Already a number of Indians were being served by the Factor and
Delaronde, the clerk, and I had not long to wait before Oo-koo-hoo
appeared. I surmised at once who he was, for one could see by the
merest glance at his remarkably pleasant yet thoroughly clever face,
that he was all his name implied, a wise, dignified old gentleman, who
was in the habit of observing much more than he gave tongue to--a rare
quality in men--especially white men. Even before I heard him speak I
liked Oo-koo-hoo--The Owl.

[Illustration: I surmised at once who he was, for one could see by the
merest glance at his remarkably pleasant yet thoroughly clever face
that he was all his name implied, a wise dignified old gentleman, who
was in the habit of observing much more than he gave tongue to--a rare
quality in men--especially white men. Even before I heard him speak I
liked Oo-koo-hoo--The . . . See Chapter I]

But before going any farther, I ought to explain that as I am
endeavouring to render a faithful description of forest life, I am
going to repeat in the next few paragraphs part of what once appeared
in one of my fictitious stories of northern life. I then made use of
the matter because it was the truth, and for that very reason I am now
going to repeat it; also because this transaction as depicted is
typical of what usually happens when the Indians try to secure their
advances. Furthermore, I give the dialogue in detail, as perchance
some reader may feel as Thoreau did, when he said: "It would be some
advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of
an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross
necessaries of life and what methods have been taken to obtain them; or
even to look over the old day-books of the merchants, to see what it
was that men most commonly bought at the stores, what they stored, that