ng over the
face of the dam some fifty yards above, with the hiss and shriek of
the saws in the big sawmill perched beside the dam. Yet through all
the interwoven tissue of noise the note of the cow-bell made itself
heard in the cabin. From behind the cabin arose a sonorous cry of
_hong-ka, honk-a-honk_, and the snaky black head of a big Canada
goose appeared inquiringly around the corner. On one end of the hewn
log which served as doorstep a preternaturally large and fat woodchuck
sat bolt upright and stared to see who was coming. A red fox, which
had been curled up asleep under MacPhairrson's one rose bush, awoke,
and superciliously withdrew to the other side of the island, out of
sight, disapproving of all visitors on principle. From the shade of a
thick spruce bush near the bridge-end a moose calf lumbered lazily to
her feet, and stood staring, her head low down and her big ears waving
in sleepy interrogation. From within the cabin came a series of harsh
screeches mixed with discordant laughter and cries of "Ebenezer!
Ebenezer! Oh, by Gee! Hullo!" Then the cabin door swung wide, and in
the doorway appeared MacPhairrson, leaning on his crutches, a green
parrot on his shoulder, and beside his crippled feet two big white
cats.

MacPhairrson, the parrot, and the cats, all together stared hard at
the door on the bridge, striving to make out through the meshes who
the visitor might be. The parrot, scrutinizing fiercely with her
sinister black and orange eyes, was the first to discover. She
proclaimed at once her discovery and her approval by screeching, "Boy!
Boy! Oh, by Gee! Hullo!" and clambering head-first down the front of
MacPhairrson's coat. As MacPhairrson hobbled hastily forward to admit
the welcome guest, the parrot, reaching out with beak and claw,
transferred herself to the moving crutch, whence she made a futile
snap at one of the white cats. Foiled in this amiable attempt, she
climbed hurriedly up the crutch again and resumed MacPhairrson's
shoulder, in time to greet the Boy's entrance with a cordial "Oh, by
Gee! Hullo!"

MacPhairrson (he spelled his name scrupulously MacPherson, but, like
all the other dwellers in the Settlement, pronounced it MacPhairrson,
with a punctilious rolling of the r) was an old lumberman. Rheumatism,
brought on by years of toiling thigh-deep in the icy waters when the
logs were running in the freshets, had gripped him so relentlessly
that one of his legs was twisted to almost ut