d?" asked the officer.

"Yes, but broken,--the walls stand not. Last moon came men from the
north while hunting."

"What did they do?"

"They broke the house,--its walls are down," mumbled the old woman with
a scowl.

"_How_ were they before, Tillie?"

"Before? Ah, before! In my childhood I saw it,--that Boundary House on
the summit. How green the spruce and pine trees, and the nuts that
dropped before snow-fall! What fires we made, and the roaring and
sweet-smelling! How dear the Indian lovers, and how brave in bear
hunting! With teeth of the cinnamon and grizzly we made chains for our
necks, and with breasts of waterfowl we made aprons. In streams we
tracked beaver and muskrat, besides mink for our coats in the winter."

"But, Tillie, old woman, what of the white men,--the Russians?"

"Not much white, but dark," she returned, correcting him. "Fine
dressing, many knives and guns in belt, buttons bright like money, and
they sit on animals, big like caribou, what you call? Yes, horses. Then
in boat they sailed to beautiful island. Listen!"

The old creature placed her hand behind her ear as if trying to catch
some sound or name. Then, brightening up, she exclaimed: "Baranhoff it
is! Big house, fine castle. Beautiful laughing ladies in lovely
dressing. Gold, gold, I see everywhere on fingers, ears and necks. Money
plenty. All make pleasure, good time, dancing, gambling; drink tea much
from big copper dish. Ah, great man many sleeps gone by. This way they
dance," then added the old creature, scrambling to her feet clumsily and
catching up her tattered skirt daintily with each hand after the manner
of a danseuse. Then, still with closed eyes, she glided gracefully and
with dignified movement over the floor in imitation of long dead
Russian ladies of high degree.

The Lieutenant strummed a few chords softly upon his banjo, but old
Tillie was drowsily crooning her own accompaniment as she swayed
backward and forward, and seemed not to notice.

At last, wearied by her unusual efforts, she sank upon the floor in her
accustomed attitude and breathed deeply.

"But, Tillie, old woman," urged the Lieutenant, who had not forgotten
his important business with the Indians, "what did the men leave in the
old stone house on the mountain to tell us they built it?"

"I see iron box and many things in it; kettles, pipes, spoons and a big
knife. I see small gun that shoots, and bullets to put in it. Many
things are in box, an