Muff, the Affectionate Mother Dog 201 



only about two hundred miles distant but 

 my beloved friend had to travel seven hun- 

 dred miles by dog train ere he would reach 

 his far away log cabin on the Burnt-wood 

 River. 



Muff was my sleigh dog on this trip, and 

 grandly did she do her work. So wild was 

 she as the days passed and she knew that 

 she was nearing home and her puppies, al- 

 though they had long since been weaned and 

 were now quite fine large dogs, that it 

 seemed impossible to restrain her. Our 

 loads were very heavy, averaging nearty a 

 thousand pounds to each sled, as, of course, 

 we availed ourselves of these visits to civili- 

 zation to replenish our never overabundant 

 supplies. 



The trained Indians run all the time when 

 on these trips, no matter whether the sleds 

 are loaded or not. As a general thing we 

 missionaries could ride on the sleds, if they 

 were not too heavily loaded, when we 

 travelled on the ice. In the woods, however, 

 where the snow was deep, everybody was ex- 

 pected to walk on ahead in Indian file in 

 their snow-shoes and thus make the trail or 

 path on which the faithful dogs dragged the 

 heavy loads. 



