wherever he goes. I've often tried to cure him o' that, but he's
incurable."

"I have observed," returned the chief, with, if possible, increased
gravity, "that many sons are fond of trying to cure their fathers; also,
that they never succeed."

Big Tim looked quickly at his companion, and laughed.

"Well, well," he said, "the daddies have a good go at us in youth. It's
but fair that we should have a turn at _them_ afterwards."

A sharp signal from one of the young Indians in the distance interrupted
further converse, and drew them away to see what he had discovered. It
was obvious enough--the trail of the Blackfoot Indians retiring into the
mountains.

At first Big Tim's heart sank, for this discovery, coupled with the
prolonged absence of his father, suggested the fear that he had been
waylaid and murdered. But a further examination led them to think--at
least to hope--that the savages had not observed the hunter's trail,
owing to his having diverged at a point of the track further down, where
the stony nature of the ground rendered trail-finding, as we have seen,
rather difficult. Still, there was enough to fill the breasts of both
son and friend with anxiety, and to induce them to push on thereafter
swiftly and in silence.

Let us once again take flight ahead of them, and see what the object of
their anxiety is doing.

True to his promise to try his best, the dauntless little hunter had
proceeded alone, as before, to a part of the mountain region where he
knew from past experience that grizzlies were to be easily found. There
he made his preparations for a new effort on a different plan.

The spot he selected for his enterprise was an open space on a bleak
hillside, where the trees were scattered and comparatively small. This
latter peculiarity--the smallness of the trees--was, indeed, the only
drawback to the place, for few of them were large enough to bear his
weight, and afford him a secure protection from his formidable game. At
last however, he found one,--not, indeed, quite to his mind, but
sufficiently large to enable him to get well out of a bear's reach, for
it must be remembered that although some bears climb trees easily, the
grizzly bear cannot climb at all. There was a branch on the lower part
of the tree which seemed quite beyond the reach of the tallest bear even
on tiptoe.

Having made his disposition very much as on the former occasion, Little
Tim settled himself on this branch,