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I asked a fur-trader of the Northwest, because in nearly all accounts written about furs, you read a wail of reproach at milady for wearing furs when trapping entails such hardship and poverty on the part of the hunter. "A good hunter easily earns six hundred dollars or seven hundred dollars a winter if he will go out and not hang around the minute he gets a little ahead.
If this weather holds, the ice must give way soon, and then we'll be able to push ahead faster." The trapper said this quietly, and without looking up from the bear-steak with which he was busy, so that Redding's look of surprise appeared to be lost on him. The fur-trader and his man exchanged glances.
The following year, General Braddock set out from Virginia, also by Nemacolin's Path; but, on that fateful ninth of July, fell in the slaughter-pen which had been set for him at Turtle Creek by the Indians of the Upper Lakes, under the leadership of a French fur-trader from far-off Wisconsin.
Without more ado they sallied forth and walked along the snowy track that led to the cottage in question. A few minutes sufficed to bring them to it, and the first glance showed the fur-trader that his friend had not exaggerated the beauty of the place.
"We wish to go on all of us," answered Basil, speaking for his brothers as well. "Very well," assented the young fur-trader; "I think it is better as you wish it. Out of these trees I can build a boat that will carry us. It will take us some days to do it, and some time to find the timber, but I am tolerably certain it is to be found in these woods.
"It's a deal," the fur-trader said promptly. "Glad to get 'em, though I'm payin' all I can afford for the split ones." "I'll get the key to the storehouse," Jessie said. She walked out of the room with the springy, feather-footed step that distinguished her among all the women that he knew. In a few moments she was back. Instead of giving him the key, she put it down on the table near his hand.
In the blaze of the orb of day Loch Dhu looked more beautiful than it did by moonlight. After a thorough examination of house and grounds, the fur-trader resolved to purchase it, and commissioned his plump little friend to carry out the transaction. Thereafter he and his man retraced their steps to the wilderness, still breathing unutterable things against the entire clan of McLeod.
It is well to observe the significance of these words from the pen of Champlain. Is this the language of a common fur-trader, simply seeking to increase his fortune? What were really Champlain's designs during all these years of labour and self-sacrifice? Was he animated by the mere curiosity of the tourist, or the ambition of a man of science? No.
"Not in the least," answered the fur-trader promptly, with a glance at his man. "Vraiment, non, cer'nly not!" exclaimed Le Rue emphatically, not a trace of scorn being now visible on his benign countenance.
From his Caughnawaga guides he learned how the tracks made by lynx and beaver, rabbit and wolverine, wolf and red deer invariably the safest and firmest ways were in turn naturally followed by Indian voyageur and fur-trader, until the blazed trail became the bridle-road for the pack-horse of the pioneer.
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