1 files changed, 2556 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/43249-0.txt b/43249-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f83049
--- /dev/null
+++ b/43249-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2556 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43249 ***
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Bold text is surrounded by =equal signs= and italic
+text is surrounded by _underscores_.]
+
+
+
+Our Little Canadian Cousin
+
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+Little Cousin Series
+
+(TRADE MARK)
+
+
+    Each volume illustrated with six or more full-page plates in
+    tint. Cloth, 12mo, with decorative cover,
+    per volume, 60 cents
+
+
+    LIST OF TITLES
+
+    BY MARY HAZELTON WADE
+    (unless otherwise indicated)
+
+    =Our Little African Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Alaskan Cousin=
+        By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
+
+    =Our Little Arabian Cousin=
+        By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little Armenian Cousin=
+        By Constance F. Curlewis
+
+    =Our Little Australian Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Brazilian Cousin=
+        By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
+
+    =Our Little Brown Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Canadian Cousin=
+        By Elizabeth R. MacDonald
+
+    =Our Little Chinese Cousin=
+        By Isaac Taylor Headland
+
+    =Our Little Cuban Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Dutch Cousin=
+        By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little Egyptian Cousin=
+        By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little English Cousin=
+        By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little Eskimo Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little French Cousin=
+        By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little German Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Greek Cousin=
+        By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
+
+    =Our Little Hawaiian Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Hindu Cousin=
+        By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little Indian Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Irish Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Italian Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Japanese Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Jewish Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Korean Cousin=
+        By H. Lee M. Pike
+
+    =Our Little Mexican Cousin=
+        By Edward C. Butler
+
+    =Our Little Norwegian Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Panama Cousin=
+        By H. Lee M. Pike
+
+    =Our Little Philippine Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Porto Rican Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Russian Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Scotch Cousin=
+        By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little Siamese Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Spanish Cousin=
+    By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
+
+    =Our Little Swedish Cousin=
+        By Claire M. Coburn
+
+    =Our Little Swiss Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Turkish Cousin=
+
+
+    L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
+    New England Building,      Boston, Mass.
+
+[Illustration: "TWO CHILDREN SAT ON THE GRASS UNDER THE LILACS"
+
+(_See page 2_)]
+
+
+
+
+Our Little Canadian Cousin
+
+By Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald
+
+    _Illustrated by_
+    L. J. Bridgman
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    Boston
+    L. C. Page & Company
+    _Publishers_
+
+    _Copyright, 1904_
+    BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
+
+    (INCORPORATED)
+
+    _All rights reserved_
+
+    Published July, 1904
+
+    Fifth Impression, June, 1908
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+
+IN "Our Little Canadian Cousin," my intention has been to tell, in a
+general way, although with a defined local setting, the story of
+Canadian home life. To Canadians, _home life_ means not merely sitting
+at a huge fireplace, or brewing and baking in a wide country kitchen, or
+dancing of an evening, or teaching, or sewing; but it means the great
+outdoor life--sleighing, skating, snow-shoeing, hunting, canoeing, and,
+above all, "camping out"--the joys that belong to a vast, uncrowded
+country, where there is "room to play."
+
+This wide and beautiful Canadian Dominion possesses, of course, a great
+variety of climate and of scenery. To treat at all adequately of those
+things, or of the country's picturesque and romantic history, would
+require far more scope than is afforded by this one small story.
+
+
+
+
+List of Illustrations
+
+
+                                                       PAGE
+
+  "TWO CHILDREN SAT ON THE GRASS UNDER THE LILACS"
+         (_See page 2_)                       _Frontispiece_
+
+  FREDERICTON                                            22
+
+  IN THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE GROUNDS                        28
+
+  "THE TREE-CLAD SHORES WORE A FAIRY GLAMOUR"            47
+
+  "A GREAT BONFIRE WAS BUILT"                            64
+
+  "NOTHING, DORA THOUGHT, COULD BE MORE BEAUTIFUL
+        THAN THOSE WOODS IN WINTER"                      99
+
+
+
+
+Our Little Canadian Cousin
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+IT was the very first day of the loveliest month in the year. I suppose
+every month has its defenders, or, at least, its apologists, but
+June--June in Canada--has surely no need of either. And this particular
+morning was of the best and brightest. The garden at the back of Mr.
+Merrithew's house was sweet with the scent of newly blossomed lilacs,
+and the freshness of young grass. The light green of the elms was as yet
+undimmed by the dust of summer, and the air was like the elixir of
+life.
+
+Two children sat on the grass under the lilacs, making dandelion chains
+and talking happily.
+
+Jack, a little fair-haired boy of six, was noted for his queer speeches
+and quaint ideas. His sister Marjorie was just twice his age, but they
+were closest chums, and delighted in building all sorts of air-castles
+together. This afternoon, when she had finished a chain of marvellous
+length, she leant back against the lilac-trees and said, with a sigh of
+happiness:
+
+"Now, Jack, let's make plans!"
+
+"All right," Jack answered, solemnly. "Let's plan about going to Quebec
+next winter."
+
+"Oh, Jackie! Don't let's plan about winter on the first day of June!
+There's all the lovely, lovely summer to talk about,--and I know two
+fine things that are going to happen."
+
+"All right!" said Jackie again. It was his favourite expression. "I
+know one of them; Daddy told me this morning. It's about Cousin Dora
+coming to stay with us."
+
+"Yes--isn't it good? She's coming for a whole year, while uncle and aunt
+go out to British Columbia,--to make him well, you know."
+
+"I wish she was a little boy," said Jackie, thoughtfully. "But if she's
+like you, she'll be all right, Margie. What's the other nice thing you
+know?"
+
+"Oh, you must try to guess, dear! Come up in the summer-house; it's so
+cosy there, and I'll give you three guesses. It's something that will
+happen in July or August, and we are _all_ in it, father and mother and
+you and Cousin Dora, and a few other people."
+
+They strolled up to the vine-covered summer-house, and settled down on
+its broad seat, while Jack cudgelled his brains for an idea as to a
+possible good time.
+
+"Is it a picnic?" he asked at last.
+
+Marjorie laughed.
+
+"Oh, ever so much better than that," she cried.
+
+"Try again."
+
+"Is it--is it--a visit to the seaside?"
+
+"No; even better than that."
+
+"Is it a pony to take us all driving?"
+
+"No, no. That's your last guess. Shall I tell you?"
+
+"Ah, yes, please do!"
+
+"Well,--mother says, if we do well at school till the holidays, and
+everything turns out right, she and father--will--take us camping!"
+
+"Camping? Camping out? Really in tents? Oh, good, good!"
+
+And Jackie, the solemn, was moved to the extent of executing a little
+dance of glee on the garden path.
+
+"Camping out" is a favourite way of spending the summer holiday-time
+among Canadians. Many, being luxurious in their tastes, build tiny
+houses and call them camps, but the true and only genuine "camping" is
+done under canvas, and its devotees care not for other kinds.
+
+As our little New Brunswickers were talking of all its possible joys, a
+sweet voice called them from the door of the big brick house.
+
+"Marjorie! Jack! Do you want to come for a walk with mother?"
+
+There was no hesitation in answering this invitation. The children
+rushed pell-mell down the garden path, endangering the swaying buds of
+the long-stemmed lilies on either side.
+
+Mrs. Merrithew stood waiting for them, a tall, plump lady in gray, with
+quantities of beautiful brown hair. She carried a small basket and
+trowel, at sight of which the children clapped their hands.
+
+"Are we going to the woods, mother?" Marjorie cried, and "May I take my
+cart and my spade?" asked Jackie.
+
+"Yes, dearies," Mrs. Merrithew answered. "We have three hours before
+tea-time, and Saturday wouldn't be much of a holiday without the woods.
+Put on your big hats, and Jack can bring his cart and spade, and
+Marjorie can carry the cookies."
+
+"Oh, please let me haul the cookies in my cart," said Jack. "Gentlemen
+shouldn't let ladies carry things, father says,--but Margie, you _may_
+carry the spade if you want something in your hands very much!"
+
+"All right, boy," laughed Marjorie. "I certainly do like something in my
+hands, and a spade will look much more ladylike than a cooky-bag!"
+
+The big brick house from which Mrs. Merrithew and the children set out
+on their walk stood on one of the back streets of a little New
+Brunswick city,--a very small but beautiful city, built on a wooded
+point that juts out into the bright waters of the St. John River. Of
+this river the little Canadian Cousins are justly proud, for, from its
+source in the wilds of Quebec to its outlet on the Bay of Fundy, it is
+indeed "a thing of beauty and a joy for ever."
+
+Our little party soon left the streets, went through a wide green space
+covered with venerable maples, crossed a tiny stream and a railway
+track, and entered the woods that almost covered the low hill behind the
+town. Though it was really but one hill, the various roads that
+subdivided it gave it various names, some derived from the settlements
+they led to, and some from buildings on the way. It was through the
+woods of "College Hill" that Marjorie and Jack and their mother
+wandered. Being all good walkers, they were soon back of the fine old
+college, which stands looking gravely out over the tree-embowered town
+to the broad blue river.
+
+When the delicious green and amber shadows of the woods were reached,
+little Jack at once began to search for fairies. Marjorie contented
+herself with looking for wild flowers, and Mrs. Merrithew sought for
+ferns young enough to transplant to her garden.
+
+"I am afraid I have left it rather late," she said at last. "They are
+all rather too well-grown to stand moving. But I will try a few of the
+smallest. What luck have my chicks had? Any fairies, Jackie?"
+
+Jackie lifted a flushed face from its inspection of a tiny hole in the
+trunk of a fir-tree.
+
+"No fairies _yet_, mother; but I think one lives in here, only she won't
+come out while I am watching."
+
+Mrs. Merrithew smiled sympathetically. She heartily agreed with the
+writer (though she could not remember who it was) who said: "I always
+expect to find something wonderful, unheard-of, in a wood."
+
+"In olden days," she said, "people believed that there were beautiful
+wood-spirits, called dryads, who had their homes in trees. They were
+larger than most fairies, and yet they were a kind of fairy."
+
+"Please tell more about them, mother," said Marjorie, coming up with her
+hands full of yellow, speckled adder's-tongue.
+
+"I know very little more, I am sorry to say," their mother answered,
+laughing. "Like Jackie with _his_ fairies, I have always hoped to see
+one, but never have as yet."
+
+"Are they good things?" Jackie asked, "or would they frighten little
+boys?"
+
+"Oh, my dear, they were always said to be kind and beautiful, and rather
+timid, more apt to be frightened themselves than to frighten any one
+else. But remember, dears, mother did not say there _were_ such things,
+but only that people used to think so."
+
+"Please tell us a story about one, mother," Jack pleaded.
+
+But Mrs. Merrithew shook her head.
+
+"We will keep the story for some other time," she said. "Let us have a
+cooky now, and a little rest, before we go home."
+
+This proposal was readily agreed to. They chose a comfortable spot where
+a little group of white birches gave them backs on which to lean, opened
+the precious bag, and were soon well occupied with its crisp and
+toothsome contents. Mrs. Merrithew, knowing well that little folk are
+generally troubled with a wonderful thirst, had also brought a cup and a
+bottle of lemonade. How doubly delicious things tasted in the clear,
+spicy air of the woods!
+
+By the time Jack had disposed of his sixth cooky he felt ready for
+conversation.
+
+"Mother," he said, "I wish you would tell us all about Dora."
+
+"All about Dora, dearie? That would take a long time, I expect. But it
+would _not_ take long to tell you all that I know about her. I have only
+seen her twice, and on one of those occasions she was a baby a month
+old, and the next time only two years,--and as she is now, I do not know
+her at all."
+
+"But--oh, you know, mother--tell us about her father and mother, and her
+home, and everything like that. It makes her more interesting," urged
+Marjorie.
+
+Mrs. Merrithew saw that she was to be beguiled into a story in any case,
+so she smiled and resigned herself to her fate.
+
+"Well, my dears, I know a great many things about Dora's father, for he
+is my only brother, and we were together almost constantly until we were
+both grown up. Then your Uncle Archie, who had studied electrical
+engineering, went up to Montreal, and there secured a good position. He
+had only been there a short time when he met a very charming young lady"
+("_This_ sounds quite like a book-story," Marjorie here interposed) "by
+whom he was greatly attracted. She was partly French, her mother having
+been a lady of old French family. But her father was an English officer,
+of the strongest English feelings, so this charming young lady (whose
+name was Denise Allingham) combined the characteristics--at least all
+the best characteristics--of both races. Do you know what that means,
+Jackie?"
+
+Jack nodded, thoughtfully.
+
+"I think so, mother. I think it means that she--that young lady--had all
+the nicenesses of the French and all the goodnesses of the English."
+
+"That is just it, my dear, and a very delicate distinction, too," cried
+his mother, clapping her hands in approval, while Jackie beamed with
+delight.
+
+"Well, to continue: Miss Denise Allingham, when your Uncle Archie met
+her, was an orphan, and not well off. She was teaching in an English
+family, and not, I think, very happy in her work. She and your uncle had
+only known each other about a year when they were married."
+
+"And lived happily ever after?" Marjorie asked.
+
+Mrs. Merrithew considered a moment, then:
+
+"Yes, I am sure I can say so," she answered. "They have had some
+business troubles, and a good deal of sickness, but still they have been
+happy through it all. And they have one dear little daughter, whom they
+love devotedly, and who is named 'Dora Denise,' after her mother
+and--who else?"
+
+"You, mother, you," both children exclaimed.
+
+"The chief trouble this happy trio has had," Mrs. Merrithew continued,
+"has been the delicate health of your uncle. For the last four years he
+has not been strong. Twice they have all three gone away for his health,
+and now the doctors have ordered him to try the delightful climate of
+British Columbia, and to spend at least a year there if it agrees with
+him. He needs all his wife's attention this time, and that, my dears, is
+why little Dora Denise Carman is coming to spend a year with her New
+Brunswick relations.
