at scarce a word was spoke. They know'd it. I
believe they know'd it before they seed t' boat. If only them had
cried I'd have been able to say something. But ne'er a word was spoke.
So I says, 'Jim, go up and pull t' flag down quick. Us has no right to
having t' flags flying for we.'

"Then Grannie, she gets her voice, and she says, 'No, Jimmie, don't
you do it. It be just right as it is. For 't is for Neddie's and
Willie's home-coming it be flying.'"

NANCY

We had just reached hospital from a long trip "on dogs." My driver was
slipping the harnesses off the animals and giving them the customary
friendly cuff and words of praise. Among the crowd which always
gathered to greet us, one friend, after giving us the usual welcome of
"What cheer, Doctor?" noticed apparently that I had a new winter
_compagnon de voyage_.

"Joe's not with you, Doctor? Gone sawing t' winter, I hear. T' boys
say he's got a fine bulk of timber cut already."

"Working for the lumber camp, I suppose, Uncle Abe," I replied.

"Not a bit of it," he chuckled. "'T is sawing for hisself he's gone."

"Eh? Wants lumber, does he? Going to build a larger fishing boat?"

"Youse can call it that if you likes, Doctor, for 't will be a fine
fish he lands into it. But I reckon 't is more of a dock he'll need."
And the rest joined in hearty laughter at the sally.

"'T is a full-rigged schooner he be going to moor there, with bunting
enough to burn, and as saucy as a cyclone," chimed in another, while a
third 'lowed, "'T is a great girl he's after, if he gets her, anyhow."

"Nancy's the pluckiest little girl for many a mile along this coast or
she wouldn't be what she is, and her family so poor."

A week or so later I fell in with half a dozen boisterous lads driving
their sledges home laden with new wood. It proclaimed to the harbour
that the rumour of Joe's big bulk of timber being ready so early had
not been exaggerated. It was only then that I learned that he had in
addition quickly got his floors down before the ground froze, so that
he might finish building before the winter set in.

Many hands make light work and every one was Joe's friend, so by the
end of December the new house had not only been sheathed in, but
roofed and floored, ready for occupation.

In our scattered communities, isolated not only from one another, but
also largely from the world outside, the simple incidents of everyday
life afford just as much interest as the