turdy trapper liked smoking; hence, like many wiser men, he did
not care to think the matter out. On the contrary, he changed the
subject, and, as the change was very much for the better in the
estimation of his companions, Tolly did not object.

"Well now, about that jump," he began, emitting a prolonged and delicate
whiff.

"Ah, yes! How did you manage to do it?" asked little Trevor, eagerly.

"Oh, for the matter o' that it's easy to explain; but it wasn't _my_
jump I was goin' to tell about; it was the jump o' a poor critter--a
sort o' ne'er-do-well who jined a band o' us trappers the day before we
arrived at this place, on our way through the mountains on a huntin'
expedition. He was a miserable specimen o' human natur'--all the worse
that he had a pretty stout body o' his own, an' might have made a
fairish man if he'd had the spirit even of a cross-grained rabbit. His
name was Miffy, an' it sounded nat'ral to him, for there was no go in
him whatever. I often wonder what sitch men was made for. They're o'
no use to anybody, an' a nuisance to themselves."

"P'r'aps they wasn't made for any use at all," suggested Tolly, who,
having whittled a small piece of stick down to nothing, commenced
another piece with renewed interest.

"No, lad," returned the trapper, with a look of deeper gravity. "Even
poor, foolish man does not construct anything without some sort o'
purpose in view. It's an outrage on common sense to think the Almighty
could do so. Mayhap sitch critters was meant to act as warnin's to
other men. He told us that he'd runned away from home when he was a boy
'cause he didn't like school. Then he engaged as a cabin-boy aboard a
ship tradin' to some place in South America, an' runned away from his
ship the first port they touched at 'cause he didn't like the sea. Then
he came well-nigh to the starvin' p'int an' took work on a farm as a
labourer, but left that 'cause it was too hard, after which he got a
berth as watchman at a warehouse, or some place o' the sort but left
that, for it was too easy. Then he tried gold-diggin', but could make
nothin' of it; engaged in a fur company, but soon left it; an' then
tried his hand at trappin' on his own account but gave it up 'cause he
could catch nothin'. When he fell in with our band he was redooced to
two rabbits an' a prairie hen, wi' only three charges o' powder in his
horn, an' not a drop o' lead.

"Well, we tuck pity on the miserable critter, a