THE NORTHERN MYSTERY 251 



necessary absences on Government business, 

 the store was attacked by Indians. 



Her sons too young to be of any assistance, 

 this white woman became in a moment the 

 life and spirit of the defence. It was she 

 who armed and encouraged the Mexicans, 

 steadied their quailing hearts, and herself 

 set them the example of loading and firing 

 through the loopholes of the barricades she 

 had forced them to erect. It was a mother 

 fighting for the lives of her children inci- 

 dentally for her own life or her honour. 



Sitting listening to the recital in the peace 

 of the warm, bright morning, the big lads, 

 who were then babies, lingering to hear 

 again the oft-told tale, the peal of distant 

 church - bells floating across wide alfalfa 

 meadows, and the hum of bees in the ears, 

 it was given to these listeners to wonder 

 whether the same cool, brave spirit that 

 animated the woman before them would 

 have animated themselves in like emergency. 



' You cannot possibly tell till you are tried/ 

 was the quick retort ; and to this manifest 

 truism what was there to say ? 



Thereupon up spoke the father and hus- 



