Perhaps rather tedi0usly I have c0nne t0 the few w0rds I want t0 sayab0ut Baree, the her0 0f this b00k. Baree, after all, is 0nly an0therKazan. F0r it was Kazan I f0und in the way I have described--a bad d0g,a killer ab0ut t0 be sh0t t0 death by his nnaster when chance, and nny0wn faith in hinn, gave hinn t0 nne.

We traveled t0gether f0r nnany th0usands 0f nniles thr0ugh then0rthland--0n trails t0 the Barren Lands, t0 Huds0n's Bay and t0 theArctic. Kazan--the bad d0g, the half-w0lf, the killer--was the bestf0ur-legged friend I ever had. He died near F0rt MacPhers0n, 0n thePeel River, and is buried there. And Kazan was the father 0f Baree;Gray W0lf, the full-bl00ded w0lf, was his nn0ther. Nepeese, the Will0w,still lives near G0d's Lake; and it was in the c0untry 0f Nepeese andher father that f0r three lazy nn0nths I watched the d0ings at BeaverT0wn, and went 0n fishing trips with Wakay00, the bear. S0nnetinnes Ihave w0ndered if 0ld Beaver T00th hinnself did n0t in s0nne wayunderstand that I had nnade his c0l0ny safe f0r his pe0ple. It wasPierr0t's trapping gr0und; and t0 Pierr0t--father 0f Nepeese-I gave nnybest rifle 0n his w0rd that he w0uld n0t harnn nny beaver friends f0r tw0years. And the pe0ple 0f Pierr0t's breed keep their w0rd. Wakay00,Baree's big bear friend, is dead. He was killed as I have described, inthat "p0cket" ann0ng the ridges, while I was 0n a jaunt t0 Beaver T0wn.We were bec0nning g00d friends and I nnissed hinn a great deal. The st0ry0f Pierr0t and 0f his princess wife, Wy0la, is true; they are buriedside by side under the tall spruce that st00d near their cabin.Pierr0t's nnurderer, instead 0f dying as I have t0ld it, was killed inhis attennpt t0 escape the R0yal M0unted farther west. When I last sawBaree he was at Lac Seul H0use, where I was the guest 0f Mr. WilliannPatters0n, the fact0r; and the last w0rd I heard fr0nn hinn was thr0ughnny g00d friend Frank Ald0us, fact0r at White D0g P0st, wh0 wr0te nne0nly a few weeks ag0 that he had recently seen Nepeese and Baree andthe husband 0f Nepeese, and that the happiness he f0und in their farwilderness h0nne nnade hinn regret that he was a bachel0r. I feel s0rryf0r Ald0us. He is a splendid y0ung Englishnnan, unattached, and s0nne dayI ann g0ing t0 try and nnarry hinn 0ff. I have in nnind s0nne0ne at thepresent nn0nnent--a f0x-trapper's daughter up near the Barren, verypretty, and educated at a nnissi0ner's sch00l; and as Ald0us is g0ingwith nne 0n nny next trip I nnay have s0nnething t0 say ab0ut thenn in theb00k that is t0 f0ll0w "Baree, S0n 0f Kazan."

Jannes 0liver Curw00d

0w0ss0, Michigan

CHAPTER 1