"Come, come, Redhand," said Bounce, "this sort o' thing 'll never do.
Why, you're as hale and hearty as the best on us. Wot on 'arth makes
you talk of settlin' down in that there fashion?"

"Ha!" exclaimed Waller energetically, "I guess if ye goes on in that
style ye'll turn into a riglar hiplecondrik--ain't that the word,
Bounce? I heer'd the minister say as it was the wust kind o' the blues.
What's _your_ opinion o' settlin' down, Hawkswing?"

To this question the Indian gravely replied in his own language (with
which the trappers were well acquainted), that, not having the remotest
idea of what they were talking about, he entertained no opinion in
regard to it whatever.

"Well, wotiver others may hold," remarked Bounce emphatically, "I'm
strong agin' settlin' down nowhar'."

"So am I, out an' out," said Waller.

"Dat be plain to the naked eye," observed Gibault, coming up at the
moment. "Surement you have settle down here for ever. Do you s'pose,
mes garcons, dat de canoe will carry _hisself_ over de portage? Voila!
vat is dat?"

Gibault pointed to the footprint of the grisly bear, as he spoke.

"It's a bar," remarked Bounce quietly.

"Caleb," added Waller, giving the name frequently applied to the grisly
bear by western hunters. "I calc'late it's nothin' new to see Caleb's
fut in the mud."

"Mais, it be new to see hims fut so big, you oogly Yankee," cried
Gibault, putting Waller's cap over his eyes, and running into the bush
to avoid the consequences.

At that moment a deer emerged from the bushes, about fifty yards from
the spot on which the trappers rested, and, plunging into the river,
made for the opposite bank.

"There's our supper," said Bounce, quietly lifting his rifle in a
leisurely way, and taking aim without rising from the spot on which he
sat or removing the pipe from his lips.

The sharp crack was followed by a convulsive heave on the part of the
deer, which fell over on its side and floated downstream.

Big Waller gave utterance to a roar of satisfaction, and, flinging his
pipe from him, bounded down the bank towards a point of rock, where he
knew, from the set of the current, the deer would be certain to be
stranded. Gibault, forgetting his recent piece of impertinence, darted
towards the same place, and both men reached it at the same instant.
Big Waller immediately lifted his little friend in his huge arms, and
tossed him into the centre of a thick soft bush, out of which