IN THE LAND OF THE GREAT SPIRIT 125 



some hours longer, never certain where I was going, 

 whether towards the lake or from it (for the water 

 deepened or got shallower so very gradually) until I 

 really was about beat. Suddenly something caught 

 my foot, and stumbling forward, I fell full-length 

 right on to the top of a mound. This mound was a 

 musk rat's house. Up this musk rat's house I 

 dragged myself and presently stood on the top. And 

 then I could see. There was the lake and there was 

 the camp fire twinkling, but very far away. Over 

 the camp but high up in the sky above it a big quiet 

 star was hanging. Slipping very warily and slowly 

 from my perch, I found that I could just manage to 

 keep that star in view above the reeds. And so I 

 followed it. Sometimes from looking at it so long 

 and anxiously it seemed to change, and then I even 

 wondered if it were the same. Sometimes for a 

 moment I lost it altogether. It was one of the worst 

 walks I ever took. But perseverance won at last. 

 Beneath my feet was the solid prairie with the camp 

 not very far away. It was about an hour after mid- 

 night when I tumbled into the tent. 



This was the more remarkable because as a rule 

 the musk rats do not build very far from the 

 bank. But either the lake had been much lower in 



