ter resolved the next day to anticipate their wants by cutting off
and tying up a portion of the fat for each. This he did: and having
placed the two portions of fat upon the top of his burden, as soon as
he entered the lodge he gave to each stranger the part that was hers.
Still the guests appeared to be dissatisfied, and took more from the
carcass lying before the wife.

Except for this remarkable behaviour, the conduct of the guests was
unexceptionable, although marked by some peculiarities. They were
quiet, modest, and discreet. They maintained a cautious silence during
the day, neither uttering a word nor moving from the lodge. At night
they would get up, and, taking those implements which were then used
in breaking and preparing wood, repair to the forest. Here they would
busy themselves in seeking dry branches and pieces of trees blown down
by the wind. When a sufficient quantity had been gathered to last
until the succeeding night they carried it home upon their shoulders.
Then carefully putting everything in its place within the lodge, they
resumed their seats and their studied silence. They were always
careful to return from their labours before the dawn of day, and were
never known to stay out beyond that hour. In this manner they repaid,
in some measure, the kindness of the hunter, and relieved his wife
from one of her most laborious duties.

Thus nearly the whole year passed away, every day leading to some new
development of character which served to endear the parties to each
other. The visitors began to assume a more hale and healthy aspect;
their faces daily lost something of that deathly hue which had at
first marked them, and they visibly improved in strength, and threw
off some of that cold reserve and forbidding austerity which had kept
the hunter so long in ignorance of their true character.

One evening the hunter returned very late after having spent the day
in toilsome exertion, and having laid the produce of his hunt at his
wife's feet, the silent women seized it and began to tear off the fat
in such an unceremonious manner that the wife could no longer control
her feelings of disgust, and said to herself--

"This is really too bad. How can I bear it any longer!"

She did not, however, put her thought into words, but an immediate
change was observed in the two visitors. They became unusually
reserved, and showed evident signs of being uneasy in their situation.
The good hunter immediately p