covered
with populous towns and villages, and flourishing farms."

"That time is far distant, I suspect," answered Mr Burnett, a head
clerk of the Hudson's Bay Company, in charge of the party; "and I can
only say that I hope so, for when it comes, our vocation will be
well-nigh gone, as the Company will have to shut up shop--"

"And retire on well-won fortunes," laughingly added the first speaker,
Reginald Loraine. He was a young Englishman of good fortune and family,
who had lately come out to make a tour in Canada; but having heard
conflicting reports of the north-west territory, he had been induced to
continue his journey westward, intending to proceed as far as the foot
of the Rocky Mountains, and to return, before the termination of the
summer, from Fort Edmonton, down the Saskatchewan, and through Lake
Winnipeg to the Red River.

His intelligence, high spirits, and good humour made him an agreeable
companion. He was never put out by any mishaps or inconveniences. His
personal appearance was also much in his favour; while he was a good
rider, and possessed of activity and endurance, equal, if not superior,
to any of the rest of the party, long accustomed though they were to the
mode of life they were leading.

From the sentiments he uttered, and the expression of his handsome
countenance, it might have been surmised that he possessed many other
qualities of a higher character. Young Hector Mackintosh, who had come
with him from Toronto, declared, indeed, that he never wished to have a
stauncher fellow at his back in a skirmish with Redskins, or in a fight
with a grizzly, and that he was as high-minded and generous as he was
brave.

Hector, who was now curvetting over the prairie on a tough little
mustang, had been at school at Toronto, whence he was returning to
rejoin his father, Captain Mackintosh, now a chief officer, or factor,
in charge of Fort Duncan, a Company's post to the south-west, situated
on the borders of the Blackfeet territory. It was a somewhat dangerous
position, which only a man of courage and resolution would willingly
have occupied.

Following at some little distance those who have been mentioned, came
three other horsemen, whose shouts of laughter, interspersed
occasionally with snatches of songs, could be heard far across the
prairie. The centre of the three was a short, portly gentleman, with a
somewhat rubicund countenance--Doctor McCrab, just appointed surgeon to
one of the