Adventure and adventurers > Away in the wilderness, or, Life among the red Indians and fur-traders of North America

48
AWAY m THE WILDERNESS.
submit. I fancy you have no objection to stop
here another day, Arrowhead ? ”
The Indian nodded gravely, as he squatted down
on the floor and began to fill his pipe.
“ That’s settled, then,” said Jasper, “ so I’ll go
with you to the store, if you’ll allow me.”
“With all my heart,” replied the fur-trader,
who forthwith led the way to the store, followed
by the Indians with their packs of furs.
Now, the store or shop at a Hudson’s Bay trad¬
ing-post is a most interesting and curious place.
To the Indian, especially, it is a sort of enchanted
chamber, out of which can be obtained everything
known under the sun. As there can be only one
shop or store at a trading-post, it follows that that
shop must contain a few articles out of almost
every other style of shop in the world. Accord-
ingly, you will find collected within the four walls
of that little room, knives and guns from Sheffield,
cotton webs from Manchester, grindstones from
Newcastle, tobacco from Virginia, and every sort
of thing from I know not where all! You can
buy a blanket or a file, an axe or a pair of trousers,
a pound of sugar or a barrel of nails, a roll of
tobacco or a tin kettle,—everything, in short, that
a man can think of or desire. And you can buy
it, too, without money! Indeed, you must buy it
without money, for there is not such a thing as
money in the land.