CHAPTER XI.

LOUISA--DAY-KAU-RAY ON EDUCATION.


The payment was now over, and the Indians had dispersed and gone to
their wintering grounds. The traders, too, had departed, laden with a
good share of the silver, in exchange for which each family had provided
itself, as far as possible, with clothing, guns, traps, ammunition, and
the other necessaries for their winter use. The Indians are good at a
bargain. They are not easily overreached. On the contrary, they
understand at once when a charge is exorbitant; and a trader who tries
his shrewdness upon them is sure to receive an expressive _sobriquet_,
which ever after clings to him.

For instance, M. Rolette was called by them "Ah-kay-zaup-ee-tah," _five
more_--because, as they said, let them offer what number of skins they
might, in bartering for an article, his terms were invariably "five
more"

Upon one occasion a lady remarked to him, "Oh, M. Rolette, I would not
be engaged in the Indian trade; it seems to me a system of cheating the
poor Indians."

"Let me tell you, madame," replied he, with great _naïveté_, "it is not
so easy a thing to cheat the Indians as you imagine. I have tried it