action. She carried a load of wood from the pile to the living room; with bated breath she placed it in the stove. "Suppose it shouldn’t draw?" she whispered to Nick, and struck a match. The first test proved this fear ungrounded. The draw was so terrific that it threatened to suck everything up.