chin on the edge
of the canoe and calmly look out like a dreamy-eyed tourist. And when he
heard us talking about making a landing, he immediately roused himself
to see what sort of a place we were coming to, and made ready to jump
overboard and swim ashore as soon as the canoe neared the beach. Then,
with a vigorous shake to get rid of the brine in his hair, he ran into
the woods to hunt small game. But though always the first out of the
canoe, he was always the last to get into it. When we were ready to
start he could never be found, and refused to come to our call. We soon
found out, however, that though we could not see him at such times, he
saw us, and from the cover of the briers and huckleberry bushes in the
fringe of the woods was watching the canoe with wary eye. For as soon as
we were fairly off he came trotting down the beach, plunged into the
surf, and swam after us, knowing well that we would cease rowing and
take him in. When the contrary little vagabond came alongside, he was
lifted by the neck, held at arm's length a moment to drip, and dropped
aboard. We tried to cure him of this trick by compelling him to swim a
long way, as if we had a mind to abandon him; but this did no good: the
longer the swim the better he seemed to like it.

Though capable of great idleness, he never failed to be ready for all
sorts of adventures and excursions. One pitch-dark rainy night we landed
about ten o'clock at the mouth of a salmon stream when the water was
phosphorescent. The salmon were running, and the myriad fins of the
onrushing multitude were churning all the stream into a silvery glow,
wonderfully beautiful and impressive in the ebon darkness. To get a
good view of the show I set out with one of the Indians and sailed up
through the midst of it to the foot of a rapid about half a mile from
camp, where the swift current dashing over rocks made the luminous glow
most glorious. Happening to look back down the stream, while the Indian
was catching a few of the struggling fish, I saw a long spreading fan of
light like the tail of a comet, which we thought must be made by some
big strange animal that was pursuing us. On it came with its magnificent
train, until we imagined we could see the monster's head and eyes; but
it was only Stickeen, who, finding I had left the camp, came swimming
after me to see what was up.

When we camped early, the best hunter of the crew usually went to the
woods for a deer, and Stickeen wa