a sight rather strange for to see. And it is perfectly
true you are soon going to set sail across the sea and you won't take us
all three, and sometimes, you know, Cousin Appolina, you don't agree
very well, especially with me. And you do love cakes and tea, but so do
I, so that isn't anything. And you say yourself you pride yourself on
your pedigree."

"And no one has a better right. But there is one line that you have left
out. You called me an _ancient, awful she_!"

Peggy paused.

"I know," she said, slowly, "that was dreadful, but--but it is partly
true. I suppose you can't truthfully call yourself very young, Cousin
Appolina, and sometimes you can be very awful."

Another pause.

"You may both go home," said Miss Briggs.

And they went.

[Illustration: MISS APPOLINA'S CHOICE]

On the 1st of June Miss Appolina Briggs sailed for England, accompanied
by her maid and by her young cousin, Joanna Reid. And Millicent and
Peggy stood on the wharf and waved them a sad farewell.

THE END.

SNOW-SHOES AND SLEDGES.

BY KIRK MUNROE.

CHAPTER XXI.

A YUKON MINING CAMP.

The supper provided by the hospitable miners was a good one, and
heartily did our travellers enjoy it; but while they are appeasing the
extraordinary appetites that they acquired somewhere in the Alaskan
wilderness, let us take a look at this most northern of American mining
camps.

To begin with, although it is at the junction of Forty Mile Creek and
the Yukon River, it is not in Alaska, but about twenty miles east of the
boundary in Northwest Territory, which is one of the sub-divisions of
Canada. The most recent name of this camp is "Mitchell," but all old
Yukon miners know it as Camp Forty Mile. At the time of Phil Ryder's
visit it contained nearly two hundred log cabins, two stores, including
the one that he established in the name of his friend, Gerald Hamer, two
saloons, both of which were closed for the season, and a small cigar
factory. Although the winter population was only about three hundred, in
summer-time it is much larger, as many of the miners come out in the
fall and return before the 15th of June, at which date, according to
Yukon mining law, every man owning a claim must be on the ground or it
may be "jumped."

Forty Mile is what is known as a placer camp, which means that its gold
is found in minute particles or "dust" in soft earth, from which it can
be washed in sluices or rockers. Into one of these a stream