wilderness, an' not to coop himself up in the
cities like rabbits in their holes."

"Why, Fergus, you should have been born a savage," said Dan.

"Ay, it iss savitch I am that I wass not born a savitch," returned
Fergus with a grim smile. "What in all the world iss the use of
ceevilisation if it will not make people happy? A man wants nothing
more than a goot supper an' a goot bed, an' a goot shelter over him, an'
it is a not five hunderd pound a year that we will want to buy that--
whatever."

"But surely man wants a little more than that, Fergus. He wants
breakfast and dinner usually, as well as supper, and a few comforts
besides, such as tea and sugar--at least the women do--besides pipes an'
baccy--to say nothing of books."

"Oo ay, I will not be denyin' that. But we've no need for wan half the
luxuries o' ceevilisation. An' ye know ferry weel, Tan, that my sister
Elspie would be content to live wi' you in a ferry small hoose, and the
bare necessaries of life, but here you are forced to put off the
merritch because our hooses wass burnt, and you are obleeged to wait
till you get a sort o' palace built, I suppose, and a grand farm set
a-goin'."

"Indeed, Fergus, you touch me on a sore point there, but with all your
scorn of luxury, I'm sure you'd be the last man to let his sister marry
a fellow who could take her only to a hut or a wigwam."

"You are right, Tan. Yet I hev spent many a comfortable night in a hut
an' a wigwam since I came to Red River. I wish the place wass more
peaceable."

"It will never be more peaceable as long as there are two rival
companies fighting for the furs," said Davidson; "but there's worse than
that goin' on, for some of the Indians, it seems, are mad at the
agreement made between them and Lord Selkirk."

"Wow! that iss a peety. Where heard ye that?"

"I heard it from La Certe, whose wife Slowfoot, you know, is a Cree
Indian. It seems that the Crees have always claimed Red River as their
lands; but when Lord Selkirk came to make a treaty with the natives he
found some Saulteaux livin' on the soil, an' his lordship, in ignorance,
gave them an interest in the treaty, though they were mere visitors--an'
indeed don't even claim to be owners of the soil--their lands lying far
to the east of Red River."

"Well," continued Dan, guiding his horse carefully down the next hollow,
for the moon had gone behind a cloud just then, "when the Crees found
out what had been done, th