River. It wass a strange notion
of his the last comers told us about, to go off to seek his daughter all
by himself. I hev my doubts if he'll ever come back. Poor man! it wass
naitural too that he should make a desperate attempt to get back his
only bairn, but it wass not naitural that a wise man like him should go
off all his lone. I'm afraid he wass a little off his head. Did they
tell you what supplies he wass supposed to have taken?"

"Yes. The wife said he had a strong sled with him, an' the best team o'
dogs in the camp.--Do you think the boat will need a new false keel? I
was lookin' at it, an' it seemed to me rather far gone for a long trup."

"I will go an' hev a look at it, Tonal'. But I hev been wonderin' that
Mozwa, who seemed so fond o' his frund, should hev let him start away
all by his lone on such a trup."

"He couldn't help lettin' him," said Mowat, "for he didn't know he was
goin' till he was gone."

"You did not tell me that," said the trader sharply.

"Well, perhaps I did not," returned the interpreter, with an amiable
smile. "It is not easy to remember all that an Indian says, an' a good
deal of it is not worth rememberin'.--Would you like me to set-to an'
clean up the store to-day, or let the men go on cuttin' firewood?"

"Let them do whatever you think best, Tonal'," replied MacSweenie, with
a sigh, as he rose and re-entered his house, where he busied himself by
planning and making elaborate designs for the new "fort," or outpost,
which he had been instructed to establish on the Ukon River. Afterwards
he solaced himself with another pipe and another dip into the well-worn
pages of the _Penny Magazine_.

Not long after the conversation just narrated, the boat arrived with the
gentleman appointed to relieve MacSweenie of his charge on Great Bear
Lake, and with the supplies for the contemplated new post.

Action is not usually allowed to halt in those wild regions. A few days
sufficed to make over the charge, pack up the necessary goods, and
arrange the lading of the expedition boat; and, soon after, MacSweenie
with Donald Mowat as steersman, Bartong as guide and bowman, and eight
men--some Orkney-men, some half-breeds--were rowing swiftly towards the
Arctic shore.

Passing over the voyage in silence, we raise the curtain again on a warm
day in summer, when animal life in the wild nor'-west is very lively,
especially that portion of the life which resides in mosquitoes,
sand-fli