“I see a question in your face,” said the unknown. “You wonder how it happens that I am living alone in this wilderness. Is it not so?”
“I have been here but a month. I am one of an overland party that passed here four weeks since. In wandering about I found this cabin, and I asked myself how it would seem to live here alone—practically out of the world. I always liked to try experiments, and notified the party of my intention. Indeed, I did not care to remain with them, for they were not at all congenial. They thought me crazy; but I insisted, and remained here with a sufficient supply of provisions to last me three months.”
“And how have you enjoyed yourself, sir?”
“Well, I can’t say I have enjoyed myself; but I have had plenty of time to meditate. There have been disappointments in my life,” he added gravely, “that have embittered my existence and led to a life of solitude.”
“Do you expect to remain the entire three months?” asked Grant.
“If I had been asked that question this morning I should have unhesitatingly answered in the affirmative. Now—I don’t know why it is—perhaps it is the unexpected sight of a fellow being—I begin to think that I should enjoy returning to human companionship. You cannot understand, till you have been wholly alone for a month, how pleasant it seems to exchange speech with another.”
“Why not join our party?” he said. “There are but four of us. You would make the fifth. We are going to the mines, if we ever get through this wilderness.”
“Mr. Cooper is a blacksmith. He has lived all his life in Iowa, and is a good man. His wife is with him, and his son Tom, who is a fine, manly young fellow of twenty-one or two.”
“Very well. Now I have been introduced to _them_, tell me about yourself. Are they relatives of yours?”
“I see, and you wish to make money for her. Is she solely dependent on you?”
“No; she is married again. I have a step-father.”
“No, I don’t like Mr. Tarbox. He is a mean, penurious farmer, a good deal older than mother. She married him for a home, but she made a mistake. She is merely a house-keeper without wages. She would be better off by herself, with me to work for her.”
“About two hundred dollars. Mr. Tarbox has tried to get possession of it, but without success.”