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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Backwoodsmen, by Charles G. D. Roberts
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Backwoodsmen
+
+Author: Charles G. D. Roberts
+
+Release Date: May 24, 2009 [EBook #28960]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BACKWOODSMEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BACKWOODSMEN
+
+
+
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
+ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO
+
+MACMILLAN & CO., Limited
+
+LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
+MELBOURNE
+
+THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
+
+TORONTO
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Red McWha's big form shot past." _(See page 136)_]
+
+
+
+
+THE BACKWOODSMEN
+
+BY
+CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE KINDRED OF THE WILD," "THE HOUSE
+IN THE WATER," "THE HEART OF THE ANCIENT WOOD," ETC.
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+
+New York
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+1909
+
+All rights reserved
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1909,
+
+By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
+
+Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1909.
+
+Copyright, 1906, 1907, 1908, by THE CENTURY COMPANY,
+EVERYBODY'S MAGAZINE, APPLETON'S MAGAZINE, THE YOUTH'S COMPANION,
+THE LADIES' WORLD, THE DELINEATOR, HAMPTON'S BROADWAY MAGAZINE,
+T. Y. CROWELL & COMPANY.
+
+Norwood Press
+
+J. S. Gushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
+
+Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+ CHAPTER                                                          PAGE
+ The Vagrants of the Barren                                          1
+ MacPhairrson's Happy Family                                        22
+ On Big Lonely                                                      53
+ From Buck to Bear and Back                                         70
+ In the Deep of the Snow                                            81
+ The Gentling of Red McWha                                         112
+ Melindy and the Lynxes                                            144
+ Mrs. Gammit's Pig                                                 156
+ The Blackwater Pot                                                177
+ The Iron Edge of Winter                                           201
+ The Grip in Deep Hole                                             208
+ The Nest of the Mallard                                           221
+ Mrs. Gammit and the Porcupines                                    230
+ The Battle in the Mist                                            262
+ Melindy and the Spring Bear                                       271
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+ "Red McWha's big form shot past."                      _Frontispiece_
+
+ "One of these monstrous shapes neglected to
+ vanish."                                                           18
+
+ "'It's--Mandy Ann!'"                                               66
+
+ "Where anything from a baby's rattle to a bag of
+ fertilizer could be purchased."                                    99
+
+ "He was roused by a sudden shot."                                 185
+
+ "He realized that he was caught by the foot."                     201
+
+
+
+
+The Vagrants of the Barren
+
+
+With thick smoke in his throat and the roar of flame in his ears, Pete
+Noël awoke, shaking as if in the grip of a nightmare. He sat straight
+up in his bunk. Instantly he felt his face scorching. The whole cabin
+was ablaze. Leaping from his bunk, and dragging the blankets with him,
+he sprang to the door, tore it open, and rushed out into the snow.
+
+But being a woodsman, and alert in every sense like the creatures
+of the wild themselves, his wits were awake almost before his body
+was, and his instincts were even quicker than his wits. The
+desolation and the savage cold of the wilderness had admonished him
+even in that terrifying moment. As he leaped out in desperate
+flight, he had snatched with him not only the blankets, but his
+rifle and cartridge-belt from where they stood by the head of the
+bunk, and also his larrigans and great blanket coat from where they
+lay by its foot. He had been sleeping, according to custom, almost
+fully clothed.
+
+Outside in the snow he stood, blinking through scorched and smarting
+lids at the destruction of his shack. For a second or two he stared
+down at the things he clutched in his arms, and wondered how he had
+come to think of them in time. Then, realizing with a pang that he
+needed something more than clothes and a rifle, he flung them down on
+the snow and made a dash for the cabin, in the hope of rescuing a hunk
+of bacon or a loaf of his substantial woodsman's bread. But before he
+could reach the door a licking flame shot out and hurled him back,
+half blinded. Grabbing up a double handful of snow, he buried his face
+in it to ease the smart. Then he shook himself, coolly carried the
+treasures he had saved back to a safe distance from the flames, and
+sat down on the blankets to put on his larrigans.
+
+His feet, clothed only in a single pair of thick socks, were almost
+frozen, while the rest of his body was roasting in the fierce heat of
+the conflagration. It wanted about two hours of dawn. There was not a
+breath of air stirring, and the flames shot straight up, murky red and
+clear yellow intertwisting, with here and there a sudden leaping
+tongue of violet white. Outside the radius of the heat the tall woods
+snapped sharply in the intense cold. It was so cold, indeed, that as
+the man stood watching the ruin of his little, lonely home, shielding
+his face from the blaze now with one hand then with the other, his
+back seemed turning to ice.
+
+The man who lives alone in the great solitude of the forest has every
+chance to become a philosopher. Pete Noël was a philosopher. Instead
+of dwelling upon the misfortunes which had smitten him, he chose to
+consider his good luck in having got out of the shack alive. Putting
+on his coat, he noted with satisfaction that its spacious pockets
+contained matches, tobacco, his pipe, his heavy clasp-knife, and his
+mittens. He was a hundred miles from the nearest settlement, fifty or
+sixty from the nearest lumber-camp. He had no food. The snow was four
+feet deep, and soft. And his trusty snowshoes, which would have made
+these distances and these difficulties of small account to him, were
+helping feed the blaze. Nevertheless, he thought, things might have
+been much worse. What if he had escaped in his bare feet? This thought
+reminded him of how cold his feet were at this moment. Well, the old
+shack had been a good one, and sheltered him well enough. Now that it
+would shelter him no longer, it should at least be made to contribute
+something more to his comfort. Piling his blankets carefully under the
+shelter of a broad stump, he sat down upon them. Then he filled and
+lighted his pipe, leaned back luxuriously, and stretched out his feet
+to the blaze. It would be time enough for him to "get a move on" when
+the shack was quite burned down. The shack was home as long as it
+lasted.
+
+When the first mystic greyness, hard like steel and transparent like
+glass, began to reveal strange vistas among the ancient trees, the
+fire died down. The shack was a heap of ashes and pulsating, scarlet
+embers, with here and there a flickering, half-burned timber, and the
+red-hot wreck of the tiny stove sticking up in the ruins. As soon as
+the ruins were cool enough to approach, Pete picked up a green pole,
+and began poking earnestly among them. He had all sorts of vague
+hopes. He particularly wanted his axe, a tin kettle, and something to
+eat. The axe was nowhere to be found, at least in such a search as
+could then be made. The tins, obviously, had all gone to pieces or
+melted. But he did, at least, scratch out a black, charred lump about
+the size of his fist, which gave forth an appetizing smell. When the
+burnt outside had been carefully scraped off, it proved to be the
+remnant of a side of bacon. Pete fell to his breakfast with about as
+much ceremony as might have sufficed a hungry wolf, the deprivation of
+a roof-tree having already taken him back appreciably nearer to the
+elemental brute. Having devoured his burnt bacon, and quenched his
+thirst by squeezing some half-melted snow into a cup of birch-bark, he
+rolled his blankets into a handy pack, squared his shoulders, and took
+the trail for Conroy's Camp, fifty miles southwestward.
+
+It was now that Pete Noël began to realize the perils that confronted
+him. Without his snowshoes, he found himself almost helpless. Along
+the trail the snow was from three to four feet deep, and soft.
+There had been no thaws and no hard winds to pack it down. After
+floundering ahead for four or five hundred yards he would have to
+stop and rest, half reclining. In spite of the ferocious cold, he
+was soon drenched with sweat. After a couple of hours of such work, he
+found himself consumed with thirst. He had nothing to melt the snow
+in; and, needless to say, he knew better than to ease his need by
+eating the snow itself. But he hit upon a plan which filled him with
+self-gratulation. Lighting a tiny fire beside the trail, under the
+shelter of a huge hemlock, he took off his red cotton neckerchief,
+filled it with snow, and held it to the flames. As the snow began
+to melt, he squeezed the water from it in a liberal stream. But,
+alas! the stream was of a colour that was not enticing. He realized,
+with a little qualm, that it had not occurred to him to wash that
+handkerchief since--well, he was unwilling to say when. For all the
+insistence of his thirst, therefore, he continued melting the snow
+and squeezing it out, till the resulting stream ran reasonably
+clear. Then patiently he drank, and afterward smoked three pipefuls of
+his rank, black tobacco as substitute for the square meal which his
+stomach was craving.
+
+All through the biting silent day he floundered resolutely on, every
+now and then drawing his belt a little tighter, and all the while
+keeping a hungry watch for game of some kind. What he hoped for was
+rabbit, partridge, or even a fat porcupine; but he would have made a
+shift to stomach even the wiry muscles of a mink, and count himself
+fortunate. By sunset he came out on the edge of a vast barren,
+glorious in washes of thin gold and desolate purple under the touch of
+the fading west. Along to eastward ran a low ridge, years ago licked
+by fire, and now crested with a sparse line of ghostly rampikes, their
+lean, naked tops appealing to the inexorable sky. This was the head of
+the Big Barren. With deep disgust, and something like a qualm of
+apprehension, Pete Noël reflected that he had made only fifteen miles
+in that long day of effort. And he was ravenously hungry. Well, he was
+too tired to go farther that night; and in default of a meal, the best
+thing he could do was sleep. First, however, he unlaced his larrigans,
+and with the thongs made shift to set a clumsy snare in a rabbit track
+a few paces back among the spruces. Then, close under the lee of a
+black wall of fir-trees standing out beyond the forest skirts, he
+clawed himself a deep trench in the snow. In one end of this trench he
+built a little fire, of broken deadwood and green birch saplings
+laboriously hacked into short lengths with his clasp-knife. A supply
+of this firewood, dry and green mixed, he piled beside the trench
+within reach. The bottom of the trench, to within a couple of feet of
+the fire, he lined six inches deep with spruce-boughs, making a dry,
+elastic bed.
+
+By the time these preparations were completed, the sharp-starred
+winter night had settled down upon the solitude. In all the vast there
+was no sound but the occasional snap, hollow and startling, of some
+great tree overstrung by the frost, and the intimate little whisper
+and hiss of Pete's fire down in the trench. Disposing a good bunch of
+boughs under his head, Pete lighted his pipe, rolled himself in his
+blankets, and lay down with his feet to the fire.
+
+There at the bottom of his trench, comforted by pipe and fire, hidden
+away from the emptiness of the enormous, voiceless world outside, Pete
+Noël looked up at the icy stars, and at the top of the frowning black
+rampart of the fir-trees, touched grimly with red flashes from his
+fire. He knew well--none better than he--the savage and implacable
+sternness of the wild. He knew how dreadful the silent adversary
+against whom he had been called, all unprepared, to pit his craft.
+There was no blinking the imminence of his peril. Hitherto he had
+always managed to work, more or less, _with_ nature, and so had come
+to regard the elemental forces as friendly. Now they had turned upon
+him altogether and without warning. His anger rose as he realized that
+he was at bay. The indomitable man-spirit awoke with the anger.
+Sitting up suddenly, over the edge of the trench his deep eyes looked
+out upon the shadowy spaces of the night with challenge and defiance.
+Against whatever odds, he declared to himself, he was master. Having
+made his proclamation in that look, Pete Noël lay down again and went
+to sleep.
+
+After the fashion of winter campers and of woodsmen generally, he
+awoke every hour or so to replenish the fire; but toward morning he
+sank into the heavy sleep of fatigue. When he aroused himself from
+this, the fire was stone grey, the sky overhead was whitish, flecked
+with pink streamers, and rose-pink lights flushed delicately the green
+wall of the fir-trees leaning above him. The edges of the blankets
+around his face were rigid and thick with ice from his breathing.
+Breaking them away roughly, he sat up, cursed himself for having let
+the fire out, then, with his eyes just above the edge of the trench,
+peered forth across the shining waste. As he did so, he instinctively
+shrank back into concealment. An eager light flamed into his eyes, and
+he blessed his luck that the fire had gone out. Along the crest of the
+ridge, among the rampikes, silhouetted dark and large against the
+sunrise, moved a great herd of caribou, feeding as they went.
+
+Crouching low in his trench, Pete hurriedly did up his blankets, fixed
+the pack on his back, then crawled through the snow into the shelter
+of the fir-woods. As soon as he was out of sight, he arose, recovered
+the thongs of his larrigans from the futile snare, and made his way
+back on the trail as fast as he could flounder. That one glance over
+the edge of his trench had told his trained eye all he needed to know
+about the situation.
+
+The caribou, most restless, capricious, and far-wandering of all the
+wilderness kindreds, were drifting south on one of their apparently
+aimless migrations. They were travelling on the ridge, because, as
+Pete instantly inferred, the snow there had been partly blown away,
+partly packed, by the unbroken winds. They were far out of gunshot.
+But he was going to trail them down even through that deep snow. By
+tireless persistence and craft he would do it, if he had to do it on
+his hands and knees.
+
+Such wind as there was, a light but bitter air drawing irregularly
+down out of the north-west, blew directly from the man to the herd,
+which was too far off, however, to catch the ominous taint and take
+alarm. Pete's first care was to work around behind the herd till this
+danger should be quite eliminated. For a time his hunger was forgotten
+in the interest of the hunt; but presently, as he toiled his slow way
+through the deep of the forest, it grew too insistent to be ignored.
+He paused to strip bark from such seedlings of balsam fir as he
+chanced upon, scraping off and devouring the thin, sweetish pulp that
+lies between the bark and the mature wood. He gathered, also, the
+spicy tips of the birch-buds, chewing them up by handfuls and spitting
+out the residue of hard husks. And in this way he managed at least to
+soothe down his appetite from angry protest to a kind of doubtful
+expectancy.
+
+At last, after a couple of hours' hard floundering, the woods thinned,
+the ground sloped upward, and he came out upon the flank of the ridge,
+a long way behind the herd, indeed, but well around the wind. In the
+trail of the herd the snow was broken up, and not more than a foot and
+a half in depth. On a likely-looking hillock he scraped it away
+carefully with his feet, till he reached the ground; and here he found
+what he expected--a few crimson berries of the wintergreen, frozen,
+but plump and sweet-fleshed. Half a handful of these served for the
+moment to cajole his hunger, and he pressed briskly but warily along
+the ridge, availing himself of the shelter of every rampike in his
+path. At last, catching sight of the hindmost stragglers of the herd,
+still far out of range, he crouched like a cat, and crossed over the
+crest of the ridge for better concealment.
+
+On the eastern slope the ridge carried numerous thickets of
+underbrush. From one to another of these Pete crept swiftly, at a rate
+which should bring him, in perhaps an hour, abreast of the leisurely
+moving herd. In an hour, then, he crawled up to the crest again, under
+cover of a low patch of juniper scrub. Confidently he peered through
+the scrub, his rifle ready. But his face grew black with bitter
+disappointment. The capricious beasts had gone. Seized by one of
+their incomprehensible vagaries--Pete was certain that he had not
+alarmed them--they were now far out on the white level, labouring
+heavily southward.
+
+Pete set his jaws resolutely. Hunger and cold, each the mightier from
+their alliance, were now assailing him savagely. His first impulse was
+to throw off all concealment and rush straight down the broad-trodden
+trail. But on second thought he decided that he would lose more than
+he would gain by such tactics. Hampered though they were by the deep,
+soft snow, he knew that, once frightened, they could travel through it
+much faster than they were now moving, and very much faster than he
+could hope to follow. Assuredly, patience was his game. Slipping
+furtively from rampike to rampike, now creeping, now worming his way
+like a snake, he made good time down to the very edge of the level.
+Then, concealment no more possible, and the rear of the herd still
+beyond gunshot, he emerged boldly from the covert of a clump of
+saplings and started in pursuit. At the sight of him, every antlered
+head went up in the air for one moment of wondering alarm; then,
+through a rolling white cloud the herd fled onward at a speed which
+Pete, with all his knowledge of their powers, had not imagined
+possible in such a state of the snow. Sullen, but not discouraged, he
+plodded after them.
+
+Noël was now fairly obsessed with the one idea of overtaking the herd.
+Every other thought, sense, or faculty was dully occupied with his
+hunger and his effort to keep from thinking of it. Hour after hour he
+plodded on, following the wide, chaotic trail across the white silence
+of the barren. There was nothing to lift his eyes for, so he kept them
+automatically occupied in saving his strength by picking the easiest
+steps through the ploughed snow. He did not notice at all that the sun
+no longer sparkled over the waste. He did not notice that the sky had
+turned from hard blue to ghostly pallor. He did not notice that the
+wind, now blowing in his teeth, had greatly increased in force.
+Suddenly, however, he was aroused by a swirl of fine snow driven so
+fiercely that it crossed his face like a lash. Lifting his eyes from
+the trail, he saw that the plain all about him was blotted from sight
+by a streaming rout of snow-clouds. The wind was already whining its
+strange derisive menace in his face. The blizzard had him.
+
+As the full fury of the storm swooped upon him, enwrapping him, and
+clutching at his breath, for an instant Pete Noël quailed. This was a
+new adversary, with whom he had not braced his nerves to grapple. But
+it was for an instant only. Then his weary spirit lifted itself, and
+he looked grimly into the eye of the storm. The cold, the storm, the
+hunger, he would face them all down, and win out yet. Lowering his
+head, and pulling a flap of his blanket coat across his mouth to make
+breathing easier, he plunged straight forward with what seemed like a
+new lease of vigour.
+
+Had the woods been near, or had he taken note of the weather in time,
+Pete would have made for the shelter of the forest at once. But he
+knew that, when last he looked, the track of the herd had been
+straight down the middle of the ever-widening barren. By now he must
+be a good two miles from the nearest cover; and he knew well enough
+that, in the bewilderment of the storm, which blunted even such
+woodcraft as his, and blurred not only his vision, but every other
+sense as well, he could never find his way. His only hope was to keep
+to the trail of the caribou. The beasts would either lie down or
+circle to the woods. In such a storm as this, as he knew well enough,
+no animal but man himself could hunt, or follow up the trail. There
+was no one but man who could confront such a storm undaunted. The
+caribou would forget both their cunning and the knowledge that they
+were being hunted. He would come upon them, or they would lead him to
+shelter. With an obstinate pride in his superiority to the other
+creatures of the wilderness, he scowled defiantly at the storm, and
+because he was overwrought with hunger and fatigue, he muttered to
+himself as he went, cursing the elements that assailed him so
+relentlessly.
+
+For hours he floundered on doggedly, keeping the trail by feeling
+rather than by sight, so thick were the cutting swirls of snow. As the
+drift heaped denser and denser about his legs, the terrible effort, so
+long sustained, began to tell on him, till his progress became only a
+snail's pace. Little by little, in the obstinate effort to conserve
+strength and vitality, his faculties all withdrew into themselves, and
+concentrated themselves upon the one purpose--to keep going onward. He
+began to feel the lure of just giving up. He began to think of the
+warmth and rest he could get, the release from the mad chaos of the
+wind, by the simple expedient of burrowing deep into the deep snow. He
+knew well enough that simple trick of the partridge, when frost and
+storm grow too ferocious for it. But his wiser spirit would not let
+him delude himself. Had he had a full stomach, and food in his
+pockets, he might, perhaps, safely have emulated this cunning trick of
+the partridge. But now, starving, weary, his vitality at the last ebb,
+he knew that if he should yield to the lure of the snow, he would be
+seen no more till the spring sun should reveal him, a thing of horror
+to the returning vireos and blackbirds, on the open, greening face of
+the barren. No, he would not burrow to escape the wind. He laughed
+aloud as he thought upon the madness of it; and went butting and
+plunging on into the storm, indomitable.
+
+Suddenly, however, he stopped short, with a great sinking at his
+heart. He felt cautiously this way and that, first with his feet,
+fumbling through the deep snow, and then with his hands. At last he
+turned his back abruptly to the wind, cowered down with his head
+between his arms to shut out the devilish whistling and whining, and
+tried to think how or when it had happened. He had lost the trail of
+the herd!
+
+All his faculties stung to keen wakefulness by this appalling
+knowledge, he understood how it happened, but not where. The drifts
+had filled the trail, till it was utterly blotted off the face of the
+plain; then he had kept straight on, guided by the pressure of the
+wind. But the caribou, meanwhile, had swerved, and moved off in
+another direction. Which direction? He had to acknowledge to himself
+that he had no clue to judge by, so whimsical were these antlered
+vagrants of the barren. Well, he thought doggedly, let them go! He
+would get along without them. Staggering to his feet, he faced the
+gale again, and thought hard, striving to remember what the direction
+of the wind had been when last he observed it, and at the same time to
+recall the lay of the heavy-timbered forest that skirted this barren
+on two sides.
+
+At length he made up his mind where the nearest point of woods must
+be. He saw it in his mind's eye, a great promontory of black firs
+jutting out into the waste. He turned, calculating warily, till the
+wind came whipping full upon his left cheek. Sure that he was now
+facing his one possible refuge, he again struggled forward. And as he
+went, he pictured to himself the whole caribou herd, now half
+foundered in the drift, labouring toward the same retreat. Once more,
+crushing back hunger and faintness, he summoned up his spirit, and
+vowed that if the beasts could fight their way to cover, he could.
+Then his woodcraft should force the forest to render him something in
+the way of food that would suffice to keep life in his veins.
+
+For perhaps half an hour this defiant and unvanquishable spirit kept
+Pete Noël going. But as the brief northern day began to wane, and a
+shadow to darken behind the thick, white gloom of the storm, his
+forces, his tough, corded muscles and his tempered nerves, again began
+to falter. He caught himself stumbling, and seeking excuse for delay
+in getting up. In spite of every effort of his will, he saw
+visions--thick, protecting woods close at one side or the other, or a
+snug log camp, half buried in the drifts, but with warm light flooding
+from its windows. Indignantly he would shake himself back into sanity,
+and the delectable visions would vanish. But while they lasted they
+were confusing, and presently when he aroused himself from one that
+was of particularly heart-breaking vividness, he found that he had let
+his rifle drop! It was gone hopelessly. The shock steadied him for
+some minutes. Well, he had his knife. After all, that was the more
+important of the two. He ploughed onward, once more keenly awake, and
+grappling with his fate.
+
+The shadows thickened rapidly; and at last, bending with the insane
+riot of the storm, began to make strange, monstrous shapes.
+Unravelling these illusions, and exorcising them, kept Pete Noël
+occupied. But suddenly one of these monstrous shapes neglected to
+vanish. He was just about to throw himself upon it, in half delirious
+antagonism, when it lurched upward with a snort, and struggled away
+from him. In an instant Pete was alive in every faculty, stung with an
+ecstasy of hope. Leaping, floundering, squirming, he followed, open
+knife in hand. Again and yet again the foundered beast, a big caribou
+bull, buried halfway up the flank, eluded him. Then, as his savage
+scramble at last overtook it, the bull managed to turn half about, and
+thrust him violently in the left shoulder with an antler-point.
+Unheeding the hurt, Noël clutched the antler with his left hand, and
+forced it inexorably back. The next moment his knife was drawn with
+practised skill across the beast's throat.
+
+Like most of our eastern woodsmen, Pete Noël was even finicky about
+his food, and took all his meat cooked to a brown. He loathed
+underdone flesh. Now, however, he was an elemental creature, battling
+with the elements for his life. And he knew, moreover, that of all
+possible restoratives, the best was at his hand. He drove his blade
+again, this time to the bull's heart. As the wild life sighed itself
+out, and vanished, Pete crouched down like an animal, and drank the
+warm, red fluid streaming from the victim's throat. As he did so, the
+ebbed tide of warmth, power, and mastery flooded back into his own
+veins. He drank his fill; then, burrowing half beneath the massive
+body, he lay down close against it to rest and consider.
+
+Assured now of food to sustain him on the journey, assured of his own
+ability to master all other obstacles that might seek to withstand
+him, Pete Noël made up his mind to sleep, wrapping himself in his
+blankets under the shelter of the dead bull. Then the old hunter's
+instinct began to stir. All about him, in every momentary lull of the
+wind, were snortings and heavy breathings. He had wandered into the
+midst of the exhausted herd. Here was a chance to recoup himself, in
+some small part, for the loss of his cabin and supplies. He could kill
+a few of the helpless animals, hide them in the snow, and take the
+bearings of the spot as soon as the weather cleared. By and by he
+could get a team from the nearest settlement, and haul out the frozen
+meat for private sale when the game warden chanced to have his eyes
+shut.
+
+[Illustration: "One of these monstrous shapes neglected to vanish."]
+
+Getting out his knife again, he crept stealthily toward the
+nearest heavy breathing. Before he could detect the beast in that
+tumultuous gloom, he was upon it. His outstretched left hand fell
+upon a wildly heaving flank. The frightened animal arose with a
+gasping snort, and tried to escape; but utterly exhausted, it sank
+down again almost immediately, resigned to this unknown doom which
+stole upon it out of the tempest and the dark. Pete's hand was on
+it again the moment it was still. He felt it quiver and shrink
+beneath his touch. Instinctively he began to stroke and rub the
+stiff hair as he slipped his treacherous hand forward along the
+heaving flank. The heavings grew quieter, the frightened snortings
+ceased. The exhausted animal seemed to feel a reassurance in that
+strong, quiet touch.
+
+When Pete's hand had reached the unresisting beast's neck, he began to
+feel a qualm of misgiving. His knife was in the other hand, ready for
+use there in the howling dark; but somehow he could not at once bring
+himself to use it. It would be a betrayal. Yet he had suffered a
+grievous loss, and here, given into his grasp by fate, was the
+compensation. He hesitated, arguing with himself impatiently. But even
+as he did so, he kept stroking that firm, warm, living neck; and
+through the contact there in the savage darkness, a sympathy passed
+between the man and the beast. He could not help it. The poor beasts
+and he were in the same predicament, together holding the battlements
+of life against the blind and brutal madness of storm. Moreover, the
+herd had saved him. The debt was on his side. The caress which had
+been so traitorous grew honest and kind. With a shamefaced grin Pete
+shut his knife, and slipped it back into his pocket.
+
+With both hands, now, he stroked the tranquil caribou, rubbing it
+behind the ears and at the base of the antlers, which seemed to give
+it satisfaction. Once when his hand strayed down the long muzzle, the
+animal gave a terrified start and snort at the dreaded man smell so
+violently invading its nostrils. But Pete kept on soothingly and
+firmly; and again the beast grew calm. At length Pete decided that his
+best place for the night, or until the storm should lift, would be by
+the warmth of this imprisoned and peaceable animal. Digging down into
+the snow beyond the clutches of the wind, he rolled himself in his
+blankets, crouched close against the caribou's flank, and went
+confidently to sleep.
+
+Aware of living companionship, Noël slept soundly through the
+clamour of the storm. At last a movement against his side disturbed
+him. He woke to feel that his strange bedfellow had struggled up
+and withdrawn. The storm was over. The sky above his upturned face
+was sharp with stars. All about him was laboured movement, with
+heavy shuffling, coughing, and snorting. Forgetful of their
+customary noiselessness, the caribou were breaking gladly from
+their imprisonment. Presently Pete was alone. The cold was still
+and of snapping intensity; but he, deep in his hollow, and wrapped
+in his blankets, was warm. Still drowsy, he muffled his face and
+went to sleep again for another hour.
+
+When he roused himself a second time he was wide awake and refreshed.
+It was just past the edge of dawn. The cold gripped like a vice. Faint
+mystic hues seemed frozen for ever into the ineffable crystal of the
+air. Pete stood up, and looked eastward along the tumbled trail of the
+herd. Not half a mile away stood the forest, black and vast, the trail
+leading straight into it. Then, a little farther down toward the right
+he saw something that made his heart leap exultantly. Rising straight
+up, a lavender and silver lily against the pallid saffron of the east,
+soared a slender smoke. That smoke, his trained eyes told him, came
+from a camp chimney; and he realized that the lumbermen had moved up
+to him from the far-off head of the Ottanoonsis.
+
+
+
+
+MacPhairrson's Happy Family
+
+
+I
+
+
+It was over a little footbridge one had to pass to visit MacPhairrson
+and his family, a little, lofty, curiously constructed footbridge,
+spanning a narrow but very furious torrent. At the middle of the
+bridge was a gate--or, rather, a door--of close and strong wire mesh;
+and at this point, door and bridge together were encircled by a
+_chevaux-de-frise_ of woodwork with sharp, radiating points of heavy
+telegraph wire. With the gate shut, nothing less than a pair of wings
+in good working order could carry one over to the steep little island
+in mid-torrent which was MacPhairrson's home and citadel.
+
+Carried caressingly in the hollow of his left arm, the Boy held a
+brown burlap bag, which wriggled violently at times and had to be
+soothed into quiescence. When the Boy arrived at the door in the
+bridge, which he found locked, he was met by two strange hosts who
+peered at him wisely through the meshes of the door. One of these was
+a large black and tan dog, with the long body, wavy hair, drooping
+silken ears, and richly feathered tail of a Gordon setter, most
+grotesquely supported, at a height of not more than eight inches from
+the ground, by the little bow-legs of a dachshund. This freakish and
+sinister-looking animal gazed at the visitor with eyes of sagacious
+welcome, tongue hanging amiably half out, and tail gently waving. He
+approved of this particular Boy, though boys in general he regarded as
+nuisances to be tolerated rather than encouraged. The other host,
+standing close beside the dog as if on guard, and scrutinizing the
+visitor with little, pale, shrewdly non-committal eyes, was a
+half-grown black and white pig.
+
+Through the gate the Boy murmured familiar greetings to its warders
+while he pulled a wooden handle which set an old brown cow-bell above
+the door jangling hoarsely. The summer air was full to brimming over
+with sound--with the roar of the furious little torrent beneath, with
+the thunder of the sheet of cream and amber water falling over the
+face of the dam some fifty yards above, with the hiss and shriek of
+the saws in the big sawmill perched beside the dam. Yet through all
+the interwoven tissue of noise the note of the cow-bell made itself
+heard in the cabin. From behind the cabin arose a sonorous cry of
+_hong-ka, honk-a-honk_, and the snaky black head of a big Canada
+goose appeared inquiringly around the corner. On one end of the hewn
+log which served as doorstep a preternaturally large and fat woodchuck
+sat bolt upright and stared to see who was coming. A red fox, which
+had been curled up asleep under MacPhairrson's one rose bush, awoke,
+and superciliously withdrew to the other side of the island, out of
+sight, disapproving of all visitors on principle. From the shade of a
+thick spruce bush near the bridge-end a moose calf lumbered lazily to
+her feet, and stood staring, her head low down and her big ears waving
+in sleepy interrogation. From within the cabin came a series of harsh
+screeches mixed with discordant laughter and cries of "Ebenezer!
+Ebenezer! Oh, by Gee! Hullo!" Then the cabin door swung wide, and in
+the doorway appeared MacPhairrson, leaning on his crutches, a green
+parrot on his shoulder, and beside his crippled feet two big white
+cats.
+
+MacPhairrson, the parrot, and the cats, all together stared hard at
+the door on the bridge, striving to make out through the meshes who
+the visitor might be. The parrot, scrutinizing fiercely with her
+sinister black and orange eyes, was the first to discover. She
+proclaimed at once her discovery and her approval by screeching, "Boy!
+Boy! Oh, by Gee! Hullo!" and clambering head-first down the front of
+MacPhairrson's coat. As MacPhairrson hobbled hastily forward to admit
+the welcome guest, the parrot, reaching out with beak and claw,
+transferred herself to the moving crutch, whence she made a futile
+snap at one of the white cats. Foiled in this amiable attempt, she
+climbed hurriedly up the crutch again and resumed MacPhairrson's
+shoulder, in time to greet the Boy's entrance with a cordial "Oh, by
+Gee! Hullo!"
+
+MacPhairrson (he spelled his name scrupulously MacPherson, but, like
+all the other dwellers in the Settlement, pronounced it MacPhairrson,
+with a punctilious rolling of the r) was an old lumberman. Rheumatism,
+brought on by years of toiling thigh-deep in the icy waters when the
+logs were running in the freshets, had gripped him so relentlessly
+that one of his legs was twisted to almost utter uselessness. With his
+crutches, however, he could get about after his fashion; and being
+handy with his fingers and versatile of wit, he managed to make a
+living well enough at the little odd jobs of mechanical repairing
+which the Settlement folk, and the mill hands in particular, brought
+to his cabin. His cabin, which was practically a citadel, stood on a
+steep cone of rock, upthrust from the bed of the wild little river
+which worked the mill. On the summit of a rock a few square rods of
+soil gave room for the cabin, half a dozen bushes, and some sandy,
+sun-warmed turf. In this retreat, within fifty yards of the busy mill,
+but fenced about by the foaming torrent and quite inaccessible except
+by the footbridge, MacPhairrson lived with the motley group of
+companions which men called his Happy Family.
