d yet beautifully soft in the dog's
face, scarred as it was by the whips of earlier owners. The sick man's
hand went up and caressed the wolfish head. "Good dog, good Akim!" he
said softly in French. "Thou dost know when a storm is on the way; thou
dost know, too, when there is a storm in my heart."

Even as he spoke a wind came crying round the house, and the parchment
windows gave forth a soft booming sound. Outside, Nature was trembling
lightly in all her nerves; belated herons, disturbed from the freshly
frozen pool, swept away on tardy wings into the night and to the south;
a herd of wolves, trooping by the hut, passed from a short, easy trot
to a low, long gallop, devouring, yet fearful. It appeared as though
the dumb earth were trying to speak, and the mighty effort gave it pain,
from which came awe and terror to living things.

So, inside the house, also, Pierre almost shrank from the unknown sorrow
of this man beside him, who was about to disclose the story of his life.
The solitary places do not make men glib of tongue; rather, spare of
words. They whose tragedy lies in the capacity to suffer greatly, being
given the woe of imagination, bring forth inner history as a mother
gasps life into the world.

"I was only a boy of twenty-one," Fawdor said from the pillow, as he
watched the dog noiselessly travelling from corner to corner, "and I had
been with the Company three years. They had said that I could rise fast;
I had done so. I was ambitious; yet I find solace in thinking that I saw
only one way to it,--by patience, industry, and much thinking. I read
a great deal, and cared for what I read; but I observed also, that in
dealing with men I might serve myself and the Company wisely.

"One day the governor of the Company came from England, and with him a
sweet lady, his young niece, and her brother. They arranged for a tour
to the Great Lakes, and I was chosen to go with them in command of the
boatmen. It appeared as if a great chance had come to me, and so said
the factor at Lachine on the morning we set forth. The girl was as
winsome as you can think; not of such wonderful beauty, but with a face
that would be finer old than young; and a dainty trick of humour had she
as well. The governor was a testy man; he could not bear to be crossed
in a matter; yet, in spite of all, I did not think he had a wilful
hardness. It was a long journey, and we were set to our wits to make it
always interesting; but we did it