enly about him while cooking his pemmican, noting every particular
with an intelligent eye. Suddenly his gaze became fixed on a particular
corner. Rising slowly, as if afraid of frightening away some living
creature, he advanced step by step toward the corner with eyeballs
starting nearly out of his head. Then with a light bound he sprang
forward, grasped a little piece of cord, and pulled out from beneath a
heap of rubbish what appeared to be an old cast-off moccasin. And such
indeed it was. It had belonged to Adolay! Nazinred, hastening to the
fire, examined it with minute care, and a deep "hoh!" of satisfaction
escaped from him; for he knew it well as being one of a pair made by
Isquay for her daughter's little feet.

Need we say that joy filled the Indian's heart that night, and a feeling
of gratitude to that mysterious ever-present yet never visible Being,
who--he had come to recognise in his philosophical way--must be the
author of all good, though his philosophy failed to tell him who was the
author of evil. Nazinred was not by any means the first savage
philosopher who has puzzled himself with that question, but it is due to
him to add--for it proves him more scientific than many trained
philosophers of the present day--that he did not plead his ignorance
about his Creator as an excuse for ingratitude, much less as a reason
for denying His existence altogether.

But there was a surprise in store for our Indian chief which went far to
increase his grateful feelings, as well as to determine his future
course. On looking about the deserted village the following day for
further evidences of his child having been there, he came upon a post
with a piece of birch-bark fastened to it. The post was fixed in the
ice close to the shore, where in summer-time the land and sea were wont
to meet, and from which point tracks in the snow gave clear indication
that the Eskimos had taken their departure. This post with its piece of
bark was neither more nor less than a letter, such as unlettered men in
all ages have used for holding intercourse with absent friends.

Knowing her father's love for her, and suspecting that, sooner or later,
he would organise a search party--though it never occurred to her that
he would be so wild as to undertake the search alone--Adolay had erected
the post when the tribe set out for winter quarters, and had fixed the
bark letter to it for his guidance.

The writing on the letter, we nee