to enjoy all this beauty without
any drawbacks if I can."

"I am afraid you will find the drawbacks, though, in spite of your
eagerness to escape them," said Mr. Selincourt, who had been
quietly examining Seal Cove through a glass. Then he handed the
glass to Mary, and said in a tone too low for the boatmen to hear:
"If I mistake not, the first drawback is there on the shore,
mending a net."

Mary took the glass and looked through it for a couple of minutes
without speaking; then she gave it back, saying, with a shudder:
"What a horrid-looking man!"

"Rather a low type by the look of him. But you must not judge all
the population by your first glimpse of it. Because one man is a
rogue does not prevent all the rest being honest," Mr. Selincourt
said, putting the glass to his eye to get another look at the place
they were approaching.

"Will our hut be down here on the shore?" asked Mary, who was
straining her eyes for a first glimpse of the house they were to
live in.

"No; Graham, who was one of the directors of the old company, you
know, told me I should be wise to have it built farther up the
river, at Roaring Water Portage, as it is so much more sheltered
there than down here on the coast."

"Ah! that was real wisdom, for if we make up our minds to stay the
winter, a sheltered position may make a great difference in our
comfort," she said quickly, then stretched out her hand for the
glass to have another look.

"You still think you want to spend next winter so far north?" said
her father, in a questioning tone.

"Why not?" she replied, with a weary note coming into her voice.
"One place is as good as another, only this would be better than
some, if only there is work of some sort to do."

"We shall see how we like it," he answered, then was silent, gazing
at the scene before him, which was looking its fairest on this June
afternoon.

The man mending nets on the shore, who was no other than Oily Dave,
had by this time become aware of the approaching boats, and was
rushing to and fro in a great state of bustle and excitement. They
could hear him calling to someone out of sight, and the sound of
his raucous voice only served to deepen the unpleasant impression
given by his appearance.

"Father, don't say much to that man, I don't like him," Mary said
in a low tone; and Mr. Selincourt nodded in reply, as the boats
drew in to the landing by the fish shed, and Oily Dave came
hurrying forward to greet