as said to be better.

One day Louis came to him, crying, to bid him good-bye as Maman was to
take him to the river, which he supposed meant back to his former
home. She had told him he was to see Father Arbeille again and was to
be taught how to be a wise boy. Louis did not want to go, and Rodney
feared ill for the little fellow. There was nothing he could do,
however. He did speak to Ahneota about it, and said he thought she had
stolen the boy and intended no good toward him.

"She would be like bear for cub, she would die for him. Would Little
Knife do as much?"

This name the savage had lately given the boy. The Indians termed the
Virginians "Long Knives," hence the name, "Little Knife," applied to
the lad.

That winter several of the men relied upon for hunting visited a
distant tribe, and meat grew scarce. Since the departure of Caughnega
and Maman, Rodney went about more freely and the old chief loaned his
rifle and allowed him to hunt. He and Conrad made several excursions
together. On one of these trips they set out with but little food and
wandered for several days, nearly starved and half frozen. On the
third day Conrad, discovering a hole half way up the trunk of a big
tree, stopped.

"Vat you tink?" asked Rodney, mimicking his companion's speech, for
now they were excellent friends.

"I tink dat one goot hole for bear, ain't so?" was the reply.

"You suppose an old fellow has a nest in there?"

"I tink some look in be goot."

They cut down a sapling standing near, "lodging" it against the big
tree. Then they built a fire and, collecting the tips of green boughs
and long grass damp with frost, tied them into a bundle at the end of
a pole. While Conrad "shinned" up the sapling till the pole would
reach the hole, Rodney lighted the bundle which smoked like a
"smudge." Conrad thrust the smoking bundle into the hole and, a minute
later, a wheezing sound was heard. Bruin was there and was waking from
his winter sleep!

Rodney seized the rifle while Conrad slid to the ground. But the bear
looked out and made no effort to descend.

Conrad then relighted the torch and climbed up far enough to thrust it
in the bear's face. This angered him and he began to back down the
tree.

Unlike Rodney's first encounter with a bear, the lad now had ample
time for taking steady aim and the brute fell mortally wounded.

How delicious the meal, which followed, tasted after their long fast!

Taking as much of the c