[Gutenberg 23129] • The Young Voyageurs: Boy Hunters in the North

Boy reader, you have heard of the Hudson's Bay Company? Ten to one, you have worn a piece of fur, which it has provided for you; if not, your pretty little sister has-in her muff, or her boa, or as a trimming for her winter dress. Would you like to know something of the country whence come these furs?-of the animals whose backs have been stripped to obtain them? As I feel certain that you and I are old friends, I make bold to answer for you-yes. Come, then! let us journey together to the "Fur Countries;" let us cross them from south to north. A vast journey it will be. It will cost us many thousand miles of travel. We shall find neither railway-train, nor steamboat, nor stage-coach, to carry us on our way. We shall not even have the help of a horse. For us no hotel shall spread its luxurious board; no road-side inn shall hang out its inviting sign and "clean beds;" no roof of any kind shall offer us its hospitable shelter. Our table shall be a rock, a log, or the earth itself; our lodging a tent; and our bed the skin of a wild beast. Such are the best accommodations we can expect upon our journey. Are you still ready to undertake it? Does the prospect not deter you?