g specimens
seen afterwards by Arthur, they carried the huge horns laid back
horizontally, as they marched at a long trot, nose in the air, and
large sharp eyes looking out on all sides.

'It was a sharp idea to make the elk his own butcher's boy,' quoth
Argent.

The massive thick lips formed the 'mouffle,' prized in the wilderness as
a dainty: Arthur would have been ashamed to state his preference for a
civilised mutton chop. Other elks shared the fate of this first; though
it seemed a wanton waste of nature's bounties to slay the noble animals
merely for their skins, noses, and tongues. Ina was callous, for he knew
that thus perished multitudes every year in Canada West, and thousands
of buffaloes in the Hudson's Bay territory. Arthur could not help
recalling little Jay; and many a time her lesson kept his rifle silent,
and spared a wound or a life.

One day, while stalking wild turkeys, creeping cautiously from tree to
tree, an unwonted sound dissipated their calculations. Coming out on a
ridge whence the wood swept down to one of the endless ponds, they heard
distant noises as of men and horses drawing a heavy load.

'Lumberers,' explained Ina, pricking his ears. He would have immediately
turned in a contrary direction; but the prospect of seeing a new phase
of life was a strong temptation to Captain Argent, so they went forward
towards a smoke that curled above a knot of pines.

It proceeded from the lumber shanty; a long, windowless log-hut with a
door at one end, a perpetual fire in the centre, on a large open hearth
of stones; the chimney, a hole in the roof. Along both sides and the
farther end was a sort of dais, or low platform of unhewn trees laid
close together, and supporting the 'bunks,' or general bed, of spruce
boughs and blankets. Pots slung in the smoke and blaze were bubbling
merrily, under presidence of a red night-capped French Canadian, who
acted as cook, and was as civil, after the manner of his race, as if
the new arrivals were expected guests.

'Ah, bon-jour, Messieurs; vous etes les bienvenus. Oui, monsieur--sans
doute ce sont des gens de chantier. Dey vork in forest,' he added, with
a wave of his hand--plunging into English. 'Nous sommes tous les gens de
chantier--vat you call hommes de lumbare: mais pour moi, je suis chef
de cuisine pour le present:' and a conversation ensued with Argent,
in which Arthur made out little more than an occasional word of the
Canadian's--with ease when it