+
+Happy, no doubt, they were, in spite of the strait confines of their
+prison, for MacPhairrson ruled them by the joint forces of authority
+and love. He had, moreover, the mystic understanding which is
+essential if one would be really intimate with the kindreds we
+carelessly call dumb. So it was that he achieved a fair degree of
+concord in his Family. All the creatures were amiable towards him,
+because they loved him; and because they wholesomely feared him, they
+were amiable in the main towards each other. There were certain
+members of the Family who might be described as perennial. They were
+of the nature of established institutions. Such were Stumpy, the
+freak-legged dachshund-setter; James Edward, the wild gander; Butters,
+the woodchuck; Melindy and Jim, the two white cats; Bones, the brown
+owl, who sat all day on the edge of a box in the darkest corner of the
+cabin; and Ananias-and-Sapphira, the green parrot, so named, as
+MacPhairrson was wont to explain, because she was so human and he
+never could quite make her out. Ebenezer, the pig, was still too young
+to be promoted to permanence; but he had already shown such character,
+intelligence, and self-respecting individuality that MacPhairrson had
+vowed he should never deteriorate into pork. Ebenezer should stay,
+even though he should grow so big as to be inconvenient.
+
+But with Susan, the moose calf, and Carrots, the unsociable young fox,
+it was different. MacPhairrson realized that when Susan should come to
+her full heritage of stature, he would hardly have room for her on the
+island. He would then send to the Game Commissioner at Fredericton for
+a permit, and sell the good soul to the agent for some Zoölogical
+Garden, where she would be appreciated and cared for. As for Carrots,
+his conduct was irreproachable, absolutely without blot or blemish,
+but MacPhairrson knew that he was quite unregenerate at heart. The
+astute little beast understood well enough the fundamental law of the
+Family, "Live and let live," and he knew that if he should break that
+law, doom would descend upon him in an eye-wink. But into his
+narrowed, inscrutable eyes, as he lay with muzzle on dainty,
+outstretched black paws and watched the movements of James Edward, the
+gander, or Butters, the fat woodchuck, a savage glint would come,
+which MacPhairrson unerringly interpreted. Moreover, while his
+demeanour was impeccable, his reserve was impenetrable, and even the
+tolerant and kindly MacPhairrson could find nothing in him to love.
+The decree, therefore, had gone forth; that is, it had been announced
+by MacPhairrson himself, and apparently approved by the ever attentive
+Stumpy and Ebenezer, that Carrots should be sold into exile at the
+very first opportunity.
+
+When the Boy came through the little bridge gate, the greetings
+between him and MacPhairrson were brief and quiet. They were fellows
+both in the taciturn brotherhood of the woods. To Stumpy and Ebenezer,
+who nosed affectionately at his legs, he paid no attention beyond a
+careless touch of caress. Even to Ananias-and-Sapphira, who had
+hurriedly clambered from MacPhairrson's shoulder to his and begun
+softly nipping at his ear with her dreaded beak, he gave no heed
+whatever. He knew that the evil-tempered bird loved him as she loved
+his master and would be scrupulously careful not to pinch too hard.
+
+As the little procession moved gravely and silently up from the bridge
+to the cabin, their silence was in no way conspicuous, for the whole
+air throbbed with the rising and falling shriek of the saws, the
+trampling of the falls, and the obscurely rhythmic rush of the torrent
+around the island base. They were presently joined by Susan, shambling
+on her ungainly legs, wagging her big ears, and stretching out her
+long, ugly, flexible, overhanging nose to sniff inquiringly at the
+Boy's jacket. A comparatively new member of MacPhairrson's family, she
+was still full of curiosity about every one and everything, and
+obviously considered it her mission in life to acquire knowledge. It
+was her firm conviction that the only way to know a thing was to
+smell it.
+
+A few steps from the door James Edward, the wild gander, came forward
+with dignity, slightly bowing his long, graceful black neck and narrow
+snaky head as he moved. Had the Boy been a stranger, he would now have
+met the first touch of hostility. Not all MacPhairrson's manifest
+favour would have prevented the uncompromising and dauntless
+gander from greeting the visitor with a savage hiss and uplifted
+wings of defiance. But towards the Boy, whom he knew well, his dark,
+sagacious eye expressed only tolerance, which from him was no small
+condescension.
+
+On the doorstep, as austerely ungracious in his welcome as James
+Edward himself, sat Butters, the woodchuck, nursing some secret grudge
+against the world in general, or, possibly, against Ananias-and-Sapphira
+in particular, with whom he was on terms of vigilant neutrality.
+When the procession approached, he forsook the doorstep, turned his fat,
+brown back upon the visitor, and became engrossed in gnawing a big
+cabbage stalk. He was afraid that if he should seem good-natured and
+friendly, he might be called upon to show off some of the tricks
+which MacPhairrson, with inexhaustible patience, had taught him. He
+was not going to turn somersaults, or roll over backward, or walk
+like a dancing bear, for any Boy alive!
+
+This ill humour of Butters, however, attracted no notice. It was
+accepted by both MacPhairrson and his visitor as a thing of course.
+Moreover, there were matters of more moment afoot. That lively,
+squirming bag which the Boy carried so carefully in the hollow of his
+left arm was exciting the old woodsman's curiosity. The lumbermen and
+mill hands, as well as the farmer-folk of the Settlement for miles
+about, were given to bringing MacPhairrson all kinds of wild creatures
+as candidates for admission to his Happy Family. So whenever any one
+came with something alive in a bag, MacPhairrson would regard the bag
+with that hopeful and eager anticipation with which a child regards
+its Christmas stocking.
+
+When the two had entered the cabin and seated themselves, the Boy in
+the big barrel chair by the window, and MacPhairrson on the edge of
+his bunk, not three feet away, the rest of the company gathered in a
+semicircle of expectation in the middle of the floor. That is, Stumpy
+and Ebenezer and the two white cats did so, their keen noses as well
+as their inquisitive eyes having been busied about the bundle. Even
+James Edward came a few steps inside the door, and with a fine
+assumption of unconcern kept himself in touch with the proceedings.
+Only Susan was really indifferent, lying down outside the door--Susan,
+and that big bunch of fluffy brown feathers on the barrel in the
+corner of the cabin.
+
+The air fairly thrilled with expectation as the boy took the
+wriggling bag on his knee and started to open it. The moment there was
+an opening, out came a sharp little black nose pushing and twisting
+eagerly for freedom. The nose was followed in an instant by a pair of
+dark, intelligent, mischievous eyes. Then a long-tailed young raccoon
+squirmed forth, clambered up to the Boy's shoulder, and turned to eye
+the assemblage with bright defiance. Never before in his young life
+had he seen such a remarkable assemblage; which, after all, was not
+strange, as there was surely not another like it in the world.
+
+The new-comer's reception, on the whole, was not unfriendly. The two
+white cats, to be sure, fluffed their tails a little, drew back from
+the circle, and went off to curl up in the sun and sleep off their
+aversion to a stranger. James Edward, too, his curiosity satisfied,
+haughtily withdrew. But Stumpy, as acknowledged dean of the Family,
+wagged his tail, hung out his pink tongue as far as it would go, and
+panted a welcome so obvious that a much less intelligent animal than
+the young raccoon could not have failed to understand it. Ebenezer was
+less demonstrative, but his little eyes twinkled with unmistakable
+good-will. Ananias-and-Sapphira was extraordinarily interested. In a
+tremendous hurry she scrambled down MacPhairrson's arm, down his leg,
+across the floor, and up the Boy's trousers. The Boy was a little
+anxious.
+
+"Will she bite him?" he asked, preparing to defend his pet.
+
+"I reckon she won't," answered MacPhairrson, observing that the
+capricious bird's plumage was not ruffled, but pressed down so hard
+and smooth and close to her body that she looked much less than her
+usual size. "Generally she ain't ugly when she looks that way. But
+she's powerful interested, I tell you!"
+
+The little raccoon was crouching on the Boy's right shoulder.
+Ananias-and-Sapphira, using beak and claws, scrambled nimbly to the
+other shoulder. Then, reaching far around past the Boy's face, she
+fixed the stranger piercingly with her unwinking gaze, and emitted an
+ear-splitting shriek of laughter. The little coon's nerves were not
+prepared for such a strain. In his panic he fairly tumbled from his
+perch to the floor, and straightway fled for refuge to the broad back
+of the surprised and flattered pig.
+
+"The little critter's all right!" declared MacPhairrson, when he and
+the Boy were done laughing. "Ananias-an'-Sapphira won't hurt him. She
+likes all the critters she kin bully an' skeer. An' Stumpy an' that
+comical cuss of a Ebenezer, they be goin' to look out fer him."
+
+
+II
+
+
+About a week after this admission of the little raccoon to his Family,
+MacPhairrson met with an accident. Coming down the long, sloping
+platform of the mill, the point of one of his crutches caught in a
+crack, and he plunged headlong, striking his head on a link of heavy
+"snaking" chain. He was picked up unconscious and carried to the
+nearest cabin. For several days his stupor was unbroken, and the
+doctor hardly expected him to pull through. Then he recovered
+consciousness--but he was no longer MacPhairrson. His mind was a sort
+of amiable blank. He had to be fed and cared for like a very young
+child. The doctor decided at last that there was some pressure of bone
+on the brain, and that operations quite beyond his skill would be
+required. At his suggestion a purse was made up among the mill hands
+and the Settlement folk, and MacPhairrson, smiling with infantile
+enjoyment, was packed off down river on the little tri-weekly steamer
+to the hospital in the city.
+
+As soon as it was known around the mill--which stood amidst its
+shanties a little apart from the Settlement--that MacPhairrson was to
+be laid up for a long time, the question arose: "What's to become of
+the Family?" It was morning when the accident happened, and in the
+afternoon the Boy had come up to look after the animals. After that,
+when the mill stopped work at sundown, there was a council held, amid
+the suddenly silent saws.
+
+"What's to be done about the orphants?" was the way Jimmy Wright put
+the problem.
+
+Black Angus MacAllister, the Boss--so called to distinguish him from
+Red Angus, one of the gang of log-drivers--had his ideas already
+pretty well formed on the subject, and intended that his ideas should
+go. He did not really care much about any one else's ideas except the
+Boy's, which he respected as second only to those of MacPhairrson
+where the wild kindreds were concerned. Black Angus was a huge,
+big-handed, black-bearded, bull-voiced man, whose orders and
+imprecations made themselves heard above the most piercing crescendos
+of the saws. When his intolerant eyes fixed a man, what he had to say
+usually went, no matter what different views on the subject his hearer
+might secretly cling to. But he had a tender, somewhat sentimental
+streak in his character, which expressed itself in a fondness for all
+animals. The horses and oxen working around the mill were all well
+cared for and showed it in their condition; and the Boss was always
+ready to beat a man half to death for some very slight ill-usage of an
+animal.
+
+"A man kin take keer o' himself," he would say in explanation, "an'
+the dumb critters can't. It's our place to take keer of 'em."
+
+"Boys," said he, his great voice not yet toned down to the quiet, "I
+say, let's divvy up the critters among us, jest us mill hands an' the
+Boy here, an' look out fer 'em the best we know how till MacPhairrson
+gits well!"
+
+He looked interrogatively at the Boy, and the Boy, proud of the
+importance thus attached to him, answered modestly--
+
+"That's just what I was hoping you'd suggest, Mr. MacAllister. You
+know, of course, they can't stay on together there alone. They
+wouldn't be a Happy Family long. They'd get to fighting in no time,
+and about half of 'em would get killed quick."
+
+There was a moment of deliberative silence. No smoking was allowed in
+the mill, but the hands all chewed. Jimmy Wright, marking the bright
+face of a freshly sawed deal about eight feet away, spat unerringly
+upon its exact centre, then giving a hitch to his trousers, he
+remarked--
+
+"Let the Boss an' the Boy settle it. They onderstand it the best."
+
+"That's right, Jimmy! We'll fix it!" said Black Angus. "Now,
+for mine, I've got a fancy for the parrot an' the pig. That
+there Ananias-and-Sapphira, she's a bird an' no mistake. An'
+the pig--MacPhairrson calls him Ebenezer--he's that smart ye'd
+jest kill yerself laffin' to see him. An', moreover, he's that
+clean--he's clean as a lady. I'd like to have them two around
+my shanty. An' I'm ready to take one more if necessary."
+
+"Then I think you'll have to take the coon too, Mr. MacAllister," said
+the Boy. "He and Ebenezer just love each other, an' they wouldn't be
+happy separated."
+
+"All right. The coon fer me!" responded the Boss. "Which of the
+critters will you take yerself?"
+
+"I'll wait and see which the rest of the boys want," replied the Boy.
+"I like them all, and they all know me pretty well. I'll take what's
+left."
+
+"Well, then," said Jimmy Wright, "me for Susan. That blame moose
+calf's the only one of the critters that I could ever git along with.
+She's a kind of a fool, an' seems to like me!" And he decorated the
+bright deal once more.
+
+"Me an' my missus, we'll be proud to take them two white cats!" put in
+grey old Billy Smith. "She sez, sez she, they be the han'somest cats
+in two counties. Mebbe they won't be so lonesome with us as they'd be
+somewheres else, bein's as our shanty's so nigh MacPhairrson's bridge
+they kin see for themselves all the time there ain't no one on to the
+island any more!"
+
+"Stumpy's not spoken for!" reminded the Boy. The dog was popular, and
+half a dozen volunteered for him at once.
+
+"Mike gits the dawg!" decided the Boss, to head off arguments.
+
+"Then I'll take the big gander," spoke up Baldy Pallen, one of the
+disappointed applicants for Stumpy. "He knows as much as any dawg ever
+lived."
+
+"Yes, I reckon he kin teach ye a heap, Baldy!" agreed the Boss. A
+laugh went round at Baldy's expense. Then for a few seconds there were
+no more applications.
+
+"No one seems to want poor Butters and Bones!" laughed the Boy.
+"They're neither of them what you'd call sociable. But Bones has his
+good points. He can see in the dark; and he's a great one for minding
+his own business. Butters has a heap of sense; but he's too cross to
+show it, except for MacPhairrson himself. Guess _I'd_ better take them
+both, as I understand their infirmities."
+
+"An' ain't there a young fox?" inquired the Boss.
+
+"Oh, Carrots; he can just stay on the island," answered the Boy. "If
+some of you'll throw him a bite to eat every day, he'll be all right.
+He can't get into any mischief. And he can't get away. He stands on
+his dignity so, nobody'd get any fun out of having _him!_"
+
+These points decided, the council broke up and adjourned to
+MacPhairrson's island, carrying several pieces of rope, a halter, and
+a couple of oat-bags. The members of the Family, vaguely upset over
+the long absence of their master, nearly all came down to the bridge
+in their curiosity to see who was coming--all, indeed, but the fox,
+who slunk off behind the cabin; Butters, who retired to his box; and
+Bones, who remained scornfully indifferent in his corner. The rest
+eyed the crowd uneasily, but were reassured by seeing the Boy with
+them. In fact, they all crowded around him, as close as they could,
+except Stumpy, who went about greeting his acquaintances, and James
+Edward, who drew back with lifted wings and a haughty hiss, resolved
+to suffer no familiarities.
+
+Jimmy Wright made the first move. He had cunningly brought some salt
+in his pocket. With the casual remark that he wasn't going to put it
+on her tail, he offered a handful to the non-committal Susan. The
+ungainly creature blew most of it away with a windy snort, then
+changed her mind and greedily licked up the few remaining grains.
+Deciding that Jimmy was an agreeable person with advantages, she
+allowed him to slip the halter on her neck and lead her unprotesting
+over the bridge.
+
+Then Black Angus made overtures to Ebenezer, who carried the little
+raccoon on his back. Ebenezer received them with a mixture of dignity
+and doubt, but refused to stir an inch from the Boy's side. Black
+Angus scratched his head in perplexity.
+
+"'Tain't no use tryn' to lead him, I reckon!" he muttered.
+
+"No, you'll have to carry him in your arms, Mr. MacAllister," laughed
+the Boy. "Good thing he ain't very big yet. But here, take
+Ananias-and-Sapphira first. If _she'll_ be friends with you, that'll
+mean a lot to Ebenezer." And he deftly transferred the parrot from his
+own shoulder, where she had taken refuge at once on his arrival, to
+the lofty shoulder of the Boss.
+
+The bird was disconcerted for an instant. She "slicked" down her
+feathers till she looked small and demure, and stretched herself far
+out as if to try a jump for her old perch. But, one wing being
+clipped, she did not dare the attempt. She had had enough experience
+of those sickening, flopping somersaults which took the place of
+flight when only one wing was in commission. Turning from the Boy, she
+eyed MacAllister's nose with her evil, unwinking stare. Possibly she
+intended to bite it. But at this moment MacAllister reached up his
+huge hand fearlessly to stroke her head, just as fearlessly as if she
+were not armed with a beak that could bite through a boot. Greatly
+impressed by this daring, she gurgled in her throat, and took the
+great thumb delicately between her mandibles with a daintiness that
+would not have marred a rose-petal. Yes, she concluded at once, this
+was a man after her own heart, with a smell to his hands like that of
+MacPhairrson himself. Dropping the thumb with a little scream of
+satisfaction, she sidled briskly up and down MacAllister's shoulder,
+making herself quite at home.
+
+"My, but she's taken a shine to you, Mr. MacAllister!" exclaimed the
+Boy. "I never saw her do like that before."
+
+The Boss grinned proudly.
+
+"Ananias-an'-Sapphira be of the female sect, bain't she?" inquired
+Baldy Pallen, with a sly look over the company.
+
+"Sure, she's a she!" replied the Boy. "MacPhairrson says so!"
+
+"That accounts fer it!" said Baldy. "It's a way all shes have with the
+Boss. Jest look at her now!"
+
+"Now for Ebenezer!" interrupted the Boss, to change the subject.
+"_You_ better hand him to me, an' maybe he'll take it as an
+introduction."
+
+Solemnly the Boy stooped, shoving the little raccoon aside, and picked
+the pig up in his arms. Ebenezer was amazed, having never before been
+treated as a lap-dog, but he made no resistance beyond stiffening out
+all his legs in a way that made him most awkward to handle. Placed in
+the Boss's great arms, he lifted his snout straight up in the air and
+emitted one shrill squeal; but the sight of Ananias-and-Sapphira,
+perched coolly beneath his captor's ear, in a measure reassured him,
+and he made no further protest. He could not, however, appear
+reconciled to the inexplicable and altogether undignified situation,
+so he held his snout rigidly as high aloft as he could and shut his
+little eyes tight, as if anticipating some further stroke of fate.
+
+Black Angus was satisfied so far. He felt that the tolerance of
+Ebenezer and the acceptance of Ananias-and-Sapphira added distinctly
+to his prestige.
+
+"Now for the little coon!" said he, jocularly. But the words were
+hardly out of his mouth when he felt sharp claws go up his leg with a
+rush, and the next instant the little raccoon was on his shoulder,
+reaching out its long, black nose to sniff solicitously at Ebenezer's
+legs and assure itself that everything was all right.
+
+"Jumping Jiminy! Oh, by Gee!" squealed Ananias-and-Sapphira, startled
+at the sudden onset, and nipped the intruder smartly on the leg till
+he squalled and whipped around to the other shoulder.
+
+"Now you've got all that's coming to you, I guess, Mr. MacAllister,"
+laughed the Boy.
+
+"Then I reckon I'd better be lightin' out fer home with it!" answered
+Black Angus, hugely elated. Turning gently, so as not to dislodge the
+passengers on his shoulder, he strode off over the bridge and up the
+sawdust-muffled street towards his clapboard cottage, Ebenezer's snout
+still held rigidly up in air, his eyes shut in heroic resignation,
+while Ananias-and-Sapphira, tremendously excited by this excursion
+into the outer world, kept shrieking at the top of her voice:
+"Ebenezer, Ebenezer, Ebenezer! Oh, by Gee! I want Pa!"
+
+As soon as the noisy and picturesque recessional of Black Angus had
+vanished, Baldy Pallen set out confidently to capture the wild
+gander, James Edward. He seemed to expect to tuck him under his arm
+and walk off with him at his ease. Observing this, the Boy looked
+around with a solemn wink. Old Billy Smith and the half-dozen
+onlookers who had no responsibility in the affair grinned and waited.
+As Baldy approached, holding out a hand of placation, and "chucking"
+persuasively as if he thought James Edward was a hen, the latter
+reared his snaky black head and stared in haughty surprise. Then he
+gave vent to a strident hiss of warning. Could it be possible that
+this impudent stranger contemplated meddling with him? Yes, plainly it
+was possible. It was certain, in fact. The instant he realized this,
+James Edward lowered his long neck, darted it out parallel with the
+ground, spread his splendid wings, and rushed at Baldy's legs with a
+hiss like escaping steam. Baldy was startled and bewildered. His legs
+tweaked savagely by the bird's strong, hard bill, and thumped
+painfully by the great, battering, windy wings, he sputtered: "Jumpin'
+Judas!" in an embarrassed tone, and retreated behind Billy Smith and
+the Boy.
+
+A roar of delighted laughter arose as James Edward backed away in
+haughty triumph, and strolled carelessly up towards the cabin. There
+were cries of "Ketch him quick, Baldy!" "Try a leetle coaxin'!" "Don't
+be so rough with the gosling, Baldy!" "Jest whistle to him, an' he'll
+folly ye!" But, ignoring these pleasantries, Baldy rubbed his legs and
+turned to the Boy for guidance.
+
+"Are you sure you want him now?" inquired the latter.
+
+"Course I want him!" returned Baldy with a sheepish grin. "I'll coax
+him round an' make friends with him all right when I git him home. But
+how'm I goin' to git him? I'm afeared o' hurtin' him, he seems that
+delicate, and his feelin's so sensitive like!"
+
+"We'll have to surround him, kind of. Just wait, boys!" said the Boy.
+And running into the cabin, past the deliberate James Edward, he
+reappeared with a heavy blanket.
+
+The great gander eyed his approach with contemptuous indifference. He
+had come to regard the Boy as quite harmless. When, therefore, the
+encumbering folds of the blanket descended, it was too late to resist.
+In a moment he was rolled over in the dark, bundled securely, picked
+up, and ignominiously tucked under Baldy Pallen's arm.
+
+"Now you've got him, don't let go o' him!" admonished the Boy,
+and amid encouraging jeers Baldy departed, carrying the bundle
+victoriously. He had not more than crossed the bridge, however,
+when the watchers on the island saw a slender black head wriggle
+out from one end of the bundle, dart upward behind his left arm,
+and seize the man viciously by the ear. With a yell Baldy grabbed
+the head, and held it securely in his great fist till the Boy
+ran to his rescue. When James Edward's bill was removed from
+Baldy's bleeding ear, his darting, furious head tucked back into
+the blanket, the Boy said--
+
+"Now, Baldy, that was just your own fault for not keeping tight hold.
+You can't blame James Edward for biting you!"
+
+"Sure, no!" responded Baldy, cheerfully. "I don't blame him a mite. I
+brag on the spunk of him. Him an' me'll git on all right."
+
+James Edward gone, the excitement was over. The Boy picked up the two
+big white cats, Melindy and Jim, and placed them in the arms of old
+Billy Smith, where they settled themselves, looking about with an air
+of sleepy wisdom. From smallest kittenhood the smell of a homespun
+shirt had stood to them for every kind of gentleness and shelter, so
+they saw no reason to find fault with the arms of Billy Smith. By this
+time old Butters, the woodchuck, disturbed at the scattering of the
+Family, had retired in a huff to the depths of his little barrel by
+the doorstep. The Boy clapped an oat-bag over the end of the barrel,
+and tied it down. Then he went into the cabin and slipped another bag
+over the head of the unsuspecting Bones, who fluffed all his feathers
+and snapped his fierce beak like castanets. In two minutes he was tied
+up so that he could neither bite nor claw.
+
+"That was slick!" remarked Red Angus, who had hitherto taken no part
+in the proceedings. He and the rest of the hands had followed in hope
+of further excitement.
+
+"Well, then, Angus, will you help me home? Will you take the barrel,
+and see that Butters doesn't gnaw out on the way?"
+
+Red Angus picked up the barrel and carried it carefully in front of
+him, head up, that the sly old woodchuck might not steal a march on
+him. Then the Boy picked up Bones in his oat-bag, and closed the cabin
+door. As the party left the island with loud tramping of feet on the
+little bridge, the young fox crept slyly from behind the cabin, and
+eyed them through cunningly narrowed slits of eyes. At last he was
+going to have the island all to himself; and he set himself to dig a
+burrow directly under the doorstep, where that meddlesome MacPhairrson
+had never permitted him to dig.
+
+
+III
+
+
+It was in the green zenith of June when MacPhairrson went away. When
+he returned, hobbling up with his tiny bundle, the backwoods world was
+rioting in the scarlet and gold of young October. He was quite cured.
+He felt singularly well. But a desperate loneliness saddened his
+home-coming. He knew his cabin would be just as he had left it, there
+on its steep little foam-ringed island; and he knew the Boy would be
+there, with the key, to admit him over the bridge and welcome him
+home. But what would the island be without the Family? The Boy,
+doubtless, had done what he could. He had probably taken care of
+Stumpy, and perhaps of Ananias-and-Sapphira. But the rest of the
+Family must inevitably be scattered to the four winds. Tears came into
+his eyes as he thought of himself and Stumpy and the parrot, the poor
+lonely three, there amid the sleepless clamour of the rapids,
+lamenting their vanished comrades. A chill that was more than the
+approaching autumn twilight could account for settled upon his heart.
+
+Arriving at the little bridge, however, his heart warmed again, for
+there was the Boy waving at him, and hurrying down to the gate to let
+him in. And there at the Boy's heels was Stumpy, sure enough.
+MacPhairrson shouted, and Stumpy, at the sound of the loud voice, went
+wild, trying to tear his way through the gate. When the gate opened,
+he had to brace himself against the frame, before he could grasp the
+Boy's hand, so extravagant and overwhelming were the yelping Stumpy's
+caresses. Gladly he suffered them, letting the excited dog lick his
+hands and even his face; for, after all, Stumpy was the best and
+dearest member of the Family. Then, to steady him, he gave him his
+bundle to carry up to the cabin, and proudly Stumpy trotted on ahead
+with it. MacPhairrson's voice trembled as he tried to thank the Boy
+for bringing Stumpy back to him--trembled and choked.
+
+"I can't help it!" he explained apologetically as soon as he got his
+voice again. "I love Stumpy best, of course! You kept the best fer me!
+But, Jiminy Christmas, Boy, how I miss the rest on 'em!"
+
+"I didn't keep Stumpy!" explained the Boy as the two went up the path.
+"It was Mike Sweeny took care of him for you. He brought him round
+this morning because he had to get off to the woods cruising. I took
+care of Bones--we'll find him on his box inside--and of cross old
+Butters. Thunder, how Butters has missed you, MacPhairrson! He's bit
+me twice, just because I wasn't you. There he is, poking his nose out
+of his barrel."
+
+The old woodchuck thought he had heard MacPhairrson's voice, but he
+was not sure. He came out and sat up on his fat haunches, his nostrils
+quivering with expectation. Then he caught sight of the familiar
+limping form. With a little squeal of joy he scurried forward and fell
+to clutching and clawing at his master's legs till MacPhairrson picked
+him up. Whereupon he expressed his delight by striving to crowd his
+nose into MacPhairrson's neck. At this moment the fox appeared from
+hiding behind the cabin, and sat up, with ears cocked shrewdly and
+head to one side, to take note of his master's return.
+
+"Lord, how Carrots has growed!" exclaimed MacPhairrson, lovingly, and
+called him to come. But the fox yawned in his face, got up lazily, and
+trotted off to the other side of the island. MacPhairrson's face
+fell.
+
+"He's got no kind of a heart at all," said the Boy, soothing his
+disappointment.
+
+"He ain't no use to nobody," said MacPhairrson. "I reckon we'd better
+let him go." Then he hobbled into the cabin to greet Bones, who
+ruffled up his feathers at his approach, but recognized him and
+submitted to being stroked.
+
+Presently MacPhairrson straightened up on his crutches, turned, and
+gulped down a lump in his throat.
+
+"I reckon we'll be mighty contented here," said he, "me an' Stumpy,
+an' Butters, an' Bones. But I _wisht_ as how I might git to have
+Ananias-an'-Sapphira back along with us. I'm goin' to miss that there
+bird a lot, fer all she was so ridiculous an' cantankerous. I s'pose,
+now, you don't happen to know who's got her, do you?"
+
+"I know she's got a good home!" answered the Boy, truthfully. "But I
+don't know that I could tell you just where she is!"
+
+At just this minute, however, there came a jangling of the gate bell,
+and screeches of--
+
+"Oh, by Gee! Jumpin' Jiminy! Oh, Boy! I want Pa!"
+
+MacPhairrson's gaunt and grizzled face grew radiant. Nimbly he hobbled
+to the door, to see the Boy already on the bridge, opening the gate.
+To his amazement, in strode Black Angus the Boss, with the bright
+green glitter of Ananias-and-Sapphira on his shoulder screeching
+varied profanities--and whom at his heels but Ebenezer and the little
+ring-tailed raccoon. In his excitement the old woodsman dropped one of
+his crutches. Therefore, instead of going to meet his visitors, he
+plumped down on the bench outside his door and just waited. A moment
+later the quaint procession arrived. MacPhairrson found Black Angus
+shaking him hugely by the hand, Ebenezer, much grown up, rooting at
+his knees with a happy little squeal, and Ananias-and-Sapphira, as of
+old, clambering excitedly up his shirt-front.
+
+"There, there, easy now, old pard," he murmured to the pig, fondling
+the animal's ears with one hand, while he gave the other to the bird,
+to be nibbled and nipped ecstatically, the raccoon meanwhile looking
+on with bright-eyed, non-committal interest.
+
+"Angus," said the old woodsman presently, by way of an attempt at
+thanks, "ye're a wonderful hand with the dumb critters--not that one
+could rightly call Ananias-an'-Sapphira dumb, o' course--'n' I swear
+_I_ couldn't never have kep' 'em lookin' so fine and slick all
+through the summer. I reckon----"
+
+But he never finished that reckoning. Down to his bridge was coming
+another and a larger procession than that of Black Angus. First, and
+even now entering through the gate, he saw Jimmy Wright leading a lank
+young moose cow, whom he recognized as Susan. Close behind was old
+Billy Smith with the two white cats, Melindy and Jim, in his arms; and
+then Baldy Fallen, with a long blanket bundle under his arm. Behind
+them came the rest of the mill hands, their faces beaming welcome.
+MacPhairrson, shaking all over, with big tears in his eyes, reached
+for his fallen crutch and stood up. When the visitors arrived and gave
+him their hearty greetings, he could find no words to answer. Baldy
+laid his bundle gently on the ground and respectfully unrolled it. Out
+stepped the lordly James Edward and lifted head and wings with a
+troubled _honk-a, honka._ As soon as he saw MacPhairrson, he came up
+and stood close beside him, which was as much enthusiasm as the
+haughty gander could bring himself to show. The cats meanwhile were
+rubbing and purring against their old master's legs, while Susan
+sniffed at him with a noisy, approving snort. MacPhairrson's throat,
+and then his whole face, began to work. How different was this
+home-coming from what he had expected! Here, wonder of wonders, was
+his beloved Family all gathered about him! How good the boys were! He
+must try to thank them all. Bracing himself with one crutch, he strove
+to express to them his immeasurable gratitude and gladness. In vain,
+for some seconds, he struggled to down the lump in his throat. Then,
+with a titanic effort, he blurted out: "Oh, hell, boys!" and sat down,
+and hid his wet eyes in Stumpy's shaggy hair.
+
+
+
+
+On Big Lonely
+
+
+It was no doubt partly pride, in having for once succeeded in evading
+her grandmother's all-seeing eye, that enabled Mandy Ann to carry, at
+a trot, a basket almost as big as herself--to carry it all the way
+down the hill to the river, without once stumbling or stopping to take
+breath. The basket was not only large, but uneasy, seeming to be
+troubled by internal convulsions, which made it tip and lurch in a way
+that from time to time threatened to upset Mandy Ann's unstable
+equilibrium. But being a young person of character, she kept right on,
+ignoring the fact that the stones on the shore were very sharp to her
+little bare feet.
