be he'll say carelessly that he has a little
blood on his shirt, which ought to be washed off, or maybe he'll say
that if any one were walking a couple of miles down the river they
might see a blazed trail out toward the hills. Then his wife will
smile and hurry to put on the kettles. If it isn't too far, she'll
take her pack-strap then and start out to bring in some of the meat.
Every people, you see, will have different ways."

"But the man who doesn't kill something goes hungry, and his family,
too?"

"Not in the least!" rejoined Alex, with some spirit. "There, too, the
'First People' are kinder than the whites who govern them now. Suppose
in my village there are twenty lodges. Out of the twenty there will be
maybe four or five good hunters, men who can go out and kill moose or
bear. It gets to be so that they do most of the hunting, and if one of
them brings in any meat all the village will have meat. Of course the
good hunters don't do any other kind of work very much."

"That isn't the way white people do," asserted John; "they don't
divide up in business matters unless they have to."

"Maybe not," said Alex, "but it has always been different with my
people in the north. If men did not divide meat with one another many
people would starve. As it is, many starve in the far-off countries
each winter. Sometimes we cannot get even rabbits. It may be far to
the trading-post. The moose or the caribou may be many miles away,
where no one can find them. A heavy storm may come, so no one can
travel. Then if a man is fortunate and has meat he would be cruel if
he did not divide. He knows that all the others would do as much with
him. It is our custom."

XIV

EXPLORING THE WILDERNESS

IF Rob, John, and Jesse had been eager for exciting incidents on their
trip across the mountains, certainly they found them in plenty during
the next three days after the caribou hunt, as they continued their
passage on down the mountain river, when they had brought in all their
meat and once more loaded the canoes.

Rob had been studying his maps and records, and predicted freely that
below this camp they would find wilder waters. This certainly proved
to be the case. Moreover, they found that although it is easier to go
down-stream than up in fast water, it is more dangerous, and sometimes
progress is not so rapid as might be expected. Indeed, on the first
day below the caribou camp they made scarcely more than six or eight