noon
Suddenly her hands slid to her side , and in doing so encountered the handle of the knife which lay concealed beneath her blanket . That was the connecting link which brought home to her the whole truth of the tragedy , and with a cry that haunted many of them for years afterwards , she drew the knife , gave one glance at the stained blade that had robbed her of him for whom she would willingly have died , stabbed again and again the fatal gash in the canvas , and then throwing away the knife , caught up the lifeless body in her arms and began madly to chant a wild , weird song which her people sang when they had triumphed over their enemies . * * * * * She was so violently insane when she reached Winnipeg that they decided a trial was unnecessary , so she was placed at once in an asylum . After they had buried his little mate on the great silent prairie , Joe tried to forget and to do his work as usual ; but the odor of the newly-severed sod , the cracking of the drivers ' whips , the shouting to the stubborn mules , the stampede over the prairie at noon , the hateful sight of Shuter and his daughter -- in fact , everything around him -- made the longing for the company of his little driver so keen that he could not bear it , and a week after his death he drew his wages and slipped away , none knew whither . * * * * * A Daughter of the Church . It had been a severe Canadian winter , but the bright spring sunshine was now honeycombing the great snow-heap , which all winter had beset farmer Frechette 's farm-house , and which , on this early March morning , was still banked almost as high as the kitchen window . Glinting through the old-fashioned narrow panes , the generous rays fell upon the white bowed head of farmer Frechette , who sat warming himself at the square box wood-stove , gazing the while with furrowed brow at the roystering wood sparks , as at short intervals they shot aggressively from the partly open door .