PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS. 57 



CHAPTER V. 



How to make a plum-pudding. Our Christmas party. Nocturnal visits of 



F and myself to the plum-pudding. Our daily routine. F 



does not enjoy winter. I am summoned to a Cree council. A night 

 apparition. The Cree camp. Accusations against me. Enmity of 

 some of the Indians. Rescued from a dangerous position by " White 

 Hawk." A new religion. Impunity of lunatics. Leave Cree camp. 

 JVIis-ta-wa-sis corrects his wife with an axe. Attempt to marry me. 

 A-ta-ka-ioup propitiates the hunting god. Camping in the snow. A 

 dog-sleigh described. Behaviour of dogs. 



WE were now within three days of Christmas, and began to 

 look up our materials for the festivities of that day. We had 

 reserved some buffalo-hump ribs, which having been frozen for 

 more than two months would be tender ; we had, too, a bottle 

 of whiskey, obtained at the Fort, and the materials for a plum- 

 pudding, and this last was our only difficulty, none of us knowing 

 anything about the manufacture of that article. 



F having lived in South America for fifteen years had 



not seen one all that time, so I constituted myself chief cook 



and F was appointed kitchen-maid, and we commenced 



operations by F 's sewing two towels together for a 



pudding-cloth and my washing out our best wooden bucket 



