with the snow mania, and longing to be out-of-doors, in all the
exhilarating brilliancy of sunshine, frost, and snow. Noon came at
last, books were packed away; the boys rushed off like mad things,
while Katherine went more soberly across the store and entered the
living-room, which was sitting-room and kitchen combined.

An older girl was there, looking too young to be called a woman,
but who nevertheless was a widow, and the mother of the twin girls
who were rolling on the floor and playing with a big, shaggy
wolfhound. She was Nellie, Mrs. Burton, whose husband had been
drowned while sealing when the twins were twelve months old. Mrs.
Burton had come home to live then, and keep house for her father,
so that Katherine might go to Montreal to finish her education.

"Did you see Father as you came through the store?" Mrs. Burton
asked, as she rapidly spread the dinner on the table in the centre
of the room, while Katherine joined in the frolic that was going on
with the twins and the dog.

"No, he was not there," Katherine answered.

"He wants you to go up to the second portage with him this
afternoon. Another boat got in this morning with some mails on
board, and there are stores to be taken for Astor M'Kree," said
Mrs. Burton.

"That will be lovely!" cried Katherine, giving Lotta a toss up in
the air, after which Beth had to be treated in a similar fashion to
prevent jealousy. "I am simply yearning to be outside in the
sunshine and the cold. I have been wishing all the morning that I