ig Waller,
smoking enthusiastically, and with an expression of intense satisfaction
on his weather-beaten countenance.

"An' profitable," observed Bounce gravely.

"Ah! oui, ver' prof'table," echoed Gibault. "Dat is de main ting. We
have git plenty skins, an' have bring hom' our own skins, w'ich I was
not moche sure of one or two times."

"True," said Bounce; "that's wot we've got for to be thankful for.
Skins is skins; but the skin of a human ain't to be put in the balance
wi' the skin o' a beaver, d'ye see?"

Bounce glanced at Hawkswing as he spoke, but the Indian only looked
stolid and smoked solemnly.

"Yes," he continued, "a whole skin's better nor a broken one, an' it's
well to bring back a whole one, though I'm not a-goin' for to deny that
there's some advantage in bringing back other sorts o' skins too, d'ye
see? w'ich goes for to prove the true feelosophy of the fact, d'ye
see?--"

Bounce paused, in the midst of his mental energy, to take a parenthetic
whiff. His thoughts, however, seemed too deep for utterance, for he
subsided quietly into a state of silent fumigation.

"What a splendidly picturesque scene!" exclaimed Bertram, pushing back
his brigandish hat in order the better to get a view, at arm's length,
of his sketch and compare it with the original.

"Wot's the meanin' o' pikter-esk?" inquired Bounce. Theodore Bertram
looked and felt puzzled. He was not the first man who thought that he
knew the signification of terms well, and found himself much perplexed
on being suddenly called upon to give a correct definition of a
well-known word. While he is labouring to enlighten his friend, we
shall leave the bower and return to the hall, or kitchen, or reception
room--for it might be appropriately designated by any of these terms--
where March is, as usual, engaged in expounding backwoods life to his
mother. We have only to pass through the open door and are with them at
once. Cottages in Pine Point settlement were of simple construction;
the front door opened out of one side of the hall, the back door out of
the other. As the weather was mild, both were wide open.

March had just reached an intensely interesting point in his narrative,
and was describing, with flashing eyes and heightened colour, his first
interview with the "Vision in Leather," when his attention was attracted
by the sound of horses' hoofs coming at a rapid pace along the road that
led to the cottage. The wood above refer