fy little cabins of
the snow-banked sealers.

A minute of thought, however, showed her that such a demand for
lard would have been so much out of the common as to have elicited
some comment from Miles at closing time. Each bucket would contain
something over thirty pounds in weight, so the sale of over sixty
pounds' weight of lard in one evening would have been something of
a record for Roaring Water Portage. Miles was busy at the wood
pile; she could not leave the store to go and question him then, so
had to wait with what patience she could muster until he came
indoors again. Her father had not left his bed yet; indeed he
rarely did leave it now until noon or later, when he dressed
himself, walked across the kitchen, and sat in the rocking-chair
until it was time for bed again.

The life would have seemed dreary and monotonous enough if it had
not been for the hard and constant work, which made the days of
that winter fly faster for Katherine than any winter had ever flown
before. She did not mind the work. Young, strong, and with plenty
of energy, the daily toil seemed rather pleasant than otherwise.
It was business bothers like this about the missing lard which
tried her patience and temper. Presently Miles came in, his face
red and warm from hard work in the open air, but puckered into a
look of worry, which found a reflection on the countenance of
Katherine.

"We are running out of fish for the dogs, Katherine. Have we been
using it too fast, do you think?" he asked.

"Surely not. The poor creatures cannot work unless they are well
fed, and they have never had more than they could eat. How much
longer will it last?"

"Three days perhaps, not more," Miles answered. "It has seemed to
go all at once."

"Just so. I should fancy the fish has suffered in the same way as
the lard. You had better keep the door of the fish-house locked in
future. I wonder where we can get some more fish? People's stocks
of dried fish will be getting low now, I expect," Katherine said,
wrinkling her brows and trying to think of a likely place where the
want could be supplied.

"I know where we could get fresh fish, pretty nearly any amount of
it, if you didn't mind the bother of catching it. We could freeze
it and keep it so. But what about the lard? You meant it to be
sold, didn't you?"

"Yes, of course; but how much did you sell?" asked Katherine, with
a hope that he really had sold it all and merely forgotten