d spiritless indeed to eat.

When she could be coaxed no further, Elizabeth took her and the babe
upstairs.

"I never saw anything like this in these parts!" cried the girl, looking
round her at the white-tiled bathroom.

"Oh, they're getting quite common!" laughed Elizabeth. "See how nice and
warm the water is! Shall we bathe the baby?" And presently the child lay
warm and swaddled in its mother's arms, dressed in some baby-clothes
produced by Elizabeth from a kind of travellers' cupboard at the top of
the stairs. Then the mother was induced to try a bath for herself, while
Elizabeth tried her hand at spoon-feeding the baby; and in half an hour
she had them both in bed, in the bright spare-room--the young mother's
reddish hair unbound lying a splendid mass on the white pillows, and a
strange expression--as of some long tension giving way--on her
pinched face.

"We'll not know how to thank you"--she said brokenly. "We were just at
the last. Tom wouldn't ask no one to help us before. But we'd only a
few shillings left--we thought at Battleford, we'd sell our bits of
things--perhaps that'd take us through." She looked piteously at
Elizabeth, the tears gathering in her eyes.

"Oh! well, we'll see about that!" said Elizabeth, as she tucked the
blankets round her. "Nobody need starve in this country! Mr. Anderson'll
be able perhaps to think of something. Now you go to sleep, and we'll
look after your husband."

Anderson joined his wife in the sitting-room, with a perplexed
countenance. The man was a poor creature--and the beginnings of the
drink-craving were evident.

"Give him a chance," said Elizabeth. "You want one more man in the
bothy."

She sat down beside him, while Anderson pondered, his legs stretched to
the fire. A train of thought ran through his mind, embittered by the
memory of his father.

He was roused from it by the perception that Elizabeth was looking
tired. Instantly he was all tenderness, and anxious misgiving. He made
her lie down on the sofa by the fire, and brought her some important
letters from Ottawa to read, and the English newspapers.

From the elementary human need with which their minds had just been
busy, their talk passed on to National and Imperial affairs. They
discussed them as equals and comrades, each bringing their own
contribution.

"In a fortnight we shall be in Ottawa!" sighed Elizabeth, at last.

Anderson smiled at her plaintive voice.

"Darling!--is it such a trage