This poor man's story was very brief; as soon as the fever abated, he set out with his wife for Cumberland House, having been previously reduced to feed on the bits of skin and offal, which remained about their encampment.

Even this miserable fare was exhausted, and they walked several days without eating, yet exerting themselves far beyond their strength that they might save the life of the infant.

It died almost within sight of the house.

Mr.Connolly, who was then in charge of the post, received them with the utmost humanity, and instantly placed food before them; but no language can describe the manner in which the miserable father dashed the morsel from his lips and deplored the loss of his child.

Misery may harden a disposition naturally bad, but it never fails to soften the heart of a good man.
The _origin_ of the Crees, to which nation the Cumberland House Indians belong, is, like that of the other Aborigines of America, involved in obscurity; but the researches now making into the nature and affinities of the languages spoken by the different Indian tribes, may eventually throw some light on the subject.