Later in the same evening, while Mrs. Burton lay half asleep on her couch, seated not far away Miss Patricia Lord wrote her letters of invitation. She kept her word; the letters mentioned the conditions the girls would be forced to meet, the long cold, the quiet days and nights and the fact that they could count on but little society or entertainment save what they could create among themselves. However, the cabin was comfortable and the surroundings beautiful. In only one line did Miss Patricia betray the fact that she believed their Camp Fire guardian’s health might be improved by the companionship of the group of girls who had meant so much to her in the past years. Yet it may have been this line that represented the necessary influence, or merely that the girls enjoyed the novelty of a winter in the North woods. Whatever the reason, October found them living together in their accustomed fashion and now October had passed and November and it was the first week of December. So far, according to the woodsmen, the winter had been a remarkably open one. One Friday afternoon, soon after luncheon, Mary Gilchrist came out of the cabin alone. A short time before Mrs. Burton, Mrs. Graham and Marguerite Arnot had gone for a drive, the rough little pony they had been using earlier in the season was now transferred from the carriage to a sleigh. Ordinarily the Camp Fire guardian preferred the girls not to go any distance away from Tahawus cabin alone. So, as she had found it difficult to secure a companion, Gill had no thought of being outdoors more than an hour. Fresh air and exercise were essential to her health and happiness. Sally, who first had been asked to accompany her, disliking the cold and none too fond of exercise, had pleaded the fact that she was busily engaged in preparing mincemeat for the approaching Christmas holidays and desired to go on with her task. Bettina Graham, Gill preferred not to invite, believing that Bettina would surely decline. Alice Ashton and Vera were at work on their Christmas sewing and had a walk of several miles earlier in the day. Promising Sally to bring back any winter berries or evergreens she might discover, at three o’clock Gill set forth alone. She was dressed in a short skirt and a gray fur coat and cap and was wearing snowshoes. No snow had fallen for the past week and there was a hard layer of ice. The afternoon was cloudless and brilliant, the sky above the tree tops ravishingly blue.