She'd bank grit 'gainst his for
all there was in him, an' see him, an' go him better if it was possible.
Nothing over the earth, or in it, or under it, she wouldn't 'a' done."
"But she loved him," objected the engineer.
"'T ain't that. It--"
"Look you, brothers," broke in Sitka Charley from his seat on the grub-
box. "Ye have spoken of the streak of fat that runs in big men's
muscles, of the grit of women and the love, and ye have spoken fair; but
I have in mind things which happened when the land was young and the
fires of men apart as the stars. It was then I had concern with a big
man, and a streak of fat, and a woman. And the woman was small; but her
heart was greater than the beef-heart of the man, and she had grit. And
we traveled a weary trail, even to the Salt Water, and the cold was
bitter, the snow deep, the hunger great. And the woman's love was a
mighty love--no more can man say than this."
He paused, and with the hatchet broke pieces of ice from the large chunk
beside him. These he threw into the gold pan on the stove, where the
drinking-water thawed. The men drew up closer, and he of the cramps
sought greater comfort vainly for his stiffened body.
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