"We are the last to cross this year," said he.

And he halted the horse to breathe before putting him at the hill.
After following the main road a little way they left it for another which plunged into the woods.

It was scarcely more than a rough trail, still beset with roots, turning and twisting in all directions to avoid boulders and stumps.

Rising to a plateau where it wound back and forth through burnt lands it gave an occasional glimpse of steep hillside, of the rocks piled in the channel of the frozen rapid, the higher and precipitous opposing slope above the fall, and at the last resumed a desolate way amid fallen trees and blackened rampikes.
The little stony hillocks they passed through seemed to close in behind them; the burnt lands gave place to darkly-crowding spruces and firs; now and then they caught momentary sight of the distant mountains on the Riviere Alec; and soon the travellers discerned a clearing in tile forest, a mounting column of smoke, the bark of a dog.
"They will be glad to see you again, Maria," said her father.

"They have been lonesome for you, every one of them.".