an' he'll say, 'Ah, _Cigous_, what's
on your tail, because I'll see it is all black on the end?'

"_Cigous_ he'll turn aroun' an' ron aroun' an' aroun' on a reeng, but
all the tam he'll see the black spot on his tail, an' it won't come
off.

"'Now, _Cigous_,' says Wiesacajac, 'I'll been good spirit, else surely
I'll punish you plenty for stealing when you tol' me you'll be good
animal. Already I'll made you white, all but your tail. Now that the
people may always know you for a thief, you an' all your family must
have black spot on tail in the winter-tam. I would make you black all
over, _Cigous_, but I have take pity on your family, who must not
starve. Maybe so you could caught meat, but all the tam your tail will
mark you for a thief!'

"From that time," said Moise, concluding, "the ermine, _Cigous_, has
always been a good honter. But always he's brown in the summer-tam,
an' in the winter-tam he isn't not quite white. That is because he is
such thief. I know this is so, because my onkle she'll tol' me. I have
finish."

XXVI

TRAILING THE BEAR

"I'll tell you what," said John, in the morning, as they still
lingered at their pleasant camp; "we're not apt to have a much nicer
stopping place than this, so why not make a little hunt, and come back
here to-night?"

"Not a bad idea," said Alex.

"What's the best way to plan it out?" asked John. "Ought we to go by
boats down the river, and then come back here?"

"I would suggest that Moise and Rob take the dugout and go down the
river a little way," replied Alex, "and that you and I and Jess climb
to the top of the bank, taking our time, to see if we could find any
moose sign, or maybe a bear trail in the country back from the river.
In that way we could cover both the top and bottom of the valley. We
might find a grizzly higher up, although we are out of the grizzly
country here by rights."

This plan suggested by Alex was followed out, and at no very late hour
in the morning camp was deserted by our travelers, whose hunting
spirit seemed still unabated. They did not meet again until almost
dusk. Alex and his companions found no fresh game trails on the
heights above, and, in short, concluded their hunt rather early in the
afternoon and returned to camp, where they remained for some hours
before at length they saw the dugout, which the boys had christened
_The Plug_, slowly making its way up the river.

John and Jesse, themselves pretty tired from th