“What is this wonderful snow, Minnie, that you are tormenting Mr. Lee for?” asked Mrs. Hale.

“Oh! it’s a fairy snow that he told me all about; it only comes when the sun comes up and goes down, and if you catch ever so little of it in your hand it makes all you fink you want come true!  Wouldn’t that be nice?” But to the child’s astonishment her little circle of auditors, even while assenting, sighed.

The red snow was there plain enough the next morning before the valley was warm with light, and while Minnie, her mother, and aunt Kate were still peacefully sleeping.  And Mr. Lee had kept his word, and was evidently seeking it, for he and Falkner were already urging their horses through the pass, with their faces towards and lit up by its glow.

CHAPTER VIII

Kate was stirring early, but not as early as her sister, who met her on the threshold of her room.  Her face was quite pale, and she held a letter in her hand.  “What does this mean, Kate?”

“What is the matter?” asked Kate, her own color fading from her cheek.

“They are gone—­with their horses.  Left before day, and left this.”

She handed Kate an open letter.  The girl took it hurriedly, and read—­

“When you get this we shall be no more; perhaps not even as much.  Ned found the trail yesterday, and we are taking the first advantage of it before day.  We dared not trust ourselves to say ‘Good-by!’ last evening; we were too cowardly to face you this morning; we must go as we came, without warning, but not without regret.  We leave a package and a letter for your husband.  It is not only our poor return for your gentleness and hospitality, but, since it was accidentally the means of giving us the pleasure of your society, we beg you to keep it in safety until his return.  We kiss your mother’s hands.  Ned wants to say something more, but time presses, and I only allow him to send his love to Minnie, and to tell her that he is trying to find the red snow.

“George Lee.”

“But he is not fit to travel,” said Mrs. Hale.  “And the trail—­it may not be passable.”

“It was passable the day before yesterday,” said Kate drearily, “for I discovered it, and went as far as the buck-eyes.”

“Then it was you who told them about it,” said Mrs. Hale reproachfully.

“No,” said Kate indignantly.  “Of course I didn’t.”  She stopped, and, reading the significance of her speech in the glistening eyes of her sister, she blushed.  Josephine kissed her, and said—­

“It was treating us like children, Kate, but we must make them pay for it hereafter.  For that package and letter to John means something, and we shall probably see them before long.  I wonder what the letter is about, and what is in the package?”

“Probably one of Mr. Lee’s jokes.  He is quite capable of turning the whole thing into ridicule.  I dare say he considers his visit here a prolonged jest.”