But he was very jolly and played the violin beautifully . After tea -- and a lovely tea it was , although , as Kate remarked to me later , there was no ham -- we had an impromptu concert . Mr. Lonsdale played the violin ; Mrs. Hopkins , who sang , was a graduate of a musical conservatory ; Mr. Hopkins gave a comic recitation and did a Cree war-dance ; Kate gave a spirited account of our adventures since leaving home and mother ; and I described -- with trimmings -- how I felt sitting alone in the democrat in a mud-hole , in a pouring rain on a vast prairie . Mrs. Hopkins , Kate , and I slept in the one bed the shack boasted , screened off from public view by a calico curtain . Mr. Lonsdale reposed in his accustomed bunk by the stove , but poor Mr. Hopkins had to sleep on the floor . He must have been glad Kate and I stayed only one night . * * * * * The fourth morning found us blithely hitting the trail in renewed confidence and spirits . We parted from our kind friends in the shack with mutual regret . Mr. Hopkins gave us a haunch of jumping deer and Mrs. Hopkins gave us a box of home-made cookies . Mr. Lonsdale at first thought he could n't give us anything , for he said all he had with him was his pipe and his fiddle ; but later on he said he felt so badly to see us go without any token of his good will that he felt constrained to ask us to accept a piece of rope that he had tied his outfit together with . The fourth day we got on so nicely that it was quite monotonous . The sun shone , the chinook blew , our ponies trotted over the trail gallantly . Kate and I sang , told stories , and laughed immoderately over everything . Even a poor joke seems to have a subtle flavour on the prairie . For the first time I began to think Saskatchewan beautiful , with those far-reaching parklike meadows dotted with the white-stemmed poplars , the distant bluffs bannered with the airiest of purple hazes , and the little blue lakes that sparkled and shimmered in the sunlight on every hand . The only thing approaching an adventure that day happened in the afternoon when we reached a creek which had to be crossed . `` We must investigate , '' said Kate decidedly . `` It would never do to risk getting mired here , for this country is unsettled and we must be twenty miles from another human being . '' Kate again removed her shoes and stockings and puddled about that creek until she found a safe fording place . I am afraid I must admit that I laughed most heartlessly at the spectacle she presented while so employed .
`` Oh , XXXXX a camera , Kate ! ''
about although for of on over that while with without