ir fathers to do
their work as neatly as possible. So the better the knife, the better
the work which these Indian lads can do, and they are ambitious to
possess the very best knife that it is possible for them to obtain; just
as the older Indians will give any price within their means for the very
best guns that are made. Knowing this love for a good knife, I once
used it among a lot of Indian lads, as an incentive to encourage them to
sing: as our story will explain.

At one of our Indian villages, where a flourishing mission with its day
and Sunday schools exists, the devoted lady teacher said to me on a
recent visit:

"I do wish you would do something to encourage our boys to sing. They
have good voices, but they seem afraid to use them. If I do succeed in
getting one to sing, the others laugh at him, and then there is no more
singing that day."

I gladly promised to do what I could; but before I describe the plan
adopted, perhaps I would better give some description of these Indians
among whom this courageous young lady was living. Their hunting grounds
are in the vast region which lies between Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay.
They are called Saulteaux, and are a subdivision of the great Algonquin
family.

Until very recently they lived altogether by hunting and fishing. So
ignorant were they, even of the existence of bread, that when the first
missionaries, who translated into their language the Lord's prayer, came
to the petition, "Give us this day our daily bread," to make it
intelligible to them, they had to translate it, "Give us this day
something to keep us in life."

They were, and still are very poor. Once the forests abounded in game,
and the richest fur-bearing animals, such as the black and silver foxes,
otters, beavers, minks, martens and ermines, were caught in large
numbers; but incessant huntings have almost annihilated some of these
animals, and others are very difficult to find. The lakes once teemed
with fish; but the rapid increase of the white population in the
north-western states and in Manitoba has so multiplied the demands, that
not one quarter as many fish are now caught as formerly.

The result is, that the poor Indians whose sole dependence was on these
things, are not as well off as they formerly were, even with the little
help which they receive from the government. Hence it is the imperative
duty of the missionaries, not only to Christianise them, but to do all
they can,