rs can't get through Hudson Strait
until the first week in July."

"They are not coming that way, but straight from Montreal by way of
Lake Temiskaming. My word! the young lady will have a chance of
roughing it, for the portages on that route are a caution, so Astor
says," Mrs. M'Kree answered, then fairly danced round the room.
"Just fancy how gay we shall be this summer with a young lady fresh
out from England among us! And her father must be just the right
sort of moneyed gentleman, for he wants Astor to get a little hut
ready for him by the middle of June."

"A what?" Katherine had risen to go, and was buttoning her coat,
but faced round upon the little woman with blank surprise in her
face, as if she failed to understand what the other was saying.

"A hut. They will want some sort of a place to live in. There is
no hotel here, you see, and they are going to stay all summer.
What a pity it is you haven't got room to board them at the store!"

"We don't want them," retorted Katherine quickly. "We have quite
enough to do without having to wait on a lot of idle boarders."

"Oh! I don't fancy they will be very idle, for Mr. Selincourt says
that he and his daughter intend being out a great deal among the
fishers," said Mrs. M'Kree, who still kept dipping into the
letter, and besought her visitor to stay until she had read it all.

But Katherine would not wait; she was in a hurry to start on the
return journey, for every hour now would make the snow surface more
wet and rotten to travel over. She was sick at heart, too, and
suffering from the keenest disappointment. Six months ago how she
would have rejoiced at the prospect of having Miss Selincourt at
Roaring Water Portage for the weeks of the short, busy summer. An
educated girl to talk to would make all the difference in the
isolation in which they were forced to live. Katherine felt
herself thrill and flutter with delight, even while she trembled
with dread at the thought of her father having to meet Mr.
Selincourt face to face. She wondered if the rich man who was
coming would remember her father, and if he knew of the wrong that
the latter had done in keeping silent, so that he might prosper by
the other's downfall.

Bitter tears smarted in her eyes as she toiled through the melting
snow; then a dash of wet struck her in the face, and she realized
that the rain had begun, and the long winter was coming to an end
at last. The last mile was very h