i7 



that his wife was tired and ill and that she wanted to be alone 

 and that the next day they would return to them. The sav- 

 ages consented to allow him to pass the night with his wife 

 and children a few miles distant near a small thicket of trees. 

 This was in June when the days are longest and the nights 

 clear and bright. The hunter and his wife proceeded to the 

 place where they had told the Indians they intended to camp 

 and in fact stopped there a little while to take refeshment, 

 but as soon as they thought the Indians were sleeping and 

 that it would be safe to leave without being seen they mount- 

 ed and took the road to the Fort. It was pretty certain that 

 the Indians, angry at being duped, would follow in pursuit 

 so they rode all night and all next day without stopping to 

 rest, fearing at each moment to see the enraged enemy be- 

 hind them. 



At last after travelling for five days they reached the 

 banks of the Saskatchewan opposite the Fort of the Prairie, 

 and called for someone from the Fort to take them across the 

 river. It was quite time, for scarcely had they touched the 

 other bank when they saw the Sarcees in the distance in pur- 

 suit of them. The Canadians, Belgrade, Chalifou and Paquin, 

 whose wives and children, as we have already said, had been 

 massacred, were at the Fort. M. Lajimoniere and his wife 

 had hardly entered the enclosure in safety when the Indians 

 crossed the river and presenting themselves at the gate of 

 the Fort demanded that the Canadians should be given up to 

 them. The Trader and all the employees of the post endeav- 

 ored to pacify them, but it was only by the help of presents 

 that they were finally persuaded to retire without bloodshed. 



Madame Lajimoniere did not return to the prairie that 

 summer. Their life was full of danger and without much 

 profit. She longed to persuade her husband to give up this 

 adventurous existence and to see him settled in one of the 

 forts. 



In the spring of 1810 she returned to the prairies with 

 him and it was during this trip that her third child was born. 

 She had nicknamed her second child Laprairie because he was 

 born in the midst of a great prairie, so she called this one, 

 whowas a girl, Cypress because she came into the world on 

 the Cypress Mountains. 



Her second child, who was two years old at this time and 

 who had been almost stolen by the Blackfoot squaw when he 

 was six months old, seemed to attract the envious glances of 