+
+At last she reached the sunshiny cove, with shoals of minnows
+flickering about its amber shallows, which was the goal of her flight.
+Here, tethered to a stake on the bank, lay the high-sided old bateau,
+which Mandy Ann had long coveted as a perfectly ideal play-house. Its
+high prow lightly aground, its stern afloat, it swung lazily in the
+occasional puffs of lazy air. Mandy Ann was only four years old, and
+her red cotton skirt just came to her dimpled grimy little knees, but
+with that unfailing instinct of her sex she gathered up the skirt and
+clutched it securely between her breast and the rim of the basket.
+Then she stepped into the water, waded to the edge of the old bateau
+and climbed aboard.
+
+The old craft was quite dry inside, and filled with a clean pungent
+scent of warm tar. Mandy Ann shook out her red skirt and her yellow
+curls, and set down the big covered basket on the bottom of the
+bateau. The basket continued to move tempestuously.
+
+"Oh, naughty! naughty!" she exclaimed, shaking her chubby finger at
+it. "Jest a minute, jest a teenty minute, an' we'll see!"
+
+Peering over the bow, Mandy Ann satisfied herself that the bateau,
+though its bottom grated on the pebbles, was completely surrounded by
+water. Then sitting down on the bottom, she assured herself that she
+was hidden by the boat's high flaring sides from the sight of all
+interfering domestic eyes on shore. She felt sure that even the eyes
+of her grandmother, in the little grey cottage back on the green hill,
+could not reach her in this unguessed retreat. With a sigh of
+unutterable content she made her way back into the extreme stern of
+the bateau, lugging the tempestuous basket with her. Sitting down
+flat, she took the basket in her lap and loosened the cover, crooning
+softly as she did so. Instantly a whiskered, brown snub-nose,
+sniffing and twitching with interrogation, appeared at the edge. A
+round brown head, with little round ears and fearless bright dark
+eyes, immediately popped over the edge. With a squeak of satisfaction
+a fat young woodchuck, nearly full-grown, clambered forth and ran up
+on Mandy Ann's shoulder. The bateau, under the influence of the sudden
+weight in the stern, floated clear of the gravel and swung softly at
+the end of its rope.
+
+Observing that the bateau was afloat, Mandy Ann was delighted. She
+felt doubly secure, now, from pursuit. Pulling a muddy carrot from
+her pocket she held it up to the woodchuck, which was nuzzling
+affectionately at her curls. But the smell of the fresh earth reminded
+the little animal of something which he loved even better than
+Mandy Ann--even better, indeed, than a juicy carrot. He longed to
+get away, for a little while, from the loving but sometimes too
+assiduous attention with which his little mistress surrounded
+him--to get away and burrow to his heart's content in the cool brown
+earth, full of grass-roots. Ignoring the carrot, he clambered down in
+his soft, loose-jointed fashion, from Mandy Ann's shoulder, and ran
+along the gunwale to the bow. When he saw that he could not reach
+shore without getting into the water, which he loathed, he grumbled
+squeakingly, and kept bobbing his round head up and down, as if he
+contemplated making a jump for it.
+
+At these symptoms Mandy Ann, who had been eyeing him, called to him
+severely. "Naughty!" she cried. "Come back this very instant, sir!
+You'd jes' go an' tell Granny on me! Come right back to your muzzer
+this instant!" At the sound of her voice the little animal seemed to
+think better of his rashness. The flashing and rippling of the water
+daunted him. He returned to Mandy Ann's side and fell to gnawing
+philosophically at the carrot which she thrust under his nose.
+
+This care removed, Mandy Ann took an irregular bundle out of the
+basket. It was tied up in a blue-and-white handkerchief. Untying it
+with extreme care, as if the contents were peculiarly precious, she
+displayed a collection of fragments of many-coloured glass and
+gay-painted china. Gloating happily over these treasures, which
+flashed like jewels in the sun, she began to sort them out and arrange
+them with care along the nearest thwart of the bateau. Mandy Ann was
+making what the children of the Settlement knew and esteemed as a
+"Chaney House." There was keen rivalry among the children as to both
+location and furnishing of these admired creations; and to Mandy Ann's
+daring imagination it had appeared that a "Chaney House" in the old
+bateau would be something surpassing dreams.
+
+For an hour or more Mandy Ann was utterly absorbed in her enchanting
+task. So quiet she was over it that every now and then a yellow-bird
+or a fly-catcher would alight upon the edge of the bateau to bounce
+away again with a startled and indignant twitter. The woodchuck,
+having eaten his carrot, curled up in the sun and went to sleep.
+
+Mandy Ann's collection was really a rich assortment of colour. Every
+piece in it was a treasure in her eyes. But much as she loved the bits
+of painted china, she loved the glass better. There were red bits, and
+green of many shades, and blue, yellow, amber, purple and opal. Each
+piece, before arranging it in its allotted place on the thwart, she
+would lift to her eyes and survey the world through it. Some near
+treetops, and the blue sky piled with white fleeces of summer clouds,
+were all of the world she could see from her retreat; but viewed
+through different bits of glass these took on an infinite variety of
+wonder and delight. So engrossed she was, it quite escaped her notice
+that the old bateau was less steady in its movements than it had been
+when first she boarded it. She did not even observe the fact that
+there were no longer any treetops in her fairy-tinted pictures. At
+last there sounded under the keel a strange gurgle, and the bateau
+gave a swinging lurch which sent half the treasures of the "Chaney
+House" clattering upon the bottom or into Mandy Ann's lap. The
+woodchuck woke up frightened and scrambled into the shelter of its
+mistress's arms.
+
+Much surprised, Mandy Ann knelt upright and looked out over the edge
+of the bateau. She was no longer in the little sheltered cove, but far
+out on the river. The shores, slipping smoothly and swiftly past,
+looked unfamiliar to her. Where she expected to see the scattered
+cottages of the Settlement, a huge bank covered with trees, cut off
+the view. While she was so engrossed with her coloured glass, a puff
+of wind, catching the high sides of the bateau, had caused it to tug
+at its tether. The rope, carelessly fastened by some impatient boy,
+had slipped its hold; and the bateau had been swept smoothly out into
+the hurrying current. Half a mile below, the river rounded a woody
+point, and the drifting bateau was hidden from the sight of any one
+who might have hurried to recover it.
+
+At the moment, Mandy Ann was not frightened. Her blue eyes danced with
+excitement as she tossed back her tousled curls. The river, flowing
+swiftly but smoothly, flashed and rippled in the noon sun in a
+friendly fashion, and it was most interesting to see how fast the
+shores slipped by. There was no suggestion of danger; and probably, at
+the back of her little brain, Mandy Ann felt that the beautiful river,
+which she had always loved and never been allowed to play with, would
+bring her back to her Granny as gently and unexpectedly as it had
+carried her away. Meanwhile, she felt only the thrilling and utterly
+novel excitement of the situation. As the bateau swung in an
+occasional oily eddy she laughed gaily at the motion, and felt as
+proud as if she were doing it herself. And the woodchuck, which had
+been very nervous at first, feeling that something was wrong, was so
+reassured by its mistress's evident satisfaction that it curled up
+again on the bottom and hastened to resume its slumber.
+
+In a little while the river curved again, sweeping back to its
+original course. Suddenly, in the distance, the bright spire of the
+Settlement church came into view, and then the familiar cottages.
+Mandy Ann's laughing face grew grave, as she saw how very, very far
+away they looked. They took on, also, from the distance, a certain
+strangeness which smote her heart. This wonderful adventure of hers
+ceased to have any charm for her. She wanted to go back at once. Then
+her grandmother's little grey house on the slope came into view. Oh,
+how terribly little and queer and far away it looked. And it was
+getting farther and farther away every minute. A frightened cry of
+"Granny! Granny! Take me home!" broke from her lips. She stood up, and
+made her way hurriedly to the other end of the bateau, which, being
+upstream, was nearer home. As her weight reached the bow, putting it
+deeper into the grip of the current, the bateau slowly swung around
+till it headed the other way. Mandy Ann turned and hurried again to
+the point nearest home. Whereupon the bateau calmly repeated its
+disconcerting manoeuvre. All at once the whole truth of the situation
+burst upon Mandy Ann's comprehension. She was lost. She was being
+carried away so far that she would never, never get back. She was
+being swept out into the terrible wilds that she had heard stories
+about. Her knees gave away in her terror. Crouching, a little red
+tumbled heap, on the bottom of the bateau, she lifted up her voice in
+shrill wailings, which so frightened the woodchuck that he came and
+crept under her skirt.
+
+Below the Settlement the river ran for miles through a country of
+ever-deepening desolation, without cabin or clearing near its shores,
+till it emptied itself into the yet more desolate lake known as "Big
+Lonely," a body of forsaken water about ten miles long, surrounded by
+swamps and burnt-lands. From the foot of Big Lonely the river raged
+away over a mile of thundering ledges, through a chasm known to the
+lumbermen as "The Devil's Trough." The fury of this madness having
+spent itself between the black walls of the canyon, the river
+continued rather sluggishly its long course toward the sea. A few
+miles below the Settlement the river began to get hurried and
+turbulent, chafing white through rocky rapids. When the bateau plunged
+into the first of these, Mandy Ann's wailing and sobbing stopped
+abruptly. The clamour of the white waves and the sight of their
+lashing wrath fairly stupefied her. She sat up on the middle thwart,
+with the shivering woodchuck clutched to her breast, and stared about
+with wild eyes. On every side the waves leaped up, black, white, and
+amber, jumping at the staggering bateau. But appalling as they looked
+to Mandy Ann, they were not particularly dangerous to the sturdy,
+high-sided craft which carried her. The old bateau had been built to
+navigate just such waters. Nothing could upset it, and on account of
+its high, flaring sides, no ordinary rapids could swamp it. It rode
+the loud chutes triumphantly, now dipping its lofty nose, now bumping
+and reeling, but always making the passage without serious mishap. All
+through the rapids Mandy Ann would sit silent, motionless, fascinated
+with horror. But in the long, comparatively smooth reaches she would
+recover herself enough to cry softly upon the woodchuck's soft brown
+fur, till that prudent little animal, exasperated at the damp of her
+caresses, wriggled away and crawled into his hated basket.
+
+At last, when the bateau had run a dozen of these noisy "rips," Mandy
+Ann grew surfeited with terror, and thought to comfort herself.
+Sitting down again upon the bottom of the bateau, she sadly sought to
+revive her interest in the "Chaney House." She would finger the
+choicest bits of painted porcelain, and tell herself how pretty they
+were. She would choose a fragment of scarlet or purple glass, hold it
+up to her pathetic, tear-stained face, and try to interest herself in
+the coloured landscape that filed by. But it was no use. Even the
+amber glass had lost its power to interest her. And at length,
+exhausted by her terror and her loneliness, she sank down and fell
+asleep.
+
+It was late afternoon when Mandy Ann fell asleep, and her sleep was
+the heavy semi-torpor coming after unrelieved grief and fear. It was
+unjarred by the pitching of the fiercer rapids which the bateau
+presently encountered. The last mile of the river's course before
+joining the lake consisted of deep, smooth "dead-water"; but, a strong
+wind from the north-west having sprung up toward the end of the day,
+the bateau drove on with undiminished speed. On the edge of the
+evening, when the sun was just sinking into the naked tops of the
+rampikes along the western shore, the bateau swept out upon the
+desolate reaches of Big Lonely, and in the clutch of the wind hastened
+down mid-lake to seek the roaring chutes and shrieking vortices of the
+"Devil's Trough."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Out in the middle of the lake, where the heavy wind had full sweep,
+the pitching and thumping of the big waves terrified the poor little
+woodchuck almost to madness; but they made no impression on the
+wearied child, where she lay sobbing tremulously in her sleep. They
+made a great impression, however, on a light birch canoe, which was
+creeping up alongshore in the teeth of the wind, urged by two paddles.
+The paddlers were a couple of lumbermen, returning from the mouth of
+the river. All the spring and early summer they had been away from the
+Settlement, working on "the drive" of the winter's logging, and now,
+hungry for home, they were fighting their way doggedly against wind
+and wave. There was hardly a decent camping-ground on all the
+swamp-cursed shores of Big Lonely, except at the very head of the
+lake, where the river came in, and this spot the voyagers were
+determined to make before dark. They would then have clear poling
+ahead of them next day, to get them home to the Settlement in time for
+supper.
+
+The man in the bow, a black-bearded, sturdy figure in a red shirt,
+paddled with slow, unvarying strokes, dipping his big maple paddle
+deep and bending his back to it, paying no heed whatever to the heavy
+black waves which lurched at him every other second and threatened
+to overwhelm the bow of his frail craft. He had none of the
+responsibility. His part was simply to supply power, steady,
+unwavering power, to make head against the relentless wind. The man
+in the stern, on the other hand, had to think and watch and meet
+every assault, as well as thrust the canoe forward into the tumult.
+He was a gaunt, long-armed young giant, bareheaded, with shaggy
+brown hair blown back from his red-tanned face. His keen grey eyes
+noted and measured every capricious lake-wave as it lunged at him,
+and his wrist, cunning and powerful, delicately varied each
+stroke to meet each instant's need. It was not enough that the canoe
+should be kept from broaching-to and swamping or upsetting. He was
+anxious that it should not ship water, and wet certain treasures
+which they were taking home to the backwoods from the shops of the
+little city down by the sea. And while his eyes seemed to be so
+engrossingly occupied in the battle with the waves of Big Lonely,
+they were all the time refreshing themselves with a vision--the
+vision of a grey house on a sunny hill-top, where his mother was
+waiting for him, and where a little yellow-haired girl would scream
+"_Dad_die, oh, Dad_die_!" when she saw him coming up the road.
+
+The dogged voyagers were within perhaps two miles of the head of the
+lake, with the sun gone down behind the desolate rampikes, and strange
+tints of violet and rose and amber, beautiful and lonely, touching the
+angry turbulence of the waves, when the man in the bow, whose eyes
+were free to wander, caught sight of the drifting bateau. It was a
+little ahead of them, but farther out in the lake.
+
+"Ain't that old Joe's bateau out yonder, Chris?" he queried, his
+trained woodsman's eye recognizing the craft by some minute detail of
+build or blemish.
+
+"I reckon it be!" answered Chris, after a moment's scrutiny. "He's let
+her git adrift. Water must be raisin' sudden!"
+
+"She'll be a fine quality o' kindlin' wood in another hour, the rate
+she's travelling" commented the other with mild interest. But the
+young giant in the stern was more concerned. He was sorry that old Joe
+should lose his boat.
+
+"Darned old fool, not to tie her!" he growled. "Ef 'twarn't fer this
+wind ag'in' us, we could ketch it an' tow it ashore fer him. But we
+can't."
+
+"Wouldn't stop fer it ef 't had a bag o' gold into it!" grunted the
+other, slogging on his paddle with renewed vigour as he looked forward
+to the camp-ground still so far ahead. He was hungry and tired, and
+couldn't even take time to fill his pipe in that hurly-burly.
+
+Meanwhile the bateau had swept down swiftly, and passed them at a
+distance of not more than a hundred yards. It was with a qualm of
+regret that Chris saw it go by, to be ground to splinters in the
+yelling madness of the Devil's Trough. After it had passed, riding the
+waves bravely like the good old craft that it was, he glanced back
+after it in half-humorous regret. As he did so, his eye caught
+something that made him look again. A little furry brown creature was
+peering over the gunwale at the canoe. The gunwale tipped toward him
+at that instant and he saw it distinctly. Yes, it was a woodchuck, and
+no mistake. And it seemed to be making mute appeal to him to come and
+save it from a dreadful doom. Chris hesitated, looking doubtfully at
+his companion's heaving back. It looked an unresponsive back.
+Moreover, Chris felt half ashamed of his own compassionate impulse. He
+knew that he was considered foolishly softhearted about animals and
+children and women, though few men cared to express such an opinion to
+him too frankly. He suspected that, in the present case, his companion
+would have a right to complain of him. But he could not stand the idea
+of letting the little beast--which had so evidently appealed to him
+for succour--go down into the horrors of the Devil's Trough. His mind
+was made up.
+
+"Mart," he exclaimed, "I'm goin' to turn. There's somethin' aboard
+that there old bateau that I want." And he put the head of the canoe
+straight up into a big wave.
+
+"The devil there is!" cried the other, taking in his paddle and
+looking around in angry protest. "What is it?"
+
+"Paddle, ye loon! Paddle hard!" ordered Chris. "I'll tell ye when we
+git her 'round."
+
+Thus commanded, and the man at the stern paddle being supreme in a
+canoe, the backwoodsman obeyed with a curse. It was no time to argue,
+while getting the canoe around in that sea. But as soon as the canoe
+was turned, and scudding with frightened swoops down the waves in
+pursuit of the fleeing bateau, he saw, and understood.
+
+"Confound you, Chris McKeen, if 'tain't nothin' but a blankety blank
+woodchuck!" he shouted, making as if to back water and try to turn the
+canoe again.
+
+Chris's grey eyes hardened. "Look a' here, Mart Babcock," he shouted,
+"don't you be up to no foolishness. Ye kin cuss all ye like--but
+either paddle as I tell ye or take in yer paddle an' set quiet. _I'm_
+runnin' this 'ere canoe."
+
+Babcock took in his paddle, cursing bitterly.
+
+"A woodchuck! A measly woodchuck!" he shouted, with unutterable
+contempt expressed in every word. "I know'd ye was a fool, Chris
+McKeen, but I didn't know ye was so many kinds of a mush-head of a
+fool!"
+
+"Course it's a woodchuck!" agreed Chris, surging on his paddle. "Do ye
+think I'd let the leetle critter go down the 'Trough,' jest so's ye
+could git your bacon an' tea an hour sooner? I always did like
+woodchucks, anyways."
+
+"I'll take it out o' yer hide fer this when we git ashore; you wait!"
+stormed Babcock, courageously. He knew it would be some time before
+they could get ashore, and so he would have a chance to forget his
+threat.
+
+[Illustration: "'It's--Mandy Ann!'"]
+
+"That's all right, Mart!" assented McKeen. "My hide'll be all here
+waitin' on ye. But fer now you jest git ready to do ez I tell ye, an'
+don't let the canoe bump ez we come up alongside the bateau. It's
+goin' to be a mite resky, in this sea, gittin' hold of the leetle
+critter. I'm goin' to take it home for Mandy Ann."
+
+As the canoe swept down upon the swooping and staggering bateau,
+Babcock put out his paddle in readiness to fend or catch as he might
+be directed. A moment later Chris ran the canoe past and brought her
+up dexterously under the lee of the high-walled craft. Babcock caught
+her with a firm grip, at the same time holding her off with the
+paddle, and glanced in, while Chris's eyes were still occupied. His
+dark face went white as cotton.
+
+"My God, Chris! Forgive me! I didn't know!" he groaned.
+
+"It's--Mandy Ann!" exclaimed her father, in a hushed voice, climbing
+into the bateau and catching the child into his arms.
+
+
+
+
+From Buck to Bear and Back
+
+
+The sunny, weather-beaten, comfortable little house, with its grey
+sheds and low grey barn half enclosing its bright, untidy farmyard,
+stood on the top of the open hill, where every sweet forest wind could
+blow over it night and day.
+
+Fields of oats, buckwheat, and potatoes came up all about it over the
+slopes of the hill; and its only garden was a spacious patch of
+cabbages and "garden sass" three or four hundred yards down toward the
+edge of the forest, where a pocket of rich black loam had specially
+invited an experiment in horticulture.
+
+Like most backwoods farmers, Sam Coxen had been wont to look with
+large scorn on such petty interests as gardening; but a county show
+down at the Settlement had converted him, and now his cabbage patch
+was the chief object of his solicitude. He had proud dreams of prizes
+to be won at the next show--now not three weeks ahead.
+
+It was his habit, whenever he harnessed up the team for a drive into
+the Settlement, to turn his head the last thing before leaving and
+cast a long, gratified look down over the cabbage patch, its cool,
+clear green standing out sharply against the yellow-brown of the
+surrounding fields. On this particular morning he did not turn for
+that look till he had jumped into the wagon and gathered up the reins.
+Then, as he gazed, a wave of indignation passed over his good-natured
+face.
+
+There, in the middle of the precious cabbages, biting with a sort of
+dainty eagerness at first one and then another, and wantonly tearing
+open the crisp heads with impatient strokes of his knife-edged fore
+hoofs, was a tall wide-antlered buck.
+
+Sam Coxen dropped the reins, sprang from the wagon, and rushed to the
+bars which led from the yard to the back field; and the horses--for
+the sake of his dignity he always drove the pair when he went into the
+Settlement--fell to cropping the short, fine grass that grew behind
+the well. In spite of having grown up in the backwoods, Sam was
+lacking in backwoods lore. He was no hunter, and he cared as little as
+he knew, about the wild kindreds of the forest. He had a vague,
+general idea that all deer were "skeery critters"; and if any one had
+told him that the buck, in mating season, was not unlikely to develop
+a fine militant spirit, he would have laughed with scorn.
+
+Climbing upon the bars, he yelled furiously at the marauder,
+expecting to see him vanish like a red streak. But the buck merely
+raised his beautiful head and stared in mild surprise at the strange,
+noisy figure on the fence. Then he coolly slashed open another plump
+cabbage, and nibbled at the firm white heart.
+
+Very angry, Coxen yelled again with all the power of healthy lungs,
+and waved his arms wildly over his head. But the vaunted authority of
+the human voice seemed in some inexplicable way to miss a connexion
+with the buck's consciousness. The waving of those angry arms,
+however, made an impression upon him. He appeared to take it as a
+challenge, for he shook his beautiful antlers and stamped his forefeet
+defiantly--and shattered yet another precious cabbage.
+
+Wrath struggled with astonishment in Sam Coxen's primitive soul. Then
+he concluded that what he wanted was not only vengeance, but a supply
+of deer's meat to compensate for the lost cabbages.
+
+Rushing into the house, he snatched down his old muzzle-loader from
+the pegs where it hung on the kitchen wall. After the backwoods
+fashion, the gun was kept loaded with a general utility charge of
+buckshot and slugs, such as might come handy in case a bear should try
+to steal the pig. Being no sportsman, Coxen did not even take the
+trouble to change the old percussion-cap, which had been on the tube
+for six months. It was enough for him that the weapon was loaded.
+
+Down the other slope of the hill, where the buck could not see him,
+Coxen hurried at a run, and gained the cover of the thick woods. Then,
+still running, he skirted the fields till the cabbage patch came once
+more in sight, with the marauder still enjoying himself in the midst
+of it.
+
+At this point the long-dormant instinct of the hunter began to awake
+in Sam Coxen. Everything that he had ever heard about stalking big
+game flashed into his mind, and he wanted to apply it all at once. He
+noted the direction of the wind, and was delighted to find that it
+came to his nostrils straight from the cabbage patch.
+
+He went stealthily, lifting and setting down his heavy-booted feet
+with a softness of which he had never guessed himself capable. He
+began to forget his indignation and think only of the prospect of
+bagging the game--so easily do the primeval instincts spring to life
+in a man's brain. Presently, when within about a hundred yards of the
+place where he hoped to get a fair shot, Coxen redoubled his caution.
+He went crouching, keeping behind the densest cover. Then, growing
+still more crafty, he got down and began to advance on all fours.
+
+Now it chanced that Sam Coxen's eyes were not the only ones which had
+found interest in the red buck's proceedings. A large black bear,
+wandering just within the shelter of the forest, had spied the buck
+in the open, and being curious, after the fashion of his kind, had sat
+down in a thicket to watch the demolition of the cabbages.
+
+He had no serious thought of hunting the big buck, knowing that he
+would be hard to catch and troublesome if caught. But he was in that
+investigating, pugnacious, meddlesome mood which is apt to seize an
+old male bear in the autumn.
+
+When the bear caught sight of Sam Coxen's crawling, stealthy figure,
+not two paces from his hiding-place, his first impulse was to vanish,
+to melt away like a big, portentous shadow into the silent deeps of
+the wood. His next, due to the season, was to rush upon the man and
+smite him.
+
+Then he realized that he himself was not the object of the man's
+stealthy approach. He saw that what the hunter was intent upon was
+that buck out in the field. Thereupon he sank back on his great black
+haunches to watch the course of events. Little did Sam Coxen guess of
+those cunning red eyes that followed him as he crawled by.
+
+At the point where the cover came nearest to the cabbage patch, Coxen
+found himself still out of range. Cocking his gun, he strode some
+twenty paces into the open, paused, and took a long, deliberate aim.
+
+Catching sight of him the moment he emerged, the buck stood for some
+moments eyeing him with sheer curiosity. Was this a harmless
+passer-by, or a would-be trespasser on his new domain of cabbages? On
+second glance, he decided that it looked like the noisy figure which
+had waved defiance from the top of the fence. Realizing this, a red
+gleam came into the buck's eye. He wheeled, stamped, and shook his
+antlers in challenge.
+
+At this moment, having got a good aim, Coxen pulled the trigger. The
+cap refused to explode. Angrily he lowered the gun, removed the cap
+and examined it. It looked all right, and there was plenty of priming
+in the tube. He turned the cap round, and again took careful aim.
+
+Now these actions seemed to the buck nothing less than a plain
+invitation to mortal combat. He was in just the mood to accept such an
+invitation. In two bounds he cleared the cabbages and came mincingly
+down to the fray.
+
+This unexpected turn of affairs so flustered the inexperienced hunter
+that he altogether forgot to cock his gun. Twice he pulled desperately
+on the trigger, but with no result. Then, smitten with a sense of
+impotence, he hurled the gun at the enemy and fled.
+
+Over the fence he went almost at a bound, and darted for the nearest
+tree that looked easy to climb. As his ill luck would have it, this
+tree stood just on the edge of the thicket wherein the much-interested
+bear was keeping watch.
+
+A wild animal knows when a man is running away, and rarely loses a
+chance to show its appreciation of the fact. As Sam Coxen sprang for
+the lowest branch and swung himself up, the bear lumbered out from his
+thicket and reared himself menacingly against the trunk.
+
+The buck, who had just cleared the fence, stopped short. It was
+clearly his turn now to play the part of spectator.
+
+When Coxen looked down and saw his new foe his heart swelled with a
+sense of injury. Were the creatures of the wilderness allied against
+him? He was no coward, but he began to feel distinctly worried. The
+thought that flashed across his mind was: "What'll happen to the team
+if I don't get back to unharness them?" But meanwhile he was climbing
+higher and higher, and looking out for a way of escape.
+
+About halfway up the tree a long branch thrust itself forth till it
+fairly overhung a thick young spruce. Out along this branch Coxen
+worked his way carefully. By the time the bear had climbed to one end
+of the branch, Coxen had reached the other. Here he paused, dreading
+to let himself drop.
+
+The bear came on cautiously; and the great branch bent low under his
+weight, till Coxen was not more than a couple of feet from the top of
+the young fir. Then, nervously letting go, he dropped, caught the
+thick branches in his desperate clutch, and clung secure.
+
+The big branch, thus suddenly freed of Coxen's substantial weight,
+sprang back with such violence that the bear almost lost his hold.
+Growling angrily, he scrambled back to the main trunk, down which he
+began to lower himself, tail foremost.
+
+From the business-like alacrity of the bear's movements, Coxen
+realized that his respite was to be only temporary. He was not more
+than twelve feet from the ground, and could easily have made his
+escape while the bear was descending the other tree. But there below
+was the buck, keeping an eye of alert interest on both bear and man.
+Coxen had no mind to face those keen antlers and trampling hoofs. He
+preferred to stay where he was and hope for some unexpected
+intervention of fate. Like most backwoodsmen, he had a dry sense of
+the ridiculous, and the gravity of his situation could not quite blind
+him to the humour of it.
+
+While Coxen was running over in his mind every conceivable scheme for
+getting out of his dilemma, the last thing he would have thought of
+actually happened. The buck lost interest in the man, and turned all
+his attention to the bear, which was just now about seven or eight
+feet from the ground, hugging the great trunk and letting himself down
+carefully, like a small boy afraid of tearing his trousers.
+
+It is possible that that particular buck may have had some old score
+against the bears. If so, this must have seemed an excellent chance to
+collect a little on account. The bear's awkward position and
+unprotected hind quarters evidently appealed to him. He ambled
+forward, reared half playfully, half vindictively, and gave the bear a
+savage prodding with the keen tips of his antlers. Then he bounded
+back some eight or ten paces, and waited, while the bear slid abruptly
+to the ground with a flat grunt of fury.
+
+Sam Coxen, twisting with silent laughter, nearly fell out of his
+fir-tree.
+
+The bear had now no room left for any remembrance of the man. He was
+in a perfect ecstasy of rage at the insolence of the buck, and rushed
+upon him like a cyclone. Against that irresistible charge the buck had
+no thought of making stand. Just in the nick of time he sprang aside
+in a bound that carried him a full thirty feet. Another such, another
+and another, and then he went capering off frivolously down the woody
+aisles, while the bear lumbered impotently after him.
+
+Before they were out of sight Sam Coxen slid down from his tree and
+made all haste over the fence. In the open field he felt more at ease,
+knowing he could outrun the bear, in case of need. But he stopped long
+enough to pick up the gun.
+
+Then, with one pathetic glance at the ruined cabbages, he strode
+hastily on up the hill, glancing backward from time to time to assure
+himself that neither of his late antagonists was returning to the
+attack.
+
+
+
+
+In the Deep of the Snow
+
+
+I
+
+
+Around the little log cabin in the clearing the snow lay nearly four
+feet deep. It loaded the roof. It buried the low, broad, log barn
+almost to the eaves. It whitely fenced in the trodden, chip-littered,
+straw-strewn space of the yard which lay between the barn and the
+cabin. It heaped itself fantastically, in mounds and domes and
+pillars, over the stumps that dotted the raw, young clearing. It clung
+densely on the drooping branches of the fir and spruce and hemlock. It
+mantled in a kind of breathless, expectant silence the solitude of the
+wilderness world.
+
+Dave Patton, pushing down the blankets and the many-coloured patchwork
+quilt, lifted himself on one elbow and looked at the pale face of his
+young wife. She was sleeping. He slipped noiselessly out of the bunk,
+lightly pulled up the coverings again, and hurriedly drew on two pairs
+of heavy, home-knit socks of rough wool. The cabin was filled with the
+grey light of earliest dawn, and with a biting cold that made the
+woodsman's hardy fingers ache. Stepping softly as a cat over the rude
+plank floor, he made haste to pile the cooking-stove with birch-bark,
+kindling, and split sticks of dry, hard wood. At the touch of the
+match the birch-bark caught and curled with a crisp crackling, and
+with a roar in the strong draught the cunningly piled mass burst into
+blaze. Dave Patton straightened, and his grey eyes turned to a little,
+low bunk with high sides in the farther corner of the cabin.
+
+Peering over the edge of the bunk with big, eager, blue eyes, was a
+round little face framed in a tousled mop of yellow hair. A red glare
+from the open draught of the stove caught the child's face. The moment
+she saw her father looking at her she started to climb out of the
+bunk; but Dave was instantly at her side, kissing her and tucking her
+down again into the blankets.
+
+"You mustn't git out o' bed, sweetie," he whispered, "till the house
+gits warmed up a bit. An' don't wake mother yet."
+
+The child's eyes danced with eagerness, but she restrained her voice
+as she replied.
+
+"I thought mebbe 'twas Christmis, popsie!" she whispered, catching his
+fingers. "'T first, I thought mebbe you was Sandy Claus, popsie. Oh, I
+wish Christmis 'ld hurry up!"
+
+A look of pain passed over Dave Patton's face.
+
+"Christmas won't be along fer 'most a week yit, sweetie!" he answered,
+in the soft undertone that took heed of his wife's slumbers. "An'
+anyways, how do you s'pose Sandy Claus is goin' to find his way, 'way
+out into these great woods, through all this snow?"
+
+"Oh, _popsie!_" cried the child, excitedly. Then, remembering, she
+lowered her voice again to a whisper. "Don't you know Sandy Claus kin
+go _any_wheres? Snow, an' cold, an' the--the--the big, black
+woods--they don't bother _him_ one little, teenty mite. He knows where
+to find me out here, jest's easy's in at the Settlements, popsie!"
+
+The mother stirred in her bunk, wakened by the little one's voice. She
+sat up, shivering, and pulled a red shawl about her shoulders. Her
+eyes sought Dave's significantly and sympathetically.
