k continued,
addressing Mrs. Gray, "I knows what 'tis t' be alone, now, an' th' men
folks is all in th' bush. I used t' be alone before Tom takes th'
place t' th' post; but now we has plenty o' company."

"'Tis wonderful good an' thoughtful of you!" Mrs. Gray exclaimed
heartily. "Now set in an' have a cup o' tea an' a bite. You must need
un after th' cruise over."

The evening was spent in chatting and visiting and looking over
Emily's new clothes. Neither Emily nor Bessie--both overcome with
excitement--slept much, however, that night, for they had a world to
talk about as they lay in bed--but most of all the great and wonderful
experiences Emily was to have.

Emily and her mother clung to each other, and Bessie to both of them,
and cried and cried, when the time for parting came the following
morning, until finally Douglas and Richard were compelled to draw
Emily gently into the boat. Then motherly Mrs. Black, surreptitiously
brushing tears from her own eyes, put her arm around Mrs. Gray and
soothingly urged:

"Don't be cryin', Mary. Th' maid's goin' t' be all right, an' they's
nothin' to cry for. 'Twon't be so long till you has she back."

Richard had the hull of the little schooner well under way when the
mid-October cold forced him to abandon the work until the following
summer, and he was preparing to set out upon his trail when Douglas
appeared one evening, fresh from St. Johns, to report Emily
comfortably settled in the home of a hospitable family near the school
she was attending, and that she was immensely interested in her
studies and fairly well contented, though a little lonesome at times
for home.

Douglas evidently had something on his mind that troubled him. Once
Mrs. Gray asked if he were ailing, but he denied anything but the best
of health. Finally, however, as a disagreeable duty that he must
perform, the kind-hearted old trapper said:

"I'm not knowin' just how t' tell you--'twill be a wonderful hard blow
t' th' lad--th' bank where Bob were puttin' his money has broke, an'
I'm fearin' th' money's all lost."

"Lost! Lost!" exclaimed Richard and Mrs. Gray together.

"Aye," said Douglas, "lost."

Then he explained fully the failure of the bank, in which he also had
a small amount on deposit, and the improbability of any of the
depositors recovering more than a nominal percentage of their
deposits, and even that doubtful.

"Well," said Mrs. Gray, "'twill be wonderful hard on th' lad, an'