



Produced by Al Haines









[Illustration: Cover art]





[Frontispiece: A BIG BLACK BEAR MADE FURIOUS EFFORTS TO SEIZE DOUR AND
DANDY.  _See page 19_.]





TI-TI-PU

A BOY OF RED RIVER


BY

J. MACDONALD OXLEY

Author of 'Standing the Test,' etc.




TORONTO

THE MUSSON BOOK COMPANY LIMITED

1900




CONTENTS


CHAP.

    I.  FROM THE OLD WORLD TO THE NEW
   II.  AT ODDS WITH BRUIN
  III.  A COLD PLUNGE
   IV.  HECTOR ENTRAPPED
    V.  THE SEARCH FOR HECTOR
   VI.  ORDERED OFF
  VII.  HOW HECTOR GOT HIS NICKNAME
 VIII.  ON THE MOVE AGAIN
   IX.  THE BUFFALO HUNT
    X.  LOST ON THE PRAIRIE
   XI.  THE LOSING AND FINDING OF AILIE
  XII.  THE MOOSE HUNT




TI-TI-PU

A Boy of Red River


CHAPTER I

From the Old World to the New

This is how it befell.  Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, thought that a
flourishing colony right in the midst of the rich hunting-grounds of
the Hudson's Bay Company, in which he was interested, would prove no
less a benefit to the natives than an excellent thing for the
colonists.  Accordingly, he busied himself in persuading a number of
his fellow-countrymen to leave their hillside farms, and, with their
families, voyage to the unknown wilds of the New World.

Among those whose courage was equal to this enterprise was Andrew
Macrae, accompanied by his good wife, Kirstie, his sturdy son, Hector,
then just on the edge of his teens, his bonnie wee daughter, Ailie, and
his two splendid sheep dogs, Dour and Dandy.

The dogs' names were not given them at random.  They just fitted their
natures.  A more serious creature than Dour surely never stood upon
four legs.  He bore himself as if he were responsible, not merely for
the occupants of the sheep-cote, but also of the cottage as well.  He
was never known to frisk or gambol, or to bark without due cause.

Dandy was the very opposite, as black as a raven, save for a superb
snow-white shirt-front, which he managed to keep marvellously clean,
and a few touches of golden-brown on his shapely head.  He was only a
little slighter than Dour, and as lively and frolicsome as the other
was impassive.  Although not quite the equal of Dour, Dandy was an
excellent sheep dog, too, and many a cotter envied Andrew the
possession of the two fine creatures.

Hector loved both dogs dearly, albeit he stood a trifle in awe of Dour.
The dogs were as much members of the family as Ailie and himself.  He
would have shared his last bit of bannock or sup of 'parritch' with
either of them, and they fully returned his affection, each in his own
way.

Hector was a 'braw laddie,' in very sooth.  From his father, he got the
straightness and strength of body, the deftness of hand and foot, and
the rapidity of thought that made him an unquestioned leader among his
playfellows, and from his mother the light, crisp hair, the laughing
blue eyes, and the happy turn of speech that made the other boys love
as well as obey him.

He stood in much awe of his father, who was as strict as he was just,
but his mother had his whole heart, and many a time did he go to her
for comfort, when reproved by Andrew for some little bit of
heedlessness.

With little Ailie, a dark-eyed, dark-haired sprite, not like either
parent, to protect and pet, the Macraes made up a notably happy family
group, and were the recipients of many attentions from their fellow
passengers, on the long voyage on a slow sailing ship to the bleak
shores of Hudson's Bay.

That voyage out proved far from being a pleasant holiday.  Cooped up in
an over-loaded vessel, whose accommodation was scant at best, fed upon
pork and beef that was salter than the sea itself, and hard biscuits
that became alive with weevils ere the ship reached its destination,
all the colonists suffered more or less severely.  It spoke well for
the stamina of the Macraes that they bore the privations of the passage
better than the majority, and landed at York Factory in fairly good
trim.

'Eh, but glad I am to put my feet upon the solid ground again!'
exclaimed Andrew Macrae, with