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Show SS HE schoolteacher at Rock .TjNI Gulch dismissed her pu-! i II . Pi's with a smiling face. b Behind the smiles lurked fffM: unshed tears. When the ' jljj-fej lshed down the snow-cov-' jlltTV- ered trail, Bernice leaned Jf"?! her head against the wln- rvf flow frame and the hot, ts rebellious tears flooded ffV her soft gray eyes. How she hated this far xjJL western country, with its crude ways, its dowdily n ' dressed women, its unpolished unpol-ished men, and, above all, its loneliness! loneli-ness! It was all so different from New England and yet she fled from Massachusetts to hide a heartache. "There is something wrong with me," she sighed at last. "It can't be the country or the people they are kind and generous it's the way I feel 1 How can I cure the ache and the homesickness for things that may never nev-er be?" No answer came to her out of the swiftly falling winter twilight. Perhaps the knowledge that a wedding wed-ding was taking place in Boston at that very hour confused her reasoning powers. The man had ceased to love her and she had offered him his freedom free-dom and he had accepted it, and so, being without near relatives, Bernice had found a position out here in Montana. Mon-tana. This was her first Christmas in Kocky Gulch. After awhile she locked the school-house school-house door, and with the children's Christmas offerings in her lunch bas- Drink this mess and tell us how it all hnppened." Bernice smiled back into a bronzed face that inspired instant confidence. He was young, with very blue eyes and very brown hair. Bernice obediently drank the steaming steam-ing mixture and snuggled down in the blankets and went to sleep. "I wonder who she is, Jim," said the last comer. "She came to us out of the storm a little snowbird," murmured Jim Butler. But-ler. Billy Smith smiled shrewdly. "Little Snowbird will be missed on Christmas eve," he said. "Some one is probably looking for her now, so don't set your heart on her, itm." Jim laughed softly. "Oh, get . out, you old .uiot !" he grinned. "Can't a chap sentimentalize sentimental-ize a bit on Christmas eve without your getting silly? I was thinking it will be a sorry Christmas for this littk girl, and this blizzard looks good for all day tomorrow !" "Sure thing so I'm going out to cut a Christmas tree for her," said Billy struggling into his heavy coat. "You're an angel," laughed Jim, getting get-ting out an ax. He had never seen Bernice Avery before the moment when he had stumbled stum-bled over her snow-covered .form. He had carried her to the cabin three miles up the mountain and given Billy Smith the surprise of his adventurous life. James Butler was a timber expert Id the employ of the government and Billy was his right-hand man. Suddenly the .door opened and Billy staggered In, powdered with whiteness, white-ness, carrying a small, symmetrical hemlock tree. "Our Christmas tree for the kid," he said solemnly. "Good," chuckled Jim, and they set to work. It was Christmus morning when Bernice awoke again. Dimly she remembered re-membered the events of the night and when full realization came upon her she sat up in bed and looked around. "Dear me, how horrid I feel !" she yawned sleepily, and at that instant she saw the Christmas tree and her eyes popped wide open. The little tree stood on a table near the fire, propped with heavy stones. Strings of popcorn festooned it and there were puzzling tinseled ornaments orna-ments nuts covered with tinfoil. There were a Mexican quirt, a pair of gayly beaded Indian moccasins, a roll of Navajo blankets and some apples and oranges. "I wonder whose Christmas tree this is," marveled Bernice. The sun was streaming through the windows when Jim and Billy knocked at the door and entered in response to her call. They had arrayed themselves In their best garments and they glanced expectantly from the girl's shyly smiling smil-ing face to the gay little tree. "Merry Christmas !" all three said in unison, and then laughed in gay friendliness. "It looks so Christmasy in here," said Bernice : "I'm afraid I've stumbled stum-bled upon somebody's Christmas tree." Jim laughed. "Oh, that'syour tree!" "Mine?" she stammered. "Yes it was Billy's idea your being be-ing away from home and everything. These are just trifles we had around the house. Please don't cry !" he protested pro-tested as tears filled the lovely eyes of his guest. "But you don't know how beautiful it is," she sobbed. "I was hating Christmas this year I was so lonesome lone-some and everything !" She told them how she had disliked the West, not dreaming It could hold such kindness, and in return both men became very gruff indeed and Billy sternly insisted upon her coming out and eating her breakfast of cornbreud, bacon and coffee. Jim said nothing, but his eyes were eloquent. It was late afternoon when the storm ceased so that they could put on snowshoes and set out down the trail toward the Gulch, Bernice hugging her precious gifts close to her heart. "It's the happiest Christmas I ever hai," she told Jim, with eyes all ashine. "And you don't hate the West and its people?" he smiled. ."No, indeed!" "Then perhaps you will like It well enough ta stay here always !" he blurted, and then in a panic of hash-fulness hash-fulness he dashed away from the Tucker's front gate, leaving Billy sole witness to Bernice's blushes and telltale tell-tale eyes. "We'll have another Christmas tree next year we three and it won't be any accident either," predicted the guide shrewdly. Billy's prophecy was fulfilled, and Bernice's happy Christmas was followed follow-ed by many more In the country which she learned to love because Love hud really sought and found her there. (Copyright.) "Merry Christmas!" All Three Said in Unison. ket, the lonely little schoolma'am set off down the trail toward the Tucker place, where she boarded. It was snowing hard now and the trail was rapidly disappearing under-the under-the white blanket. In the deepening gloom dark shapes appeared, approaching approach-ing and receding, but they proved to be the pine trees fringing the steep lopes. Far below, the lights of the town gleamed through the darkness and then vanished, aud Bernice, plunging out of the path to avoid a deep drift, took a wrong turning and soon acknowledged ac-knowledged to herself with a frightened fright-ened sob that she was lost on the mountain In a raging blizzard. Hours afterward, she sank exhausted exhaust-ed at the foot of a pine tree and drop-ed drop-ed her head on her outstretched irms. "I will rest for a few minutes," she murmured drowsily. Down in the town Mrs. Tucker waited supper that Christmas eve until un-til nine o'clock. Then little Willie Tucker sleepily announced that Mrs. Halliday had invited teacher to spend the night and eat Christmas dinner at the Halliday ranch. Chiding Willie for his tardy information, Mrs. Tucker hastened to the telephone and called the Halliday ranch ; but the wires were all down, and so the anxious little woman decided that the teacher had been unable to send word about her change of Christmas plans, and went about the trimming of the Tucker Christmas tree with renewed activity. Bernice opened her tyes in the living liv-ing room of a warm log cabin. Gay Navajo blankets hung from the walls and covered the broad couch on which she reclined before a blazing fire of hickory logs. Two men were bending over the fire ; one was stirring something in a bright tin saucepan, something hot and steaming which he poured into a tumbler tum-bler and brought to her bedside. "Hello!" he siulled. "Awake are you! |