"
said Jervis, with an obstinate air.

"What do you wish to do?" she asked demurely.

"I wish to sit where you are sitting now," he answered. "Then I
will row you up river and give you a necessary lesson in steering;
for don't you remember how nearly you upset us into the bank the
last time but one that I rowed you up?"

Katherine flushed, but there was a laughing light in her eyes as
she replied: "Oh yes! I remember perfectly well, but that was quite
as much your fault as mine, for you were telling us of your
experiences in that Nantucket whaler, and they were quite thrilling
enough to make anyone forget to steer."

"There shall be no such temptation to forgetfulness to-day; that I
can safely promise you," he answered, holding the boat steady while
Katherine moved to the other seat. Then, tying his birchbark on
behind, he stepped into the vacant place and commenced to pull up
stream with long, steady strokes.

"You were a long time at the Fort to-day," he remarked presently.

"Yes, Mrs. M'Crawney is ill, and it was only common humanity to do
what I could for her," Katherine answered gravely, for poor Mrs.
M'Crawney had made her heart ache that day, because of the terrible
discomfort in which the poor woman was lying, and the homesickness
for old Ireland which seemed to oppress her.

"I thought she looked ill the other day when I was over there, but
she would not admit it. I wanted to tell her that less hot pastry
and more fresh air would work a cure perhaps; but it does not do to
thrust one's opinion unasked upon people, especially when one is
only a doctor in intention and not in reality," Jervis said, with a
tug at the oars which expressed a good many things.

"It is a good thing for us that you are not really a doctor, or
else you would not be looking after Mr. Selincourt's fishing
interests, and then you would not have been here to take care of
Father," Phil said.

Katherine laughed as she remarked: "For pure, unadulterated
selfishness that would surely beat the record, Phil. I expect Mr.
Ferrars hates Seal Cove nearly as much as he did the Nantucket
whaler."

"No, he does not," Jervis broke in. "Sometimes of course Seal Cove
smells rather strongly of fish oil, warm blubber, and putrid seal
meat; but, taken as a whole, there are many worse places to live
in. I found a bank gorgeous with anemones in blue and red
yesterday, and that within ten minutes' walk of the fish shed."

"I know it," said