"cookee." The other, and larger, fire centred a rectangle composed
of tall racks, built of saplings and intended for the drying of
clothes. Two large tents gleamed white among the trees.

About the drying-fire were gathered thirty-odd men. Some were half-
reclining before the blaze; others sat in rows on logs drawn close
for the purpose; still others squatted like Indians on their heels,
their hands thrown forward to keep the balance. Nearly all were
smoking pipes.

Every age was represented in this group, but young men predominated.
All wore woollen trousers stuffed into leather boots reaching just
to the knee. These boots were armed on the soles with rows of
formidable sharp spikes or caulks, a half and sometimes even three
quarters of an inch in length. The tight driver's shoe and
"stagged" trousers had not then come into use. From the waist down
these men wore all alike, as though in a uniform, the outward symbol
of their calling. From the waist up was more latitude of personal
taste. One young fellow sported a bright-coloured Mackinaw blanket
jacket; another wore a red knit sash, with tasselled ends; a third's
fancy ran to a bright bandana about his neck. Head-gear, too,
covered wide variations of broader or narrower brim, of higher or
lower crown; and the faces beneath those hats differed as everywhere
the human countenance differs. Only when the inspection, passing
the gradations of broad or narrow, thick or thin, bony or rounded,
rested finally on the eyes, would the observer have caught again the
caste-mark which stamped these men as belonging to a distinct order,
and separated them essentially from other men in other occupations.
Blue and brown and black and gray these eyes were, but all steady
and clear with the steadiness and clarity that comes to those whose