Yet even Aunt Patricia had not protested against the instalment of some one to help with the Christmas festivities, provided a suitable person could be discovered. And the good fortune in the situation was that Miss Patricia made the discovery herself. David Murray, who helped with the outside work and cared for the furnace, was an old bachelor living in a small cabin a mile or more away and yet the closest neighbor to the Camp Fire girls. Old David was as much of a character in his way as Miss Patricia in hers, disliking the feminine sex with greater intensity than Miss Patricia bestowed upon his, as Miss Patricia’s dislike of men never had been satisfactorily proven save by her spinsterhood. Some time before David had confided to Miss Patricia that a letter from his half sister, Elspeth, had informed him of the fact that she was tired of “working out” and was coming to live with him. He did not wish her society and had stated the fact plainly. “Yet knowin’ the ways of women, Miss Patricia, if she has made up her mind to it, she’ll come. She knows a man can’t set a woman outside his door to freeze weather like this even if he has a mind to.” A few weeks later with all her possessions Elspeth arrived and finding her brother away, had pushed open the door. There she was upon his return making herself thoroughly at home. However, the cottage was small and David was “dour”, so Elspeth was soon willing to make friends with the Camp Fire girls and to agree to come and live with them at Christmas time. She and Miss Patricia were even a little alike, since one was of Scotch descent and the other Irish. Miss Patricia promised to leave the cooking and housekeeping to Elspeth and the Camp Fire girls, so long as nothing interfered with her care of Mrs. Burton, which, after all, consisted largely in seeing that she ate and slept more than she wished and was in the fresh air whenever it was possible. Mrs. Burton had pleaded for a little more freedom during the holidays and had her request denied with the threat that the house party itself should be abandoned unless she agreed to follow her usual régime. So the big cabin before the arrival of the Christmas guests was filled with the odors of cooking and cleaning and the smell of evergreens. The arrangement was that the married people and Camp Fire girls should live in the big house and the smallest of the cabins and the other be devoted to Dan Webster, David Hale, and Philip Stead, the unknown cousin of Alice and Sally Ashton. Mrs. Graham had suggested that Allan Drain be invited to spend a few days at the cabin rather than be forced to return to his own home when he was sharing their amusements. But as no one had met the proposal with any enthusiasm she had said nothing more. Her own desire was to make up to the young fellow in any possible way for the loss for which she felt increasingly responsible.