gress, that it was late before he recovered his treasure, and
regained his dead fireplace. Yet still the wolverine was at large.

But instead of thinking of wreaking his rage upon the wolverine, the
poor old Indian was so completely intimidated by the wily brute, so
discouraged and so despondent, that he imagined that the whole
transaction was the work of some evil spirit. As a result, he not only
gave up hunting the wolverine, but he gave up hunting altogether, and
he and his family would have starved had not friends come to their
rescue and rendered them assistance until his grandsons were old enough
to take charge.

PREPARING FOR WINTER

After our return to the home-camp we experienced several weeks of
perfect Indian summer, and its passing was marked by one of the most
beautiful natural phenomena I have ever seen. It happened when the
deciduous trees were at their height of autumnal glory, and when--as
though to add still more to the wonderful scene--three inches of
clinging snow having fallen during the night, glittered under the
brilliant morning sun. Truly it was a glory to behold--a perfect
panorama of rioting greens, yellows, browns, blues, reds, grays,
crimsons, purples, in fact, every colour which an artist's palette
could carry; and through it all was ever woven a mass of lace-like
brilliant white that dazzled the eyes of the beholder. Only once in
fifty years have I beheld a scene so enchanting.

Next day, however, a strong wind blew wild-looking leaden clouds over
the forest, and Autumn, taking fright, threw aside her gorgeous
rustling mantle and fled away; while the loons on the lake fairly
shrieked with laughter.

Meanwhile, the work in preparation for the coming of winter had made
good progress. Already the women and children had laid out their own
little trapping paths--principally for ermine, rabbits, partridges,
muskrats, and skunks, the game found nearest camp; and many another
thing had the women attended to. Though they still possessed the
sticking-plaster and the painkiller supplied by the trader, they
refused to rely on the white man's trivial cure-alls, as they could
gather better remedies from their own woods. Their chief reason for
buying "painkiller" was that they, like other Indians, relished it as a
cocktail on festival occasions; and many a time have I seen a group of
Indians--like civilized society people--topping off cocktails (of
painkiller) before sitting down to dinne