+
+"And now, chicks, look at that slanting, golden light through the trees.
+That means tea-time, and homeward-bound!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+IT was a tired and homesick little girl that Mr. Merrithew helped out of
+the coach and led up the steps of his house, about a fortnight after our
+story opens. The journey from Montreal had been long and lonely, the
+parting from her parents hard, and the thought of meeting the unknown
+relatives had weighed upon her mind and helped to make her unusually
+subdued. But when the door of the Big Brick House (which had been named
+by the neighbours when it was the only brick house on the street, and
+the largest one in town) opened, and her aunt's motherly arms closed
+around her, while Marjorie's rosy, laughing face and Jackie's fair,
+cherubic one beamed on her in greeting, her spirits began to revive.
+The greeting was so warm and kind, and the joy at her coming so genuine,
+that her fatigue seemed turned, as by magic, to a pleasant restfulness,
+and her homesickness was lost in this bright home atmosphere.
+
+Mrs. Merrithew took the little newcomer to her room, had her trunks
+settled conveniently, and then left her to prepare for the late tea
+which was waiting for them all. When Dora was ready, she sat down in the
+little armchair that stood near a table piled with books, and looked
+about her contentedly.
+
+There was an air of solid comfort and cosiness about this house that
+rested her. This room--which her aunt had told her was just opposite
+Marjorie's--was all furnished in the softest shades of brown and blue,
+her favourite colours. The carpet was brown, with a very small spray of
+blue here and there; the wallpaper was lighter, almost creamy, brown,
+with a dainty harebell pattern, and the curtains had a rich brown
+background with various Persian stripes, in which blue and cream and
+gold predominated. The bed, to her great delight, had a top-piece, and a
+canopy of blue-flowered chintz, and the little dressing-table was draped
+to match it. Just over the side of the bed was a book-shelf, quite
+empty, waiting for her favourite books. While she sat and looked about
+in admiration, the door was pushed gently open, and a plump maltese
+kitten came in, gazed at her doubtfully a moment, and then climbed on
+her lap. Then Marjorie's bright face appeared at the door, and, "May I
+come in?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, please do," Dora cried. "Kitty has made friends with me already,
+and I think that must be a good omen."
+
+Marjorie laughed, as she patted the little bunch of blue-gray fur in
+Dora's lap.
+
+"_Jackie_ has made friends with you already," she said, "and I think
+that is a better omen still. He told mother he thought you were 'the
+beautifulest girl he ever saw.'"
+
+Dora's eyes opened wide with astonishment. "It is the first time I ever
+was called beautiful," she said, "let alone 'beautifulest.' What a dear
+boy Jack must be."
+
+Then they both laughed, and Marjorie, obeying one of her sudden
+impulses, threw her arms around Dora's neck and gave her a cousinly hug.
+"You and I will be friends, too," she said. "I knew it as soon as I
+looked at you."
+
+Dora's dark brown eyes looked gravely into Marjorie's blue ones. She
+seemed to be taking the proposition very seriously.
+
+"I have always wished for a real friend, or a twin sister," she said,
+thoughtfully. "The twin sister is an impossibility, and I have never
+before seen a girl that I wanted for a great, _great_ friend. But
+you,--ah, yes! You are like my father, and besides, we are cousins, and
+that makes us understand each other. Let us be friends."
+
+She held out her hand with a little gesture which reminded Marjorie that
+this pale, dark-haired cousin was the descendant of many French _grandes
+dames_. She clasped the slender hand with her own plump fingers, and
+shook it heartily. So, in girlish romance and sudden resolution, the
+little maids sealed a compact which was never broken, and began a
+friendship which lasted and grew in beauty and strength all through
+their lives.
+
+At the breakfast-table the next morning there was a merry discussion as
+to what should be done first to amuse Dora. Jackie, who had invited her
+to sit beside him and beamed at her approvingly over his porridge and
+cream, suggested a walk to his favourite candy-store and the purchase of
+some sticks of "pure chocolate." Marjorie proposed a picnic at Old
+Government House. This was approved of, but postponed for a day or two
+to allow for preparations and invitations. Mr. Merrithew said "Let us go
+shooting bears," but even Jackie did not second this astounding
+proposition. As usual, it was "mother" who offered the most feasible
+plan.
+
+"Suppose, this morning," she said, "you just help Dora unpack, and make
+her thoroughly at home in the house and garden; then this afternoon
+perhaps your father will take you for a walk, and show Dora the house
+where Mrs. Ewing lived, and any other interesting places. That would do
+for to-day, wouldn't it? Then, day after to-morrow we could have the
+picnic; and for the next week I have a magnificent idea, but I want to
+talk it over with your father," and she nodded and smiled at that
+gentleman in a way which made him almost as curious as the children.
+
+"That's the way with mother," Marjorie said to Dora after breakfast.
+"She never ends things up. There is always another lovely plan just
+ahead, no matter how many you know about already."
+
+And Mr. Merrithew, who overheard the remark, thought that perhaps this
+was part of the secret of his wife's unfailing youthfulness both in
+looks and spirits.
+
+The walk that afternoon was one which Dora always remembered. Mr.
+Merrithew had, as Jackie said, "the splendidest way of splaining
+things," and found something of interest to relate about almost every
+street of the little city. They went through the beautiful cathedral,
+and he told them how it had been built through the earnest efforts of
+the well-known and venerated Bishop Medley, who was afterward
+Metropolitan of Canada. Then they wandered down the street along the
+river, and saw the double house where Mrs. Ewing (whose stories are
+loved as much in the United States and in Canada as they are in
+England) lived for a time, and where she wrote.
+
+[Illustration: FREDERICTON]
+
+She had called this house "Rika Dom," which means "River House," and had
+written in many of her letters of the beautiful river on which it
+looked, and the gnarled old willows on the bank just in front of her
+windows. These willows she had often sketched, and Dora carried away a
+spray of the pale gray-green leaves, in memory of her favourite
+story-writer. It was one of Dora's ambitions, kept secret hitherto, but
+now confided to Marjorie, to write stories "something like Mrs.
+Ewing's."
+
+They saw, too, the picturesque cottage in which a certain quaint old
+lady had attained to the ripe age of a hundred and six years,--a record
+of which Fredericton was justly proud. This venerable dame had been
+addicted to the unlimited eating of apples, and her motto--she was not a
+grammatical old lady!--had been (according to tradition), "Apples
+never hurts nobody."
+
+They spent some time in the Legislative Library, where was enshrined a
+treasure in the shape of a magnificent copy of Audubon's Books of Birds.
+Then in the Departmental Buildings, near by, there was a small but
+well-arranged museum of stuffed birds and beasts, all Canadian, and most
+of them from New Brunswick. There were other things, too, to see, and
+many anecdotes to hear, so that it was a somewhat tired, though happy
+and hungry party which trudged home just in time for tea.
+
+And such a tea, suited to hearty outdoor appetites born of the good
+Canadian air! There were fresh eggs, made into a white and golden
+omelette by Mrs. Merrithew's own hands; for even Debby, who had cooked
+for the family all their lives, owned that an omelette like Mrs.
+Merrithew's she could not manage,--"No, _sir_, not if I was to cook day
+and night." There was golden honey in the comb; there was johnny-cake,
+hot and yellow and melting in your mouth; strawberry jam that tasted
+almost as good as the fresh fruit itself; ginger-cake, dark and rich and
+spicy; milk that was almost cream for the children, and steaming
+fragrant coffee for their elders.
+
+"It is rather nice to get _good and hungry_," Jackie gravely
+observed,--"that is, if you have plenty in the house to eat. I think
+life would be very dull without meals."
+
+These philosophical remarks rather astonished Dora, who was not yet
+accustomed to the contrast between Jack's sage reflections and his
+tender years. Just now they seemed especially funny, because he was
+almost falling asleep while he talked. When Mrs. Merrithew saw him
+nodding, she rang, and the nurse--who, like Debby, was a family
+institution--came in and carried him off in her stalwart arms, to his
+little white bed. When his mother stole up a little later to give him a
+final good-night kiss, she heard Susan singing and paused at the door to
+listen. "Now the day is over" was ended, and then a drowsy voice
+murmured:
+
+"Now, Susan, my very favourite song!"
+
+And then Susan sang, in her soft, crooning voice "The maple-leaf, the
+maple-leaf, the maple-leaf for ever!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+THE day of the picnic was hot, very hot, for June, but that did not
+discourage the younger picnickers at all.
+
+"It will be pretty warm on the river," Mr. Merrithew remarked,
+tentatively, as they sat at dinner. The dining-room windows were open,
+and the soft air, sweet with the scent of lilacs, blew the white
+curtains into the room with lazy puffs.
+
+"It will be so lovely when we get to Government House, though," Marjorie
+cried. "There is always a breeze up there, father, and there are plenty
+of trees, and three summer-houses, and that big veranda. Oh, I think it
+will be perfect."
+
+"Yes, Daddy, I do, too! I think it will be _gorlious_!" said Jackie.
+
+When, after much hurrying about, telephoning to tardy members of the
+party, and good-natured discussion as to the arrangement of the
+canoe-loads, they were at last afloat on the blue, shining river, they
+all agreed with Jack. Dora was charmed with the slender Milicete canoes.
+She had seen chiefly canvas and wooden ones. Her father, indeed, had
+owned a bark canoe, but it was of much heavier and broader build than
+these slim beauties, that glided through the water like fairy craft,
+impelled this way or that by the slightest turn of the steersman's
+wrist.
+
+[Illustration: IN THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE GROUNDS]
+
+They landed just back of Government House, the grounds of which sloped
+down to the water. The house is a long, stone building, with a broad
+veranda at the back, and in front nearly covered with Virginia creeper.
+At the time of the picnic it was empty, and in charge of a caretaker,
+who lived in a small cottage on the grounds. When a suitable spot had
+been chosen for tea, and the baskets piled close by, Mrs. Merrithew
+proposed an excursion through the house, and Mr. Merrithew went with
+Jackie to procure the key. When he returned, they all trooped merrily up
+the front steps, and soon were dispersed through the great echoing halls
+and lofty rooms. Most of the grown people of the party had danced here
+at many a stately ball, for in those days Government House had been kept
+up in the good old-fashioned way. Marjorie and Jack delighted in hearing
+their mother tell of her "coming out" at one of these balls, and how she
+had been so proud of her first train that she had danced without holding
+it up, which must have been trying for her partners. Dora was greatly
+interested in seeing the room where King Edward, then the slim young
+Prince of Wales, had slept, on the occasion of his visit to
+Fredericton. When the furniture of Government House was auctioned, a few
+years before our story opens, the pieces from this room, which should
+have been kept together as of historic interest, were scattered about
+among various private purchasers. Mrs. Merrithew described them to Dora,
+who wished she could have seen the great bed, so wide that it was almost
+square, with its canopy and drapings of rich crimson, and its gilt
+"Prince of Wales feathers," and heavy gold cords and tassels.
+
+When they came out of the dim, cool house into the warm air, the elders
+looked apprehensively at the heavy black clouds which had gathered in
+the west.
+
+"That looks ominous," one of the gentlemen said. "There will certainly
+be thunder before night."
+
+Thunder! That was Marjorie's horror! Her round, rosy face grew pale, and
+she clung tightly to her mother's arm. The men and matrons held a
+hurried consultation, and decided that the storm was probably not very
+near, and that it would be safe to wait for tea if they hurried things a
+little. It would be a terrible disappointment to the children (all, at
+least, but Marjorie!) to be hurried away without "the picnic part of the
+picnic." So they all bustled about, and in a short time the cloth was
+spread, and well covered with good things. The fire behaved well, as if
+knowing the need of haste, and the coffee was soon made, and as
+delicious as picnic coffee, by some apparent miracle, generally is. By
+the time the repast was over, the clouds had drawn closer, the air was
+more sultry, and even the most optimistic admitted that it was high time
+to start for home. The canoes were quickly loaded, the best canoe-men
+took the paddles, and soon they were darting swiftly down-river, running
+a race with the clouds.
+
+In spite of their best speed, however, the storm broke before they
+reached their journey's end. The thunder growled and muttered, a few
+bright flashes lit up the sultry sky, and just as they landed a
+tremendous peal caused the most courageous to look grave, while poor
+Marjorie could scarcely breathe from terror. Then the rain came, and the
+pretty muslin dresses and flower-trimmed hats looked very dejected
+before their wearers were safely housed! Still, no one was the worse for
+that little wetting, Marjorie recovered from her fright as soon as she
+could nestle down in a dark room with her head in her mother's lap, and
+they all agreed with Jackie that it _had_ been "a gorlious time."
+
+Before the children went to bed Mrs. Merrithew told them about the plan
+which she had mentioned two days before, and to which Mr. Merrithew had
+heartily consented. He was to take a whole holiday, on Thursday of the
+following week, and drive them all up to the Indian Village, about
+thirteen miles above town, to see the Corpus Christi celebrations.
+
+Corpus Christi, a well-known festival in the Roman Catholic Church, is
+one which has been chosen by the Indians for special celebration. As it
+comes in June, and that is such a pleasant time for little excursions,
+many drive to the Indian Village from Fredericton and from the
+surrounding country, to see the Milicetes in their holiday mood.
+
+The day being fresh and lovely, with no clouds but tiny white ones in
+the sky, Mr. and Mrs. Merrithew and the three children set off early on
+Thursday morning. They had a roomy two-seated carriage, and two big
+brisk, white horses, plenty of wraps and umbrellas in case history
+should repeat itself with another storm, and an ample basket of
+dainties. The road, winding along the river-bank most of the the way,
+was excellent, and the scenery Dora thought prettier than any she had
+seen. The river was smooth as a mirror, reflecting every tree and bush
+on its banks. Little islands, green and tree-crested, were scattered all
+along its shining length.
