pointed out to them upon a brand-new blackboard, and the discomforts of
their nomadic lives assuaged by an introduction to collapsible bath-tubs
and the multiplication table. For hers was to be a mission as well as a
school. Truly the souls north of sixty were destined to owe her much.
For they borrow cheerfully, and repay--never.

So much for Chloe Elliston's plan. Lapierre, however, had his own
eminently more practical, if less Utopian, ideas concerning the erection
of a trading-post; for in the quarter-breed's mind the planting of an
independent trading-post upon the very threshold of MacNair's wilderness
empire was of far greater importance than the establishment of a school,
or mission, or any other institution--especially when the post was one
which he himself had set about to control. The man's eyes gleamed and
the thin lips smiled as his glance rested momentarily upon the figure of
the girl--the unwitting, and therefore the more powerful, weapon that
chance had placed in his hands in his battle against MacNair.

His idea of a post was simplicity itself: One long, log trading-room
with an ell for a storehouse, and a room--two at the most--in the rear
for the accommodation of the three women. The whole to be erected in the
centre of the clearing, and surrounded by a fifteen-foot log stockade.

Boldly he broached his plan.

"But this is _not_ a trading-post!" objected the girl. "The store is a
side issue and is to be conducted merely to permit those who take
advantage of my school to obtain the necessities of life at a fair and
reasonable price."

"Your words were well chosen, Miss Elliston. For if you begin to