insisted that Ted should have it, though he could have gotten forty
dollars for it from a white trader, and Ted was rejoiced at the idea of
taking it home to make a set of furs for Judith.

One day Ted had a strange experience, and not a very pleasant one, which
might have been very serious had it not been for Kalitan. He had noticed
a queer-looking plant on the riverbank the day before, and had stopped to
pick it up, when he received such a sudden and unexpected pricking as to
cause him to jump back and shout for Kalitan. His hand felt as if it had
been pierced by a thousand needles, and he flew to a snow-bank to rub it
with snow.

"I must have gotten hold of some kind of a cactus," he said to Kalitan,
who only replied:

"Huh! picked hedgehog," as he pointed to where Ted's cactus was ambling
indignantly away with every quill rattling and set straight out in anger
at having his morning nap disturbed. Kalitan wrapped Ted's hand in soft
mud, which took the pain out, but he couldn't use it much for the next
few days, and did not feel eager to hunt when his father and the Tyee
started out in the morning. Kalitan remained with him, although his eyes
looked wistful, for he had heard the chief talk about bear tracks having
been seen the day before. Bears were quite a rarity, but sometimes an old
cinnamon or even a big black bruin would venture down in search of fresh
fish, which he would catch cleverly with his great paws.

Kalitan and Ted fished awhile, and then Ted wandered away a little,
wondering what lay around a point of rock which he had never yet
explored. Something lay there which he had by no means expected to see,
and he scarcely knew what to make of it. On the river-bank, close to the