+
+It was almost time for the service when they reached the picturesque
+little village which went climbing bravely up its hill to the chapel and
+priest's house near the top. The horses were taken charge of by a sedate
+young half-breed, evidently proud of his office as the "priest's man,"
+and our party at once filed into the chapel. A plain enough little
+structure in itself, to-day it was beautiful with green boughs, ferns,
+and flowers. The congregation consisted chiefly of Indians and
+half-breeds, with a scattering of interested visitors. Most of the
+natives were clad in gorgeous finery, some of the older ones having
+really handsome beaded suits and beautifully worked moccasins, while
+others were grotesque in their queer combination of the clothes of
+civilization and savagery. The priest, a tall, good-looking man with
+piercing eyes, sang high mass, and then the procession formed. First
+came an altar-boy carrying a cross, then six boys with lighted tapers,
+and two walking backward scattering boughs. These were followed by the
+priest bearing the host and sheltered by a canopy which four altar-boys
+carried. These boys were all Indians, and the mild well-featured
+Milicete faces had lost their stolidity, and were lit up with an
+expression of half-mystic adoration. After them came the congregation,
+bare-headed, and singing as they walked. Marjorie and Dora clasped hands
+as they followed, their eyes shining with excitement. They went down the
+road and entered a schoolhouse not far from the church, where the host
+was placed in a little tabernacle of green boughs while the service was
+continued. Then the procession re-formed and went back to the church.
+
+After they had disbanded, the Indians scattered to their houses to
+prepare for the various other events of the day. Mr. and Mrs. Merrithew
+and the children were carried off by the priest (whom Mr. Merrithew knew
+well) to have dinner with him in his house near the chapel. The children
+stood a little in awe of him at first, but he was so companionable and
+kind that they were soon quite at their ease. His mother, who kept house
+for him, was evidently very proud of her son, and did her best to
+entertain his visitors worthily. The house was rather bare, but clean as
+wax and the perfection of neatness, while the repast, spread on the
+whitest of linen, was excellent, and not without some rather unusual
+dainties,--such as candied fruits of many colours for the children, and
+guava jelly brought out especially in Mrs. Merrithew's honour.
+
+After dinner the good father offered to show them through the village,
+and they set out together on a tour of inspection. All the full-grown
+Indians, the priest told them, were holding a pow-wow in the
+schoolhouse, for the purpose of electing a chief. "There is no need of
+my being there this afternoon," he said, in answer to Mr. Merrithew's
+inquiry; "but this evening, when they have their feast and their
+games,--ah, then I will keep my eye on them!"
+
+Evidently this priest held very parental relations toward his people.
+The visitors noticed that some boys playing baseball on the green
+eagerly referred their disputes to him and accepted his word as final.
+He took them into several of the little wooden houses, all of which,
+probably in honour of the day, were in splendid order. In one they found
+twin papooses, brown as autumn beech-leaves, sleeping side by side in a
+basket of their mother's making. In another a wrinkled old squaw had
+most dainty moccasins to sell, the Milicete slipper-moccasins, with
+velvet toe-pieces beautifully beaded. Mr. Merrithew bought a pair for
+each of his party (himself excepted), letting them choose their own.
+Mrs. Merrithew promptly selected a pair with yellow velvet on the toes;
+Dora's choice had crimson, and Marjorie's blue, while Jackie's tiny pair
+was adorned with the same colour as his mother's.
+
+"You see, mother dear," he said quite seriously, "yours are a _little_
+larger, so we won't be mixing them up!"
+
+Then, being in a gift-making mood, Mr. Merrithew bought them each a
+quaint and pretty basket, besides a big substantial scrap-basket for his
+own study, and handkerchief-cases, gorgeous in pink and green, for Susan
+and Debby. The small baskets all had broad bands of the fragrant "sweet
+hay" which grows on many islands of the St. John, but which very few
+white people can find. Dora was much interested in the Milicete women,
+with their soft voices and kind, quiet faces. She tried to learn some of
+their words, and won their hearts by singing two or three songs in
+French, a language which they all understood, though they spoke it in a
+peculiar patois of their own.
+
+The bright summer afternoon went all too quickly. Mrs. Merrithew was
+anxious to reach home before too late an hour, so at five o'clock, after
+tea and cakes, they "reembarked" for the return trip. The horses were
+fresh, the roads good, the children just pleasantly tired. As they drove
+on and on through magic sunset light and fragrant summer dusk, Dora
+thought drowsily that this was a day she would always remember, even if
+she lived to be as old as the dame who ate the innumerable apples.
+
+"I will have such lovely things to write to father and mother about,"
+she murmured, in sleepy tones,--and those were the last words she said
+till the carriage stopped at the door of "the Big Brick House," and she
+and Jackie were tenderly lifted out and half led, half carried up the
+steps. Then she opened her eyes very wide and looked about her in
+wonder.
+
+"Why, I believe I _nearly_ went to sleep for a moment," she said.
+
+And even Jackie woke up enough to laugh at that!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+THE day before they left for camp, Dora received a letter from her
+mother, telling something of their surroundings and of the beauties of
+the Western land. As the others were keenly interested, she read them
+many extracts, which even Jackie enjoyed.
+
+"We are now," her mother wrote, after describing the journey by the
+great Canadian Pacific Railway, and speaking encouragingly of the
+invalid's condition, "comfortably settled in Victoria--which, as of
+course you know, dear, is the capital city of British Columbia. It is a
+truly beautiful spot, and the climate is delightful. There are great
+varieties of climate, we hear, in this maritime province of the West;
+Victoria is supposed to enjoy a very mild and even one, with roses and
+geraniums blooming outdoors in December, and the cold weather confined
+almost entirely to parts of January and February. There is another
+delightful part of the country which we may visit later; it is in one of
+the valleys which cut across the Coast Range of mountains. These deep
+valleys are entirely shut off from the north winds, and freely admit the
+warm breezes from the coast, while the rays of the sun are concentrated
+on their steep sides, helping to make, at times, almost tropical
+weather. We may spend part of next winter there, as it is even drier
+than Victoria, and that is very important for your father. Some of our
+new acquaintances have recommended the southern part of Alberta, where
+the winter is shortened and made almost balmy by the wonderful chinook
+winds--so named from the Chinook Indians, who used to occupy that part
+of the country from which they blow. These west winds, coming from the
+mountains across the plains, are warm and particularly drying. When they
+melt the light and infrequent snowfalls of the winter, they also dry the
+ground almost immediately, so that even the hollows and ravines are free
+from dampness. Your father is greatly interested in these 'warm
+chinooks,' and we are almost sure to try their effect later. Another
+pleasure to which we look forward, when he grows a little stronger, is a
+trip by boat along the coast. The fiords of British Columbia are said to
+resemble those of Norway, and the whole coast, with its wooded shores,
+snowy mountain-peaks, and flashing cataracts, is marvellously
+beautiful."
+
+Dora went to sleep that night with her mother's letter under her pillow,
+and dreamt that they were camping out on the shore of a British
+Columbian fiord, when a warm wind came and blew all the tents into
+little boats, in which they went sailing away to some wonderful country,
+where no one would ever be sick, and where no winds blew but balmy west
+ones. She had nearly reached the land, when a soft touch woke her, and
+she found Marjorie's happy face bending over her.
+
+"Hurry up, dear! Hurrah for camp! We want to start by ten at the latest,
+and it is seven now, and such a perfect day. Mother says we can take
+Kitty with us; won't that be fun?"
+
+And Marjorie was off without waiting for an answer. Dora heard her
+singing, laughing, chatting, as she flashed here and there, helping and
+hindering in about equal proportions.
+
+The whole house was filled with the pleasant bustle of preparation. Mr.
+Merrithew was as much of a boy, in the matter of high spirits, as the
+youngest of the party. Mrs. Merrithew, blithe and serene, had
+everything perfectly planned, and engineered the carrying out of the
+plans with quiet skill. It was she who remembered where everything was,
+thought of everything that ought to be taken, and saw that every one of
+the party was properly clad. The party, by the way, was quite a large
+one, consisting of another whole family (the Greys) besides the
+Merrithews, Will Graham, a young collegian who was a friend of Mr.
+Merrithew's, and Miss Covert, a rather delicate and very quiet little
+school-teacher whom Mrs. Merrithew had taken under her wing from sheer
+kindness, but who proved a charming addition to the party. The Greys
+were six in number: Doctor Grey, a grave professor; Mrs. Grey, a tiny,
+vivacious brunette, who had been Mrs. Merrithew's "chum" since their
+schoolgirl days; Carl and Hugh, twin boys of fourteen; and two girls,
+Edith, just Jackie's age, and Alice, so much older than the rest that
+she was "almost grown-up," and Marjorie and Dora looked upon her with
+admiring awe.
+
+Doctor Grey, both mammas, Susan (who was to do the cooking, as Debby did
+not dare venture on anything so wild as sleeping out-of-doors), Jackie,
+little Edith Grey, and all the provisions, tents, and bedding, were to
+go by stage, while Mr. Merrithew, Will Graham, and the twins were to
+divide the charge of three canoes and the four girls.
+
+At ten o'clock the big lumbering stage rattled up to the door, and the
+canoeists saw the others properly packed and waved them a cheerful
+adieu. Then they gathered up paddles, wraps, and lunch-baskets, and
+hastened gaily off to the boat-house on the river-bank. Here the work of
+embarking was quickly accomplished, and the four slender birches shot
+out into the stream, turned, and swept upward, propelled against the
+current by vigorous arms.
+
+"Please sing, Daddy," Marjorie begged, and Mr. Merrithew promptly began
+an old favourite, but could get no further than the first verse.
+
+    "In the days when we went gypsying,
+       A long time ago,
+     The lads and lasses in their best
+       Were dressed from top to toe--"
+
+So far he sang, and then declared that both memory and breath had given
+out, and that the ladies, who had no work to do, must forthwith provide
+the music. After a little hesitation and some coaxing from Marjorie,
+Dora sang, in a clear, sweet treble, the well-known and much-loved "En
+Roulant ma Boule" ("Rolling My Ball"). Then some one started "Tenting on
+the Old Camp Ground," and all, even the paddlers, joined in, the little
+school-teacher providing a rich alto that took them all by surprise.
+
+[Illustration: "THE TREE-CLAD SHORES WORE A FAIRY GLAMOUR"]
+
+The river was deep-blue, reflecting the little clouds that floated in
+the azure overhead. Near the town the river was very broad; as they
+forged upward, it gradually narrowed, and was thickly studded with
+islands. They passed Government House, left the ruined Hermitage behind,
+and then began to feel that they were at last out of civilization, and
+nearing the goal of summer quiet that they sought. It was slow work,
+this paddling against the current, but the time went in a sort of
+enchanted way; the tree-clad shores wore a fairy glamour, and the
+islands, where masses of grape-vine and clematis were tangled over the
+bushes, might have been each the home of an enchanted princess, a dryad,
+or any of the many "fair forms of old romance." When about five miles
+had been covered, they heard the rush of water hurrying over shallows
+and nagging at the rocks. This was what the children delighted to call
+"The Rapids," but old canoemen simply dubbed it "a stretch of swift
+water." But by whichever name it went, it called for strong and skilful
+paddling, and Mr. Merrithew proposed that, before they undertook it,
+they should land and fortify themselves with lunch. This suggestion met
+with great favour; the canoes were swiftly beached, and soon a merry
+little picnic party sat under a clump of gray shore-willows, while
+sandwiches, tarts, and cakes of many kinds, vanished as if by magic.
+Success to the camp was drunk in lemonade--_not_ ice-cold--and speeches
+were made that proved the good spirits, if not the oratorical gifts, of
+the group.
+
+They rested here for an hour, for one of the camp mottoes was, "Time was
+made for slaves," and they knew that the ones who had gone on by stage
+were resting comfortably in a farmhouse, just opposite their
+destination, till the canoeing party should come to ferry them over. The
+farmhouse was owned by old friends with whom Mrs. Merrithew and Mrs.
+Grey would be glad to spend a little time, and for Jack and Edith the
+whole place would be full of wonders.
+
+When it came to actually facing the rapids, Dora's heart failed her; her
+cheeks paled, and her eyes grew very large and dark; but she held on
+tight to both sides of the canoe, fixed her eyes on Marjorie's back, and
+said not a word. She tried hard not to see the swirling water and the
+scowling rocks, but no effort could shut out the confused seething
+noises that made her feel as if nothing in the world was stable or
+solid. When at last the rush was over, the sounds grew softer, and the
+triumphant canoemen drew their good craft in to shore, and paused to
+rest their tired muscles, Dora gave a deep sigh of relief.
+
+Marjorie turned a beaming face to see what ever was the matter.
+
+"_Frightened_, dear?" she said. "I forgot that you have not had much
+canoeing. It's too bad."
+
+But Dora laughed, and the colour came back to her face.
+
+"I ought not to mind," she said, "for I have shot the Lachine Rapids.
+But I think being in a large boat gives one a feeling of safety. I know
+I wasn't half so afraid then as I was to-day. It seemed to me there was
+nothing between me and the dreadful confusion."
+
+"Shooting the Lachine Rapids is a great experience," Mr. Merrithew said.
+"I must confess I would not like to try those in a canoe, as Champlain
+did! But now, boys, let us set off briskly, or we won't get things
+comfortable before night."
+
+And they did hurry, but for all their speed it was nearly dusk by the
+time the five white tents were pitched on Saunder's Island. This was a
+fairly large island, ringed by a sandy beach from which the ground rose
+steeply to a green bank on which elms, white birches, and maples stood,
+with a tangle of raspberry-bushes, and flowering shrubs among them.
