224 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



I have not tasted a bit of fresh meat this year : 

 most tired of chewing beaver meat ; you got two 

 days more, eh ? Well, we go out again to-morrow ; 

 leave the other men to fetch the meat in and 

 mebbe get something more. Suppose you let me 

 have the skins to make snow-shoes : must beat 

 out for something to make snow-shoes this winter. 

 No deer left in this country now." So Joe worked 

 away gralloching the deer, while I, having made a 

 little smudge of dry lichens and moss to windward 

 to keep off the swarms of black flies that pestered 

 us, smoked my pipe, happy in the certainty that 

 we should not suffer the disgrace of returning to 

 St. John's quite empty-handed. 



Scarcely had Joe and I got well away from the 

 camp next morning, when such a blinding storm 

 of rain came on that we were compelled to make 

 a little shelter for ourselves among some dwarf 

 junipers and wait till it was over. We lit a little 

 fire, boiled some water in a pannikin, brewed some 

 tea, and talked about hunting until the clouds 

 lifted and enabled us to see our way about the 

 country ; but the best part of the day was gone, 

 and we had to return to camp without seeing 

 anything or even a fresh track. The day following 

 we were obliged to set out on our homeward 



