BOY FOR EDUCATION, 



91 



education ; but the use of the bow was not 

 to be forgotten, and they were hereafter to 

 be engaged in hunting, as opportunities and 

 circumstances might allow. As agriculture 

 was an important branch in the system of 

 instruction, I had given them some small 

 portions of ground to cultivate; and I never 

 saw European schoolboys more delighted than 

 they were, in hoeing and planting their separate 

 gardens. Nor were the parents of these boys 

 insensible to the care and kindness that were 

 shewn to them. I was told by one of the Com- 

 pany's officers, that before he left Qu'appelle 

 for the colony, he saw the father of the boy 

 I had received from the Indian tents, after my 

 visit to that quarter, and asked him to part 

 with a fine horse that he was riding, which he 

 refused to do, saying that he kept it for the 

 " Black Robe," a name by which they dis- 

 tinguished me from the Catholic priests, whom 

 they call the " Long Robe," for taking care 

 of his boy. He repeated his application for 

 the horse, with the tempting offer of some 

 rum ; but the Indian was firm in his intention 

 of keeping it, as a present for kindness shewn 

 to his child. This was gratitude; and I left 

 directions, in my absence from the Settlement, 

 that should he bring it down, he should be 



