"Then _Cigous_ he'll go out on the snow, an' he'll look aroun', an' bimeby Wiesacajac he'll seen heem an' he'll say, 'Ah, _Cigous_, what's on your tail, because I'll see it is all black on the end?'
"_Cigous_ he'll turn aroun' an' ron aroun' an' aroun' on a reeng, but all the tam he'll see the black spot on his tail, an' it won't come off.
"'Now, _Cigous_,' says Wiesacajac, 'I'll been good spirit, else surely I'll punish you plenty for stealing when you tol' me you'll be good animal. Already I'll made you white, all but your tail. Now that the people may always know you for a thief, you an' all your family must have black spot on tail in the winter-tam. I would make you black all over, _Cigous_, but I have take pity on your family, who must not starve. Maybe so you could caught meat, but all the tam your tail will mark you for a thief!'
"From that time," said Moise, concluding, "the ermine, _Cigous_, has always been a good honter. But always he's brown in the summer-tam, an' in the winter-tam he isn't not quite white. That is because he is such thief. I know this is so, because my onkle she'll tol' me. I have finish."
"I'll tell you what," said John, in the morning, as they still lingered at their pleasant camp; "we're not apt to have a much nicer stopping place than this, so why not make a little hunt, and come back here to-night?"
"What's the best way to plan it out?" asked John. "Ought we to go by boats down the river, and then come back here?"
"I would suggest that Moise and Rob take the dugout and go down the river a little way," replied Alex, "and that you and I and Jess climb to the top of the bank, taking our time, to see if we could find any moose sign, or maybe a bear trail in the country back from the river. In that way we could cover both the top and bottom of the valley. We might find a grizzly higher up, although we are out of the grizzly country here by rights."
This plan suggested by Alex was followed out, and at no very late hour in the morning camp was deserted by our travelers, whose hunting spirit seemed still unabated. They did not meet again until almost dusk. Alex and his companions found no fresh game trails on the heights above, and, in short, concluded their hunt rather early in the afternoon and returned to camp, where they remained for some hours before at length they saw the dugout, which the boys had christened _The Plug_, slowly making its way up the river.