less limbs of the trees as they swayed them
to and fro, anon rending them in twain, and scattering the fragments
over the white mantled earth. The wanderers now spent most of their
time within the temple, by their glowing fire that blazed so
cheerfully, the window and door closed tightly by skins, shutting out
the cold air. Here they amused themselves in recounting past scenes,
and strange wild legends with which they had become familiar. Without a
written language, the Indian preserves his national and domestic
history solely by oral instruction, handed down from father to son.
Thus every tribe has its own legends, while many vague traditions of
national history are peculiar to the whole of the North American
Indians without regard to tribe.

They had been kept within the tent for many days by a series of storms,
and their stock of fresh meats had become quite exhausted, when Howe
and the chief announced their determination to go on a hunt for game.
They could not take the colt, as in the deep snow it would make more
trouble than it would be of service to them. Telling the children to be
of good cheer, and keep up a good fire, they launched forth, protected
from the cold by the thick, warm fur garments they had manufactured for
themselves, and armed with their bows and arrows they had made also,
they gaily took the way down the valley as the one where game was
generally most abundant. A pair of partridges, a wild turkey, and an
antelope, were soon brought down; but as it was early in the day, and
they were only warmed in the sport, they hung these on a sapling, and
proceeded on.

"I tell you what, chief," said the trapper, "I am in for a buck. They
are never so fat and tender as now, and I intend to have the plumpest,
nicest venison steak for supper there is in this forest, if I have to
work for it. There are signs of them about, and a little further down
we shall find where they have been browsing, if I am not mistaken."

"My brother is right," said the chief; "yonder they have passed, and
their trail is still fresh in the snow. There are many of them, and our
wigwam will again be full of fat venison. Hist, yonder they are; they
will see us if we do not move with great caution. You take the circuit
round that clump of spruce to the right, and I will keep farther down
to the left."

Warily they made their way until within shot of them, when they
discharged their arrows, and one fine doe selected by the chief, fell,