SUMMER DIVERSION 315 



take it in turn to provide tea. At one time it was 

 tennis and tea, the very simplest affair ; but gradu- 

 ally tea was threatened with symptoms of an attack 

 of the comparative degree, and some one whispered 

 that the powers had ordained that there were never 

 to be more than two kinds of cake, lest the humiliating 

 suspicion of tea and tennis should fall upon this 

 gala day of an association of the North- West 

 Territory which marked the manner of things 

 social according to the tradition of the Mother 

 Country. However, whether it was because of, or 

 in spite of, tradition and exclusion, some very 

 delightful people were to be found among the 

 members of the club from time to time ; and 

 although I very rarely had time to get down to 

 the Fort even to collect the necessaries of life, I 

 appreciated the privilege of admission to the club 

 and faithfully kept my day for tea. 



That year it chanced to fall in July. Patrick 

 O'Hara packed me, and the tea-things, and the 

 rolls and the rock cakes and the big cake, which I 

 greatly feared was still uncooked in the middle, 

 and Molly's cream, which is the very nicest 

 cream in the Qu'Appelle valley, into the wagon. In 

 fact nothing was forgotten except the indispensable 

 items of tea and water, and drawn by Jim and 

 Nancy, with Felicity in the rear, we came, in Jim's 

 time, to the enclosure, which is an odd corner of 

 one of the loveliest bits of hill and lake scenery in 

 the world. A friendly man dashed off for a pound 

 of tea at the Hudson Bay Store, and the Macdougall 

 girls, with all the other friendly men in tow, went 

 off for water by the short cut to the Mound, which 

 always saves a lot of time providing you are 