+
+"Mother's girl must try an' not think so much about Sandy Claus," she
+pleaded. "I don't want her to go an' be disappointed. Sandy Claus
+lives in at the Settlements, an' you know right well, girlie, he
+couldn't git 'way out here, Christmas Eve, without neglecting all the
+little boys an' girls at the Settlements. You wouldn't want _them all_
+disappointed, just so's he could come to our little girl 'way off here
+in the woods, what's got her father an' mother anyways!"
+
+The child sat up straight in her bunk, her eyes grew very wide and
+filled with tears, and her lips quivered. This was the first really
+effective blow that her faith in Christmas and in Santa Claus had ever
+received. But instantly her faith recovered itself. The eager light
+returned to her face, and she shook her yellow head obstinately.
+
+"He won't _have to_ 'lect the children in the Settlements, will he,
+popsie?" she cried. And without waiting for an answer, she went on:
+"He kin be everywheres to oncet, Sandy Claus can. He's so good an'
+kind, he won't forget _one_ of the little boys an' girls in the
+Settlements, nor me, out here in the woods. Oh, mumsie, I wisht it was
+to-night was Christmas Eve!" And in her happy anticipation she bounced
+up and down in the bunk, a figure of fairy joy in her blue flannel
+nightgown.
+
+Dave turned away with a heavy heart and jammed more wood into the
+stove. Then, pulling on his thick cowhide "larrigans," coat and
+woollen mittens, he went out to fodder the cattle. With that joyous
+roar of fresh flame in the stove the cabin was already warming up, but
+outside the door, which Dave closed quickly behind him, the cold had a
+kind of still savagery, edged and instant like a knife. To a strong
+man, however, it was a tonic, an honest challenging to resistance. In
+spite of his sad preoccupation, Dave responded to the cold air
+instinctively, pausing outside the door to fill his deep lungs and to
+glance at the thrilling mystery of the sunrise before him.
+
+The cabin stood at the top of the clearing against a background of
+dense spruce forest which sheltered it on the north and north-east.
+Across the yard, on the western side of the cabin, the log barn and
+the "lean-to" thrust up their laden roofs from the surrounding snow.
+In front, the cleared ground sloped away gently to the woods below, a
+snow-swathed, mystically glimmering expanse, its surface tumbled by
+the upthrust of the muffled stumps. From the eastern corner of the
+clearing, directly opposite the doorway before which Dave was
+standing, the Settlements trail led straight away, a lane of
+miraculous glory, into the very focus of the sunrise.
+
+For miles upon miles the slow slope of the wilderness was towards the
+east, so that the trail was like an open gate into the great space of
+earth and sky. The sky, from the eastern horizon to the zenith--and
+that was all that Dave Patton had eyes for--was filled with a
+celestial rabble of rose-pink vapours, thin aërial wisps of almost
+unimaginable colour. Except the horizon! The horizon, just where the
+magic portals of the trail revealed it, was an unfathomable radiance
+of intense, transparent, orange-crimson flame, so thrilling in its
+strangeness that Dave seemed to feel his spirit striving to draw it in
+as his lungs were drawing in the vital air. From that fount of living
+light rushed innumerable streams of thin colour, making threads and
+stains and patches of mystical red among the tops of the lower forest,
+and dyeing the snowy surface of the clearing with the tints of
+mother-of-pearl and opal. Dave turned his head to glance at the cabin,
+the barn, and the woods behind them. All were bathed in that
+transfiguring rush of glory. The beauty of it gave him a curious pang,
+which turned instantly, by some association too obscure for him to
+trace, into an ache of grief at the disappointment that was hanging
+over his little one's gaily trusting heart. The fairylike quality of
+the scene before him made him think, by a mingling of sympathy and
+far-off, dim remembrance, of the fairy glamour and unreal radiance of
+beauty that Christmas tree and Christmas toys stood for in the child's
+bright anticipations. He reminded himself of the glittering delights
+with which, during the past three Christmases, Lidey's kinsfolk in the
+Settlement had lovingly surrounded her. Now he, her father, could do
+nothing to make her Christmas different from all these other days of
+whose shut-in monotony she was wearying. Hope, now, and excited wonder
+were giving the little one new life. Dave Patton cringed within at the
+thought of the awakening, the disillusionment, the desolation of
+sorrow that would come to the baby heart with the dawn of Christmas.
+He was overwhelmed with self-reproach, because he had not realized all
+this in time to make provision, before the deep snow had blocked the
+trail to the Settlement. Now, what _could_ he do?
+
+Heavily Dave strode across the yard to the door of the barn. At the
+sound of his feet crunching the trodden and brittle snow, there came
+low mooings of eagerness from the expectant cattle in the barn. As he
+lifted the massive wooden latch and opened the door, the horse
+whinnied to him from the innermost stall, there was a welcoming
+shuffle of hoofs, and a comfortable warmth puffed steamily out in his
+face. From the horse's stall, from the stanchions of the cattle, big,
+soft eyes all turned to him. As he bundled the scented hay into the
+mangers, and listened to the contented snortings and puffings as soft
+muzzles tossed the fodder, he thought how happy these creatures were
+in their warm security. He thought how happy he was, and his wife,
+reunited to him after three years of forced and almost continuous
+separation. For him, and for the young wife, now recovering health in
+the tonic air of the spruce land after years of invalidism, this had
+promised to be a Christmas of unalloyed gladness. To one only, to the
+little one whose happiness was his continual thought, the day would be
+dark with the shattering of cherished hopes. The more he thought of
+it, the more he felt that it was not to be borne. Faint but piteous
+memories from his own childhood stirred in his brain, and he realized
+how irremediable, how final and desperate, seem a child's small
+sorrows. A sudden resolve took hold upon him. This bitterness, at
+least, his little one should not know. He jammed the pitchfork
+energetically back into the mow and left the barn with the quick step
+of an assured purpose.
+
+Three years before this, Dave Patton, after a series of misfortunes in
+the Settlement, which had reduced him to sharp poverty, had been
+forced to leave his wife and three-years-old baby with her own people,
+while he betook himself into the remotest wilderness to carve out a
+new home for them on a tract of forest land which was all that
+remained of his possessions. The land was fertile and carried good
+timber, and he had begun to prosper. But his wife's ill-health had
+long made it impossible for her to face the hardships and risks of a
+pioneer's life two days' journey from the nearest civilization. Not
+till the preceding spring had Dave dared to bring his family out to
+the wilderness home that he had so long been making ready for them.
+Then, however, it had proved a success. In that high and healing air
+he had seen the colour slowly come back to his wife's pale cheeks; and
+as for the child, until the great snows came and cut her off from this
+novel and interesting world, she had been absorbingly happy in the
+fellowship of the wilderness.
+
+When Dave re-entered the cabin, he found the table set over by the
+window, and his wife beating up the batter for the buckwheat pancakes
+that she was about to griddle for breakfast. Lidey, still in her
+little blue flannel nightgown, but with beaded deerskin moccasins on
+her tiny feet, and the golden wilfulness of her hair tied back
+demurely with a blue ribbon, was seated at one end of the table, her
+eager face half buried in a sheet of paper. She was laboriously
+inditing, for perhaps the twentieth time, an epistle to "Sandy Claus,"
+telling him what she hoped he would bring her.
+
+If anything had been needed to confirm Dave Patton in his resolve, it
+was this. From the rapt child his eyes turned and met his wife's
+inquiring glance.
+
+"I reckon I've got to go, Mary!" he said quietly. "Think you two kin
+git along all right fer four or five days? We ain't likely to have no
+more snow this moon."
+
+The woman let a little sigh escape her, but the look she gave her
+husband was one of cheerful acquiescence.
+
+"I guess you're right, dear! I'll have to let you go, though five days
+seems an awful long time to be alone here. I've been thinkin' it
+over," she continued, guarding her words so that Lidey should not
+understand--"an' I just couldn't bear to see it, Dave!"
+
+"That's so!" assented the man. "I'll leave heaps o' wood an' kindlin'
+cut, an' you'll jest have to milk an' look after the beasts, dear.
+Long's you're not _scairt_ to be alone, it's all right, I reckon!"
+
+"When'll you start?" asked the wife, turning to pour the batter in
+little, sputtering, grey-white circles on to the hot, greased
+griddle.
+
+"First thing to-morrow mornin'!" answered Dave, seating himself at the
+table as the appetizing smell of the browning pancakes filled the
+room. "Snow's jest right for snowshoein', an' I'll git back easy
+Christmas Eve."
+
+"You sure won't be late, popsie?" interrupted the child, looking up
+with apprehension in her round eyes. "I jest wouldn't care one mite
+for Sandy Claus if you weren't here too!"
+
+"Mebbe I'll git him to give me a lift in his little sleigh! Anyways,
+I'll be back!" laughed Dave, gaily.
+
+
+II
+
+
+After Dave had gone, setting out at daybreak on his moose-hide
+snowshoes, which crunched musically on the hard snow, things went very
+well for a while at the lonely clearing. It was not so lonely, either,
+during the bright hours about midday, when the sunshine managed to
+accumulate something almost like warmth in the sheltered yard. About
+noon the two red and white cows and the yoke of wide-horned red oxen
+would stand basking in front of the lean-to, near the well,
+contentedly chewing their cuds. At this time the hens, too, yellow
+and black and speckled, would come out and scratch in the litter,
+perennially undiscouraged by the fact that the only thing they found
+beneath it was the snow. The vivid crossbills, red and black and
+white, would come to the yard in flocks, and the quaker-coloured
+snow-buntings, and the big, trustful, childlike, pine grosbeaks, with
+the growing stain of rose-purple over their heads and necks. These
+kept Lidey interested, helping to pass the days that now, to her
+excited anticipations, seemed so long. Perhaps half a dozen times a
+day she would print a difficult communication to Santa Claus with some
+new idea, some new suggestion. These missives were mailed to the good
+Saint of Children by the swift medium of the roaring kitchen fire; and
+as the draught whisked their scorching fragments upwards, Lidey was
+satisfied that they went straight to their destination. The child's
+joy in her anticipations was now the more complete because, since her
+father's departure, her mother had ceased to discourage her hopes.
+
+On the day before Christmas Eve, however, the mother felt symptoms of
+a return of her old sickness. Immediately she grew anxious, realizing
+how necessary it was that she should keep well. This nervous
+apprehension hastened the result that she most dreaded. Her pain and
+her weakness grew worse hour by hour. Mastered by her memories of
+what she had been through before, she was in no mood to throw off the
+attack. That evening, crawling to the barn with difficulty, she amazed
+the horse and the cattle by coaxing them to drink again, then piled
+their mangers with a two-days' store of hay, and scattered buckwheat
+recklessly for the hens. The next morning she could barely drag
+herself out of bed to light the fire; and Lidey had to make her
+breakfast--which she did contentedly enough--on bread and butter and
+unlimited molasses.
+
+It was a weary day for the little one, in spite of her responsibilities.
+Muffled up and mittened, she was able, under her mother's directions, to
+carry a little water to the stock in a small tin kettle, making many
+journeys. And she was able to keep the fire going. But the hours crept
+slowly, and she was so consumed with impatience that all her usual
+amusements lost their savour. Not even the rare delight of being
+allowed to cut pictures out of some old illustrated papers could
+divert her mind from its dazzling anticipations. But before Christmas
+could come, must come her father; and from noon onward she would keep
+running to the door every few minutes to peer expectantly down the
+trail. She was certain that, at the worst, he could not by any
+possibility be delayed beyond supper-time, for he was needed to get
+supper--or, rather, as Lidey expressed it, to help her get supper for
+mother! Lidey was not hungry, to be sure, but she was getting
+mortally tired of unmitigated bread and butter and molasses.
+
+Supper-time, however, came and went, and no sign of Dave's return. On
+the verge of tears, Lidey munched a little of the now distasteful
+food. Her mother, worn out with the pain, which had at last relaxed
+its grip, fell into a heavy sleep. There was no light in the cabin
+except the red glow from the open draught of the stove, and the
+intense, blue-white moonlight streaming in through the front window.
+The child's impatience became intolerable.
+
+Flinging open the door for the hundredth time, she gazed out eagerly
+across the moonlit snow and down the trail. The cloudless moon,
+floating directly above it, transfigured that narrow and lonely road
+into a path to wonderland. In the mystic radiance--blue-white, but
+shot with faint, half-imagined flashes of emerald and violet--Lidey
+could see no loneliness whatever. The monstrous solitude became to her
+eyes a garden of silver and crystal. As she gazed, it lured her
+irresistibly.
+
+With a sudden resolve she noiselessly closed the door, lit the lamp,
+and began to put on her wraps, stealing about on tiptoe that she might
+not awaken her mother. She was quite positive that, by this time, her
+father must be almost home. As her little brain dwelt upon this idea,
+she presently brought herself to see him, striding swiftly along in
+the moonlight just beyond the turn of the trail. If she hurried, she
+could meet him before he came out upon the clearing. The thought
+possessed her. Stealing a cautious glance at her mother's face to be
+sure her sleep was sound, she slipped out into the shine. A moment
+more and her tiny figure, hooded and muffled and mittened, was dancing
+on moccasined feet across the snow.
+
+At the entrance to the trail, Lidey felt the first qualm of misgiving.
+The path of light, to be sure, with all its fairy-book enticement, lay
+straight before her. But the solemn woods, on either side of the path,
+were filled with great shadows and a terrible stillness. At this point
+Lidey had half a mind to turn back. But she was already a young person
+of positive ideas, not lightly to be swerved from a purpose; and her
+too vivid imagination still persisted in showing her that picture of
+her father, speeding towards her just beyond the turn of the trail.
+She even thought that she could hear his steps upon the daunting
+stillness. With her heart quivering, yet uplifted by an exaltation of
+hope, she ran on, not daring to glance again into the woods. To
+sustain her courage she kept thinking of the look of gay astonishment
+that would flash into her father's face as he met her running towards
+him--just around the turn of the trail!
+
+The turn was nearly a quarter of a mile distant, but the child reached
+it at last. With a little cry of confident relief she rushed forward.
+The long trail--now half in shadow from the slight change in its
+direction--stretched out empty before her. In the excess of her
+disappointment she burst into tears and sat down on the snow
+irresolutely.
+
+Her first impulse--after she had cried for a minute, and wiped her
+eyes with the little mittens, which promptly stiffened in the stinging
+frost--was to face about and run for home as fast as she could. But
+when she turned and glanced behind her, the backward path appeared
+quite different. When she no longer faced the moonlight, the world
+took on an unfriendly, sinister look. There were unknown terrors all
+along that implacable blue-white way through the dread blackness of
+the woods. Sobbing with desolation, she turned again towards the moon.
+Ahead, for all her fears, the trail still held something of the
+glamour and the dazzle. Ahead, too, as she reminded herself, was
+surely her father, hastening to meet her, only not quite so near as
+she had imagined. Summoning back her courage, and comforting her
+lonely spirit with thoughts of what Santa Claus was going to bring
+her, she picked herself up and continued her journey at a hurried
+little walk.
+
+She had not gone more than a few steps, when a strange, high sound,
+from somewhere far behind her, sent her heart into her throat and
+quickened her pace to a run.
+
+Again came that high, long-drawn, quavering sound; and the child's
+heart almost stopped beating. If only she could see her father coming!
+She had never heard any sound just like that; it was not savage, nor
+very loud, but somehow it seemed to carry a kind of horror on its
+floating cadence. It reminded her, very faintly, of the howling of
+some dogs that she had heard in the Settlement. She was not afraid of
+dogs. But she knew there were no dogs in the forest.
+
+Just as she was beginning to lose her breath and slacken her pace,
+that terrible cry came wavering again through the trees, much louder
+now and nearer. It lent new strength to her tired little feet, and she
+fled on faster than ever, her red lips open and her eyes wide. Another
+slight turn of the trail, and it ran once more directly towards the
+moon, stretching on and on till it narrowed from sight. And nowhere in
+the shining track was Dave to be seen. Lidey had now, however, but one
+thought in her quivering brain, and that was to keep running and get
+to her father before those dreadful voices could overtake her. She
+knew they were coming up swiftly. They sounded terribly near. When she
+had gone about two hundred yards beyond the last bend of the trail,
+she noticed, a few steps ahead of her, a tiny clearing, and at its
+farther edge the gable of a little hut rising a couple of feet above
+the snow. She knew the place. She had played in it that summer, while
+Dave was cutting the coarse hay on the clearing. It was a place that
+had been occupied by lonely trappers and lumber prospectors. Being a
+work of men's hands, it gave the child a momentary sense of comfort,
+of companionship in the dreadful wild. She paused, uncertain whether
+to continue along the trail or to seek the shelter of the empty hut.
+
+When the crunching of her own little footsteps stopped, however, she
+was instantly aware of the padding of other feet behind her. Looking
+back, she saw a pack of grey beasts just coming around the turn. They
+were something like dogs. But Lidey knew they were not dogs. She had
+seen pictures of them--awful pictures. She had read stories of them
+which had frozen her blood as she read. Now, her very bones seemed to
+melt within her. They were wolves! For a moment her throat could form
+no sound. Then--"Father!" she screamed despairingly, and rushed for
+the hut.
+
+As she reached it, the wolves were hardly a dozen paces behind. The
+door stood half open, but drifted full of snow to within little more
+than a foot of the top. Into the low opening the child dived head
+first, like a rabbit, crept behind the door, and fell upon the snow,
+gasping, too horror-stricken to make any outcry.
+
+A step from the hut door the wolves halted abruptly. The half-buried
+hut, and the dark hole leading into it--these were things they did not
+understand, except that they recognized them as belonging to man.
+Anything belonging to man was dangerous. In that dark hole they
+suspected a trap. The leader went up to it, and almost poked his nose
+into it, sniffing. But he backed away sharply as if he had met with a
+blow on the snout, and his nostrils wrinkled in savage enmity. The man
+smell was strong in the hut. It seemed very like a trap.
+
+Lying flat on her stomach behind the door, Lidey stared out through
+the narrow crack with eyes that seemed starting from her head. Out
+there in the clear glitter of the moonlight she saw the wolves go
+prowling savagely to and fro, and heard their steps as they cautiously
+circled the hut, seeking another entrance. They kept about five or six
+feet distant from it at first, so suspicious were they of that man
+smell that had greeted the leader's first attempt at investigation.
+When they had prowled about the hut for several minutes, they all sat
+down on their haunches before the door and seemed to deliberate. The
+child felt their dreadful eyes piercing her through and through, as
+they searched her out through the crack and penetrated her vain
+hiding.
+
+Suddenly, while the eyes of all the pack were flaming upon her, she
+saw the leader come swiftly forward and thrust his fierce snout
+right against the crack of the door. In a sort of madness she
+struck at it with her little, mittened hand. The wolf, apparently
+still disconcerted by the man smell that greeted his nostrils, sprang
+back warily. Then the whole pack drew a foot or two closer to the
+open doorway. Ravenous though they were, they were not yet assured
+that the hut was not a trap. They were not yet quite ready to
+crawl in and secure their prey. But gradually they were edging
+nearer. A few moments more and the leader, no less crafty than savage,
+would creep in. Already he had accustomed himself to the menace of
+that scent. Now, he did creep in, as far as the middle of his body,
+investigating. His red jaws and long, white teeth appeared around the
+edge of the door. At the sight Lidey's voice returned to her.
+Shrinking back against the farthest wall, she gave shriek after
+shriek that seemed to tear the dreadful stillness. In the madness of
+her terror she hardly noticed that the wolf's head was suddenly
+withdrawn.
+
+
+III
+
+
+When Dave Patton set out for the Settlement, he found the snow-shoeing
+so good, the biting air so bracing, and his own heart so light with
+hope and health, that he was able to make the journey in something
+less than a day and a half. Out of this time he had allowed himself
+four hours for sleep, in an old lumber camp beside the trail. At the
+Settlement, which boasted several miscellaneous stores, where
+anything from a baby's rattle to a bag of fertilizer or a bedroom
+suite could be purchased, he had no difficulty in gathering such
+gay-coloured trifles, together with more lasting gifts, as he thought
+would meet Lidey's anticipations. When he went to his wife's people,
+he found that all had something to add to his Santa Claus pack, for
+Mary as well as for the little one; and he hugged himself with elation
+at the thought of what a Christmas there was going to be in the lonely
+wilderness cabin. He had bought two or three things for his wife; and
+when he shouldered his pack, slinging it high and strapping it close
+that it might not flop with his rapid stride, he found the burden no
+light one. But the lightness of his heart made compensation.
+
+That night he took but two hours' sleep in the old lumber camp, aiming
+to reach home soon after noon. In the morning, however, things began
+to go wrong. First the pack, as packs sometimes will for no visible
+reason, developed a kink that galled his shoulders obstinately. Again
+and again he paused and tried to readjust it. But in vain. Finally he
+had to stop, undo the bundle, and rearrange every article in it,
+before he could induce it to "carry" smoothly.
+
+Half an hour later, as he turned a step off the trail to get a drink
+at a bubbling spring, that kept open all through the bitterest winter,
+he caught his snowshoe on a buried branch and fell forward, breaking
+the frame. In his angry impatience he attempted no more than a
+temporary repair of the damage, such as he thought might see him to
+the end of his journey. But the poor makeshift broke down before he
+had gone a mile. There was nothing for him to do but to stop long
+enough to make a good job of it, which he did by chopping out a piece
+of ash, whittling down a couple of thin but tough strips, and splicing
+the break securely with the strong "salmon twine" that he always
+carried. Even so, he realized that to avoid further delay he would
+have to go cautiously and humour the mend. And soon he had to
+acknowledge to himself that it would be long after supper-time, long
+after Lidey's bed-time, before he could get home.
+
+As the moon rose, he was accompanied by his shadow, a gigantic and
+grotesque figure that danced fantastically along the snow before him.
+As the moon climbed the icy heaven, the shadow shortened and acquired
+more sobriety of demeanour. Plodding doggedly onward, too tired to
+think, Dave amused himself with the antics of the shadow, which seemed
+responsible for a portion of the crisp music that came from his
+snowshoes.
+
+From this careless reverie Dave was suddenly aroused by a ghost of
+sound that drifted towards him through the trees. It was a long,
+wailing cry, which somehow stirred the roots of his hair. He did not
+recognize it. But he felt that it was nothing human. It came from
+somewhere between himself and home, however; and he instinctively
+quickened his steps, thinking with satisfaction of the snug and
+well-warmed cabin that sheltered his dear ones.
+
+[Illustration: "Where anything from a baby's rattle to a bag of
+fertilizer could be purchased."]
+
+Presently the long cry sounded again, nearer and clearer now, and
+tremulous. Dave had heard wolves before, in Labrador and in the West.
+Had he not been quite sure that wolves were unknown in this part of
+the country, he would have sworn that the sound was the hunting cry of
+a wolf-pack. But the idea was impossible. He had no sooner made up his
+mind to this, however, than the cry was repeated once more. Thereupon
+Dave reluctantly changed his mind. That the sound meant wolves was not
+only possible, but certain. It filled him with resentment to think
+that those ravening marauders had come into the country.
+
+It was soon manifest to Dave's initiated ears that the wolves were
+coming directly towards him. But he gathered, too, that they were in
+pursuit of some quarry. Dave had the eastern woodsman's contempt for
+wolves, unless in a very large pack; and he soon decided that this
+pack was a small one. He did not think that it would dare to face him.
+Nevertheless, he recognized the remote possibility of their being so
+hungry as to forget their dread of man. That in such case his axe
+would be an all-sufficient defence he did not doubt. But he was in a
+fierce hurry to get home. He did not want to be stopped and forced
+into any fight. For a moment he thought of turning off through the
+woods and giving these night foragers a wide berth. Then he remembered
+his uncertain snowshoes. The snow would be very soft off the trail,
+and there would be the chance of breaking the shoe again. Who was he,
+to be turned out of his path by a bunch of wild curs? It was the
+snow-shoe that settled it. He set his jaws grimly, unslung his axe,
+and pressed forward. The clamour of the pack was now so near and loud
+that it quite drowned one single, piercing cry of "Father!" that would
+otherwise have reached his ears. There was a new note in the howling,
+too, which Dave's ear interpreted as meaning that the quarry was in
+sight. Then the noise stopped abruptly, save for an impatient yelp or
+two.
+
+"Whatever it be they're after, it's took to cover," said Dave to
+himself. "An' in the old shanty, too!" he added, as he saw the little
+patch of clearing open before him.
+
+Realizing that the wolves had something to occupy fully their
+attention, he now crept noiselessly forward just within the edge of
+the wood. Peering forth from behind the cover of a drooping hemlock
+branch, he saw the roof of the hut, the half-open doorway nearly
+choked with snow, and the wolves prowling and sniffing around it, but
+keeping a couple of yards away.
+
+"Scairt of a trap!" he thought to himself with a grin, and cursed his
+luck that he had not his rifle with him.
+
+"A couple o' them thick, grey pelts," he thought--"what a coat they'd
+make for the little one!"
+
+There were six wolves, and big ones--enough to make things look pretty
+ugly for one man with only an axe. Dave was glad they had something to
+keep them from turning their attention to him. He watched them for a
+few moments, then decided to go around by the other side of the
+clearing and avoid trouble.
+
+He drew back as silently as a lynx. Where the woods overhead were
+thick, the snow was soft, with no crispness on the surface; and
+instead of the crunching that his steps made on the trail, here the
+snow made no sound under his feet but a sort of thick sigh.
+
+Dave had taken several paces in retreat, when an idea flashed up that
+arrested him. _Why_ were the wolves so wary about entering the hut,
+when their quarry was certainly inside? Their dread of a trap was not,
+of itself, quite enough to explain their caution. The thought gave him
+a qualm of uneasiness. He would return and have another look at them!
+Then his impatience got the better of him. Mary and the little one
+were waiting and watching for him at home. He retreated another pace
+or two. What should he be doing, wasting his time over a parcel of
+wolves that had got a fox cornered in the old shanty? Dave felt sure
+it was a fox. But no! He could not escape the conviction--much as he
+wished to--that if the fugitive were a fox, or any other animal of the
+north-eastern woods, it would not take six hungry wolves much more
+than six seconds to get over their suspicions and go in after him.
+What if it should be some half-starved old Indian, working his way
+into the Settlement after bad luck with his hunting and his trapping!
+Whoever it was, he had no gun, or there would have been shooting
+before this. Dave saw that he must go back and look into the matter.
+But he was angry at this new delay. Cursing the wolves, and the Indian
+who didn't know enough to take care of himself, Dave stole back to his
+covert behind the hemlock branch, and peered forth once more, no
+longer interested, but aggrieved.
+
+The wolves were now sitting on their haunches around the hut door.
+Their unusual behaviour convinced him that there was a man inside.
+Well, there was no getting around the fact that he was in for a fight.
+He only hoped that the chap inside was some good, and would have
+"somethin' to say fer himself, darn him!" Dave gently lowered the
+bundle from his back, and threw off his thick coat to allow his arms
+freer play.
+
+It was at this moment that the leader of the pack made up his mind to
+crawl into the hut.
+
+As the wolf's head entered the low opening, Dave gripped his axe,
+thrust aside the hemlock branch, and silently darted forth into the
+clearing. He did not shout, for he wanted to take his enemies, as far
+as possible, unawares. He had but a score of yards to go. So intent
+were they upon their leader's movements that Dave was almost upon them
+ere they heeded the sound of his coming. Then they looked around.
+Three shrank back, startled at the tall and threatening shape. But two
+sprang at his throat with snapping jaws. The first met the full sweep
+of his axe, in the chest and dropped in a heap. The second dodged a
+short blow and warily drew back again. Then, from within the darkness
+of the hut, came those screams of the madness of terror.
+
+For one beat Dave's heart stopped. He knew the voice!
+
+The big wolf was just backing out. He turned, jerking himself around
+like a loosed spring, as he saw Dave towering over him. But he was not
+in time. The axe descended, sheering his haunches across, and he
+stretched out, working his great jaws convulsively. Dave saw that the
+jaws had no blood upon them, and his own blood returned to his heart.
+He had come in time. The screams within the hut died into piteous
+sobs.
+
+Across Dave's mind flamed a vision of the agony of horror that Lidey
+had been suffering since first those howlings fell upon his ears. His
+heart-break transformed itself into a mad rage of vengeance. As he
+turned, with a hoarse shout, upon the rest of the pack, he felt a hot
+breath on his neck, and bare fangs snapped savagely within an inch of
+his throat. His assailant sprang back in time to escape the deadly
+sweep of the axe, but at the same instant the other three were leaping
+in. One of these caught a glancing blow, which drove him off,
+snarling. But the other two were so close that there was no time for
+Dave to recover. Instinctively he jabbed a short back-stroke with the
+end of the axe-handle, and caught one of his assailants in the belly.
+Sickened, and daunted by this unexpected form of reprisal, the brute
+hunched itself with a startled yelp and ran off with its tail between
+its legs. At the same moment, dropping the axe, Dave caught the other
+wolf fairly by the throat. The gripping hand was a kind of weapon that
+the beast had never learned to guard against, and it was taken at a
+disadvantage. With a grunt of fury and of effort Dave closed his grip
+inexorably, braced himself, and swung the heavy brute off its feet.
+Whirling it clear around his head, he let go. The animal flew
+sprawling and twisting through the air, and came down on its back ten
+feet away. When it landed, there was no more fight left in it. Before
+Dave could reach it with his axe it was up and away in a panic after
+its two remaining fellows.
+
+Breathing heavily from his effort and from the storm of emotion still
+surging in his breast, Dave turned to the hut door and called--
+
+"Lidey! Lidey! Are you there?"
+
+"Popsie! Oh, popsie, _dear!_ I thought you weren't goin' to come!"
+cried a quivering little voice. And the child crept out into the
+moonlight.
+
+"Oh, popsie!" she sobbed, hiding her eyes in his neck as he crushed
+her to his heart, "they were goin' to eat me up, an' I thought you
+wouldn't ever come!"
+
+
+IV
+
+
+With the bundle on his back and Lidey in his arms, Dave strode
+homeward, his weariness forgotten. His first anxiety about his wife
+was somewhat eased when he learned that Lidey had left her asleep; for
+he remembered that a heavy sleep always marked the end of one of her
+attacks. He only hoped that the sleep would hold her until they got
+home, for his heart sank at the thought of her terror if she should
+wake and find Lidey gone. As they came out on the edge of the
+clearing, and saw that all was quiet in the cabin, Dave said--
+
+"We won't tell mother nothin' about the wolves to-night, sweetie, eh?
+It 'ld jest git her all worked up, an' she couldn't stand it when
+she's sick. We won't say nothin' about that till to-morrow!"
+
+"Yes!" murmured Lidey, "she'd be awful scairt!"
+
+They were then about halfway up the slope, when from the cabin came a
+frightened cry of "Lidey! Lidey!" The door was flung open, the
+lamplight streamed out in futile contest with the moonlight, and Mrs.
+Patton appeared. Her face was white with fear. As she saw Dave and the
+little one hurrying towards her, both hands went to her heart in the
+extremity of her relief, and she sank back into a chair before the
+door.
+
+Dave kicked off his snow-shoes with a dexterous twist, stepped inside,
+slammed the door, and with a laugh and a kiss deposited Lidey in her
+mother's lap.
+
+"She jest run down to meet me!" explained Dave, truthfully but
+deceptively.
+
+"Oh, girlie, how you frightened me!" cried the woman, divided between
+tears and smiles. "I woke up, Dave, an' found her gone; an' bein' kind
+o' bewildered, I couldn't understand it!"
+
+She clung to his hand, while he looked tenderly down into her face.
+
+"Poor little woman!" he murmured, "you've had a bad turn ag'in, Lidey
+tells me. Better now, eh?"
+
+"I'm plumb all right ag'in, Dave, now you're back," she answered,
+squeezing his hand hard. "But land's sakes, Dave, how ever did you git
+all that blood on your pants?"
+
+"Oh," said the man, lightly, "that's nothin.' Tell you about it
+bime-by. I'm jest starvin' now. Let's have supper quick, and then give
+old Mr. Sandy Claus a chance. Tomorrow we're going to have the
+greatest Christmas ever was, us three!"
