im clap his
hands, so! and Wa! she shine!

"Indians, him t'ink it is magic. But I am no fool. I know John
Gaviller make the laktrek in an engine in the mill. Me, I have seen
that engine. I see blue fire inside lak falling stars.

"Gaviller send the laktrek to the store inside a wire. He send some to
his house too. They said it cook the dinner, but I think that is a
lie. If a man touch that wire they say he will jomp to the roof! Me?
I did not try it."

Peter chuckled. "Good man!" he said.

The wonders of Fort Enterprise were not new to Ambrose. Other
travelers the preceding summer had brought the same tale. With the air
that politeness demanded he only half listened, and pursued his own
thoughts.

On the other hand Peter, who delighted in his humble friends, drew out
Poly fully. The half-breed told about the bringing in of the winter's
catch of fur; of the launching of the great steamboat for the summer
season, and many other things.

"Enterprise is sure a wonderful place!" said Peter encouragingly.

"There is something else," said Poly proudly. "At Fort Enterprise
there is a white girl!"

The simple sentence had the effect of the ringing of an alarm going
inside the dreamy Ambrose. He drew a careful mask over his face, and
leaned farther into the shadow.

"So!" said Peter with a glance in the direction of his young partner.
"That is news! Who is she?"

"Colina Gaviller, the trader's daughter," said Poly.

"Is she real white?" asked Peter cautiously.

"White as raspberry flowers!" asseverated Poly with extravagant
gestures; "white as clouds in the summer! white as sugar! Her hair is
lak golden-rod; her eyes blue lak the lake when the wind blows over it
in the morning!"

Peter glanced again at his partner, but Ambrose was farthest from the
window, and there was nothing to be read in his face.

"Sure," said Peter; "but was her mother a white woman ?"

"They say so," said Poly. "Her long tam dead."

"When did the girl come?" asked Peter.

"Las' fall before the freeze-up," said Poly. "She come down the Spirit
River from the Crossing on a raf'. Michel Trudeau and his wife, they
bring her. Her fat'er he not know she comin'. Her fat'er want her
live outside and be a lady. She say 'no!' She say ladies mak' her
sick.' Michel tell me she say that.

"She want always to ride and paddle a canoe and hunt. Michel say she
is more brave as a man! John Gaviller say she got go out again th