rd of before! If he had got a
wife, now, I could have understood it, but a sister!"

"Well, whatever she is to him, she's a civilised white woman, and that's
a sight worth seeing in those regions. I wonder what she's like?" said
I.

"Like himself, of course. Tall, raw-boned, square-shouldered,
red-haired (you know he told us she was red-haired), square-jawed,
Roman-nosed--a Macnab female could be nothing else."

"Come," said I, "don't be impolite to Highland females, but go on with
the letter."

Lumley obeyed, but the letter contained little more of interest. We
cared not for that, however. We had now a subject capable of keeping us
in speculative talk for a week--the mere fact that there was actually a
civilised woman--a _lady_ perhaps--at all events a Macnab--within two
hundred miles of us!

"No doubt she's a rugged specimen of the sex," said Lumley, as we sat
beside the fire that night, "no other kind of white female would venture
to face this wilderness for the sake of a brother; but she _is_ a white
woman, and she _is_ only two hundred miles off--unless our friend is
joking--and she's Macnab's sister--Jessie, if I remember rightly--

"`Stalwart young Jessie,
The flower of--'"

"Come, Lumley, that will do--good-night!"

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

THE JOYS OF CAMPING OUT--IMPORTANT ADDITIONS TO THE ESTABLISHMENT--
SERIOUS MATTERS AND WINTER AMUSEMENTS.

At last winter came upon us in earnest. It had been threatening for a
considerable time. Sharp frosts had occurred during the nights, and
more than once we had on rising found thin ice forming on the lake,
though the motion of the running water had as yet prevented our stream
from freezing; but towards the end of October there came a day which
completely changed the condition and appearance of things.

Every one knows the peculiar, I may say the exhilarating, sensations
that are experienced when one looks out from one's window and beholds
the landscape covered completely with the first snows of winter.

Well, those sensations were experienced on the occasion of which I write
in somewhat peculiar circumstances. Lumley and I were out hunting at
the time: we had been successful; and, having wandered far from the
fort, resolved to encamp in the woods, and return home early in the
morning.

"I do love to bivouac in the forest," I said, as we busied ourselves
spreading brush-wood on the ground, preparing the kettle, plucking our
game, and kindling t