+Inside the belt of trees was a broad sweep of rich meadow-land, with
+here and there a row of feathery elms or a cluster of choke-cherry-trees.
+Toward the upper end of the island stood an old stone house, empty and
+almost a ruin; not far from this house were two barns, kept in good
+repair for the storing of the sweet island hay.
+
+The tents were pitched about a hundred yards from the house, just inside
+the tall bordering trees, so that part of the day they would be in the
+shade. These trees, too, would make ideal places for slinging the
+numerous hammocks which Mrs. Merrithew and Mrs. Grey had brought.
+
+Dora and Marjorie greatly enjoyed watching the speed with which the
+tent-poles--two stout uprights and a horizontal ridge-pole--were got
+into position, and the skill with which the white canvas was spread
+over them and stretched and pegged down and made into a cosy shelter.
+There was a tiny "A tent" tucked away in the shadiest spot for the
+provisions, and a large tent in a central position which Mr. Grey named
+"Rainy-Day House," and which was to be used as dining-room and parlour
+in case of severe rains; then the other three were called respectively,
+"The Chaperons' Tent," "The Boys' Tent," and "The Girls' Tent."
+
+The chaperons' abode was inhabited by Mrs. Merrithew, Mrs. Grey, Susan,
+Jackie, Edith, and the kitten; "The Boys' Tent" was well filled by Mr.
+Merrithew and Doctor Grey (who insisted on being boys for the occasion),
+Will Graham, and the twins; and "The Girls' Tent" sheltered Miss
+Katherine Covert, Alice Grey, Marjorie, and Dora. The beds were of hay,
+liberally provided by the friendly farmer,--the owner, by the way, of
+island, house, and barns. Under each bed was spread either a rubber
+sheet or a piece of table oilcloth, then over the hay a thick gray
+blanket was laid. There was another thick blanket to wrap around each
+person, and still another to put over him, or her, as the case might be.
+In the chaperons' tent only were they more luxurious; there, two large
+mattresses took the place of the hay, and made a delightfully
+comfortable couch for three grown-ups and two children.
+
+While the tents and beds were being attended to, Susan, with a little
+help from Mrs. Merrithew, had succeeded in getting tea without waiting
+for any sort of a fireplace to be constructed.
+
+She was rather anxious about the reception of this first meal, as it had
+been cooked under difficulties. But when she saw the speed with which
+her fried beans disappeared, and found Mrs. Grey taking a third cup of
+tea, her spirits rose, and she decided that campers were thoroughly
+satisfactory people for whom to cook!
+
+After tea was over, and all the dishes were washed, one of the old
+campers proposed the usual big bonfire, whereby to sit and sing, but
+every one was too sleepy, and it was unanimously resolved that just this
+once the delightful evening of song and story must be omitted. Hearty
+"good-nights" were exchanged, and soon each tent for a brief while
+shone, like that in the "Princess," "lamp-lit from the inner,"--to be
+more absolutely accurate, lantern-lit; but what is a trifle of one word,
+that it should be allowed to spoil a quotation?
+
+Then gently, sweetly, silence settled down over the little encampment;
+silence, save for the soft murmur of the river in its sleep, and
+sometimes the drowsy chirping of a bird among the branches.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+JACK was the first to wake in the delicious stillness of the morning.
+When his mother opened her eyes a little later, she found him sitting up
+beside her with a look of delight and wonder on his face.
+
+"The river talks in its sleep," he said, leaning over her with shining
+eyes.
+
+"What does it say, Jackie-boy?" Mrs. Merrithew asked.
+
+"I don't know the words,--yet," he answered, "but I will some day."
+
+"Yes, I believe you will, dear," his mother said, with a smile and a
+sigh, for she firmly believed that her boy, with his vivid imagination
+and quick apprehension, had the life of a poet before him.
+
+Just then a shout from the boys' tent proclaimed that the twins were
+awake; then Mr. Merrithew's cheery voice was heard, and soon the camp
+was alive with greetings and laughter. Under Mr. Merrithew's direction
+(and with his active assistance), a cooking-place was soon made, and a
+bright fire inviting to preparations for breakfast. The device for
+cooking consisted of two strong upright sticks with forked tops, and a
+heavy horizontal pole resting upon them. On this pole two pothooks were
+fastened, from which hung the pot and kettle, and the fire was kindled
+under it. Then a little circle of flat stones was made for the
+frying-pan, the pot and kettle were filled with fresh water, and Susan's
+outfit was complete.
+
+Pending the erection of a "camp wash-stand," and the choice of a safe
+and suitable bathing-place, faces and hands were washed in the river
+amid much laughter, and with careful balancing on stones in the
+shallows. The toilets were barely completed when three toots on the
+horn announced that breakfast was ready. A long table and benches were
+among the furniture which Doctor Grey and Mr. Merrithew had planned to
+make; until their construction, they were glad to group themselves,
+picnic-fashion, around a table-cloth on the ground. The way that
+breakfast was disposed of showed that the true camp appetites had begun
+already to assert themselves. Porridge and molasses, beans, bacon and
+eggs, and great piles of brown bread and butter, vanished like smoke.
+Jackie astonished the party (and alarmed his mother) by quietly
+disposing of a cup of strong coffee, passed to him by mistake, and
+handing it back to be refilled with the comment that it was "much more
+satisfyinger than milk."
+
+After breakfast they all set to work with enthusiasm to make camp more
+comfortable. Susan washed dishes and arranged the provision tent with
+housewifely zeal; Mrs. Merrithew and Mrs. Grey brought the blankets out,
+and spread them on the grass to air, drove shingle-nails far up on the
+tent-poles to hold watches, pin-cushions, and innumerable small but
+necessary articles, and superintended the stretching of a rope from one
+pole to another, about a foot from the ridge-pole. This last arrangement
+proved most useful, all the garments not in use being hung over it, so
+that the chaperons' tent, at least, was kept in good order. The
+gentlemen busied themselves in building the promised table and seats.
+Mr. Andrews had told them to make use of anything they wanted on his
+island, so the twins had hunted about till they discovered a pile of
+boards near one of the barns. These served admirably for the necessary
+furniture, and after that was finished several cosy seats were made, by
+degrees, in favourite nooks along the bank. The morning passed with
+almost incredible swiftness, and even the youngest (and hungriest) of
+the campers could scarcely believe their ears when the horn blew for
+dinner.
+
+In the afternoon some, bearing cushions and shawls, chose shady spots
+for a read and a doze; some set off in the canoes for a lazy paddle; and
+others organized themselves into an exploring party to visit the
+deserted house. Marjorie and Dora, Miss Covert, and Will Graham formed
+the latter group. The stone house was a curious structure, with an air
+of solidity about it even in its neglected and failing condition. It had
+been built many years before by an Englishman, who did not know the
+river's possibilities in the way of spring freshets. When he found that
+he had built his house too near the shore, and that April brought water,
+ice, and debris of many sorts knocking at his doors and battering in his
+windows, he promptly, if ruefully, abandoned it to time and the
+elements. It might, long ago, have been so arranged and protected as to
+make it a very pleasant summer residence, but, instead, it was now used
+only for a week or two in haying-time, when the haymakers slept and ate
+in its basement,--for this quaint little house had a basement, with a
+kitchen, dining-room, and storeroom. Our visitors, having gained
+entrance to the hall by a very ruinous flight of steps and a battered
+door, descended to the basement first, admired the fireplace in the
+kitchen, and looked rather askance at the deep pile of straw in the
+dining-room, where the haymakers had slept. There was a rough table in
+one corner of the room, and on it some tin cups and plates and a piece
+of very dry bread. The haying on the island was about half-done; there
+was a short intermission in the work now, but it was to begin again very
+soon.
+
+They found nothing else of especial interest in the basement, so went to
+the hall above. Here were two good-sized rooms, one on each side of the
+hall. Each had a fine, deep fireplace, and in one were two old-fashioned
+wooden armchairs and a long table. The windows--two in each room--were
+narrow and high, and had small panes and deep window-seats.
+
+"Oh, what fun it would be to play keeping-house here, Dora!" Marjorie
+cried.
+
+"Wouldn't it!" Dora answered. "Let us, Marjorie! Let us pretend it is
+ours, and choose our rooms, and furnish it!"
+
+"That will be fine," Marjorie answered, fervently, and soon the little
+girls were deep in a most delightful air-castle.
+
+"Let us play, too," said Will, persuasively, and Katherine answered
+without hesitation:
+
+"Yes, let us! I feel just like a child here, and could play with a doll
+if I had one!"
+
+"Well,--let me see; we will begin by deciding about the rooms," said
+Will. "Let us have this for the study,--shall we?--and put the books
+all along this wall opposite the windows!"
+
+And so these two "children of a larger growth" played house with almost
+as much zest as Marjorie and Dora,--and greatly to the amusement and
+delight of the latter couple when they caught a word or two of their
+murmured conversation. Up-stairs were four rather small rooms with
+sloping ceilings, and in the middle of the house, just over the front
+door, a dear little room without the slope, and with a dormer-window.
+
+"This shall be our boudoir," Dora said, as they entered, and then
+stopped and exclaimed in surprise, for against one wall stood a piano!
+Almost the ghost of a piano, or the skeleton, rather,--at the very best,
+a piano in the last stage of decrepitude, but still a piano. Its
+rosewood frame had been whittled, chopped, and generally ill-treated,
+and more than half its yellow keys were gone, but oh, wonder of
+wonders, some of those remaining gave a thin, unearthly sound when
+struck! It seemed almost like something alive that had been deserted,
+and the little group gathered around it with sympathetic exclamations.
+
+While they were talking and wondering about it, lively voices proclaimed
+the approach of the twins.
+
+"We won't say anything about our housekeeping play," said Dora, hastily,
+turning to Mr. Graham, and Marjorie loyally added, "except to mother."
+
+"All right, if you like," the student agreed, and Miss Covert quickly
+added her assent. The twins admired the stone house, the fireplaces, and
+the piano, but with rather an abstracted manner. Soon the cause of their
+absent-mindedness transpired. Mr. Merrithew had met some Indians that
+afternoon, when they were out paddling, and had bought a salmon from
+them. This had led to a conversation about salmon-spearing, and the
+Indians had promised to come the following night, and show them how it
+was done. They could take one person in each canoe, and Mr. Merrithew
+had said that Carl and Hugh should be the ones. Of course they were
+greatly excited over this prospect, and chattered about it all the way
+back to the tents.
+
+[Illustration: "A GREAT BONFIRE WAS BUILT"]
+
+That evening, when dusk had settled down, a great bonfire was built, and
+they all sat around it on rugs and shawls, in genuine camp-fashion.
+First, some of the favourite games were played,--proverbs, "coffee-pot,"
+characters, and then rigmarole, most fascinating of all. Rigmarole, be
+it known, is a tale told "from mouth to mouth," one beginning it and
+telling till his invention begins to flag or he thinks his time is up,
+then stopping suddenly and handing it on to his next neighbour. The
+result is generally a very funny, and sometimes quite exciting,
+medley. To-night Mr. Merrithew began the story, and his contribution
+(wherein figured a dragon, an enchanted princess, and a deaf-and-dumb
+knight) was so absorbing that there was a general protest when he
+stopped. But the romancer was quite relentless, and his next neighbour
+had to continue as best he could. Even Jackie contributed some startling
+incidents to the narrative, and when at last Mrs. Grey ended it with the
+time-honoured (and just at present, most unfortunately, out-of-fashion!)
+assurance that they all, even the dragon, "lived happy ever after,"
+there was a burst of laughter and applause. Then some one began to sing,
+and one after another the dear old songs rose through the balmy night.
+Sometimes there were solos, but every now and then a chorus in which all
+could join. Dora sang every French song she knew,--"A la Claire
+Fontaine" ("At the Clear Fountain"), "Malbrouck," and "Entre Paris et
+Saint-Denis" ("Between Paris and St. Denis") proving the favourites.
+Mrs. Grey, who declared she had not sung for years, ventured on "The
+Canadian Boat-Song" and "Her bright smile haunts me still." At last,
+when voices began to grow drowsy and the fire burned low, they sang,
+"The Maple-Leaf For Ever" and "Our Own Canadian Home," then rose and
+joined in the camp-hymn,--"For ever with the Lord," with its:
+
+    "And nightly pitch our moving tents
+     A day's march nearer home."
+
+The next day seemed to fly, to every one, at least, but Carl and Hugh.
+Their hearts were so set on the salmon-spearing that for them the time
+went slowly enough till night brought the four Indians with their
+torches and spears. Doctor Grey and Mr. Merrithew walked along the shore
+to see what they could of the proceedings, but the rest--and even
+Will--were content to sit around the fire as before. Carl sat in the
+middle of one canoe, and Hugh in the other, both greatly excited and
+both trying to think themselves quite cool. Only the steersmen
+paddled,--the bowmen kneeling erect and watchful, with their spears in
+readiness. (The salmon-spear is a long ash shaft, with two wooden prongs
+and a metal barb between them. The spearing of salmon, by the way, is
+restricted by law to the Indians, and any white man who undertakes it is
+liable to a fine.) Sticking up in the bow of each canoe was a torch,
+made of a roll of birch-bark fastened in the end of a split stick. The
+red-gold flare of these torches threw a crimson reflection on the dark
+water, and shone on the yellow sides of the birches, and the intent,
+dusky faces of the fishermen watching for their prey. Slowly, silently,
+they paddled up the stream, till at last the silvery sides of a
+magnificent fish gleamed in the red light. Then, like a flash, a spear
+struck down, there was a brief struggle, and the captive lay gasping in
+the foremost canoe. It was too much for Hugh. He had enjoyed with all
+his boyish heart the beauty and the weirdness of the scene, but the
+beautiful great fish, with the spear-wound in his back,--well, that was
+different. He was not sorry that the Indians met with no more luck, and
+was very silent when the others questioned them, on their return, as to
+the joys of salmon-spearing. When he confided to Carl his hatred of the
+"sport," the latter shook his head doubtfully.
