HEMING TURNS BACK 55 



And so John and I set out on our journey, neither of us 

 knowing where the morrow might find us, and I with a 

 Cree vocabulary limited to Namowyah (No), Eh-ha (Yes), 

 Kcepce (Hurry), Wah-he-6-che ? (How far is it ?), Me-wah-sin 

 (Good). I do not know how many miles we covered the 

 afternoon Heming turned homeward, for I was too thor- 

 oughly absorbed in thoughts of what was coming to note 

 the passing, but the camp of that night was, luckily, the 

 best we made on the trip. It was sheltered from the 

 howling wind, wood was plentiful, and with blankets, moc- 

 casins, and leggings hung on poles to dry before the blaz- 

 ing logs, might even have been called picturesque, unless 

 that quality may be said to disappear when the mercury 

 registers 40 below zero ten feet from the fire. We were 

 not likely to find so favored a spot another night, and I 

 made John know he should take advantage of the good 

 fire and prepare " bannocks" to last us a few days. 



The bannock is simply flour and water and grease thor- 

 oughly kneaded and well baked ; the usual method of 

 cooking is to shape the dough an inch deep to the inside 

 of a frying-pan, and stand the latter before the camp-fire. 

 The bannock is not beautiful to the eye nor tempting to 

 the fastidious palate; moreover, it never rises superior to 

 that "sadness "which is characteristic of underdone bread 

 the world over. But the bannock is much better suited 

 to the needs of the tripper or voyageur, as the snow-shoe 

 traveller is called, than the light yeast bread of the grand 

 pays (great world). The bread of civilization is filling, but 

 lacks substance ; the bannock has both filling and sub- 

 stance ; and when one has nothing to eat but bread and 

 tea and bacon, and is running five miles an hour from sun- 

 rise to sunset day after day, substance is a desirable qual- 

 ity. While John made the bannocks, I attended to thaw- 

 in fish for the doq;s ; and when we had both finished and 



