"Marnin'," said Thomas.

"How's the morning, Thomas, fair for our trip to Fort Pelican?"

"Aye, 'tis a fine marnin'," announced Thomas, "but I were thinkin'
'twould be better to wait over till to-morrow for the trip. After your
long voyage 'twould be a bit trying for you to turn back to-day to
Fort Pelican without restin' up, and I'm not doubtin' a day
whatever'll do no harm to the potaters and things."

"I believe you're right, Thomas," and Doctor Joe spoke with evident
relief. "I thought you'd be getting ready for the trapping and would
like to get the Fort Pelican trip out of the way. We'll put the trip
off till to-morrow."

Doctor Joe dressed hurriedly, and went out to enjoy the cool, crisp
morning. Everything was white with hoarfrost. The air was charged with
the perfume of balsam and spruce and other sweet odours of the forest.
Doctor Joe took long, deep, delicious breaths as he looked about him
at the familiar scene.

The last stars were fading in the growing light. A low mist hung over
The Jug, and beyond the haze lay the dark, heaving waters of Eskimo
Bay. In the distance beyond the Bay the high peaks of the Mealy
Mountains rose out of the gloom, white with snow and looming above the
dark forest at their base in cold and silent majesty. Behind the
cabin stretched the vast, mysterious, unbounded wilderness which held,
hidden in its unmeasured depths, rivers and lakes and mountains that
no man, save the wandering Indian, had ever looked upon--great