roofs glittered in the silver
light. Half the street lay in shadow, a belt of grayish blue, but the
rest sparkled where the sleigh-shoes had run. A sleigh came up with a
load of girls and young men in blanket-coats and furs. They seemed to be
talking and laughing, but Agatha no longer envied them; the depression
she had felt had gone. Then as the sleigh went past with a chime of
bells she tried to follow her letter on its journey to the North.

After it left the railroad it would lie in a pack on a half-breed's
shoulders, or perhaps in a skin bag on a hand-sledge, in front of which
men with snowshoes marched. It would travel up winding rivers between
dark walls of ragged pines, across frozen lakes, and among the rocks on
high divides. Then the tired men would stop at a cluster of shacks
beside a shaft and an ore-dump in the wilds, and she wondered what
Thirlwell would think when he opened the envelope; whether he would be
pleased or not.

But this was indulging idle sentiment that she had meant to avoid, and
she went back to the table and opened her books. Thirlwell's answer
would not arrive for some weeks, and if she went north, summer would
come before she could start. In the meantime, she had her pupils to
teach. The subject for the next morning's lesson was difficult and
needed careful study.

CHAPTER X

THIRLWELL GETS A LETTER

A dreary wind wailed about the shack, and now and then the iron roof
cracked as it shrank and wrenched its fastenings in the bitter cold. The
room was not warm, although the front of the stove glowed a bright red,
and after supper Thirlwell pulled his chair between it and the wall. He
had been out for some hours with snowshoe and rifle, but had seen
nothing to shoot. The white desolation was empty of life, and silent
except for the wind among the pine-tops.

"I'd meant to look into the Snake Creek muskegs, but the cold drove me
back," he said. "In summer one's bitten by sand-flies and mosquitoes; in
winter one runs some risk of freezing to death. I wonder now and then
whether mining's worth the hardship and why we stop here."

"Unprofitable mining isn't logically worth much hardship," Scott
remarked. "But don't you mean you wonder why you came back?"

"No," said Thirlwell, with a touch of embarrassment; "that was pretty
obvious. I was offered a good post in England, but it meant I'd be
dependent on a man I don't like. A rough life with liberty is better
than luxurious servi