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Presently, dinner was announced by a half-breed maid and we four look our places at the table, Athabasca opposite me. At first the talk was lively, though only three shared in it. Then, as the third seemed rather more interested in his silent partner, he would from time to time lose the thread of the discourse. By degrees the conversation died down into silence. A few minutes later Mrs. Spear suddenly remarked:

"Father ... don't you think it would be a good thing if you took son-in-law into partnership?"

Father leaned back, scratched his head for a while, and then replied:

"Yes, Mother, I do, and I'll do it."

The silent though beautiful Athabasca, without even raising her eyes from her plate, blushed violently, and needless to say, I blushed, too, but, of course, only out of sympathy.

"The horses are too busy, just now, to haul the logs, but of course the young people could have our spare room until I could build them a log shack."

"Father, that's a capital idea. So there's no occasion for any delay whatever. Then, when their house is finished, we could spare them a bed, a table, a couple of chairs, and give them a new cooking stove."