32 Wilderness Ways. 



feet, and pick and choose daintily from the cracker 

 and trout and bacon and porridge which I offered 

 him. Soon he began to take bits away with him, 

 and I could hear him, just inside the fringe of under- 

 brush, persuading his mate to come too and share his 

 plate. But she was much shyer than he ; it was sev- 

 eral days before I noticed her flitting in and out of 

 the shadowy underbrush ; and when I tossed her the 

 first crumb, she flew away in a terrible fright. Gradu- 

 ally, however, Killooleet persuaded her that we were 

 kindly, and she came often to meals ; but she would 

 never come near, to eat from my tin plate, till after I 

 had gone away. 



Never a day now passed that one or both of the 

 birds did not rest on my tent. When I put my head 

 out, like a turtle out of his shell, in the early morning 

 to look at the weather, Killooleet would look down 

 from the projecting end of the ridgepole and sing good- 

 morning. And when I had been out late on the lake, 

 night-fishing, or following the inlet for beaver, or 

 watching the grassy points for caribou, or just drift- 

 ing along shore silently to catch the night sounds and 

 smells of the woods, I would listen with childish anti- 

 cipation for Killooleet's welcome as I approached the 

 landing. He had learned to recognize the sounds of 

 my coming, the rub of a careless paddle, the ripple 



