Girl in a Buckskin

contrivance, but with only a wistful thought of the kettle three miles away she heaped the noggin full of snow and laid it on the fire. Then dragging the wounded man close to the fire she began to unlace his tunic.
    “This will hurt,” she told him plainly. “If you’re asleep t’will be best to stay asleep.”
    When the water was boiling Becky heated the knife and began to carve away the festered flesh around the arrow. When she came to draw out the arrow with a quick jerk of her hand the man suddenly opened his eyes and stared up at Becky.
    “Sure enough, and it’s an angel,” he said in a voice that had strength to it in spite of the pain. Becky paid him no attention and presently she saw that he had lost consciousness again, nor did he even feel it when she poured the boiling water over the tom flesh and bound it up with his shirt.
    All night long Becky tended the fire and listened to the man’s ravings. That he had been separated from friends she soon discovered, and twice he called for his horse, so that she gathered he had been one of a party searching for Wabenakis. That the Wabenakis had reached them first was obvious from the arrow lying in the snow.
    When dawn came the man had ceased his ravings and fallen into a fitful sleep. For want of a kettle Becky cut thin pieces of bacon from the meat she had brought with her and hung them over the fire. These she devoured soon after the sun rose and with food inside of her again she felt better and began thinking what she must do and how she might move the man to the cave. At last for want of a better idea she cut saplings from the forest, trimmed them and began tying them together with lacings from the man’s tunic. When she had finished she had a kind of raft which she thought she could drag behind her through the woods like a travois. It was clumsy but it would do, and the saplings were just supple enough to give with the man’s weight. Returning to the fire she found the man awake and staring with mild surprise at the brightening sky. His surprise deepened when he saw Becky.
    “By the great horn spoon,” he gasped, “a white woman and a lady!”
    “I’m a female, sir, if that’s what you mean,” Becky said tartly.
    He attempted to sit up and made a fair job of it. A plucky one, she decided, huge and plucky. “You’d best not tax your strength,” she told him. “T’is a good three miles to where you’re going.”
    He shook his head to clear it and glancing around noticed the fire, the venison and the travois. “Good heavens,” he exclaimed, “you’re surely not going to drag a man like meself on that wobbly conveyance?”
    “I thought to,” she assured him coldly. “Unless you can fly like a bird there seems naught else to do.”
    “Shane O’Hara fly like a bird? T’is hard enough to find a horse to hold me. But you—you’re nothing but a bit of a lass!”
    “Of seventeen winters,” she said defiantly. “And having saved your life t’is the least you can do to help me prolong it. Lie back now.”
    “I’ll not. Give me some of that bacon and I’ll take my chance at walking. D’ye think a mere prick in the arm can take the stuffing out of me?”
    “I do,” she told him firmly. “T’was deeply embedded and festering as well. You’ve bled aplenty and had the fever. Lie still now.” But she gave him bacon and allowed he might stand up once to test his strength. Summoning all of her control she helped him to his feet and saw him close his eyes with pain. “There, I told you,” she said hotly. “What is it?”
    “Nothing—nothing at all,” he said through clenched teeth.
    “Nothing at all! It’s your leg,” she cried accusingly, and forcing him back to the ground she cut open his breeches and gasped. “The leg is broken,” she cried. “Oh, how could you!”
    “Now when might I have done that?” he inquired angrily. “Really, it’s too much.”
    Becky looked at him with exasperation. “Now there’s naught to be done but set that as well. It would have been much better for you to have told me plainly that your leg pained you for now you must go and faint a second time.”
    “Inconsiderate of me, was it?” he said with a twinkle. “But most inconsiderate of you to ruin my breeches, too, for a man of my size doesn’t fit into any pair that happens along. Never mind, lass, I’m so full of hurts and bruises a few more won’t be noticed at all.”
    Becky tightened her lips, for really the man’s