chimney). Did you have breakfast yet? Poor
fellow, no wonder your cheeks are thin.'

'Never mind, Mirren, I have planned a new house and with your help it
will soon be built.'

'That it will, Archie; it is to help you I have come.'

Sitting side by side on a pile of boards, Mirren told how she had come.
On Archie's letter reaching his mother with three pounds enclosed she
saw the possibility of Mirren going to Canada. 'The passage money is
four pounds, mother, and there is the buying of what cannot be done
without. We will have to wait for another remittance.'

'Listen, and I will tell you what I never even let on to your father.
When he had that accident six years ago that laid him up and we feared
he would never go to the hills again, the thought came to me that if he
died the parish would have to bury him. I set it down that no such
disgrace would ever fall on our family if I could help it, and when he
got better I set to put-by every penny that could be spared, and many a
hank I have spun and stocking knitted to get the pennies. After thinking
over Archie's letter, I counted what I put by and I have one pound,
seven shillings, and tenpence. Your passage, you see, is paid.'

'But I dare not leave you alone.'

'Mirren, you will do as your mother asks you. Your brother needs help:
go, and we will follow you a year sooner.'

'I thought it all over,' said Mirren, 'and it was settled I should go.
It was quite a venture for a young lass to go alone so far, but I was
not afraid, seeing there were the plain markings of what was my duty. So
we set to work to get ready, and here I am.'

'Bless you, Mirren, you have a brave heart and God helping us, we will
have father and mother with us in another twelve month, and the black
dog. Want will never frighten them more.'

Mirren was curious to see what Archie had been doing, but he took her
first to the rising ground, back in the bush, where he had decided to
build his house, and then showed her his crops. The rest of the day he
spent in cutting and setting up poles to make a shelter that would serve
as a cookhouse during the day and a sleeping-place for himself at night.
At supper she told of her journey, of the voyage, the slow ascent of the
St Lawrence, and the steamboat that landed her at Toronto. The mate
undertook to forward her chest, and pointed out Yonge-street, at the
head of the wharf. Without a minute's delay she gained it and began her
long walk. Late in the