he did his part faithfully, lopping
off the branches so that the trunk itself could be cut up into suitable
lengths.

None of the trees were large. The country is not favourable to forest
giants, and the wood was fairly soft, so that Hector's task was by no
means beyond his powers.

The work went on steadily from day to day, and Mrs. Macrae viewed with
the approval and satisfaction of a good housewife the growing pile of
fuel that would be right at hand through the long winter.

'Ye always were a good provider, Andrew,' she said, giving her stalwart
husband a look of ineffable love and pride. 'Nane o' yer charge will
ever want while ye're aboot.'

From under his shaggy brows, Andrew Macrae returned the look of love
and pride; for to him there was no woman so bonnie or so wise as his
gude wife, but he pretended to make light of the compliment, saying he
was but doing his duty.

The wood-pile at the hut had grown big enough, and they were making
their last trip to the timber. Mrs. Macrae had not accompanied them,
but little Ailie would not be left at home. She enjoyed too much the
ride out on the empty cart, and then back again, perched triumphantly
on top of the load, to lose the last chance for it. So father had to
yield to her pretty pleadings, although he would have preferred her
remaining with her mother.

The father and son worked very hard that day, and during the afternoon
got so engrossed in the completion of their task, that they quite
forgot the little girl.

Then, left to her own resources, Ailie, as sturdy a child for her years
as ever stepped, wandered off over the prairie in the opposite
direction to home, her little head filled with some foolish notion of
getting nearer to the sunset.

On and on she went, forgetful of everything but the beauty of the
western sky, which had so fascinated her, and it was because her blue
eyes were intent upon this, and not upon what was under her feet, that
she did not notice the coulee, or break in the prairie, into which she
fell with a sharp cry of fright.

Happily it was soft earth at the bottom of the coulee, and Ailie was
not injured in the least by her fall. But she was terrified beyond
measure at her situation, and screamed for her father and brother with
the full strength of her lungs.

But, lying as she was at the bottom of the coulee, a dozen feet or more
below the surface of the prairie, her most vigorous efforts could not
have been heard many