Part 17 (2/2)
CHAPTER XVI
”We Must be Friends!”
When her father decided not to go to Aki about Seal Cove, visiting the various little houses dotted near the fish shed, and hbourhood But when her father got into Stee Jenkin's boat, and was rowed across the river to survey the land on the farther side, Mary had herself rowed up the river, with the intention of spending the afternoon in arranging the little brown house to suit her own fancy The afternoon proved so war to the next day, and sat down to write letters instead Even this proved a task beyond her powers, for she wasjourney over river and trail, and the hot day was ue felt
One letter, short and scrappy, got itself written, and then weariness had its way Mary went into her little bedroo doent fast asleep It was three hours later when she awoke, and, feeling fearfully ashaht a fire for getting a cup of tea ready for her father
No ear people may be, if they leave the beaten tracks of civilization and immure themselves in the wilderness they will have to learn to help themselves or else suffer hardshi+p So Mary Selincourt, whose father's yearly incoured total, found herself co without the tea There was plenty of kindling wood close to her hand, so the task presented no especial difficulty, but she laughed softly to herself as she watched the leaping flaht how astonished some of her aristocratic friends would be if they could see her doing dos
When the kettle began to sing she went into the little sitting-roo the work as if it were play and she a child again, when a sound of voices and footsteps brought her in haste to the open door Two of the boat a nise But a second glance showed her that it was really her father With a cry of alarm she met hiht, yet not for a er had been
”Dear Father, where have you been?” she cried
”Within a hand-grip of death,” he answered, with a quaver of breakdown in his voice, for it had shaken hi sucked into the green ooze of the
”Don't talk about it!” she said hastily ”I will put your clean things ready There is happily a kettle on the boil; the men will help you to bath, and when you are in bed I will bring you tea”
”Yes,” he answered languidly, while she flew to get things ready, and called one of thetin pan which was the only bath the house afforded
She was going to put the pan in the bedrooestion ”You had better leave the pan here in front of the fire, Miss; the poor gentleman is so exhausted, you see, and the fire will be a coht of that, but I aot the water to a comfortable temperature, and left the men to do their best
They were pro in bed, spent and faint it is true, but as clean as soap and water could make him Mary hovered about him with a world of tenderness in face and manner, but she would not let him talk, would not even let hi his death on that sunny June afternoon It was not until he was asleep that she ventured to go back to the kitchen Thethe splashed floor, and were busy now in the open space behind the house washi+ng the mud-caked clothes which they had stripped froe work , or be content to go without clean shi+rts most of their time
Mary beckoned for one of them to come to her
”What happened to my father?” she asked ”I would not let hihly upset”
”We don't know, Miss,” replied the estion about the bath ”We were down on the bank, getting the boat ready that is to start for the south to-irl ca with perspiration, and looked as if she had been rowing for a wager Mr Selincourt was sitting in the stern, and there was a sirl bade us take Mr Selincourt and get him to bed, and said that she would send down river for Mr Ferrars”
”How truly good of her!” cried Mary, with ainto her eyes ”It must have been Miss Radford froo to Seal Cove for Mr Ferrars, but if he has been already sent for he o over to the store instead, give my love to Miss Radford, and ask her to tell you rong?”
Thethem on his trousers, and started on his errand, while Mary entered the house again and peeped in at the open door of her father's roo
There was a good fire in the kitchen, and the kettle was boiling again Mary had not had her cup of tea yet, although she had otten all about that -forgotten, indeed, that she had taken no food, except two hard biscuits, since her early breakfast It see time before the man came back His co, pounding, and punching at the et theain two or three bars of ”The Maple Leaf for Ever” For years afterwards Mary never heard the song without recalling that afternoon, with its keen anxiety, the glorious sunshi+ne, and the steamy, soapy atmosphere of the little kitchen
Fro softly through fear of disturbing the sleeper in the rooain, and paused to wait for thewas so delayed Presently she heard the sound of oars, then a boat grounded, and aso in a basket which he presented to Mary
”It is a bottle of ginger posset which Mrs Burton has sent over for Mr Selincourt She says you ht to make him s it even if he objects, as there is quinine in it, which may ward off swa a lesson
”Mrs Burton is very kind,” said Mary, as she took basket and bottle ”But did you see Miss Radford, and why should there be danger of swaot a party of Indians in the store that were taking all her tie,” replied the man ”Indeed, I had to chip in and help her a bit myself, for while she showed one lot scarlet flannel and coloured calicoes, the other lot were trying to help the But by the time I had punched the heads of three men, and slapped two squaws in the face, they seeood an to ony of impatience Would the man ever tell her, or would she be compelled to shake the information out of him?
”Did Miss Radford tell you what had happened?” she asked, with an emphatic stamp of her foot on the floor