being moved rapidly indeed. It was obvious that these
half-breeds, but now so lazy and roistering, were very able indeed
when it came to the matter of work, and easy to see that they were, as
Uncle Dick had said, the backbone of the fur trade of the North.

One after another a young half-breed would come hurrying down the
street, his hair close cut and his face well washed, wearing all the
finery for which he had been able to get credit, now that he had a
prospect of wages coming in erelong. The resident population joined
those idling about the warehouses and the boat-yard, for this was the
greatest event of the year for them, with one exception--that is, the
return of the much smaller brigade bearing the fur down from the
northern country. This would come in the fall. Now it was spring, and
the great fur brigade of the Company was starting north on its savage
annual journey.

Here and there among these were strange faces also to be of the
north-bound company now embarking. Good Father Le Fevre passed among
them all, speaking to this or that man of the half-breeds pleasantly,
they having each a greeting for him in turn. This was by no means his
first trip with the brigade, and hundreds of the natives knew him.

The boys stood wondering at the enormous loads which these men carried
from the warehouses out to the boats. Here a man might have on his
back a great slab of side-meat weighing more than a hundred and fifty
pounds, and on top of that a sack of flour or so. It was not unusual
to see a slight young chap carrying a load of two or three hundred
pounds, and some of the older and more powerful men engaged in a proud
sort of rivalry among themselves, shouldering and carrying out
literally enormous loads. It was said of one of these men that he once
had carried a cook-stove weighing five hundred pounds on his back from
the boat landing up the hill to one of the posts, a distance of many
hundred yards.

"Well, at this rate," said Rob, after a time, "it won't take long
before we'll be loaded and on our way. These men are simply wonders.
Aren't they?"

Uncle Dick nodded his quiet assent.

"Our boat's getting loaded, too," said Jesse, pointing to where the
_Midnight Sun_ stood swinging in the current. "Look at them fill her
up."

It was true; the factor in charge of the embarkation-work was checking
out the cargo for each boat. Each scow had its number, and that number
was credited to a certain fur-post along the g