ed
also before they were packed up; and that if not sold for what they
ought to fetch, or nearly so, they had better be brought back. Mr
Campbell was satisfied with this arrangement, and Henry was appointed to
undertake the journey. Mr Campbell made out his inventory of articles;
Mrs Campbell added her list, and all was ready as soon as they received
notice that the boat was to leave. Martin did not appear at all annoyed
at not being selected for the expedition; since Malachi Bone had
informed them that the Strawberry was not his wife, as they had
supposed, Martin was continually by her side. She began to speak a few
words of English, and had become a great favourite with everybody. Mr
Campbell, as soon as he perceived that Malachi no longer avoided them,
thought it but his duty to offer him his land back again, but Malachi
would not consent to accept it. He said he did not want the land,
although, perhaps, he might raise his lodge a little nearer to them than
it was; at present, things had better remain as they were; after which
Mr Campbell did not renew the subject. Malachi soon acted upon his
remark, that perhaps he might raise his lodge a little nearer, for, a
few days afterwards, he made his appearance with the Strawberry and
John, all three loaded with his household utensils, and in a very short
time he had erected another wigwam within sight of the house at the
western end of Mr Campbell's prairie. This gave great satisfaction to
Mrs Campbell, because John was now always near to them; indeed, he no
longer slept in the lodge, but at the house, in the room with his
brothers. The major part of the day he passed at the lodge, or in
company with the old hunter; but, by this new arrangement, they
gradually became, as it were, one family; not a day passed that the
Strawberry did not come to their house and make herself useful,
assisting in everything that she could, and rapidly learning what she
did not know.

One or two evenings after the message from the fort, Mr Campbell asked
Malachi some questions relative to the habits of the beaver, as she had
heard much of the sagacity of that animal.

"Well, ma'am," said Malachi, "it's a most reasonable animal, certainly,
and I will say, I never was tired with watching them; I've even forgot,
in the summer-time, what I came out for, from having fallen in with them
at work."

"And so have I," said Martin. "I once was lying down under a bush by
the side of a stream,