tleman, who has just
kissed his sweetheart, be after weeping and giving redness of eyes to
the rest of us?"

Then, with a merry laugh, he roused himself out of these dumps, as he
called them, and exclaimed:

"Frank, my boy, here is a conundrum for you: Of which of the venerable
men of the past does your conduct remind me?"

Various guesses were made, but none were considered satisfactory, and so
Sam was called upon to solve his own riddle. His answer was clever and
characteristic. "Well," said he, "when reading the blessed book my
mother gave me I found a portion which said, `And Jacob kissed Rachel,
and lifted up his voice, and wept.' Why he should have shed any tears
at such an interesting transaction bothered me. But now I think I get a
glimmering idea in reference to it, since I have seen the events of to-
day."

"Sam, Sam," said Mrs Ross, who had heard this quaint reference to the
old patriarch, "why do you thus bring in such names in your
pleasantries?"

"I don't know," replied the irrepressible Sam, "unless it is that it is
in my blood; for one of the last things I heard my mother say, ere I
left home, was that, to judge by the thinness of the milk furnished by
the farmer who supplied us, he much reminded her of Pharaoh's daughter,
as he took a _profit_ out of the water!"

"Chestnuts," said Alec. "I have heard that before."

It was new to the majority, and the droll way in which Sam gave it put
everybody in a good humour, and a very happy, delightful time was spent
by them all.

Rapidly sped on the few days that intervened between the arrival of the
packet and the return trip of the boats to Red River. These Hudson Bay
Company's boats had come loaded with furs caught the previous winter,
which would be sent down to York Factory with vast quantities from other
parts of the great country, and from that fort shipped to England.
Then, loaded with goods for the next winter's trade, the boats would
return to the different posts from which they had come. With the
exception of canoes, they afforded the only means of travel in the
summer time in those regions.

Mr Ross had gone over to the fort at Norway House, and had obtained
from the gentlemen there in charge permission to send Frank, Alec, and
Sam in these boats as far as Fort Garry. He also decided to accompany
them that far in their journey, and see that everything was secured
necessary for their long trip across the prairies to St. Paul.

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