he tell you she would like to see a sugaring-off?"

"No; they didn't stop long enough to tell me anything. Hughie shouted at
me as they passed."

"Well," said Ranald, speaking slowly and with difficulty, "she wanted
bad to see the sugar-making, and I asked her to come."

"You did, eh? I wonder at you."

"And she wanted to bring her niece, and--and--I let her," said Ranald.

"Her niece! Jee-roo-sa-LEM!" cried Don. "Do you know who her niece is?"

"Not I," said Ranald, looking rather alarmed.

"Well, she is the daughter of the big lumberman, St. Clair, and she is a
great swell."

Ranald stood speechless.

"That does beat all," pursued Don; "and you asked her to our camp?"

Then Ranald grew angry. "And why not?" he said, defiantly. "What is
wrong about that?"

"O, nothing much," laughed Don, "if I had done it, but for you, Ranald!
Why, what will you do with that swell young lady from the city?"

"I will just do nothing," said Ranald. "There will be you and Mrs.
Murray, and--"

"Oh, I say," burst in Don, "that's bully! Let's ask some of the boys,
and--your aunt, and--my mother, and--some of the girls."

"Oh, shucks!" said Ranald, angrily. "You just want Marget Aird."

"You get out!" cried Don, indignantly; "Marget Aird!" Then, after a
pause, he added, "All right, I don't want anybody else. I'll look after
Mrs. Murray, and you and Maimie can do what you like."

This combination sounded so terrible to Ranald that he surrendered at
once; and it was arranged that there should be a grand sugaring-off, and
that others besides the minister's wife and her niece should be invited.

But Mrs. Murray had noticed the falling of Ranald's face at the mention
of Maimie's visit to the camp, and feeling that she had taken him at
a disadvantage, she determined that she would the very next day put
herself right with him. She was eager to follow up the advantage she had
gained the day before in establishing terms of friendship with Ranald,
for her heart went out to the boy, in whose deep, passionate nature she
saw vast possibilities for good or ill. On her return from her daily
visit to Macdonald Dubh, she took the camp road, and had the good
fortune to find Ranald alone, "rigging up" his kettles preparatory
to the boiling. But she had no time for kettles to-day, and she went
straight to her business.

"I came to see you, Ranald," she said, after she had shaken hands with
him, "about our sugaring-off. I've been thinking tha