y, but yon word was said eighteen hundred years past," MacLeod
interrupted. "Since which day there's been a fair rate o' progress in
man's knowledge of himself an' his needs. The Biblical meeracles in the
way o' provender dinna happen nowadays--although some ither modern
commonplaces would partake o' the meeraculous if we didna have a
rational knowledge of their process. Men are no fed wi' loaves and
fishes until they themselves ha' first gotten the loaves an' the fish.
At least, it disna so happen i' the Pachugan deestreect. It's much the
same the world over, but up here especially ye'll find that the problem
o' subsistence is first an' foremost, an' excludes a' else till it's
solved."

With this MacLeod, weary of an unprofitable controversy, arose, took up
a candle and showed his scandalized guest the way to bed.

Thompson was full of a willingness to revive the argument when he was
roused for breakfast at sunrise. But MacLeod had said his say. He
abhorred vain repetition. Since it takes two to keep an argument going,
Thompson's beginning was but the beginning of a monologue which
presently died weakly of inattention. When he gave over trying to inject
a theological motif into the conversation, he found MacLeod responsive
enough. The factor touched upon native customs, upon the fur trade, upon
the vast and unexploited resources of the North, all of which was more
or less hazy to Thompson.

His men had intimated an early start. Their journey down the Athabasca
had impressed Thompson with the wisdom of that. Only so could they
escape the brazen heat of the sun, and still accomplish a fair day's
travel. So he rose immediately from the breakfast table, when he saw
Breyette and MacDonald standing by the canoe waiting for him. MacLeod
halted him on the verandah steps to give a brusque last word of counsel.

"Look ye, Mr. Thompson," he said. "An honest bit of advice will do ye no
harm. Ye're startin' out wi' a brave vision o' doin' a great good; of
lettin' a flood o' light into dark places. Speakin' out my ain
first-hand experience ye'll be fairly disappointed, because ye'll
accomplish nought that's in yer mind. Ye'll have no trouble wi' the
Crees. If ye remain among them long enough to mak' them understand yer
talk an' objects they'll listen or not as they feel inclined. They're a
simple, law-abidin' folk. But there's a white man at Lone Moose that
ye'll do well to cultivate wi' discretion. He's a man o' positive
charac