e yours."

"No, I tell you I don't care for him, that I know of, and don't know
that I ever shall," answered Fanny, petulantly. "I have made up my
mind, when he next comes, to let him understand that very clearly."

As it happened, Frank paid another visit the following day to the
Bartons. Fanny certainly did contrive to show him that there were no
hopes of her becoming his wife.

He would make a tour through the country, visit Toronto, Montreal, and
perhaps go down to Quebec. Or he would make a trip to the Far West,
across Lake Superior to the Red River Settlement, and visit the small
band of his countrymen collected there. At first he thought he would
start at once, and not pay a farewell visit to the Bartons.

It happened that Mrs Barton, her sister, and her two little boys,
Frank's favourites, Ernest and Harry, were strolling about by the bank
of the river. They had gone somewhere down in the direction of the
rapids, when Fanny exclaimed that the scenery, already tinged by the
bright hue of autumn, was so beautiful that she must stop and make a
sketch.

The two sisters sat down on the bank, while Fanny, with the hand of an
artist, rapidly sketched the scene. She had to employ the most gorgeous
colours which her colour-box could supply, and even then could scarcely
give sufficient brightness to the landscape. While she was sketching,
the little boys ran along the bank, where, moored to the shore, they
found a boat, and very naturally got into it. Their mother and aunt did
not observe them. They got out the oars, and began to make believe that
they were rowing. Now they pulled on one side and then on the other.
Harry, the youngest, tired of rowing, put in the oar, and began to play
with the "painter." The boat had been carelessly secured, and by some
means or other he let the painter slip. Ernest, in the meantime, who
was still rowing, turned the boat round, and before the boys knew what
was happening, they were drifting from the shore. Already, before they
saw their danger, they were too far off to regain the bank. Often they
had been told of the fearful risk of being carried off by the current.
They screamed with fear. Their cries aroused their mother and aunt.
Several people also had been attracted by them from a neighbouring farm,
but no boat was to be seen at hand in which they could be followed.
Already the boat was moving down the current. It was still some
distance from the rapids: but, un