They had an abundance of tobacco and tea. Sishetakushin and his family
had been without these luxuries, and it seemed to Bob that he had
never tasted anything half so delicious as the first cup of tea he
drank. His Indian friends could not understand at first his refusal of
their proffered gifts of "stemmo"--tobacco--but he told them finally
that it would make him sick, and then they accepted his excuse and
laughed at him good naturedly.
Manikawan had never ceased her attentions to Bob, and the others of
her family seemed to have come to an understanding that it was her
especial duty to look after his comfort. From the first she had been
much troubled that he had only his cloth adikey instead of a deerskin
coat such as her father and Mookoomahn wore, and she often expressed
her regret that there was no deerskin with which to make him one. He
insisted at these times that his adikey was quite warm enough, but she
always shook her head in dissent, for she could not believe it, and
would say,
"No, the Snow Brother is cold. Manikawan will make him warm clothes
when the deer are found."
On the very night of their arrival at the camp she went amongst the
wigwams and begged from the women some skins of the fall killing,
tanned with the hair on, with the flesh side as fine and white and
soft as chamois.
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