Free 30,000 On the Hoof by Zane Grey

into camp. "What have you been doing?"
    "Chastening my spirit, Logan," she returned cryptically.
    Riding back up the canyon, he wondered what Lucinda bad meant. But he did not ponder long over her complexity.
    In the following hour Logan snaked down the three other logs, and by the time Lucinda called him to eat 'he had the four foundation sides of his cabin squared, levelled, and blocked up with flat stones.
    "I'll cut logs this afternoon and to-morrow," he told Lucinda. "Maybe it'll take another day. Fine crop of small pines to choose from. But the shakes have me stumped."
    "Shakes?" inquired his wife.
    "Yes. Shingles for the roof. They're called shakes in the West. You split them out of a big pine log. It's got to be straight grain, and not too sappy. Maybe I can find a lightning-struck pine. Ought to, for lighting sure strikes in this forest."
    "Thunderstorms, you mean?" asked Lucinda fearfully. "I'll say. Terrible electric storms. Trees crashing all around you--rain, wind..."
    "I'm afraid of storms," said Lucinda in a troubled voice. "When I was a child, Mother used to shut me up in a dark hall."
    "Don't worry, Luce. It's too late for that kind of storm." He glanced at the sky, shaking his dark head. "Lord, I hope the snow holds off till we're under a roof. But the weather here is fine till Thanksgiving, mostly."
    When Logan finished his work, supper was almost ready and would have been earlier, Lucinda explained, but for the biscuits. She had burnt the first batch.
    "Luce, it's no easy job," said Logan, hastening to excuse her. "Did you remember to heat the lid while you wen heating the oven?"
    "No. But I put a shovelful of coals on the lid."
    "Always heat it first... Well, this has been a doggone good day. Only too short."
    "It was long for me--and lonesome," she replied wistfully. "You'll always be at work, won't you?"
    Logan nodded gravely. "I reckon so, Luce, come to think of it. But I like work. That's what I want. And presently you will be so busy the days will fly."
    Lucinda did not seem to share his optimism. The thought struck Logan that he must be kind and attentive to her. He helped her with the work after supper, talked about the cabin, and afterwards persuaded her to walk with him along the brook. He felt affection and solicitude, and warm yearning; but he was clumsy about expressing such feeling. Still his presence and his attention had a brightening effect upon her that he was glad to see.
    Lastly he kissed her good night, and was amazed at her wet eyes, shining in the firelight.
    Before sunrise next morning Logan shot and dressed a deer, cut and stacked firewood, and had breakfast ready when Lucinda arose. He then put in a prodigious day with the logs, cutting and trimming fifty, and peeling most of them. He did not know where the hours went, but that one spent with Lucinda after supper seemed to bring them closer. She was beginning to display interest in his work, to ask about the future. Yet she seemed to have a dread of being left alone, and she hated the cold.
    Logan vowed he would make their cabin snug and warm; and as if the daylight hours were not enough, working by firelight, he notched and laid the second square of logs.
    "But there's a space between," protested Lucinda when she noticed their arrangement.
    "Sure. We can't get the logs perfectly flat one on another."
    "What will we do, then? The rain and wind would blow in."
    "Tenderfoot! What's dobe mud for if not to fill in the chinks? This kind here in Arizona sets like mortar."
    "I used to build mud houses--and now I'm to live in one," said Lucinda dreamily, then, "But where'll the doors be?"
    "Only one door. Opening on the porch to the east. Storms usually blow from the south-west. I'll strain a point, and put in a window for you--in the south wall. That'll let in sun and light."
    Without any help, the following day Logan notched and lifted and squared four sections of logs on top of the two already laid. This, he told Lucinda, was getting