The next day, when we were away from the Fort on our journey, I told my companions. Susa's eyes fairly bulged with astonishment, and Joseph said, "He must be without any mind," and we dismissed the subject; but as my father thoroughly believed in God, and we were abroad to do his bidding along the line of that faith, we tied on our snowshoes and took the straight course for Pigeon Lake. Old Joseph now became guide. This was the scene of his young manhood. Here he had trapped beaver (ever and anon we crossed the creeks and saw the dams), here he had tracked and slain many a moose and elk. In this vicinity huge grizzlies had licked the dust at the crack of his old flintlock. Long years ago he had helped to make this small winding trail which he now hoped to pick up and to keep to the lake. Big fires and wonderful growth had changed the scene. More than twenty years had elapsed since this road was frequented, but with unerring memory and skill the old man picked up the road, and on we went slowly through the deep snow, across bits of prairie, and while all around looked the same, without a miss we would again enter the bush on the unused trail. It must have taken centuries to develop a brain capable of thus having photographed upon it the topography of a country. Saturday night found us some seven or eight miles from the lake and in a dense forest, with the snow about three feet deep on the level. Here we camped for Sunday, and again I noticed Joseph's consistent Sabbatarianism, for except for supper he never ceased to chop and pack wood until midnight, and thus obviated our working any on the Sabbath. From early morn this Indian had been tramping down the deep snow ahead of our trains, and working his brain in order to pick up the old trail. He had lifted thousands of pounds of snow in the course of the long day's travel, and now he willingly and gladly works until midnight to provide wood for our camp, which, being an open one, consumes a very large quantity. And all because it is written, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." I do not know what my readers will think about this, but I do know what I thought at the time, and it was this: I would undergo hardship and danger with such a man beside me a great deal rather than live in the same house in comfort and plenty with the man who a few days since said to me, "I do not believe there is a God." We spent the Sabbath quietly, and early Monday morning continued our way, reaching the site of the proposed Mission about noon. Here we found the cache Oliver and I had made, still secure, but surrounded with the tracks of a wolverine, who thus far had been baffled. Into this cache we put the balance of the provisions we had brought, and making it doubly secure, as we thought, placed the plough on top, and then retraced our steps back to the camp we had left in the morning. From this we reached Edmonton Tuesday night, and were home early Thursday afternoon. CHAPTER IV.