becomes respectable when it is carried out with courage, energy, and
decision.

And, in truth, up to this point in the little insurrection it is not easy
to condemn the wild Metis of the North-west--wild as the bison which he
hunted, unreclaimed as the prairies he loved so well, what knew he of
State duty or of loyalty? He knew that this land was his, and that strong
men were coming to square it into rectangular farms and to push him
farther west by the mere pressure of civilization. He had heard of
England and the English, but it was in a shadowy, vague, unsubstantial
sort of way, unaccompanied by any fixed idea of government or law. The
Company--not the Hudson Bay Company, but the Company-represented for him
all law, all power, all government. Protection he did not need-his quick
ear, his unerring eye, his untiring horse, his trading gun, gave him
that; but a market for his taurreau, for his buffalo robe, for his lynx,
fox, and wolf skins, for the produce of his summer hunt and winter trade,
he did need, and in the forts of the Company he found it. His wants were
few-a capôte of blue cloth, with shining brass buttons; a cap, with beads
and tassel; a blanket; a gun, and ball and powder; a box: of matches, and
a knife, these were all he wanted, and at every fort, from the mountain
to the banks of his well-loved River Rouge, he found them, too. What were
these new people coming to do with him? Who could tell? If they meant him
fair, why did they not say so? why did they not come up and tell him what
they wanted, and what they were going to do for him, and ask him what he
wished for? But, no; they either meant to outwit him, or they held him of
so small account that it mattered little what he thought about it; and,
with all the pride of his mother's race, that idea of his being slighted
hurt him even more than the idea of his being wronged. Did not every
thing point to his disappearance under the new order of things? He had
only to look round him to verify the fact; for years before this