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. She knew the moment from which
the change in her father's manner dated, but she could not speak of
it even to her sister. "Perhaps the cold weather tries him a great
deal just at first; it has come so suddenly, and we are not
seasoned to it yet, you know," she answered evasively.

"I hope it is only that," answered Mrs. Burton, brightening up at
the suggestion. "And really the cold has been terribly trying for
the last week, though it won't seem so bad when we get used to it.
I am glad you are going with Father, though, for Miles has such a
dreadful cold, poor boy."