s was scolded for not having reported his absence. The name of
the missing man was Pasche. He was a French half-breed who had come up
from the Indian settlement near Montreal, several years before, in one
of the canoes of the famous Iroquois brigades that annually made the
trip up the Ottawa and other rivers into Lake Superior to Thunder Bay,
and from thence by Lake of the Woods and still other rivers until they
reached Lake Winnipeg.

Poor Pasche was ignominiously discharged by the despotic governor of the
Hudson Bay Company, as being unfit for the laborious work of a canoeman
in one of those large canoes. The fact was that it was only the most
vigorous and muscular men who could perform the tremendous task assigned
them by that tyrannical man, who drove his men on and on with all the
cruel, callous persistency of a slave-driver. No wonder poor, weak
Pasche gave out where many a stalwart man has also failed. He had been
a sailor for some years on the St. Lawrence, and had the agility of a
monkey in climbing up to the top of the masts. The unfortunate fellow
was left stranded in that wild country, and so, out of sympathy for the
poor exile, Mr Ross had given him work and a home, until he could
return to his own people. The kindness of his new master made him quite
contented where he was, and so year after year he had remained, and to
him had come the care of the cows both in the summer and winter.

Now he was missing, and had been for three days. The family was
alarmed, as it was such an unusual thing for Pasche ever to be away over
a night. Mr Ross at once called into the kitchen all who had lately
seen him or knew anything of his latest fads. Of these the poor fellow
had quite a number, and while some of them were sensible, others of them
were generally laughed at by his friends. The latest one was that he
imagined himself a great hunter, and had secured some traps and had set
them in the woods in various places, most of them several miles away.
The last time he was seen by the stable-boy was when he had finished the
morning work at the stable. Then he had taken his gun and axe and
started off to visit some of his traps. When Mr Ross chided the boy,
who had industriously attended to all the stable duties alone, he said
that Pasche had made him promise to say nothing about his huntings, for
fear he would be laughed at.

A heavy fall of snow had completely obliterated all tracks, and so there
was no possi