Mighty spry chaps, those river miners." "Very!" said Cousin Jane.
Breakfast over, they were not surprised that their sybaritic guest excused himself from an inspection of the town in the frigid morning air, and declined joining a skating party to the lake on the ground that he could keep warmer indoors with half the exertion.

An hour later found him standing before the fire in Gabriel Lane's study, looking languidly down on his elder brother.
"Then, as far as I can see," he said quietly, "you have made ducks and drakes of your share of the property, and that virtually you are in the hands of this man Gunn and his father." "You're putting it too strongly," said Gabriel deprecatingly.

"In the first place, my investments with Gunn's firm are by no means failures, and they only hold as security a mortgage on the forest land below the hill.

It's scarcely worth the money.

I would have sold it long ago, but it had been a fancy of father's to keep it wild land for the sake of old times and the healthiness of the town." "There used to be a log cabin there, where the old man had a habit of camping out whenever he felt cramped by civilization up here, wasn't there ?" said Uncle Sylvester meditatively.
"Yes," said Gabriel impatiently; "it's still there--but to return to Mr.
Gunn.