, when we'd done.

"`Back to my ship,' says I.

"`Come an' ha' tea to-morrow wi' me an' my sister,' says he, `an' we'll
have another talk about Rupert's Land.'

"`I will,' says I.

"`Six o'clock, sharp,' says he.

"`Sharp's the word,' says I.

"An', sure enough, I went to his house sharp to time next day, an' there
I found him an' his sister. She was as pretty a craft as I ever set
eyes on, wi' a modest look an' long fair ringlets--just borderin' on
nineteen or thereaway--but you know her, Archie, so I needn't say no
more."

"What! is that the same woman that's keeping house for him now in Red
River?"

"Woman!" repeated the sailor, vehemently; "she's not a woman--she's a
angel is Elise Morel. Don't speak disrespectful of her, lad."

"I won't," returned Archie with a laugh; "but what was the upshot of it
all?"

"The upshot of it," answered the seaman, "was that I've never touched a
drop o' strong drink from that day to this, an' that I'm now blown
entirely out o' my old courses, an' am cruisin' arter the buffalo on the
plains o' Rupert's Land."

At this point, their minds being set free from the consideration of past
history, they made the discovery that the buffalo runners were nowhere
to be seen on the horizon, and that they themselves were lost on the
grassy sea.

"What _shall_ we do?" said the boy, when they had pulled up to consider
their situation. "You see, although I came out here a good while before
you did," he added, half apologetically, "I've never been out on the
plains without a guide, and don't know a bit how to find the way back to
camp. The prairie is almost as bad as the sea you're so fond of, with a
clear horizon all round, and nothing worth speaking of to guide us. An'
as you have never been in the plains before, of course you know nothing.
In short, Jenkins, I greatly fear that we are lost! Why, what are you
grinning at?"

The terminal question was induced by the fact that the tall seaman was
looking down at his anxious companion with a broad smile on his handsome
sunburnt countenance.

"So we're lost, are we, Archie?" he said, "like two sweet babes on the
prairie instead of in the woods. An' you think I knows nothin'. Well,
p'r'aps I don't know much, but you should remember, lad, that an old
salt wi' a compass in his wes'kit-pocket is not the man to lose his
reck'nin'. I've got one here as'll put us all right on that score, for
I was careful to take my bearin's when we s