reminiscences to recount, no pet
theories to voice on evolution or female suffrage, no confessions or
professions to make, no prophecies to advance even regarding the
weather.

As for Mary Grant,--she was seldom idle. I had seen her make her own
clothes, I had seen her over the washtub with her sleeves rolled up to
her fair, white shoulders, I had seen her bake and houseclean; sharing
the daily duties with her elderly companion.

Yet she enjoyed to the full the delights that Golden Crescent afforded.
In her spare time, she rowed on the water, bathed, roved the forests
behind for wild flowers and game, read in her hammock and revelled in
her music.

And she was not the only one who revelled in that glorious music, for,
unknown to her, Jake and I listened with delight to her uplifting
entertainment; I from the confines of my front veranda and Jake, night
after night, from his favourite position on the cliffs.

He confessed to me that it was a wonderful set-off to the cravings that
often beset him for the liquor which he was still fighting so nobly and
victoriously.

Poor old Jake! More than once I had almost been tempted to coax him to
go back to his nightly libations, for, since he had begun his fight for
abstinence, he seemed to be gradually going down the hill; losing
weight, losing strength, losing interest in his daily pursuits, and,
with it all, ageing.

The minister had noticed the change and had expressed his concern.
Rita also had talked of it to me; and her visits to the old man had
become more frequent, her little attentions had grown in number and her
solicitude for his bodily comfort had become almost motherly.

Rita always could manipulate Jake round her little finger. He was clay
in her hands, and obeyed her even to the putting of a stocking full of
hot salt round his neck one night he had a hoarseness in his throat.

"If she ever insists on me puttin' my feet in hot-water and mustard,"
he confessed to me once, "God knows how I shall muster up the courage
to refuse."

I had sent to Vancouver for the grammar-book with which I intended
starting Rita's tuition, but it had only arrived,--its coming having
been delayed on account of the book-sellers not having it in stock and
having to fill my requirement from the East,--but I had promised Rita,
much to her pleasure, that we should start in in earnest the following
evening.

I had been reading in my hammock until the daylight had failed me. And