toward the fire, picked up a red-hot coal, and palmed it into his pipe.

"But I can't give a funny bear story, the same as you've been tellin',
because all my experiences with bears have been mighty serious.
However, I'll try and tell you 'bout me an Old-pot-head's son; an' to
my mind it's the most serious of 'em all.

"As I was sayin', we was in charge of the Peace River packet; an' if it
hadn't been for the charm Father La Mille blessed for me at Fort Good
Hope, I don't know 's I'd be here to tell about it.

"Anyway, me an' Old-pot-head's son was carryin' the packet and headin'
for Hudson's Hope. It was the fall packet, an'--as winter was just
about due--we was hustlin' 'long for all we was worth, an' jabbin'
holes in the river with our paddles as fast as we could, in fear o' the
freeze up.

"As bad lack would have it, that very night the ice overtook us, an' we
had to leave the canoe ashore an' finish the voyage afoot. Lucky for
us, we was only about three-days' travel from the Fort, so we leaves
our axe an' whatever we don't particular need with the canoe.

"Mile after mile we walks along the river bank; an' as we don't have no
extra moccasins, our bare skin was soon upon the sand. What with
havin' our duds torn by bushes, an' our fallin' in the mud once or
twice, and several times a-wadin' creeks, we was a pretty sight when we
stops to camp that night. When the sun went down, we was so tired that
we just stopped dead in our tracks. We had been packin' our blankets,
our grub, an' cookin' gear to say nothin' o' the packet; so, of course,
we didn't give much thought to the campin' ground. But after supper I
looks round an' sees that we'd made our fire down in a little hollow,
an' that the place was bare o' trees 'ception three that stood in a row
'bout four lengths of a three-fathom canoe from our fire. The middle
one was a birch with a long bare trunk, an' on each side stood a pine.
Now, I want you gentlemen to pay perticler 'tention to just how they
stood; for them three trees is goin' to do a mighty lot o' figgerin' in
this here story.

"As I was sayin', there was two pines with a birch in between, an' all
standin' in a row, with the upper branches o' pines runnin' square in
among the branches o' the birch. 'Bout half ways between the birch and
the east pine, but a trifle off the line, was a pool o' water. Before
I turns in for the night, I takes the packet an' sticks it on the end
of a long pole, an