These were the dangerous days, and they never ventured far from home when such blizzards were raging, unless it was for the three miles' run down to Seal Cove, where the trail had been dug out, and the snow banked, at the beginning of winter.
There were a large number of sealing and walrus boats laid up in ice between Roaring Water Portage and Seal Cove.

Most of these had men living on board, who passed the days in loafing, in setting traps for wolves, or in boring holes through the ice for fishing.
Many of them spent a great portion of their time in the little house at the bend of the river, where Oily Dave dispensed bad whisky and played poker with his customers from morning to night, or, taking a rough average, for sixteen hours out of the twenty-four.

These were the men whom Katherine most dreaded to encounter.

They looked bold admiration, and roared out compliments at the top of husky voices, but they ventured nothing further; her manner was too repressive, and the big dogs which always accompanied her were much too fierce to be trifled with.

Mrs.
Burton had left off lamenting the chances of damage to her sister's complexion from exposure, for she realized that Katherine must be breadwinner now, and the stern necessities of life had to be first consideration for them all.
One day Katherine found to her surprise that some tin buckets of lard were missing from the store.