When he came back he brought with him a
basket of the early red snow-flowers, with earth clinging to their
roots. These he planted thickly over the mound under the spruce, and
around its edge he put rows of the young shoots of Labrador tea and
backneesh.
As the weather grew warmer, and spring changed into summer, he took
Melisse upon short excursions with him into the forests, and together
they picked great armfuls of flowers and Arctic ferns. The grave was
never without fresh offerings, and the cabin, with its new addition
complete, was always filled with the beautiful things that spring up
out of the earth.
Jan and Melisse were happy; and in the joys of these two there was
pleasure for the others of the post, as there had been happiness in
the presence of the woman. Only upon Cummins had there settled a deep
grief. The changes of spring and summer, bringing with them all that
this desolate world held of warmth and beauty, filled him with the
excruciating pain of his great grief, as if the woman had died but
yesterday.
When he first saw the red flowers glowing upon her grave, he buried
his head in his arms and sobbed like a child. The woman had loved
them. She had always watched for the first red blooms to shoot up out
of the wet earth.
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