th a most attractive looking meal,
though decked with neither china, glass, nor plate. A bright lamp
hanging from the roof lighted up the little room, and gave it much of
the appearance of a cabin. "We have only to fancy," said Philip, "that
we are on board ship without the danger of shipwreck, or being tumbled
about in a storm, and we may congratulate ourselves on the extent of our
accommodation. We have twice as many cubic feet of air for each person
as the passengers on board an emigrant ship, and can admit as much more
as we please. There, make yourselves at home. Father will now do the
honours, and Jem is boiling the kettle for tea in the kitchen. I must
be off, and hope to be back soon with D'Arcy and your traps."

Away went Philip down to the boat, whence his father with the rest had
been bringing up her lading. Who could have recognised in the
energetic, high-spirited backwoodsman Philip had become, the refined and
somewhat sedate and stiff young student of a year ago. By-the-bye, the
kitchen of which he spoke was a lean-to of birch-bark, under which a
camp stove had been placed; near it was a shed prepared for the
reception of the stores, among which Peter proposed to take up his
abode. Philip's plan of fitting up the cottage was much admired. To
the walls and roof he had first nailed some common canvas, on this he
had pasted newspapers, which he had again covered with a common
cheerful-looking paper, such as is used generally for covering walls.
The table itself consisted of some rough planks nailed to tressels, and
the bedsteads were formed of rough pine poles with canvas stretched
across them. Shelves and pegs round the rooms would enable their
inmates to keep them as neat as cabins.

The voices of the rest of the party were heard sooner than was expected.
"We pressed the third boat on the lake into our service and have
brought everything," said Philip, entering with a slight young man, who,
in spite of a very rough, much worn costume, looked the gentleman. "I
have the pleasure of introducing my friend Mr Lawrence D'Arcy, my
fellow labourer, who, let me tell you, made every inch of the furniture
of our mansion in a wondrous brief time. He had not begun it yesterday
morning, for he was helping me to paper the walls till nearly noon."

"It is the work of a self-taught artist," said Lawrence D'Arcy. "But,
really, there is little to boast of in having put together a few rough
poles. The plan is