By this it will appear that the two were admirably suited to each other, finding in their companion peculiar excellences they might have vainly sought among a thousand on Canadian soil.  “This is a morning of unalloyed happiness, Farquhar,” remarked Miss Du Plessis in prose, and, in the same humble style of composition, he answered:  “Thank God, Cecile!  Think what it might have been had the worst happened to poor Corry!”

“As it is,” replied that lady, archly, “the worst has turned out for the best.”

“As it was with me,” the dominie humbly responded, and relapsed into silence.

Meanwhile, Marjorie trotted on ahead, and, her eyes, made observant by former botanical expeditions on a small scale, found the purplish blue five-flowered Gentian by the open roadside, the tall orange Asclepias or Butterfly Weed, and the purple and yellow oak leaved Gerardias or False Foxgloves in grassy stretches among the second growth.  These she bestowed on Jim, who begged to be allowed to present the most perfect specimens to Miss Graves.  The walkers were now on the top of the hill, and strayed off into the overgrown clearing.  A shout from Marjorie declared that the berries had been reached, and within five minutes the whole party was engaged in gathering, what Mr. Douglas hailed with delight as “brammles.”  Marjorie accused the colonel of picking for his own mouth, but this was a libel.  He picked for Mrs. Du Plessis, whom he established under the shade of a straggling striped maple of tender growth.  That lady received the tribute of brother Paul very gracefully, and darkened her lips with the ripe berries, much to the colonel’s amusement and their mutual gratification.  Miss Halbert stood over Basil, and so punished him with a sunshade, whenever he abstracted fruit for personal consumption, that the man became infatuated and persisted in his career of wrong doing, till he was deprived of his basket, which he only received back after an abject apology delivered on his knees, and a solemn promise to have regard to the general weal.  Miss Du Plessis and the dominie would have done well, had not the worship of nature and human nature, in prose and in verse, withheld their hands from labour, and fortunately, as Mr. Perrowne remarked, from picking and stealing.  Mr. Douglas was absorbed in admiration for Miss Graves, who, thinking nothing of the handsome picture she made, attended strictly to business, and roused him to emulation in basket filling.  Marjorie, with her oft-replenished tin can, aided them time about impartially, as the only honest workers worthy of recognition.  Steadily, they toiled away, until the rising sun and shortening shadows, to say nothing of stooped backs and flushed faces, warned them to cease their labours, and prepare to take their treasures home.  Then they compared baskets, to the exultation of some and the confusion of others.  Miss Graves and Mr. Douglas were bracketed first with a good six quarts a piece.  Miss Halbert