eel sleepy, for they had walked or worked more or less ever since
morning.

Alex arose and took from his belt the great Hudson Bay knife, or
buffalo knife, which he wore at his back, thrust through his belt.
With this he hacked off a few boughs from the nearest pine-tree and
threw them down in the first sheltered spot. Over this he threw a
narrow strip of much-worn bear hide and a single fold of heavy
blanket, this being all the bed which he seemed to have.

"Is that all you ever had?" asked Rob. "I don't think you'll sleep
well, Alex. Let me give you some of my bed."

"Thank you, no," said Alex, sitting down and lighting his pipe. "We
make our beds small when we have to carry them in the woods. We sleep
well. We get used to it, you see."

"Injun man she'll been like dog," grinned Moise, throwing down his own
single blanket under a tree. "A dog she'll sleep plenty, all right,
an' she'll got no bed at all, what?"

"But won't you come under the edge of the tent?" asked Rob.

"No, you're to have the tent," said Alex. "I'm under orders from your
Uncle, who employed me. But you're to make your own beds, and take
care of them in making and breaking camp. That's understood."

"I'll do that for those boy," offered Moise.

"No," said Alex, quietly, "my orders are they're to do that for
themselves. That's what their Uncle said. They must learn how to do
all these things."

"Maybe we know now, a little bit," ventured John, smiling.

"I don't doubt it," said Alex. "But now, just from a look at your bed,
you've taken a great deal of time making your camp to-night. You've
got a good many boughs. They took noise and took time to gather. We'll
see how simple a camp we can make after we get out on the trail. My
word! We'll have trouble enough to get anything to sleep on when we
get in the lower Peace, where there's only willows."

"What do you do if it rains?" queried Jesse. "You haven't got any tent
over you, and it leaks through the trees."

"It won't rain so much when we get east," said Alex. "When it does,
Moise and I'll get up and smoke. But it won't rain to-night, that's
certain," he added, knocking his pipe on the heel of his moccasin.
"Throw the door of your tent open, because you'll not need to protect
yourselves against the mosquitoes to-night. It's getting cold. Good
night, young gentlemen."

In a few moments the camp was silent, except something which sounded a
little like a snore from the point where Moise h