t wish to be as late home as possible this evening,
and then most likely I shall be tired enough to want to go to bed
directly I get there."

"It strikes me that it is not your strength which is likely to give
out, but your nerve," Katherine answered with a laugh; then went on
in a graver tone: "I don't scold you when you play monkey tricks,
as you did yesterday, but it is hard work not to despise you when I
see you trying to escape the consequences of what you have done by
sneaking off to bed, pretending you are tired, when in reality you
are only afraid."

Phil reddened, looked dreadfully ashamed of himself for about two
minutes, then said in a cheerful tone: "It is rather nice of me to
be willing to play round with those sticky M'Kree babies, as if I
were a kid myself."

"I suppose it is; yet down underneath I dare say you rather like
the playing round, as you call it," laughed Katherine, and then she
worked on in silence up the solitary reaches of the river, with the
glaring sunshine on her unsheltered back, and swarms of flies
tormenting her unprotected face and neck. These last became such
an intolerable nuisance after a time, that she was forced to swathe
herself in a hot and cumbering veil.

The "back-ache" portage was worthy of its name that day, and it was
considerably past noon before they arrived at the Indian village to
which they were bound. At first they could not find anyone at
home, the whole community being away in the forest peeling bark
from the birch trees for the making of canoes. But the same kind
of thing had happened before, so Katherine was not at a loss.
Picking up a tin pan, she commenced beating a military tattoo upon
it with a thick stick; while Phil, with a trumpet improvised from a
roll of birchbark, produced an ear-splitting din which must have
carried far through the quiet woods. It was not long before their
customers arrived on the scene, and then the business of barter
began. A very long business it proved to-day, for, the weather
being warm and comfortable, the red men and women seemed to
thoroughly enjoy sitting round at their ease and taking time to
consider whether they wished to be purchasers or not.

[Illustration: Bartering with the Indians]

But Katherine was patient and tactful too. After all, the training
of a teacher is not lost in the buying and selling of a backwoods
store. The same gifts of persuasion are needful in both cases, and
the same gentle firmne