[Illustration: After half of May had passed away, and when the spring
hunt was over, Oo-koo-hoo and Amik, poling up the turbulent little
streams, and following as closely as possible the routes of their fur
trails, went the round of their trapping paths, removed their snares,
sprung their deadfalls, and gathering their steel traps loaded them
aboard their canoes. That work completed, packing began in readiness
for the . . . See Chapter VII.]

So, when all was in readiness, the deerskin lodge coverings were taken
down, rolled up, and stored out of harm's way upon a stage. Then, with
hearts light with happiness and canoes heavy with the wealth of the
forest, we paddled away with pleasant memories of our forest home, and
looked forward to our arrival at Fort Consolation.

Soon after entering Bear River the canoes were turned toward the
western bank and halted at a point near one of their old camping
grounds. Then Naudin--Amik's wife--left the others, and took her way
among the trees to an opening in the wood. There stood two little
wooden crosses that marked the graves of two of her children--one a
still-born girl and the other a boy who had died at the age of three.
Upon the boy's grave she placed some food and a little bow and some
arrows, and bowed low over it and wept aloud. But at the grave of her
still-born child she forgot her grief and smiled with joy as she placed
upon the mound a handful of fresh flowers, a few pretty feathers, and
some handsome furs. Sitting there in the warm sunshine, she closed her
eyes--as she told me afterward--and fancied she heard the little maid
dancing among the rustling leaves and singing to her.

Like all Indian women of the Strong Woods, she believed that her