, and if it did not reveal the fumes of liquor then I was never
more mistaken in my life."

"Impossible! where could he obtain it?"

"The question I asked myself and which I could not answer;
nevertheless his manner and the evidence of his own breath proved it
beyond all doubt to my mind. You have noticed how set he is every
afternoon about going away in the woods. Such was not his custom, and
I think makes it certain some unusual attraction calls him forth."

"What can it all mean?" asked the missionary of himself. "No; it
cannot be that he brought any of the stuff with him and concealed it
in the boat. It must have been discovered."

"Every article that came with us is in this house."

"Then some one must furnish him with it, and who now can it be?"

"Are there not some of your people who are addicted to the use of
liquor?"

"Alas! there are too many who cannot withstand the tempter; but I
never yet heard of an Indian who knew how to _make_ it. It is only
when they visit some of the ports, or the Red river settlement, that
they obtain it. Or perhaps a trader may come this way, and bring it
with him."

"And could not Teddy have obtained his of such a man?"

"There has been none here since last autumn, and then those who
visited the village had no liquor with them. They always come to the
village first so that I could not avoid learning of their presence.
Let me see, he has been away since morning?"

"Yes; he promised an early return."

"He will probably make his appearance in the course of an hour or so.
Watch him closely. I will be back sooner to-day, and we shall probe
this matter to the bottom. Good-by!"

Again he embraced his wife, and then strode rapidly across the
Clearing in the direction of the woods. His wife watched his form
winding in and out among the trees, until it finally disappeared from
view; and then, waiting a few moments longer, as if loth to withdraw
her gaze from the spot where she had last seen him, she finally turned
within the house to engage in her domestic duties.

The thrifty housewife has seldom an idle moment on her hands, and Cora
passed hither and thither, performing the numerous little acts that
were not much in themselves, but collectively were necessary, if not
indispensable, in her household management. Occasionally she paused
and bent over her child, that lay sleeping on the bed, and like a fond
mother, could not restrain herself from softly touching her lips to
its