t and gave the fat cockney a note which
he promised to deliver into her own hands. I wrote:

"Dear Berna: I cannot tell you how deeply grieved I am over your
grandfather's death, and how I sympathise with you in your sorrow.
I came over from the other trail to see you, but you were too ill.
Now I must go back at once. If I could only have said a word to
comfort you! I feel terribly about it.

"Oh, Berna, dear, go back, go back. This is no country for you. If
I can help you, Berna, let me know. If you come on to Bennett, then
I will see you.

"Believe me again, dear, my heart aches for you.

"Be brave.

"Always affectionately yours,

"Athol Meldrum."

Then once more I struck out for Bennett.

CHAPTER X

Our last load was safely landed in Bennett and the trail of the land was
over. We had packed an outfit of four thousand pounds over a
thirty-seven-mile trail and it had taken us nearly a month. For an
average of fifteen hours a day we had worked for all that was in us;
yet, looking back, it seems to have been more a matter of dogged
persistence and patience than desperate endeavour and endurance.

There is no doubt that to the great majority, the trail spelt privation,
misery and suffering; but they were of the poor, deluded multitude that
never should have left their ploughs, their desks and their benches.
Then there were others like ourselves to whom it meant hardship, more or
less extreme, but who managed to struggle along fairly well. Lastly,
there was a minority to whom it was little more than discomfort. They
were the seasoned veterans of the trail to whom its trials were all in
the day's work. It was as if the Great White Land was putting us to the
test, was weeding out the fit from the unfit, was proving itself a land
of the Strong, a land for men.

And indeed our party was well qualified to pass the test of the trail.
The Prodigal was full of irrepressible enthusiasm, and always loaded to
the muzzle with ideas. Salvation Jim was a mine of foresight and
resource, while the Jam-wagon proved himself an insatiable glutton for
work. Altogether we fared better than the average party.

We were camped on the narrow neck of water between Lindeman and Bennett,
and as hay was two hundred and fifty dollars a ton, the first thing we
did was to butcher the ox. The next was