+
+
+
+
+The Gentling of Red McWha
+
+
+I
+
+
+It was heavy sledding on the Upper Ottanoonsis trail. The two
+lumbermen were nearing the close of the third day of the hard four
+days' haul in from the Settlements to the camp. At the head of the
+first team, his broad jaw set and his small grey eyes angry with
+fatigue, trudged the big figure of Red McWha, choosing and breaking a
+way through the deep snow. With his fiery red head and his large red
+face, he was the only one of his colouring in a large family so dark
+that they were known as the "Black McWhas," and his temper seemed to
+have been chronically soured by the singularity of his type. But he
+was a good woodsman and a good teamster, and his horses followed
+confidently at his heels like dogs. The second team was led by a tall,
+gaunt-jawed, one-eyed lumberman named Jim Johnson, but invariably
+known as "Walley." From the fact that his blind eye was of a peculiar
+blankness, like whitish porcelain, he had been nicknamed "Wall-Eye";
+but, owing to his general popularity, combined with the emphatic
+views he held on that particular subject, the name had been mitigated
+to Walley.
+
+The two were hauling in supplies for Conroy's Camp, on Little
+Ottanoonsis Lake. Silently, but for the clank and creak of the
+harness, and the soft "thut, thut" of the trodden snow, the little
+procession toiled on through the soundless desolation. Between the
+trees--naked birches and scattered, black-green firs--filtered the
+lonely, yellowish-violet light of the fading winter afternoon. When
+the light had died into ghostly grey along the corridors of the
+forest, the teams rounded a turn of the trail, and began to descend
+the steep slope which led down to Joe Godding's solitary cabin on the
+edge of Burnt Brook Meadows. Presently the dark outline of the cabin
+came into view against the pallor of the open clearing.
+
+But there was no light in the window. No homely pungency of wood-smoke
+breathed welcome on the bitter air. The cabin looked startlingly
+deserted.
+
+"Whoa!" commanded McWha, sharply, and glanced round at Johnson with an
+angry misgiving in his eyes. The teams came to a stop with a shiver of
+all their bells.
+
+Then, upon the sudden stillness, arose the faint sound of a child's
+voice, crying hopelessly.
+
+"Something wrong down yonder!" growled McWha, his expectations of a
+hot supper crumbling into dust.
+
+As he spoke, Walley Johnson sprang past him and went loping down the
+hill with long, loose strides like a moose.
+
+Red McWha followed very deliberately with the teams. He resented
+anything emotional. And he was prepared to feel himself aggrieved.
+
+When he reached the cabin door the sound of weeping had stopped.
+Inside he found Walley Johnson on his knees before the stove,
+hurriedly lighting a fire. Wrapped in his coat, and clutching his arm
+as if afraid he might leave her, stood a tiny, flaxen-haired child,
+perhaps five years old. The cabin was cold, almost as cold as the
+snapping night outside. Along the middle of the floor, with bedclothes
+from the bunk heaped awkwardly upon it in the little one's efforts to
+warm it back to responsive life, sprawled rigidly the lank body of Joe
+Godding.
+
+Red McWha stared for a moment in silence, then stooped, examined the
+dead man's face, and felt his breast.
+
+"Deader'n a herring!" he muttered.
+
+"Yes! the poor old shike-poke!" answered Johnson, without looking up
+from his task.
+
+"Heart?" queried McWha, laconically.
+
+Johnson made no reply till the flame caught the kindling and rushed
+inwards from the open draught with a cordial roar. Then he stood up.
+
+"Don' know about that," said he. "But he's been dead these hours and
+hours! An' the fire out! An' the kid most froze! A sick man like he
+was, to've kept the kid alone here with him that way!" And he glanced
+down at the dead figure with severe reprobation.
+
+"Never was much good, that Joe Godding!" muttered McWha, always
+critical.
+
+As the two woodsmen discussed the situation, the child, a
+delicate-featured, blue-eyed girl, was gazing up from under her mop of
+bright hair, first at one, then at the other. Walley Johnson was the
+one who had come in answer to her long wailing, who had hugged her
+close, and wrapped her up, and crooned over her in his pity, and
+driven away the terrors. But she did not like to look at him, though
+his gaunt, sallow face was strong and kind.
+
+People are apt to talk easy generalities about the intuition of
+children! As a matter of fact, the little ones are not above judging
+quite as superficially and falsely as their elders. The child looked
+at her protector's sightless eye, then turned away and sidled over to
+McWha with one hand coaxingly outstretched. McWha's mouth twisted
+sourly. Without appearing to see the tiny hand, he deftly evaded it.
+Stooping over the dead man, he picked him up, straightened him out
+decently on his bunk, and covered him away from sight with the
+blankets.
+
+"Ye needn't be so crusty to the kid, when she wants to make up to ye!"
+protested Walley, as the little one turned back to him with a puzzled
+look in her tearful blue eyes.
+
+"It's all alike they be, six, or sixteen, or sixty-six!" remarked
+McWha, sarcastically, stepping to the door. "I don't want none of 'em!
+Ye kin look out for 'er! I'm for the horses."
+
+"Don't talk out so loud," admonished the little one. "You'll wake
+Daddy. Poor Daddy's sick!"
+
+"Poor lamb!" murmured Johnson, folding her to his great breast with a
+pang of pity. "No; we won't wake daddy. Now tell me, what's yer
+name?"
+
+"Daddy called me Rosy-Lilly!" answered the child, playing with a
+button on Johnson's vest. "Is he gettin' warmer now? He was so cold,
+and he wouldn't speak to Rosy-Lilly."
+
+"Rosy-Lilly it be!" agreed Johnson. "Now we jest won't bother daddy,
+him bein' so sick! You an' me'll git supper."
+
+The cabin was warm now, and on tiptoe Johnson and Rosy-Lilly went
+about their work, setting the table, "bilin' the tea," and frying the
+bacon. When Red McWha came in from the barn, and stamped the snow from
+his feet, Rosy-Lilly said "Hush!" laid her finger on her lip, and
+glanced meaningly at the moveless shape in the bunk.
+
+"We mus' let 'im sleep, Rosy-Lilly says," decreed Johnson, with an
+emphasis which penetrated McWha's unsympathetic consciousness, and
+elicited a non-committal grunt.
+
+When supper was ready, Rosy-Lilly hung around him for a minute or two
+before dragging her chair up to the table. She evidently purposed
+paying him the compliment of sitting close beside him and letting him
+cut her bacon for her. But finding that he would not even glance at
+her, she fetched a deep sigh, and took her place beside Johnson. When
+the meal was over and the dishes had been washed up, she let Johnson
+put her to bed in her little bunk behind the stove. She wanted to kiss
+her father for good-night, as usual; but when Johnson insisted that to
+do so might wake him up, and be bad for him, she yielded tearfully;
+and they heard her sobbing herself to sleep.
+
+For nearly an hour the two men smoked in silence, their steaming feet
+under the stove, their backs turned towards the long, unstirring shape
+in the big bunk. At last Johnson stood up and shook himself.
+
+"Well," he drawled, "I s'pose we mus' be doin' the best we kin fer
+poor old Joe."
+
+"He ain't left us no ch'ice!" snapped McWha.
+
+"We can't leave him here in the house," continued Johnson, irresolutely.
+
+"No, no!" answered McWha. "He'd ha'nt it, an' us, too, ever after,
+like as not. We got to give 'im lumberman's shift, till the Boss kin
+send and take 'im back to the Settlement for the parson to do 'im up
+right an' proper."
+
+So they rolled poor Joe Godding up in one of the tarpaulins which
+covered the sleds, and buried him deep in the snow, under the big elm
+behind the cabin, and piled a monument of cordwood above him, so that
+the foxes and wild cats could not disturb his lonely sleep, and
+surmounted the pile with a rude cross to signify its character. Then,
+with lighter hearts, they went back to the cabin fire, which seemed to
+burn more freely now that the grim presence of its former master had
+been removed.
+
+"Now what's to be done with the kid--with Rosy-Lilly?" began Johnson.
+
+Red McWha took his pipe from his mouth, and spat accurately into the
+crack of the grate to signify that he had no opinion on that important
+subject.
+
+"They do say in the Settlements as how Joe Godding hain't kith nor kin
+in the world, savin' an' exceptin' the kid only," continued Johnson.
+
+McWha nodded indifferently.
+
+"Well," went on Johnson, "we can't do nawthin' but take her on to the
+camp now. Mebbe the Boss'll decide she's got to go back to the
+Settlement, along o' the fun'ral. But mebbe he'll let the hands keep
+her, to kinder chipper up the camp when things gits dull. I reckon
+when the boys sees her sweet face they'll all be wantin' to be
+guardeens to her."
+
+McWha again spat accurately into the crack of the grate.
+
+"I ain't got no fancy for young 'uns in camp, but ye kin do ez ye
+like, Walley Johnson," he answered grudgingly. "Only I want it
+understood, right now, I ain't no guardeen, an' won't be, to nawthin'
+that walks in petticoats! What I'm thinkin' of is the old cow out
+yonder, an' them hens o' Joe's what I seen a-roostin' over the
+cowstall."
+
+"Them's all Rosy-Lilly's, an' goes with us an' her to camp to-morrer,"
+answered Johnson with decision. "We'll tell the kid as how her daddy
+had to be took away in the night because he was so sick, an' couldn't
+speak to nobody, an' we was goin' to take keer o' her till he gits
+back! An' that's the truth," he added, with a sudden passion of
+tenderness and pity in his tone.
+
+At this hint of emotion McWha laughed sarcastically. Then knocking out
+his pipe, he proceeded to fill the stove for the night, and spread his
+blanket on the floor beside it.
+
+"If ye wants to make the camp a baby-farm," he growled, "don't mind
+me!"
+
+
+II
+
+
+Under the dominion of Rosy-Lilly fell Conroy's camp at sight,
+capitulating unconditionally to the first appeal of her tearful blue
+eyes, and little, hurt red mouth. Dan Logan, the Boss, happened to
+know just how utterly alone the death of her father had left the
+child, and he was the first to propose that the camp should adopt her.
+Fully bearing out the faith which Walley Johnson had so confidently
+expressed back in the dead man's cabin, Jimmy Brackett, the cook, on
+whom would necessarily devolve the chief care of this new member of
+his family, jumped to the proposal of the Boss with enthusiastic
+support.
+
+"We'll every mother's son o' us be guardeen to her!" he declared, with
+the finality appropriate to his office as autocrat second only to the
+Boss himself. Every man in camp assented noisily, saving only Red
+McWha; and he, as was expected of him, sat back and grinned.
+
+From the first, Rosy-Lilly made herself at home in the camp. For a few
+days she fretted after her father, whenever she was left for a moment
+to her own devices; but Jimmy Brackett was ever on hand to divert her
+mind with astounding fairy-tales during the hours when the rest of the
+hands were away chopping and hauling. Long after she had forgotten to
+fret, she would have little "cryin' spells" at night, remembering her
+father's good-night kiss. But a baby's sorrow, happily, is shorter
+than its remembrance; and Rosy-Lilly soon learned to repeat her
+phrase: "Poor Daddy had to go 'way-'way-off," without the quivering
+lip and wistful look which made the big woodsmen's hearts tighten so
+painfully beneath their homespun shirts. Conroy's Camp was a spacious,
+oblong cabin of "chinked" logs, with a big stove in the middle. The
+bunks were arranged in a double tier along one wall, and a plank table
+(rude, but massive) along the other. Built on at one end, beside the
+door, was the kitchen, or cookhouse, crowded, but clean and orderly,
+and bright with shining tins. At the inner end of the main room a
+corner was boarded off to make a tiny bedroom, no bigger than a
+cupboard. This was the Boss's private apartment. It contained two
+narrow bunks--one for the Boss himself, who looked much too big for
+it; and one for the only guest whom the camp ever expected to
+entertain, the devoted missionary-priest, who, on his snowshoes, was
+wont to make the round of the widely scattered camps once or twice in
+a winter. This guest-bunk the Boss at once allotted to Rosy-Lilly, but
+on the strict condition that Johnson should continue to act as nurse
+and superintend Rosy-Lilly's nightly toilet.
+
+Rosy-Lilly had not been in the camp a week before McWha's "ugliness"
+to her had aroused even the Boss's resentment, and the Boss was a
+just man. Of course, it was generally recognized that McWha was not
+bound, by any law or obligation, to take any notice of the child,
+still less to "make a fuss over her," with the rest of the camp. But
+Jimmy Brackett expressed the popular sentiment when he growled,
+looking sourly at the back of McWha's unconscious red head bowed
+ravenously over his plate of beans--
+
+"If only he'd _do_ something, so's we c'ld _lick_ some decency inter
+'im!"
+
+There was absolutely nothing to be done about it, however; for Red
+McWha was utterly within his rights.
+
+Rosy-Lilly, as we have seen, was not yet five years old; but certain
+of the characteristics of her sex were already well developed within
+her. The adulation of the rest of the camp, poured out at her tiny
+feet, she took graciously enough, but rather as a matter of course. It
+was all her due. But what she wanted was that that big, ugly,
+red-headed man, with the cross grey eyes and loud voice, should be
+nice to her. She wanted _him_ to pick her up, and set her on his knee,
+and whittle wonderful wooden dogs and dolls and boats and boxes for
+her with his jack-knife, as Walley Johnson and the others did. With
+Walley she would hardly condescend to coquet, so sure she was of his
+abject slavery to her whims; and, moreover, as must be confessed with
+regret, so unforgiving was she in her heart toward his blank eye. She
+merely consented to make him useful, much as she might a convenient
+and altogether doting but uninteresting grandmother. To all the other
+members of the camp--except the Boss, whom she regarded with some
+awe--she would make baby-love impartially and carelessly. But it was
+Red McWha whose notice she craved.
+
+When supper was over, and pipes filled and lighted, some one would
+strike up a "chantey"--one of those interminable, monotonous
+ballad-songs which are peculiar to the lumber camps.
+
+These "chanteys," however robust their wordings or their incidents,
+are always sung in a plaintive minor which goes oddly with the
+large-moulded virility of the singers. Some are sentimental, or
+religious, to the last degree, while others reek with an indecency of
+speech that would shroud the Tenderloin in blushes. Both kinds are
+equally popular in the camps, and both are of the most astounding
+_naïveté_. Of the worst of them, even, the simple-minded woodsmen are
+not in the least ashamed. They seem unconscious of their enormity.
+Nevertheless, it came about that, without a word said by any one, from
+the hour of Rosy-Lilly's arrival in camp, all the indecent "chanteys"
+were dropped, as if into oblivion, from the woodsmen's repertoire.
+
+During the songs, the smoking, and the lazy fun, Rosy-Lilly would slip
+from one big woodsman to another, an inconspicuous little figure in
+the smoke-gloomed light of the two oil-lamps. Man after man would
+snatch her up to his knee, lay by his pipe, twist her silky, yellow
+curls about his great blunt fingers, and whisper wood-folk tales or
+baby nonsense into her pink little ear. She would listen solemnly for
+a minute or two, then wriggle down and move on to another of her
+admirers. But before long she would be standing by the bench on which
+sat Red McWha, with one big knee usually hooked high above the other,
+and his broad back reclined against the edge of a bunk. For a few
+minutes the child would stand there smiling with a perennial
+confidence, waiting to be noticed. Then she would come closer, without
+a word from her usually nimble little tongue, lean against McWha's
+knee, and look up coaxingly into his face. If McWha chanced to be
+singing, for he was a "chanter" of some note, he would appear so
+utterly absorbed that Rosy-Lilly would at last slip away, with a look
+of hurt surprise in her face, to be comforted by one of her faithful.
+But if McWha were not engrossed in song, it would soon become
+impossible for him to ignore her. He would suddenly look down at her
+with his fierce eyes, knit his shaggy red brows, and demand harshly:
+"Well, Yaller Top, an' what d'_you_ want?"
+
+From the loud voice and angry eye the child would retreat in haste,
+clear to the other end of the room, and sometimes a big tear would
+track its way down either cheek. After such an experiment she would
+usually seek Jimmy Brackett, who would console her with some sticky
+sweetmeat, and strive to wither McWha with envenomed glances. McWha
+would reply with a grin, as if proud of having routed the little
+adventurer so easily. He had discovered that the name "Yaller Top" was
+an infallible weapon of rebuff, as Rosy-Lilly considered it a term of
+indignity. To his evil humour there was something amusing in abashing
+Rosy-Lilly with the title she most disliked. Moreover, it was an
+indirect rebuke to the "saft" way the others acted about her.
+
+If Rosy-Lilly felt rebuffed for the moment by McWha's rudeness, she
+seemed always to forget it the next time she saw him. Night after
+night she would sidle up to his knee, and sue for his notice; and
+night after night she would retire discomfited. But on one occasion
+the discomfiture was McWha's. She had elicited the customary rough
+demand--
+
+"Well, Yaller Top, what d'_you_ want?"
+
+But this time she held her ground, though with quivering lips.
+
+"Yaller Top ain't my name 'tall," she explained with baby politeness.
+"It's Rosy-Lilly; 'n' I jes' thought you _might_ want me to sit on
+yer knee a little, teeny minit."
+
+Much taken aback, McWha glanced about the room with a loutish grin.
+Then he flushed angrily, as he felt the demand of the sudden silence.
+Looking down again, with a scowl, at the expectant little face of
+Rosy-Lilly, he growled: "Well, not as I knows of!" and rose to his
+feet, thrusting her brusquely aside.
+
+"Ain't he uglier'n hell?" murmured Bird Pigeon to Walley Johnson,
+spitting indignantly on the stove-leg. "He'd 'a' cuffed the kid ef he
+da'st, he glared at her that ugly!"
+
+"Like to see 'im try it!" responded Johnson through his teeth, with a
+look to which his blank eye lent mysterious menace.
+
+The time soon came, however, when McWha resumed his old seat and his
+old attitude on the bench. Rosy-Lilly avoided him for two evenings,
+but on the third the old fascination got the better of her pique.
+McWha saw her coming, and, growing self-conscious, he hurriedly
+started up a song with the full strength of his big voice.
+
+The song was a well-known one, and nothing in it to redden the ear of
+a maiden; but it was profane with that rich, ingenious amplitude of
+profanity which seems almost instinctive among the lumbermen--a sort
+of second mother-tongue to them. Had it been any one but McWha who
+started it, nothing would have been said; but, as it was, Walley
+Johnson took alarm on the instant. To his supersensitive watchfulness,
+McWha was singing that song "jest a purpose to be ugly to the kid."
+The fact that "the kid" would hardly understand a word of it, did not
+occur to him. Rising up from his bench behind the stove he shouted out
+across the smoky room: "Shet up that, Red!"
+
+The song stopped. Every one looked inquiringly at Johnson. For several
+moments there was silence, broken only by an uneasy shuffling of feet.
+Then McWha got up slowly, his eyebrows bristling, his angry eyes
+little pin-points. First he addressed himself to Johnson.
+
+"What the ---- business is't o' yourn what I sing?" he demanded,
+opening and shutting his big fingers.
+
+"I'll show ye what," began Johnson, in a tense voice. But the Boss
+interrupted. Dave Logan was a quiet man, but he ruled his camp.
+Moreover, he was a just man, and Johnson had begun the dispute.
+
+"Chuck that, Walley!" he snapped, sharp as a whip. "If there's to be
+any row in this here camp, I'll make it myself, an' don't none o' you
+boys forgit it!"
+
+McWha turned upon him in angry appeal.
+
+"You're Boss, Dave Logan, an' what you sez goes, fer's I'm
+concerned," said he. "But I ax you, _as_ Boss, be this here camp a
+_camp_, er a camp-meetin'? Walley Johnson kin go straight to hell; but
+ef _you_ sez we 'ain't to sing nawthin' but hymns, why, o' course,
+it's hymns for me--till I kin git away to a camp where the hands is
+men, an' not wet-nurses!"
+
+"That's all right, Red!" said the Boss. "I kin make allowances for yer
+gittin' riled, considerin' the jolt Walley's rude interruption give
+ye! He hadn't no right to interrupt, nor no call to. This ain't no
+camp-meetin'. The boys have a right to swear all they like. Why,
+'twouldn't be noways natural in camp ef the boys couldn't swear!
+somethin'd hev to bust before long. An' the boys can't be expected to
+go a-tiptoe and talk prunes an' prisms, all along o' a little
+yaller-haired kid what's come to brighten up the old camp fer us. That
+wouldn't be sense! But all we've got to mind is jest this--_nothin'
+vile!_ That's all, boys. We'll worry along without that!"
+
+When the Boss spoke, he liked to explain himself rather fully. When he
+ceased, no one had a word to say. Every one was satisfied but Johnson;
+and he was constrained to seem so. There was an oppressive silence for
+some seconds. It was broken by the soft treble of Rosy-Lilly, who had
+been standing before the Boss and gazing up into his face with awed
+attention throughout the harangue.
+
+"What did you say, Dave?" she piped, her hands clasped behind her
+back.
+
+"Somethin' as shall never tech you, Rosy-Lilly!" declared Johnson,
+snatching up the child and bearing her off to bed, amid a roar of
+laughter which saved Dave Logan the embarrassment of a reply.
+
+For a time, now, Rosy-Lilly left McWha alone, so markedly that it
+looked as if Walley Johnson or Jimmy Brackett had admonished her on
+the subject. She continued, indeed, to cast at him eyes of pleading
+reproach, but always from a distance, and such appeals rolled off
+McWha's crude perception like water off a musk rat's fur. He had
+nothing "agin her," as he would have put it, if only she would keep
+out of his way. But Rosy-Lilly, true to her sex, was not vanquished by
+any means, or even discouraged. She was only biding her time. Bird
+Pigeon, who was something of a beau in the Settlements, understood
+this, and stirred the loyal wrath of Walley Johnson by saying so.
+
+"There ain't nawthin' about Red McWha to make Rosy-Lilly keer shucks
+fer 'im, savin' an' except that she can't git him!" said Bird. "She's
+that nigh bein' a woman a'ready, if she _be_ but five year old!"
+
+Johnson fixed him with his disconcerting eye, and retorted witheringly--
+
+"Ye thinks ye knows a pile about women, Bird Pigeon. But the kind ye
+knows about ain't the kind Rosy-Lilly's agoin' to be!"
+
+Nearly a week went by before Rosy-Lilly saw another chance to assail
+McWha's forbidding defences. This time she made what her innocent
+heart conceived to be a tremendous bid for the bad-tempered woodsman's
+favour. Incidentally, too, she revealed a secret which the Boss and
+Walley Johnson had been guarding with guilty solicitude ever since her
+coming to the camp.
+
+It chanced that the Boss and Johnson together were kept away from camp
+one night till next morning, laying out a new "landing" over on Fork's
+Brook. When it came time for Rosy-Lilly to be put to bed, the honour
+fell, as a matter of course, to Jimmy Brackett. Rosy-Lilly went with
+him willingly enough, but not till after a moment of hesitation, in
+which her eyes wandered involuntarily to the broad, red face of McWha
+behind its cloud of smoke.
+
+As a nursemaid, Jimmy Brackett flattered himself that he was a
+success--till the moment came when Rosy-Lilly was to be tucked into
+her bunk. Then she stood and eyed him with solemn question.
+
+"What's wrong, me honey-bug?" asked Brackett, anxiously.
+
+"You hain't heard me my prayers!" replied Rosy-Lilly, with a touch of
+severity in her voice.
+
+"Eh? What's that?" stammered Brackett, startled quite out of his
+wonted composure.
+
+"Don't you know little girls has to say their prayers afore they goes
+to bed?" she demanded.
+
+"No!" admitted Brackett, truthfully, wondering how he was going to get
+out of the unexpected situation.
+
+"Walley Johnson hears me mine!" continued the child, her eyes very
+wide open as she weighed Brackett's qualifications in her merciless
+little balance.
+
+Here, Brackett was misguided enough to grin, bethinking him that now
+he "had the laugh" on the Boss and Walley. That grin settled it.
+
+"I dess you don't know how to hear me say 'em, Jimmy!" she announced
+inexorably. And picking up the skirt of her blue homespun "nightie,"
+so that she showed her little red woollen socks and white deer-hide
+moccasins, she tripped forth into the big, noisy room.
+
+At the bright picture she made, her flax-gold hair tied in a knob on
+top of her head that it might not get tangled, the room fell silent
+instantly, and every eye was turned upon her. Nothing abashed by the
+scrutiny, she made her way sedately down the room and across to
+McWha's bench. Unable to ignore her, and angry at the consciousness
+that he was embarrassed, McWha eyed her with a grim stare. But
+Rosy-Lilly put out her hands to him confidingly.
+
+"I'm goin' to let you hear me my prayers," she said, her clear, baby
+voice carrying every syllable to the furthest corner of the room.
+
+An ugly light flamed into McWha's eyes, and he sprang to his feet,
+brushing the child rudely aside.
+
+"That's some o' Jimmy Brackett's work!" he shouted. "It's him put 'er
+up to it, curse him!"
+
+The whole room burst into a roar of laughter at the sight of his
+wrath. Snatching his cap from its peg, he strode furiously out to the
+stable, slamming the door behind him.
+
+In their delight over McWha's discomfiture the woodsmen quite forgot
+the feelings of Rosy-Lilly. For a second or two she stood motionless,
+her lips and eyes wide open with amazement. Then, hurt as much by the
+laughter of the room as by McWha's rebuff, she burst into tears, and
+stood hiding her face with both hands, the picture of desolation.
+
+When the men realized that she thought they were laughing at her, they
+shut their mouths with amazing promptitude, and crowded about her. One
+after another picked her up, striving to console her with caresses and
+extravagant promises. She would not uncover her eyes, however, for any
+one, and her heart-broken wailing was not hushed till Brackett thrust
+his way through the crowd, growling inarticulate blasphemies at them
+all, and bore her back to her room. When he emerged twenty minutes
+later no one asked him about Rosy-Lilly's prayers. As for Rosy-Lilly,
+her feelings were this time so outraged that she would no longer look
+at McWha.
+
+
+III
+
+
+The long backwoods winter was now drawing near its end, and the snow
+in the open spaces was getting so soft at midday as to slump heavily
+and hinder the work of the teams. Every one was working with feverish
+haste to get the logs all out to the "landings," on the river banks
+before the hauling should go to pieces. At night the tired lumbermen
+would tumble into their bunks as soon as supper was over, too greedy
+of sleep to think of songs or yarns. And Rosy-Lilly began to feel a
+little aggrieved at the inadequate attention which she was now
+receiving from all but Jimmy Brackett and the ever-faithful Johnson.
+She began to forgive McWha, and once more to try her baby wiles upon
+him. But McWha was as coldly unconscious as a stone.
+
+One day, however, Fate concluded to range herself on Rosy-Lilly's
+side. A dead branch, hurled through the air by the impact of a falling
+tree, struck Red McWha on the head, and he was carried home to the
+cabin unconscious, bleeding from a long gash in his scalp. The Boss,
+something of a surgeon in his rough and ready way, as bosses need to
+be, washed the wound and sewed it up. Then he handed over his own bunk
+to the wounded man, declaring optimistically that McWha would come
+round all right, his breed being hard to kill.
+
+It was hours later when McWha began to recover consciousness, and just
+then, as it happened, there was no one near him but Rosy-Lilly.
+Smitten with pity, the child was standing beside the bunk, murmuring:
+"Poor! poor! I so sorry!" and slowly shaking her head and lightly
+patting the big, limp hand where it lay outside the blanket.
+
+McWha half opened his eyes, and their faint glance fell on the top of
+Rosy-Lilly's head as she bent over his hand. With a wry smile he shut
+them again, but to his surprise, he felt rather gratified. Then Jimmy
+Brackett came in and whisked the child away. "'S if he thought I'd
+bite 'er!" mused McWha, somewhat inconsistently.
+
+For a long time he lay wondering confusedly. At last he opened his
+eyes wide, felt his bandaged head, and called for a drink of water in
+a voice which he vainly strove to make sound natural. To his surprise
+he was answered by Rosy-Lilly, so promptly that it was as if she had
+been listening for his voice. She came carrying the tin of water in
+both little hands, and, lifting it very carefully, she tried to hold
+it to his lips. Neither she nor McWha was quite successful in this,
+however. While they were fumbling over it, Jimmy Brackett hurried in,
+followed by the Boss, and Rosy-Lilly's nursing was superseded. The
+Boss had to hold him up so that he could drink; and when he had
+feverishly gulped about a quart, he lay back on his pillow with a huge
+sigh, declaring weakly that he was all right.
+
+"Ye got off mighty easy, Red," said the Boss, cheerfully, "considerin'
+the heft o' the knot 'at hit ye. But you McWhas was always hard to
+kill."
+
+McWha's hand was drooping loosely over the edge of the bunk. He felt
+the child's tiny fingers brushing it again softly and tenderly. Then
+he felt her lips upon it, and the sensation was so novel that he quite
+forgot to reply to the Boss's pleasantry.
+
+That night McWha was so much better that when he insisted on being
+removed to his own bunk on the plea that he "didn't feel at home in a
+cupboard like," the Boss consented. Next day he wanted to go back to
+work, but the Boss was derisively inexorable, and for two days McWha
+was kept a prisoner.
+
+During this time Jimmy Brackett, with severe and detailed admonition,
+kept Rosy-Lilly from again obtruding upon the patient's leisure; and
+McWha had nothing to do but smoke and whittle. He whittled diligently,
+but let no one see what he was making. Then, borrowing a small tin cup
+from the cook, he fussed over the stove with some dark, smelly
+decoction of tobacco-juice and ink. Rosy-Lilly was consumed with
+curiosity, especially when she saw him apparently digging beads off an
+Indian tobacco-pouch which he always carried. But she did not go near
+enough to get enlightened as to his mysterious occupation.
+
+On the following day McWha went to work again, but not till after
+breakfast, when the others had long departed. Rosy-Lilly, with one
+hand twisted in her little apron, was standing in the doorway as he
+passed out. She glanced up at him with the most coaxing smile in her
+whole armoury of allurements. McWha would not look at her, and his
+face was as sullenly harsh as ever; but as he passed he slipped
+something into her hand. To her speechless delight, it proved to be a
+little dark-brown wooden doll, daintily carved, and with two white
+beads, with black centres, cunningly set into its face for eyes.
+
+Rosy-Lilly hugged the treasure to her breast. Her first proud impulse
+was to run to Jimmy Brackett with it. But a subtler instinct withheld
+her. The gift had been bestowed in such a surreptitious way that she
+felt it to be somehow a kind of secret. She carried it away and hid it
+in her bunk, where she would go and look at it from time to time
+throughout the day. That night she brought it forth, but with several
+other treasures, so that it quite escaped comment. She said nothing
+about it to McWha, but she played with it when he could not help
+seeing it. And thereafter her "nigger-baby" was always in her arms.
+
+This compliment, however, was apparently all lost on McWha, who had
+again grown unconscious of her existence. And Rosy-Lilly, on her part,
+no longer strove to win his attention. She was content either with the
+victory she had won, or with the secret understanding which, perforce,
+now existed between them. And things went on smoothly in the camp,
+with every one now too occupied to do more than mind his own
+business.
+
+It chanced this year that the spring thaws were early and unusually
+swift, warm rains alternating with hot, searching sunshine which
+withered and devoured the snow. The ice went out with a rush in the
+rapidly rising Ottanoonsis; and from every brookside "landing" the
+logs came down in black, tumbling swarms. Just below Conroy's Camp the
+river wallowed round a narrow bend, tangled with slate ledges. It was
+a nasty place enough at low water, but in freshet a roaring terror to
+all the river-men. When the logs were running in any numbers, the bend
+had to be watched with vigilance lest a jam should form, and the
+waters be dammed back, and the lumber get "hung up" all over the
+swamps of the upper reaches.
+
+And here, now, in spite of the frantic efforts of Dave Logan and his
+crew, the logs suddenly began to jam. Pitching downward as if
+propelled by a pile-driver, certain great timbers drove their ends
+between the upstanding strata of the slate, and held against the
+torrent till others came and wedged them securely. The jam began
+between two ledges in midstream, where no one could get near it. In a
+few minutes the interlocked mass stretched from bank to bank, with the
+torrent spurting and spouting through it in furious milk-white jets.
+Log after log was chopped free by the axemen along the shore, but the
+mass remained unshaken. Meanwhile the logs were gathering swiftly
+behind, ramming down and solidifying the whole structure, and damming
+back the flood till its heavy thunder diminished to the querulous
+rattling of a mill-race. In a short time the river was packed solid
+from shore to shore for several hundred yards above the brow of the
+jam; and above that again the waters were rising at a rate which
+threatened in a few hours to flood the valley and sweep away the camp
+itself.
