"With all her strength Katherine hauled at the rope"
Bartering with the Indians
Drifting Down the River




CHAPTER I

Beyond the Second Portage

"Oh dear, how I should love to go out!"

Katherine Radford stretched her arms wearily above her head as she
spoke. There had been five days of persistent snowfall; but this
morning the clouds had broken, showing strips and patches of blue
sky, and there was bright sunshine flooding the world again, with
hard and sparkling frost.

"Why don't you go?" demanded Phil, who was the youngest. "Miles
and me don't mind having a holiday at all."

"Speak for yourself if you like," growled Miles, who was thirteen;
"but I want to get this schooling business over and done with, so
that I can start doing something useful."

"And speak grammatically, please, or else keep silent. You should
have said, 'Miles and I'," remarked Katherine with quite crushing
dignity, as she turned from the window to take her place at the
table once more. Phil thrust his tongue in his cheek, after the