“Cheer up,” he said.  “It is only a question of time.  We shall soon be missed, and our signals will be more effective when it is dark.  See, we shall not starve.  I have been getting supper for you.  Keeping the remnants of our lunch wasn’t a bad idea, was it?”

“Keeping up your courage and mine is a better one.  Graydon, I fear you are suffering very much.”

“Oh, Madge, armies of men have broken their legs!  That’s nothing but a little disagreeable prose, while this adventure with you is something to talk and laugh over all our lives.  I’ve cut my boot off and bandaged my leg as well as I could, and am now hungry.  That’s a good sign.  I shall be positively hilarious if you make as good supper as this meagre spread permits.  Take a little water, for your throat must be parched.  You will have to drink it from the bottle, Pat’s fashion, for my rubber cup is broken.”

“Indeed, a little water is all I want at present, and I must gather wood for the fire before it is darker.”

“Very well,” he said, laughing; “supper shall wait for you.”

The vicinity appeared as if never before visited, and there was an abundance of dead and decaying wood lying about.  When she had secured a large quantity of this she came and sat down by the fire, and said, “I will take a little supper now, and then it will be so dark that we can signal in some other way.”

“Madge,” said Graydon, earnestly, “it has cut me to the heart to lie helplessly here and see you doing work so unsuitable.”

“Nothing could be more suitable under the circumstances.  You do think we shall be found soon?  Oh, I’m so worried about you!”

“More, then, than I am about myself.  I shall have to play invalid for some time.  Won’t you be my nurse occasionally?”

“Yes, Graydon, all I can.”

“Why, then, don’t worry about me at all.  The prospect makes me fairly happy.  Come, now, eat the whole of that sandwich.”

She complied, looking thoughtfully into the fire meanwhile.  By the light of the flickering blaze he saw the trouble and worry pass from her brow and the expression of her face grow as quiet and contented as that of a child’s.  At last she said, “Well, this does seem cosey and companionable, in spite of everything.  There, forgive me, Graydon; I forgot for the moment that you were in pain.”

“Was I?  I forgot it, too.  Sitting there in the firelight, you suggested the sweetest picture I ever hope to see.”

“You can’t be in extremis when you begin to compliment.”

“Don’t you wish to know what the picture was?”

“Oh, yes, if it will help you pass the time!”

“I saw you sitting by a hearth, and I thought, ’If that hearth were mine it would be the loveliest picture the world had known.’  Now you see what an egotist I am.  You look so enchanting in that firelight that I cannot resist—­I would try so hard to be worthy of you, Madge.  Make your own terms again, as I said once to you before.”