"You teach me to cook! I, my uncle's housekeeper for two years, while you were wandering about from town to town!" exclaimed Rosalie.

Mark laughed, and bade her remember that when she was "uncle's" housekeeper she had experienced cooks at her command, and that her housekeeping duties and responsibilities consisted in carrying the keys and ordering what she pleased to have for dinner. And he further advised her to recollect that she was not to snap up her liege lord in that way, either! Whereupon Rose bade him mind his business and his briefs; for that she should snap him, and box his ears, too, whenever the spirit moved her. She! Mark snatched her, laughing, to his bosom, and half suffocated her with kisses, and then holding her tight, bade her do her wickedest.

"And, Rose," he exclaimed merrily, "I do not know why it is; but out here, in this cabin of the wilderness, with nobody but you for company, I feel as if the restraints of society and of maturity had fallen away, and restored me to the freedom and the wilfulness and the irresponsible wickedness of my boyhood. And oh! little one, if you were only a great deal taller and stronger, what a wrestle we would have!"

And he gazed down on her there, standing within his arms so small, so fair, so perfectly helpless, so utterly in his power-and all the wantonness of youth fled from before, her helplessness and her beauty, and a flood of unutterable tenderness rushed over his heart; and, still gazing upon her with infinite love, he said

"God forever bless you-you little, little, wee thing;

you delicate, beautiful creature; and God forever forsake me, if ever, willingly, I give you a moment's pain or sorrow!"

Blushing deeply, Rose withdrew herself from his now yielding clasp, and, to cover her girlish embar rassment, took the new bucket and put it in his hands, requesting him to go to the spring, and bring her fresh water to fill the tea-kettle, and adding

"You shall see what nice biscuits and what nice tea I can make.”

Mark took the pail and went out, and disappeared down the path.

Rosalie, observing the floor littered, looked around for the broom to sweep it up; and then laughed to find that, with all their getting, they had got no broom.

Mark came in with the pail of water, set it down, and said he would go and get some brush to kindle a fire. And while he was gone, Rosalie put water in a basin to wash her hands preparatory to making the biscuits; and then she discovered that they had forgotten soap also. And while she stood in dismay, wondering what else might have been omitted, Mark re-entered with a pile of brush on his shoulders, "like Christian with his bundle of sin," he said. He threw it down upon the hearth, and began to look around, and then he broke into a gay, prolonged laugh.

"What's the matter, Mark? Are you daring to laugh at me, with my sleeves and skirt tucked up?"

"O, Rosalie, we have heads, child! we have heads -and so have cabbages, when they have come to maturity."

"Well, don't laugh yours off your shoulders, but tell me what you're laughing at!"

"We have not brought a match nor a candio." "Oh! no! You don't say so?"

"It is a positive fact."

"We have forgotten soap and brooms too; we have forgotten everything."

"No, not everything; only a few things that make everything useless."

"What's to be done? We can't cook supper tonight, or even breakfast to-morrow morning, without a fire."

"No. Let's see-I know if one rubs two pieces of wood together long enough, they will ignite; and I know of other processes by which fire may be kindled; but, after all, I think the quickest and the surest way will be for me to go back to Shelton this evening, and get the matches; and then I can also get soap, a broom, and my pistols, which were likewise forgotten."

"Go back to Shelton this evening! Walk three miles to Shelton, and back this evening, and the sun already down! You will be tired to death."

"No, dear; I can walk that three miles in about an hour, get the things in ten minutes; borrow Mr. Garner's saddle-horse to ride back, and take him home again in the morning, when I go to the office. And my brave little girl will not be afraid to stay here a a few hours by herself?"

"Afraid? No; surely not."

"You can fasten the door with this wooden pin, if you wish to do so."

"Oh! I shall not wish to fasten the door. I shall

sit on the sill and watch the stars, and see if I can read our future destiny on their orbs, and wait for the moon to rise, and for you to come."

"No, you must not do that, Rose. The woods are damp, and the evening air chill. And, now I think of it, this cabin will be too cool for you, with this draught through the open windows. Let's see if we cannot do something with them. If you had anything to tack up against them, Rosalie ?"

She went to a box and took out two sheets, each of which, doubled, was tacked against a window, and because the breeze still lifted them, a few tacks were driven in the sides and bottoms of these temporary blinds, to keep them down. Having finished that job, Mark pulled down and buttoned his wristbands, put on his coat, kissed Rosalie, bade her keep up her heart, for that he should be back at ten, or a little after, and departed. She stood at the door, watching him, until he disappeared within the intervening trees, and then she turned and entered the darkening house.

Did Mark Sutherland-did Rosalie-dream of all that should happen before they should meet again? Did either imagine the grim horror of the next few hours? It was a night that one of them never, in after life, forgot-whose fearful memory haunted thoughts by day, and visions by night, when the dreamer would start from sleep, and, with convulsive shivers and cold perspiration, gaze around in terror that could not be reassured.

CHAPTER XXII

A NIGHT OF FEAR.

ROSALIE entered the house, and shut the door behind her. It was very dark, for twilight had departed, and the moon had not yet arisen. Although the door and windows were closed, the room was still suffi ciently cool, and Rosalie might have remained pleasantly seated in her sole rocking chair, and wrapped in reverie, through all the lonely hours until her husband should return, but for one trifling circumstance; trifling in itself, yet fraught with the most appalling danger, and the most ghastly consequences. The fresh carnal smell of that quarter of newly-killed beef that lay across the top of the barrel, only lightly covered over with the table-cloth, began to fill the closed room, and soon became intolerable to Rosalie's fine senses.

For the sake of fresh, pure air, she went and opened the door, and sat down upon the door step. There she sat, gazing into the dark mysterious depths of the forest, or up to the deep blue, starlit sky, listening to the chirp of the field-cricket, the grass-hopper, and the katydid, those merry little night warblers, who begin their concerts when the birds have finished theirs— and remembering all her past life, enjoying her present, and dreaming and noping of the future. She thought of her palace home, where, circled with affection, she had still wandered with a strange unrest, and wasted with a vague longing; she thought of her pre