+
+"But you will help eat that salmon to-morrow," he said.
+
+"Well,--perhaps," Hugh answered, "but, all the same, it's no fun to see
+things killed, and I'm not going to if I can help it!"
+
+The fortnight of camp life passed like a dream, and it is hard to tell
+who was most sorry when the day of departure came. Dora, who had written
+a regular diary-letter to her father and mother, and begun one of the
+stories that were to be like Mrs. Ewing's, said that never in all her
+life had she had such a beautiful time. Katherine Covert, with life-long
+friends to "remember camp by," and all sorts of happy possibilities in
+her once gray life, bore the same testimony with more, if more quiet,
+fervour. Mr. Merrithew said that he was ten years younger, and Jackie
+opined that, in that case, they must have been living on an enchanted
+island,--but added, that he was very glad _he_ had not been made ten
+years younger, like Daddy!
+
+Brown and plump and strong of arm, the campers brought back with them
+hearty appetites, delightful recollections, and inexhaustible material
+for dream and plan and castles in the air.
+
+Many pleasant things were waiting to be done on their return; first and
+foremost, Miss Covert had come to live at the Big Brick House, to teach
+the children when holiday time should be over, and to be a help
+generally to Mrs. Merrithew. Also, according to Mrs. Merrithew's plans,
+to have a little real home life and happiness,--for Katherine had been
+an orphan since her childhood, and for five years had taught school
+steadily, although it was work that she did not greatly like, and that
+kept her in a state of perpetual nervous strain. Teaching a few
+well-bred and considerate children, whom she already loved, would be
+quite different, and almost entirely a pleasure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+IN the delightful autumn days that followed, the children, accompanied
+sometimes by Mrs. Merrithew, sometimes by Katherine, spent much of their
+time in the woods, and taking long strolls on the country roads. In
+October the woods were a blaze of colour,--clear gold, scarlet, crimson,
+coppery brown, and amber. The children brought home great bunches of the
+brilliant leaves, and some they pressed and varnished, while others
+Katherine dipped in melted wax. They found that the latter way was the
+best for keeping the colours, but it was rather troublesome to do. They
+pressed many ferns, also, and, when the frosts became keener, collected
+numbers of white ferns, delicately lovely. Most of these treasures,
+with baskets full of velvety moss and yards of fairy-like wild vines,
+were stowed away in a cool storeroom to be used later in the Christmas
+decorations.
+
+When the last of October drew near, Mrs. Merrithew made up her mind to
+give a little Hallow-eve party. She let the children name the friends
+they wished her to ask, and added a few of her own; then they all busied
+themselves in preparations, and in making lists of Hallow-eve games and
+tricks. At last came the eventful evening, and with it about thirty
+merry people, old and young, but chiefly young. All of the Greys were
+there, of course; also Mr. Will Graham, who was taking his last year at
+college, and who spent most of his spare time at Mr. Merrithew's. So the
+whole camping-party met again, and the camp-days, dear and fleeting,
+came back in vivid pictures to their minds.
+
+In the Big Brick House was a large room known as "the inner kitchen,"
+but used as a kitchen only in the winter. This room Mrs. Merrithew had
+given up to the entertainment of the Hallow-eve party. It was
+lighted--chiefly, that is, for a few ordinary lamps helped out the
+illumination--by lanterns made of hollowed pumpkins. Ears of corn hung
+around the mantel, and a pyramid of rosy apples was piled high upon it.
+There was a great old-fashioned fireplace here, and a merry fire
+sparkled behind the gleaming brass andirons. Every trick that their
+hostess's brain could conjure up was tried. Those who cared to, bobbed
+for apples in a tub of water, and some were lucky enough to find
+five-cent pieces in their russets and pippins. An apple was hung on a
+string from the middle of a doorway, then set swinging, and two
+contestants tried which could get the first bite,--and this first bite,
+gentle reader, is not so easy as you might imagine! A pretty little
+ring was laid on a mound of flour, and whoever could lift it out between
+their lips, without breaking down the mound, was to win the ring. This
+necessitated a great many remouldings of the flour,--but finally the
+prize was captured by Miss Covert. A little later, Dora noticed it
+hanging on Mr. Graham's watch-guard.
+
+Some of the braver spirits took turns in walking backward down the
+garden steps, and to the end of the middle path, a looking-glass in one
+hand and a lamp in the other. What each one saw in the looking-glass, or
+whether, indeed, they saw anything, was, in most cases, kept a secret,
+or confided only to the very especial chum! Then there were fortunes
+told by means of cabbages,--a vegetable not usually surrounded with
+romantic associations. Marjorie was the first to try this mode of
+divination. Well-blindfolded, she ventured alone into the garden, and
+came back soon with a long, lean, straggly cabbage with a great deal of
+earth attached to its roots. This foretold that her husband would be
+tall and thin, and very rich!
+
+There were many other quaint methods of fortune-telling, most of them
+derived from Scottish sources. After these had been tried, amid much
+merriment, they played some of the old-fashioned games dear to children
+everywhere,--blind-man's buff, hunt-the-feather, post-towns, and other
+favourites. By and by, when the fun began to flag, and one or two little
+mouths were seen to yawn, a long table was brought in and soon spread
+with a hearty (but judiciously chosen) Hallow-eve supper.
+
+When the days began to grow short and bleak, and the evenings long and
+cosey, the children were thrown more and more upon indoor occupations
+for their entertainment. It was on one of these bleak days, when a few
+white flakes were falling in a half-hearted way, and the sky was gray
+and gloomy, that Jackie had a brilliant idea. Four of them--Katherine,
+Marjorie, Dora, and Jackie himself--were sitting by the fire in Mrs.
+Merrithew's "Den," the very cosiest room in the house. Mr. Merrithew had
+a den, too, but he called his a study. Somehow it looked too much like
+an office to suit the children very well. Most of the volumes on his
+shelves, too, were clumsy law-books; all the books that any one wanted
+to read, except the children's own, were in "mother's den." Then, one
+could come to mother's room at any hour of the day or night, while
+sometimes no one, excepting Mrs. Merrithew, was admitted to the study.
+On this particular day Katherine was reading "Rob Roy," and Jack
+building a castle of blocks, while Dora dreamed in the window-seat,
+watching the scanty flakes, and Marjorie, on the hearth-rug, tried to
+teach reluctant Kitty Grey to beg.
+
+Now Jack had accompanied his mother on the previous Sunday to the
+anniversary service of the Sons of England, a well-known patriotic
+society. He had been greatly impressed by the procession, the hymns, and
+the sermon, and on coming home had asked his father many questions as to
+the "why and wherefore" of the society. It was this episode which
+suggested the bright idea to his active little brain.
+
+"Aunt Kathie," he said,--for Miss Covert was now a fully accepted
+adopted aunt,--"why couldn't _we_ form a patriarchal society?"
+
+"A _what_, dear?" said Kathie, in rather startled tones, laying "Rob
+Roy" on the table, for she liked to give her whole mind to Jackie's
+propositions and queries.
+
+"A patri--oh, you know what; like the Sons of England, you know!"
+
+"Oh, yes! _Patriotic_, dearie; a patriotic society. You know a patriot
+is one who loves his country. What sort of a patriotic society would
+you like to have, Jack?"
+
+"Oh, pure Canadian, of course! Let me see,--we couldn't be the Sons of
+Canada, because we are not all sons."
+
+"Not _quite_ all," murmured Dora, with drowsy sarcasm, from the window.
+
+"Why not Children of Canada?" suggested Kathie.
+
+"No, Aunt Kathie, that would never do at all, for mother and Daddy and
+you must be in it, and you _couldn't_ be called children,--though, of
+course, you're not so _very_ old," he added, as if fearing he had hurt
+her feelings.
+
+"Well," said Marjorie, thoughtfully, "how would The Maple-leaves, or The
+Beavers, do?"
+
+But Jackie scorned this suggestion.
+
+"_Those_ are names that baseball clubs have," he said. "No; I believe
+'The Sons and Daughters of Canada' would be the best of all, because
+everybody is either a son _or_ a daughter, even twins!"
+
+This statement, and the name, were accepted with acclamation, and the
+quartette, entering thoroughly into the spirit of Jackie's plan, helped
+him zealously to put it into execution. They insisted that he should be
+president, and requested him to choose the other officers. So he made
+his father and mother the honourable patrons, Dora and Marjorie
+vice-presidents, and Kathie secretary-treasurer. This office, I may
+mention, she nobly filled, and also the informal one of general adviser,
+suggester, and planner. It was she who proposed the twins, Alice and
+Edith, as members, and the president gave his consent, though he
+considered Edith rather too young!
+
+"For my part," he said, "I should like Mr. Will Graham, if none of you
+would mind!" No one seemed to mind, so Mr. Graham's name was added to
+the list, which Katherine was making out beautifully, with Gothic
+capitals in red ink, on her very best paper. Her next proposal was a
+regular course of study in Canadian history and literature, and this was
+enthusiastically received. When Mr. and Mrs. Merrithew came home at
+tea-time, they found a well-organized "Sons and Daughters of Canada"
+club, and Miss Covert already engaged in composing an article on "The
+Beginnings of Canadian History,"--with Jackie in her mind as an
+important member of her future audience, and therefore an earnest effort
+to make it simple in language and clear in construction.
+
+All through the winter the club flourished, and indeed for a much longer
+time. The members met every week, and the history and literature proved
+so absorbing that the S. A. D. O. C. night came to be looked forward to
+as eagerly by the older as by the younger sons and daughters. Kathie had
+the gift of making scenes and people of long-past days live before one,
+and Cartier and Champlain, La Salle and De Maisonneuve, and many another
+hero became the companions of our patriotic students, both waking and in
+their dreams. The works of Canadian poets and novelists began to fill
+their book-shelves, and pictures of these celebrities to adorn their
+walls. They had regular weekly meetings, at which there were readings
+and recitations, and always one short historical sketch. Even Jack
+learnt his "piece" each time, and said it with a severe gravity which
+seemed to defy any one to smile at a mispronunciation! Mrs. Merrithew
+designed their badges,--maple-leaf pins in coloured enamel, with a
+little gilt beaver on each leaf,--and Mr. Merrithew had them made in
+Montreal. But perhaps the proudest achievement of the club was Alice
+Grey's "Sons and Daughters of Canada March," which was played at the
+opening and closing of every meeting.
+
+So much pleasure and profit, many happy evenings, and an ever deeper
+love for their country, were some of the results of Jackie's bright
+idea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+NOW there came, warming the frosty heart of December, that delightful
+atmosphere of mystery and expectation which forms one pleasure of the
+great Yule-tide festival. The Big Brick House seemed particularly full
+of this happy spirit of the season. There were many mysterious shopping
+excursions, and much whispering in corners,--a thing not usual in this
+united family. Jackie showed a sudden and severe self-denial in the
+matter of sticks of pure chocolate, and was soon, therefore, able to
+proudly flourish a purse containing, he told his mother, "a dollar all
+but eighty-five cents," saved toward buying his presents for the family.
+He also spent much time at a little table in his own room, cutting out
+pictures and pasting them into a scrap-book for a little lame boy of
+his acquaintance.
+
+Mrs. Merrithew and Kathie had each, besides innumerable other matters, a
+water-colour painting on hand. Each picture, strange to say, was of a
+house. Mrs. Merrithew's, the Big Brick House itself, with its trees and
+vines, was clearly intended for Daddy; but for whom, the children
+wondered, was Aunt Kathie's? It was a spirited little view of the old
+stone house on Saunder's Island; not so pretty a subject as Mrs.
+Merrithew's, but set in such a delicate atmosphere of early morning
+light that even the sombre gray of the stone seemed etherialized and
+made poetic. While Marjorie and Dora wondered for whom it was meant,
+Jackie promptly inquired,--but she, his dear Aunt Kathie, who had never
+refused to answer question of his before, only laughed and shook her
+head, and said that every one had secrets at Christmas-time.
+
+Marjorie and Dora did not, as was their wont, spend all of their time
+together, for each was making a present for the other. Marjorie was
+working hard over a portfolio, which she knew was one of the things Dora
+wanted. She had carefully constructed and joined the stiff cardboard
+covers, and plentifully provided them with blotting-paper, and now she
+was embroidering the linen cover with autumnal maple-leaves in Dora's
+favourite colour, a rich, vivid red. As for Dora, though she had no love
+for needlework, she was laboriously making a cushion of soft, old-blue
+felt for Marjorie's cosey-corner, working it with a griffin pattern in
+golden-brown silks. Marjorie had a particular fancy for
+griffins,--partly, perhaps, because a griffin was the chief feature of
+the family crest.
+
+As the long-looked-for day drew nearer, there was other work to do,
+almost the pleasantest Christmas work of all, Dora thought,--the making
+wreaths out of fir and hemlock and fragrant spruce. They worked two or
+three hours of each day at the decorations for the beautiful little
+parish church which they all attended, and which, being very small, was
+much easier than the cathedral or the other large churches to transform
+into a sweet-smelling tabernacle of green. Then they trimmed the Big
+Brick House almost from attic to cellar. The drawing-rooms were hung
+with heavy wreaths, with bunches of red cranberries here and there,
+making a beautiful contrast to the green. In the other rooms there were
+boughs over every picture, and autumn leaves, ferns, and dried grasses
+here and there. Mr. Merrithew was sure to buy some holly and mistletoe
+at the florist's on Christmas Eve, so places of honour were reserved for
+these two plants, which have become so closely entwined with all our
+thoughts of Christmas and its festivities. The holly would adorn the
+old oil-painting of Mrs. Merrithew's great-aunt, Lady Loveday
+Gostwycke, which hung over the mantelpiece in the front drawing-room. As
+for the pearly white berries of the mistletoe, they were to hang from
+the chandelier in the hall, where people might be expected forgetfully
+to pass beneath them. Jackie, who was very useful in breaking twigs for
+the wreath-making, begged a few fine wreaths as a reward, and carried
+them off to decorate little lame Philip's room. These lengths of
+aromatic greenery gave the greatest pleasure to the invalid, and
+scarcely less to his mother, who spent the greater part of her time in
+that one room.
