haken his wits.
What in the name of the devil ails you, that you should stand glaring
there?"

"A deer has passed," whispered the other, pointing down at the grass.
"Its trail lies along there and into the wood. It could not have been
long ago, and there is no slur to the track, so that it was not going
fast. Had we but fetched my gun, we might have followed it, and brought
the old man back a side of venison."

"For God's sake get on your horse again!" cried De Catinat distractedly.
"I fear that some evil will come upon you ere I get you safe to the Rue
St. Martin again!"

"And what is wrong now?" asked Amos Green, swinging himself into the
saddle.

"Why, man, these woods are the king's preserves and you speak as coolly
of slaying his deer as though you were on the shores of Michigan!"

"Preserves! They are tame deer!" An expression of deep disgust passed
over his face, and spurring his horse, he galloped onwards at such a
pace that De Catinat, after vainly endeavouring to keep up, had to
shriek to him to stop.

"It is not usual in this country to ride so madly along the roads," he
panted.

"It is a very strange country," cried the stranger, in perplexity.
"Maybe it would be easier for me to remember what _is_ allowed. It was
but this morning that I took my gun to shoot a pigeon that was flying
over the roofs in yonder street, and old Pierre caught my arm with a
face as though it were the minister that I was aiming at. And then
there is that old man--why, they will not even let him say his prayers."

De Catinat laughed. "You will come to know our ways soon," said he.
"This is a crowded land, and if all men rode and shot as they listed,
much harm would come from it. But let us talk rather of your own
country. You have lived much in the woods from what you tell me."

"I was but ten when first I journeyed with my uncle to Sault la Marie,
where the three great lakes meet, to trade with the Chippewas and the
tribes of the west."

"I know not what La Salle or De Frontenac would have said to that. The
trade in those parts belongs to France."

"We were taken prisoners, and so it was that I came to see Montreal and
afterwards Quebec. In the end we were sent back because they did not
know what they could do with us."

"It was a good journey for a first."

"And ever since I have been trading--first, on the Kennebec with the
Abenaquis, in the great forests of Maine, and with the Micmac
fish-eaters ove