own eggs. But the good-hearted
woman, in relating the story, would always say that she felt like
a thief and a robber whenever she thought of that shy, harmless
little wild duck who never had the satisfaction of seeing her brood
swim in the "slough."

All this happened more than twenty years ago, yet when I met Mrs.
Henderson last autumn, as she was journeying to Prince Albert to
visit a married daughter, her wonderfully youthful face was as
round and smiling as if she had never battled through the years
in a hand-to-hand fight to secure a home in the pioneer days
of Manitoba. She is well off now, and lives no more in the
twelve-by-eighteen-foot bunk-house, but when I asked her how she
accomplished so much, she replied, "I just jollied things along,
and laughed over the hard places. It makes them easier then."

So perhaps the station agent's wife was really right, after all,
when she remarked that "some women were just born to laugh."

The Tenas Klootchman

[In Chinook language "Tenas Klootchman" means "girl baby."]

This story came to me from the lips of Maarda herself. It was hard
to realize, while looking at her placid and happy face, that Maarda
had ever been a mother of sorrows, but the healing of a wounded
heart oftentimes leaves a light like that of a benediction on a
receptive face, and Maarda's countenance held something greater
than beauty, something more like lovableness, than any other
quality.

We sat together on the deck of the little steamer throughout the
long violet twilight, that seems loath to leave the channels and
rocky of the Upper Pacific in June time. We had dropped easily
into conversation, for nothing so readily helps one to an
introduction as does the friendly atmosphere of the extreme West,
and I had paved the way by greeting her in the Chinook, to which
she responded with a sincere and friendly handclasp.

Dinner on the small coast-wise steamers is almost a function. It is
the turning-point of the day, and is served English fashion, in
the evening. The passengers "dress" a little for it, eat the meal
leisurely and with relish. People who perhaps have exchanged no
conversation during the day, now relax, and fraternize with their
fellow men and women.

I purposely secured a seat at the dining-table beside Maarda.
Even she had gone through a simple "dressing" for dinner, having
smoothed her satiny black hair, knotted a brilliant silk
handkerchief about her throat, and laid as