er. He did not possess the
gift of observation, and like many another Irishman was always making
the most curious mistakes. I should never have been surprised when he
was loading his gun had he put in the shot first and the powder
afterwards; and a story was told of him that, having forgotten to put
any powder in the pan of his lock, each time that his gun missed fire he
added a fresh charge; and when at length he did prime his piece, and
firing, it went off knocking him down, he jumped up exclaiming, "Hurrah!
shure, that's only one charge! There's five more to come presently."

Still Pat was a faithful fellow, and did his best; which must be allowed
was much in his favour, so that he was a favourite with every one--
French voyageurs, English trappers, and half-breeds.

"I do hope we shall reach the fort before to-night," I answered to his
last remark.

"Shure! if we do not, we've got mate enough to last us for a week. If
our shoes don't give out, we will have no raison to complain at all at
all," he exclaimed.

I little thought at the time he spoke that a whole week would pass by,
and that even then we should be as far as ever, for what we could tell,
from the fort. Had the sky been clear we could have proceeded in a
straight line, but obscured as it remained, we, I felt sure, made many a
circuit, though we did not exactly hit on our former camp-fires.

The snow at this period of the year, just before the early winter set
in, rapidly disappeared, so that the marks of our footsteps were
obliterated. Sometimes, as we trudged on, I felt as if I was in a
troubled dream, aiming at a point and never able to reach it.

The end of the week came; our buffalo meat was nearly exhausted, and we
saw neither deer nor any other animals. Though for the past two days we
had husbanded our store, it came to an end at last, and we were as badly
off as we had been before. Our shoes were worn out, our clothes torn,
though we still, with a sufficiency of food, should have had strength to
go on. Even Pat lost his spirits, and he neither sang nor talked as
before. I felt ashamed of myself at having been unable to find my way,
when I thought that I should have no difficulty in doing so.

Night was approaching, and we must encamp without a particle of food to
restore our strength. Frost had set in that day, and the cold before
morning might become very severe. Tired though we were, to prevent
ourselves from perishing we must l