+
+At this stage of affairs the Boss, axe in hand, picked his way across
+the monstrous tangle of the face of the jam between the great white
+jets, till he gained the centre of the structure. Here his practised
+eye, with the aid of a perilous axe-stroke here and there,--strokes
+which might possibly bring the whole looming mass down upon him in a
+moment,--presently located the timbers which held the structure firm,
+"the key-logs," as the men call them. These he marked with his axe.
+Then, returning to the shore, he called for two volunteers to dare the
+task of cutting these key-logs away.
+
+Such a task is the most perilous that a lumberman, in all his daring
+career, can be called upon to perform. So perilous is it that it is
+always left to volunteers. Dave Logan had some brilliant feats of
+jam-breaking to his credit, from the days before he was made a Boss;
+and now, when he called for volunteers, every unmarried man in camp
+responded, with the exception, of course, of Walley Johnson, whose
+limited vision unfitted him for such a venture. The Boss chose Bird
+Pigeon and Andy White, because they were not only "smart" axemen, but
+also adepts in the river-men's games of "running logs."
+
+With a jaunty air the two young men spat on their hands, gripped their
+axes, and sprang out along the base of the jam. Every eye in camp was
+fixed upon them with a fearful interest as they plied their heavy
+blades. It was heroic, of a magnificence of valour seldom equalled on
+any field, the work of these two, chopping coolly out there in the
+daunting tumult, under that colossal front of death. Their duty was
+nothing less than to bring the toppling brow of the jam down upon
+them, yet cheat Fate at the last instant, if possible, by leaping to
+shore before the chaos quite overwhelmed them.
+
+Suddenly, while the two key-logs were not yet half cut through, the
+trained eye of the Boss detected a settling near the top of the jam.
+His yell of warning tore through the clamour of the waters. At the
+instant came a vast grumbling, like underground thunder, not loud
+apparently, yet dulling all other sounds. The two choppers sprang
+wildly for shore, as the whole face of the jam seemed to crumble in a
+breath.
+
+At this moment a scream of terror was heard--and every heart stopped.
+Some thirty yards or so upstream, and a dozen, perhaps, from shore,
+stood Rosy-Lilly, on a log. While none were observing her she had
+gleefully clambered out over the solid mass, looking for spruce-gums.
+But now, when the logs moved, she was so terror-stricken that she
+could not even try to get ashore. She just fell down upon her log, and
+clung to it, screaming.
+
+A groan of horror went up. The awful grinding of the break-up was
+already under way. To every trained eye it was evident that there was
+no human possibility of reaching the child, much less of saving her.
+To attempt it would be such a madness as to jump into the hopper of a
+mill. The crowd surged to the edge--and sprang back as the nearest
+logs bounded up at them. Except Walley Johnson. He leaped wildly out
+upon the nearest logs, fell headforemost, and was dragged back,
+fighting furiously, by a dozen inexorable hands.
+
+Just as Johnson went down, there arose a great bellowing cry of rage
+and anguish; then Red McWha's big form shot past, leaping far out upon
+the logs. Over the sickening upheaval he bounded this way and that,
+with miraculous sure-footedness. He reached the pitching log whereon
+Rosy-Lilly still clung. He clutched her by the frock. He tucked her
+under one arm like a rag-baby. Then he turned, balancing himself for
+an instant, and came leaping back towards shore.
+
+A great shout of wonder and joy went up--to be hushed in a second as a
+log reared high in McWha's path and hurled him backwards. Right down
+into the whirl of the dreadful grist he sank. But with a strength that
+seemed more than human he recovered himself, climbed forth dripping,
+and came on again with those great, unerring leaps. This time there
+was no shout. The men waited with dry throats. They saw that his ruddy
+face had gone white as chalk. Within two feet of shore a log toward
+which he had jumped was jerked aside just before he reached it, and,
+turning in the air as he fell, so as to save the child, he came down
+across it on his side with stunning violence. As he fell the Boss and
+Brackett and two of the others sprang out to meet him. They reached
+him somehow, and covered with bruises which they did not feel,
+succeeded in dragging him, with his precious burden, up from the
+grinding hell to safety. When his feet touched solid ground he sank
+unconscious, but with his arm so securely gripped about the child that
+they had difficulty in loosing his hold.
+
+Rosy-Lilly, when they picked her up, was quivering with terror, but
+unharmed. When she saw McWha stretched out upon the bank motionless,
+with his eyes shut and his white lips half open, she fought savagely
+to be put down. She ran and flung herself down beside her rescuer,
+caught his big white face between her tiny hands, and fell to kissing
+him. Presently McWha opened his eyes, and with a mighty effort rose
+upon one elbow. A look of embarrassment passed over his face as he
+glanced at the men standing about him. Then he looked down at
+Rosy-Lilly, grinned with a shamefaced tenderness, and pulled her
+gently towards him.
+
+"I'm right--glad--ye--" he began with painful effort. But before he
+could complete the sentence his eyes changed, and he fell back with a
+clicking gasp.
+
+Jimmy Brackett, heedless of her wailing protests, snatched up
+Rosy-Lilly, and carried her back to the camp.
+
+
+
+
+Melindy and the Lynxes
+
+
+The deep, slow-gathering snows of mid-February had buried away every
+stump in the pasture lot and muffled from sight all the zigzag fences
+of the little lonely clearing. The Settlement road was simply smoothed
+out of existence. The log cabin, with its low roof and one chimney,
+seemed half sunken in the snow which piled itself over the lower panes
+of its three tiny windows.
+
+The log barn, and the lean-to, which served as wood-shed and
+wagon-house, showed little more than the black edges of their
+snow-covered roofs over the glittering and gently billowing white
+expanse.
+
+In the middle of the yard the little well-house, shaped like the top
+of a "grandfather's clock," carried a thick, white, crusted cap, and
+was encircled with a streaky, irregular mass of ice, which had
+gradually accumulated almost up to the brim of the watering-trough.
+From the cabin door to the door of the barn, and over most of the yard
+space, but particularly in front of the sunward-facing lean-to, the
+snow was trodden down and littered with chips and straw.
+
+Here in the mocking sunshine huddled four white sheep, while half a
+dozen hens and a red Shanghai cock scratched in the litter beside
+them. The low door of the barn was tightly closed to protect the cow
+and horse from the bitter cold--which the sheep, with their great
+fleeces, did not seem to mind.
+
+Inside the cabin, where an old-fashioned, high-ovened kitchen stove,
+heated to the point where a dull red glow began to show itself in
+spots, kept the close air at summer temperature, a slim girl with
+fluffy, light hair and pale complexion stood by the table, vigorously
+mixing a batter of buckwheat flour for pancakes. Her slender young
+arms were streaked with flour, as was her forehead also, from her
+frequent efforts to brush her hair out of her eyes by quick upward
+dashes of her forearm.
+
+On the other side of the stove, so close to it that her rugged face
+was reddened by the heat, sat a massive old woman in a heavy
+rocking-chair, knitting. She knitted impetuously, impatiently, as if
+resenting the employment of her vigorous old fingers upon so mild a
+task.
+
+Through a clear space in one pane of the window beside her--a space
+where the heat within had triumphed over the frost without--she cast
+restless, keen eyes out across the yard to the place where the road,
+the one link between the cabin and the settlement, lay smothered from
+sight.
+
+"It's one week to-day, Melindy," she announced in a voice of accusing
+indignation, "since there's been a team got through; and it's going to
+be another before they'll get the road broke out!"
+
+"Like as not, Granny," responded the girl, beating the batter with an
+impatience that belied the cheerfulness of her tone. "But what does it
+matter, anyway? We're all right here for a month!"
+
+As she spoke, however, her eyes, too, gazed out wistfully over the
+buried road. She was wearying for the sound of bells and for a drive
+into the Settlement.
+
+Meanwhile, from the edge of the woods on the other side of the cabin,
+hidden from the keen eyes within by the roofs of the barn and the
+shed, came two great, grey, catlike beasts, creeping belly to the
+snow.
+
+Their broad, soft-padded paws were like snow shoes, bearing them up on
+the wind-packed surface. Their tufted ears stood straight up, alert
+for any unwonted sound. Their absurd stub tails, not four inches long,
+and looking as if they had been bitten off, twitched with eagerness.
+Their big round eyes, of a pale greenish yellow, and with the pupils
+narrowed to upright, threadlike black slits by the blinding glare,
+glanced warily from side to side with every step they took.
+
+The lynxes had the keenest dislike to crossing the open pasture in
+this broad daylight, but they had been driven by hunger to the point
+where the customs and cautions of their wary kind are recklessly
+thrown aside. Hunger had driven the pair to hunt together, in the hope
+of together pulling down game too powerful for one to master alone.
+Hunger had overcome their savage aversion to the neighbourhood of man,
+and brought them out in the dark of night to prowl about the barn and
+sniff longingly the warm smell of the sheep, steaming through the
+cracks of the clumsy door.
+
+Watching from under the snow-draped branches, they had observed that
+only in the daytime were the sheep let out from their safe shelter
+behind the clumsy door. And now, forgetting everything but the fierce
+pangs that urged them, the two savage beasts came straight down the
+rolling slope of the pasture towards the barn.
+
+A few minutes later there came from the yard a wild screeching and
+cackling of the hens, followed by a trampling rush and agonized
+bleating. The old woman half rose from her chair, but sank back
+instantly, her face creased with a spasm of pain, for she was crippled
+by rheumatism. The girl dropped her big wooden spoon on the floor and
+rushed to the window that looked out upon the yard. Her pale face went
+paler with horror, then flushed with wrath and pity; and a fierce
+light flashed into her wide blue eyes.
+
+"It's lynxes!" she cried, snatching up the wooden spoon and darting
+for the door. "And they've got one of the sheep! Oh, oh, they're
+tearing it!"
+
+"Melindy!" shouted the old woman, in a voice of strident command--such
+a compelling voice that the girl stopped short in spite of herself.
+"Drop that fool spoon and get the gun!"
+
+The girl dropped the spoon as if it had burned her fingers, and looked
+irresolutely at the big duck-gun hanging on the log wall. "I can't
+fire it!" she exclaimed, shaking her head. "I'd be scared to death of
+it!"
+
+But even as the words left her mouth, there came another outburst of
+trampling and frantic clamour from the yard. She snatched up the
+little, long-handled axe which leaned beside the door-post, threw the
+door wide open, and with a pitying cry of "Oh! oh!" flew forth to the
+rescue of her beloved sheep.
+
+"Did you ever see the like of that?" muttered the old woman, her harsh
+face working with excitement and high approbation. "Scairt to death of
+a gun--and goes out to fight lynxes all by herself!"
+
+And with painful effort she began hitching herself and the big chair
+across the floor, seeking a position where she could both reach the
+gun and command a view through the wide-open door.
+
+When Melindy, her heart aflame with pity for the helpless ewes, rushed
+out into the yard, she saw one woolly victim down, kicking silently on
+the bloodstained snow, while a big lynx, crouched upon its body,
+turned upon her a pair of pale eyes that blazed with fury at the
+interruption to his feast.
+
+The other sheep were foundered helplessly in the deep snow back of the
+well--except one. This one, which had evidently been headed off from
+the flock, and driven round to the near side of the watering-trough
+before its savage enemy overtook it, was not half a dozen paces from
+the cabin door. It was just stumbling forward upon its nose, with a
+despairing _baa-a-a!_ while the second and larger lynx, clinging upon
+its back, clutched hungrily for its throat through the thick,
+protecting wool.
+
+On ordinary occasions the girl was as timid as her small, pale face
+and gentle blue eyes made her look. At this crisis, however, a sort of
+fury of compassion swept all fear from her heart.
+
+Like the swoop of some strange bird, her skirts streaming behind her,
+she flung herself upon the great cat, and aimed a lightning blow at
+his head with her axe. In her frail grip the axe turned, so that the
+brute caught the flat of it instead of the edge.
+
+Half-stunned, he lost his hold and fell with a startled _pfiff_ on the
+snow, while his victim, bleeding, but not mortally hurt, ran bleating
+towards the rest of the flock, where they floundered, stupidly
+helpless, in three feet of soft snow.
+
+The next moment the baffled lynx recovered himself, and faced the girl
+with so menacing a snarl that she hesitated to follow up her
+advantage, but paused, holding the axe in readiness to repel attack.
+
+For a few seconds they faced each other so, the girl and the beast.
+Then the pale, beast eyes shifted under the steady, dominating gaze of
+the blue human ones; and at last, with a spitting growl, which ended
+in a hoarse screech of rage, the big cat bounded aside and whisked
+behind the well-house. The next moment it was again among the sheep,
+where they huddled incapable of a struggle.
+
+Again the girl sprang to the rescue; and now, because of that one
+flash of fear which had deprived her of her first advantage, her
+avenging wrath was fiercer and more resolute than before. This time,
+as she darted upon the enemy, she gave an involuntary cry of rage,
+piercing and unnatural. At this unexpected sound the lynx, desperate
+though he was with rage and hunger, lost his courage.
+
+Seeing the girl towering almost over him, he doubled back with a
+mighty leap, just avoiding the vengeful sweep of the axe, and darted
+back to the front of the shed, where his mate was now ravenously
+feasting on her easy prey.
+
+Although the first victim was now past all suffering, being no more a
+motive for heroism than so much mutton, the girl's blood was too hot
+with triumphant indignation to let her think of such an unimportant
+point as that. She was victor. She had outfaced and routed the foe.
+She had saved one victim. She would avenge the other.
+
+With the high audacity of those who have overcome fear, she now, with
+a hysterical cry of menace, ran at the two lynxes, to drive them from
+their prey.
+
+The situation which she now confronted, however, was altogether
+changed from what had gone before. The two lynxes were together,
+strong in that alliance which they had formed for purpose of battle.
+They were fairly mad with famine--or, indeed, they would never have
+ventured on the perilous domains of man.
+
+Moreover, they were in possession of what they held to be their lawful
+prey--a position in defence of which all the hunting tribes of the
+wild will fight against almost any odds. As they saw their strange
+adversary approaching, the hair stood straight up along their backs,
+their little tails puffed to bottle brushes, their ears lay flat back
+on their heads, and they screeched defiance in harsh unison. Then, as
+if by one impulse, they turned from their prey and crept stealthily
+towards her.
+
+They did not like that steady light in her blue eyes, but they felt by
+some instinct that she was young and unstable of nerve. At this
+unexpected move on their part the girl stopped short, suddenly
+undecided whether to fight or flee.
+
+At once the lynxes stopped also, and crouched flat, tensely watching,
+their claws dug deep into the hard-trodden snow so as to give them
+purchase for an instant, powerful spring in any direction.
+
+In the meantime, however, the crippled old woman within doors had
+not been idle. Great of spirit, and still mighty of sinew for all her
+ailment, she had managed to work the weight of the heavy chair and her
+own solid bulk all the way across the cabin floor. Being straight
+in front of the door, she had seen almost all that happened; and her
+brave old berserk heart was bursting with pride in the courage of
+this frail child, whom she had hitherto regarded with a kind of
+affectionate scorn.
+
+The Griffises of Nackawick and Little River had always been sizable
+men, men of sinew and bulk, and women tall and ruddy; and this small,
+blue-eyed girl had seemed to her, in a way, to wrong the stock. But
+she was quick to understand that the stature of the spirit is what
+counts most of all.
+
+Now, in this moment of breathless suspense, when she saw Melindy and
+the two great beasts thus holding each other eye to eye in a life and
+death struggle of wills, her heart was convulsed with a wild fear. In
+the spasm of it she succeeded in lifting herself almost erect, and so
+gained possession of the big duck-gun, which her son Jake, now away in
+the lumber woods, always kept loaded and ready for use. As she cocked
+it and settled back into her chair, she called in a piercing voice--
+
+"Don't stir one step, Melindy! I'm going to shoot!"
+
+The girl never stirred a muscle, although she turned pale with terror
+of the loud noise which was about to shock her ears. The two lynxes,
+however, turned their heads, and fixed the pale glare of their eyes
+upon the figure seated in the doorway.
+
+The next moment came a spurt of red flame, a belch of smoke, a
+tremendous report that seemed as if it must have shattered every pane
+of glass in the cabin windows. The bigger of the two lynxes turned
+straight over backward and lay without a quiver, smashed by the heavy
+charge of buckshot with which Jake had loaded the gun. The other,
+grazed by a scattering pellet, sprang into the air with a screech,
+then turned and ran for her life across the snow, stretching out like
+a terrified cat.
+
+With a proud smile the old woman stood the smoking gun against the
+wall and straightened her cap. For perhaps half a minute Melindy stood
+rigid, staring at the dead lynx. Then, dropping her axe, she fled to
+the cabin, flung herself down with her face in her grandmother's lap,
+and broke into a storm of sobs.
+
+The old woman gazed down upon her with some surprise, and stroked the
+fair, fluffy head lovingly as she murmured: "There, there! There's
+nothing to take on about! Though you be such a little mite of a
+towhead, you've got the grit, you've got the grit, Melindy Griffis.
+It's proud of you I am, and it's proud your father'll be when I tell
+him about it."
+
+Then, as the girl's weeping continued, and her slender shoulders
+continued to twist with her sobs, the rugged old face that bent above
+her grew tenderly solicitous.
+
+"There, there!" she murmured again. "'Tain't good for you to take on
+so, deary. Hadn't you better finish beating up the pancakes before the
+batter spiles?"
+
+Thus potently adjured, although she knew as well as her grandmother
+that there was no immediate danger of the batter spoiling, the girl
+got up, dashed the back of her hand across her eyes with a little
+laugh, closed the door, got out another spoon from the table drawer,
+and cheerfully resumed her interrupted task of mixing pancakes. And
+the sheep, having slowly extricated themselves from the deep snow
+behind the well-house, huddled together, with heads down, in the
+middle of the yard, fearfully eyeing the limp body which lay before
+the shed.
+
+
+
+
+Mrs. Gammit's Pig
+
+
+"I've come to borry yer gun!" said Mrs. Gammit, appearing suddenly, a
+self-reliant figure, at the open door of the barn where Joe Barron sat
+mending his harness. She wore a short cotton homespun petticoat and a
+dingy waist; while a limp pink cotton sunbonnet, pushed far back from
+her perspiring forehead, released unmanageable tufts of her stiff,
+iron-grey hair.
+
+"What be _you_ awantin' of a gun, Mrs. Gammit?" inquired the
+backwoodsman, looking up without surprise. He had not seen Mrs.
+Gammit, to be sure, for three months; but he had known all the time
+that she was there, on the other side of the ridge, one of his nearest
+neighbours, and not more than seven or eight miles away as the crow
+flies.
+
+"It's the bears!" she explained. "They do be gittin' jest a leetle
+mite _too_ sassy, down to my place. There ain't no livin' with 'em.
+They come rootin' round in the garden, nights. An' they've et up the
+white top-knot hen, with the whole settin' of eggs, that was to hev'
+hatched out next Monday. An' they've took the duck. An' last night
+they come after the pig."
+
+"They didn't git _him_, did they?" inquired Joe Barron sympathetically.
+
+"No, siree!" responded Mrs. Gammit with decision. "An' they ain't
+agoin' to! They scairt him though, snuffin' round outside the pen,
+trying to find the way in.--I've hearn tell they was powerful fond of
+pork.--He set up sich a squealin' it woke me; an' I yelled at 'em out
+of the winder. I seen one big black chap lopin' off behind the barn. I
+hadn't nothin' but the broom fer a weapon, so he got away from me.
+I'll git him to-night, though, I reckon, if I kin have the loan of
+your gun."
+
+"Sartain," assented the woodsman, laying down the breech-strap he was
+mending. "Did you ever fire a gun?" he inquired suddenly, as he was
+starting across the yard to fetch the weapon from his cabin.
+
+"I can't rightly say I hev'," answered Mrs. Gammit, with a slight note
+of scorn in her voice. "But from the kind of men I've seen as _kin_, I
+reckon it ain't no great trick to larn."
+
+Joe Barron laughed, and went for the weapon. He had plenty of
+confidence in his visitor's ability to look out for herself, and felt
+reasonably sure that the bears would be sorry for having presumed upon
+her unprotected state. When he returned with the gun--an old,
+muzzle-loading duck-gun, with a huge bore--she accepted it with
+careless ease and held it as if it were a broom. But when he offered
+her the powder-horn and a little bag of buckshot, she hesitated.
+
+"What be _them_ for?" she inquired.
+
+Joe Barren looked serious.
+
+"Mrs. Gammit," said he, "I know you kin do most anything a man kin
+do--an' do it better, maybe! A woman like you don't have to apologize
+for nothin'. But you was not _brung up_ in the woods, an' you can't
+expect to know all about a gun jest by _heftin'_ it. Folks that's been
+brung up in town, like you, have to be _told_ how to handle a gun.
+This here gun ain't _loaded_. And them 'ere's the powder an' buckshot
+to load her with. An' here's caps," he added, producing a small, brown
+tin box of percussion caps from his trousers pocket.
+
+Mrs. Gammit felt abashed at her ignorance, but gratified, at the same
+time, by the reproach of metropolitanism. This implication of
+town-bred incompetency was most flattering to the seven frame houses
+and one corner store of Burd Settlement, whence she hailed.
+
+"I reckon you'd better show me how to load the thing, Mr. Barron," she
+agreed quite humbly. And her keen grey eyes took in every detail, as
+the woodsman rammed home the powder hard, wadded down the charge of
+buckshot lightly, and pointed out where she must put the percussion
+cap when she should be ready to call upon the weapon for its
+services.
+
+"Then," said he in conclusion, as he lifted the gun to his shoulder
+and squinted along the barrel, "of course you know all the rest. Jest
+shet one eye, an' git the bead on him fair, an' let him have it--a
+leetle back of the fore-shoulder, fer choice! An' _that_ b'ar ain't
+agoin' to worry about no more pork, nor garden sass. An' recollect,
+Mrs. Gammit, at this time of year, when he's fat on blueberries, he'll
+make right prime pork himself, ef he ain't _too_ old and rank."
+
+As Mrs. Gammit strode homeward through the hot, silent woods with the
+gun--still carrying it as if it were a broom--she had no misgivings as
+to her fitness to confront and master the most redoubtable of all the
+forest kindreds. She believed in herself--and not only her native Burd
+Settlement, but the backwoods generally held that she had cause to. A
+busy woman always, she had somehow never found time to indulge in the
+luxury of a husband; but the honorary title of "Mrs." had early been
+conferred upon her, in recognition of her abundant and confident
+personality and her all-round capacity for taking care of herself. To
+have called her "Miss" would have been an insult to the fitness of
+things. When, at the age of sixty, she inherited from an only, and
+strictly bachelor, brother a little farm in the heart of the
+wilderness, some forty miles in from the Settlement, no one doubted
+her ability to fill the rôle of backwoodsman and pioneer. It was
+vaguely felt that if the backwoods and Mrs. Gammit should fail to
+agree on any important point, so much the worse for the backwoods.
+
+And indeed, for nearly two years and a half everything had gone
+swimmingly. The solitude had never troubled Mrs. Gammit, to whom her
+own company was always congenial--and, as she felt, the only company
+that one could depend upon. Then she had her two young steers, well
+broken to the yoke; the spotted cow, with one horn turned up and the
+other down; the grey and yellow cat, with whom she lived on terms of
+mutual tolerance; a turkey-cock and two turkey hens, of whom she
+expected much; an assortment of fowls, brown, black, white, red, and
+speckled; one fat duck, which had so far been nothing but a
+disappointment to her; and the white pig, which was her pride. No
+wonder she was never lonely, with all these good acquaintances to talk
+to. Moreover, the forces of the wild, seeming to recognize that she
+was a woman who would have her way, had from the first easily deferred
+to her. The capricious and incomprehensible early frosts of the forest
+region had spared her precious garden patch; cut-worm and caterpillar
+had gone by the other way; the pip had overlooked her early chickens;
+and as for the customary onslaughts of wildcat, weasel, fox, and
+skunk, she had met them all with such triumphant success that she
+began to mistake her mere good luck for the quintessence of woodcraft.
+In fact, nothing had happened to challenge her infallibility, nothing
+whatever, until she found that the bears were beginning to concern
+themselves about her.
+
+To be sure, there was only one bear mixed up in the matter; but he
+chanced to be so diligent, interested, and resourceful, that it was no
+wonder he had got himself multiplied many times over in Mrs. Gammit's
+indignant imagination. When she told Joe Barron "that the bears was
+gittin' so sassy there wasn't no livin' with 'em," she had little
+notion that what she referred to was just one, solitary, rusty,
+somewhat moth-eaten animal, crafty with experience and years. This
+bear, as it chanced, had had advantages in the way of education not
+often shared by his fellow-roamers of the wilderness. He had passed
+several seasons in captivity in one of the settlements far south of
+the Quah-Davic Valley. Afterwards, he had served an unpleasant term in
+a flea-ridden travelling menagerie, from which a railway smash-up had
+given him release at the moderate cost of the loss of one eye. During
+his captivity he had acquired a profound respect for men, as creatures
+who had a tendency to beat him over the nose and hurt him terribly if
+he failed to do as they wished, and who held in eye and voice the
+uncomprehended but irresistible authority of fate. For women,
+however, he had learned to entertain a casual scorn. They screamed
+when he growled, and ran away if he stretched out a paw at them. When,
+therefore, he had found himself once more in the vast responsible
+freedom of the forest, and reviving with some difficulty the
+half-forgotten art of shifting for himself, he had given a wide berth
+to the hunters' shacks and the cabins of lumbermen and pioneers. But
+when, on the other hand, he had come upon Mrs. Gammit's clearing, and
+realized, after long and cautious investigations, that its presiding
+genius was nothing more formidable than one of those petticoated
+creatures who trembled at his growl, he had licked his chops with
+pleasant anticipation. Here, at last, was his opportunity,--the
+flesh-pots of servitude, with freedom.
+
+Nevertheless, the old bear was prudent. He would not presume too
+quickly, or too far, upon the harmlessness of a petticoat, and--as he
+had observed from a dense blackberry thicket on the other side of the
+fence, while she was at work hoeing her potatoes--there was an air
+about Mrs. Gammit which seemed to give her petticoats the lie. He had
+watched her for some time before he could quite satisfy himself that
+she was a mere woman. Then he had tried some nocturnal experiments on
+the garden, sampling the young squashes which were Mrs. Gammit's
+peculiar pride, and finding them so good that he had thought surely
+something would happen. Nothing did happen, however, because Mrs.
+Gammit slept heavily; and her indignation in the morning he had not
+been privileged to view.
+
+After this he had grown bolder--though always under cover of night. He
+had sampled everything in the garden--the abundance of his foot-prints
+convincing Mrs. Gammit that there was also an abundance of bears. From
+the garden, at length, he had ventured to the yard and the barn. In a
+half-barrel, in a corner of the shed, he had stumbled upon the
+ill-fated white top-knot hen, faithfully brooding her eggs. Undeterred
+by her heroic scolding, and by the trifling annoyance of her feathers
+sticking in his teeth, he had made a very pleasant meal of her. And
+still he had heard nothing from Mrs. Gammit, who, for all her
+indignation, could not depart from her custom of sound sleeping. If he
+had taken the trouble to return in the morning, he might have
+perceived that the good lady was far from pleased, and that there was
+likely to be something doing before long if he continued to take such
+liberties with her. And then, as we have seen, he had found the
+duck--but _her_ loss Mrs. Gammit had taken calmly enough, declaring it
+to be nothing more than a good riddance to bad rubbish.
+
+It was not until the return of moonlight nights that the bear had
+discovered the white pig, and thus come face to face, at last, with a
+thoroughly aroused Mrs. Gammit. True to his kind, he did like pork;
+but absorbed in the easier adventures of the garden and the shed, he
+had not at first noted the rich possibilities of the pig-pen, which
+occupied one corner of the barn, under the loft. Suspicious of traps,
+he would not, at first, enter the narrow opening of the stable door,
+the wide main doors being shut. He had preferred rather to sniff
+around outside at the corner of the barn, under the ragged birch-tree
+in which the big turkey-cock had his perch. The wakeful and wary old
+bird, peering down upon him with suspicion, had uttered a sharp _qwit,
+qwit_, by way of warning to whom it might concern; while the white
+pig, puzzled and worried, had sat up in the dark interior of the pen
+and stared out at him in silence through the cracks between the
+boards. At last, growing impatient, the bear had caught the edge of a
+board with his claws, and tried to tear it off. Nothing had come
+except some big splinters; but the effort, and the terrifying sound
+that accompanied it, had proved too much for the self-control of the
+white pig. An ear-splitting succession of squeals had issued from the
+dark interior of the pen, and the bear had backed off in amazement.
+
+Before he could recover himself and renew his assault, the window of
+the cabin had gone up with a skittering slam. The white pig's appeal
+for help had penetrated Mrs. Gammit's solid slumbers, and she had
+understood the situation. "Scat! you brute!" she had yelled
+frantically, thrusting head and shoulders so far out through the
+window that she almost lost her balance in the effort to shake both
+fists at once.
+
+The bear, not understanding the terms of her invective, had sat up on
+his haunches and turned his one eye mildly upon the bristling tufts of
+grey hair which formed a sort of halo around Mrs. Gammit's virginal
+nightcap. Then Mrs. Gammit, realizing that the time for action was
+come, had rushed downstairs to the kitchen, seized the first weapon
+she could lay hands upon--which chanced to be the broom--flung open
+the kitchen door, and dashed across the yard, screaming with
+indignation.
+
+It was certainly an unusual figure that she made in the radiant
+moonlight, her sturdy, naked legs revolving energetically beneath her
+sparse nightgown, and the broom whirling vehemently around her head.
+For a moment the bear had contemplated her with wonder. Then his
+nerves had failed him. Doubtless, this was a woman--but not quite like
+the ordinary kind. It was better, perhaps, to be careful. With a
+reluctant grunt he had turned and fled, indifferent to his dignity.
+And he had thought best not to stop until he found himself quite
+beyond the range of Mrs. Gammit's disconcerting accents, which rang
+harsh triumph across the solemn, silvered stillness of the forest.
+
+It was, of course, this imminent peril to the pig which had roused
+Mrs. Gammit to action and sent her on that long tramp over the
+ridges to borrow Joe Barron's gun. In spite of her easy victory in
+this particular instance, she had appreciated the inches of that
+bear, and realized that in case of any further unpleasantnesses with
+him a broom might not prove to be the most efficient of weapons.
+With the gun, however, and her distinct remembrance of Joe Barron's
+directions for its use, she felt equal to the routing of any number
+of bears--provided, of course, they would not all come on together.
+As the idea flashed across her mind that there might be a pack of
+bears to face, she felt uneasy for a second, and even thought of
+bringing the pig into the house for the night, and conducting her
+campaign from the bedroom window. Then she remembered she had never
+heard of bears hunting in packs, and her little apprehension vanished.
+In fact, she now grew quite eager for night to bring the fray.
+
+It was a favourite saw of Mrs. Gammit's that "a watched pot takes long
+to bile"; and her experience that night exemplified it. With the
+kitchen door ajar, she sat a little back from the window. Herself
+hidden, she had a clear view across the bright yard. Very slowly the
+round moon climbed the pallid summer sky, changing the patterns of the
+shadows as she rose. But the bear came not. Mrs. Gammit began to
+think, even to fear, that her impetuosity of the night before had
+frightened him away. At last her reveries grew confused. She sat up
+very straight, and blinked very hard, to make sure that she was quite
+awake. Just as she had got herself most perfectly reassured on this
+point, her head sank gently forward upon the window-sill, and she
+slept deeply, with her cheek against the cold, brown barrel of the
+gun.
+
+Yes, the bear had hesitated long that night. And he came late. The
+moon had swung past her zenith, and was pointing her black shadows
+across the yard in quite another direction when he came. By this time
+he had recovered confidence and made up his mind that Mrs. Gammit
+_was_ only a woman. After sniffing once more at the cracks to assure
+himself that the pig was still there, he went around to the stable
+door and crept cautiously in.
+
+As his clumsy black shape appeared in the bright opening, the pig saw
+it. It filled his heart with a quite justifiable horror, which found
+instant poignant expression. Within those four walls the noise was so
+startlingly loud that, in spite of himself, the bear drew back--not
+intending to retreat, indeed, but only to consider. As it chanced,
+however, seeing out of only one eye, he backed upon the handle of a
+hay rake which was leaning against the wall. The rake very properly
+resented this. It fell upon him and clutched at his fur like a live
+thing. Startled quite out of his self-possession, he retreated
+hurriedly into the moonlight, for further consideration of these
+unexpected phenomena. And as he did so, across the yard the kitchen
+door was flung open, and Mrs. Gammit, with the gun, rushed forth.
