It were needless to detail all that was said and done during the remainder of that night, or, rather, morning, for day began to break soon after the happy meeting narrated¹ in the last chapter. It would require more space than we can afford to tell of all that was said and done; how Robin² embraced his children over and over again in the strength of his love, and thanked God in the fervour of his gratitude³; how Roy and Nelly were eager to relate all that had befallen them since they were carried away into captivity⁴, in a much shorter time than such a long story could by any possibility be told; how Walter rendered the telling of it much more difficult by frequent interruptions with eager questions, which induced divergencies from which the tale-tellers forgot to return to the points where the interruptions occurred; how Larry O’Dowd complicated matters by sometimes volunteering anecdotes⁵ of his own, illustrative of points similar to those which were being related; how Slugs always cut these anecdotes short with a facetious⁶ poke⁷ in the ribs⁸, which caused Larry to howl; how Stiff rendered confusion worse confounded by trying to cook some breakfast, and by upsetting the whole affair into the fire; and how the children themselves broke in on their own discourse⁹ continually with sudden and enthusiastic questions as to the health of their mother and the welfare of the live stock at Fort Enterprise.

All this cannot be described, therefore we leave it to the vivid imagination of the reader.

“Now, comrades,” said Robin, after the sun had risen, after breakfast had been and eaten, after every incident had been related at least twice over, and after every conceivable question had been asked four or five times—“now, comrades, it

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