A Countess from Canada

A Countess from Canada - A
Story of Life in the Backwoods

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Title: A Countess from Canada A Story of Life in the Backwoods
Author: Bessie Marchant
Release Date: February 16, 2004 [EBook #11110]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A
COUNTESS FROM CANADA ***

Produced by Prepared by Al Haines

A COUNTESS FROM CANADA
A Story of Life in the Backwoods
BY
BESSIE MARCHANT
Author of "Three Girls in Mexico" "Daughters of the Dominion"
"Sisters of Silver Creek" "A Courageous Girl" &c.

ILLUSTRATED BY CYRUS CUNEO

Contents
CHAP.
I. BEYOND THE SECOND PORTAGE II. A CURIOUS ACCIDENT
III. OUTWITTING THE ENEMY IV. A NIGHT OF ROUGH WORK
V. A SACRED CONFIDENCE VI. BUSINESS BOTHERS VII.
ANOTHER CLUE VIII. THE FIRST RAIN IX. THE FLOOD X. THE
STRANGER PROVES A FRIEND IN NEED XI. A WOMAN OF
BUSINESS XII. THE FIRST OF THE FISHING XIII. MARY XIV.
WOULD THEY BE FRIENDS? XV. MR. SELINCOURT IS
INDISCREET XVI. "WE MUST BE FRIENDS!" XVII. 'DUKE
RADFORD'S NEW FRIEND XVIII. STANDING ASIDE XIX. AN
AWKWARD FIX XX. KATHERINE MAKES A DISCOVERY XXI.
MATTER FOR HEARTACHE XXII. A BUSINESS XXIII. THE
MAJORITY DECIDES XXIV. MR. SELINCOURT IS
CONFIDENTIAL XXV. THE RIFT IN THE CLOUDS XXVI.
FIGHTING THE STORM XXVII. A BEARER OF EVIL TIDINGS
XXVIII. THE GLADNESS XXIX. WINTER AGAIN XXX.
PREPARATIONS XXXI. THE WEDDING

Illustrations
The Rescue of Jarvis Ferrars 'Duke Radford Meets with an Accident
Katherine and Miles Spearing for Fish "With all her strength Katherine
hauled at the rope" Bartering with the Indians Drifting Down the River

CHAPTER I
Beyond the Second Portage
"Oh dear, how I should love to go out!"
Katherine Radford stretched her arms wearily above her head as she
spoke. There had been five days of persistent snowfall; but this
morning the clouds had broken, showing strips and patches of blue sky,
and there was bright sunshine flooding the world again, with hard and

sparkling frost.
"Why don't you go?" demanded Phil, who was the youngest. "Miles
and me don't mind having a holiday at all."
"Speak for yourself if you like," growled Miles, who was thirteen; "but
I want to get this schooling business over and done with, so that I can
start doing something useful."
"And speak grammatically, please, or else keep silent. You should have
said, 'Miles and I'," remarked Katherine with quite crushing dignity, as
she turned from the window to take her place at the table once more.
Phil thrust his tongue in his cheek, after the manner beloved of small
boys, and subsided into silence and an abstracted study of his spelling
book.
The schoolroom was a small chamber, partitioned off from the store by
a wall of boards so thin that all conversation about buying and selling,
with the gossip of the countryside thrown in, was plainly audible to the
pupils, whose studies suffered in consequence. The stovepipe from the
store went through this room, keeping it comfortably warm, and in
winter 'Duke Radford and the boys slept there, because it was so
terribly cold in the loft.
Katherine had come home from college in July, determined to teach
school all winter, and to make a success of it, too, in a most
unpromising part of the world. But even the most enthusiastic teacher
must fail to get on if there are no scholars to teach, and at present she
had only Miles and Phil, her two brothers, as pupils. This was most
trying to Katherine's patience, for, of course, if there had only been
pupils enough, she could have had a properly constituted school, and a
salary also. She might even have had a regular schoolhouse to teach in,
instead of being compelled to use a makeshift such as this. But
everything must have a beginning, and so she had worked on bravely
through the autumn, hoping against hope for more pupils. In the
intervals between teaching the boys she kept the books for her father,
and even attended to the wants of an occasional customer when 'Duke
Radford was busy or absent.

The store at Roaring Water Portage was awkwardly placed for business.
It stood on a high bank overlooking the rapids, and when it was built,
five years before, had been the centre of a mining village. But the
mining village had been abandoned for three years now, because the
vein of copper had ended in a thick seam of coal,