confided her story to an almost entire stranger. Would her father have
approved of such a thing? But then it had lifted a load from her mind;
she had shared her burden with another, and it was not so hard to bear.
Besides, she was sure she could trust that big, rough man, who looked
at her with such sympathetic eyes.

"Ye'll come to sarvice, lassie, won't ye?" Pete asked, when Constance
had opened the door.

"Y-yes," she answered half doubtfully, looking at her father. "I'd
like to go, but I can't leave him here alone."

"I'll see to yer father, miss," replied Alec, "sae ye gang along."

"Oh, thank you, Mr. McPherson, but I'm half afraid to go, as I will be
the only woman there."

"The greater reason fer ye to come, lassie," broke in Pete. "It isn't
every day the b'ys have a woman among them, an' I think yer presence'll
soften 'em up a bit, an' make'm think of their mothers, sisters, an'
sweethearts. An' then, ye'll sing some, won't ye?" he continued in a
pleading manner.

"Why, how do you know I _can_ sing?" asked Constance, while some of the
old colour rushed back to her cheeks.

"Know? How could I help a-knowin'? Haven't I stood at my own cabin
door, night after night, an' sometimes in the marnin', too, a-listenin'
to yer singin', remindin' me of a sweet canary bird penned up in a
gloomy cage. An' didn't one of the young fellers up yon freeze his
toes one night sittin' on the stump of a tree when ye was warblin'
'Annie Laurie'? I ain't got much use fer them newcomers, but to-day
bein' Christmas, I feel kinder warm towards'm, an' would like fer'm ter
hear ye sing a bit. It 'ud do'm a mighty lot of good."

Constance laughed. She was feeling better already. "Well, I'll go
then," she assented, "if you will promise to look after me."

"I'll see to that," responded Pete, delighted with his success. "I'll
stand off any one, even the angel Gabriel himself, except one thing."

"And what's that?"

"It's love," solemnly answered the old man. "It's the cutest, wiriest
thing a man kin run aginst. It's so mighty powerful that it'll make
the strongest an' biggest chap as weak as a baby, an' the smallest
woman as strong as a giant. I can't savvy it, nohow."

"I guess you will have no trouble about such an opponent to-night,"
laughed Constance, as she drew on her mittens.

"Mebbe not, lassie; but we'll see."

The service was short and the strangest that Constance had ever
witnessed. Accustomed, as