o put the pan in the bedroom, when the man who was
helping stopped her with a suggestion. "You had better leave the
pan here in front of the fire, Miss; the poor gentleman is so
exhausted, you see, and the fire will be a comfort to him."

"I had not thought of that, but I am quite sure you are right," she
said; then got the water to a comfortable temperature, and left the
men to do their best.

They were prompt and speedy. In half an hour Mr. Selincourt was
lying in bed, spent and faint it is true, but as clean as soap and
water could make him. Mary hovered about him with a world of
tenderness in face and manner, but she would not let him talk,
would not even let him tell her how or where he had come so near to
finding his death on that sunny June afternoon. It was not until
he was asleep that she ventured to go back to the kitchen. The men
had removed all traces of their work by cleaning the splashed
floor, and were busy now in the open space behind the house washing
the mud-caked clothes which they had stripped from Mr. Selincourt,
for those men who go on portage work must have at least an
elementary knowledge of washing, or be content to go without clean
shirts most of their time.

Mary beckoned for one of them to come to her.

"What happened to my father?" she asked. "I would not let him tell
me, he is too thoroughly upset."

"We don't know, Miss," replied the man who had made the timely
suggestion about the bath. "We were down on the bank, getting the
boat ready that is to start for the south to-morrow, when a boat
rowed by a girl came up the river. She was dripping with
perspiration, and looked as if she had been rowing for a wager.
Mr. Selincourt was sitting in the stern, and there was a small boy
covered with mud too. The girl bade us take Mr. Selincourt and get
him to bed, and said that she would send down river for Mr.
Ferrars."

"How truly good of her!" cried Mary, with a mist of tears coming
into her eyes. "It must have been Miss Radford from the store over
the river. I was going to ask one of you to go to Seal Cove for
Mr. Ferrars, but if he has been already sent for he may soon be
here. So will you please go over to the store instead, give my
love to Miss Radford, and ask her to tell you what was wrong?"

The man dried his soapy hands by the simple process of rubbing them
on his trousers, and started on his errand, while Mary entered the
house again and peeped in at the open door of h