o console Edith for the disappointment, he went with her into the
hall, and, drawing a low stool towards the blazing stove, placed a
draught-board upon it. Then he placed another and a lower stool beside
the first, on which he seated Edith. Spreading a deerskin robe upon the
ground, he stretched himself thereon at full length, and began to
arrange the men.

The hall, which was formerly such a comfortless apartment, was now
invested with that degree of comfort which always gathers, more or less,
round a place that is continually occupied. The ceiling was composed of
a carpet of deerskin stretched tightly upon the beams. The walls were
hung all round with the thick heavy coats and robes of leather and fur
belonging to the inmates, and without which they never ventured abroad.
The iron stove in the centre of the apartment, with its pipe to conduct
away the smoke, and its radiant fire of logs, emitted a cheerful glow in
its immediate vicinity; which glow, however, was not intense enough to
melt the thick ice, or rather hoar-frost, an inch deep, with which the
two windows were encrusted, to the almost total exclusion of the view
and the serious diminution of the light. The door was padded all round
its edges with fur, which tended to check the bitter wind that often
blew against it, and tempered the slight draught that did force its way
through. Altogether the hall at Fort Chimo was curious and
comfortable--rather shaggy in its general appearance, but sound and
trustworthy at bottom.

A small rough table, the work of Frank Morton, stood close to the stove;
and beside it was seated Mrs Stanley, with a soft yellow deerskin
before her, which she was carefully transforming into a hunting coat for
her husband. On another and a larger table was spread the tea equipage.
Those who would understand this aright must for _tea_ read _supper_.
Among fur-traders the two are combined. Candles--dips made at the
fort--had been brought some time ago by La Roche, who entered the hall
by a back door which communicated with a passage leading to the kitchen
behind.

"What can have become of papa, I wonder?" Mrs Stanley designated her
husband by this epithet, in consequence of her desire to keep up the
fiction of her being Edith's little sister or playfellow.

Frank looked up from the board. "I know not," said he. "I left him
giving some orders to the men. We have been getting things made snug
about the fort, for we expect a pretty