150 ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



every bit of meat put into the kettle and handed around, 

 until the last scrap was eaten, and the host and myself go 

 hungry for two days afterwards. When we were making 

 our way towards the Barren Grounds I saw an Indian of 

 our party, who I knew had not eaten meat for two days, 

 bring forth a bone saved from the dog feed, handle it 

 almost fondly before the fire, and then divide it among 

 one or two of his fellows. 



It is so the world over. Those that have least to give, 

 give of their little the more spontaneously. We need not 

 go to this barren land for example ; we may see it on the 

 streets of our great cities. I have often noted the penny 

 dropped into the outstretched importuning hand of the 

 miserably clad begger by a passing figure scarcely better 

 clothed than the supplicant for alms. And its explana- 

 tion is not difficult: that mite comes from one who has 

 known perhaps knows the distress of hunger and the 

 misery of cold. 



With the Indians this applies more particularly to re- 

 lations among themselves; towards the white man their 

 generosity is not so disinterested ; they will give of their 

 best, but expect threefold in return, and so long as 

 you have tea and tobacco you are entire master of the 

 situation ; for there is nothing you cannot obtain with 

 one or the other of these North Country luxuries, and, 

 moreover, there is no peace for you so long as either re- 

 mains. 



If one is inexperienced in roughing life, or lacks decision, 

 and, let us say, heartlessness to say "no," this country is 

 no place for him, for more persistent and skilled beggars are 

 probably not to be found anywhere. I was annoyed a great 

 deal at first for the reason that Pike had been improvident 

 of his provisions, and I suppose it spread abroad in the 

 land that white men were easy to "work." So when I 



