piled
high with fur rugs and four-point blankets. (Yes, if you remind me I'll
tell you by and by what a "four-point" blanket is.)

The entrance to the house is from the back, and the window is in front,
through a slide in which the lines extend to the heads of the horses or
the awkward, stumbling oxen.

You must not despise the oxen, or say, "A pretty, team for a Canadian
girl!" for, indeed, they are most reliable animals, and not nearly so
delicate as horses, nor so hard to feed--and they never, never run away.
Besides--and here's the rub--you can always eat the oxen should you ever
want to, and popular prejudice does not run in favour of horseflesh.

Oh, yes! I said I would tell you about "four-point" blankets. They are
the blankets that have been manufactured for nearly three hundred years
by "the Honourable Company of Gentlemen Adventurers of England trading
into Hudson's Bay," known for the sake of conciseness as the "H.B.
Company." These blankets are claimed to be the best in the world, and
weigh from eight to ten pounds. The Indians, traders, trappers, boatmen,
and pioneers in the North use no others. They are called "four-point"
because of four black stripes at one corner. There are lighter blankets
of three and a half points, which points are indicated in the same way.
By these marks an Indian knows exactly what value he is getting in
exchange for his precious peltry.

After travelling for three or four weeks in this gipsy fashion, mayhap
getting a peep at a moose, a wolf, or even a bear (to say nothing of
such inconsequential fry as ermine, mink, beaver, and otter), the family
arrive at their holding of 160 acres.

It does not look very pleasant, this holding. The snow is just melting,
and the landscape is dreary enough on every side, for as yet Spring has
not even suggested that green is the colour you may expect to see in
Nature's fashion-plate. Not she!

But here's the point. Look you here! the house is already built for
occupancy, and has only to be moved from the sled to the ground. There
is no occasion for a plumber or gasfitter either, and as for water and
fuel, they are everywhere to be had for the taking.

Presently other rooms will be added of lumber or logs, and a cellar
excavated. But who worries about these things when they have just become
possessors of 160 statute acres of land that have to be prepared for
grain and garden stuff? Who, indeed?

Here is where the girl comes in. She must l