In the autumn of 1861, father and Mr. Sinclair and William made a canoe trip to Oxford House. On the return journey they had an accident in the upsetting of their canoe in a rapid. It was in the early morning, and father had his heavy coat on and was otherwise handicapped for such a time. But faithful William swam to the over-turned canoe, and then pushed it end on to father, at the same saying, "Keep up, master. I am coming!" and when near with the canoe, "Now, master, take hold. Hold hard, master!" and these two thus passed through the rapid, and swinging into an eddy at its foot were saved. Mr. Sinclair swam ashore at once, being in light working costume. [Illustration: THE UPSET] They lost most of their outfit, including my gun, which father had taken along. That same fall, William was bitten on the point of the finger by a jack-fish he was taking out of the net. He caught cold in the wound and inflammation set in, and though father and mother did all they could to help him, mortification followed and he died. Night and day father was with the poor fellow, and we all mourned for him, for his was a noble heart and he was one of God's heroes. CHAPTER XIV. Establish a fishery--Breaking dogs--Dog-driving, etc. This was just at the beginning of the fall fishing, and as the Indians were scattered for miles in every direction, my school was broken up, and my father sent me to establish a fishery. So with a young Indian as my companion we went into camp across the lake, and went to work setting our nets and making our stagings on which to hang the fish, as all fish caught before the ice makes are hung up on stagings. You put up good stout posts, on which you lay logs, and across these you place strong poles about two and a half feet apart; then you cut good straight willows about an inch in thickness and three feet long. You sharpen one end of these, and, punching a hole in the tail of the fish, you string the fish on the willows, ten to a stick, and with a forked pole you lift these to the staging, hanging them across between the poles; and there they hang, and dry, and freeze, until you haul them away to your storehouse. After ice makes, the fish freeze almost as soon as you take them out of the water, and are piled away without hanging. When the fish are plentiful you visit your nets two and three times in the night, in order to relieve them of the great weight and strain of so many fish.