se fox he'll be 'shamed for look a man in the face. All the tam you
find cross fox, he'll be black where Wiesacajac hold heem over the
fire, with his back down, but the end of his tail will be white,
because there is where Wiesacajac had hold of heem on one end, an' his
front will be white, too, same reason, yes, heem. Whatever Wiesacajac
did was done because he was wise an' strong. Since then all cross fox
have shown the mark. I have spoken."

Moise now looked around at his young listeners to see how they liked
the story.

"That's what I call a pretty good story," said John. "If I had one
more trout I believe I could go to bed."

"Do you know what time it is?" asked Alex, smiling.

"No," said Rob. "Why, it's almost midnight," he added, as he looked at
his watch.

"We've made a long day of it," said Alex, "almost too long. We don't
want to be in too big a hurry."

"How far do you think we've come, Alex?" asked Jesse. "It seemed like
a long way to me."

"Well I don't know exactly, Mr. Jess," said Alex, "because there are
no roads in this country, you see, and we have to guess. But it must
have been about noon when we got out of the last lake after we
finished fishing. We've doubled on the portage, which made that
something like a mile, and I suppose took about an hour. We fished
about an hour, and it took us about an hour to clear out the little
creek and go through a mile or so down to the main river. We've been
running seven or eight hours pretty steadily. Maybe we've come thirty
or forty miles, I don't know."

"Well, I know I'm tired," said John, "and I can't even eat another
trout."

VIII

A HUNT FOR BIGHORN

Alex allowed the boys to sleep late next morning, and the sun was
shining warmly when at length they turned out of their tent and went
down to the river for their morning bath. Heartily as they had eaten
the night before, they seemed still hungry enough to enjoy the hearty
breakfast which Moise had ready for them at the fire.

"Well, Alex, what's the programme for to-day?" asked Rob; "are we
going on down, or shall we stop for a hunt?"

"Whichever you like," answered Alex. "We're maybe getting into heavier
water now, so I suppose we ought to be a little more careful about how
we run down without prospecting a little."

"How would it be for some of us to go down along the bank and do a
little scouting?" asked John.

"A very good plan," agreed Alex, "and Moise might do that while we
o