ll you the story," he said. "It's long and--and
rather sad."

"Love stories," Hutchins put in coldly, "are terribly stupid, except to
those concerned."

"That," he retorted, "is because you have never been in love. You are
young and--you will pardon the liberty?--attractive; but you are totally
prosaic and unromantic."

"Indeed!" she said, and relapsed into silence.

"These other ladies," Mr. McDonald went on, "will understand the
strangeness of my situation when I explain that the--the young lady I
care for is very near; is, in fact, within sight."

"Good gracious!" said Aggie. "Where?"

"It is a long story, but it may help to while away the long night hours;
for I dare say we are here for the night. Did any one happen to notice
the young lady in the first canoe, in the pink tam-o'-shanter?"

We said we had--all except Hutchins, who, of course, had not seen her.
Mr. McDonald got a wet cigarette from his pocket and, finding a box of
matches on the seat, made an attempt to dry it over the flames; so his
story was told in the flickering light of one match after another.

VI

"I am," Mr. McDonald said, as the cigarette steamed, "the son of poor
but honest parents. All my life I have been obliged to labor. You may
say that my English is surprisingly pure, under such conditions. As a
matter of fact, I educated myself at night, using a lantern in the top
of my father's stable."

"I thought you said he was poor," Hutchins put in nastily. "How did he
have a stable?"

"He kept a livery stable. Any points that are not clear I will explain
afterward. Once the thread of a narrative is broken, it is difficult to
resume, Miss Hutchins. Near us, in a large house, lived the lady of my
heart."

"The pink tam-o'-shanter girl!" said Aggie. "I begin to understand."

"But," he added, "near us also lived a red-headed boy. She liked him
very much, and even in the long-ago days I was fiercely jealous of him.
It may surprise you to know that in those days I longed--fairly
longed--for red hair and a red mustache."

"I hate to interrupt," said Hutchins; "but did he have a mustache as a
boy?"

He ignored her. "We three grew up together. The girl is
beautiful--you've probably noticed that--and amiable. The one thing I
admire in a young woman is amiability. It would not, for instance, have
occurred to her to isolate an entire party on the bosom of a northern
and treacherous river out of pure temper."

"To think," said A