d supper
under a spreading tree, the former mended the canoe. The process was
simple, and soon completed. From a roll of birch-bark, always carried
in canoes for such emergencies, Mozwa cut off a piece a little larger
than the hole it was designed to patch. With this he covered the
injured place, and sewed it to the canoe, using an awl as a needle and
the split roots of a tree as thread. Thereafter he plastered the seams
over with gum to make them water-tight, and the whole job was finished
by the time the other men had got supper ready.

Indians are in the habit of eating supper in what may be styled a
business-like manner--they "mean business," to use a familiar phrase,
when they sit down to that meal. Indeed, most savages do; it is only
civilised dyspeptics who don't. When the seriousness of the business
began to wear off, the idea of mental effort and lingual communication
occurred to the friends. Hitherto their eyes alone had spoken, and
these expressive orbs had testified, as plainly as could the tongue, to
the intense gratification they derived from the possession of good
appetites and plenty of food.

"I think," said Mozwa, wiping his mouth with that familiar
handkerchief--the back of his hand--"that there will be trouble in the
camp before long, for when you are away that beast Magadar has too much
power. He will try to make our young men go with him to fight the
Eskimos!"

It must not be supposed that the Indian applied the word "beast" to
Magadar in that objectionable and slangy way in which it is used among
ourselves. Indians happily have no slang. They are not civilised
enough for that. Mozwa merely meant to express his opinion that
Magadar's nature was more allied to that of the lower than of the higher
animals.

"Yes, and Alizay will encourage him," returned Nazinred, with a frown.
"The man is well-named."

This remark about the name had reference to the word Alizay, which means
gunpowder, and which had been given to the Indian in his boyhood because
of his fiery and quarrelsome disposition.

"The geese and the ducks are in plenty just now," continued Nazinred; "I
hope that he and Magadar will be more taken up with filling their mouths
than fighting till I return--and then I can hinder them."

"H'm!" responded Mozwa. He might have said more, but was busy lighting
his pipe at the moment. Nazinred made no further remark at the time,
for he was in the full enjoyment of the first volumin