Four years before , when Sidney was sixteen , still calling herself a schoolgirl by reason of the fact that she could be spared to attend school four months in the winter when work was slack , she had been much interested in the `` Maple Leaf '' department of the Montreal weekly her uncle took . It was a page given over to youthful Canadians and filled with their contributions in the way of letters , verses , and prize essays . Noms de plume were signed to these , badges were sent to those who joined the Maple Leaf Club , and a general delightful sense of mystery pervaded the department . Often a letter concluded with a request to the club members to correspond with the writer . One such request went from Sidney under the pen-name of `` Ellen Douglas . '' The girl was lonely in Plainfield ; she had no companions or associates such as she cared for ; the Maple Leaf Club represented all that her life held of outward interest , and she longed for something more . Only one answer came to `` Ellen Douglas , '' and that was forwarded to her by the long-suffering editor of `` The Maple Leaf . '' It was from John Lincoln of the Bar N Ranch , Alberta . He wrote that , although his age debarred him from membership in the club -LRB- he was twenty , and the limit was eighteen -RRB- , he read the letters of the department with much interest , and often had thought of answering some of the requests for correspondents . He never had done so , but `` Ellen Douglas 's '' letter was so interesting that he had decided to write to her . Would she be kind enough to correspond with him ? Life on the Bar N , ten miles from the outposts of civilization , was lonely . He was two years out from the east , and had not yet forgotten to be homesick at times . Sidney liked the letter and answered it . Since then they had written to each other regularly . There was nothing sentimental , hinted at or implied , in the correspondence . Whatever the faults of Sidney 's romantic visions were , they did not tend to precocious flirtation . The Plainfield boys , attracted by her beauty and repelled by her indifference and aloofness , could have told that . She never expected to meet John Lincoln , nor did she wish to do so . In the correspondence itself she found her pleasure .
John Lincoln wrote breezy accounts XXXXX ranch life and adventures on the far western plains , so alien and remote from snug , humdrum Plainfield life that Sidney always had the sensation of crossing a gulf when she opened a letter from the Bar N .
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