they saw their bales of rich furs seemed very friendly,
and said as they had come so far they must be very weary; and so they
gave him their fire water to drink, and told him that it would make him
forget that his hands were sore with long paddling his canoe, and that
his feet were weary with the hard walking in the portages. So because
they professed to be his friends he drank their fire water, and found
out that they were his enemies. They gave him more and more, telling
him it was good; and so he foolishly drank and drank until he lost his
senses, and was in a drunken stupor for days.

When he came to himself he found he was out in a cold shed and very
miserable. His head ached and he was very sore. His coat was gone, and
so were his beautifully beaded leggings and moccasins. His gun was
gone, and so were his bales of rich and valuable furs. His wife was
also gone, and there he was, half naked and alone.

Alarmed, he cried out for his things, and asked how it was that he was
in such a sad plight. Hearing him thus calling out, some of those white
men who had pretended to be his friends came to him and said, "Begone,
you poor Indian fool!"

"Where are my furs?" he asked.

With a laugh they said, "We have taken them for the whisky you drank."

"Give me my furs," he cried, "or pay me for them."

"But," added the old man, "they were stronger than I, and had taken
away, not only my gun, but my axe and knife, so I was helpless before
them."

"`Where is my wife?' I then asked. But they only laughed at my
question, and it was weeks before I heard that they had insulted her,
and would have foully treated her but that she had pulled out her knife
and threatened to kill the first man that touched her. While keeping
them away with her knife she moved around until she got near an open
window, when she suddenly sprang out and fled like a frightened deer to
the forest. After long weeks of hardship she reached the far-off home.
She had had a sad time of it and many strange adventures. Footsore and
nearly worn out she had been at times, but she bravely persevered. Her
food had been roots and an occasional rabbit or partridge which she
snared. Several times she had been chased by wild animals. Once for
several days the savage wolves madly howled around the foot of a tree
into which she had managed to climb for safety from their fierce
attacks. Fortunately for her a great moose deer dashed along not far
away, an