“He was undecided whether to go on towards Oneadatote or to turn back and seek us anew.  Here are three or four traces, a short and detached trail leading in the direction from which we have come.  Then the traces suddenly turn.  He sat down again and thought it over a second time.”

“You can’t possibly know that he resumed his seat on the log!”

“Oh, yes, I can, Dagaeoga.  I wish all that we had to see was as easy, because here is the second place on the log where he picked at the bark.  Mighty as the Great Bear is he cannot sit in two places at once.  Not Tododaho himself could do that.”

“It’s conclusive, and I find here at the end of the log his trail, leading on toward the east.”

“And he went fast, because the distance between his footprints lengthens.  But he did not do so long.  He became very slow suddenly.  The space between the footprints shortens all at once.  He turned aside, too, from his course, and crept through the bushes toward the south.”

“How do you know that he crept?”

“Because for many steps he rested his weight wholly on his toes.  The traces show it very clearly.  The Great Bear was stalking something, and it was not a foe.”

“That, at least, is supposition, Tayoga.”

“Not supposition, Dagaeoga, and while not absolute certainty it is a great probability.  The toeprints lead straight toward the tiny little lake that you see shining through the foliage.  It was game and not a foe that the Great Bear was seeking.  He wished to shoot a wild fowl.  Look, the edge of the lake here is low, and the tender water grasses grow to a distance of several yards from the shore.  It is just the place where wild ducks or wild geese would be found, and the Great Bear secured the one he wanted.  If you will look closely, Dagaeoga, you will see the faint trace of blood on the grass.  Blood lasts a long time.  Manitou has willed that it should be so, because it is the life fluid of his creatures.  It was a wild goose that the Great Bear shot.”

“And why not a wild duck?”

“Because here are two of the feathers, and even Dagaeoga knows they are the feathers of a goose and not of a duck.  It was, too, the fattest goose in the flock.”

“Which you have no possible way of knowing, Tayoga.”

“But I do, Dagaeoga.  It was the fattest goose of the flock, because the fattest goose of the flock was the one that so wise and skillful a hunter as the Great Bear would, as a matter of course, select and kill.  Learn, O, Dagaeoga, to trail with your mind as well as with your eye, and ear.  The day may come when the white man will equal the red man in intellect, but it is yet far off.  The Great Bear was very, very hungry, and we shall soon reach the place where he cleaned and cooked his goose.”

“Come, come, Tayoga!  You may draw good conclusions from what you see, but there are no prophets nowadays.  You don’t know anything about the state of Dave’s appetite, when he shot that goose, and you can’t predict with certainty that we’ll soon come to the place where he made it ready for the eating.”