"How would you like, my lad, to have some of the out-door work for a
change?"

The mere expression of Frank's face was answer enough. It fairly shone
with gladness, as he replied,--

"I would like it above all things, sir, for I am a little tired of being
nothing but a chore-boy."

"Well, I think we might manage it, Frank," said the foreman. "You see,
Laberge can't do his work again this winter, and it goes against my heart
to send him home, for he's nobody but himself to depend upon. So I've hit
upon this plan: Laberge can't chop the wood or haul the water, but he can
help Baptiste in cooking and cleaning up. Suppose, then, you were to get
the wood ready and see about the water in the morning, and then come out
into the woods with us after dinner, leaving Laberge to do the rest of
the work. How would that suit you?"

"It would suit me just splendidly, sir," exclaimed Frank, delightedly. "I
can see about the wood and water all right before dinner, and I'll be so
glad to go to the woods with you. I'll just do the best I can to fill
Laberge's place."

"I'm right sure you will, Frank," replied Johnston. "So you may consider
it settled for the present, at any rate."

Frank felt like dancing a jig on the way back to his bunk, and not even
the scowling face of Damase, who had been listening to the conversation
in the foreman's room with keen Indian ears, and had caught enough of it