"No, sirree, bob! I'm sticking right to your coat-tails till we're out
o' the woods."
Lawson interposed. "You wouldn't infer that Parker had ever had a
Parisian education, would you?"
Parker was not abashed. "I know what you mean. Those are all expressions
my father used. They stick to me like fly-paper."
"I've tried and tried to break him of his plebeian phrases, but I
cannot," Mrs. Parker said, with sad emphasis.
"I wouldn't try," replied Jennie. "I like them."
"Thank you, lady, thank you," Parker fervently made answer.
Curtis hurried away to look at the saw-mill. Lawson and Parker went
fishing, and Elsie got out her paint-box and started another sketch. The
morning was glorious, the air invigorating, and she painted joyously
with firm, plashing strokes. Never had she been so sure of her brush.
Life and art were very much worth while--only now and then a disturbing
wish intruded--it was only a vague and timid longing; but it grew a
little in power each time. Once she looked steadily and soberly at the
ring whose jewel sparkled like a drop of dew on the third finger of her
left hand.
A half-hour later Curtis came back, walking rapidly. Seeing her at work
he deflected from the straight trail and drew near.
"I think that is wonderful," he said, as he looked at her sketch. "I
don't see how you do so much with so few strokes."
"That always puzzles the layman," she replied. "But it's really very
simple."
"When you know how. I hope you're enjoying your trip with us?"
She flashed a smile that was almost coquettish upon him. "It is
glorious. I am so happy I'm afraid it won't last."
"We always feel that way about any keen pleasure," he replied, soberly.
"Now I can't keep the thought of your going out of my mind. Every hour
or two I find myself saying, 'It'll be lonesome business when these
artists leave us.'"
"You mustn't speak of anything sorrowful this week. Let's be as happy as
we can."
He pondered a fitting reply, but at last gave it up and said: "If you
are satisfied with your sketch, we'll start. I see the teams are ready."
"Oh yes, I'm ready to go. I just wanted to make a record of the
values--they are changing so fast now," and she began to wipe her
brushes and put away her panel. "I don't care where we go so we keep in
the pines and have the mountains somewhere in sight."
It must have been in remorse of her neglect of Lawson the preceding day
that Elsie insisted on sitting beside him in the back seat, while Mrs.
Parker took her place with the driver. The keen pang of disappointment
which crossed his heart warned Curtis that his loyalty to his friend was
in danger of being a burden, and the drive was robbed of all the blithe
intercourse of the day before. Parker and Jennie fought clamorously on a
variety of subjects in the middle distance, but Curtis was hardly more
than courteous to Mrs. Parker--so absorbed was he in some inner
controversy.
Retracing their course to the valley the two wagons crossed the stream
and crawled slowly up the divide between the Elk and the Willow, and at
one o'clock came down upon a sparse village of huts and tepees situated
on the bank of a clear little stream--just where it fell away from a
narrow pond which was wedged among the foot-hills like an artificial
reservoir. The year was still fresh and green here, and the air was like
May.
Dogs were barking and snarling round the teams, as a couple of old men
left the doors of their tepees and came forward. One of them was
gray-haired, but tall and broad-shouldered. This was Many Coups, a
famous warrior and one of the historians of his tribe. He greeted the
agent soberly, expressing neither fear nor love, asking: "Who are these
with you? I have not seen them before."
To this Curtis replied: "They are my friends. They make pictures of the
hills and the lakes and of chieftains like Many Coups."
Many Coups looked keenly at Elsie. "My eyes are old and poor," he slowly
said. "But now I remember. This young woman was at the agency last
year," and he put up his hand, which was small and graceful even
yet--the hand of an artist. "I make pictures also," he said.
When this was translated, Elsie said: "You shall make a picture of me
and I will make one of you."