+
+The bear had intended to retire behind the barn for a few moments, the
+better to weigh the situation. But at the sight of Mrs. Gammit's
+fluttering petticoat he began to feel annoyed. It seemed to him that
+he was being thwarted unnecessarily. At the corner of the barn, just
+under the jutting limb of the birch-tree, he stopped, turned, and sat
+up on his haunches with a growl. The old turkey-cock, stretching his
+lean neck, glared down upon him with a terse _qwit! qwit!_ of
+disapproval.
+
+When the bear stopped, in that resolute and threatening attitude, Mrs.
+Gammit instinctively stopped too. Not, as she would have explained had
+there been any one to explain to, that she was "one mite scairt," but
+that she wanted to try Joe Barren's gun. Raising the gun to her
+shoulder, she shut one eye, looked carefully at the point of the
+barrel with the other, and pulled the trigger. Nothing whatever
+happened. Lowering the weapon from her shoulder she eyed it severely,
+and perceived that she had forgotten to cock it. At this a shade of
+embarrassment passed over her face, and she glanced sharply at the
+bear to see if he had noticed her mistake. Apparently, he had not. He
+was still sitting there, regarding her unpleasantly with his one small
+eye.
+
+"Ye needn't think ye're agoin to git off, jest because I made a
+leetle mistake like that!" muttered Mrs. Gammit, shutting her teeth
+with a snap, and cocking the gun as she raised it once more to her
+shoulder.
+
+Now, as it chanced, Joe Barren had neglected to tell her which eye to
+shut, so, not unnaturally, Mrs. Gammit shut the one nearest to the
+gun--nearest to the cap which was about to go off. She also neglected
+to consider the hind-sight. It was enough for her that the muzzle of
+the gun seemed to cover the bear. Under these conditions she got a
+very good line on her target, but her elevation was somewhat at fault.
+She pulled the trigger.
+
+This time it was all right. There was a terrific, roaring explosion,
+and she staggered backwards under the savage kick of the recoil.
+Recovering herself instantly, and proud of the great noise she had
+made, she peered through the smoke, expecting to see the bear topple
+over upon his nose, extinguished. Instead of that, however, she
+observed a convulsive flopping of wings in the birch-tree above the
+bear's head. Then, with one reproachful "gobble" which rang loud in
+Mrs. Gammit's ears, the old turkey-cock fell heavily to the ground. He
+would have fallen straight upon the bear, but that the latter, his
+nerves completely upset by so much disturbance, was making off at fine
+speed through the bushes.
+
+The elation on Mrs. Gammit's face gave way to consternation. Then she
+reddened to the ears with wrath, dashed the offending gun to the
+ground, and stamped on it. She had done her part, that she knew, but
+the wretched weapon had played her false. Well, she had never thought
+much of guns, anyway. Henceforth she would depend on herself.
+
+The unfortunate turkey-cock now lay quite still. Mrs. Gammit crossed
+the yard and bent over the sprawling body in deep regret. She had had
+a certain affection for the noisy and self-sufficient old bird, who
+had been "company" for her as he strutted "gobbling" about the yard
+with stiff-trailed wings while his hens were away brooding their
+chicks. "Too bad!" she muttered over him, by way of requiem; "too bad
+ye had to go an' git in the road o' that blame gun!" Then, suddenly
+bethinking herself that a fowl was more easily plucked while yet warm,
+she carried the limp corpse, head downward, across the yard, fetched a
+basket from the kitchen, sat down on the doorstep in the moonlight,
+and began sadly stripping the victim of his feathers. He was a fine,
+heavy bird. As she surveyed his ample proportions Mrs. Gammit murmured
+thoughtfully: "I reckon as how I'm goin' to feel kinder sick o' turkey
+afore I git this all et up!"
+
+On the following day Mrs. Gammit carefully polished the gun with a
+duster, removing all trace of the indignities she had put upon it, and
+stood it away behind the dresser. She had resolved to conduct the
+rest of the campaign against the bears in her own way and with her own
+weapons. The way and the weapons she now proceeded to think out with
+utmost care.
+
+Being a true woman and a true housewife, it was perhaps inevitable
+that she should think first, and, after due consideration given to
+everything else, including pitchforks and cayenne pepper, that she
+should think last and finally, of the unlimited potentialities of
+boiling water. To have it actually boiling, at the critical moment,
+would of course be impracticable; but with a grim smile she concluded
+that she could manage to have it hot enough for her purpose. She had
+observed that this bear which was after the pig had learned the way
+into the pen. She felt sure that, having found from experience that
+loud noises did not produce bodily injuries, he would again come
+seeking the pig, and this time with more confidence than ever.
+
+On this point, thanks to her ignorance of bears in general, she was
+right. Most bears would have been discouraged. But this bear in
+particular had learned that when men started out to be disagreeable to
+bears, they succeeded only too well. He had realized clearly that Mrs.
+Gammit had intended to be disagreeable to him. There was no mistaking
+her intentions. But she had not succeeded. Ergo, she was not, as he
+had almost feared, a man, but really and truly a woman. He came back
+the next night fully determined that no squeals, or brooms, or flying
+petticoats, or explosions, should divert him from his purpose and his
+pork. He came early; but not, as it chanced, too early for Mrs.
+Gammit, who seemed somehow to have divined his plans and so taken time
+by the forelock.
+
+The pen of the white pig, as we have already noted, was in a corner of
+the barn, and under one end of the loft. Immediately above the point
+where the bear would have to climb over, in order to get into the pen,
+Mrs. Gammit removed several of the loose boards which formed the
+flooring of the loft. Beside this opening, at an early hour, she had
+ensconced herself in secure ambuscade, with three pails of the hottest
+possible hot water close beside her. The pails were well swathed in
+blankets, quilts, and hay, to keep up the temperature of their
+contents. And she had also a pitchfork "layin' handy," wherewith to
+push the enemy down in case he should resent her attack and climb up
+to expostulate.
+
+Mrs. Gammit had not time to grow sleepy, or even impatient, so early
+did the bear arrive. The white pig, disturbed and puzzled by the
+unwonted goings-on above his head, had refused to go to bed. He was
+wandering restlessly up and down the pen, when, through the cracks, he
+saw an awful black shadow darken the stable door. He lost not a
+second, but lifted his voice at once in one of those ear-piercing
+appeals which had now twice proved themselves so effective.
+
+The bear paused but for a moment, to cast his solitary eye over the
+situation. Mrs. Gammit fairly held her breath. Then, almost before she
+could realize what he was doing, he was straight beneath her, and
+clambering into the pen. The white pig's squeals redoubled,
+electrifying her to action. She snatched a steaming bucket from its
+wrappings, and dashed it down upon the vaguely heaving form below.
+
+On the instant there arose a strange, confused, terrific uproar, from
+which the squeals of the white pig stood out thin and pathetic.
+Without waiting to see what she had accomplished, Mrs. Gammit snatched
+up the second bucket, and leaned forward to deliver a second stroke.
+Through a cloud of steam she saw the bear reaching wildly for the wall
+of the pen, clawing frantically in his eagerness to climb over and get
+away. She had given him a lesson, that was clear; but she was resolved
+to give him a good one while she was about it. Swinging far forward,
+she launched her terrible missile straight upon his huge hind-quarters
+just as they went over the wall. But at the same moment she lost her
+balance. With an indignant yell she plunged downward into the pen.
+
+It was like Mrs. Gammit, however, that even in this dark moment her
+luck should serve her. She landed squarely on the back of the pig.
+This broke her fall, and, strangely enough, did not break the pig. The
+latter, quite frenzied by the accumulation of horrors heaped upon him,
+bounced frantically from beneath her indiscreet petticoats, and dashed
+himself from one side of the pen to the other with a violence that
+threatened to wreck both pig and pen.
+
+Somewhat breathless, but proudly conscious that she had won a splendid
+victory, Mrs. Gammit picked herself up and shook herself together. The
+bear had vanished. She eyed with amazement the continued gyrations of
+the pig.
+
+"Poor dear!" she muttered presently, "some o' the bilin' water must
+'ave slopped on to him! Oh, well, I reckon he'll git over it bime-by.
+Anyhow, it's a sight better'n being all clawed an' et up by a bear, I
+reckon!"
+
+Mrs. Gammit now felt satisfied that this particular bear would trouble
+her no more, and she had high hopes that his experience with hot water
+would serve as a lesson to all the other bears with whom she imagined
+herself involved. The sequel fulfilled her utmost expectations. The
+bear, smarting from his scalds and with all his preconceived ideas
+about women overthrown, betook himself in haste to another and remoter
+hunting-ground. A good deal of his hair came off, in patches, and for
+a long time he had a rather poor opinion of himself.
+
+When, for over a week, there had been no more raids upon barn or
+chicken-roost, and no more bear-tracks about the garden, Mrs. Gammit
+knew that her victory had been final, and she felt so elated that she
+was even able to enjoy her continuing diet of cold turkey. Then, one
+pleasant morning when a fresh, sweet-smelling wind made tumult in the
+forest, she took the gun home to Joe Barren.
+
+"What luck did ye hev, Mrs. Gammit?" inquired the woodsman with
+interest.
+
+"I settled them bears, Mr. Barren!" she replied. "But it wasn't the
+gun as done it. It was bilin' water. I've found ye kin always depend
+on bilin' water!"
+
+"I hope the gun acted right by you, however!" said the woodsman.
+
+Mrs. Gammit's voice took on a tone of reserve.
+
+"Well, Mr. Barren, I thank ye kindly for the loan of the weepon. Ye
+_meant_ right. But it's on my mind to warn ye. Don't ye go for to
+trust that gun, or ye'll live to regret it. _It don't hit what it's
+aimed at._"
+
+
+
+
+The Blackwater Pot
+
+
+The lesson of fear was one which Henderson learned late. He learned it
+well, however, when the time came. And it was Blackwater Pot that
+taught him.
+
+Sluggishly, reluctantly, impotently, the spruce logs followed one
+another round and round the circuit of the great stone pot. The
+circling water within the pot was smooth and deep and black, but
+streaked with foam. At one side a gash in the rocky rim opened upon
+the sluicing current of the river, which rushed on, quivering and
+seething, to plunge with a roar into the terrific cauldron of the
+falls. Out of that thunderous cauldron, filled with huge tramplings
+and the shriek of tortured torrents, rose a white curtain of spray,
+which every now and then swayed upward and drenched the green birches
+which grew about the rim of the pot. For the break in the rim, which
+caught at the passing current and sucked it into the slow swirls of
+Blackwater Pot, was not a dozen feet from the lip of the falls.
+
+Henderson sat at the foot of a ragged white birch which leaned from
+the upper rim of the pot. He held his pipe unlighted, while he watched
+the logs with a half-fascinated stare. Outside, in the river, he saw
+them in a clumsy panic haste, wallowing down the white rapids to their
+awful plunge. When a log came close along shore its fate hung for a
+second or two in doubt. It might shoot straight on, over the lip, into
+the wavering curtain of spray and vanish into the horror of the
+cauldron. Or, at the last moment, the eddy might reach out stealthily
+and drag it into the sullen wheeling procession within the pot. All
+that it gained here, however, was a terrible kind of respite, a
+breathing-space of agonized suspense. As it circled around, and came
+again to the opening by which it had entered, it might continue on
+another eventless revolution, or it might, according to the whim of
+the eddy, be cast forth once more, irretrievably, into the clutch of
+the awful sluice. Sometimes two logs, after a pause in what seemed
+like a secret death-struggle, would crowd each other out and go over
+the falls together. And sometimes, on the other hand, all would make
+the circuit safely again and again. But always, at the cleft in the
+rim of the pot, there was the moment of suspense, the shuddering,
+terrible panic.
+
+It was this recurring moment that seemed to fasten itself balefully
+upon Henderson's imagination, so that he forgot to smoke. He had
+looked into the Blackwater before, but never when there were any logs
+in the pot. Moreover, on this particular morning, he was overwrought
+with weariness. For a little short of three days he had been at the
+utmost tension of body, brain, and nerve, in hot but wary pursuit of a
+desperado whom it was his duty, as deputy-sheriff of his county, to
+capture and bring to justice.
+
+This outlaw, a French half-breed, known through the length and breadth
+of the wild backwoods county as "Red Pichot," was the last but
+one--and accounted the most dangerous--of a band which Henderson had
+undertaken to break up. Henderson had been deputy for two years, and
+owed his appointment primarily to his pre-eminent fitness for this
+very task. Unacquainted with fear, he was at the same time unrivalled
+through the backwoods counties for his subtle woodcraft, his sleepless
+endurance, and his cunning.
+
+It was two years now since he had set his hand to the business. One of
+the gang had been hanged. Two were in the penitentiary, on life
+sentence. Henderson had justified his appointment to every one except
+himself. But while Pichot and his gross-witted tool, "Bug" Mitchell,
+went unhanged, he felt himself on probation, if not shamed. Mitchell
+he despised. But Pichot, the brains of the gang, he honoured with a
+personal hatred that held a streak of rivalry. For Pichot, though a
+beast for cruelty and treachery, and with the murder of a woman on
+his black record--which placed him, according to Henderson's ideas, in
+a different category from a mere killer of men--was at the same time a
+born leader and of a courage none could question. Some chance dash of
+Scotch Highland blood in his mixed veins had set a mop of hot red hair
+above his black, implacable eyes and cruel, dark face. It had touched
+his villainies, too, with an imagination which made them the more
+atrocious. And Henderson's hate for him as a man was mixed with
+respect for the adversary worthy of his powers.
+
+Reaching the falls, Henderson had been forced to acknowledge that,
+once again, Pichot had outwitted him on the trail. Satisfied that his
+quarry was by this time far out of reach among the tangled ravines on
+the other side of Two Mountains, he dismissed the two tired river-men
+who constituted his posse, bidding them go on down the river to
+Greensville and wait for him. It was his plan to hunt alone for a
+couple of days in the hope of catching his adversary off guard. He had
+an ally, unsuspected and invaluable, in a long-legged, half-wild
+youngster of a girl, who lived alone with her father in a clearing
+about a mile below the falls, and regarded Henderson with a childlike
+hero-worship. This shy little savage, whom all the Settlement knew as
+"Baisley's Sis," had an intuitive knowledge of the wilderness and the
+trails which rivalled even Henderson's accomplished woodcraft; and the
+indomitable deputy "set great store," as he would have put it, by her
+friendship. He would go down presently to the clearing and ask some
+questions of the child. But first he wanted to do a bit of thinking.
+To think the better, the better to collect his tired and scattered
+wits, he had stood his Winchester carefully upright between two spruce
+saplings, filled his pipe, lighted it with relish, and seated himself
+under the old birch where he could look straight down upon the
+wheeling logs in Blackwater Pot.
+
+It was while he was looking down into the terrible eddy that his
+efforts to think failed him and his pipe went out, and his interest in
+the fortunes of the captive logs gradually took the hold of a
+nightmare upon his overwrought imagination. One after one he would
+mark, snatched in by the capricious eddy and held back a little while
+from its doom. One after one he would see crowded out again, by
+inexplicable whim, and hurled on into the raging horror of the falls.
+He fell to personifying this captive log or that, endowing it with
+sentience, and imagining its emotions each time it circled shuddering
+past the cleft in the rim, once more precariously reprieved.
+
+At last, either because he was more deeply exhausted than he knew, or
+because he had fairly dropped asleep with his eyes open and his
+fantastic imaginings had slipped into a veritable dream, he felt
+himself suddenly become identified with one of the logs. It was one
+which was just drawing around to the fateful cleft. Would it win past
+once more? No; it was too far out! It felt the grasp of the outward
+suction, soft and insidious at first, then resistless as the falling
+of a mountain. With straining nerves and pounding heart Henderson
+strove to hold it back by sheer will and the wrestling of his eyes.
+But it was no use. Slowly the head of the log turned outward from its
+circling fellows, quivered for a moment in the cleft, then shot
+smoothly forth into the sluice. With a groan Henderson came to his
+senses, starting up and catching instinctively at the butt of the
+heavy Colt in his belt. At the same instant the coil of a rope settled
+over his shoulders, pinioning his arms to his sides, and he was jerked
+backwards with a violence that fairly lifted him over the projecting
+root of the birch. As he fell his head struck a stump; and he knew
+nothing more.
+
+When Henderson came to his senses he found himself in a most
+bewildering position. He was lying face downwards along a log, his
+mouth pressed upon the rough bark. His arms and legs were in the
+water, on either side of the log. Other logs moved past him
+sluggishly. For a moment he thought himself still in the grip of his
+nightmare, and he struggled to wake himself. The struggle revealed to
+him that he was bound fast upon the log. At this his wits cleared up,
+with a pang that was more near despair than anything he had ever
+known. Then his nerve steadied itself back into its wonted control.
+
+He realized what had befallen him. His enemies had back-trailed him
+and caught him off his guard. He was just where, in his awful dream,
+he had imagined himself as being. He was bound to one of the logs down
+in the great stone pot of Blackwater Eddy.
+
+For a second or two the blood in his veins ran ice, as he braced
+himself to feel the log lurch out into the sluice and plunge into the
+trampling of the abyss. Then he observed that the other logs were
+overtaking and passing him. His log, indeed, was not moving at all.
+Evidently, then, it was being held by some one. He tried to look
+around, but found himself so fettered that he could only lift his face
+a few inches from the log. This enabled him to see the whole surface
+of the eddy and the fateful cleft, and out across the raving torrents
+into the white curtain that swayed above the cauldron. But he could
+not, with the utmost twisting and stretching of his neck, see more
+than a couple of feet up the smooth stone sides of the pot.
+
+As he strained on his bonds he heard a harsh chuckle behind him; and
+the log, suddenly loosed with a jerk which showed him it had been
+held by a pike-pole, began to move. A moment later the sharp,
+steel-armed end of the pike-pole came down smartly on the forward end
+of the log, within a dozen inches of Henderson's head, biting a secure
+hold. The log again came to a stop. Slowly, under pressure from the
+other end of the pike-pole, it rolled outward, submerging Henderson's
+right shoulder, and turning his face till he could see all the way up
+the sides of the pot.
+
+What he saw, on a ledge about three feet above the water, was Red
+Pichot, holding the pike-pole and smiling down upon him smoothly. On
+the rim above squatted Bug Mitchell, scowling, and gripping his knife
+as if he thirsted to settle up all scores on the instant. Imagination
+was lacking in Mitchell's make-up; and he was impatient--so far as he
+dared to be--of Pichot's fantastic procrastinatings.
+
+When Henderson's eyes met the evil, smiling glance of his enemy they
+were steady and cold as steel. To Henderson, who had always, in every
+situation, felt himself master, there remained now no mastery but that
+of his own will, his own spirit. In his estimation there could be no
+death so dreadful but that to let his spirit cower before his
+adversary would be tenfold worse. Helpless though he was, in a
+position that was ignominiously and grotesquely horrible, and with the
+imminence of an appalling doom close before his eyes, his nerve never
+failed him. With cool contempt and defiance he met Red Pichot's
+smile.
+
+"I've always had an idee," said the half-breed, presently, in a smooth
+voice that penetrated the mighty vibrations of the falls, "ez how a
+chap on a log could paddle roun' this yere eddy fer a deuce of a while
+afore he'd hev to git sucked out into the sluice!"
+
+As a theory this was undoubtedly interesting. But Henderson made no
+answer.
+
+"I've held that idee," continued Pichot, after a civil pause, "though
+I hain't never yet found a man, nor a woman nuther, as was willin' to
+give it a fair trial. But I feel sure ye're the man to oblige me. I've
+left yer arms kinder free, leastways from the elbows down, an' yer
+legs also, more or less, so's ye'll be able to paddle easy-like. The
+walls of the pot's all worn so smooth, below high-water mark, there's
+nothin' to ketch on to, so there'll be nothin' to take off yer
+attention. I'm hopin' ye'll give the matter a right fair trial. But ef
+ye gits tired an' feels like givin' up, why, don't consider my
+feelin's. There's the falls awaitin'. An' I ain't agoin' to bear no
+grudge ef ye don't quite come up to my expectations of ye."
+
+As Pichot ceased his measured harangue he jerked his pike-pole loose.
+Instantly the log began to forge forward, joining the reluctant
+procession. For a few moments Henderson felt like shutting his eyes
+and his teeth and letting himself go on with all speed to the
+inevitable doom. Then, with scorn of the weak impulse, he changed his
+mind. To the last gasp he would maintain his hold on life, and give
+fortune a chance to save him. When he could no longer resist, then it
+would be Fate's responsibility, not his. The better to fight the awful
+fight that was before him, he put clear out of his mind the picture of
+Red Pichot and Mitchell perched on the brink above, smoking, and
+grinning down upon the writhings of their victim. In a moment, as his
+log drew near the cleft, he had forgotten them. There was room now in
+all his faculties for but one impulse, one consideration.
+
+The log to which he was bound was on the extreme outer edge of the
+procession, and Henderson realized that there was every probability of
+its being at once crowded out the moment it came to the exit. With a
+desperate effort he succeeded in catching the log nearest to him,
+pushing it ahead, and at last, just as they came opposite the cleft,
+steering his own log into its place. The next second it shot quivering
+forth into the sluice, and Henderson, with a sudden cold sweat jumping
+out all over him, circled slowly past the awful cleft. A shout of
+ironical congratulation came to him from the watchers on the brink
+above. But he hardly heard it, and heeded it not at all. He was
+striving frantically, paddling forward with one hand and backward
+with the other, to steer his sluggish, deep-floating log from the
+outer to the inner circle. He had already observed that to be on the
+outer edge would mean instant doom for him, because the outward
+suction was stronger underneath than on the surface, and his weighted
+log caught its force before the others did. His arms were so bound
+that only from the elbows down could he move them freely. He did,
+however, by a struggle which left him gasping, succeed in working in
+behind another log--just in time to see that log, too, sucked out into
+the abyss, and himself once more on the deadly outer flank of the
+circling procession.
+
+This time Henderson did not know whether the watchers on the brink
+laughed or not as he won past the cleft. He was scheming desperately
+to devise some less exhausting tactics. Steadily and rhythmically, but
+with his utmost force, he back-paddled with both hands and feet, till
+the progress of his log was almost stopped. Then he succeeded in
+catching yet another log as it passed and manoeuvring in behind it. By
+this time he was halfway around the pot again. Yet again, by his
+desperate back-paddling, he checked his progress, and presently, by
+most cunning manipulation, managed to edge in behind yet another log,
+so that when he again came round to the cleft there were two logs
+between him and doom. The outermost of these, however, was dragged
+instantly forth into the fury of the sluice, thrust forward, as it
+was, by the grip of the suction upon Henderson's own deep log. Feeling
+himself on the point of utter exhaustion, he nevertheless continued
+back-paddling, and steering and working inward, till he had succeeded
+in getting three files of logs between himself and the outer edge.
+Then, almost blind and with the blood roaring so loud in his ears that
+he could hardly hear the trampling of the falls, he hung on his log,
+praying that strength might flow back speedily into his veins and
+nerves.
+
+Not till he had twice more made the circuit of the pot, and twice more
+seen a log sucked out from his very elbow to leap into the white
+horror of the abyss, did Henderson stir. The brief stillness,
+controlled by his will, had rested him for the moment. He was cool
+now, keen to plan, cunning to husband his forces. Up to the very last
+second that he could he would maintain his hold on life, counting
+always on the chance of the unexpected.
+
+With now just one log remaining between himself and death, he let
+himself go past the cleft, and saw that one log go out. Then, being
+close to the wall of the pot, he tried to delay his progress by
+clutching at the stone with his left hand and by dragging upon it with
+his foot. But the stone surface was worn so smooth by the age-long
+polishing of the eddy that these efforts availed him little. Before he
+realized it he was almost round again, and only by the most desperate
+struggle did he succeed in saving himself. There was no other log near
+by this time for him to seize and thrust forward in his place. It was
+simply a question of his restricted paddling, with hands and feet,
+against the outward draught of the current. For nearly a minute the
+log hung in doubt just before the opening, the current sucking at its
+head to turn it outward, and Henderson paddling against it not only
+with hands and feet, but with every ounce of will and nerve that his
+body contained. At last, inch by inch, he conquered. His log moved
+past the gate of death; and dimly, again, that ironical voice came
+down to him, piercing the roar.
+
+Once past, Henderson fell to back-paddling again--not so violently
+now--till other logs came by within his reach and he could work
+himself into temporary safety behind them. He was soon forced to the
+conviction that if he strove at just a shade under his utmost he was
+able to hold his own and keep one log always between himself and the
+opening. But what was now his utmost, he realized, would very soon be
+far beyond his powers. Well, there was nothing to do but to keep on
+trying. Around and around, and again and again around the terrible,
+smooth, deliberate circuit he went, sparing himself every ounce of
+effort that he could, and always shutting his eyes as the log beside
+him plunged out into the sluice. Gradually, then, he felt himself
+becoming stupefied by the ceaselessly recurring horror, with the
+prolonged suspense between. He must sting himself back to the full
+possession of his faculties by another burst of fierce effort.
+Fiercely he caught at log after log, without a let-up, till, luck
+having favoured him for once, he found himself on the inner instead of
+the outer edge of the procession. Then an idea flashed into his
+fast-clouding brain, and he cursed himself for not having thought of
+it before. At the very centre of the eddy, of course, there must be a
+sort of core of stillness. By a vehement struggle he attained it and
+avoided crossing it. Working gently and warily he kept the log right
+across the axis of the eddy, where huddled a crowd of chips and
+sticks. Here the log turned slowly, very slowly, on its own centre;
+and for a few seconds of exquisite relief Henderson let himself sink
+into a sort of lethargy. He was roused by a sudden shot, and the spat
+of a heavy bullet into the log about three inches before his head.
+Even through the shaking thunder of the cataract he thought he
+recognized the voice of his own heavy Colt; and the idea of that tried
+weapon being turned against himself filled him with childish rage.
+Without lifting his head he lay and cursed, grinding his teeth
+impotently. A few seconds later came another shot, and this time the
+ball went into the log just before his right arm. Then he understood,
+and woke up. Pichot was a dead shot. This was his intimation that
+Henderson must get out into the procession again. At the centre of the
+eddy he was not sufficiently entertaining to his executioners. The
+idea of being shot in the head had not greatly disturbed him--he had
+felt as if it would be rather restful, on the whole. But the thought
+of getting a bullet in his arm, which would merely disable him and
+deliver him over helpless to the outdraught, shook him with something
+near a panic. He fell to paddling with all his remaining strength, and
+drove his log once more into the horrible circuit. The commendatory
+remarks with which Pichot greeted this move went past his ears
+unheard.
+
+Up to this time there had been a strong sun shining down into the pot,
+and the trees about its rim had stood unstirred by any wind. Now,
+however, a sudden darkness settled over everything, and sharp, fitful
+gusts drew in through the cleft, helping to push the logs back.
+Henderson was by this time so near fainting from exhaustion that his
+wits were losing their clearness. Only his horror of the fatal exit,
+the raving sluice, the swaying white spray-curtain, retained its
+keenness. As to all else he was growing so confused that he hardly
+realized the way those great indrawing gusts, laden with spray, were
+helping him. He was paddling and steering and manoeuvring for the
+inner circuit almost mechanically now. When suddenly the blackness
+about him was lit with a blue glare, and the thunder crashed over the
+echoing pot with an explosion that outroared the falls, he hardly
+noted it. When the skies seemed to open, letting down the rain in
+torrents, with a wind that almost blew it level, it made no difference
+to him. He went on paddling dully, indifferent to the bumping of the
+logs against his shoulders.
+
+[Illustration: "He was roused by a sudden shot."]
+
+But to this fierce storm, which almost bent double the trees around
+the rim of the pot, Red Pichot and Mitchell were by no means so
+indifferent. About sixty or seventy yards below the falls they had a
+snug retreat which was also an outlook. It was a cabin built in a
+recess of the wall of the gorge, and to be reached only by a narrow
+pathway easy of defence. When the storm broke in its fury Pichot
+sprang to his feet.
+
+"Let's git back to the Hole," he cried to his companion, knocking the
+fire out of his pipe. "We kin watch just as well from there, an' see
+the beauty slide over when his time comes."
+
+Pichot led the way off through the straining and hissing trees, and
+Mitchell followed, growling but obedient. And Henderson, faint upon
+his log in the raving tumult, knew nothing of their going.
+
+They had not been gone more than two minutes when a drenched little
+dark face, with black hair plastered over it in wisps, peered out from
+among the lashing birches and gazed down anxiously into the pot. At
+the sight of Henderson on his log, lying quite close to the edge, and
+far back from the dreadful cleft, the terror in the wild eyes gave way
+to inexpressible relief. The face drew back; and an instant later a
+bare-legged child appeared, carrying the pike-pole which Pichot had
+tossed into the bushes. Heedless of the sheeting volleys of the rain
+and the fierce gusts which whipped her dripping homespun petticoat
+about her knees, she clambered skilfully down the rock wall to the
+ledge whereon Pichot had stood. Bracing herself carefully, she reached
+out with the pike-pole, which, child though she was, she evidently
+knew how to use.
+
+Henderson was just beginning to recover from his daze, and to notice
+the madness of the storm, when he felt something strike sharply on the
+log behind him. He knew it was the impact of a pike pole, and he
+wondered, with a kind of scornful disgust, what Pichot could be
+wanting of him now. He felt the log being dragged backwards, then held
+close against the smooth wall of the pot. A moment more and his bonds
+were being cut--but laboriously, as if with a small knife and by weak
+hands. Then he caught sight of the hands, which were little and brown
+and rough, and realized, with a great burst of wonder and tenderness,
+that old Baisley's "Sis," by some miracle of miracles, had come to his
+rescue. In a few seconds the ropes fell apart, and he lifted himself,
+to see the child stooping down with anxious adoration in her eyes.
+
+"Sis!" he cried. "You!"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Henderson, come quick!" she panted. "They may git back any
+minit." And clutching him by the shoulder, she tried to pull him up by
+main strength. But Henderson needed no urging. Life, with the return
+of hope, had surged back into nerve and muscle; and in hardly more
+time than it takes to tell it, the two had clambered side by side to
+the rim of the pot and darted into the covert of the tossing trees.
+
+No sooner were they in hiding than Henderson remembered his rifle and
+slipped back to get it His enemies had not discovered it. It had
+fallen into the moss, but the well-oiled, perfect-fitting chamber had
+kept its cartridges dry. With that weapon in his hands Henderson felt
+himself once more master of the situation. Weariness and apprehension
+together slipped from him, and one purpose took complete possession of
+him. He would settle with Red Pichot right there, on the spot where he
+had been taught the terrible lesson of fear. He felt that he could not
+really feel himself a man again unless he could settle the whole score
+before the sun of that day should set.
+
+The rain and wind were diminishing now; the lightning was a mere
+shuddering gleam over the hill-tops beyond the river; and the thunder
+no longer made itself heard above the trampling of the falls.
+Henderson's plans were soon laid. Then he turned to Sis, who stood
+silent and motionless close at his side, her big, alert, shy eyes
+watching like a hunted deer's the trail by which Red Pichot might
+return. She was trembling in her heart at every moment that Henderson
+lingered within that zone of peril. But she would not presume to
+suggest any move.
+
+Suddenly Henderson turned to her and laid an arm about her little
+shoulders.
+
+"You saved my life, kid!" he said, softly. "How ever did you know I
+was down there in that hell?"
+
+"I jest _knowed_ it was you, when I seen Red Pichot an' Bug Mitchell
+a-trackin' some one," answered the child, still keeping her eyes on
+the trail, as if it was her part to see that Henderson was not again
+taken unawares. "I _knowed_ it was you, Mister Henderson, an' I
+followed 'em; an' oh, I seen it all, I seen it all, an' I most died
+because I hadn't no gun. But I'd 'ave killed 'em both, some day, sure,
+ef--ef they hadn't went away! But they'll be back now right quick."
+
+Henderson bent and kissed her wet black head, saying, "Bless you, kid!
+You an' me'll always be pals, I reckon!"
+
+At the kiss the child's face flushed, and, for one second forgetting
+to watch the trail, she lifted glowing eyes to his. But he was already
+looking away.
+
+"Come on," he muttered. "This ain't no place for you an' me _yet_."
+
+Making a careful circuit through the thick undergrowth, swiftly but
+silently as two wildcats, the strange pair gained a covert close
+beside the trail by which Pichot and Mitchell would return to the rim
+of the pot. Safely ambuscaded, Henderson laid a hand firmly on the
+child's arm, resting it there for two or three seconds, as a sign of
+silence.
