im some bearskins."

"Black bear or grizzlies?" asked Alex, smiling.

"Grizzly."

"Well, I don't know about that," demurred Alex. "Of course I don't
deny you may have killed a bear or so up in Alaska, but down here most
of us are willing to let grizzlies alone when we see them."

"This white-face bear, he'll be bad," Moise nodded vigorously.

"Are there many in here?" asked John, curiously, looking at the dense
woods.

"I don't know," Alex replied. "I've seen a few tracks along the bars,
but most of those are made by black bear. Injuns don't look for
grizzlies very much. I don't suppose there's over six or eight grizzly
skins traded out of Fort St. John in a whole year."

"Injuns no like for keel grizzly," said Moise. "This grizzly, he'll be
chief. He'll be dead man, too, maybe. Those grizzly he'll be onkle of
mine, maybe so. All Injun he'll not want for keel grizzly. Some Injun
can talk to grizzly, an' some time grizzly he'll talk to Injun, too,
heem."

"Now, Moise," said Rob, "do you really think an animal can talk?"

"Of course he'll talk. More beside, all animal he'll talk with
spirits, an' man, not often he can talk with spirits himself. Yes,
animal he'll talk with spirit right along, heem."

"What does he mean, Alex?" asked Rob.

"Well," said Alex, gravely, "I'm half Injun too, and you know, Injuns
don't think just the way white people do. Among our people it was
always thought that animals were wiser than white men think them. Some
have said that they get wisdom from the spirits--I don't know about
that."

"Do you know how those cross fox he'll get his mark on his back that
way?" asked Moise of Rob.

"No, only I suppose they were always that way."

"You know those fox?"

"We all know them," interrupted John. "There's a lot of them up in
Alaska--reddish, with smoky black marks on the back and shoulders, and
a black tail with a white tip. They're worth money, too, sometimes."

"Maybe Moise will tell you a story about how the fox got marked," said
Alex quietly.

"Oh, go ahead, Moise," said all the boys. "We'd like to hear that."

"Well, one tam," said Moise, reaching to the fire to get a coal for
his pipe, and leaning back against a blanket-roll, "all fox that ron
wild was red, like some fox is red to-day. But those tam was some good
fox an' some bad fox. Then Wiesacajac, he'll get mad with some fox an'
mark heem that way. He'll been bad fox, that's how he get mark."

"Wiesacajac?" asked Rob