ROMANCE AND ADVENTURE 33 



not been paid for her gift of moccasins, and so another delay 

 took place while the Factor selected a suitable present. It is 

 always thus. Then, at last, the canoes push off. Amid the 

 waving of hands, the shouting of farewells, and the shedding of a 

 few tears even, the simple natives of the wilderness paddled 

 away over the silent lake en route for their distant hunting 

 grounds. 



Thither the reader must follow, and there, amid the fastnesses 

 of the Great Northern Forest, he must spend the winter if he 

 would see the Indian at his best. There he is a beggar no 

 longer. There, escaped from the civilization which the white 

 man is ever forcing upon the red — a civilization which rarely 

 fails to make a degenerate of him — he proves his manhood. 

 There, contrary to the popular idea, he will be found to be a 

 diligent and skilful worker and an affectionate husband and 

 father. There, given health and game, no toil and no hardship 

 will hinder him from procuring fur enough to pay off his in- 

 debtedness, and to lay up in store twice as much again with 

 which to engage next spring in the delightful battle of wits be- 

 tween white man and red in the Great Company's trading 

 room. 



