ne Club, and stopped among the high ranges
longer than we meant. In fact, the snow rather surprised us. The
others had gone before we started and we had a rough time coming South."

"You didn't make it without packers," said Jim, who knew they were
English.

"We left the boys some distance back. There was not much shelter at
the camp and although they were satisfied, we resolved to follow the
line and try to find a shack. The boys will, no doubt, arrive in the
morning."

Jim nodded, because a line was cut through the forest for the telegraph
wires.

"You ran some risk. If you camped at sundown, it's a while since you
had supper. I can give you coffee and a hot bannock."

He put the kettle on the fire and when the meal was over studied his
guests as they lighted their pipes. One was about thirty years old,
and in spite of his ragged clothes, Jim thought him a man with
cultivated tastes and wide experience. The other was young and looked
frank. He had a refined, intelligent face and was like the girl whom
Jim had seen at the restaurant; she was, perhaps, a relation. For a
time the strangers talked about their journey and then one looked at
Jim rather hard.

"Haven't I seen you before?"

Jim smiled. "At Cibbley's as you go to the new post-office at
Montreal."

"Oh, yes! It was a very well-served lunch," said the other and picked
up the French romance. "A curious book, but rather fine in parts. Do
you understand the fellow?"

"On the whole. I like him; you feel he has a grip. Still he's
puzzling now and then."

"These French' writers are puzzling; always trying to work off an
epigram," the younger man remarked. "However, I suppose there's as
much French as English spoken at Montreal and Quebec."

"Not French like this," the other said with a smile. "I doubt if an
up-to-date _boulevardier_ would own it for his mother's tongue. You
would be surprised if you heard our Cumberland farmers use Chaucer's
English."

"I don't know; they go back beyond him now and then. When they count
their sheep I imagine they talk like Alfred or Canute. But suppose you
give us an example of ancient French."

The older man opened the book and after turning a number of pages read
a passage with taste and feeling. Then he looked at Jim.

"He's primitive; our thoughts run in another groove. But I daresay
there's something archaic about Quebec French and you perhaps know the
latter. Have I struck the right no