f countenance with
which he was wont to preface an appeal for assistance of some sort.

"What iss it you will be wantin' _now_?" demanded the old man, rather
testily, for he had an aversion to the half-breed's sneaking ways.
"Surely you will not be wantin' more powder an' shot efter the supply I
gave you last week?"

O no! nothing could be further from the mind of La Certe. He had plenty
of ammunition and provisions. He had only come to say that he was going
back to--to--Red River.

"Weel, weel," returned the Highlander, "there is no call for hesitation,
man, in tellin' me that. I will not be breakin' my heart when ye are
gone. I suppose that now ye hev got the best the season can supply, ye
think the comforts o' the Settlement will be more to your taste."

The remonstrative expression on La Certe's face deepened. The idea of
his own taste or comfort had not once entered his head: but he had a
wife and child whom he was bound to consider, and he had a hut--a home--
in Red River which he felt constrained to look after. Besides, he had
social duties of many kinds which claimed attention.

"I've no doubt ye hev," said McKay, with a short sarcastic laugh, "an'
ye will attend to them too--I'll be bound. But ye did not come here, I
suppose, to take a tender farewell o' me. What iss it you will be
wantin'? Oot wi' it, man!"

"There is a canoe--" said La Certe, with some hesitation.

"There iss many a canoe!" returned McKay with a peculiar grin.

"True, but there is one on the shore now, close to the flat rock
which--"

"My own canoe!" interrupted the other, "what will ye be wantin' wi'
that?"

La Certe did not wish to appear greedy, but the season was late, and his
own canoe was not in a very fit condition to carry a family round the
shores of a lake so large as Lake Winnipeg. Would the white father lend
his canoe to him? It could not be wanted much longer that Fall, and the
one he would leave behind him was an excellent canoe for ordinary
fishing and hunting purposes. He would be quite willing to hire the
canoe or to pay the full price for it if any accident should happen to
it.

"No," said McKay, firmly. "No, La Certe; your hiring means borrowing,
and your payin' means owin' a debt for the remainder o' your natural
life. I will see you at the bottom o' Lake Winnipeg before I will be
lending you my canoe."

La Certe smiled sadly, and gazed at the cap with which his hands played,
as if appealing t