ancy, was a
lithe and beautiful girl. In an instant her eye located the young man
on the bank, and her lips moulded as though to speak; but when she
saw how unobserved she was she remained silent and upright as an
Indian while the canoe slipped gently toward the shore. Presently it
cushioned its nose in the velvety sand. She rose silently from her
seat, and stole on moccasined tip-toes along the stones until she
could have touched his hair with her fingers. But her eyes fell over
his shoulder on the papers before him.

"Always at your studies," she cried, as he sprang eagerly to his
feet. "You must be seeking a professorship. But I suppose you have to
be always brushing up," she continued, banteringly. "Your oldest
pupil must be--let me see--not less than eight?"

He smothered her banter with his affection, but she stole the map
from his fingers.

"I declare, if it isn't Manitoba! What next? Siberia or Patagonia? I
thought you were still in the Eastern Townships."

"So I am--in school. But out of school I am spending a good deal of
my time in Manitoba, Mary."

She caught a grave note in his voice as he said her name. Seizing his
cheeks between her hands she turned his face to her. "Answer me, John
Harris. You are not thinking of going to Manitoba!"

"Suppose I say I am?"

"Then I am going too!"

"Mary!"

"John! Nothing unusual about a wife going with her husband, is
there?"

"No, of course, but you know--"

"Yes, I know"--glancing at the ring on her finger. "This still stands
at par, doesn't it?"

"Yes, dear," he answered, raising the ring to his lips. "You know it
does. But to venture into that wilderness means--you see, it means so
much more to a woman than to a man."

"Not as much as staying at home--alone. You didn't really think I
would do that?"

"No, not exactly that. Let us sit down and I will tell you what I
thought. Here, let me get the cushion...There, that's better. Now let
me start at the beginning.

"Until you came here last summer--until all this happened, you
know--I was quite satisfied to go on teaching--"

"And I have sown discontent--"

"Please don't interrupt. Teaching seemed as good as anything else--"

"As good as anything else! Better than anything else, I should say.
What is better than training the tender child, inspiring him with
your ideals--"

"Oh, I know all about that. Until I began to have some genuine ideals
of my own I was satisfied with it. But now--well, eve