"Not rich, dear, but comfortable. We have a good home, and one of the best farms along the river. We are rich, though, in happiness and in our children. Your grandfather was always so proud of you. Ruth, you were but a baby when he died. He was very fond of you, and named you after my mother. It was a sad day for me when he was taken away."
Again Jean glanced at the picture, and thought of what her father had meant to her.
"When did Old Mammy die?" Ruth asked.
"Not long after your grandfather. She was sick but a short time, and grieved very much over my father's death. She longed to go back to her old home in Connecticut, but that could not be. She died murmuring the words of her favourite psalm, 'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.' She was a good, true woman, and a mother to me. It is very hard to lose our loved ones."
"But we have the Indians, Pete, Sam, and Kitty," James reminded. "They are coming to-morrow, and I am so glad. Sam is going to make me a bow and a whole lot of arrows."
"And Kitty promised me a pair of snow-shoes," Ruth said.
"But Pete's going to bring me the best of all," Tommy chimed.
"What's that, dear?" his mother asked.
"Spruce gum. He said he would, anyway."
James and Ruth laughed so heartily that Tommy became embarrassed, and hid his flushed face against his mother.