The Desert and the Sown | Page 3

things except to what he
calls some 'purpose.' At his age amusement ought to be purpose enough.
He ought to take his pleasures seriously--this hunting-trip, for instance.
I believe, on the very least encouragement, he would give it all up!"
"You mustn't let him do that," said the colonel, warming. "All that
country above Yankee Fork, for a hundred miles, after you've gone
fifty north from Bonanza, is practically virgin forest. Wonderful flora
and fauna! It's late for the weeds and things, but if Paul wants game
trophies for your country-house, he can load a pack-train."
Mrs. Bogardus continued to be amused, in a quiet way. "He calls them
relics of barbarism! He would as soon festoon his walls with scalps, as
decorate them with the heads of beautiful animals,--nearer the Creator's
design than most men, he would say."
"He's right there! But that doesn't change the distinction between men
and animals. He is your son, madam--and he's going to be mine. But,
fine boy as he is, I call him a crank of the first water."
"You'll find him quite good to Moya," Mrs. Bogardus remarked
dispassionately. "And he's not quite twenty-four."
"Very true. Well, I should send him into the woods for the sake of
getting a little sense into him, of an every-day sort. He 'll take in sanity
with every breath."
"And you don't think it's too late in the season for them to go out?"
There was no change in Mrs. Bogardus's voice, unconcerned as it was;
yet the colonel felt at once that this simple question lay at the root of all
her previous skirmishing.
"The guide will decide as to that," he said definitely. "If it is, he won't
go out with them. They have got a good man, you say?"
"They are waiting for a good man; they have waited too long, I think.
He is expected in with another party on Monday, perhaps, Paul is to
meet the Bowens at Challis, where they buy their outfit. I do
believe"--she laughed constrainedly--"that he is going up there more to

head them off than for any other reason."
"How do you mean?"
"Oh, it's very stupid of them! They seem to think an army post is part
of the public domain. They have been threatening, if Paul gives up the
trip, to come down here on a gratuitous visit."
"Why, let them come by all means! The more the merrier! We will
quarter them on the garrison at large."
"Wherever they were quartered, they would be here all the time. They
are not intimate friends of Paul's. _Mrs._ Bowen is--a very great friend.
He is her right-hand in all that Hartley House work. The boys are just
fashionable young men."
"Can't they go hunting without Paul?"
"Wheels within wheels!" Mrs. Bogardus sighed impatiently. "Hunting
trips are expensive, and--when young men are living on their fathers, it
is convenient sometimes to have a third. However, Paul goes, I half
believe, to prevent their making a descent upon us here."
"Well; I should ask them to come, or make it plain they were not
expected."
"Oh, would you?--if their mother was one of the nicest women, and
your friend? Besides, the reservation does not cover the whole valley.
Banks Bowen talks of a mine he wants to look at--I don't think it will
make much difference to the mine! This is simply to say that I wish
Paul cared more about the trip for its own sake."
"Well, frankly, I think he's better out of the way for the next fortnight.
The girls ought to go to bed early, and keep the roses in their cheeks for
the wedding. Moya's head is full of her frocks and fripperies. She is
trying to run a brace of sewing women; and all those boxes are coming
from the East to be 'inspected, and condemned' mostly. The child seems
to make a great many mistakes, doesn't she? About every other day I
see a box as big as a coffin in the hall, addressed to some dry-goods
house, 'returned by ----'"
"Moya should have sent to me for her things," said Mrs. Bogardus. "I
am the one who makes her return them. She can do much better when
she is in town herself. It doesn't matter, for the few weeks they will be
away, what she wears. I shall take her measures home with me and set
the people to work. She has never been fitted in her life."
The colonel looked rather aghast. He had seldom heard Mrs. Bogardus

speak with so much animation. He wondered if really his household
was so very far behind the times.
"It's very kind of you, I'm sure, if Moya will let you. Most girls think
they can manage these matters for themselves."