"_Bien, m'sieur_. I sall be easy wid him if ee's a good boy."

The foreman then said to Frank,--

"There, Frank, go with Baptiste, and he'll give you work enough."

So Frank went dutifully off with the Frenchman.

He soon found out what his work was to be. Baptiste was cook, and he was
his assistant, not so much in the actual cooking, for Baptiste looked
after that himself, but in the scouring of the pots and pans, the keeping
up of the fires, the setting out of the food, and such other
supplementary duties. Not very dignified or inspiring employment,
certainly, especially for a boy "with a turn for books and figures." But
Frank had come to the camp prepared to undertake, without a murmur, any
work within his powers that might be given him, and he now went quietly
and steadily at what was required of him.

As soon as breakfast was despatched, Johnston called the men together to
give them directions about the building of the shanty, which was the
first thing of all to be done; and having divided them up into parties,
to each of which a different task was assigned, he set them at work
without delay.

Frank was very glad that attention to his duties would not prevent his
watching the others at theirs; for what could be more interesting than to
study every stage of the erection of the building that was to be their
shelter and home during the long winter months now rapidly approaching?
It was a first experience for him, and nothing escaped his vigilant eye.
This is the way he described the building of the shanty to his mother on