cked a marrow-bone clean
and threw it to the dogs. "We shall have _flapjacks_ fried in _bacon
grease_, and _sugar_, which is more toothsome--"

"_Flapjacks_?" she questioned, mouthing the word curiously.

"Ay," Canim answered with superiority; "and I shall teach you new ways
of cookery. Of these things I speak you are ignorant, and of many more
things besides. You have lived your days in a little corner of the
earth and know nothing. But I,"--he straightened himself and looked at
her pridefully,--"I am a great traveller, and have been all places,
even among the white people, and I am versed in their ways, and in
the ways of many peoples. I am not a tree, born to stand in one place
always and know not what there be over the next hill; for I am Canim,
the Canoe, made to go here and there and to journey and quest up and
down the length and breadth of the world."

She bowed her head humbly. "It is true. I have eaten fish and meat and
berries all my days and lived in a little corner of the earth. Nor did
I dream the world was so large until you stole me from my people and
I cooked and carried for you on the endless trails." She looked up at
him suddenly. "Tell me, Canim, does this trail ever end?"

"Nay," he answered. "My trail is like the world; it never ends. My
trail _is_ the world, and I have travelled it since the time my legs
could carry me, and I shall travel it until I die. My father and my
mother may be dead, but it is long since I looked upon them, and I
do not care. My tribe is like your tribe. It stays in the one
place--which is far from here,--but I care naught for my tribe, for I
am Canim, the Canoe!"

"And must I, Li Wan, who am weary, travel always your trail until I
die?"

"You, Li Wan, are my wife, and the wife travels the husband's trail
wheresoever it goes. It is the law. And were it not the law, yet would
it be the law of Canim, who is lawgiver unto himself and his."

She bowed her head again, for she knew no other law than that man was
the master of woman.

"Be not in haste," Canim cautioned her, as she began to strap the
meagre camp outfit to her pack. "The sun is yet hot, and the trail
leads down and the footing is good."

She dropped her work obediently and resumed her seat.

Canim regarded her with speculative interest. "You do not squat on
your hams like other women," he remarked.

"No," she answered. "It never came easy. It tires me, and I cannot
take my rest that way."

"And why i