Edison Marshall

“ He had atoned for everything already if he did not lift the axe again. Yet only eternity lay ahead.
Doomsdorf had seemed almost incredible to him at first. It was as if he couldn't possibly be true: a figment of nightmare that would vanish as soon as he wakened. But he was real enough now. Nothing was left to him but the knowledge how real he was.
He must not rest, he must not pause till the work was done. The fact that Bess had fallen, fainting, in the snow, did not affect him; he must swing his axe and hew the wood. Day was dying. Grayness was creeping in from the sea. ”

“ It is not good to know oneself a failure in the face of woman's trust. Yet the effect of the little scene was largely good, for it served to strengthen Ned's resolve to spare the girls in every way he could, and by his own feigned hope to keep them from despair. Above all, he found an in creased admiration for Bess. Instead of a silly prude, a killjoy for the party, she had shown herself as a sportswoman to the last fiber. She had been a friend when she had every right to be an enemy; she had shown spirit and character when women of lesser metal would have been irremediably crushed. ”

“ XVII There were a number of axes in the little work-room that comprised one end of the long cabin, and Doomsdorf flung three of them over his shoulder. “Right up through here,” he urged, pointing to the little hillside behind the cabin. “Of course I can't let you cut fuel from these trees so close to the house. You, as city people, surely know something about house beautifying. You'll have to carry the wood a little farther—but you won't mind, when you know it's for the sake of beauty.” ”