lot except some English letters for Mr. Ferrars
which had come directed to our agent in Montreal; so we sent them
straight down to Seal Cove yesterday afternoon without troubling
the post office at all."

"That was very kind of you. If they had been sent here I should
have had to deliver them last night after I got back from the long
portage," Katherine answered, as she took the bundle of papers
which Mary put into her hand.

"Which would have been a great shame, for I am sure that you must
have been tired out. Besides, you would have been too late, for
Mr. Ferrars sailed for the Twins last night with the evening tide;
and I have got to be clerk and overseer whilst he is away, so I
must be off. Don't you wish me joy of my work?"

"I certainly hope that you will enjoy it," Katherine replied, and
Mary went off in a bustle, calling for Hero, who was her constant
companion morning, noon, and night, a sort of hairy shadow, and
devotion itself.

When she had gone, Katherine sighed a little, then said to Miles,
who still looked a trifle sullen: "I do wish it had been possible
for you to go to the city this autumn. I know Father wished it so
much, and here would have been a good opportunity for your journey,
because you could have gone with the Selincourts, then you would
not have felt so lonely. I know that I nearly broke my heart when
I went, because of feeling so solitary."

"I am very glad that I can't be spared, because I simply don't want
to go, and should not value the chance if I had it," Miles
answered. "I will settle to work at books again directly winter
comes, and will put as much time in as I can spare at them,
especially at book-keeping. Education is not much good to people
who don't want it; and I would rather work with my hands any day
than work with my head. But of course there are some things I must
know to be a good man of business, and these I can learn at home, I
am thankful to say."

Katherine dropped the sugar scoop with which she had been
shovelling out brown sugar, and, crossing over to where Miles was
standing, gave him a hearty hug and a resounding kiss.

"What is that for?" he asked, with a wriggle of pretended disgust,
although there was a lifting of the sullen look in his face.

"Because you are such a thoroughly good sort," she answered. "You
have been such a comfort, Miles, ever since Father was taken ill;
it was just as if you went to bed a boy and woke up a man."

When th