Monsieur, have you never known how restful it sometimes is to be alone ?" "My life has mostly been a solitary one," I answered, responding unconsciously to her mood, and, in doing so, forgetting my embarrassment.

"It is the birthright of all children of the frontier.
Indeed, I have seen so little of the great world and so much of the woods, that I scarcely realize what companionship means, especially that of my own age.

I have made many a solitary camp leagues from the nearest settlement, and have tracked the forest alone for days together, so content with my own thought that possibly I understand your meaning better than if my life had been passed among crowds." "Ah! but I like the crowds," she exclaimed hastily, "and the glow and excitement of that brighter, fuller life, where people really live.

It is so dull here,--the same commonplace faces, the tiresome routine of drill, the same blue sky, gray water, and green plains, to look upon day after day.

Oh, but it is all so wearisome, and you cannot conceive how I have longed again for Montreal and the many little gaieties that brighten a woman's world.