Part 30 (2/2)
”Well, if it don't beat everything!” he exclaimed, then strode over to the shelf and examined the books, which Katherine had been careful to dust ”You've taken the dust off the books too! I expect you found it rather thick on 'em, didn't you? I don't think it has been rubbed off 'eht!” she retorted, scrubbing the table with great energy ”But I hope you don't expect ht to kno to dust the it myself, that's a fact; but they look real nice now,” he said ad round to pay Katherine a compliain, and a surprised: ”Hullo! what's up?” burst from him
Even Katherine looked ao a tousled, unclean creature, in a ragged night garment had disappeared, and now a clean-faced woman in a tidy frock, and with tidy hair, came from the inner roo such personal questions as that,” Mrs M'Crawney retorted lightly, with a s when she was not peevish ”But it is better I' in myself, which is sure to come to the outside sooner or later Now, Miss Radford, dear, there's no call for you to go blacking that stove; I'll do it ed to you for what you've done, especially for sweeping the floor I've a soul above sweeping, I have, and I can't be always loweringto the hed until the tears caasped out in jerky tones: ”It would be very bad for my morals to live with floors unswept, and I think that is how most people feel”
”Perhaps they do, but I was never the ordinary kind of woman; my mother always said I was sort of one byhere, with theh and carry on as she did, while the hungry sea as drowned her husband rocked at the very door of the house Now, if it had been rey, heaving water, I could not have sung and danced and played hop-scotch, blinds of that sort, the same as she did”
Katherine's lips took on a scornful curl, and there was an indignant light in her eyes as she retorted: ”No, I expect if Mr M'Crawney died you would wear crape a yard deep all round your frocks, and talk ht of how much you loved hireat deal ive him tidy rooms and well-cooked meals If I were a man I should just hate a woman who treated me as badly as you treat Mr M'Crawney”
”Hooray, you've got it now, and nohis hands in huge enjoyotten all about him, or it is possible she would not have spoken so plainly; as it was, at the sound of his laugh, she turned with a swift apology to Mrs M'Crawney
”Please forgive ht to meddle in your concerns; but it justaway the happiness youin such dirt and discoht be clean, sweet, and wholeso-chair and laughed in great a to a theaytre to see you a-carrying on and lecturing irl anyhow, but when you are angry it is downright lovely that you are I'd forgive ye for a dealthe truth, if you'd only come a bit oftener and row me”
”I say, Katherine, are you nearly ready to start?” asked Phil, putting his head in at the door He had been with Si that the weather was growing ot away from Fort Garry the better
”Yes, I will be ready in twopayment for the pelts in a written order upon the Co round her neck for safety, she drew on her coat, tied her hat securely on her head, and declared herself ready to start
A fine rain was beginning to blur the sea like a fog, and she realized that the journey before her reat deal worse than she had expected
”Good-bye, my dear; a safe journey to you, and the best of luck always!” exclai her in a bearlike eht ashamed of myself you've made me; and if I don't do better in future, then my name is not Juliana Kathleen M'Crawney, and never has been!”
”Good-bye! We shall get hoht; don't worry about us,”
Katherine answered bravely
”There is one coh we ,” reht the full force of the wind
”It ,” Katherine replied, as she tugged at her oars and faced the driving rain
For three hours they toiled on, working their way fro in close under the alders
There was never real actual danger close inshore for anyone who understood the ement of a boat, but the as fearful, and Katherine was so near to exhaustion when she at last pulled round past the shut-up house of Oily Dave, that she was thankful to let Phil take the oars and pull up the quieter waters of the river to Roaring Water Portage
”I wonder how Oily Dave likes being at the fishi+ng to-day?” said Phil, swaying hi the boat fearfully with his short, uneven strokes
But Katherine, sitting in a huddled, wet heap on the opposite seat, did not answer She was thinking of soht be kept in safety and brought back unhars
In was a very tired Katherine oke to face the work of the next day It was stor rain, so journeys of any kind were out of the question; and, yielding to the wisdom of Mrs Burton, she remained in bed until nearly noon Her arms ached so badly that she could scarcely ht had been hideous for her by reason of the nightmare dreams which broke her rest Always it seemed when she fell asleep that she was tor for his life in deep waters, falling fro pursued by enraged and vindictive walruses across slippery places, where no one on two feet could hope to stand without falling
Even when she awoke the dreams haunted her still, and it was not until the new day caone to their usual avocations, that any real sleep ca when she awoke at noon; indeed, they al baby song about ”The sun is always shi+ning, somewhere, somewhere”, and Katherine took heart as she listened, then rose and dressed in great haste, for it was years since she had re what the others were doing without her to help the out across the river when she entered by the other door fro-room, and he was so absorbed that he did not hear her come up behind him, and only started when she put her hand on his arm to shake him into attention