Meanwhile, MacDonald, who had vanished into the woods with a rifle in

his hand at daybreak, came back about noon with a deer's carcass slung

on his sturdy back. This, after it was skinned, the two breeds cut into

pieces the thickness of a man's wrist and as long as they could make

them, rubbed well with salt and hung on a stretched line in the sun. The

purpose and preparation of "jerky" was duly elucidated to Thompson;

rather profitless explanation, for he had no rifle, nor any knowledge

whatever in the use of firearms.

"Bagosh, dat man Ah'm wonder w'ere hees raise," Mike said to his partner

once when Thompson was out of earshot. "Hees ask more damfool question

een ten minute dan a man hees answer een t'ree day. W'at hees gon' do

all by heemself here Ah don' know 'tall, Mac. Bagosh, no!"

By midafternoon all that was possible in the way of settling their man

had been accomplished, even to a pile of firewood sufficient to last him

two weeks. MacDonald contributed that after one brief exhibition of

Thompson's axemanship. Short of remaining on the spot like a pair of

swarthy guardian angels there was no further help they could give him,

and their solicitude did not run to that beneficent extreme. And so

about three o'clock Mike Breyette surveyed the orderly cabin, the pile

of chopped wood, and the venison drying in the sun, and said briskly: "Well, M'sieu Thompson, Ah theenk we go show you hon Lone Moose village

now. Dere's one w'ite man Ah don' know 'tall. But der's breed familee

call Lachlan, eef she's not move 'way somew'ere. Dat familee she's talk

Henglish, and ver' fond of preacher. S'pose we go mak leetle veesit hon

dem Lachlan, eh? Ah theenk us two feller we're gon' beet dat water weeth

de paddle een de morneeng."

A man does not easily forego habits that have become second nature.

Breyette and MacDonald put on their dilapidated hats, filled their

pipes, and were ready for anything from a social call to a bear hunt.

Thompson had to shave, wash up, brush his hair, put on a tie and collar,

which article of dress he donned without a thought that the North was

utterly devoid of laundries, that he would soon be reduced to flannel

shirts which he must wash himself. His preparations gave the breeds

another trick of his to grin slyly over. But Thompson was preparing

himself to face the units of his future congregation, and he went about

it precisely as he would have gone about getting ready for a Conference,

or a cup of tea with a meeting of the Ladies' Aid. Eventually, however,

the three set out across the trunk-littered clearing.

The thin place in the belt of timber to the northward proved barely a

hundred yards deep. On the farther side the brushy edge of the woods

gave on the open meadow around which the Lone Moose villagers had built

their cabins. Thompson swept the crescent with a glance, taking in the

dozen or so dwellings huddling as it were under the protecting wings of

the forest, and his gaze came to rest on the more impressive habitation

of Sam Carr.




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