+
+Besides all these pleasant doings, there were great things going on in
+the kitchen. Such baking and steaming and frying as Debby revelled in!
+Such spicy and savoury odours as pervaded the house when the kitchen
+door was opened! Marjorie and Dora liked to help, whenever Debby would
+let them, with these proceedings. It was great fun to shred citron and
+turn the raisin-stoner, and help chop the mince-meat, in the big
+kitchen, with its shining tins, and general air of comfort. Jackie liked
+to take a share in the cooking, too, and as he was Deborah's pet, he
+generally got the wherewithal to make a tiny cake or pudding of his own.
+When it came to the making of the big plum pudding, all the family by
+turns had to stir it, according to a time-honoured institution. Then Mr.
+Merrithew would make his expected contribution to its ingredients,--five
+shining five-cent pieces, to be stirred through the mixture and left to
+form an element of special interest to the children at the Christmas
+dinner. Besides this big pudding, there were always three or four
+smaller ones (without any silver plums, but very rich and good), for
+distribution among some of Mrs. Merrithew's protégés.
+
+On Christmas day all the old customs were faithfully observed. It was
+the rule that whoever woke first in the morning should call the others,
+and on this occasion it was Jackie who, as the great clock in the hall
+struck six, came running from room to room in his moccasin slippers and
+little blue dressing-gown, shouting "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas,"
+at the top of his voice.
+
+Every one tumbled out of bed, as in duty bound, and soon a wrappered and
+slippered group, all exchanging Christmas wishes, met in Mrs.
+Merrithew's den. Here a fire glowed in the grate, and here, too,
+mysterious and delightful, hung a long row of very fat white
+pillow-cases! These were hung by long cords from hooks on the
+curtain-pole. Each pillow-case bore a paper with the name of its owner
+written on it in large letters, and they were arranged in order of age,
+from Jackie up to Mr. Merrithew. This had been the invariable method of
+giving the Christmas presents in this particular family for as long as
+any of them could remember.
+
+Armchairs and sofas were drawn near the fire, and the party grouped
+themselves comfortably; then Mr. Merrithew lifted down Jackie's
+pillow-case and laid it beside him, as he sat with his mother in the
+largest of the chairs. Every one looked on with intensest interest
+while, with shining eyes, and cheeks red with excitement, he opened his
+parcels, and exclaimed over their contents. Truly a fortunate little boy
+was Jack! There were books--the very books he wanted,--games, a top, the
+dearest little snow-shoes, a great box of blocks,--evidently Santa Claus
+knew what a tireless architect this small boy was,--a bugle, drum, and
+sword, a dainty cup and saucer, a picture for his room, and, too large
+for the pillow-case, but carefully propped beneath it, a fine sled, all
+painted in blue and gold and crimson, beautiful to behold!
+
+When Jackie had looked at every one of his presents, it was Marjorie's
+turn, and she was just as fortunate as her brother. So it went on up the
+scale, till they had all enjoyed their gifts to the very last of Mr.
+Merrithew's, and every box of candy had been sampled. And still Aunt
+Kathie's picture of the little stone house had not appeared!
+
+When at last, a merry party, they went down to breakfast, Deborah and
+Susan came forward with Christmas greetings, and thanks for the
+well-filled pillow-cases which they had found beside their beds. The
+dining-room in its festal array looked even cheerier than was its wont.
+By every plate there lay a spray of holly, to be worn during the rest of
+the day. The breakfast-set was a wonderful one of blue and gold, an
+heirloom, which was only used on very special occasions. In the centre
+of the table stood a large pot of white and purple hyacinths in full
+bloom, the fourth or fifth of Mr. Merrithew's presents that morning to
+his wife.
+
+At eleven o'clock there was the beautiful Christmas service, which all
+the family attended, with the exception of Jackie. He was considered too
+young to be kept still for so long a time; so he stayed at home with
+Susan, trying all the new toys and having samples read aloud from each
+new book. Kitty Grey, decorated with a blue ribbon and a tiny gilt bell,
+also kept him company, and seemed to take great pleasure in knocking his
+block castles down with her soft silvery paws.
+
+When the churchgoers returned there was lunch; then, for the children, a
+long, cosey afternoon with their presents. Mrs. Merrithew and Katherine
+early disappeared into the regions of the kitchen and dining-room, for
+the six o'clock dinner was to have several guests, and there was much to
+be arranged and overseen. But by half-past five the whole family was
+assembled in the big drawing-room, and neither Mrs. Merrithew nor Kathie
+looked as if they had ever seen the inside of a kitchen. Mrs. Merrithew
+wore her loveliest gown, a shimmering silver-gray silk with lace sleeves
+and fichu, and lilies-of-the-valley at her neck and in her abundant
+hair. As for Katherine, in her fawn-coloured dress with trimmings of
+yellow beads, and deep yellow roses, Jackie said she looked like a fairy
+lady,--and on the subject of fairies he was an authority. The little
+girls were in pure white, with sashes of their favourite colours, and
+the gold and coral necklaces which had been among their gifts; while
+Jackie, in his red velvet suit and broad lace collar, looked not unlike
+the picture of Leonard in "The Story of a Short Life."
+
+Presently the guests began to arrive. First came Miss Bell, a second
+cousin of Mr. Merrithew's, and the nearest relative he had in
+Fredericton. She was very tall, very thin, quite on the shady side of
+fifty, and a little deaf. Nevertheless, she was decidedly handsome, with
+her white hair, bright, dark eyes, and beautifully arched brows. She was
+a great favourite with the children, and always carried some little
+surprise for them in her pocket. A little later came a widowed aunt of
+Mrs. Merrithew's, fair, fat, and frivolous; and a bachelor uncle, who
+came next in the esteem of the children to Cousin Sophia Bell. Two young
+normal school students, sisters, who were not able to go home for the
+holidays, soon swelled the party, and last, but not least, came Mr. Will
+Graham, looking very handsome in his evening clothes.
+
+When they went out to dinner Jackie escorted Cousin Sophia, and Marjorie
+overheard him saying, in urgent tones:
+
+"I _wish_ that you and Uncle Bob would come and live with us,--but I
+_don't_ want Aunt Fairley; she is too funny all the time!"
+
+The Christmas dinner was much like other Christmas dinners, except that
+Debby's cooking was unsurpassable. After every one had tasted
+everything, and three of the five-cent pieces had come to light, the
+chairs were pushed back a little, and while nuts and raisins were being
+discussed, they had also catches, rounds, and choruses. Each person with
+any pretence to a voice was expected to give one solo at least. Jackie,
+who had a very sweet little voice, sang "God Save the King," with great
+fervour. But the favourite of the evening was the beautiful "Under the
+Holly Bough," with the words of which they were all familiar.
+
+Presently, Jackie, who had been promised that he should choose his own
+bedtime that night, was found to be fast asleep with his head on his
+green-leaf dessert plate, and a bunch of raisins clasped tightly in one
+hand. He was tenderly carried away, undressed, and tucked into bed,
+without once opening an eye. As Kathie turned to leave him, she picked
+up one of his best-beloved new books,--"Off to Fairyland," in blue and
+gold covers, with daintily coloured pictures,--and laid it beside him
+for a pleasant waking sight the next morning. Down-stairs she found the
+rest of the party gathered around the fire, telling stories of Auld Lang
+Syne. As almost every one had been up early that morning, no very lively
+games seemed to appeal to them; but the children thought no game could
+be so interesting as these sprightly anecdotes and rose-leaf-scented
+romances that were being recalled and recounted to-night. "Do you
+remember--" Cousin Sophia would say; then would follow some entrancing
+memories, to which Mr. and Mrs. Merrithew, Uncle Bob, and Mrs. Fairley
+would contribute a running comment of "Yes, yes! she was a lovely girl!"
+"He never held up his head after she died!" and so on. Then Mrs.
+Fairley would hum an old-time waltz, and branch off into reminiscences
+of balls,--and of one in particular at Government House, where she had
+lost her satin slipper, and the governor's son had brought it to her,
+and called her Cinderella. She put out a satin-shod foot as she talked,
+and Marjorie thought that, though it certainly was tiny, it was not at
+all a pretty shape, and began to understand why her mother made her wear
+her boots so loose.
+
+About ten, Susan brought tea and plum-cake, and when this had been
+disposed of, they all, according to another time-honoured custom,
+gathered around the piano, and sang the grand old words that unnumbered
+thousands of voices had sung that day:
+
+    "Oh, come, all ye faithful,
+     Joyful and triumphant;
+     Oh, come ye, oh, come ye
+       To Bethlehem!
+
+     Come and behold him
+     Born the King of angels;
+     Oh, come let us adore him,
+       Christ the Lord!"
+
+[Illustration: "NOTHING, DORA THOUGHT, COULD BE MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN
+THOSE WOODS IN WINTER"]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+SNOW-SHOEING is one of the national sports of Canada, in which most
+Canadians, big and little, are proficient. Marjorie and her cousin were
+no exception to the rule, and Jackie proved a very apt pupil. He soon
+learned to avoid striking one snow-shoe against the other, and fell
+quickly into that long, easy swing, which makes the snowy miles go by so
+quickly. Sometimes the three children tramped on the broad, frozen
+river, but that was a cold place when there was any wind, so they
+generally chose the hill-roads or the woods. Nothing, Dora thought,
+could be more beautiful than those woods in winter, with the white
+drifts around the grayish tree-trunks, the firs and hemlocks rising like
+green islands out of a snowy sea, and the wonderful tracery of brown
+boughs against the pale blue of the sky. Once, Mr. and Mrs. Merrithew
+went with them for a moonlight tramp, and that was something never to be
+forgotten.
+
+It was just after a heavy snowfall, and the evergreens were weighed down
+with a white covering that sparkled and glittered as with innumerable
+jewels. Another favourite amusement was coasting,--not tobogganing, but
+good, old-fashioned coasting, generally on College Hill, but sometimes
+down the steep bank of the river. Coasting parties were frequent, and it
+was a pretty sight to see the hill dotted with blanket-coated and toqued
+or tam-o'-shantered figures, and pleasant to hear the merry voices and
+laughter as the sleds skimmed swiftly down the road.
+
+The winters in Eastern Canada, though cold, are wonderfully bright and
+clear, and the air is so free from dampness that one does not realize
+how cold it sometimes becomes, unless one consults the thermometer.
+Canadians, as a rule, spend a great deal of time in the open air in
+winter as well as summer, and are as hardy a race as can be found
+anywhere, but when they _are_ indoors they like their houses good and
+warm,--no half-measures, no chilly passages and draughty bedrooms for
+them!
+
+Mr. Merrithew did not keep horses, but occasionally he would hire a big
+three-seated sleigh and take the family for a delightful spin. They
+would all be warmly wrapped in woollens and furs, and snuggled in
+buffalo-robes; the bells would jingle merrily, the snow would "skreak"
+under the horses' feet, and the white world slip by them like a dream.
+
+One day, about the middle of February, Mrs. Merrithew announced, at
+breakfast, that it was high time for the drive to Hemlock Point, which
+Mr. Merrithew had been promising them all winter. As the latter quite
+agreed with this idea, they decided to go on the following morning,
+spend a long day with the friends they always visited there, and return
+by moonlight. Hemlock Point was somewhere between ten and twenty miles
+up-river,--it does not always do to be too exact,--and their friends
+lived in a quaint old farmhouse, on high ground, well back from the
+river-bank.
+
+That evening, when they sat in the Den after lessons were done, Marjorie
+told Dora about the good folk who lived there,--an old bachelor farmer,
+the most kind-hearted and generous of men, but as bashful as a boy; his
+two unmarried sisters, who managed his house and thought they managed
+him, but really spoilt him to his heart's content; and an orphan niece,
+who had lived with them for several years, and who was the only modern
+element in their lives. She graphically described the old loom, the big
+and little spinning-wheels, and the egg-shell china, till Dora was as
+anxious as Jackie for to-morrow to come.
+
+The three-seated sleigh and the prancing horses were at the door of the
+Big Brick House by eight the next morning, for the drive would be long
+and the load heavy, and it was well to be early on the way. The girls
+and Jackie wore their blanket-suits,--Dora's and Jackie's crimson and
+Marjorie's bright blue,--and Mrs. Merrithew herself, snugly wrapped in
+furs, brought a grand supply of extra cloaks and shawls. She was always
+prepared for any emergency. Mr. Merrithew said that he never knew her
+fail to produce pins, rope, a knife, and hammer and nails, if they were
+needed. But the hammer and nails she repudiated, and said it was twine,
+not rope, she carried! The sky was a little overcast when they started,
+but the prospect of a snow-storm did not daunt them in the least.
+
+The bells, of which there were a great many on the harness, kept up a
+musical, silvery accompaniment to the conversation, as the horses swung
+at a good speed along the level. When the hills began to rise, the pace
+slackened, and the passengers had a better chance to enjoy the beauties
+spread on both sides of the road.
+
+"But oh, you ought to see it in summer!" Marjorie said, when Dora
+praised the varied and lovely landscapes. "There are so many things yet
+for you to see all around here. You will have to stay two or three years
+more at least!"
