then?" she asked quickly.

"We must start next week, I think," he answered, with an emphasis
on the pronoun that set her heart at rest. "Mr. Clay is going on
to Marble Island with the bishop to-morrow. He wants to see if
there is any boat there which will serve to take us round to
Halifax when the Strait is open. If not, we shall have to go by
river and trail to Maxohama; but I want to spare you that fatigue
if I can, for you have done quite enough portage work already."

"I would just as soon face the portages as the sea-sickness which
will inevitably be my portion going through the Strait," she
answered, with a laugh. "But where do the troubles come in,
Jervis? Did your cousin die poor?"

"Time enough to hear about the troubles when to-morrow comes. I am
not going to worry you with them to-night."

CHAPTER XXXI

The Wedding

The day was as gloriously fine as the most exacting of brides could
have wished for, and by noon the company were beginning to assemble.

Some of the fishing boats were away, which was disappointing for
the crews, although it is a little difficult to imagine how one
extra person could have been squeezed into the congregation which
later on crowded the store.

Jervis came over the river very early in the morning, and, with the
help of Miles and Phil, got the store ready to serve as a church
for the occasion. Pails of lard with boards laid across served for
seats in the centre of the floor; barrels of pork, of beans, and of
flour made a sort of dais or high seat all round the walls, on
which the boys and the younger men might be accommodated. Rather a
precarious kind of seat this was, as barrel heads were apt to give
way, and then the luckless individual would be smothered with flour
or bespattered with brine.

Mary also came across early, to help to dress the bride, and her
mood was so wildly hilarious that Mrs. Burton felt it necessary to
gently reprove her.

"Of course it is right to be happy and cheerful at a wedding, but
there is always a strain of sadness somewhere to keep our spirits
even. And we can't forget that Katherine is to go to England next
week."

"But she will be glad to go, and glad to come back; no one wants to
stay in one place all her life, in these gadabout days," Mary
answered. Then she produced a box and bade Katherine admire what
she had brought her.

"I felt when I bought it that it was shockingly unsuitable," Mary
said, laughing, as from t