nderstanding where the joke came in, said in a
reproachful tone: "My dear, it was not a laughing matter to me,
either then or now; for when one is married what affects one's
husband affects one's self also, and that sometimes in a very
disagreeable fashion."

"Please forgive me for laughing!" cried Katherine. "But Oily Dave
is such a slippery old rogue, and sometimes he overreaches even
himself." Then she told Mrs. M'Kree about the disappearance of the
lard, and how she had recognized the bucket upon which Jamie had
been drumming so vigorously.

"What will you do?" asked Mrs. M'Kree.

"I don't see what we can do, except keep a sharper lookout in
future. There is not enough evidence to go and boldly accuse him
of having walked off with two buckets of lard for which he had not
paid. There may be a hundred buckets like that in the district,
every one of which has contained grease of some description, from
best dairy butter down to train oil mixed with sawdust," Katherine
replied with a laugh, in which the other now joined.

"It is a good thing you can laugh about it; but I am afraid that I
shouldn't have felt like laughing if I had been in your case," said
Mrs. M'Kree. Then she cried out in protest: "Must you go so soon,
really? Why, you have been here no time at all, and there are
heaps of things I wanted to say to you."

"Yes, we must go. We are going to Ochre Lake for fish. Miles says
there are heaps there to be had for the catching, and the dogs are
getting short of food. We have worked them very hard this winter,
so they have needed more to eat, I suppose," Katherine replied.
Then she went out to help her brother to bring the stores in, and
Mrs. M'Kree came to assist also.

"Ochre Lake is a good long way off, so I mustn't keep you if you
are going there. A good six miles from here it must be, if you
follow the river," said Mrs. M'Kree; then made a grab at the packet
of toffee in Jamie's chubby hand, for he was evidently intent on
eating it all himself, and so leaving none for the others.

"We shall not follow the river, but take the short cut through the
woods; and we shall go fast too, for the dogs will travel light,
you see," Katherine said. Then picking up the fish spears and the
ice saw she glided on ahead, while Miles and the dogs went racing
after her.

At first, when they left the boatbuilder's house behind, it was
wilderness without a sign of life, but after they had gone two or
three mi