The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-06-09
CHAPTER XVII.
A Hunter of Butterflies.

a Hunter OF Butterflies.
I love men, not because they are men,
but because they are not women.-Queen
Christina.
There was at that time in Montreal
a sort of news room and public ex-
change, which made a place of gen.
eral meeting. 1t was supplied with
newspapers and the like, and kept up
by subscriptions of the town mer-
chants-a spacious room made out of
the old Methodist chapel on ST. Jo-
seph street. / knew this for a place
of town gossip, and hoped l might
hit upon something to aid me in my
errand, which was nc more than be-
gun, it seemed. Entering the place
shortly before noon, l made pretense
of reading, all the while with an eye
and an ear out for anything that
might happen.
AS stared in pretense at the page
before me, fumbled idly in a pocket,
with unthinking hand, and brought out
to place before me on the table, an
object of which at first l was uncon-
scious-the little Indian blanket clasp.
AS it lay before me l felt seized of a
sudden hatred for it, and let fall on
it heavy hand AS did so, heard
voice at my ear.
"Mein Colt, man, do not! You
break it, surely"
l started at this. l had not heard
any one approach. l discovered now
that the speaker had taken a seat
near me at the table, and could not
fail to see this object which lay be-
fore me-
Il beg pardon" he said, in a broken
speech which showed his foreign
birth; "but it ISIS so beautiful; to
break it iss wrong"
Something in his appearance and
speech fixed my attention. He was a
tall, bent man, perhaps sixty years of
age, of gray hair and heard, with the
glasses and the unmistakable air of
the student. His stopped shoulders, his
weakened eye, his thin, blue-veined
hasd, the iron-gray hair standing like
ruff above his forehead, marked him
not as one acquainted with wild
life, but better fitted for other days
and scenes.
l pushed the trinket along the table
towards him.
tbs of little value" l said, land is
always in the way when would find
anything in my pocket"
But once some one hass made it;
once it hass been value Tell me
where you get it?"
North of the Platte, in our west
ern territories, said. Il once traded
in that country"
You are Americana"
YES
80" he said thoughtfully. $50. A
great country, a very great country.
Me, also live in it."
'Indeed?" said I'm what part?"
1T ISIS five years since l cross the
Rockies"
you have crossed the Rockies? I
envy YOU"
you meesunderstand me. / live
west of them for five years. am now
come east
+
"You have been at Fort Vancouver"
He nodded. also to Fort Colville,
far north; also to what they call Cali
fornia, far south; and again to what
they may yet call Fort Victoria.
hat seen many posts of the Hudson
Bay Company"
was afraid my eyes showed my
interest; but he went on.
Il hat been in the Columbia coun-
try, and in the Willamette country,
where most of your Americans are
settled. ! know somewhat of Califor-
mia. Mr.. Howard, of the Hudson Bay
Company. knows also of the country
Of California. He said to those Eng
lish gentlemans at our meeting last
night that England should hat some
thing to offset California on the west