ing over to
see me after your long day's work here. By the time your people arrive I
shall have everything in order. I am expecting the things I have written
for and my own heavy baggage in a few days from Wellington."

Glad as he was to hear that his father and mother had arrived, Wilfrid
would have preferred that their coming should have been delayed until
the house was finished and ready for them, and after his first greeting
at the water side he said: "You must not be disappointed, mother, at
what you will see. Now everything is in confusion, and the ground is
covered with logs and chips. It looked much prettier, I can assure you,
when I first saw it, and it will do so again when we have finished and
cleared up."

"We will make all allowances, Wilfrid," his mother replied as he helped
her from the boat; "but I do not see that any allowance is necessary.
This is indeed a sweetly pretty spot, and looks as you said like a park
at home. If the trees had been planted with a special view to effect
they could not have been better placed."

"You have done excellently, Wilfrid," his father said, putting his hand
on his shoulder. "Mr. Mitford here has been telling me how energetically
you have been working, and I see that the house has made wonderful
progress."

Marion had, after the first greeting, leapt lightly from the boat and
run up to the house, towards which the others proceeded at a more
leisurely pace, stopping often and looking round at the pleasant
prospect. Marion was full of questions to Wilfrid when they arrived. Why
were the walls made so thick? How were they going to stop up the
crevices between the logs? Where were the windows and doors coming from?
What was the roof going to be made of? Was there going to be a floor, or
was the ground inside going to be raised to the level of the door-sill?
When did he expect to get it finished, and when would they be ready to
come in? Couldn't they get some creepers to run up and hide these ugly
logs? Was it to be painted or to remain as it was?

Wilfrid answered all these questions as well as he was able. There was
to be a floor over all the new portion of the building; Mr. Mitford was
getting up the requisite number of planks from a saw-mill at the next
settlement. The crevices were to be stopped with moss. It would be for
their father to decide whether the logs should be covered with
match-boarding inside or out, or whether they should be left as they
were for the