rather more interested in his silent partner, he would from time to
time lose the thread of the discourse. By degrees the conversation
died down into silence. A few minutes later Mrs. Spear suddenly
remarked:

"Father . . . don't you think it would be a good thing if you took
son-in-law into partnership?"

Father leaned back, scratched his head for a while, and then replied:

"Yes, Mother, I do, and I'll do it."

The silent though beautiful Athabasca, without even raising her eyes
from her plate, blushed violently, and needless to say, I blushed, too,
but, of course, only out of sympathy.

"The horses are too busy, just now, to haul the logs, but of course the
young people could have our spare room until I could build them a log
shack."

"Father, that's a capital idea. So there's no occasion for any delay
whatever. Then, when their house is finished, we could spare them a
bed, a table, a couple of chairs, and give them a new cooking stove."

Athabasca blushed deeper than ever, and studied her plate all the
harder, and I began to show interest and prick up my ears, for I
wondered who on earth son-in-law could be? I knew perfectly well there
was no young white man in all that region, and that even if he lived in
the nearest frontier town, it would take him, either by canoe or on
snowshoes, at least two weeks to make the round trip to Spearhead, just