A Romany of the Snows, Volume 1

Once Macavoy the giant ruled a tribe of Northern people, achieving the / dignity by the hands of Pierre, who called him King Macavoy. Then came / a time when, tiring of his kingship, he journeyed south, leaving all / behind, even his queen, Wonta, who, in her bed of cypresses and yarrow, / came forth no more into the morning. About Fort Guidon they still / gave him his title, and because of his guilelessness, sincerity, and / generosity, Pierre called him "The Simple King. " His seven feet and / over shambled about, suggesting unjointed power, unshackled force. / No one hated Macavoy, many loved him, he was welcome at the fire and / the cooking-pot; yet it seemed shameful to have so much man useless -- / such an engine of life, which might do great things, wasting fuel. / Nobody thought much of that at Fort Guidon, except, perhaps, Pierre, / who sometimes said, "My simple king, some day you shall have your great / chance again; but not as a king -- as a giant, a man -- voila!"

The day did not come immediately, but it came. When Ida, the deaf and / dumb girl, married Hilton, of the H. B. C., every man at Fort Guidon, and / some from posts beyond, sent her or brought her presents of one kind or / another. Pierre's gift was a Mexican saddle. He was branding Ida's name / on it with the broken blade of a case-knife when Macavoy entered on him, / having just returned from a vagabond visit to Fort Ste. Anne.