as content to leave the increase to the Master of Life.

When the time came for him to say farewell the old chief reached out
his thin, scrawny hand.

"Pale-face come again soon, eh?"

"Yes, as soon as I can," replied Keith. "Will the great chief give me
welcome?"

"The chief of the Quelchies will welcome the brave pale-face teacher.
Come again soon."

"God helping me, I will."

"Ah, good," and the old man's wrinkled face broke into a weary smile.

For some distance on the trail Keith was accompanied by Shrahegan.
This noble Indian seemed so different from the rest of his people that
the missionary often longed to question him concerning the reason.

"Shrahegan," he said, as they moved on their way, "you told me once the
cause of your kindness to me, but why are you different from your
people? You are much nobler, have deeper thoughts, and are opposed to
the Medicine Man."

The Indian paused and looked earnestly into his companion's face. An
eager look shone in his eye as he slowly replied.

"Shrahegan has a strange fire here," and he placed his right hand upon
his breast. "Once a black bear, wolf and fox all lived here, but now
they have gone, and only the fire burns all the time."

"What fire?" questioned Keith, looking wonderingly at the fine figure
before him.

In reply, Shrahegan stretched out his arm and pointed toward the East,
where the grand peaks of the Rocky Mountains, snow-capped and
sun-crowned, were standing out clear and distinct.

"There," he said, "beyond the mountains, the land of the rising sun,
where the great river flows to the home of the lights which dance in
the heavens--there the fire began to burn."

"What, the Mackenzie River District?"

"Ah, ah. Shrahegan saw much there, and learned many things. He saw
the big canoe, breathing smoke as black as night, flying up the river,
and heard men tell of the wonderful things in the land of the
pale-face. Ah, Shrahegan found much."

"And you long to see the strange things?" asked Keith.

"Ah, the fire has been here ever since. Shrahegan thinks much. His
feet walk in the ways of the Quelchies, but his heart is over there.
And what have my people done?" he continued almost fiercely. "They
make no change; they know nothing. They live like the moose, the bear,
the wolf, and the fox. They eat, sleep, talk, fight, and die, but do
nothing. As we are to-day, our fathers were the same before us, and so
will our children be. And