rmer abode. Sigenok conveyed us in
his canoe, and we pitched our tent on the very spot our hut had
occupied. In vain we searched for our father, in vain we made inquiries
of other settlers, no one had seen him. Day after day we waited,
thinking that he might have been swept downward with the flood clinging
to a piece of timber or some other floating body, and that he might as
yet be unable to return. Sam Dawes looked more and more sad when we
spoke of his return. Sigenok, who had remained by us, shook his head.
"He gone, no come back," he observed. Our hearts sank within us as the
sad truth forced itself on our minds that we were orphans.

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FOUR.

Long we continued to hope against hope. Neither was our father's body,
nor were any of the cattle he was driving off ever discovered. The
current must have swept them down into Lake Winnipeg.

"I aint much of a person for it, young masters," said Sam Dawes, taking
a hand of each of us and looking at us affectionately, "but I loves ye
as sons, and I'll be in the place of a father, that I will."

Faithfully did Sam Dawes keep his word.

"Grief is right and does us good in the end, depend on't, or it wouldn't
be sent; but it mustn't make us forget duty. Now you see it is our duty
to live, and we can't live without food, and we can't get food without
we work, so let's turn to and plough and sow the ground."

This proposal may seem like mockery, but among the valuables placed by
our father in the canoe was a good supply of seed corn and other seeds,
and we had discovered our plough driven deep into the ground. Sigenok
disappeared the moment he understood our intentions, and Sam looked very
blank, and said that he feared he did not like work and had gone off.

"I think not," observed Malcolm; and he was right. In a few hours
Sigenok returned two horses and several hides well tanned, and needles,
and fibre for thread. I thought Sam would have hugged him, he was so
delighted. Without loss of time they set to work and cut out a set of
harness, and, lighting a lamp, seated at the entrance to our tent,
laboured at it the greater part of the night, Malcolm and I helping as
far as we could. Sam made us go to sleep, but as I looked up they were
still at work, and when I awoke in the morning it was finished. The
horses were a little restive, evidently not being accustomed to
ploughing, but they obeyed Sigenok's voice in a wonderful way, though it