ied, by patting Ladrone and
putting his head over my shoulder, to show them how gentle he was,
but they only smiled and laughed as much as to say, "Yes, that is all
right for _you_, but we are afraid." They were all very good-looking,
smiling folk, but poorly dressed. They seemed eager to show us where
the best grass grew, demanded nothing of us, begged nothing, and did
not attempt to overcharge us. There were some eight or ten families
in the canyon, and their houses were wretched shacks, mere lodges of
slabs with vents in the peak. So far as they could, they conformed to
the ways of white men.

Here they dwell by this rushing river in the midst of a gloomy and
trackless forest, far removed from any other people of any sort. They
were but a handful of human souls. As they spoke little Chinook and
almost no English, it was difficult to converse with them. They had
lost the sign language or seemed not to use it. Their village was
built here because the canyon below offered a capital place for
fishing and trapping, and the principal duty of the men was to watch
the salmon trap dancing far below. For the rest they hunt wild
animals and sell furs to the Hudson Bay Company at Hazleton, which is
their metropolis.

They led us to the edge of the village and showed us where the
road-gang had set their tent, and we soon had a fire going in our
little stove, which was the amazement and delight of a circle of men,
women, and children, but they were not intrusive and asked for
nothing.

Later in the evening the old man and the girl who had helped to ferry
us across the Kuldo came down the hill and joined the circle of our
visitors.

She smiled as we greeted her and so did the father, who assured me he
was the ty-ee (boss) of the village, which he seemed to be.

After our supper we distributed some fruit among the children, and
among the old women some hot coffee with sugar, which was a keen
delight to them. Our desire to be friendly was deeply appreciated by
these poor people, and our wish to do them good was greater than our
means. The way was long before us and we could not afford to give
away our supplies. How they live in winter I cannot understand;
probably they go down the river to Hazleton.

I began to dread the dark green dripping firs which seemed to
encompass us like some vast army. They chilled me, oppressed me.
Moreover, I was lame in every joint from the toil of crossing rivers,
climbing steep hills, and dragg