and his two sons
sat in a rude shanty, on a bench and an empty keg, drinking tea out of
tin cans. They were all stalwart, dark-haired, grave-visaged
mountaineers of Scotland. Unitedly they would have measured at least
eighteen feet of humanity. The only difference between the father and
the sons was that a few silver hairs mingled with the black on the head
of the former, and a rougher skin covered his countenance. In other
respects he seemed but an elder brother.

"Ian," he said to his first-born, as he refilled his tin can with tea,
"how many more timbers have you to prepare for the dam?"

"Six," replied the son laconically.

"It seems to me," observed Kenneth, the second son, "that if the frost
holds much longer we shall be thrown idle, for everything is ready now
to begin the works."

"Idle we need not be," returned the father, "as long as there is timber
to fell in the forest. We must prepare logs to be sawn as well as the
mill to saw them."

"I can't help thinking, father," said Ian, "that we did not act wisely
in spending all the remainder of our cash in an order for goods from
England. We should have waited to see how the mill paid before setting
up a store. Besides, I have my doubts as to the wood-cutters or other
people passing this out-o'-the-way spot in sufficient numbers to make a
store pay for many a day to come, and even if they do, people coming up
the coast will have the Fur Company's store at the Cliff Fort to go to
for supplies."

"It's too late to think of these things now," retorted the elder McLeod;
"we have made the venture, and must go through with it. Our case shows
the folly of taking the advice of a friend, of whose wisdom one is not
well assured. No doubt Gambart meant to do us a service, and fancied
that he knew this coast well, but it is quite plain that he was
mistaken, for I have no doubt now, from the situation of the place, that
there will be little or no traffic here for a long time to come."

"So, then, we might as well have thrown the remnant of our wrecked
fortunes into the sea," said Kenneth gravely.

"Not quite," returned the father, with a smile. "If we can only manage
to hold on for a year or two, we shall be sure to succeed, for there can
be no question that the tide of immigration is beginning to set in this
direction, but it does not flow fast, and our great difficulty in the
meantime will be the want of ready cash."

"Act in haste and repent at leisure,"