While he was talking, Mary was putting on her hat and coat. They stepped outside, and she obtained her first real view of the village in which she had volunteered to labour.
The Mission was near the beach, at one end of the village, and at some little distance from it was the white-painted church, with its little belfry, surmounted by a cross. Between the Mission and the point where the old fort was built on rising ground the village straggled, following the contour of the tide-line.
The houses, for the most part, were rudely constructed shacks, some boasting weather-boards of milled and planed lumber, but the majority were of rough upright boards, or shakes, sealed with battens. Square, ugly little houses they were, with roofs sloping only enough to permit the rain or melting snow to
