n Bay
freighters and cowboys, old timers and tenderfeet alike swear by it.
See, you moisten it slightly in water, fry it in boiling fat, sugar it
and keep hot till served. Thus Hudson Bay hard tack becomes muffles."

"Marvellous!" exclaimed Mr. Romayne, "and truly delicious! And to think
that the Savoy chef knows nothing about muffles! But now that my first
faintness is removed and the mystery of muffles is solved, may I
inquire just what you are doing up here to-day, Miss Gwynne? What is the
business on hand, I mean?"

"Oh, Nora is getting out some logs for building and firewood for next
winter. The logs, you see, are cut during the winter and hauled to the
dump there."

"Dump!" exclaimed Mr. Romayne faintly.

"Yes. The bank there where you dump the logs into the creek below."

"But what exactly has Miss Nora to do with all this?"

"I?" enquired Nora, "I only boss the job."

"Don't you believe her," said Mrs. Waring-Gaunt. "I happen to remember
one winter day coming upon this young lady in these very woods driving
her team and hauling logs to the dump while Sam and Joe did the cutting.
Ask the boys there? And why shouldn't she?" continued Mrs. Waring-Gaunt.
"She can run a farm, with garden, pigs and poultry thrown in; open a
coal mine and--"

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Nora, "the boys here do it all. Mother furnishes
the head work."

"Oh, Nora!" protested Kathleen, "you know you manage everything. Isn't
that true, boys?"

"She's the hull works herself," said Sam. "Ain't she, Joe?"

"You bet yeh," said Joe, husky with the muffles.

"She's a corker," continued Sam, "double compressed, compensating, forty
horsepower, ain't she, Joe?"

"You bet yeh!" adding, for purpose of emphasis, "By gar!"

"Six cylinder, self-starter," continued Sam with increasing enthusiasm.

"Self-starter," echoed Joe, going off into a series of choking chuckles.
"Sure t'ing, by gar!" Joe, having safely disposed of the muffles, gave
himself up to unrestrained laughter, throwing back his head, slapping
his knees and repeating at intervals, "Self-starter, by gar!"

So infectious was his laughter that the whole company joined in.

"Cut it out, boys," said Nora. "You are all talking rot, you know; and
what about you," she added, turning swiftly upon her sister. "Who runs
the house, I'd like to know, and looks after everything inside, and does
the sewing? This outfit of mine, for instance? And her own outfit?"

"Oh, Nora," protested Kath