and, as soon as he entered the lodge, he gave to each
her portion. Still the guests appeared dissatisfied, and took more
from the carcass lying before the wife. Many persons would have
repressed this forwardness, by some look, word, or action, but this
man, being a just and prudent man, slow to provocation, and patient
under afflictions of every kind, abstained from any of them. He was,
perhaps, the more disposed to this quiet spirit of forbearance, from a
suspicion that his guests were persons of distinguished rank, who
chose thus to visit him in disguise, and also from reflecting, that
the best luck had attended him in hunting, since the residence of the
mysterious strangers beneath his roof.

In other respects, the deportment of the females was unexceptionable,
though marked with some peculiarities. They were quiet, modest, and
discreet. They maintained a cautious silence through the day, neither
uttering a word nor moving, but folded up in their skin mantles they
remained in the corner of their lodge. When it became dark, they would
get up, and, taking those instruments which were then used in breaking
up and preparing fuel, would repair to the forest. There they would
busy themselves in seeking dry limbs and fragments of trees, blown
down by tempests. When a sufficient quantity had been gathered to last
till the succeeding night, they carried it home upon their shoulders;
then, carefully putting every thing in its proper place within the
lodge, they resumed their seats and their studied silence. They were
ever careful to return from their nocturnal labours before the dawning
of day, and were never known to go out before the hour of dusk. In
this manner they repaid, in some measure, the kindness of the hunter,
and relieved his wife from her most laborious duties.

Thus nearly the whole winter passed away, every day leading to some
new development of character or office of friendship, which served to
endear the parties to each other. Their faces daily lost something of
that deathlike hue which had at first marked them, and they visibly
improved in strength. They began to throw off some of that cold
reserve and forbidding austerity, which had kept the hunter so long in
ignorance of their true character. Every day, their appearance and
behaviour approximated more nearly to that of the beings of ordinary
life. One evening the hunter returned very late, after having spent
the day in toilsome exertion. Again he deposited