Rings of short, curly brown
hair covered her round head; and small, twinkling blue eyes shone oddly
bright in her deeply tanned face, while her frequent smile displayed
small, milk-white teeth. A short, weather-stained skirt showed her
miner's boots and a man's coat was thrown over her shoulders. A bold,
freebooting Amazon she appeared, standing there in the fire-glow, and
one to whom hardihood was a birth-right.
The other woman towered above her and even above Gallito. She was a
colossal Venus, with a face pink and white as a may-blossom. Tremulous
smiles played about her soft, babyish mouth and a joyous excitement
shone in her wide, blue eyes. Upon her head was a small, lop-sided
bonnet, from which depended a rusty crepe veil of which she seemed
inordinately conscious, and at the throat of her black gown was a large,
pink bow.
"Make you acquainted with Mis' Thomas, Miss Gallito," said Mrs.
Nitschkan heartily. "Marthy's one of my oldest friends an' one of my
newest converts. She's all right if she could let the boys alone, an'
not be always tangled up in some flirtation that her friends has got to
sit up nights scheming to get her out of. That pink bow an' that crepe
veil shows she ain't got the right idea of her responsibilities as a
widow. So I brought her up to my little cabin, just a quarter of a mile
through the trees there, hopin' I'd get her mind turned on more sensible
things than men. Gosh a'mighty! She's got a chance to shoot bear here.
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