s she, too, because of all the advice she had given
her sister about standing aside, that Katherine had to turn
comforter, and assure the poor little woman that the well-meant
counsel had done no serious harm. But she shivered at the
remembrance of how she had suffered; for the pain is always most
wearing that has to be crushed down out of sight of other people's
eyes.

It was the last week in September when the Selincourts sailed from
Seal Cove. Mary wanted to go south by river and trail, as they had
come; but the weather was so stormy that it seemed better to get to
Montreal with dry feet, if they could manage to do so. They were
coming back next summer to settle permanently; but before then a
bigger house would have to be built, and many changes were to take
place on both sides of the river from Seal Cove to Roaring Water
Portage.

Jervis had begged Katherine to marry him before the winter began,
so that he might take the heaviest of her burdens on his own
shoulders. He was to live in Mr. Selincourt's house during the
winter, and it seemed to him an ideal arrangement, if only
Katherine had been willing to live there too. But she could not
selfishly take her own happiness while the others needed her so
much, and she steadily refused to even think of marriage until the
spring came again. By that time Miles would be old enough to
assume the government of affairs, and her father would not miss her
presence from the house so much when the bright, long days came
round again.

Finding that he could not alter her resolution, and secretly
admiring her all the more because of it, Jervis set himself to pass
the months of waiting as best he could. This winter it was he who
taught the night school, thus relieving Katherine of what had been
a heavy and sometimes very embarrassing burden. There were more
scholars this year; for the river was crowded with boats, so many
fishermen who had formerly wintered at Marble Island preferring to
come south in order to begin work earlier in the spring.

The snow came early, shutting them in a full two weeks sooner than
usual. But "early come early go" was the legend at Seal Cove, and,
since the winter had to come, the sooner it was over and done with
the better.

Idleness for the fishermen had been the rule in previous winters,
and, as idleness is usually only another word for mischief and
dissipation, the morals of the men had suffered seriously. But
next summer had to be p