we did not know what we were doing, he bought our furs. He
bought them all. He gave us this new, strange money and much of it.
Then he went away. We fired guns in the air to honor him. We shook
hands with him. We thought he was our friend. We promised to be
friends with him as long as sun and moon endured.

"He smiled, and waved, and went away--and we, we had nothing of him
but the money. It was paper, all of it, very bright and new and
green, with printed marks on it we could not read.

"Some shook their heads when he had gone, and said, 'No, no, brothers.
We should not have taken this green paper and given him those furs.'

"But others said, 'Look what he has paid us! We are all rich men. The
price is better than we ever had before!'

"The old, wise men said, 'How do you know that it is more, when you do
not know how much it is?'

"So, night and day, there was talking to and fro--along the trail by
day, around the camp-fire when the sun had set.

"It soon came time for us to send men down to Rigolet, on Hamilton
Inlet, there to buy at the Hudson's Bay store the things that we would
need in the winter time.

"We sent twelve of the strong young men in their canoes to get the
things and bring them home to our tents. We were happy when we thought
of all the guns and tobacco, all the flour and the fine clothes so
much money would buy.

"They went: and they were gone many days, while we waited in one
fixed place for them, and in our minds spent the money many times
over."

Then the Indian paused. He was squatting on his haunches, and puffing
at his pipe. Mr. Cabot's leg was giving him much pain, but he was too
proud to ask the Indian to do anything for him.

The Indian's face grew very stern as he remembered. His tone became as
hard as the expression of his face. He looked at Mr. Cabot and
clenched his fist. "When our men came to the storekeeper, they walked
all about the store. 'I'll take that fine dress,' said one. 'Give me
that shotgun,' said another. 'I will have this bag of tobacco,' said a
third. Some took flour, and some chose bright ornaments for their
wives, and others took candy, and one man got a talking-machine. Some
chose the best clothes in the store. They also took much food of every
kind, and ammunition for the guns.

"They made great piles of the things on the floor, to take them to the
canoes.

"Then they brought out their money to pay for all these things.

"'What is that stuff?' said th