in and vexation. Witnessing the discomfiture of my dog, I could
easily understand what I had been frequently told by the Indians, of
foxes having been killed by the old geese when trying to capture young
goslings from the flocks.

In these annual goose hunts all the Indians who can handle a gun take
part. The news of the arrival of the first goose fills a whole village
with excitement, and nothing can keep the people from rushing off to the
different points, which they each claim year after year, where they
hastily build their nests and set their decoys.

I well remember how quickly I was deserted by a whole company of
Salteaux Indians one spring, on their hearing the long-expected call of
a solitary goose that came flying along on the south wind. I had
succeeded, after a good deal of persuasion, in getting them to work with
me in cutting down trees and preparing the soil for seed sowing, when in
the midst of our toil, at about ten o'clock in the forenoon, the distant
"aunk! aunk! aunk!" of an old grey goose was heard, the outskirmisher of
the oncoming crowds. Such was the effect of that sound upon my good
hunters, but poor farmers, that the axes and hoes were hastily dropped,
and with a rush they were all off to their wigwams for their guns and
ammunition, and I did not see them again for a month.

Success in the goose hunt seems to elate the Indian more than in
anything else. Why, I could never find out. It may be because it is
the first spring hunting after the long, dreary winter, and there is the
natural gladness that the pleasant springtime has come again. Whatever
it may be, I noticed for years more noisy mirth and earnest
congratulations on success in the goose hunt than in anything else.

Loaded down with his game, Oowikapun returned to his wigwam, and instead
of cheerily responding to the congratulations of the inmates on account
of his success, he threw himself down on his bed, silent and gloomy, and
refused the proffered meal, and even the lighted pipe which his mother
brought him.

They were all surprised at his conduct, which was so contrary to his old
ways. He had never been known to act like this before. Just the
reverse. He had come to be considered the brightest young man in the
village; he had more than once been called the young hunter of the
cheery voice and the laughing eyes. Then in his serious hours, in times
when the affairs of the tribe were being discussed at the council fires,