Katherine, watching him with anxious, loving eyes, noticed that now he clung to Nellie more than he did to her.  At first this raised an acute jealousy in her heart, for she was very human, and in his days of health and mental vigour her father had always clung most to her; but a very little reflection brought her to see that this change was really a matter for thankfulness, as he would not miss her so much during her absence.  It was good for Mrs. Burton, too; for the more there were to love and depend upon her the easier did she find it to rise to the occasion, and be ready to meet all the demands upon her.

The great difficulty in arranging for an early marriage lay in securing a minister to perform the ceremony.  Directly the waters were open, Jervis sent men with mails to Maxohama, with instructions to bring back a clergyman with them—­the bishop if they could get him; but if he were not available, that is, if his spring visitation had not begun, then some other clergyman must be secured.  He also sent a letter to Mr. Selincourt, urging that gentleman’s speedy return, stating as his reason the necessity there might be for his own absence when the fishing commenced.

When the men had gone there were other preparations to be set afoot, and, although five weeks might possibly elapse before the men returned with the clergyman, arrangements for the ceremony had to be set about without delay, because there was so much to be done.

A wedding in that out-of-the-way place was such an extraordinary occasion that everyone at Seal Cove and Roaring Water Portage would expect an invitation, so preparations must be made to welcome and entertain the entire population.  Katherine would have much preferred to be quietly married in their sitting-room, with no one but her own people to look at her; but Mrs. Burton protested loudly at this, and even Jervis took sides with her, saying that everyone would surely be disappointed if shut out.

“But you don’t mean to ask everyone?” exclaimed Katherine.

“I expect everyone will want to come,” Jervis replied, with a shrug of his broad shoulders.

“Do you mean to ask Oily Dave, Bobby Poole, and all that lot?” she cried in dismay.

“If they will come I shall be delighted to see them,” he answered gravely.

“But Oily Dave——­” she began, then stopped as if she had no words adequate to the expression of her feelings.

“Tried to kill me once, were you going to say?  I know he did.  But perhaps if he had not fastened me in, to drown like a rat in a hole, you would not have come to rescue me; and as that fact so much out-balances the other, why, I feel rather in Oily Dave’s debt than otherwise.”

It was the Sunday after the men had started with the mail for Maxohama, and Jervis was walking with Katherine in the woods above the first portage, while the laughing chuckle of the ptarmigan sounded on all sides.