72 FOUR- FOOTED AMERICANS 



camps thereabouts, it had a pair uv Moose horns over 

 the door to brings g-ood hiintin'. 



" It was the furst winter that I Avas there I learned 

 from the Indians and half-breeds how to read signs ; to 

 know by the footprints jest what animal had been that 

 way, and by the way young twigs were ]iibbled and 

 torn whether it was a Moose, — if it was a bull with 

 antlers or the smaller cow without them. Then I 

 learnt the footmarks of all the fur beasts, and their 

 toothmarks on the bark, and when there w^ere scratches 

 on the trees I knew how big a B'ar had sharpened his 

 claws there, and how tall he was." 



" Oh, uncle, don't you remember how you said the 

 AVise Men made animals into classes by looking at their 

 feet and teeth, but I didn't know people could tell them 

 only by their footprints. 



'' Please, Nez, can you tell by smell where all the dif- 

 ferent animals are, as uncle says they can tell about 

 each other ? " asked Nat. 



'' Not quite," said Nez, laughing, " though there are 

 a few I can nose out besides Skunks. I did some tall 

 huntin' and trappin' then for a season or two, before 

 the game got too skary, and folks came that killed 

 just for getting the antlers of the bulls and leavin' the 

 meat to rot, — folks that took a fawn or doe just the 

 same as a buck. Hunting Wolves, I call them, for 

 a Wolf is a wasteful beast in his killin'." 



" That's what daddy calls such people, too. Tell us 

 the names of some of the beasts you saw," coaxed Nat. 



" It would be easier to name those I didn't," said Nez, 

 hesitating ; " but of a moonlight night after an early 

 snow, when all of the outfit but me was away, I've 



