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Long, William Joseph, 1866-1952

"Wilderness Ways"


Every unusual thing in our doings made him inquisitive to know all
about it. Once, when I started down the lake with a fair wind, and a
small spruce set up in the bow of my canoe for a sail, he followed me
four or five miles, calling all the way. And when I came back to camp
at twilight with a big bear in the canoe, his shaggy head showing over
the bow, and his legs up over the middle thwart, like a little old
black man with his wrinkled feet on the table, Hukweem's curiosity
could stand it no longer. He swam up within twenty yards, and circled
the canoe half a dozen times, sitting up straight on his tail by a
vigorous use of his wings, stretching his neck like an inquisitive
duck, so as to look into the canoe and see what queer thing I had
brought with me.
He had another curious habit which afforded him unending amusement.
There was a deep bay on the west shore of the lake, with hills rising
abruptly on three sides. The echo here was remarkable; a single shout
brought a dozen distinct answers, and then a confusion of tongues as
the echoes and re-echoes from many hills met and mingled.


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