A Countess from Canada | Page 2

which, under present
circumstances, was not worth working. Now the nearest approach to a
village was at Seal Cove, at the mouth of the river, nearly three miles
away, where there were about half a dozen wooden huts, and the liquor
saloon kept by Oily Dave when he was at home, and shut up when he
was absent on fishing expeditions.
Although houses were so scarce, there was no lack of trade for the
lonely store in the woods. All through the summer there was a
procession of birchbark canoes, filled with red men and white, coming
down the river to the bay, laden with skins of wolf, fox, beaver,
wolverine, squirrel, and skunk, the harvest of the winter's trapping.
Then in winter the cove and the river were often crowded with boats,
driven to anchorage there by the ice, and to escape the fearful storms
sweeping over the bay. The river was more favoured as an anchorage
than the cove, because it was more sheltered, and also because there
was open water at the foot of the rapids even in the severest winter, and
had been so long as anyone could remember.
As the morning wore on, Katherine's mood became even more restless,
and she simply yearned for the fresh air and the sunshine. She was
usually free to go out-of-doors in the afternoons, because the boys only
worked until noon, and then again in the evening, when it was night
school, and Katherine did her best with such of the fisher folk as
preferred learning to loafing and gambling in Oily Dave's saloon.
Even Miles seemed stupid this morning, for he was usually such a good
worker; while Phil was quite hopeless. Both boys were bitten 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 were a man; then I
could go off hunting, trapping, or even lumbering, and so breathe fresh
air all day long."
Mrs. Burton smiled. "I expect if you were a man you would just do as
other men do; that is, smoke a dirty little pipe all day long, and so never
breathe fresh air at all."
"That is not the sort of man I would be," retorted Katherine, with a toss
of her head.
Then she put the twins into their high chairs: her father and the boys
came in, and dinner began. It was a hasty meal, as early dinner has to
be when half of the day's work lies beyond it, and in less than half an
hour Katherine was getting into a thick pilot coat, fur cap, mittens, and
a big muffler; for, although the sun was so bright, the cold was not to

be trifled with.
'Duke Radford, short for Marmaduke, was a sombre-looking man of
fifty. Twenty-five years of pioneer life in the Keewatin country had
worn him considerably, and he looked older than his years. But he was
a strong man still, and to-day he had loaded a sledge with stores to
draw himself, while Katherine looked after the four great dogs which
drew the other sledge.
The track for the first three miles was as bad as a track could be. 'Duke
Radford went first, to beat or pack the snow a