Athabasca, who, though blushing less than usual, smiled a
little more, and murmured an occasional yes or no; all the while
looking even more charming. But her composure endured not long, for
her mother presently renewed the subject of "Son-in-law":

"Father, don't you think it would be a good idea if you took son-in-law
into partnership very soon?"

"Yes, Mother, I do, because business is rapidly growing, and I'll need
help in the spring. Besides, it would give me a chance to do my own
fur-running in winter, and in that way I believe I could double, if not
treble, our income."

Athabasca turned crimson and I followed suit--for being a born blusher
myself, and mortally hating it, I could never refrain from sympathizing
with others similarly afflicted.

"Precisely, Father," replied Mrs. Spear, "that's exactly what I
thought. So you see you wouldn't be making any sacrifice whatever, and
such an arrangement would prove an advantage all round. Everybody
would be the happier for it, and it seems to me to delay the wedding
would be a vital mistake."

From that moment until we left the table Athabasca concentrated her
vision on her plate; and I wondered more than ever who "Son-in-law"
could be. Then an idea came to me, and I mused: "We'll surely see him
at Fort Consolation."

After supper I discovered a new member of the household, a chore-boy,
twenty-eight years of age, who had come out from England to learn
farming in the Free Trader's stump lot, and who was paying Mr. Spear so
many hundred dollars a year for that privilege, and also for the
pleasure of daily cleaning out the stable--and the pig pen. When I
first saw him, I thought: "Why here, at last, is 'Son-in-law.'" But on
second consideration, I knew he was not the lucky man, for it was
evident the Spears did not recognize him as their social equal, since
they placed him, at meal time, out in the kitchen at the table with
their two half-breed maid-servants.

That evening, while sitting around the big wood stove, we discussed
Shakespeare, Byron, Scott, and even the latest novel that was then in
vogue--"Trilby," if I remember right--for the Spears not only
subscribed to the _Illustrated London News_ and _Blackwood's_ but they
took _Harper's_ and _Scribner's_, too. And by the way, though
Athabasca had never been to school, her mother had personally attended
to her education. When bedtime arrived, they all peeled off their
moccasins and stockings and hung