He was still there in the afternoon, still lying down as though to
postpone the time of his leaving. When it began to grow dark, he went to
the low doorway and looked out at the weather. Then, turning his head
back, he asked:

"Do you think there'll be snow tonight?"

"You ask me questions and I ask you questions," I said, "but it looks like
snow; the smoke is blowing down."

It made him uneasy to think it might snow, and he said he had better leave
that night. Suddenly he flew into a rage. For as I lay there, I stretched,
so that my hand accidentally touched his sack again.

"You leave me alone!" he shouted, tearing the sack from my grasp. "Don't
you touch that sack, or I'll show you!"

I replied that I had meant nothing by it, and had no intention of stealing
anything from him.

"Stealing, eh! What of it? I'm not afraid of you, and don't you go
thinking I am! Look, here's what I've got in the bag," said the man, and
began to rummage in it and to show me the contents: three pairs of new
mittens, some sort of thick cloth for garments, a bag of barley, a side of
bacon, sixteen rolls of tobacco, and a few large lumps of sugar candy. In
the bottom of the bag was perhaps half a bushel of coffee beans.

No doubt it was all from the general stores, with the exception of a heap
of broken crisp-bread, which might have been stolen elsewhere.