A Curious Accident The nearest Hudson's Bay store to Roaring Water Portage was fifteen miles away by land, but only five by boat, as it stood on an angle of land jutting into the water, three miles from the mouth of the river.

'Duke Radford's business took him over to this place, which was called Fort Garry, always once a week, and sometimes oftener.
Usually either Miles or Phil went with him, although on rare occasions Katherine took the place of the boys and helped to row the boat across the inlet to the grim old blockhouse crowning the height.
It was a week after the trip to the house of Astor M'Kree that the storekeeper announced his intention of going to Fort Garry, and said that he should need Miles to help him.
"I must go by land to-day, which is a nuisance, for it takes so much longer," he declared, as he sat down to breakfast, which at this time of the year had always to be taken by lamplight.
"Shall I come instead ?" asked Katherine, who was frying potatoes at the stove.

"I am quicker on snowshoes than Miles, and he has got such a bad cold." "You can if you like, though it isn't work for a girl," he answered in a dispirited tone.
"It is work for a girl if a girl has got it to do," she rejoined, with a merry laugh; "and I shall just love to come with you, Father.

When will you start ?" "At dawn," he replied brusquely; and, finishing his meal in silence, he went into the store.
"Katherine, what is the matter with Father?
Do you think he is ill ?" Mrs.Burton asked in a troubled tone.

"He has been so quiet and gloomy for the last few days; he does not eat well, and he does not seem to care to talk to any of us." Katherine shivered and hesitated.