These things we have passed by
reverently, as symbols of a people's trust in its kind.
The same sort of honesty holds in regard to smaller things. I have
never hesitated to leave in my camp firearms, fishing-rods, utensils
valuable from a woods point of view, even a watch or money. Not only
have I never lost anything in that manner, but once an Indian lad
followed me some miles after the morning's start to restore to me a
half-dozen trout flies I had accidentally left behind.
It might be readily inferred that this quality carries over into the
subtleties, as indeed is the case. Mr. MacDonald of Brunswick House
once discussed with me the system of credits carried on by the Hudson's
Bay Company with the trappers. Each family is advanced goods to the
value of two hundred dollars, with the understanding that the debt is
to be paid from the season's catch.
"I should think you would lose a good deal," I ventured. "Nothing could
be easier than for an Indian to take his two hundred dollars' worth and
disappear in the woods. You'd never be able to find him."
Mr. MacDonald's reply struck me, for the man had twenty years' trading
experience.
"I have never," said he, "in a long woods life known but one Indian
liar."
This my own limited woods-wandering has proved to be true to a
sometimes almost ridiculous extent. The most trivial statement of fact
can be relied on, provided it is given outside of trade or enmity or
absolute indifference.
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