Part 20 (1/2)

”The Indians will be all saying that spring indeed has cole is, as I think I told you, the beginning of spring, Mikisewpesi month”

”Is it not,” said Frank, ”a very uncertain way of reat as a person would at first i or a late spring, and March with us is sometimes like April Then some other years it is just the reverse So the Indians'the months by the arrival of the birds, or other events in nature, is not generally les?” asked Saeese,” replied Mr Ross, ”and as they do not corounds, are partially bared of snow, they are about a oose month also?” asked Alec

”Yes, indeed,” replied Mr Ross, ”and it is a very important one to the Indians, and I anticipate that we, too, will have our share of exciteoose, or 'niskuk,' geese, and 'pesioose moon, which corresponds with our April, is followed by Unekepesi in their croakings In our North Land frogout their young

So it is with all the other months, each has some equally expressive name”

”I am sure we are thankful for all this inforet information, even if it sometimes has to be acquired under difficulties, and it is equally pleasing to impart it to those ill make use of it,” was Mr Ross's reply

”I am sure,” said Sam, ”ill have a deal to talk about e return ho me is that lots will say that it is only a pack of lies that I a to cram down their throats”

”Well, then,” replied Frank, ”ill not be the only returned travellers whose veracity will be questioned Don't you reland from a tropical country in the south of Asia, that when they returned holand soh to walk on Then the king was sosuch monstrous lies that he immediately handed theth of their heads”

”I wonder what he would have done with htened him on some of the facts of this country, for that land was a hty small incident, in comparison hat I have here discovered”

”What would you tell hi the old rascal were still alive, and should ask you to visit hi?”

”Sure,” replied Sa his pardon, that Sia--wanted any more water information, I would say to hination at the doing of a stable man, called Pasche, I seized a bucket of water, just drawn, and up with it to throw over the fellow, and, wonderful to relate, it just hit him in chunks of ice as dry as marble'”

”Well, we know that is true,” said Alec; ”but supposing the old fellow still left your head on your shoulders, what next would you tell hi more about liquid matter, I would just inform him that we carry the milk of our corapped up in old newspapers, and that it keeps that way for months, as solid and tidy and handy as a brickbat in the end of a stocking”

”If he could stand that and let you survive, what next?” said Frank

”I fancy I would confound his intellect by telling him that the breath- laden air of the church, one bitterly cold Sunday, where some hundreds of Indians worshi+pped, so froze up that the whole of it fell to the floor in beautiful snow so plentifully that in one place, near a cold , it was over a foot deep”

”Supposing he survived that, or rather let you survive, what next would you craue and ever ready, at once answered:

”Well, if that son of the sun, or whatever his Oriental title may be, wanted any hten him with the information that here, as a pastime or scientific experiment, we take quicksilver or mercury and cast it into bullets that becoh stable doors”

”Anything more?” said Mr Ross, who had been an amused listener, and had been much pleased with Sa up the facts of the country to use them in other lands in years to come

”Well, yes,” said Sam, ”I would tell his bibulousjourneys with our dogs I had with me on my sled, for purposes that need not concern his est wine One day, when no eyes were on ood and honest purposes I rief I found the bottle burst into a hundred pieces Feeling carefully around--for it was in the dark when I had made this visit--I discovered that the wine itself was frozen into a solid mass exactly the shape of the bottle I carefully wrapped it up in a handkerchief, and thus carried it along Suffice to say, none of it was lost”

”Well,” said Frank, ”if just about water, s, shall we not have lots of fun e talk of our dogs and their doings, and of s that at first seemed so marvellous to us, but are now everyday occurrences and have in a measure lost their force and novelty?”

”I fancy,” said Alec, ”that so and cleverness of the wild ani the Indians hunt, will open their eyes”