A HUNT IN THE LAURENTIDES 



the farm-houses becoming scarcer, and forests of spruce and bal- 

 sam replacing groves of maple and birch. Shortly before dark 

 we drove into the small village of Saint Michel des Saints, sit- 

 uated on the upper waters of the Mattawin River. Here we 

 found two birch-bark canoes, respectively seventeen and eigh- 

 teen feet in length, and provisions for a month, which had been 

 ordered in the spring from Archambault, the local storekeeper 

 and trader. That evening we engaged the services of a strong 

 young French-Canadian named Joseph, who was to accompany 

 us in the capacity of cook. 



Our two Indians, who bore the names of Nicholas and Stanis- 

 laus Benedict, were more or less pure Abenekis, and were small, 

 wiry men about fifty years of age and very deceptive in ap- 

 pearance. Although only weighing about one hundred and 

 twenty-five pounds apiece, these Indians could travel with a 

 burden equal to their own weight, consisting of a bulky pack 

 topped by a heavy water-soaked birch-bark canoe. During 

 the fall and winter they trapped for a living, and in the summer 

 sold Indian trinkets and baskets at Saratoga and other resorts. 



They were willing, good-natured, and efficient men in the 

 woods, and observed the Sabbath very religiously; but while 

 in civilization they spent their time and money in a continual 

 drunken spree. They did not regard the oatmeal which we had 

 ordered as a food, and did not believe it possible to call a bull 

 moose. They also backed each other up in any and all asser- 

 tions, and having been together in the woods for many years, 

 they displayed excellent team-work at anything they attempted. 

 Their chief source of amusement during this trip was the simple- 

 minded and innocent Joseph. In the enthusiasm of starting 

 out in the woods the cook had been foolish enough to boast to 

 these Indians concerning the weight of the load he was accus- 

 tomed to pack on the trail. During the trip he had abundant 

 cause to regret his bragging, as on every possible occasion the 

 Indians took particular pains to remind him of it. The result 



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