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The next morning she could barely drag herself out of bed to light the fire; and Lidey had to make her breakfast which she did contentedly enough on bread and butter and unlimited molasses. It was a weary day for the little one, in spite of her responsibilities.
Lying flat on her stomach behind the door, Lidey stared out through the narrow crack with eyes that seemed starting from her head. Out there in the clear glitter of the moonlight she saw the wolves go prowling savagely to and fro, and heard their steps as they cautiously circled the hut, seeking another entrance.
And the child crept out into the moonlight. "Oh, popsie!" she sobbed, hiding her eyes in his neck as he crushed her to his heart, "they were goin' to eat me up, an' I thought you wouldn't ever come!" With the bundle on his back and Lidey in his arms, Dave strode homeward, his weariness forgotten.
Lidey, still in her little blue flannel nightgown, but with beaded deerskin moccasins on her tiny feet, and the golden wilfulness of her hair tied back demurely with a blue ribbon, was seated at one end of the table, her eager face half buried in a sheet of paper.
I've been thinkin' it over," she continued, guarding her words so that Lidey should not understand "an' I just couldn't bear to see it, Dave!" "That's so!" assented the man. "I'll leave heaps o' wood an' kindlin' cut, an' you'll jest have to milk an' look after the beasts, dear. Long's you're not scairt to be alone, it's all right, I reckon!"
"Oh, girlie, how you frightened me!" cried the woman, divided between tears and smiles. "I woke up, Dave, an' found her gone; an' bein' kind o' bewildered, I couldn't understand it!" She clung to his hand, while he looked tenderly down into her face. "Poor little woman!" he murmured, "you've had a bad turn ag'in, Lidey tells me. Better now, eh?"
On the verge of tears, Lidey munched a little of the now distasteful food. Her mother, worn out with the pain, which had at last relaxed its grip, fell into a heavy sleep. There was no light in the cabin except the red glow from the open draught of the stove, and the intense, blue-white moonlight streaming in through the front window. The child's impatience became intolerable.
At this point Lidey had half a mind to turn back. But she was already a young person of positive ideas, not lightly to be swerved from a purpose; and her too vivid imagination still persisted in showing her that picture of her father, speeding towards her just beyond the turn of the trail. She even thought that she could hear his steps upon the daunting stillness.
The vivid crossbills, red and black and white, would come to the yard in flocks, and the quaker-coloured snow-buntings, and the big, trustful, childlike, pine grosbeaks, with the growing stain of rose-purple over their heads and necks. These kept Lidey interested, helping to pass the days that now, to her excited anticipations, seemed so long.
As they came out on the edge of the clearing, and saw that all was quiet in the cabin, Dave said "We won't tell mother nothin' about the wolves to-night, sweetie, eh? It 'ld jest git her all worked up, an' she couldn't stand it when she's sick. We won't say nothin' about that till to-morrow!" "Yes!" murmured Lidey, "she'd be awful scairt!"
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