an hour before
noon
Then Jervis left , her father went with slow , faltering steps to his bed , and Nellie came in , but , thinking her sister asleep , moved softly and did not speak , for which Katherine was mutely grateful . It was very early on the following morning when she saw the boat with Mr. Selincourt and Mary slipping down the river , rowed by some of the men who had brought them up from the lakes . So it would be a day of respite , for the Selincourts would not be back until evening , too late to go visiting among their neighbours , and Katherine 's spirits rose immediately , because there was one more day to be happy in . She had to go to Fort Garry that day , and started an hour before noon , taking Phil with her as usual , and having her boat piled high with skins taken in barter , bags of feathers , and other marketable products . There was a short outlet to the bay from the river , a weedy channel leading through flat meadows of vivid green ; only , to use an Irishism , they were not meadows at all , but stretches of swamp , in Canadian parlance a muskeg : and the unwary creature , human or animal , that set foot thereon was speedily engulfed . Very beautiful these stretches of rich green looked on a bright summer 's day , and Katherine exclaimed in delight as she forced the boat through the weedy channel , which became every week more difficult to pass . `` Oh , Phil , is n't it lovely ! ''