he was quite sure that the advancing stranger
was her brother.

"Oh, Eddie, dear, I didn't know you at all. But how can one be expected
to with that great cap covering the upper part of your face and a coat
collar hiding nearly all the rest. But you really haven't changed, now
that I get a look at you. I daresay I have altered more than you. But I
was little more than a child when you went away."

"Well, we have quite a little drive ahead of us," said Eddie as, having
himself helped to carry Nora's trunks to a nondescript-looking vehicle
to which were attached two horses, he motioned to Nora to get in. "I
expect you won't be sorry to have a little air after being so long in a
stuffy car."

Nora noticed that he gave the man who had helped him with the trunks no
tip and that they called each other "Joe" and "Ed." This was democracy
with a vengeance. She made a little face of disapproval.

Nora never forgot that drive. In the light of after-events it seemed to
have cut her off more sharply from all the old life than either the
crossing of the pathless sea or the long overland journey. It was taken
for the most part in silence, Eddie's attention being largely taken up
with his team. Also Nora noted that he seemed to feel the cold more
than she did, as he kept his coat collar turned up all the way. She
herself was so occupied with her thoughts that she had no sense of
either time or distance.

At last they came in sight of a house such as she had never seen. It was
built entirely of logs. At the sound of their approach, the one visible
door opened on the crack as if to avoid letting in the cold, and Nora
saw a thin dark little woman with rather a hard look and a curiously
dried-up skin, whom she rightly guessed to be her sister-in-law,
standing in the doorway, while lounging nonchalantly against the
doorpost was a tall, strong, well-set-up young man whose age might have
been anything between thirty and thirty-five. He had remarkably
clean-cut features and was clean-shaven. His frankly humorous gaze
rested unabashed on the stranger's face.

Forgetting all her good resolutions to adapt herself to the habits and
customs of this new country, Nora felt that she could have struck him in
his impudent face. The fact that she reddened under his scrutiny,
naturally only made her the more furious.

"Come on out here, some of you," called Eddie jovially. "Heavens! The
way you all hug the stove would make anyone believe you'd nev