so that altogether they formed a
three-sided court. Men with shovels quickly cleared the snow from the
northerly portion of the court, and there the tent was pitched. On
the south side of the tent, where they were sheltered from the north
wind, the horses and cattle were lined up as closely as they could be
crowded. Horse blankets, buffalo robes, rag carpets, and even family
bedding, were tied about the animals. The horses were supplied with
hay and oats and the cattle with hay alone, and after eating they lay
down for the night, and were soon blowing and heaving in a warm fog
of comfort.

Meanwhile inside the tent was a scene of great activity. The ground
was covered with blankets, robes, and bedding. A lantern from the
centre pole sent wedge-shaped shadows darting back and forth; the
camp stove was set up, and a fire from wood which McCrae had brought
along was soon crackling in it. Pots and pans were produced; women
eager to be of service swarmed about the stove, and children, free at
last of their muffling wraps, romped in high-laughtered glee among
the robes or danced back and forward with the swinging shadows.

"Now this won't do at all," said McCrae, returning from an inspection
of affairs outside. "Too many cooks, you know. Ah want one woman
here. Everybody else sit down."

The captain's word was recognized as law. He selected an able-looking
settler's wife as assistant cook, while the others, men, women, and
children, sitting down, seemed to fill the tent to the limit of its
capacity.

Savoury smells soon were coming from hot frying-pans, as sliced ham,
with bread and gravy, was served up in tin plates and passed about
the tent. Everybody--married men and women, maidens and young men,
girls, boys, and little children--was ravenously hungry, and for a
few minutes little could be heard but the plying of the viands. But
as the first edge of hunger became dulled the edge of wit sharpened,
and laughter and banter rollicked back and forward through the tent.
The doctor, now quite sober, took a census, and found the total
population to be twenty-eight. These he classified as twelve married,
eight eligible, seven children, and himself, for whom he found no
classification.

"You have a head for figures, Harris, I think," he said. "How much
space can be allotted to each?"

Harris found that the tent was twelve by eighteen feet, and that
about eight feet of floor space would be available for each person,
if they