LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 49 



" Have so." 



" Give us a chaw ; and now let's camp." 

 Whilst unpacking their own animals, the two trappers 

 could not refrain from glancing, every now and then, 

 with no little astonishment, at the solitary stranger they 

 had so unexpectedly encountered. If truth be told, his 

 appearance not a little perplexed them. His hunting- 

 frock of buckskin, shining with grease, and fringed 

 pantaloons, over which the well-greased butcher-knife 

 had evidently been often wiped after cutting his food 

 or butchering the carcass of deer and buffalo, were of 

 genuine mountain-make. His face, clean shaved, 

 exhibited in its well-tanned and weather-beaten 

 complexion, the effects of such natural cosmetics as 

 sun and wind ; and under the mountain-hat of felt 

 which covered his head, long uncut hair hung in Indian 

 fashion on his shoulders. All this would have passed 

 muster, had it not been for the most extraordinary 

 equipment of a double-barrelled rifle ; which, when it 

 had attracted the eyes of the mountainers, elicited no 

 little astonishment, not to say derision. But, perhaps, 

 nothing excited their admiration so much as the perfect 

 docility of the stranger's animals ; which, almost like 

 dogs, obeyed his voice and call ; and albeit that one, 

 in a small sharp head and pointed ears, expanded 

 nostrils, and eye twinkling and malicious, exhibited 

 the personification of a "lurking devil/' yet they 

 could not but admire the perfect ease with which even 

 this one, in common with the rest, permitted herself to 

 be handled. 



D 



