Indians, but on inquiry I found that they were a party of Muskigons, who
had wandered all over East Main, and seemed to be of a roving, unsettled
disposition. However, we determined to encamp along with them for that
night, and get all the information we could out of them in regard to
their hunting-grounds.

"We spent a great part of the night in the leathern wigwam of the
principal chief, who was a sinister-looking old rascal, though I must
say he received us hospitably enough, and entertained us with a good
deal of small-talk, after time and the pipe had worn away his reserve.
But I determined to spend part of the night in the tent of a solitary
old woman who had recently been at Moose Fort, and from whom I hoped to
hear some news of our friends there. You know I have had always a
partiality for miserable old wives, Eda; which accounts, perhaps, for my
liking for you! This dame had been named Old Moggy by the people at
Moose; and she was the most shrivelled, dried-up, wrinkled old body you
ever saw. She was testy too; but this was owing to the neglect she
experienced at the hands of her tribe. She was good-tempered by nature,
however; a fact which became apparent the longer I conversed with her.

"`Well, Old Moggy,' said I, on entering her tent, `what cheer, what
cheer?'

"`There's no cheer here,' she replied peevishly, in the Indian tongue.

"`Nay, then,' said I, `don't be angry, mother; here's a bit o' baccy to
warm your old heart. But who is this you have got beside you?' I
asked, on observing a good-looking young girl, with a melancholy cast of
countenance, seated in a dark corner of the wigwam, as if she sought
concealment. I observed that she was whiter than Indians usually are,
and supposed at first that she was a half-breed girl; but a second
glance convinced me that she had little if any of the Indian blood in
her veins.

"`She is my only friend,' said Old Moggy, her dark eye brightening as
she glanced towards the girl. `She was to have been my son's wife, but
the Great Spirit took my son away. She is all that is left to me now.'

"The old woman's voice trembled as she spoke the last few words, and she
spread her skinny hands over the small fire that smouldered in the
centre of the floor.

"I was proceeding to make further inquiries into this girl's history,
when the curtain-door of the tent was raised and Oolibuck thrust in his
shaggy head.

"`Please, sir, de ole chief him wants baccy. I