eat, but we wanted to kill some; and so here we are."

"How are you, Regnie? Getting tired of civilization, and wanting to get
back to the ice?"

"Ha, ha, ha! Yes, master, just so. After I see Paris and Copenhagen, I
do very well, keep quite satisfied. But when I shut up in large city
like C., I think it too much. I feel lonesome, want to get back to the
wild'ness."

"And how does Carlo learn sleighing?"

"O, he does well enough. He can't be taught right, for it would be too
bad to use Greenland whip; but I make this little one, and can drive
very well;" and as he spoke, he held up a wand of supple whalebone,
tipped with a slender "snapper" of plaited leather, and lightly touching
the noble animal with the harmless implement, the dog gave a playful
bark, and started off on an easy trot.

"We strike off here for those black specks yonder," said La Salle; "but
what is coming behind us, George?"

"O, that is Dolland, Venner, and that set; and I guess they'll have 'a
high old time,' and no mistake."

"Well, let's take an observation, boys, and then we'll set off."

And, stopping, the party turned to survey a spectacle truly annoying to
any true sportsman, whatever may be his views on the temperance
question.

Advancing in their rear came a truck-sled, loaded with what, although
evidently a miscellaneous freight, was largely composed of liquor; for a
goodly ale-keg formed the driver's seat, a bottle-hamper the pinnacle of
the load, and a half dozen young men, who were perched wherever a seat
presented itself, filled the air with loud, and oft-repeated shouts and
roaring songs, whose inspiration could plainly be traced to certain
bottles, jugs, and flasks, with which each in turn "took an observation"
of the heavens, at about every other hundred yards. An expression of
disgust on La Salle's deeply-tanned face gradually gave way to
resignation, and then a well-founded hope irradiated his features; a new
movement of the crowd attracted his attention.

"Well, boys," he exclaimed, "you're in luck to have such a gang to come
out with, and you may count on having little or no sport to-day and
to-morrow; but they'll have to go in, in three days at farthest."

"Why so?" asked the boys, in a breath.

"Because their rum won't last them more than forty-eight hours,
especially with the amateur aid they'll get from the driver; and twelve
hours after that event takes place, they'll be in town again. But come,
they are getti