e great sorrow that she was
anxious to smooth over and atone for to them was that they would have to
put up with a cold luncheon!

Her one idea, the sole thought that occupied her, was to make these two
men happy, at any cost to herself. All day she studied how she could
make their life, so hard and rough smoother for them, how she could
alleviate the labour and monotony of it. She rose in the morning long
before either was awake, and had the fires blazing, wood brought in,
water melted out, and the coffee made by the time they came into the
sitting-room, looking white and sleepy in the flare of the common
candles. All the house work they had formerly found hard, when counted
in addition to their outside labour, she took entirely upon herself, and
insensibly they both felt the relief very great. There was no coming
home now, worn out and frozen, to a cheerless cabin, and being obliged
to chop wood and light fires and split ice before they could get warm
and rested. A glowing hearth, a laid table, a smiling face, always
awaited them. Often coming up from the dump at the lower end of the
claim, they could see the square patch of red light flung out from the
window on the snow, bidding them hurry in to the welcome warmth and
light inside.

The daylight only lasted them now from ten to two, and for these hours
the men worked out of doors. During their absence the girl went out on
shooting expeditions of her own. She had invented a modified snow-shoe,
broad and short, with slightly curved-up ends, and with these strapped
on to her lithe feet, her fur coat fastened up to her chin, and her fur
cap drawn over her ears and to her brows, she defied the fall of the
mercury, and skimmed over the snow as silently and swiftly as a shadow
moving.

She enjoyed these long, lonely excursions, with her heart kept warm by
the hope of discovering something she could bring down with her pistol
or her shot-gun, and carry back as a surprise and a treat for the men
for supper. There was not much indeed to be found; but a small breed of
snow-bird was prevalent, and quite a flock of these would very often
follow or precede a snow-storm, and whenever Katrine's keen eye caught
sight of the little dark patch that a cluster of them made against the
snow, she would glide swiftly over in that direction, and have eight or
ten of them swinging at her belt to take home. They were small, but
cooked as she knew how to cook them, they were a delicacy beyo