When we stopped for breakfast, father smiled upon me in a kind, new way. I had come up in his estimation. I overheard William say to Mr. Sinclair, "John is all right, he has found his legs." Across Lake Winnipegoosis, over the portages, through the forests, up and down rivers, steadily we kept on our course. At one of our encampments we made a "cache" of some fish and some pemmican. This was for our return journey. The manner of our doing so was to rake away the embers and coals from where we had the fire during the night and morning, and then dig a hole in the thawed ground, and put our provisions in this hole; then cover with a few sticks, and put the earth back, until the place was full; then make a small fire just over the spot, and in going away kick some snow into the fire-place. This would soon freeze hard, and the ashes and embers would destroy the scent, and thus the cunning wolverine would not find our "cache." We saw tracks of moose and cariboo; also a few foxes, and hundreds of white partridge. At the southerly end of Oxford Lake we found a single camp of Indians, and stopped with them for the night. They feasted us on young beaver, which was an agreeable change from pemmican. There were seventeen of us in that camp for the night. It was circular, and may have been twelve feet in diameter. On the ground we lay, with our feet to the fire. During the night I felt my foot very hot, and springing up, found that my part of the blanket was burned through, and my duffil sock was on fire. This was another "tenderfoot" experience. These people were Christians, and delighted to see father and listen to his counsel and exhortation. The next day we reached Jackson's Bay, where we received from Mr. and Mrs. Stringfellow, the missionary and his wife, a very hearty welcome. If Norway House, with its one mail in six months and its small community of English-speaking people, is thought out of the world, where would you place Jackson Mission? This little man and his good wife (and for a good part of the year many of the Indians away from the mission) and the Hudson's Bay Company's post, with its small company, are fifteen miles distant in winter, and, I should judge, twice that in summer. Why, Norway House is on the front compared with this! We spent Saturday and part of Sunday here. Mr. Stringfellow went with us to the fort, and father held a service in the evening. His address, which was in English, Mr. Sinclair afterwards gave almost verbatim to those who understood only Cree, which seemed to me a remarkable feat of memory, seeing he had not taken other than mental notes. We returned on Monday to Jackson's Bay, and left on Tuesday for Norway House; found our "cache" all right, and reached home on Friday afternoon, averaging forty-five miles per day, which, considering there had been a good deal of storm and our down track in many places could not be seen, was very fair time. CHAPTER X.