n the woods to see if the wild strawberries were
getting ripe. But she refused, declaring that her head ached,
which, although true, was not the real reason by any means.

"I am afraid you have been working too hard this week," he said
kindly. "I have been very much in the same plight myself, or I
would have come up to help you. Can you save things back for a few
days? As soon as the steamer has gone I shall be quite at leisure,
and will put in a day or two at helping you to get your stores
stowed away."

"It has been hard work, and of course we are to a certain extent
novices at it," Katherine answered. "But the worst is over now
until the next boat comes, when I suppose the confusion will begin
all over again, only of course by then we shall be more used to
managing things."

"You had better go to bed early and get a good night's rest, or I
shall be having you for a patient next, and I am very much afraid
you would not prove a tractable one," he said, more troubled by her
pale cheeks and weary looks than he cared to confess.

"I have never been ill in my life, so I have no idea how the role
of invalid would suit me," she answered with a mirthless laugh,
thinking how very pleasant a stroll in the woods would have been
after her long, hard day of work in the stockrooms.

"I don't think it would suit you at all," he replied. Then he
said, as he rose to go: "As you are not inclined for a walk, I will
go and have a talk with Mr. Selincourt about the plans for the
fish-curing sheds."

Standing aside was dismal work, Katherine told herself; and there
were tears on her pillow when she went to sleep that night.

CHAPTER XIX

An Awkward Fix

Mr. Selincourt was not the man to let the grass grow under his feet
when he had any sort of project in hand. He was so rich, too, that
his schemes never had to suffer delay from want of means to carry
them through. Directly he had made up his mind that he meant to
have a fish-curing establishment at Seal Cove, he had the plans
drawn for the buildings, work which fell to Jervis and Mary; then,
when these were ready, Astor M'Kree was set to work, with as many
helpers as could handle a hammer or a saw with any degree of
dexterity.

Never had there been such a summer of work at Seal Cove; everyone
who could do anything was pressed into service. Some of the
Indians, tempted by wages, were set to work, and although they were
no good at carpentry, or things of that so