"I sort of wish she hadn't come, myself," Gerry confessed. "Now, let's see. Here's a cupboard all nailed up. I guess I can pull out the nails, but first I'd better make a fire in this old stove. I'll have to fetch in some wood." "No, you won't! Not just at first. There's a box full behind the stove. Big, knotty pieces; pine, I suppose; but maybe we do need some kindling. Then bring me some water from the creek and I'll wash up everything. Dad said we'd find some dishes in the cupboard, if they hadn't been stolen." "Gee, I hope they haven't!" The boy, who was as handy about a home as was his small sister, soon had a fire in the stove, and then, having found a pail, he went to the creek, stealing around past the front porch and under his sister's window as quietly as he possibly could. Although dry twigs creaked and snapped, the two sleepers did not waken. Such fun as those youngsters had putting the kitchen in order. In the cupboard they found all of the dishes which their father had mentioned. Although the china was coarse, the green fern pattern was attractive. Gerald, standing on a chair, handed it out, piece by piece, to the small girl, who put them in hot, sudsy water and then dried them till they shone. Gerald, meantime, was washing the shelves. Then they replaced the dishes and stood back to admire their handiwork. "Oh, aren't we having fun?" Julie chuckled. "Now, we're all ready to get the lunch." It was one o'clock when Julie went to waken Jane, and Gerald, at the same time, went out on the porch where Dan had been sleeping, but the older boy was sitting up on the edge of his cot drinking in the beauty of the scene which, to him, was an ever-changing marvel. He sprang up, wonderfully refreshed, and going to the packing trunk, he procured a towel. "Hello, Jane," he called brightly to the tall girl, who appeared in the open door. Then he gave a long whistle. "Sister," he exclaimed, love and admiration ringing in his voice, "I hope that Jean Sawyer, who is coming to dine with us day after tomorrow, has a heart of adamant. I pity him if he hasn't! I honestly never saw anyone so beautiful as you are, with the flush of slumber on your cheeks and your eyes so bright." Jane came out smiling. This was the sort of adulation she desired and required, but her brother felt a twinge of guilt, for, even as he had been talking, he had seen in memory a slender, alert little creature with eyes, star-like in their dusky radiance, gazing out at him from under dark, curling lashes. But they were so unlike, these two, he told himself. The one proud, imperious, ultra-civilized; the other, a wild thing, untamed, or so she had appeared to him in that one moment's glance, a native of the mountains. "Where are you going with that towel?" Jane asked him.