They are not natural or strong; nor can they mother the natural and strong." She stopped abruptly.

They heard somebody enter the hall, and a heavy, soft-moccasined tread approaching.
"We are friends," she added hurriedly, and Corliss answered with his eyes.
"Ain't intrudin', am I ?" Dave Harney grinned broad insinuation and looked about ponderously before coming up to shake hands.
"Not at all," Corliss answered.

"We've bored each other till we were pining for some one to come along.

If you hadn't, we would soon have been quarrelling, wouldn't we, Miss Welse ?" "I don't think he states the situation fairly," she smiled back.

"In fact, we had already begun to quarrel." "You do look a mite flustered," Harney criticised, dropping his loose-jointed frame all over the pillows of the lounging couch.
"How's the famine ?" Corliss asked.