“Ah, well, perhaps sometime later. They all sound rather terribly industrious and efficient for a mere slacker like myself.”
Along the trail they galloped, following the dogs for a mile or so until checked by a full flowing stream.
“I say, Willow Creek is really quite in flood,” said his sister. “The hot sun has brought down the snows, you know. The logs are running, too. We will have to go a bit carefully. Hold well up to the stream and watch the logs. Keep your eye on the bank opposite. No, no, keep up, follow me. Look out, or you will get into deep water. Keep to the right. There, that's better.”
“I say,” said her brother, as his horse clambered out of the swollen stream. “That's rather a close thing to a ducking. Awfully like the veldt streams, you know. Ice cold, too, I fancy.”
“Ice cold, indeed, glacier water, you know, and these logs make it very awkward. The Gwynnes must be running down their timber and firewood. We might just run up and look in on them. It's only a mile or so. Nora will be there. She will be 'bossing the job,' as she says. It will be rather interesting.”
“Well, I hope it is not too far, for I assure you I am getting quite ravenous.”
“No, come along, there's a good trail here.”
A smart canter brought them to a rather pretentious homestead with considerable barns and outbuildings attached. “This is the Switzers' place,” said Mrs. Waring-Gaunt. “German-Americans, old settlers and quite well off. The father owned the land on which Wolf Willow village stands. He made quite a lot of money in real estate--village lots and farm lands, you know. He is an excellent farmer and ambitious for his family--one son and one daughter. They are quite plain people. They live like--well, like Germans, you know. The mother is a regular hausfrau; the daughter, quite nice, plays the violin beautifully. It was from her young Gwynne got his violining. The son went to college in the States, then to Germany for a couple of years. He came back here a year ago, terribly German and terribly military, heel clicking, ram-rod back, and all that sort of thing. Musical, too, awfully clever; rather think he has political ambitions. We'll not go in to-day. Some day, perhaps. Indeed, we must be neighbourly in this country. But the Switzers are a little trying.”