ured on a brief observation, and occasionally even
proposed a question to his aged companion, which Redhand found it
difficult to answer. There was little interchange of thought between
those two silent men, but there was much of quiet enjoyment.

So passed the Sabbath day. Early on the following morning the trappers
were astir, and before the sun tinged the mountain peaks, their beaver
traps were set, an extensive portion of the territory they had thus
quietly taken possession of had been explored in several directions, a
couple of deer had been shot, a mountain goat seen, and a grisly bear
driven from his den and pursued, but not killed; besides a number of
wildfowl having been bagged, and an immense number of creatures,
including mustangs, or wild horses, roused from their lairs.

When the scattered hunters returned to the camp to breakfast, they found
themselves in a satisfied, happy state of mind, with a strong
disposition, on the part of some, to break their fast without wasting
time in cooking the viands. "It was of no manner of use cooking," Big
Waller said, "when a feller was fit to eat his own head off of his own
shoulders!" As for Gibault, he declared that he meant to give up
cooking his victuals from that time forward, and eat them raw. The
others seemed practically to have come to the same conclusion, for
certain it is that the breakfast, when devoured on that first Monday
morning, was decidedly underdone--to use a mild expression!

But it was when the pipes were lighted that the peculiarities and
capabilities of that wild region became fully known, for then it was
that each hunter began to relate with minute accuracy the adventures of
that morning. As they had scattered far and wide, and hunted or trapped
separately, each had something new and more or less interesting to tell.
March told of how he had shot a grey goose, and had gone into a moving
swamp after it, and had sunk up to the middle, and all but took to
swimming to save himself, but had got hold of the goose notwithstanding,
as the drumstick he had just picked would testify. Bounce told of
having gone after a moose deer, and, failing to come up with it, was
fain to content himself with a bighorn and a buck; and Big Waller
asserted that he had suddenly come upon a grisly bear, which he would
certainly have shot, had it not run away from him. Whereupon Gibault,
wilfully misunderstanding, said, with a look of unutterable surprise,
that he w