t doe, too."

"Ay," said Charley; "but she has cost me a wet skin. So pray, Jacques,
rouse up the fire, and let's have supper as soon as you can."

Jacques speedily skinned the deer, cut a couple of steaks from its
flank, and placing them on wooden spikes, stuck them up to roast, while
his young friend put on a dry shirt, and hung his coat before the blaze.
The goose which had been shot earlier in the day was also plucked,
split open, impaled in the same manner as the steaks, and set up to
roast. By this time the shadows of night had deepened, and ere long all
was shrouded in gloom, except the circle of ruddy light around the camp
fire, in the centre of which Jacques and Charley sat, with the canoe at
their backs, knives in their hands, and the two spits, on the top of
which smoked their ample supper, planted in the ground before them.

One by one the stars went out, until none were visible except the
bright, beautiful morning star, as it rose higher and higher in the
eastern sky. One by one the owls and the wolves, ill-omened birds and
beasts of night, retired to rest in the dark recesses of the forest.
Little by little the grey dawn overspread the sky, and paled the lustre
of the morning star, until it faded away altogether; and then Jacques
awoke with a start, and throwing out his arm, brought it accidentally
into violent contact with Charley's nose.

This caused Charley to awake, not only with a start, but also with a
roar, which brought them both suddenly into a sitting posture, in which
they continued for some time in a state between sleeping and waking,
their faces meanwhile expressive of mingled imbecility and extreme
surprise. Bursting into a simultaneous laugh, which degenerated into a
loud yawn, they sprang up, launched and reloaded their canoe, and
resumed their journey.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

THE INDIAN CAMP--THE NEW OUTPOST--CHARLEY SENT ON A MISSION TO THE
INDIANS.

In the councils of the fur-traders, on the spring previous to that about
which we are now writing, it had been decided to extend their operations
a little in the lands that lie in central America to the north of the
Saskatchewan River; and in furtherance of that object, it had been
intimated to the chief trader in charge of the district that an
expedition should be set on foot, having for its object the examination
of a territory into which they had not yet penetrated, and the
establishment of an outpost therein. It was, furtherm