s grey, or bluish grey, small, well-set, and rarely
wandering. The hair was light brown; and the complexion of the face,
which had evidently once been blonde, was now nearly as dark as that of
a half-breed. Sun-tan had produced this metamorphosis. The countenance
was prepossessing: it might have been once handsome. Its expression was
bold, but good-humoured, and bespoke a kind and generous nature.

The dress of this individual was the well-known costume of his class--a
hunting-shirt of dressed deer-skin, smoked to the softness of a glove;
leggings reaching to the hips, and fringed down the seams; moccasins of
true Indian make, soled with buffalo hide (_parfleche_). The
hunting-shirt was belted around the waist, but open above, so as to
leave the throat and part of the breast uncovered; but over the breast
could be seen the under-shirt, of finer material--the dressed skin of
the young antelope, or the fawn of the fallow-deer. A short cape, part
of the hunting-shirt, hung gracefully over the shoulders, ending in a
deep fringe cut out of the buckskin itself. A similar fringe
embellished the draping of the skirt. On the head was a raccoon-cap--
the face of the animal over the front, while the barred tail, like a
plume, fell drooping over the left shoulder.

The accoutrements were a bullet-pouch, made from the undressed skin of a
tiger-cat, ornamented with the head of the beautiful summer-duck. This
hung under the right arm, suspended by a shoulder-strap; and attached,
in a similar manner, was a huge crescent-shaped horn, upon which was
carved many a strange souvenir. His arms consisted of a knife and
pistol--both stuck in the waist-belt--and a long rifle, so straight that
the line of the barrel seemed scarcely to deflect from that of the butt.

But little attention had been paid to ornament in either his dress,
arms, or equipments; and yet there was a gracefulness in the hang of his
tunic-like shirt, a stylishness about the fringing and bead-embroidery,
and an air of jauntiness in the set of the 'coon-skin cap, that showed
the wearer was not altogether unmindful of his personal appearance. A
small pouch or case, ornamented with stained porcupine quills, hung down
upon his breast. This was the pipe-holder--no doubt a _gage d'amour_
from some dark-eyed, dark-skinned damsel, like himself a denizen of the
wilderness.

His companion was very different in appearance; unlike him, in almost
every respect, unlike anyb