demands upon her.

The great difficulty in arranging for an early marriage lay in
securing a minister to perform the ceremony. Directly the waters
were open, Jervis sent men with mails to Maxohama, with
instructions to bring back a clergyman with them--the bishop if
they could get him; but if he were not available, that is, if his
spring visitation had not begun, then some other clergyman must be
secured. He also sent a letter to Mr. Selincourt, urging that
gentleman's speedy return, stating as his reason the necessity
there might be for his own absence when the fishing commenced.

When the men had gone there were other preparations to be set
afoot, and, although five weeks might possibly elapse before the
men returned with the clergyman, arrangements for the ceremony had
to be set about without delay, because there was so much to be done.

A wedding in that out-of-the-way place was such an extraordinary
occasion that everyone at Seal Cove and Roaring Water Portage would
expect an invitation, so preparations must be made to welcome and
entertain the entire population. Katherine would have much
preferred to be quietly married in their sitting-room, with no one
but her own people to look at her; but Mrs. Burton protested loudly
at this, and even Jervis took sides with her, saying that everyone
would surely be disappointed if shut out.

"But you don't mean to ask everyone?" exclaimed Katherine.

"I expect everyone will want to come," Jervis replied, with a shrug
of his broad shoulders.

"Do you mean to ask Oily Dave, Bobby Poole, and all that lot?" she
cried in dismay.

"If they will come I shall be delighted to see them," he answered
gravely.

"But Oily Dave----" she began, then stopped as if she had no words
adequate to the expression of her feelings.

"Tried to kill me once, were you going to say? I know he did. But
perhaps if he had not fastened me in, to drown like a rat in a
hole, you would not have come to rescue me; and as that fact so
much out-balances the other, why, I feel rather in Oily Dave's debt
than otherwise."

It was the Sunday after the men had started with the mail for
Maxohama, and Jervis was walking with Katherine in the woods above
the first portage, while the laughing chuckle of the ptarmigan
sounded on all sides.

Katherine began to smile at the figure her wedding guests might be
expected to cut, then cried out in alarm: "Oh dear, whatever shall
we do if the bishop comes, as