h trunk dollars enough to give his only child, Marie-Joseph,
quite a little dowry for that coast.

It had often been a puzzle to us why this lonely old man, with no one
belonging to him but one unusually pretty daughter, should have
migrated to the lonely North. He had been asked more than once what
the reason was, but he had always put the curious off by saying,
"Hunting must be a lonesome trade. You wants a lot of room to catch
foxes."

But one night, when he was in a more communicative mood than usual, we
got the whole story out of him.

Late one fall, when the southern fishing craft had gone south, and
the ground was crisp with the first frost of winter, the lovely calm
and sunny October morning had induced him to suggest to his wife that
she should go over to the neighbouring island with their two elder
children, a girl and a boy, and have a picnic, while they gathered
some of the beautiful red cranberries to "stow away" for the winter.
The baby girl, Marie, was left at home with the little servant maid.
The children had jumped for joy at the idea, and early after breakfast
he had rowed them across to the island, returning himself to finish
loading his small schooner with the household goods and chattels which
they must take up the bay to their winter home in the woods. So busy
had he been with work that only as it came time to go off for the
family did he notice how suddenly the weather had chopped around. A
sinister northerly flaw was already rippling the surface of the
hitherto placid sea; and Uncle Johnnie, accustomed to read the sky
like a book, hurried as he seldom did to get the small boat under way.
No one could have driven her faster than he drove her, and the pace
satisfied even his uneasy mind. The "cat's-paw" had stiffened to a
bitter blast behind him, and long before the boat reached the beach,
it was difficult enough to look to windward. Hauling up the boat, he
gave the familiar call which his wife knew so well; but no answer came
to greet him. Following along the shore, and still finding no traces,
he suddenly remembered that there was an old deserted house nearly a
mile farther along, and incontinently he started to run as fast as he
could in its direction. As he drew near, to his infinite joy he caught
sight of smoke issuing from holes in the leaky roof. Calling as he
went, he soon reached the cabin, to find the little party trying to
dry themselves before a wood fire in the crazy stove, which h