“I have to take charge of a surveying party for a few weeks. After that I may be back to spend some time here.�
“Ah, yes, I remember you are a civil engineer. You will enjoy the hunting in the winter on the buffalo grounds.�
“Not hunting buffalo, I hope. At the rate they are being slaughtered they will soon be extinct,� said Nathan.
“Never fear, Nathan, I’ve little taste that way. It’s too noble an animal,� replied Donald.
“Come, now, I have made new tea, and we will have supper. It’s supper here, mother, instead of dinner, and I know you are all ravenously hungry after your long ride of twenty-five miles from the station.�
“It seems to me an extremely long distance to be from a railway,� said Mrs. Clyne, after they were seated around the table, where Lissa’s silver shone resplendent. “How did you happen to come so far from one when you bought?�
Nathan smiled.
“I took up the land first, believing at the time the line would run nearer, and it is only a question of time when it will do so.�
“I suppose this is a great farming country.�
“We have much to contend with here,� said Nathan. “The ground is rich, but has little depth. We are liable to have a wind-storm that will carry the land from one farm to another.