“Nothing,” replied Will Palmer.
“Then what are you all crowding around me for?”
No one answered for a moment, but finally Sam Wardwell said, “We want you to tell us stories.”
“Stories about Indians,” explained Ned Johnston.
Paul laughed. “You’re welcome to all I know,” said he; “but I don’t think they’re very interesting. Really, I can’t remember a single one that’s worth telling.”
This was very discouraging; but Canning Forbes, who was so smart that, although he was only fourteen years of age, he was studying mental philosophy, whispered to Will Palmer that people never saw anything interesting about their own daily lives.
“You can tell us something about birch canoes, can’t you?” asked Ned Johnston, by way of encouragement.
“Oh yes,” Paul replied; “they’re made out of bark, with hoops and strips of wood inside, to give them shape and make them strong.”
“How do they fasten up the ends?” asked Ned.
“They first sew or tie them together with strings, and then they put pitch over the seams to make them water-tight.”