h the timber toward the cave at the foot of the cliff, but I, for my part, was not at

plan just what we will d

'Sticky-mouth, come out of there!' Out he comes, terribly scared, and we stand on each side of the entrance with raised

said I.

heard the company men and the Indians tell, but I could c

ou stop? Go on and finish

lied. "I have always heard that any a

ore it, and plenty of room to run. We will be in great luck if, with the one blow that we each will have time for, we succeed in knocking it down. R

e. All our future depended on getting the bear. I wondered whether, if we failed to stop the animal with

iscovery that was sickening. About twenty yards from the cave the trail we were following turned sharply to the l

his den because our scent was still there. He has

hair for a bow-cord. But turning round and idly looking the other way, I saw something that instantly drove this thought from my mind. It was a dim trail along the foot of the cliff to

ed. "Another bear was there already, had stolen his home and

if I were a stranger and he were trying to learn by my appearance what manner of boy I was. It is not pleasant to be stared at in th

is it? Shall we go on and take the chances, or turn back to camp? If

at I must be just as brave as my partner. "Go on!" I said, and my voi

t a narrow space in the centre, through which the bear had ploughed its way in, and which, since its passing, h

faint wisps of congealed breath floating out of it into the cold air. Pitamakan, silently stationing me on the right of the entran

d again and again, without result. Then, motioning me to follow, he went down the slope. "We'll h

ase where it had rotted, and knocked off the few scraw

ill stand ready to hit a big blow with my club. You keep your club in your right hand, and wo

nd, so standing the club where I could quickly reach it, I used both hands. At every thrust the pole went in deeper, and in the excitement of t

trained nerves a-quiver. As I was gathering myself to rise, the dreadful yowl was repeated right over my head, and down the bear came on me, clawing and squirming. Its sharp nails cut rig

ed over backward, catching, as I went, just a glimpse of Pitamakan fiercely striking a blow with his club. I was on my feet in no time, and what I saw caused me to yell with delight

iercely str

no great size. Had it been a grizzly, I certainly, and p

more blows as fast as he could swing his club. Then I tried to tell how I had felt, crushed under the bear and expecting every instant to be bitten and clawed to death. But words failed me, and, moreover, a stinging sensation

taking hold of its fore paws, we started home. It was easy to pull it down the slope and across the ice, but from there to camp, across the

ed a good fire. Then we rested and broiled some rabbit meat before attacking the bear. Never were there two happier boys

bad flaying instruments. Still, we were a long time ripping the bear's skin from the tip of the jaw down along the belly to the tail, and from the tail down the inside of the legs to and round the base of the feet. There were fully two inches of fat on the carcass, and

sinews. These lie like ribbons on the outside of the flesh along the backbone, and vary in length and thickness according to the size of the animal. Those of a buffalo bu

on as we had them free, we pressed them against a smooth length of dry wood, where they stuck; and laying this well back fr

hful was more than enough; so I helped Pitamakan finish the last of the rabbit meat. He would have starved rather than eat the mea

k no part of the animal except the claws, unless he were a medicine-man. The medicine-man, with many prayers and s

I offered to do all the work of scraping off the fat meat and of drying it, he consented to s

and then hand-spun them into a twisted cord of the desired length; and he made a very good job of it, too. When he had stretched the cords to dry before the fire, he sharpened a twig of dry birch for an awl, and with the r

ne condition, having dried out and become more stiff, yet springy. Since, during the latter part of the night, more snow had fallen, we could distinguish fresh game tracks from old ones. And now

y into the willows at our approach, and from there flew into the firs, where we knocked down four of them with our blunt-headed bird arrows. I got only

d willows, and then gone into the thick firs. We followed them, not nearly so excited now that we had trustworthy weapons as we had been on the previous hunt. When we came near the firs, which covered

then they will come running out here on their back trail, and I'll get some good shots. You'd bette

n power strong within me that morning and looked for success. With that feeling, call it what you will,-all old hunters will understand what I mean,-I was not at all surprised,

ould not see me at first, because of a screen of fir branches between us, and he had not looked up when I made the final s

I drew the arrow sliding back across the bow almost to the head with a light

everal of them bounding away through the firs, but my eyes were all for the red trail of the bull. And presently I cam

s-stum-ik!" (Come on! I hav

came the answer: "Nis-toab ni-mu

a moment, I went to Pitamakan, and found that he had killed a fine big cow. H

several fresh obsidian flakes, but as the edges soon grew dull, we were all the rest of the day in getting the hides off the animals and going to camp with

t it is hard to decide what to do

hered the last of a pile of firewood and sa

ver, and hang a side of elk ribs over the fire to roast for

as they swung on a tripod over the fire. I was now so accustomed to eating meat without salt that I no longer craved the mineral, and of course my companion

in proposed. "We need new moccasins, new leggings and snowshoes

e make one? What material can we get for one unless we kill

n you came up the Big River you saw the lodges of the E

eet called the Mandans, but I had been inside several of them, and noted how warm and comfortable they were. Their constructi

a growth of "lodge-pole" pines, had killed thousands of the young, slender trees. In a grove of heavy firs close by we began the work, and

he square we laid as heavy a pole as we could carry, and bolstered up the centre with a pile of flat rocks, to keep it from sagging. On the joists, as these may be called, we laid lighter

s, except for a narrow space in the south side, which we left for a doorway. Next we thatched the roof and sides with a thick layer of balsam boughs, on top of which we laid a covering of earth nearly a foot

r the square opening in the roof for a fireplace, made a thick bed of balsam boughs, and covered it with the bearskin, pu

, as we sat eating our first meal in the

asins and snows

that at nig

seemingly right overhead, broke upon our ears. Pitamakan

Run!

of C