ed itself, irresistibly, for
there was something in its essence that would not be denied. In the
heart that had been overburdened something broke, like a flood
bursting its bonds. She threw up her head and uplifted her hands as
laughter, pealing and rippling unrestrained, shook her slender frame
from head to foot until tears ran down the now reddened cheeks and
turned to tiny globes of ice. She was making up for weeks and months
of sombre thoughts, of despair, of shrewd suffering.

"Tank gootness!" roared Stefan. "First I tink dem togs yoost kill you
dead. If so I take de pelts off 'em all alife, de scoundrels!"

"Oh! Please don't punish them," she cried. "It--it was so funny! Oh,
dear! I--I must stop laughing! It--it hurts my sides!"

She ran off among the dogs and threw herself down on the crusted snow,
passing one arm over a shaggy back. The animal looked at her,
uncertainly, but suddenly he passed a big moist tongue over her face.
Could he have realized that her saving grace might avert condign
punishment? The girl petted him as Stefan turned the toboggan and its
load right side up.

"You ain't feared of dem togs," he called to her. "And you vasn't
afraid vhen dey dump you out. You's a blucky gal all right, leddy!"

A moment later she was again wrapped up in the bearskin and the dogs,
loudly threatened but unpunished, owing to her intercession, resumed
their journey. They had gone but a few hundred yards further when
Madge smelled wood-smoke. A few minutes later they came in sight of a
low-built shack of heavy planks evidently turned out in a sawpit and
resting on walls of peeled spruce logs. The dogs trotted toward it and
a woman came out as Stefan stopped his team.

"I got a letter for you, Mis' Carew," he announced. "I got it dis
morning at de post-office and bring it as I come along dis vay."

He searched a pocket of his coat while the woman looked at Madge
curiously.

"Won't you come in and warm yourself a while?" she asked, civilly. "I
can make you a hot cup of tea in a minute."

"Thank you! Thank you ever so much," answered Madge. "I--I think we'd
better hurry on."

Stefan had found the letter and handed it to Mrs. Carew.

"Wait a moment, Stefan, won't you?" asked the woman. "There might
possibly be some message you could take for me."

The man lit his pipe while the woman went indoors. A moment later she
came out, excitedly.

"Oh! Stefan," she cried. "I'm so glad you came. My man's away with