got: even the fish failed for some time, and there was hardly a duck
or partridge to be seen. We had to eat two of the dogs at last, but,
poor things, they had little flesh on their bones."

"Eh! eh! e--h!" exclaimed the Indians, who however undemonstrative
under ordinary circumstances, can be full of sympathy where they can
realize the affecting points of a story.

"And the children," asked one of the party, "I suppose the
neighbours helped you a little with them?"

"One of my cousins took little Tetsi for a while," replied the poor
woman, "and did what she could for him, but they were all short of
game as we were, only their men went off after the deer, and plenty,
of them got to the lakes for duck; but Michel,--"

"Well, what did he do? I suppose he was off with his gun the first
of any of them?" said Peter. "I'll venture there shall not be a moose
or deer within twenty miles, but Michel the Hunter shall smell him
out."

"Yes, he went at last," sighed Accomba; "but my man has had one of
his ugly fits upon him for all the winter; he would not hunt anywhere
near the Fort, for fear of meeting a white face; and he vowed I was
making friends with them, and bidding them welcome to the camp, and
so he was afraid to leave it; and then at last, when I begged him to
go and get food for his children, he swore at me and called me a bad
name, and took up his gun to shoot me."

"Oh, I suppose he only said that in sport," said another of the