218 MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 



tobacco in the morning, and I took a few puffs and 

 awaited his pleasure, curious to know why he had made 

 such an unconventional call at so early an hour. He 

 smoked his pipe out, emptied it, and sat for what seemed 

 a long time before he spoke. 



After some repetition and much gesticulation, it ap- 

 peared that he had met Antoine, and that the latter had 

 killed a bear, and I must go with him and help get it to 

 camp, and after arranging things in the cabin, I took 

 down my rifle to start when my guest shook his head 

 and said, "Kowin," and I replaced it at the door. I un- 

 derstood then that there would be load enough without 

 a ten-pound rifle, and we went off to bring in the bear. 



Enough snow had fallen during the night to make 

 hard travelling without snowshoes, so we tied them on 

 and started Ah-se-bun in the lead up a stream on the 

 west side where I had never been, but where my part- 

 ner's line of traps began. A tramp of some five miles 

 brought us to the place where Antoine had killed the 

 bear, about a mile off his line. He was there cooking 

 his breakfast when we arrived, for he had been up and 

 had the bear skinned and dressed before he started in to 

 cook. It happened that he had run his first line of traps 

 some fifteen miles, and was crossing the divide to his 

 homestretch when he found a fresh bear track in the 

 snow, which had begun to fall late in the afternoon, and 

 he turned and followed it. The track led him back 

 toward camp, and he came upon bruin about sunset and 

 killed it where we found him. 



When we came up to him he said: "I t'ink you better 

 come up and take ole Afum to camp, an' I'll go on an' 

 run my trap, hey? What you want? Bre'kfuss? I 

 t'ink yes." 



I said to him: "I have been to breakfast, but can eat 



