erson is married to our excellent friend Mr Cameron, who has
taken up a store near to us, and intends to run a boat to York Fort
next summer. There has been another marriage here which will cause
you astonishment at least, if not pleasure. Old Mr Peters has
married Marie Peltier! What _could_ have possessed her to take such a
husband! I cannot understand it. Just think of her, Charley, a girl
of eighteen, with a husband of seventy-five!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

At this point the writing, which was very close and very small,
terminated. Harry laid it down with a deep sigh, wishing much that
Charley had thought it advisable to send him the second sheet also. As
wishes and regrets on this point were equally unavailing, he endeavoured
to continue it in imagination, and was soon as deeply absorbed in
following Kate through the well-remembered scenes of Red River as he had
been, a short time before, in roaming with her brother over the wide
prairies of the Saskatchewan. The increasing cold, however, soon warned
him that the night was far spent. He rose and went to the stove; but
the fire had gone out, and the almost irresistible frost of these
regions was already cooling everything in Bachelors' Hall down to the
freezing-point. All his companions had put out their candles, and were
busy, doubtless, dreaming of the friends whose letters had struck and
reawakened the long-dormant chords that used to echo to the tones and
scenes of other days. With a slight shiver, Harry returned to his
apartment, and kneeled to thank God for protecting and preserving his
absent friends, and especially for sending him "good news from a far
land." The letter with the British post-marks on it was placed under
his pillow. It occupied his waking and sleeping thoughts that night,
and it was the first thing he thought of and re-read on the following
morning, and for many mornings afterwards. Only those can fully
estimate the value of such letters who live in distant lands, where
letters are few--very, very few--and far between.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

CHANGES--HARRY AND HAMILTON FIND THAT VARIETY IS INDEED CHARMING--THE
LATTER ASTONISHES THE FORMER CONSIDERABLY.

Three months passed away, but the snow still lay deep and white and
undiminished around York Fort. Winter--cold, silent, unyielding
winter--still drew its white mantle closely round the lonely dwelling of
th