Bob Hunt in Canada

by George W. Orton

"Say, Bob, tell us the bear story you promised?" demanded Pud.

"Let's get Pierre to tell it himself," suggested Bob.

"That would be all right for you, but you forget that we do not understand French," said Bill.

"I forgot about that. He's a clever Indian for he talks two languages quite well and can make himself understood in English," said Bob.

"What two languages can he talk?" asked Pud.

"He speaks the Montagnais language," replied Mr. Waterman. "He is a Montagnais Indian of the very same stock as was seen by Jacques Cartier when he first landed at Tadousac when he was going up the St. Lawrence River hoping to discover a new route to China."

"Well, tell us the bear story anyway," said Mr. Anderson.

"We want to hear it."

Scenting a good tale, they all moved closer to the fire, and Bob began.

"Pierre says that this experience with the bear happened in the late spring. He had been back from his winter's hunting about a month and the spring had opened up very finely. One day, the call to nature was too insistent. He got out his gun, told his wife to tell Mr. MacPherson at the store that he would not be down to the big saw mill to work for a few days, and he started back into the country. The rivers were rather swollen then, the woods were wet and damp, but there was the rush of life in the trees and in the very air itself. Pierre swung along with Jean by his side, his heart full of happiness. He had had a good winter's hunt and his wife had money for everything necessary. But more than anything else he wanted the golden sunshine, the ripple of the waters in the stream, the curved body of the salmon as they darted out of the water in their eagerness to get up the streams. He told his boy that though they had come out for game, he really just wanted to be in the woods when the buds were coming out and when he could feel the sap driving up from the ground into the furthest shoots of the bushes and trees. Jean's face was just as bright as his own and he raised his head and sniffed the air as if in answer to the voice of spring that reigned everywhere.