THE VALUE OF THEIR FUR 35 



&quot; He s garrulous it s his pains and aches 

 now.&quot; 



Bear took no notice of the Bird. &quot; I was tired 

 and cross ; the sun was nice and warm, and I lay 

 down behind a log to rest a little. Suddenly 

 there was a sound of the crisp hide of the snow 

 cracking, and at first I thought it was something 

 to eat coming, something for my hunger. I 

 looked cautiously over the tree, and there was 

 Nichemous trailing me ; his snow-shoe had cut 

 through the crust ; but it was too late to run, for 

 that Ironstick of his would have reached ; so I lay 

 still, pretending to be asleep. Nichemous crept 

 up, oh, so cunningly. He did n t want to wake 

 poor old Muskwa, you see not until he woke 

 me with the bark of his Ironstick. Talk about 

 smells, Mister Lynx. Wifh ! the breath of 

 that when it coughs is worse than the smell of 

 Coyote it s fairly blue in the air, it s so bad.&quot; 



&quot; Where was Nichemous all this time ? &quot; cried 

 Jack, mockingly. 



&quot; Have patience, little shaganappi (cheap) Bird. 

 Nichemous saw my trail leading up to the log, 

 but could not see it going away on the other side. 

 I had just one eye cocked up where I could 

 watch his face. Wheeze ! it was a study. He d 

 raise one foot, shove it forward gently, put that 

 big gut-woven shoe .down slowly on the snow, 



