f it, they wept over the untimely
fate of Mary, Queen of Scots, and decided that Elizabeth was a bad
lot, and Mrs. Watson declared that if she "had aknowed all this
before, she would never ha' called Mary, Mary Elizabeth, because that
just seems like takin' sides with both parties," and she just
couldn't "abear people that do that!"

Lady Jane Grey, the Princes in the Tower, Oliver Cromwell, the
unhappy Charles I, were their daily guests, and were discussed with
the freedom and interest with which dwellers in small towns are
popularly supposed to discuss their neighbours.

All of the evening was not given up to pleasure. Pearl saw to it that
each child did his stint of home work, and very often a spelling
match was held, with Pearl as the teacher and no-fair-to-try-over.
The result of this was that Teddy Watson, Class V; Billy Watson,
Class III; Tommy and Jimmy Watson, Class IIA; Patsey and Bugsey
Watson, Class I, were impregnable rocks at the head of their classes
on whom the troublesome waves of "ei's" and "ie's," one "l" or two
"l's," beat in vain.

Even John Watson, hard though his hands were with the handling of a
shovel, was not immune from this outburst of learning, and at
Pearlie's suggestion even he was beginning to learn! He filled pages
of her scribbler with "John Watson," in round blocky letters, and
then added "Millford, Manitoba."

"Now, Pa," Pearlie said one night, "ain't there some of yer friends
ye'd like to write to, seein' as yer gettin' on so fine?"

John had not kept up a close touch with his friends down east since
he came to Manitoba.

"It's fifteen year," he said, "since I left the Ottaway valley, but
I'm thinkin' me sister Katie is alive. Katie was me oldest sister,
but I'm thinkin' it would take a lot to kill her!"

"What was she like, Pa?" Pearl asked.

John smoked on reminiscently. "She was a smart girl, was Kate, wid
her tongue. I always liked to hear her usin' it, on someone else. I
mind once me poor, father and Katie went to a circus at Arnprior and
father got into a bean and shell game. It looked rale easy at first
sight, and me father expected to make a bunch o' money, but instead
o' that, he lost all he had on him, and his watch, and so he came to
Katie and told her what had happened. Well, sir, they say that Katie
just gave a le'p and cracked her heels together, and, sir, she went
at yon man, and he gave back the money, every cent of it, and me
father's watch, too. The peopl