“Bessie, I am sure you have exaggerated things,” remarked Col.  Zane after Betty had gone upstairs to dress for the dance.  “Perhaps it is only that Betty grows a little tired of this howling wilderness.  Small wonder if she does.  You know she has always been used to comfort and many young people, places to go and all that.  This is her first winter on the frontier.  She’ll come round all right.”

“Have it your way, Ebenezer,” answered his wife with a look of amused contempt on her face.  “I am sure I hope you are right.  By the way, what do you think of this Ralfe Miller?  He has been much with Betty of late.”

“I do not know the fellow, Bessie.  He seems agreeable.  He is a good-looking young man.  Why do you ask?”

“The Major told me that Miller had a bad name at Pitt, and that he had been a friend of Simon Girty before Girty became a renegade.”

“Humph!  I’ll have to speak to Sam.  As for knowing Girty, there is nothing terrible in that.  All the women seem to think that Simon is the very prince of devils.  I have known all the Girtys for years.  Simon was not a bad fellow before he went over to the Indians.  It is his brother James who has committed most of those deeds which have made the name of Girty so infamous.”

“I don’t like Miller,” continued Mrs. Zane in a hesitating way.  “I must admit that I have no sensible reason for my dislike.  He is pleasant and agreeable, yes, but behind it there is a certain intensity.  That man has something on his mind.”

“If he is in love with Betty, as you seem to think, he has enough on his mind.  I’ll vouch for that,” said Col.  Zane.  “Betty is inclined to be a coquette.  If she liked Clarke pretty well, it may be a lesson to her.”

“I wish she were married and settled down.  It may have been no great harm for Betty to have had many admirers while in Philadelphia, but out here on the border it will never do.  These men will not have it.  There will be trouble come of Betty’s coquettishness.”

“Why, Bessie, she is only a child.  What would you have her do?  Marry the first man who asked her?”

“The clod-hoppers are coming,” said Mrs. Zane as the jingling of sleigh bells broke the stillness.

Col.  Zane sprang up and opened the door.  A broad stream of light flashed from the room and lighted up the road.  Three powerful teams stood before the door.  They were hitched to sleds, or clod-hoppers, which were nothing more than wagon-beds fastened on wooden runners.  A chorus of merry shouts greeted Col.  Zane as he appeared in the doorway.

“All right! all right!  Here she is,” he cried, as Betty ran down the steps.

The Colonel bundled her in a buffalo robe in a corner of the foremost sled.  At her feet he placed a buckskin bag containing a hot stone Mrs. Zane thoughtfully had provided.

“All ready here.  Let them go,” called the Colonel.  “You will have clear weather.  Coming back look well to the traces and keep a watch for the wolves.”