From the death of Mr. Macallum, 1849, there was a vacancy in the school for girls until 1851, when Mrs. Mills and her two daughters came from England to assume its charge.  A new building was erected for this school a little further down the river to which was given the name of St. Cross.  This was the same building enlarged with which we were familiar a few years ago as St. John’s Boys’ College, and which has lately been taken down.  Mrs. Mills is said to have been very thorough in her instruction and management.  The young ladies were trained in all the social etiquette of the day in addition to the more solid education imparted.  Miss Mills assisted her mother with the music and modern languages.  Miss Harriet Mills, being younger, was more of a companion to the girls, and accompanied them on walks, in winter on the frozen river, in summer towards the plain, and unless her maturer years belie the record of her girlhood we may imagine she was a very lively and agreeable companion.  In addition to her regular school duties Mrs. Mills had a class for girls who were beyond school age.  She also gave assistance in Sunday school work.

The pianos used in these schools had to be brought by sea, river and portage by way of Hudson Bay; one of them is still in possession of Miss Lewis, St. James.  The teachers from England had to traverse the same somewhat discouraging route in coming into the Settlement.  Miss Mills, who came alone a little later than her mother and sister, traveled from York Factory under the care of Mr. Thomas Sinclair.  She always manifested the highest appreciation of his kindness to her during the way, making his men cut down and pile up branches around her to protect her from the cold when his party had to camp out for the night.

CHAPTER XXV.

Eden invaded.

The conception of Red River Settlement being an Idyllic Paradise was not confined to the writer, whose picture we have described as “Apples of Gold.”  It was a self-contained spot, distant from St. Anthony Falls (now Minneapolis) some four or five hundred miles, and this was its nearest neighbor of importance.  Our astronomers thus describe it as an orb in space, and the celebrated Milton and Cheadle Expedition of 1862 looked upon it as an “oasis.”  It was often represented as being enclosed behind the Chinese wall of Hudson’s Bay Company exclusiveness, and thus as hopelessly retired.  The writer remembers well, when entering Manitoba, in the year after it ceased to be Red River Settlement, as he called upon the pioneer of his faith, who, for twenty years, had held his post, the old man said, when youthful plans of progress were being advanced to him, oh, rest! rest! there are creatures that prefer lying quietly at the bottom of the pool rather than to be always plunging through the troublous waters.  Certainly, to the old people, there was a feeling of freedom from care, as of its being a lotus-eater’s land—­an Utopia; an Eden, before sin entered, and before “man’s disobedience brought death into the world and all our woe.”