Daughters of the Dominion. Bessie Marchant

more Nell had taken leave of Mrs. Munson, and, with her bundle, was mounting the step of the doctor’s high two-wheeled cart.

      Giles Bailey came up just as they were driving off, and protested vigorously against Nell being spirited away in such a hurried fashion.

      But the doctor only laughed at him. “If you are so anxious to provide your aunt with a permanent nurse and helper, friend Giles, you should get married, and bring your wife home to look after things.”

      “She’d have a rather bad time of it, I’m afraid, shut up with aunt and me,” he replied stolidly, and, as usual, staring hard at Nell.

      “I’m afraid she would,” commented the doctor. Then he told Dobbin to start; so the journey was commenced, and Nell was moved on further into the wide world.

      “I did not like to take that two dollars, but it is lovely to have some money of my own,” she said, drawing deep breaths of satisfaction, as the cart swayed and bumped over the inequalities of the trail.

      “What! had you no money at all?” demanded the doctor, in a shocked tone.

      “Not of my own. I have got thirty dollars with me, but it isn’t mine,” she answered.

      “Why have you got it, then?” he asked bluntly.

      “I found it after the person had gone away to whom it belongs; and I can’t send it to him, because I don’t know where he is,” she replied, with disarming candour.

      “I suppose, then, you feel entitled to keep it. Quite a lucky find for you,” he said, darting a sharp glance at her, which made her flush in a hot, uncomfortable fashion.

      “Of course I should not keep what is not my own,” she answered, with a gentle dignity. “I might have been forced to borrow a little of it if I had been compelled to pay for my board at Mrs. Munson’s, but now there will be no need to touch it.”

      “I hope not,” said the doctor, gravely; then he began talking about different things, showing Nell the big boulders of ironstone which stood up among the tree growths like the ruins of some ancient castle. “The Indians have a legend about those rocks,” he said. “When the frontier was decided upon, the two nations agreed to build a wall, twice the height of a man, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic, and they started here, where material was abundant. But the wind spirit and the water spirit arose in their might, beating down the puny beginnings of the great undertaking, and killing those who had planned it.”