speak English, and Bob, who had a fair mastery of the
Indian tongue, interpreted.

"We are glad to meet the friend of White Brother of the Snow," said
Sishetakushin, acting as spokesman. "We welcome him to our country.
White Brother of the Snow tells us he will remain for many moons. He
will visit our lodge with White Brother of the Snow and eat our meat.
He will be welcome."

"I thank you," responded Shad. "'White Brother of the Snow has told me
how kind you were to him when he was in trouble, and it is a great
pleasure to meet you. I will certainly visit your lodge with him and
eat your meat."

The ceremony of introduction completed, Bob renewed the fire and
brewed a kettle of tea for his visitors. They drank it greedily, and
at a temperature that would have scalded a white man's throat.

"They's wonderful fond o' tea, and tobacco, too," explained Bob, "an'
they only gets un when they goes t' Ungava onct or twict a year."

Upon Bob's suggestion that, should they meet Indians, it would prove
an acceptable gift, Shad had purchased at the post and brought with
him a bountiful supply of black plug tobacco, such as the natives
used, and with this hint from Bob he gave each of the Indians a
half-dozen plugs. The swarthy faces and black eyes of the visitors
lighted with pleasure, and from that moment much of the reserve that
they had hitherto maintained toward him vanished.

"The friend of White Brother of the Snow is generous," said
Sishetakushin, in accepting the tobacco. "For four moons we have had
nothing to smoke but dried leaves and the bark of the red willow."

Each Indian carried at his belt a pipe, the bowl fashioned from soft,
red pipe stone, the stem a hollow spruce stick. Squatting upon their
haunches before the fire, they at once filled their pipes with
tobacco, lighted them with coals from the fire, and blissfully puffed
in silence for several minutes.

"How are Manikawan and her mother?" Bob presently inquired.

"The mother is well, but the maiden has grieved long because White
Brother of the Snow never returns," answered Sishetakushin. "She
watches for him when the Spirit of the Wind speaks in the tree-tops.
She watches when the moon is bright and the shadow spirits are abroad.
She watches when the evil spirits of the storm are raging in fury
through the forest. She watches always, and is sad. Young men have
sought her hand to wife, but she has denied them. White Brother of the
Snow will return. H