to pull on his socks.

"Bravo, my lad!" exclaimed the accountant, patting him approvingly on
the back; "I didn't think you had half so much pluck in you. But it
won't do, old fellow. You're in _my_ castle just now, and must obey
orders. You couldn't walk half a mile for your life; so just be pleased
to pull off your socks again. Besides, I want Harry to help me to carry
up my foxes, if there are any;--so get ready, sirrah!"

"Ay, ay, captain," cried Harry with a laugh, while he sprang up and put
on his snow-shoes.

"You needn't bring your gun," said the accountant, shaking the ashes
from his pipe as he prepared to depart, "but you may as well shove that
axe into your belt; you may want it--Now, mind, don't roast your feet,"
he added, turning to Hamilton.

"Adieu!" cried Harry, with a nod and a smile, as he turned to go. "Take
care the bears don't find you out."

"No fear. Good-bye, Harry," replied Hamilton, as his two friends
disappeared in the wood and left him to his solitary meditations.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

SHOWS HOW THE ACCOUNTANT AND HARRY SET THEIR TRAPS AND WHAT CAME OF IT.

The moon was still up, and the sky less overcast, when our amateur
trappers quitted the encampment, and descending to the mouth of the
little brook, took their way over North River in the direction of the
accountant's traps. Being somewhat fatigued both in mind and body by
the unusual exertions of the night, neither of them spoke for some time,
but continued to walk in silence, contemplatively gazing at their long
shadows.

"Did you ever trap a fox, Harry?" said the accountant at length.

"Yes; I used to set traps at Red River. But the foxes there are not
numerous, and are so closely watched by the dogs that they have become
suspicious. I caught but few."

"Then you know how to _set_ a trap?"

"Oh yes; I've set both steel and snow traps often. You've heard of old
Labonte, who used to carry one of the winter packets from Red River
until within a few years back?"

"Yes, I've heard of him; his name is in my ledger--at least if you mean
Pierre Labonte, who came down last fall with the brigade."

"The same. Well, he was a great friend of mine. His little cabin lay
about two miles from Fort Garry, and after work was over in the office I
used to go down to sit and chat with him by the fire; and many a time I
have sat up half the night listening to him as he recounted his
adventures. The old man never tired of relat