was out with the Indians when I was about
fourteen, for you see my father wanted to make me a drummer, and I could
not stand that; so I said to him, 'Father, I won't be a drummer.'
'Well,' says he, 'Martin, you must help yourself, for all my interest
lies in the army.' 'So I will,' says I; 'father, I'm off for the woods.'
'Well,' says he, 'just as you like, Martin.' So one fine day I wished
him good-by, and did not see him again for more than two years."

"Well, and what took place then?"

"Why, I brought home three or four packages of good skins, and sold them
well. Father was so pleased, that he talked of turning trapper himself,
but, as I told the old man, a man with a lame leg--for he had been
wounded in the leg and halted--would not make his livelihood by hunting
in the woods of Canada."

"Was your father still in the army?"

"No, ma'am, he was not in the army; but he was employed in the
storekeeper's department; they gave him the berth on account of his
wound."

"Well, go on, Martin."

"I haven't much more to say, ma'am, I brought home my furs, sold them,
and father helped me to spend the money as long as he was alive, and
very welcome he was to his share. I felt rather queer when I came back
from the Fur Company and found that the old man was dead, for I had
looked forward with pleasure to the old man's welcome, and his enjoying
his frolic with me as usual."

"I'm afraid those frolics were not very wise, Martin."

"No, sir, they were very foolish, I believe; but I fear it will always
be the case with us trappers. We are like sailors, we do not know what
to do with money when we get it; so we throw it away, and the sooner the
better, for it is our enemy while we have it. I assure you, sir, that I
used to feel quite happy when all my money was gone, and I was setting
off to the woods again. It's a hard life, but a life that unfits you
for any other; a life which you become very fond of. I don't mind being
here with you by way of a change; indeed, as long as there is hunting,
it is almost as good as if I were in the woods, but else I think I shall
die a trapper."

"But, Martin," said Mr. Campbell, "how much more wise would it be to put
your money by, and after a time purchase a farm and settle down a steady
man with property, perhaps married and the father of a family."

"Perhaps it might be; but if I do not like it so well as trapping, I
don't see why I should do so; it would be changing my life to plea