rast with the green of the firs, and a picturesque
wooden building with pillars and verandas occupied the greater part of
the opening.

"If the place is as attractive inside, it's worth the walk," Foster
remarked. "You appreciate your quarters best when you've had some
trouble to get there."

"I'm thinking that's true. The peat fire and the auld rush chair in
the bit cothouse are weel worth winning to when ye come through the
rain and wind ower the dark moss. This is a gran' country, but it's
no' like that ither amang the Border fells."

Foster stood for a few moments and mused, for he sympathized with Pete.
He remembered the satisfaction with which he had seen the lights of a
lonely inn or farmstead twinkle when he tramped, wet and tired, across
the Scottish moors. They were bleak and often forbidding, but had a
charm one felt but could not analyze, with the half-lights that
trembled across them and their subdued coloring. In spite of some
hardships, he had been happy in the misty, rain-swept land, but he knew
it had been touched by the glamour of romance. That was over. He was
on his probation in utilitarian Canada, and very much at a loss; but he
meant to make good somehow and go forward, trusting in his luck.

"Well," he said, "I'm hungry and we'll get on. I hope they won't make
us wait for supper, though they'll no doubt call it dinner at a place
like this."

Five minutes afterwards he stamped the snow off his boots as he entered
a glass-fronted veranda in front of the hotel. It was comfortably
furnished, warm, and occupied by three people. A lady sat with some
sewing at a table, and a very pretty girl, holding a cigarette case,
leaned over the side of a basket chair, in which a man reclined.
Foster, who imagined he was an invalid by his slack pose, was passing
on to the main door when the man moved. As he turned to take a
cigarette Foster saw his face.

"Lawrence!" he exclaimed.

"Jake!" said the other, and would have got up, but the girl put her
hand restrainingly on his arm.

Foster stood still for a moment, overcome by surprise and satisfaction,
but understanding what he saw. The lady with the sewing was studying
him, but he did not resent this and thought he would like her. The
girl divided her attention between him and his comrade, whom she
restrained with a pretty air of authority. She obviously knew who
Foster was and felt curious, but meant to take care of Lawrence. There
was some