34 CANADIAN WILDS. 



want it soft felt and dark bottle green. Now 

 follow rue, and you can get the bat in tbe morn- 

 ing." 



Without going into details, suffice it to say, 

 I conducted him to bis own door, and a more 

 perplexed man was not in London; so much 

 so, be had to call in bis wife, his mother-in-law 

 and his next door neighbor to tell them of my 

 achievement. 



At last I had to cut short his flow of words 

 by saying my guiding him home was a most 

 simple thing. It was merely the result of ob- 

 serving as I went along, and running the objects 

 backward as I came to the house. 



"If I was to tell you as a fact, my dear sir, 

 that a bushnian sees the track of some wild ani- 

 mal in the snow, he can tell you not only the 

 name of the animal, but if it was male or female, 

 within an hour of the time the tracks were made, 

 if it was calm or blowing and the direction of 

 the wind at that time and many other minor 

 things, you would think this wonderful. Yet, 

 as wonderful as this may appear, and hardly to 

 be credited, an Indian boy of ten or twelve can 

 read this page from nature as easy as one of us 



can read a page of print." 



* * * 



When the cold nights of the latter end of 

 October had set in and the leaves were crisp 