+
+But Dora laughed at this.
+
+"What about all the things there are for you to see in Montreal?" she
+said. "What about the Ice Palace, and--"
+
+"Please tell about the Ice Palace, Dora," Jack interrupted. "That must
+be a gorlious sight!"
+
+So Dora tried to give her cousins some idea of the great palace of
+glittering ice, and the hundreds of snow-shoers, in bright costumes and
+carrying torches, gathered together to storm this fairylike fortress.
+
+"It must be fine," said Marjorie, when the story was done, "but I'd
+rather storm Hemlock Point, and get fried chicken and buttermilk as the
+spoils of war."
+
+Marjorie, being a tremendous home-girl, generally tried to change the
+subject if Dora made any allusions to a possible visit of Marjorie alone
+to Montreal. She could not bear the thought of parting with Dora, but to
+part with mother and Daddy and Jack would be three times worse!
+
+The last part of the road was decidedly hilly, and the horses took such
+advantage of Mr. Merrithew's consideration for their feelings, that
+Jackie, lulled by the slow motion and the sound of the bells, fell
+asleep against his mother's shoulder, and knew no more till he woke on
+a couch in Miss Grier's sitting-room. The oldest Miss Grier--whom every
+one called Miss Prudence--was bustling about, helping Marjorie and Dora
+off with their things, and giving advice to Miss Alma, who was hastening
+to start a fire in the great old-fashioned Franklin. Miss Dean, the
+niece, was taking off Mrs. Merrithew's overboots, in spite of her polite
+protests. Jackie's eyes were open for some moments before any one
+noticed him; then he startled them by saying, in perfectly wide-awake
+tones:
+
+"I think, Miss Lois Dean, you are the very littlest lady in the world!"
+
+Miss Dean, who certainly could not well be smaller and be called
+grown-up at all, and whose small head was almost weighted down by its
+mass of light hair, looked at her favourite with twinkling eyes.
+
+"Never mind, Jackie, the best goods are often done up in small parcels;
+and I'm big enough to hold you on my lap while I tell you stories, which
+is the main thing, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," Jack cried, jumping up to hug her, which resulted in the
+pretty hair getting loosened from its fastenings and tumbling in wild
+confusion around the "littlest lady," where she sat on the floor.
+
+"Now you are a fairy godmother! Now you are a fairy godmother!"
+exclaimed Jackie, dancing around her.
+
+"Then I will put a charm upon you at once," Lois said. "No more dancing,
+no more noise, no more _anything_, until we get the wraps all off and
+put away; then you and I will go and--fry chicken--and sausages--for
+dinner!"
+
+The last part of the sentence was whispered in Jack's ear, and caused
+him to smile contentedly, and to submit without a murmur to the process
+of unwrapping.
+
+After dinner,--which did great credit to Lois and her assistant,--they
+gathered around the Franklin in the sitting-room, with plates of
+"sops-of-wine" and golden pippins within easy reach, and Mr. Grier and
+Mr. Merrithew talked farming and politics, while Miss Prudence recounted
+any episodes of interest that had taken place at or near Hemlock Point
+during the past year.
+
+Mrs. Merrithew, who had spent her summers here as a girl, knew every one
+for miles around, and loved to hear the annals of the neighbourhood,
+told in Miss Prudence's picturesque way, with an occasional pithy
+comment from Miss Alma.
+
+Dora sat, taking in with eager eyes the view of hill and intervale,
+island and ice-bound river; then turning back to the cosey interior,
+with its home-made carpet, bright curtains, and large bookcase with
+glass doors.
+
+After a little while Lois, who saw that the children were growing weary
+of sitting still, proposed a stroll through the house, to which they
+gladly consented. Katherine asked if she might go with them, and they
+left "the enchanted circle around the fire," and crossed the hall to the
+"best parlour,"--which Miss Prudence always wished to throw open in Mrs.
+Merrithew's honour, and which the latter always refused to sit in,
+because, as she frankly said, it gave her the shivers. This was not on
+account of any ill-taste in the furnishing, but because it was always
+kept dark and shut up, and Mrs. Merrithew said it could not be made
+cheery all of a sudden. The children, however, loved the long room, and
+the mysterious feeling it gave them when they first went in, and had to
+grope their way to the windows, draw back the curtains, and put up the
+yellow Venetian blinds, letting the clear, wintry light into this
+shadowy domain. This light brought out the rich, dark colours of the
+carpet, and showed the treasures of chairs and tables that would have
+made a collector's mouth water. There was a round table of polished
+mahogany in the centre of the room, a tiny butternut sewing-table in one
+corner, and against the wall, on opposite sides of the room, two
+rosewood tables, with quaint carved legs, and feet of shining brass. On
+the tables lay many curious shells, big lumps of coral, and rare,
+many-coloured seaweeds,--for there had been a sailor-uncle in the
+family,--annuals and beauty-books in gorgeous bindings, albums through
+which the children looked with never-failing delight, work-boxes and
+portfolios inlaid with mother-of-pearl; almost all the treasures of the
+family, in fact, laid away here in state, like Jean Ingelow's dead year,
+"shut in a sacred gloom."
+
+When this room had been inspected and admired, they lowered the blinds,
+drew the curtains, and left it again to its solitude. The rest of the
+house was much less awe-inspiring, but it was all delightful. The loom,
+now seldom or never used, stood in one corner of the kitchen. Not far
+away was the big spinning-wheel. Miss Dean tried to teach them to spin,
+and when they found it was not so easy as it looked, gave them a
+specimen of how it should be done that seemed almost magical. There is,
+indeed, something that suggests magic about spinning,--the rhythmically
+stepping figure, the whirling brown wheel, the rolls of wool, changed by
+a perfectly measured twirl and pull into lengths of snow-white yarn, and
+the soothing, drowsy hum, the most restful sound that labour can
+produce.
+
+Then there was the up-stairs to visit. The chief thing of interest there
+was the tiny flax-wheel which stood in the upper hall, and which
+certainly looked, as Jack said, as if _it_ ought to belong to a fairy
+godmother. In the attic, great bunches of herbs hung drying from the
+rafters, and the air was sweet with the scent of them. There were sage,
+summer-savoury, sweet marjoram, sweet basil, mint, and many more, with
+names as fragrant as their leaves. On the floor, near one of the
+chimneys, was spread a good supply of butternuts, and strings of dried
+apples stretched from wall to wall at the coolest end of the one big
+room.
+
+"If I lived in this house," Dora said, "I would come up here often and
+write,--try to write, I mean!"
+
+"I come up here often and read," Miss Dean said, with a quick glance of
+comprehension at the little girl's eager face. "I love it! And
+sometimes, when I feel another way and it's not too cold, I put up one
+blind in the best parlour, and sit in there."
+
+"I wish you were coming down to sit in mother's den, and read--and
+talk--and everything!" said Marjorie, and the others echoed the wish.
+
+"So I am, some time or other," Lois answered. "Mrs. Merrithew has asked
+me, and now it's just a question of how soon Aunt Prudence can spare me.
+That may be next week,--or it may be next winter!"
+
+"It may be for years and it may be for ever," Dora quoted, laughing, and
+Jackie added, "and then--when you do come--we will make you a Son and
+Daughter of Canada right away!"
+
+The search for the egg-shell china took them back to the sitting-room,
+where Lois begged Miss Prudence to exhibit this most fragile of her
+belongings. With natural pride, that lady unlocked a china-closet, and
+brought out specimens of the beautiful delicate ware which their
+grandmother had brought over with her from Ireland, and of which, in all
+these years, only three articles had been broken. It certainly was
+exquisite stuff, delicately thin, of a rich cream-colour, and with gilt
+lines and tiny wreaths of pink and crimson roses.
+
+"I thought we would have them out for tea," Miss Alma suggested, but
+Mrs. Merrithew, with three children, all rather hasty in their
+movements, to look after, begged her not to think of such a thing.
+
+"Your white and gold china is pretty enough for any one;" she said,
+"and, my dear Prudence, if you are determined to give us tea after that
+big dinner, we will have to ask for it soon, or we will be spending most
+of the night on the road."
+
+"Dear, dear!" said Miss Prudence, putting back her treasures tenderly,
+"it does seem as if you'd been here about half an hour, and I do hate to
+have you go! But I know how you feel about being out late with the
+children, and you won't stay all night. Come along, Alma, let's hustle
+up some tea, and let Lois talk to Mrs. Merrithew awhile."
+
+And "hustle" they certainly did, spreading a board that groaned with the
+good old-fashioned dainties, for the cooking of which Miss Prudence was
+noted throughout the country. Then the horses were brought to the door,
+tossing their heads in haste to be off, wraps were snugly adjusted,
+good-byes said many times, and they were off.
+
+"I believe Grier has given these horses nothing but oats all day," Mr.
+Merrithew muttered, as the pretty beasts strained and tugged in their
+anxiety to run down-hill; but when it came to the up-hill stretches,
+they soon sobered down, and were content with a reasonable pace. Warm
+and cosey, nestled against his mother, Jackie soon slept as before; but
+the others, with rather a reckless disregard of their throats, sang song
+after song, in spite of the frosty air, and dashed up to the door of
+the Big Brick House, at last, to the sound of:
+
+    "'Twas from Aunt Dinah's quilting party
+     I was seeing Nellie home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+TO invalids, or to the really destitute, Canadian winters, clear and
+bright though they are, may seem unduly long; but for our little
+Canadian Cousins, warmly clad, warmly housed, and revelling in the
+season's healthful sports, the months went by as if on wings. With
+March, though the winds were strong, the sun began to show his power,
+and by the middle of the month the sap was running, and the
+maple-sugar-making had begun. Jackie persuaded his father to take him
+out one morning to the woods, and to help him tap a number of trees.
+When they went back later and collected the tin cups which they had left
+under the holes in the trees, they found altogether about a pint of sap.
+This they took carefully home, and Jack persuaded every one to taste
+it, then boiled the remainder until it thickened a little,--a very
+little, it is true,--and the family manfully ate it with their muffins
+for tea, though Mrs. Merrithew declared that she believed they had
+tapped any tree they came across, instead of keeping to sugar-maples.
+
+Toward the end of the month Mrs. Grey got up a driving-party to one of
+the sugar-camps, and though it was chiefly for grown people, Mrs.
+Merrithew allowed Dora and Marjorie to go. The drive was long, and
+rather tiring, as the roads were beginning to get "slumpy," and here and
+there would come a place where the runners scraped bare ground. But when
+they reached the camp they were given a hearty welcome, allowed to
+picnic in the camp-house, and treated to unlimited maple-syrup, sugar,
+and candy.
+
+The process of sugar-making has lost much of its picturesqueness, since
+the more convenient modern methods have come into use. Mrs. Grey
+remembered vividly when there were no camp-houses, with their big
+furnaces and evaporating pans, and no little metal "spiles" to conduct
+the sap from the trees to the tins beneath. In those days the spiles,
+about a foot in length, were made of cedar, leading to wooden
+troughs,--which, she maintained, gave the juice an added and delicious
+flavour. But this their host of the sugar-camp would not admit, though
+he agreed with her that the process of boiling must have been much more
+interesting to watch when it was done in big cauldrons hung over
+bonfires in the snowy woods. When the visitors left camp, each one
+carried a little bark dish (called a "cosseau") of maple-candy,
+presented by the owner of the camp, and most of them had bought
+quantities of the delicious fresh sugar.
+
+April brought soft breezes, warmer sunshine and melting snow. It seemed
+to Dora that people thought of scarcely anything but the condition of
+the ice, and the quantity of snow in the woods. Then they began to say
+that there would be a freshet, and Debby, who was apt to forebode the
+worst, announced that the bridges would go this time, sure! Mr.
+Merrithew only laughed when Marjorie asked him about it, and said that
+this prophecy had been made every year since the bridges were built, and
+that there was no more danger this year than any other. But Mrs.
+Merrithew, though she could not be said to worry, still quietly decided
+what things she would carry with her in case of a flight to the hills!
+The freshet which was talked about so much was, in spite of Mr.
+Merrithew's laughter, a remote possibility; certainly not a probability.
+In his own and Mrs. Merrithew's youth, it had been so imminent that
+people actually _had_ gone to the hills. A tremendous jam had been
+formed a few miles above town; but a few days of hot sun had opened the
+river farther down, and the danger had passed. Since the two bridges,
+however, had been built, some people thought that there was a chance of
+the ice jamming above the upper bridge. Usually the worst jams were
+between the islands, not far above town.
+
+Each day some fresh word was brought in as to the river's condition.
+"The River St. John is like a sick person, isn't it?" Dora said one
+afternoon. "The first thing every one says in the morning is, 'I wonder
+how the river is to-day.'"
+
+The words were scarcely out of her mouth when Mr. Merrithew came in
+hastily, calling out:
+
+"Come, people, if you want to see the ice go out. The jam by Vine Island
+is broken. Come quick. It's piling up finely!"
+
+In a very few minutes the whole family answered to his summons, and they
+set out in great excitement to watch their dear river shake off its
+fetters. They made their way quickly to the wooden bridge, and found a
+good share of the population of Fredericton there assembled. It was
+truly a sight well worth going to see. Below the bridge the dark water
+was running swiftly, bearing blocks of ice, bits of board, and
+logs,--indeed, a fine medley of things. But _above_ the bridge! Jackie
+clapped his hands with delight, as he watched the ice, pushed by the
+masses behind it, throw itself against the mighty stone piers, and break
+and fall back, while the bridge quivered afresh at each onslaught. It
+was truly grand to see, and they stayed watching it for more than an
+hour; stayed till Jackie began to shiver, and Mrs. Merrithew hurried
+them home.
