hake Ambrose Doane by the hand."

"Will you eat?" said Ambrose. "It is early."

"When you are ready," answered Tole politely. "I come early. I go
back before they get up at the fort. If old man Gaviller know I come
to you it mak' trouble. My fat'er he got trouble enough wit' Gaviller."

Tole squatted on the beach. There is an established ritual of
politeness in the North, and he was punctilious.

"You are well?" he asked gravely. Ambrose set about making his fire.
"I am well," he said.

"Your partner, he is well?"

"Peter Minot is well."

"You do good trade at Lake Miwasa?"

"Yes. Marten is plentiful."

"Good fur here, too. Not much marten; plenty link."

"Your father is well?" asked Ambrose in turn.

"My fat'er is well," said Tole. "My four brot'ers well, too."

"I am glad," said Ambrose.

More polite conversation was exchanged while Ambrose waited for his
guest to declare the object of his visit. It came at last.

"Often I talk wit' my fat'er," said Tole. "I say there is not'ing for
me here. Old man Gaviller all tam mad at us. We don't get along. I
say I fink I go east to Lake Miwasa. There is free trade there. Maybe
I get work in the summer. When they tell me Ambrose Doane is come, I
say this is lucky. I will talk wit' him."

"Good," said Ambrose.

"Wat you t'ink?" asked Tole, masking anxiety under a careless air. "Is
there work at Moultrie in the summer?"

Ambrose instinctively liked and trusted his man. "Sure," he said.
"There is room for good men."

"Good," said Tole calmly. "I go back wit' you."

Ambrose had a strong curiosity to learn of the situation at Fort
Enterprise. "What do you mean by saying old man Gaviller is mad at
you?" he asked.

"I tell you," said Tole. He filled his pipe and got it going well
before he launched on his tale.

"My fat'er, Simon Grampierre, he is educate'," he began. "He read in
books, he write, he spik Angleys, he spik French, he spik the Cree. We
are Cree half-breed. My fat'er's fat'er, my mot'er's fat'er, they
white men. We are proud people. We own plenty land. We live in a
good house. We are workers.

"All the people on ot'er side the river call my fat'er head man. When
there is trouble all come to our house to talk to my fat'er because he
is educate'. He got good sense.

"Before, I tell you there is good fur here. It is the truth. But the
people are poor. Every year they are more poor as last year. The
people say