BUSINESS AND ROMANCE 299 



the bow of that canoe ahead of all others — no matter where 

 or when the other crews contested for the honour of leading the 

 Fur Brigade. 



The next morning, at sunrise, the Fur Brigade was to 

 take its departure. Now it was time I visited Spearhead, to 

 thank my friends, the Free Trader and his family, for all 

 their kindness to me, and to bid them farewell ; so I borrowed 

 a small canoe and paddled across the lake. When I arrived 

 they invited me to dine with them. At the table that day 

 there was less talking — everyone seemed to be in a thoughtful 

 mood. 



The windows and doors were open and the baggy mosquito 

 netting sagged away from the hot sun as the cool breeze whis- 

 pered through its close-knit mesh. Outside, I could see the 

 heifer and her mother lying in the shade of a tree on the far 

 side of the stump-lot, and near the doorway the ducks and geese 

 were sauntering about the grass and every now and then making 

 sudden little rushes — as though they were trying to catch some- 

 thing. There, too, in the pathway, the chickens were scratch- 

 ing about and ruffling their feathers in little dust holes — as 

 though they were trying to get rid of something. An un- 

 expected grunt at the doorway attracted my attention and I 

 saw a pig leering at me from the corners of its half-closed eyes — 

 the very same pig the Free Trader and his wife had chosen to 

 add to their daughter's wedding dowry — then it gave a familiar 

 little nod, as though it recognized me; and I fancied, too, that its 

 ugly chops broke into an insolent smile. What was it thinking 

 about? . . . Was it Son-in-law? I wondered. 



I glanced at Athabasca. How beautiful she looked! The 

 reflected sunlight in the room cast a delightful sheen over her 

 lustrous brown hair, and seemed to enhance the beauty of her 

 charmingly sun-browned skin, that added so much to the 

 whiteness of her even teeth, and to the brilliancy of her soft 

 brown eyes. In a dreamy way she was looking far out through 



