g for home--the home that
was no more. And she was longing too for that other home--the
beautiful dream home which was to have been hers, but which was now
only a dream. Again and again the tears had gathered, but she had
forced them back, striving bravely to give her attention to the passing
beauties of land and lake.

Captain Jimmie's kindly eye had noted the stranger as soon as she had
come on board, and he had set himself to make the drooping little
figure and the big sad eyes look less forlorn.

He had helped her on board, as she came down from the railway station,
her trunk wheeled behind her, and had shaken hands and welcomed her
warmly to Algonquin, saying she would be sure to like the school and he
knew the Miss Armstrongs would be very kind indeed.

She had looked up in surprise, not yet knowing the wisdom of Algonquin
folk concerning the doings of their neighbours.

"Och, indeed I will be knowing all about you," the captain said,
smiling broadly. "You will be Miss Murray, the young leddy that's to
teach. Lawyer Ed--that's Mr. Brians, you know--would be telling me.
And you will be boarding at the Miss Armstrongs'. They told me I was
to be bringing you up," he added, with an air of proprietorship, that
made her feel a little less lonely. "And indeed," he added, with the
gallant air, which was truly his own, "it is a fortunate pair of ladies
the Miss Armstrongs will be, whatefer."

Many times during the afternoon he had stopped beside her with a kindly
word. And once he sat by her side and pointed out places of interest,
while some uncertain pilot at the wheel sent the _Inverness_ unheeded
on a happy zigzag course. Yon was Hughie McArthur's farm they were
passing now. Hughie had done well. He was own nephew to the captain,
as his eldest sister had married on Old Archie's Hughie. Old Archie
had been the first settler in these parts, and him and his wife had it
hard in the early days. His father had told him many a time that Old
Archie's wife had walked into where Algonquin now stood--they called it
the Gates in those days,--twenty mile away if it was one, with a sack
of wheat on her back to be ground at the mill, and back again with the
flour, while the eldest girl, then only fifteen, looked after the
family and the stock. That was when Archie was away at the front the
time of the rebellion. Yes, it was hard times for the women folk in
those days. Times was changed now to be sure. Take Hughi