hite grouse, four rabbits, six red foxes and a black one,
and two wolves. We can't eat all that."

"Surely we won't eat the foxes and wolves!" cried Roy, laughing.

"Not till we're starvin'," replied his father. "Come, let's go on--are
ye tired, lad?"

"Fresh as Walter," said the boy, proudly.

"Well, we won't try you too much. We'll just take a sweep round by the
Wolf's Glen, an' look at the traps there--after which make for home and
have our New Year's dinner. Go ahead, Walter, and beat the track; it is
your turn this time."

Without speaking, Walter slipped his feet into the lines of his
snow-shoes, extinguished his pipe, and led the way once more through the
pathless forest.

CHAPTER TWO.

THE STARVED INDIAN.

In the depths of the same forest, and not far from the locality to which
we have introduced our reader, a Red Indian was dragging his limbs
wearily along over the untrodden snow.

The attenuated frame of this son of the soil, his hollow cheeks and
glaring eye-balls, his belt drawn with extreme tightness round his
waist, to repress the gnawings of hunger, as well as his enfeebled gait,
proved that he was approaching the last stage of starvation.

For many weeks Wapaw had been travelling in the woods, guided on his way
by the stars, and by those slight and delicate signs of the wilderness--
such as the difference of thickness in the bark on the north, from that
on the south side of a tree--which are perceptible only to the keen eye
of an Indian, or a white man whose life has been spent in the
wilderness.

But Wapaw was a very different man, when he quitted his tribe, from what
he was at the time we introduce him to our reader. Strong, wiry,
upright, and lithe as a panther, he left his wigwam and his wife, and
turned his face towards the rising sun; but the season was a severe one,
and game was scarce; from the very beginning of his journey he had found
it difficult to supply himself with a sufficiency of food. Towards the
middle of it he was on short allowance, and much reduced in strength;
and now near its termination, he was, as we have said, almost in the
last stage of starvation.

Fort Enterprise was Wapaw's goal. He had never been there before, but
from the description of the place and its locality, given by those of
his kindred who had visited Robin Gore, he was able to direct his march
with unerring certainty towards it. Of course, as he drew near to it he
could not ascertain h