miles daily at home."

Miss Danton found St. Croix quite a large place, with dozens of
straggling streets, narrow wooden sidewalks, queer-looking, Frenchified
houses, shops where nothing seemed selling, hotels all still and
forlorn, and a church with a tall cross and its doors open. Sabbath
stillness lay over all--the streets were deserted, the children seemed
too indolent to play, the dogs too lazy to bark. The long, sluggish
canal, running like a sleeping serpent round the village, seemed to have
more of life than it had.

"What a dull place!" said Kate. "Has everybody gone to sleep? Is it
always like this?"

"Mostly," said Eeny. "You should hear Rose abuse it. It is only fit for
a lot of Rip Van Winkles, or the Seven Sleepers, she says. All the life
there is, is around the station when the train comes and goes."

The sisters wandered along the canal until the village was left behind,
and they were in some desolate fields, sodden from the recent rains. A
black marsh spread beyond, and a great gloomy building reared itself
against the blue Canadian sky on the other side.

"What old bastille is that?" asked Kate.

"The St. Croix barracks," said Eeny uneasily. "Come away Kate. I am
afraid of the soldiers--they may see us."

She turned round and uttered a scream. Two brawny redcoats were striding
across the wet field to where they stood. They reeled as they walked,
and set up a sort of Indian war-whoop on finding they were discovered.

"Don't you run away, my little dears," said one, "we're coming as fast
as we can."

"Oh, Kate!" cried Eeny, in terror, "what shall we do?"

"Let us go at once," said Kate, "those men are intoxicated."

They started together over the fields, but the men's long strides gained
upon them at every step.

"I say, my dear," hiccoughed one, laying his big hand on Kate's
shoulder, "you musn't run away, you know. By George! you're a pretty
girl! give us a kiss!"

He put his arms round her waist. Only for an instant; the next, with all
the blood of all the Dantons flushing her cheeks, she had sprung back
and struck him a blow in the face that made him reel. The blood started
from the drunken soldier's nose, and he stood for a second stunned by
the surprise blow; the next, with an imprecation, he would have caught
her, but that something caught him from behind, and held him as in a
vise. A big dog had come over the fields in vast bounds, and two rows of
formidable ivory held the warrior