ROMANCE AND ADVENTURE 17 



When I entered the trading room I saw that it was furnished 

 with a U-shaped counter paralleling three sides of the room, 

 and with a large box-stove in the middle of the intervening 

 space. On the shelves and racks upon the walls and from 

 hooks in the rafters rested or hung a conglomeration of goods to 

 be offered in trade to the natives. There were copper pails and 

 calico dresses, pain-killer bottles and Hudson's Bay blankets, 

 sow-belly and chocolate drops, castor oil and gun worms, frying- 

 pans and ladies' wire bustles, guns and corsets, axes and 

 ribbons, shirts and hunting-knives, perfumes and bear traps. 

 In a way, the Indian shop resembled a department store except 

 that all the departments were jumbled together in a single 

 room. At one post I visited years ago — that of Abitibi — they 

 had a rather progressive addition in the way of a millinery 

 department. It was contained in a large lidless packing case 

 against the side of which stood a long steering paddle for the 

 clerk's use in stirring about the varied assortment of white 

 women's ancient headgear, should a fastidious Indian woman 

 request to see more than the uppermost layer. 



Already a number of Indians were being served by the 

 Factor and Delaronde, the clerk, and I had not long to wait 

 before Oo-koo-hoo appeared. I surmised at once who he was, 

 for one could see by the merest glance at his remarkably pleas- 

 ant yet thoroughly clever face, that he was all his name implied, 

 a wise, dignified old gentleman, who was in the habit of observ- 

 ing much more than he gave tongue to — a rare quality in men — 

 especially white men. Even before I heard him speak I liked 

 Oo-koo-hoo — The Owl. 



But before going any farther, I ought to explain that as I am 

 endeavouring to render a faithful description of forest life, I am 

 going to repeat in the next few paragraphs part of what once 

 appeared in one of my fictitious stories of northern life. I then 

 made use of the matter because it was the truth, and for that 

 very reason I am now going to repeat it; also because this 



