164 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



you happen to stumble over one in the dark ; and people 

 who have kept them in cages say they ha^'e a great 

 many interesting ways." 



" 1 see smoke ; wc are nearly at camp," said the 

 Doct(.>r; "and quite time, too, both my feet are fast 

 asleep. What shall you do with the horses, Olaf? It 

 is rather too chilly to pasture them in the snow." 



" There is an old barn here Ijeluw, A\here Nez keeps 

 his cow and some hay ; I'll put tliem there until I take 

 you down again to-morr((\\'." 



Soon they turned in between the trees, the horses 

 breaking the path. Everywhere about were the foot- 

 prints of little beasts, and in a few minutes they came 

 to Nez' clearing. There was no outside fire, but smoke 

 and sometimes a few red sparks came from the stone 

 chimney of the log house. 



Nez was bnsy at his work in the shed, which he had 

 wholly enclosed with boughs and bark; the boys saw at 

 once why Olaf said he had a "regular fur shop." The 

 place was lined with various kinds of skins, drying 

 upon all sorts of stretchers, and more were stacked 

 away under the roof. 



"Want to know ! " said Nez, heartily, coming to meet 

 the party, followed by Stubble, the setter, the tame Fox, 

 who now wore a collar, and the two little boys who had 

 been told that they must speak up and be polite. They 

 only succeeded far emiugh to peep and stare while they 

 held tight, eaclj to one of their father's legs, as if they 

 thought their guests Grizzly Hears or Wildcats. They 

 wore queer peaked homemade caps of iindyed Muskrat 

 fur, and short, lambskin jackets \vith the wool inside, 

 looking very much like a pair of cajDtive lirownies. 



