HIS PROWESS. 41 



me go into the house, and when he refused to do this, Tom 

 seized him round the waist, picking him up like a child, and 

 threw him against the logs of the house, stunning him, and 

 causing the others to draw back hastily. Tom Boot then 

 carried me into the house, as I was by this time too stiff to walk 

 shutting the door, and taking no notice of the other Indians. 



I asked him if he thought we were safe, on which he smiled, 

 and said that there was not a man on the Saskatchawan who 

 dare come into a house where he was if he did not wish him to 

 do so. This I found to be true; and there was a tradition 

 that he had only once hit a man, and had then killed him. 



Tom Boot had been for years in the employ of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, at the time of the rivalry between that company 

 and the North- West Fur Company, and had seen a great deal 

 of fighting which went on between their employes when they 

 met in an Indian camp. Both companies used to hire fighting 

 men to drive their rivals out of any camp to which they had 

 gone to trade, and I was told at Fort Carlton that two French- 

 Canadian prize-fighters had come on purpose to look at Tom 

 Boot, having heard a great deal about him, and that they had 

 walked round him and declared him to be too big to be any 

 good, on which he picked up one of them and threw him at 

 his companion, both of them coming down, when the French- 

 men walked off, not wanting any more. 



On the present occasion he was very good to me, rubbing 

 my frozen feet with snow, making me some tea, and doing all 

 he could for me, and remained with me till morning. Just 

 then A-ta-ka-koup put in an appearance, looking very dilapi- 

 dated^ his face having been much cut by the logs, and one of 

 his arms was in a sling. 



