was necessary in the first place to teach him what ought to be done. It
is said by some that Indians will not labour. I have reason to know
that they will when they have a sufficient motive. Sigenok showed this.
His motive was gratitude to us, and affection excited by compassion.
No white man would have laboured harder. When the wheat and Indian corn
was in the ground, he with his horses helped Sam and us to bring in
stuff for fencing and to put it up. All this time he slept outside our
tent, under shelter of a simple lean-to of birch bark. Another day he
disappeared, and we saw him in the evening coming up the river towing
some timber. He brought a heavy log up on his shoulders. "There is
part of your house," he observed, "we can get the rest in time."

So we did; we borrowed a large boat, and taking advantage of a northerly
wind, we brought up, piece by piece, the whole of our hut, which had
grounded near the banks of the river. Our neighbours, in spite of the
value of their time to themselves, came and helped us, and we very soon
had our hut over our heads, though, excepting the articles we had saved
in the canoe, we had no furniture remaining.

"Sigenok live here with you," observed our Indian friend.

"Of course; very glad," we answered, thinking he intended to take up his
abode in our hut.

We had arranged that morning to go to the Fort [Fort Garry, belonging to
the Hudson's Bay Company] to obtain flour and other articles. We were
not without money, for our father had put his desk in the canoe, awl in
it we found a sum of money, considerable for our wants. On our return
from the Fort, we found that Sigenok had erected close to our door an
Indian wigwam. It was simple of construction. It consisted of about a
dozen long poles stuck in the ground in a circle, and fastened together
at the top so as to make the figure of a cone. Against these pales were
placed large slabs of birch bark, in layers, which, having a tendency to
regain their circular form, cling round the cone, and are further
secured with bands of fibre. In the centre is the fire, while the smoke
escapes through an opening left in the top; some mats on the ground, and
some lines stretched across on which clothes or other articles can be
hung up, form the chief furniture of these wigwams. To these may be
added a bundle of hides or mats, and an iron pot.

We had purchased some bedding at the Fort, and Sam and Malcolm soon
knocked up some