. Eddie had told her that a man
frequently had to hire out after a succession of bad seasons. What of
it? His keeping it to himself was the crowning impertinence!

CHAPTER VIII

"I'll do the washing, Nora, and you can dry," said Gertie in that
peculiar tone which Nora had learned to recognize as the preface to
something disagreeable.

"All right."

"I've noticed the things aren't half clean when I leave them to you to
do."

"I'm sorry; why didn't you tell me?"

"I suppose yon never did the washing-up in England. Too grand?"

But Nora was not to be ruffled just now. Her resentment against Taylor,
who was sitting watching her as if he read her thoughts--she often
wondered how much of them he _did_ read--made anything Gertie said seem
momentarily unimportant.

"I don't suppose anyone would wash up if they could help it. It's not
very amusing."

"You always want to be amused?"

"No, but I want to be happy."

"Well," said Gertie sharply, "you've got a roof over your head and a
comfortable bed to sleep in, three good meals a day and plenty to do.
That's all anybody wants to make them happy, I guess."

"Oh, Lord!" exclaimed Reggie from his corner.

"Well," said Gertie, turning sharply on him, "if you don't like Canada,
why did you come out?"

"You don't suppose," said Hornby, rising slowly to his feet, "I'd have
let them send me if I'd have known what I was in for, do you? Not much.
Up at five in the morning and working about the place like a navvy till
your back feels as if it 'ud break, and then back again in the
afternoon. And the same thing day after day. What was the good of
sending me to Harrow and Oxford if that's what I've got to do all my
life?"

There was a tragic dignity in his tone which for the moment held even
Gertie silent. It was her husband who answered him, and Gertie's jealous
ear detected a certain wistfulness in his voice.

"You'll get used to it soon enough, Reg. It _is_ a bit hard at first,
I'll admit. But when you get your foot in, you wouldn't change it for
any other life."

"This isn't a country for a man to go to sleep in and wait for something
to turn up," said Gertie aggressively.

"I wouldn't go back to England now, not for nothing," said Trotter,
stung to an unusual burst of eloquence. "England! Eighteen bob a week,
that's what I earned. And no prospects. Out of work five months in the
year."

"What did you do in England!" asked Nora curiously.

"Bricklayer, M