nd thus she was always near to wait upon him
day or night. Mr. Sinclair's recovery was slow, and at first the
doctor almost despaired of his life. It was a bad case of pneumonia
brought on by his becoming over-heated while walking along the cut-out,
and then getting chilled to the bone lying on the snow. To Lois it was
a most anxious time, and during the first two weeks she seldom went out
of the house. When at last her father was able to be left alone for a
while she spent an hour or so out of doors with Dora and Stephen.

It was a wonderful winter to the Bean family. Never before had Mrs.
Bean known what it was to be free from the oppressing spectre of want.
No longer was she forced to worry about household supplies; neither was
it necessary for Steve to go to the store each week with his basket of
eggs and a few rolls of butter. He carried, instead, an order from
Lois, and Andy Forbes was only too willing to deliver the goods in
person instead of letting Steve carry them as hitherto. Jimmy was
working in the woods with Jasper, and every Saturday night he brought
his wages home to his mother. Thus the Bean household was well
supplied with sufficient food and the widow's heart was made glad.

To some city people the life in a country house, especially in the
winter time, would have been very lonely and trying. But with Lois it
was different. She thoroughly enjoyed the change, and as soon as she
was able to leave her father alone for a few hours she would spend the
time out of doors with Dora and Stephen. To them she was a marvellous
woman, and they fairly worshipped her. What fun they had coasting down
the big hill over the firm crust, and what snow-houses they made when
the snow could be packed and moulded into any shape. But to Lois the
best enjoyment of all was to accompany Steve on his rounds to his
rabbit snares. The forest was a revelation to her. She knew it well
in summer, but nothing about its winter moods, such as the weird
silence of a frosty morning, broken only at times by the pistol-like
report from a distant tree. It startled her at first, and she stood
spell-bound listening to its reverberation up and down the long woody
reaches.

"The frost does that," Steve explained. "I've heard our house do the
same thing on a cold night. Ma says it's drawin' the nails."

Lois liked the woods best when a stiff wind was abroad. She enjoyed
hearing it roaring overhead, bending and twisting the to