62 FIFTY YEARS IN WESTERN CANADA

“But he is there; he is surely hiding, all the better
to pounce upon us afterwards,” they pitifully cried
out.

Then, turning towards the forest, one of them
addressed in pleading tones the imaginary visitor:

‘Pray, do not harm us; we never did you any-
thing,’’ she loudly whined. ‘‘Come rather to us, and
we will give you whatever you may fancy.”

Disgusted with such uncalled-for dread, Father
Morice left them to harangue the air and returned to his
work.

Women, mere women, you may say. Yes, but
under the circumstances men would have done quite
as much.'?

18 Au Pays del’Ours Noir, pp. 63, 64.