Camp was made a little farther up. When it was ready for the night
Job and Joe were again off to watch the caribou. They were feeding
on the hills and swimming back and forth from islands to mainland,
now in companies, now a single caribou. Job was so near one as he
came out of the water that he could have caught him by the horns.
Now and then a distant shout told that Job and the caribou had come
to close quarters.
While George and Gilbert prepared supper, I sat writing in my diary
with feet stretched to the fire, for I was wet and it was cold that
night. Suddenly I was startled to hear George exclaim in tragic
tones: "Oh! look there! Isn't that too bad!"
Looking up quickly to see what was the trouble I saw him gazing
regretfully at a salt shaker which he had just drawn from his
pocket.
"Just see," he exclaimed, "what I've been carrying round in my
pocket all the time you were running after those caribou, and never
thought about it at all. Well, I am sorry for that. I could just
have given you a bit and you would have been all right."
For fifty miles of our journey beyond this point we saw companies
of the caribou every day, and sometimes many times a day, though we
did not again see them in such numbers.
