e."

Sophy, however, soon began to find that she had had snow-shoeing enough
for one day, and the rest of the party discovered, when they took the
shoes off, that their insteps ached more than they had ever before done.
Still they were all ready to try again the next day. Mrs Norman
proved to be exactly the sort of person her husband had described her;
though homely, she was entirely free from vulgarity, and as she had
lived all her life in Canada, she possessed and was glad to impart a
large amount of information most valuable to Mrs Ashton and Sophy. She
promised to remain a week with them, to give them instruction in
numerous departments of domestic management of which they were ignorant.
"It's a pleasure, ma'am, to tell you these things," she remarked to
Mrs Ashton; "you take them in so kindly, and don't seem to fancy that
your own ways are better, and that you know more than the person
teaching you, as some people do."

The winter passed by pleasantly and usefully. There were some days when
even the most hardy of the party had no inclination to go out; this was
when there was a strong northerly wind and an intense frost, and the
finer particles of snow were carried through the air and struck the face
like so many Liliputian arrows discharged by an army from that far-famed
land of Liliput. There was, however, abundance of work to be done in
the house, and plenty of hard exercise in sawing up logs for the stove
fires. These, while the severer frost lasted, were never allowed to go
out, and no one had reason to complain of the want of warmth inside the
house; indeed, the walls were so thick, that they retained the heat in
the way an ordinary brick or plank building could not have done. Old
and young declared, that in spite of cold and snow, they had never spent
a happier or pleasanter winter. Probably the happiness of the elders
arose from seeing their children contented and well employed around
them. There was one absent--Leonard, the midshipman. They almost
wished that he would give up the sea, and come and live with them. Mr
Ashton had not even suggested that he should do so, though his necessary
allowance took away a large portion of the slender income on which the
family had mainly to depend. His parents were amply rewarded by hearing
of the high character he was gaining for himself. D'Arcy was a frequent
visitor; he would have been more frequent, but duty kept him labouring
at home. Occasionally Ph