ll goes well."

The red-man smoked over this remark in silence for a considerable time,
evidently engaged in profound thought. He was one of those children of
nature whose brains admit ideas slowly, and who, when they are admitted,
turn them round and round and inside out without much apparent
advantage.

At last he looked earnestly at his companion and asked--"Is there
fire-water at Fort Dunregan?"

"Well, no--I believe not. At least there is none for red-men. Why do
you ask? Did you ever taste fire-water?"

The Indian's dark eyes seem to gleam with unwonted light as he replied
in tones more solemn than usual:--

"Yes. Once--only once--a white brother gave some fire-water to Big
Otter."

"Humph!" ejaculated Macnab, "and what did you think of it!"

"Waugh!" exclaimed the red-man, sending a cloud out of his mouth with
such energy that it seemed like a little cannon-shot, while he glared at
his friend like a superannuated owl. "Big Otter thought that he was in
the happy hunting-grounds with his fathers; his heart was so light and
his limbs were so strong, but that was only a dream--he was still in
this world. Then he took a little more fire-water, and the dream became
a reality! He was away with his fathers on the shining plains; he
chased the deer with the lightness of a boy and the strength of a bear.
He fought, and his foes fell before his strong arm like snowflakes on
the river, but he scalped them not. He could not find them--they were
gone. Big Otter was so strong that he had knocked both their lives and
bodies into the unknown! He saw his father and his mother--and--his
wife and the little one who--died. But he could not speak to them, for
the foes came back again, and he fought and took some more fire-water to
make him fight better; then the world went on fire, the stars came down
from the sky like snow when the wind is high. The Big Otter flew up
into the air, and then--forgot--"

"Forgot what?" asked Macnab, much interested in his red friend's idea of
intoxication.

"Forgot everything," replied the Indian, with a look of solemn
perplexity.

"Well, I don't wonder; you must have had a good swig, apparently. How
did ye feel next morning?"

If the Indian's looks were serious before, they became indescribably
solemn now.

"Big Otter felt," he replied with bated breath, "like bags of shot--
heavy like the great stones. He could scarcely move; all his joints
were stiff. Food was no long