BLIND LEADING THE BLIND 69 



the Northland to create comment. They made way for 

 us at the fire, of which we did not immediately avail our- 

 selves for we both had frozen ears and noses and they 

 pushed the teakettle nearer the glowing coals ; but no 

 one uttered a sound, though they eyed me with ill-con- 

 cealed curiosity. By-and-by, when we had thawed out, 

 John and I drank tea and ate a slice of bacon from our 

 scanty stock, and then I signed him to get fish for the 

 dogs ; but much talking was followed only by sullen si- 

 lence, and no fish were forthcoming. Fish we must have. 

 As I sat pondering over the situation I discovered a fiddle 

 hanging against the wall, and thought an excellent oppor- 

 tunity offered of trying the power of music to soothe the 

 savage breast, so I handed the instrument to John, whom 

 I had heard play at La Biche, and what with his fiddling 

 and my distribution of tobacco, it was not very long be- 

 fore we had the Indians jabbering again, and two days' 

 fish for the dogs. 



The wind was still howling and the snow falling when 

 we started on an hour later, against the protestations of 

 the Indians, who wanted us and our tea and tobacco to 

 remain overnight ; but our supplies were too low to war- 

 rant their consumption in idleness, and we had put an- 

 other eight or nine miles behind us before we made a 

 wretched camp in the muskeg, with scarcely wood enough 

 to make a fire, and not a level spot to throw down our 

 blankets. It cleared up during the night, and when we 

 broke camp the next morning at four the moon shone as 

 serenely as though it had not yielded to a greater and 

 fiercer power the night before. Before daybreak the trail 

 ran into some rather open woods, through which the 

 moon's soft light played with wondrously fantastic effect, 

 and when the first streaks of yellow in the northeast her- 

 alded the rising of the sun, we had left the shadow of the 



