“Oh, Phil, I am so sorry that I upset you, dear, but I had to catch at the chair to save myself from falling over the broom!  What made you leave it lying on the floor?” asked Mrs. Burton, who had been the innocent cause of his collapse.

Phil rose to his feet and dusted the ashes from the sleeve of his jacket with a rueful air.  “Did I leave the broom there?  Oh, I suppose I forgot it!  I remember I had it to sweep up the fireplace, because I could not find a brush.”

“There is the brush hanging close to the stove,” remarked Mrs. Burton.  Then she broke out again:  “I wonder what Katherine can be doing out-of-doors at this time of the night, and Miles too?”

“Perhaps they are gone to a surprise party.  Don’t you remember there was one at Astor M’Kree’s last winter?” suggested Phil, whose tumble had dispelled some of his sleepiness, although he still talked in a drowsy tone, and rumpled his hair wildly all over his head.

“Katherine would not go to a surprise party with Father lying in such a condition,” replied Mrs. Burton severely.  Then she went on:  “Besides, she must be pretty well worn out, poor girl, for she has done thirty miles on snowshoes since the morning, with all the worry and trouble of Father’s accident thrown in.”

“Perhaps she has gone to help Miles to look after his wolf traps.  I wanted to go instead, only she wouldn’t let me.  I told her that girls ought to stay indoors to wash cups and things, while boys did the outside work,” Phil explained, in a rather injured tone.

Mrs. Burton laughed softly.  “I’m glad Katherine did not let you turn out to-night, laddie, though I am sorry she had to go herself.  Now make haste and get off to bed; I have put everything ready for you.  But you must be very quiet, because I think Father is inclined to go to sleep.”

“Katherine said I was not to go to bed until she came in, and I’m not so very tired,” replied Phil, choking back a yawn with a great effort.

“I am, though.  And if you are in Father’s room I shall be able to sit down here by the stove and rest without any worry.  So run along, laddie, and be sure that you come to rouse me if Father wants me,” Mrs. Burton said.  Then, drawing a big shawl round her shoulders, she sat down in the rocking-chair vacated by Phil to wait for the return of her sister and brother.

She wondered why they had gone out, but did not worry about it, except on the score of Katherine’s complexion.  Even that ceased to trouble her, as she swayed gently to and fro in the comfortable warmth flung out by the stove, and very soon she was fast asleep.

’Duke Radford, who lay in restless discomfort from the pain of his hurts, was the first to hear sounds of an arrival, and he tried to rouse Phil to see what all the commotion was about.  But the boy always slept so heavily that it was next to impossible to wake him.  The dogs were barking.  Katherine called out to Miles, who answered back.  Then there were other voices and a great banging at the door of the store.  That was when Mrs. Burton first became aware that something was going on, and started up out of the rocking-chair under the impression that she had been there the whole night and that morning had come already.