rickling it through their nostrils, so as to get
the full benefit--or or damage!--of the tobacco, those sons of the
wilderness continued for some time to enjoy themselves, while the sun
sank slowly towards the western horizon, converting every lake and pond,
and every river and streamlet, into a sheet, or band, or thread of
burnished gold. At last the elder savage removed his pipe and sent a
final shot of smoke towards the sky with some vigour as he said, rather
abruptly,--"Mozwa, my brother must be dead!"

"I hope not, father," returned the youth, whose name, Mozwa, signifies
in the Cree language "moose-deer," and had been given to the lad because
he possessed an unusual power of running great distances, and for long
periods, at a sort of swinging trot that left all competitors of his
tribe far behind.

"I also hope not," said his father, whose name was Maqua, or "bear,"
"but I am forced to think so, for when Big Otter promises he is sure to
perform. He said to Waboose that he would be home before the berries
were ripe. The berries are ripe and he is not home. Without doubt he
is now chasing the deer in the happy hunting-grounds with his fathers."

Waboose, to whom this promise had been made, was a favourite niece of
Big Otter, and had been named Waboose, or "rabbit," because she was
pretty innocent, soft, and tender.

"My father," said Mozwa, rather solemnly, "Big Otter has not broken his
word, for _all_ the berries are not yet ripe."

He plucked a berry which chanced to be growing near his hand, as he
spoke, and held it up to view.

"Waugh!" exclaimed the elder savage.

"Hough!" returned the younger.

What more might have been said at that time no one can tell, for the
conversation was cut short by a sound which caused both Indians to
listen with intense earnestness. Their eyes glittered like the eyes of
serpents, and their nostrils dilated like those of the wild-horse, while
each man gently moved his right hand towards his weapon.

And if the too inquisitive reader should ask me how I could possibly
come to know all this, seeing that I was not there at the time, I reply
that the whole matter was related to me with minute and dramatic power
by young Mozwa himself not long afterwards.

There was indeed ground for the excitement and earnest attention of
those red-men, for the sweet and distant notes of a Canadian canoe-song
had at that moment, for the first time, awakened the echoes of that part
of the