+
+By the next morning the river was rapidly clearing, so that some
+reckless spirits ventured to cross in boats and canoes, dodging the
+ice-cakes with skill worthy to be employed in a better cause. In a day
+or two more the deep whistle of the river-boat was heard; a sound that
+brings summer near, though not a leaf be on the trees. But it was not
+until the ice had entirely ceased running, and the river had begun to go
+down, that really warm weather could begin, for, until then, there was
+always a chill air from the water.
+
+But after that,--ah, then spring came in earnest, with balmy airs and
+singing birds, pussy-willows, silver gray, beside the brooks, and little
+waterfalls laughing down the hills. Then came the greening fields, the
+trees throwing deeper shadows, and the Mayflowers, pink and pearly and
+perfect, hiding under their own leaves in damp woodland hollows! The
+children made many excursions to gather these fragrant blooms, and kept
+quantities of them in the Den until the season was over. It would be
+hard, Mrs. Merrithew thought, to find anything more lovely, and to show
+how thoroughly she appreciated their attention, she made for each child
+a little Mayflower picture in water-colours. In Marjorie's the flowers
+were in a large blue bowl, on a table covered with an old-blue cloth;
+for Jackie she painted them in a dainty shallow basket, just as he had
+brought them from the woods; and for Dora there was a shadowy green bit
+of the woodland itself, and a few of the braver blossoms just showing
+among leaves and moss.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+ONCE more the lilacs were in blossom in the garden of the Big Brick
+House. The blackbirds called and chuckled in the lofty branches of the
+elms, and robins hopped about the lawns, seemingly with the express
+purpose of tantalizing Kitty Grey. On the lawn, where the hammocks hung,
+a happy group was gathered. Mr. and Mrs. Merrithew were there, Marjorie
+and Dora, Katherine and Jack, and two others who evidently formed the
+centre of attraction. Of these, one was a tall, thin man, with a frame
+that must once have been athletic, and a pathetic stoop in the broad
+shoulders. He sat in a deep armchair, with Dora contentedly nestled on
+his knee. In a hammock near him sat a lady, with a dark, lovely face,
+beautifully arched brows, and soft eyes, so like Dora's that a stranger
+might have guessed their relationship.
+
+Mr. Carman, though still an invalid, was wonderfully better, and both he
+and his wife were full of praises of the great, beautiful West, its
+scenery, its climate, and its possibilities.
+
+"I have come to the conclusion," Mr. Carman said, after an enthusiastic
+description of a sunset in the Rocky Mountains, "that it is no wonder we
+Canadians are proud of our country."
+
+"Then you and Aunt Denise shall be 'Sons and Daughters,'" cried Jackie,
+"and you can read a paper about the West at our very next meeting. That
+_will_ be fine!"
+
+And Uncle Archie and Aunt Denise were accepted then and there as members
+of the S. A. D. O. C.
+
+The travellers had only arrived the day before, so there was still much
+to ask and tell; but Dora and her parents had already had a long talk
+as to plans and prospects, and the little girl was radiant with delight
+over the arrangements that were decided upon. Marjorie, who could not
+help being a little cast down at the prospect of a separation from her
+cousin, wondered that Dora did not seem to mind at all. But when, by and
+by, they strolled off together to the grape-arbour for a talk, she
+understood the reason of this cheerfulness.
+
+"I want to tell you all about our plans," Dora began, as soon as they
+were seated in their favourite nook. "You see, mother says that dear
+father, though he is certainly better, won't be able to work for a long,
+long time. Next winter they will probably go to Barbadoes, where some
+friends of mother's are living; and if they do, I am to stay with you
+_all winter_ again,--if you will have me, Marjorie! Your mother says
+_she_ will!"
+
+"_Have_ you!" Marjorie exclaimed. "Oh, but I am glad! I don't know what
+I will do without you all summer, but it is fine to know that at least
+we will have the winter together."
+
+Then Dora burst into a peal of laughter, and clapped her hands over the
+news that she had to tell.
+
+"Oh, I've got the best to tell you yet," she said. "Father and mother
+have quite decided to stay _here_, in Fredericton, all summer! They want
+to rent a furnished house, just as close to this one as they possibly
+can; and then we will be together almost every minute, just as we are
+now. _Won't_ it be lovely?"
+
+Marjorie sat quiet for a minute, and thought it over with shining eyes.
+Then she gave Dora a regular "bear-hug," and cried:
+
+"I feel just like Jackie does when he dances a war-dance! I was going to
+say that it was too good to be true, but mother says she doesn't like
+that saying, for there is nothing too good to come true sometime, if it
+isn't already. Come and tell Jack and Aunt Kathie, quick! They will be
+almost as glad as I am!"
+
+So these little Canadian Cousins went hand in hand down the garden-path,
+full of happy thoughts of the long bright summer days that spread before
+them.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE COUSIN SERIES
+
+The most delightful and interesting accounts possible of child life in
+other lands, filled with quaint sayings, doings, and adventures.
+
+Each one vol., 12mo, decorative cover, cloth, with six or more full-page
+illustrations in color.
+
+    Price per volume                                    $0.60
+
+
+_By MARY HAZELTON WADE (unless otherwise indicated)_
+
+    =Our Little African Cousin
+
+    Our Little Alaskan Cousin=
+    By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
+
+    =Our Little Arabian Cousin=
+    By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little Armenian Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Brown Cousin
+
+    Our Little Canadian Cousin=
+    By Elizabeth R. Macdonald
+
+    =Our Little Chinese Cousin=
+    By Isaac Taylor Headland
+
+    =Our Little Cuban Cousin
+
+    Our Little Dutch Cousin=
+    By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little English Cousin=
+    By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little Eskimo Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little French Cousin=
+    By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little German Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Hawaiian Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Hindu Cousin=
+    By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little Indian Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Irish Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Italian Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Japanese Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Jewish Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Korean Cousin=
+    By H. Lee M. Pike
+
+    =Our Little Mexican Cousin=
+    By Edward C. Butler
+
+    =Our Little Norwegian Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Panama Cousin=
+    By H. Lee M. Pike
+
+    =Our Little Philippine Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Porto Rican Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Russian Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Scotch Cousin=
+    By Blanche McManus
+
+    =Our Little Siamese Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Spanish Cousin=
+    By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
+
+    =Our Little Swedish Cousin=
+    By Claire M. Coburn
+
+    =Our Little Swiss Cousin=
+
+    =Our Little Turkish Cousin=
+
+
+
+
+THE GOLDENROD LIBRARY
+
+The Goldenrod Library contains stories which appeal alike both to
+children and to their parents and guardians.
+
+Each volume is well illustrated from drawings by competent artists,
+which, together with their handsomely decorated uniform binding, showing
+the goldenrod, usually considered the emblem of America, is a feature of
+their manufacture.
+
+    Each one volume, small 12mo, illustrated    $0.35
+
+
+LIST OF TITLES
+
+    =Aunt Nabby's Children.= By Frances Hodges White.
+    =Child's Dream of a Star, The.= By Charles Dickens.
+    =Flight Of Rosy Dawn, The.= By Pauline Bradford Mackie.
+    =Findelkind.= By Ouida.
+    =Fairy of the Rhone, The.= By A. Comyns Carr.
+    =Gatty and I.= By Frances E. Crompton.
+    =Helena's Wonderworld.= By Frances Hodges White.
+    =Jerry's Reward.= By Evelyn Snead Barnett.
+    =La Belle Nivernaise.= By Alphonse Daudet.
+    =Little King Davie.= By Nellie Hellis.
+    =Little Peterkin Vandike.= By Charles Stuart Pratt.
+    =Little Professor, The.= By Ida Horton Cash.
+    =Peggy's Trial.= By Mary Knight Potter.
+    =Prince Yellowtop.= By Kate Whiting Patch.
+    =Provence Rose, A.= By Ouida.
+    =Seventh Daughter, A.= By Grace Wickham Curran.
+    =Sleeping Beauty, The.= By Martha Baker Dunn.
+    =Small, Small Child, A.= By E. Livingston Prescott.
+    =Susanne.= By Frances J. Delano.
+    =Water People, The.= By Charles Lee Sleight.
+    =Young Archer, The.= By Charles E. Brimblecom.
+
+
+
+
+COSY CORNER SERIES
+
+It is the intention of the publishers that this series shall contain
+only the very highest and purest literature,--stories that shall not
+only appeal to the children themselves, but be appreciated by all those
+who feel with them in their joys and sorrows.
+
+The numerous illustrations in each book are by well-known artists, and
+each volume has a separate attractive cover design.
+
+    Each 1 vol., 16mo, cloth                  $0.50
+
+
+_By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON_
+
+
+=The Little Colonel.= (Trade Mark.)
+
+The scene of this story is laid in Kentucky. Its heroine is a small
+girl, who is known as the Little Colonel, on account of her fancied
+resemblance to an old-school Southern gentleman, whose fine estate and
+old family are famous in the region.
+
+
+=The Giant Scissors.=
+
+This is the story of Joyce and of her adventures in France. Joyce is a
+great friend of the Little Colonel, and in later volumes shares with her
+the delightful experiences of the "House Party" and the "Holidays."
+
+
+=Two Little Knights of Kentucky.=
+
+WHO WERE THE LITTLE COLONEL'S NEIGHBORS.
+
+In this volume the Little Colonel returns to us like an old friend, but
+with added grace and charm. She is not, however, the central figure of
+the story, that place being taken by the "two little knights."
+
+
+=Mildred's Inheritance.=
+
+A delightful little story of a lonely English girl who comes to America
+and is befriended by a sympathetic American family who are attracted by
+her beautiful speaking voice. By means of this one gift she is enabled
+to help a school-girl who has temporarily lost the use of her eyes, and
+thus finally her life becomes a busy, happy one.
+
+
+=Cicely and Other Stories for Girls.=
+
+The readers of Mrs. Johnston's charming juveniles will be glad to learn
+of the issue of this volume for young people.
+
+
+=Aunt 'Liza's Hero and Other Stories.=
+
+A collection of six bright little stories, which will appeal to all boys
+and most girls.
+
+
+=Big Brother.=
+
+A story of two boys. The devotion and care of Steven, himself a small
+boy, for his baby brother, is the theme of the simple tale.
+
+
+=Ole Mammy's Torment.=
+
+"Ole Mammy's Torment" has been fitly called "a classic of Southern
+life." It relates the haps and mishaps of a small negro lad, and tells
+how he was led by love and kindness to a knowledge of the right.
+
+
+=The Story of Dago.=
+
+In this story Mrs. Johnston relates the story of Dago, a pet monkey,
+owned jointly by two brothers. Dago tells his own story, and the account
+of his haps and mishaps is both interesting and amusing.
+
+
+=The Quilt That Jack Built.=
+
+A pleasant little story of a boy's labor of love, and how it changed the
+course of his life many years after it was accomplished.
+
+
+=Flip's Islands of Providence.=
+
+A story of a boy's life battle, his early defeat, and his final triumph,
+well worth the reading.
+
+
+_By EDITH ROBINSON_
+
+
+=A Little Puritan's First Christmas.=
+
+A Story of Colonial times in Boston, telling how Christmas was invented
+by Betty Sewall, a typical child of the Puritans, aided by her brother
+Sam.
+
+
+=A Little Daughter of Liberty.=
+
+The author introduces this story as follows:
+
+"One ride is memorable in the early history of the American Revolution,
+the well-known ride of Paul Revere. Equally deserving of commendation is
+another ride,--the ride of Anthony Severn,--which was no less historic
+in its action or memorable in its consequences."
+
+
+=A Loyal Little Maid.=
+
+A delightful and interesting story of Revolutionary days, in which the
+child heroine, Betsey Schuyler, renders important services to George
+Washington.
+
+
+=A Little Puritan Rebel.=
+
+This is an historical tale of a real girl, during the time when the
+gallant Sir Harry Vane was governor of Massachusetts.
+
+
+=A Little Puritan Pioneer.=
+
+The scene of this story is laid in the Puritan settlement at
+Charlestown.
+
+
+=A Little Puritan Bound Girl.=
+
+A story of Boston in Puritan days, which is of great interest to
+youthful readers.
+
+
+=A Little Puritan Cavalier.=
+
+The story of a "Little Puritan Cavalier" who tried with all his boyish
+enthusiasm to emulate the spirit and ideals of the dead Crusaders.
+
+
+=A Puritan Knight Errant.=
+
+The story tells of a young lad in Colonial times who endeavored to carry
+out the high ideals of the knights of olden days.
+
+
+_By OUIDA (Louise de la Ramée)_
+
+
+=A Dog Of Flanders:= A CHRISTMAS STORY.
+
+Too well and favorably known to require description.
+
+
+=The Nurnberg Stove.=
+
+This beautiful story has never before been published at a popular price.
+
+
+_By FRANCES MARGARET FOX_
+
+
+=The Little Giant's Neighbours.=
+
+A charming nature story of a "little giant" whose neighbours were the
+creatures of the field and garden.
+
+
+=Farmer Brown and the Birds.=
+
+A little story which teaches children that the birds are man's best
+friends.
+
+
+=Betty of Old Mackinaw.=
+
+A charming story of child-life, appealing especially to the little
+readers who like stories of "real people."
+
+
+=Brother Billy.=
+
+The story of Betty's brother, and some further adventures of Betty
+herself.
+
+
+=Mother Nature's Little Ones.=
+
+Curious little sketches describing the early lifetime, or "childhood,"
+of the little creatures out-of-doors.
+
+
+=How Christmas Came to the Mulvaneys.=
+
+A bright, lifelike little story of a family of poor children, with an
+unlimited capacity for fun and mischief. The wonderful never-to-be
+forgotten Christmas that came to them is the climax of a series of
+exciting incidents.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Little Canadian Cousin, by 
+Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43249 ***