, to look out for a house, and then
return."

"Look out for a house!" exclaimed the surveyor, in surprise, "what mean
you? Do you think of settling down here?"

"Indeed I do," replied Redding, with a smile. "I have long been
brooding over that subject. The fact is, Mr Gambart, that I am tired
of solitude. I am a sociable being, and find it hard to endure the
society of only five or six men in a place where there are no women, no
children, and no end of bears! I intend to leave the Fur Company's
service,--indeed my resignation is already sent in,--purchase a small
farm here, and get--"

"Get a wife, a horse, a dog, and a gun, and settle down to enjoy
yourself, eh?" interrupted the surveyor.

"Well, I had not gone quite so much into details," answered Redding,
with a laugh, "but you are right in so far as settling down goes. My
only fear is that it won't be easy to find a place that will at once
suit my fancy and my purse. The small sum of money left me by my father
at his death two years ago will not purchase a very extensive place,
but--"

"I know the very thing to suit you," interrupted the surveyor with
emphasis, "a splendid little cottage--quite a mansion in miniature--with
garden, fences, fields, outhouses, etcetera, all complete and going
literally for an old song. Come, we'll `go visit it by the pale
moonlight' just now, return to have tea with the ladies, and to-morrow
we'll go see it by daylight. It is close at hand, the name is Loch Dhu,
and it has only one objection."

"What may that be?" asked Redding, much amused at the abrupt little
man's energy.

"Won't tell you till you've seen it; come."

Without more ado they sallied forth and walked along the snowy track
that led to the cottage in question. A few minutes sufficed to bring
them to it, and the first glance showed the fur-trader that his friend
had not exaggerated the beauty of the place. The cottage, although
small, was so elegant in form and so tastefully planned in every respect
that it well deserved the title of a mansion in miniature. It stood on
a rising ground which was crowned with trees; and the garden in front,
the summer-house, the porch, the trellis-work fence, the creepers, the
flower-beds--everything in fact, told that it had been laid out and
planned by a refined mind.

Of course Redding had to call in the aid of his imagination a little,
for at the moment when he first beheld it, the whole scene was robed in
a mant