FROM THE RIVER

The man in the canoe was lean and hardy, and wielded the paddle against
the slow-moving current of the wide river with a dexterity that
proclaimed long practice. His bronzed face was that of a quite young
man, but his brown hair was interspersed with grey; and his blue eyes
had a gravity incompatible with youth, as if already he had experience
of the seriousness of life, and had eaten of its bitter fruits. He was
in a gala dress of tanned deerskin, fringed and worked by native hands,
the which had quite probably cost him more than the most elegant suit
by a Bond Street tailor, and the effect was as picturesque as the heart
of a young male could desire. To be in keeping with such gay attire he
should have worn a smiling face, and sung some joyous chanson of the
old voyageurs, but he neither sang nor smiled; paddling steadily on
towards his destination.

This was a northern post of the Hudson Bay Company, built in the form
of a hollow square with a wide frontage open to the river. The trading
store, the warehouse, and the factor's residence with its trim garden,
occupied the other three sides of the square, and along the river front
was a small floating wharf. A tall flag-pole rose above the buildings,
and the flag itself fluttered gaily in the summer breeze, taking the
eye at once with its brave colouring.

The young man in the canoe noticed it whilst he was half a mile away,
and for a moment, ceasing his paddling, he looked at it doubtfully, his
brow puckering over his grave eyes. The canoe began to drift backward
in the current, but he made no effort to check it, instead, he sat
there staring at the distant flag, with a musing look upon his face, as
if he were debating some question with himself. At last he spoke aloud,
after the habit of men who dwell much alone.

"The steamer can't have come yet. It probably means nothing except that
the factor is expecting its arrival. Anyway I must have the grub, and I
can get away in the morning."

He dipped his paddle again. The canoe ceased to drift and began to
forge ahead towards the post. Before he drew level with it, he started
to steer across the current, but instead of making for the wharf,
beached his canoe on the rather marshy bank to the north of the
buildings; then having lifted it out of the water, he stood to his full
height and stretched himself, for he had been travelling in the canoe
eleven days and was conscious of body stiffness owing to t