THE SILVER FOX 23 



to the priest for masses for the soul of the 

 deceased. It is an institution known as 

 '* the altar," and happily combines a polite- 

 ness to the dead man and his family, with a 

 keen sense of the return that will be made 

 in kind when it becomes the donor's turn to 

 have a funeral. The sight of the gold was 

 balm to the dazed spirit of the Widow Quin. 



*' Thank God, they showed that much 

 respect for him,'' she said, as congratulations 

 were passed round. " 'Twas a great althar." 



A windy sunset of January was set forth 

 that afternoon in cold orange and green 

 behind the bogs near Tully Lake. The new 

 railway line ran across them, away in the 

 north-west, and the rails gleamed along a 

 track that seemed to end against the breast 

 of the evening sky. Coming from the east, 

 the line emerged from a cutting in a wooded 

 hill, where blocks of stone, overturned 

 trucks, and stumps of trees with twisted, 

 agonized roots, littered the yellow sand. 

 The wood ran to the lips of the cutting on 

 either side, and the strong fir-trees on the 