+
+Minute after minute went by in the intense stillness. At last the
+child, whose ears were even keener than Henderson's, caught her breath
+with a little indrawing gasp and looked up at her companion's face.
+Henderson understood; and every muscle stiffened. A moment later and
+he, too, heard the oncoming tread of hurried footsteps. Then Pichot
+went by at a swinging stride, with Mitchell skulking obediently at his
+heels.
+
+Henderson half raised his rifle, and his face turned grey and cold
+like steel. But it was no part of his plan to shoot even Red Pichot in
+the back. From the manner of the two ruffians it was plain that they
+had no suspicion of the turn which affairs had taken. To them it was
+as sure as two and two make four that Henderson was still on his log
+in the pot, if he had not already gone over into the cauldron. As they
+reached the rim Henderson stepped out into the trail behind them, his
+gun balanced ready like a trapshooter's.
+
+As Pichot, on the very brink, looked down into the pot and saw that
+his victim was no longer there, he turned to Mitchell with a smile of
+mingled triumph and disappointment.
+
+But, on the instant, the smile froze on his face. It was as if he had
+felt the cold, grey gaze of Henderson on the back of his neck. Some
+warning, certainly, was flashed to that mysterious sixth sense which
+the people of the wild, man or beast, seem sometimes to be endowed
+with. He wheeled like lightning, his revolver seeming to leap up from
+his belt with the same motion. But in the same fraction of a second
+that his eyes met Henderson's they met the white flame-spurt of
+Henderson's rifle--and then, the dark.
+
+As Pichot's body collapsed, it toppled over the rim into Blackwater
+Pot and fell across two moving logs. Mitchell had thrown up his hands
+straight above his head when Pichot fell, knowing instantly that that
+was his only hope of escaping the same fate as his leader's.
+
+One look at Henderson's face, however, satisfied him that he was not
+going to be dealt with on the spot, and he set his thick jaw stolidly.
+Then his eyes wandered down into the pot, following the leader whom,
+in his way, he had loved if ever he had loved any one or anything.
+Fascinated, his stare followed the two logs as they journeyed around,
+with Pichot's limp form, face upwards, sprawled across them. They
+reached the cleft, turned, and shot forth into the raving of the
+sluice, and a groan of horror burst from "Bug's" lips. By this
+Henderson knew what had happened, and, to his immeasurable self-scorn,
+a qualm of remembered fear caught sickeningly at his heart. But
+nothing of this betrayed itself in his face or voice.
+
+"Come on, Mitchell!" he said, briskly. "I'm in a hurry. You jest step
+along in front, an' see ye keep both hands well up over yer head, or
+ye'll be savin' the county the cost o' yer rope. Step out, now."
+
+He stood aside, with Sis at his elbow, to make room. As Mitchell
+passed, his hands held high, a mad light flamed up into his sullen
+eyes, and he was on the point of springing, like a wolf, at his
+captor's throat. But Henderson's look was cool and steady, and his gun
+held low. The impulse flickered out in the brute's dull veins. But as
+he glanced at Sis he suddenly understood that it was she who had
+brought all this to pass. His black face snarled upon her like a
+wolf's at bay, with an inarticulate curse more horrible than any words
+could make it. With a shiver the child slipped behind Henderson's back
+and hid her face.
+
+"Don't be skeered o' him, kid, not one little mite," said Henderson,
+gently. "He ain't agoin' to trouble this earth no more. An' I'm
+goin' to get yer father a job, helpin' me, down somewheres near
+Greensville--because I couldn't sleep nights knowin' ye was runnin'
+round anywheres near that hell-hole yonder!"
+
+
+
+
+The Iron Edge of Winter
+
+
+The glory of the leaves was gone; the glory of the snow was not yet
+come; and the world, smitten with bitter frost, was grey like steel.
+The ice was black and clear and vitreous on the forest pools. The
+clods on the ploughed field, the broken hillocks in the pasture, the
+ruts of the winding backwoods road, were hard as iron and rang under
+the travelling hoof. The silent, naked woods, moved only by the bleak
+wind drawing through them from the north, seemed as if life had
+forgotten them.
+
+Suddenly there came a light thud, thud, thud, with a pattering of
+brittle leaves; and a leisurely rabbit hopped by, apparently on no
+special errand. At the first of the sounds, a small, ruddy head with
+bulging, big, bright eyes had appeared at the mouth of a hole under
+the roots of an ancient maple. The bright eyes noted the rabbit at
+once, and peered about anxiously to see if any enemy were following.
+There was no danger in sight.
+
+Within two or three feet of the hole under the maple the rabbit
+stopped, sat up as if begging, waved its great ears to and fro, and
+glanced around inquiringly with its protruding, foolish eyes. As it
+sat up, it felt beneath its whitey fluff of a tail something hard
+which was not a stone, and promptly dropped down again on all fours to
+investigate. Poking its nose among the leaves and scratching with its
+fore-paws, it uncovered a pile of beech-nuts, at which it began to
+sniff. The next instant, with a shrill, chattering torrent of
+invective, a red squirrel whisked out from the hole under the maple,
+and made as if to fly in the face of the big, good-natured trespasser.
+Startled and abashed by this noisy assault, the rabbit went bounding
+away over the dead leaves and disappeared among the desolate grey
+arches.
+
+The silence was effectually dispelled. Shrieking and scolding
+hysterically, flicking his long tail in spasmodic jerks, and calling
+the dead solitudes to witness that the imbecile intruder had uncovered
+one of his treasure-heaps, the angry squirrel ran up and down the
+trunk for at least two minutes. Then, his feelings somewhat relieved
+by this violent outburst, he set himself to gathering the scattered
+nuts and bestowing them in new and safer hiding-places.
+
+In this task he had little regard for convenience, and time appeared
+to be no object whatever. Some of the nuts he took over to a big elm
+fifty paces distant, and jammed them one by one, solidly and
+conscientiously, into the crevices of the bark. Others he carried in
+the opposite direction, to the edge of the open where the road ran by.
+These he hid under a stone, where the passing wayfarer might step over
+them, indeed, but would never think of looking for them. While he was
+thus occupied, an old countryman slouched by, his heavy boots making a
+noise on the frozen ruts, his nose red with the harsh, unmitigated
+cold. The squirrel, mounted on a fence stake, greeted him with a flood
+of whistling and shrieking abuse; and he, not versed in the squirrel
+tongue, muttered to himself half enviously: "Queer how them squur'ls
+can keep so cheerful in this weather." The tireless little animal
+followed him along the fence rails for perhaps a hundred yards, seeing
+him off the premises and advising him not to return, then went back in
+high feather to his task. When all the nuts were once more safely
+hidden but two or three, these latter he carried to the top of a stump
+close beside the hole in the maple, and proceeded to make a meal. The
+stump commanded a view on all sides; and as he sat up with a nut
+between his little, hand-like, clever fore-paws, his shining eyes kept
+watch on every path by which an enemy might approach.
+
+Having finished the nuts, and scratched his ears, and jumped twice
+around on the stump as if he were full of erratically acting springs,
+he uttered his satisfaction in a long, vibrant chir-r-r-r, and
+started to re-enter his hole in the maple-roots. Just at the door,
+however, he changed his mind. For no apparent reason he whisked about,
+scurried across the ground to the big elm, ran straight up the tall
+trunk, and disappeared within what looked like a mass of sticks
+perched among the topmost branches.
+
+The mass of sticks was a deserted crow's nest, which the squirrel, not
+content with one dwelling, had made over to suit his own personal
+needs. He had greatly improved upon the architecture of the crows,
+giving the nest a tight roof of twigs and moss, and lining the snug
+interior with fine dry grass and soft fibres of cedar-bark. In this
+secure and softly swaying refuge, far above the reach of prowling
+foxes, he curled himself up for a nap after his toil.
+
+He slept well, but not long; for the red squirrel has always something
+on his mind to see to. In less than half an hour he whisked out again
+in great excitement, jumped from branch to branch till he was many
+yards from his own tree, and then burst forth into vehement chatter.
+He must have dreamed that some one was rifling his hoards, for he ran
+eagerly from one hiding-place to another and examined them all
+suspiciously. As he had at least two-score to inspect, it took him
+some time; but not till he had looked at every one did he seem
+satisfied. Then he grew very angry, and scolded and chirruped, as if
+he thought some one had made a fool of him. That he had made a fool
+of himself probably never entered his confident and self-sufficient
+little head.
+
+While indulging this noisy volubility he was seated on the top of his
+dining-stump. Suddenly he caught sight of something that smote him
+into silence and for the space of a second turned him to stone. A few
+paces away was a weasel, gliding toward him like a streak of baleful
+light. For one second only he crouched. Then his faculties returned,
+and launching himself through the air he landed on the trunk of the
+maple and darted up among the branches.
+
+No less swiftly the weasel followed, hungry, bloodthirsty, relentless
+on the trail. Terrified into folly by the suddenness and deadliness of
+this peril, the squirrel ran too far up the tree and was almost
+cornered. Where the branches were small there was no chance to swing
+to another tree. Perceiving this mistake, he gave a squeak of terror,
+then bounded madly right over his enemy's head, and was lucky enough
+to catch foothold far out on a lower branch. Recovering himself in an
+instant, he shot into the next tree, and thence to the next and the
+next. Then, breathless from panic rather than from exhaustion, he
+crouched trembling behind a branch and waited.
+
+The weasel pursued more slowly, but inexorably as doom itself. He was
+not so clever at branch-jumping as his intended prey, but he was not
+to be shaken off. In less than a minute he was following the scent up
+the tree wherein the squirrel was hiding; and again the squirrel
+dashed off in his desperate flight. Twice more was this repeated, the
+squirrel each time more panic-stricken and with less power in nerve or
+muscle. Then wisdom forsook his brain utterly. He fled straight to his
+elm and darted into his nest in the swaying top. The weasel, running
+lithely up the ragged trunk, knew that the chase was at an end. From
+this cul de sac the squirrel had no escape.
+
+But Fate is whimsical in dealing with the wild kindreds. She seems to
+delight in unlooked-for interventions. While the squirrel trembled in
+his dark nest, and the weasel, intent upon the first taste of warm
+blood in his throat, ran heedlessly up a bare stretch of the trunk,
+there came the chance which a foraging hawk had been waiting for. The
+hawk, too, had been following this breathless chase, but ever baffled
+by intervening branches. Now he swooped and struck. His talons had the
+grip of steel. The weasel, plucked irresistibly from his foothold, was
+carried off writhing to make the great bird's feast. And the squirrel,
+realizing at last that the expected doom had been somehow turned
+aside, came out and chattered feebly of his triumph.
+
+
+
+
+The Grip in Deep Hole
+
+
+The roar of the falls, the lighter and shriller raging of the rapids,
+had at last died out behind the thick masses of the forest, as Barnes
+worked his way down the valley. The heat in the windless underbrush,
+alive with insects, was stifling. He decided to make once more for the
+bank of the stream, in the hope that its character might by this time
+have changed, so as to afford him an easier and more open path.
+Pressing aside to his left, he presently saw the green gloom lighten
+before him. Blue sky and golden light came low through the thinning
+trees, and then a gleam of unruffled water. He was nearing the edge
+now; and because the underbrush was so thick about him he began to go
+cautiously.
+
+All at once, he felt his feet sinking; and the screen of thick bushes
+before him leaned away as if bowed by a heavy gust. Desperately he
+clutched with both hands at the undergrowth and saplings on either
+side; but they all gave way with him. In a smother of leafage and
+blinding, lashing branches he sank downwards--at first, as it seemed,
+slowly, for he had time to think many things while his heart was
+jumping in his throat. Then, shooting through the lighter bushy
+companions of his fall, and still clutching convulsively at those upon
+which he had been able to lay his grasp, he plunged feet first into a
+dark water.
+
+The water was deep and cold. Barnes went down straight, and clear
+under, with a strangled gasp. His feet struck, with some force, upon
+a tangled, yielding mass, from which he rose again with a spring.
+His head shot up above the surface, above the swirl of foam,
+leafage, and débris; and splutteringly he gulped his lungs full of
+air. But before he could clear his eyes or his nostrils, or
+recover his self-possession, he was stealthily dragged down again.
+And with a pang of horror he realized that he was caught by the foot.
+
+A powerful swimmer, Barnes struck out mightily with his arms and came
+to the surface again at once, rising beyond the shoulders. But by so
+much the more was he violently snatched back again, strangling and
+desperate, before he had time to empty his lungs and catch breath.
+This time the shock sobered him, flashing the full peril of the
+situation before his startled consciousness. With a tremendous effort
+of will he stopped his struggling, and contented himself with a
+gentle paddling to keep upright. This time he came more softly to the
+surface, clear beyond the chin. The foam and débris and turbulence of
+little waves seethed about his lips, and the sunlight danced
+confusingly in his streaming eyes; but he gulped a fresh lungful
+before he again went under.
+
+[Illustration: "He realized that he was caught by the foot."]
+
+Paddling warily now, he emerged again at once, and, with arms
+outspread, brought himself to a precarious equilibrium, his mouth just
+above the surface so long as he held his head well back. Keeping very
+still, he let his bewildered wits clear, and the agitated surface
+settle to quiet.
+
+He was in a deep, tranquil cove, hardly stirred by an eddy. Some ten
+paces farther out from shore the main current swirled past sullenly,
+as if weary from the riot of falls and rapids. Across the current a
+little space of sand-beach, jutting out from the leafy shore, shone
+golden in the sun. Up and down the stream, as far as his extremely
+restricted vision would suffer him to see, nothing but thick,
+overhanging branches, and the sullen current. Very cautiously he
+turned his head--though to do so brought the water over his lips--and
+saw behind him just what he expected. The high, almost perpendicular
+bank was scarred by a gash of bright, raw, reddish earth, where the
+brink had slipped away beneath his weight.
+
+Just within reach of his hand lay, half submerged, the thick, leafy
+top of a fallen poplar sapling, its roots apparently still clinging
+to the bank. Gently he laid hold of it, testing it, in the hope that
+it might prove solid enough to enable him to haul himself out. But it
+came away instantly in his grasp. And once more, in this slight
+disturbance of his equilibrium, his head went under.
+
+Barnes was disappointed, but he was now absolutely master of his
+self-possession. In a moment he had regained the only position in
+which he could breathe comfortably. Then, because the sun was beating
+down too fiercely on the top of his head, he carefully drew the bushy
+top of the poplar sapling into such a position that it gave him shade.
+As its roots were still aground, it showed no tendency to float off
+and forsake him in his plight.
+
+A very little consideration, accompanied by a cautious investigation
+with his free foot, speedily convinced Barnes, who was a practical
+woodsman, that the trap in which he found himself caught could be
+nothing else than a couple of interlaced, twisted branches, or roots,
+of some tree which had fallen into the pool in a former caving-in of
+the bank. In that dark deep wherein his foot was held fast, his mind's
+eye could see it all well enough--the water-soaked, brown-green,
+slimy, inexorable coil, which had yielded to admit the unlucky member,
+then closed upon the ankle like the jaws of an otter trap. He could
+feel that grip--not severe, but uncompromisingly firm, clutching the
+joint. As he considered, he began to draw comfort, however, from the
+fact that his invisible captor had displayed a certain amount of give
+and take. This elasticity meant either that it was a couple of
+branches slight enough to be flexible that held him, or that the
+submerged tree itself was a small one, not too steadfastly anchored
+down. He would free himself easily enough, he thought, as soon as he
+should set himself about it coolly and systematically.
+
+Taking a long breath he sank his head under the surface, and peered
+downward through the amber-brown but transparent gloom. Little gleams
+of brighter light came twisting and quivering in from the swirls of
+the outer current. Barnes could not discern the bottom of the pool,
+which was evidently very deep; but he could see quite clearly the
+portion of the sunken tree in whose interwoven branches he was held. A
+shimmering golden ray fell just on the spot where his foot vanished to
+the ankle between two stout curves of what looked like slimy brown
+cable or sections of a tense snake body.
+
+It was, beyond question, a nasty-looking trap; and Barnes could not
+blink the fact that he was in a tight place. He lifted his face above
+the surface, steadied himself carefully, and breathed deeply and
+quietly for a couple of minutes, gathering strength for a swift and
+vigorous effort. Then, filling his lungs very moderately, the better
+to endure a strain, he stooped suddenly downward, deep into the
+yellow gloom, and began wrenching with all his force at those oozy
+curves, striving to drag them apart. They gave a little, but not
+enough to release the imprisoned foot. Another moment, and he had to
+lift his head again for breath.
+
+After some minutes of rest, he repeated the choking struggle, but, as
+before, in vain. He could move the jaws of the trap just enough to
+encourage him a little, but not enough to gain his release. Again and
+again he tried it, again and again to fail just as he imagined himself
+on the verge of success; till at last he was forced, for the moment,
+to acknowledge defeat, finding himself so exhausted that he could
+hardly keep his mouth above water. Drawing down a stiffish branch of
+the sapling, he gripped it between his teeth and so held himself
+upright while he rested his arms. This was a relief to nerves as well
+as muscles, because it made his balance, on which he depended for the
+chance to breathe, so much the less precarious.
+
+As he hung there pondering, held but a bare half-inch above
+drowning, the desperateness of the situation presented itself to him
+in appalling clearness. How sunny and warm and safe, to his
+woods-familiar eyes, looked the green forest world about him. No
+sound broke the mild tranquillity of the solitude, except, now and
+then, an elfish gurgle of the slow current, or the sweetly cheerful
+_tsic-a-dee-dee_ of an unseen chicadee, or, from the intense blue
+overhead, the abrupt, thin whistle of a soaring fish-hawk. To Barnes
+it all seemed such a safe, friendly world, his well-understood
+intimate since small boyhood. Yet here it was, apparently, turned
+smooth traitor at last, and about to destroy him as pitilessly as
+might the most scorching desert or blizzard-scourged ice-field. A
+silent rage burned suddenly through all his veins--which was well,
+since the cold of that spring-fed river had already begun to finger
+stealthily about his heart. A delicate little pale-blue butterfly,
+like a periwinkle-petal come to life, fluttered over Barnes's grim,
+upturned face, and went dancing gaily out across the shining water,
+joyous in the sun. In its dancing it chanced to dip a hair's-breadth
+too low. The treacherous, bright surface caught it, held it; and
+away it swept, struggling in helpless consternation against this
+unexpected doom. Before it passed out of Barnes's vision a great trout
+rose and gulped it down. Its swift fate, to Barnes's haggard eyes,
+seemed an analogue in little to his own.
+
+But it was not in the woodsman's fibre to acknowledge himself actually
+beaten, either by man or fate, so long as there remained a spark in
+his brain to keep his will alive. He presently began searching with
+his eyes among the branches of the poplar sapling for one stout enough
+to serve him as a lever. With the right kind of a stick in his hand,
+he told himself, he might manage to pry apart the jaws of the trap and
+get his foot free. At last his choice settled upon a branch that he
+thought would serve his turn. He was just about to reach up and break
+it off, when a slight crackling in the underbrush across the stream
+caught his ear.
+
+His woodsman's instinct kept him motionless as he turned his eyes to
+the spot. In the thick leafage there was a swaying, which moved down
+along the bank, but he could not see what was causing it. Softly he
+drew over a leafy branch of the sapling till it made him a perfect
+screen, then he peered up the channel to find out what the unseen
+wayfarer was following.
+
+A huge salmon, battered and gashed from a vain struggle to leap the
+falls, was floating, belly-upward, down the current, close to Barnes's
+side of the stream. A gentle eddy caught it, and drew it into the
+pool. Sluggishly it came drifting down toward Barnes's hidden face. In
+the twigs of the poplar sapling it came to a halt, its great scarlet
+gills barely moving as the last of life flickered out of it.
+
+Barnes now understood quite well that unseen commotion which had
+followed, along shore, the course of the dying salmon. It was no
+surprise to him whatever when he saw a huge black bear emerge upon the
+yellow sandspit and stand staring across the current. Apparently, it
+was staring straight at Barnes's face, upturned upon the surface of
+the water. But Barnes knew it was staring at the dead salmon. His
+heart jumped sickeningly with sudden hope, as an extravagant notion
+flashed into his brain. Here was his rescuer--a perilous one, to be
+sure--vouchsafed to him by some whim of the inscrutable forest-fates.
+
+He drew down another branchy twig before his face, fearful lest his
+concealment should not be adequate. But in his excitement he disturbed
+his balance, and with the effort of his recovery the water swirled
+noticeably all about him. His heart sank. Assuredly, the bear would
+take alarm at this and be afraid to come for the fish.
+
+But to his surprise the great beast, which had seemed to hesitate,
+plunged impetuously into the stream. Nothing, according to a bear's
+knowledge of life, could have made that sudden disturbance in the pool
+but some fish-loving otter or mink, intent upon seizing the booty.
+Indignant at the prospect of being forestalled by any such furtive
+marauder, the bear hurled himself forward with such force that the
+spray flew high into the branches, and the noise of his splashing was
+a clear notification that trespassers and meddlers had better keep
+off. That salmon was his, by right of discovery; and he was going to
+have it.
+
+The bear, for all the seeming clumsiness of his bulk, was a
+redoubtable swimmer; and almost before Barnes had decided clearly on
+his proper course of action those heavy, grunting snorts and vast
+expulsions of breath were at his ear. Enormously loud they sounded,
+shot thus close along the surface of the water. Perforce, Barnes made
+up his mind on the instant.
+
+The bunch of twigs which had arrested the progress of the floating
+salmon lay just about an arm's length from Barnes's face. Swimming
+high, his mighty shoulders thrusting up a wave before him which buried
+Barnes's head safely from view, the bear reached the salmon. Grabbing
+it triumphantly in his jaws, he turned to make for shore again.
+
+This was Barnes's moment. Both arms shot out before him. Through the
+suffocating confusion his clutching fingers encountered the bear's
+haunches. Sinking into the long fur, they closed upon it with a grip
+of steel. Then, instinctively, Barnes shut his eyes and clenched his
+teeth, and waited for the shock, while his lungs felt as if they would
+burst in another moment.
+
+But it was no long time he had to wait--perhaps two seconds, while
+amazement in the bear's brain translated itself through panic into
+action. Utterly horrified by this inexplicable attack, from the rear
+and from the depths, the bear threw himself shoulder high from the
+water, and hurled himself forward with all his strength. Barnes felt
+those tremendous haunches heaving irresistibly beneath his clutching
+fingers. He felt himself drawn out straight, and dragged ahead till he
+thought his ankle would snap. Almost he came to letting go, to save
+the ankle. But he held, on, as much with his will as with his grip.
+Then, the slimy thing in the depths gave way. He felt himself being
+jerked through the water--free. His fingers relaxed their clutch on
+the bear's fur--and he came to the surface, gasping, blinking, and
+coughing.
+
+For a moment or two he paddled softly, recovering his breath and
+shaking the water from nostrils and eyes. He had an instant of
+apprehensiveness, lest the bear should turn upon him and attack him at
+a disadvantage; and by way of precaution he gave forth the most savage
+and piercing yell that his labouring lungs were capable of. But he saw
+at once that on this score he had nothing to fear. It was a
+well-frightened bear, there swimming frantically for the sandspit;
+while the dead salmon, quite forgotten, was drifting slowly away on
+the sullen current.
+
+Barnes's foot was hurting fiercely, but his heart was light. Swimming
+at leisure, so as to just keep head against the stream, he watched the
+bear scuttle out upon the sand. Once safe on dry land, the great beast
+turned and glanced back with a timid air to see what manner of being
+it was that had so astoundingly assailed him. Man he had seen
+before--but never man swimming like an otter; and the sight was
+nothing to reassure him. One longing look he cast upon the salmon, now
+floating some distance away; but that, to his startled mind, was just
+a lure of this same terrifying and perfidious creature whose bright
+grey eyes were staring at him so steadily from the surface of the
+water. He turned quickly and made off into the woods, followed by a
+loud, daunting laugh which spurred his pace to a panicky gallop.
+
+When he was gone, Barnes swam to the sandspit. There he wrung out his
+dripping clothes, and lay down in the hot sand to let the sun soak
+deep into his chilled veins.
+
+
+
+
+The Nest of the Mallard
+
+
+When the spring freshet went down, and the rushes sprang green all
+about the edges of the shallow, marshy lagoons, a pair of mallards
+took possession of a tiny, bushy island in the centre of the broadest
+pond. Moved by one of those inexplicable caprices which keep most of
+the wild kindreds from too perilous an enslavement to routine, this
+pair had been attracted by the vast, empty levels of marsh and mere,
+and had dropped out from the ranks of their northward-journeying
+comrades. Why should they beat on through the raw, blustering spring
+winds to Labrador, when here below them was such a nesting-place as
+they desired, with solitude and security and plenty. The flock went
+on, obeying an ancestral summons. With heads straight out before, and
+rigid, level necks--with web feet folded like fans and stretched
+straight out behind, rigid and level--they sped through the air on
+short, powerful, swift-beating wings at the rate of sixty or seventy
+miles an hour. Their flight, indeed, and their terrific speed were not
+unlike those of some strange missile. The pair who had dropped behind
+paid no heed to their going; and in two minutes they had faded out
+against the pale saffron morning sky.
+
+These two were the only mallards in this whole wide expanse of grass
+and water. Other kinds of ducks there were, in plenty, but the
+mallards at this season kept to themselves. The little island which
+they selected for their peculiar domain was so small that no other
+mating couples intruded upon its privacy. It was only about ten feet
+across; but it bore a favourable thicket of osier-willow, and all
+around it the sedge and bulrush reared an impenetrable screen. Its
+highest point was about two feet above average water level; and on
+this highest point the mallard duck established her nest.
+
+The nest was a mere shallow pile of dead leaves and twigs and dry
+sedges, scraped carelessly together. But the inside was not careless.
+It was a round smooth hollow, most softly lined with down from the
+duck's own breast. When the first pale, greenish-tinted egg was laid
+in the nest, there was only a little of this down; but the delicate
+and warm lining accumulated as the pale green eggs increased in
+number.
+
+In the construction of the nest and the accumulation of the eggs no
+interest whatever was displayed by the splendid drake. He never,
+unless by chance, went near it. But as a lover the lordly fellow was
+most gallant and ardent. While his mate was on the nest laying, he was
+usually to be seen floating on the open mere beyond the reed-fringe,
+pruning his plumage in the cold pink rays of the first of the
+sunrise.
+
+It was plumage well worth pruning, this of his, and fully justified
+his pride in it. The shining, silken, iridescent dark green of the
+head and neck; the snowy, sharply defined, narrow collar of white,
+dividing the green of the neck from the brownish ash of the back and
+the gorgeous chestnut of the breast; the delicate pure grey of the
+belly finely pencilled with black lines; the rich, glossy purple of
+the broad wing-bars shot with green reflections; the jaunty, recurved
+black feathers of the tail; the smart, citron-yellow of the bill and
+feet;--all these charms were ample excuse for his coxcombry and
+continual posings. They were ample excuse, too, for the admiration
+bestowed upon him by his mottled brown mate, whose colours were
+obviously designed not for show but for concealment. When sitting on
+her nest, she was practically indistinguishable from the twigs and
+dead leaves that surrounded her.
+
+Having laid her egg, the brown duck would cover the precious contents
+of the nest with twigs and leaves, that they might not be betrayed by
+their conspicuous colour. Then she would steal, silently as a shadow,
+through the willow stems to the water's edge, and paddle cautiously
+out through the rushes to the open water. On reaching her mate all
+this caution would be laid aside, and the two would set up an animated
+and confidential quacking. They would sometimes sail around each other
+slowly in circles, with much arching of necks and quaint stiff bowing
+of heads; and sometimes they would chase each other in scurrying,
+napping rushes along the bright surface of the water. Both before and
+after these gay exercises they would feed quietly in the shallows,
+pulling up water-weed sprouts and tender roots, or sifting insects and
+little shellfish from the mud by means of the sensitive tips and
+guttered edges of their bills. The mallard pair had few enemies to
+dread, their island being so far from shore that no four-footed
+marauder, not even the semi-amphibious mink himself, ever visited it.
+And the region was one too remote for the visits of the pot-hunter. In
+fact, there was only one foe against whom it behoved them to be on
+ceaseless guard. This was that bloodthirsty and tireless slayer, the
+goshawk, or great grey henhawk. Where that grim peril was concerned,
+the brown duck would take no risks. For the sake of those eggs among
+the willow stems, she held her life very dear, never flying more than
+a short circle around the island to stretch her wings, never swimming
+or feeding any distance from the safe covert of the rushes.
+
+But with the glowing drake it was different. High spirited, bold for
+all his wariness, and magnificently strong of wing, from sheer
+restlessness he occasionally flew high above the ponds. And one day,
+when some distance from home, the great hawk saw him and swooped down
+upon him from aërial heights.
+
+The impending doom caught the drake's eye in time for him to avoid the
+stroke of that irresistible descent. His short wings, with their
+muscles of steel, winnowed the air with sudden, tremendous force, and
+he shot ahead at a speed which must have reached the rate of a hundred
+miles an hour. When the swooping hawk had rushed down to his level, he
+was nearly fifty yards in the lead.
+
+In such a case most of the larger hawks would have given up the chase,
+and soared again to abide the chance for a more fortunate swoop. But
+not so the implacable goshawk. His great pinions were capable not only
+of soaring and sailing and swooping, but of the rapid and violent
+flapping of the short-winged birds; and he had at his command a speed
+even greater than that of the rushing fugitive. As he pursued, his
+wings tore the air with a strident, hissing noise; and the speed of
+the drake seemed as nothing before that savage, inescapable onrush.
+Had the drake been above open water, he would have hurled himself
+straight downward, and seized the one chance of escape by diving; but
+beneath him at this moment there was nothing but naked swamp and
+sloppy flats. In less than two minutes the hiss of the pursuing wings
+was close behind him. He gave a hoarse squawk, as he realized that
+doom had overtaken him. Then one set of piercing talons clutched his
+outstretched neck, cutting clean through his wind-pipe; and another
+set bit deep into the glossy chestnut of his breast.
+
+For several days the widowed duck kept calling loudly up and down the
+edges of the reeds--but at a safe distance from the nest. When she
+went to lay, she stayed ever longer and longer on the eggs, brooding
+them. Three more eggs she laid after the disappearance of her mate,
+and then, having nine in the nest, she began to sit; and the open
+water beyond the reed fringes saw her no more.
+
+At first she would slip off the nest for a few minutes every day, very
+stealthily, to feed and stretch and take a noiseless dip in the
+shallow water among the reeds; but as time went on she left the eggs
+only once in two days. Twice a day she would turn the eggs over
+carefully, and at the same time change their respective positions in
+the nest, so that those which had been for some hours in the centre,
+close to her hot and almost naked breast, might take their turn in the
+cooler space just under her wings. By this means each egg got its fair
+share of heat, properly distributed, and the little life taking shape
+within escaped the distortion which might have been caused by lying
+too long in one position. Whenever the wary brown mother left the
+nest, she covered the eggs with down, now, which kept the warmth in
+better than leaves could. And whenever she came back from her brief
+swim, her dripping feathers supplied the eggs with needed moisture.
+
+It is a general law that the older an egg is the longer it takes to
+hatch. The eggs of the mallard mother, of course, varied in age from
+fifteen days to one before she began to sit. This being the case, at
+the end of the long month of incubation they would have hatched at
+intervals covering in all, perhaps, a full day and a half; and
+complications would have arisen. But the wise mother had counteracted
+the working of the law by sitting a little while every day. Therefore,
+as a matter of fact, the older eggs got the larger share of the
+brooding, in exact proportion; and the building of the little lives
+within the shells went on with almost perfect uniformity.
+
+During the long, silent month of her patient brooding, spring had
+wandered away and summer had spread thick green and yellow lily blooms
+all over the lonely meres. A bland but heavy heat came down through
+the willow tops, so that the brown duck sometimes panted at her task,
+and sat with open bill, or with wings half raised from the eggs. Then,
+one night, she heard faint tappings and peepings beneath her. Sturdy
+young bills began chipping at the inside of the shells, speedily
+breaking them. Each duckling, as he chipped the shell just before the
+tip of his beak, would turn a little way around in his narrow
+quarters; till presently the shell would fall apart, neatly divided
+into halves; and the wet duckling, tumbling forth, would snuggle up
+against the mother's hot breast and thighs to dry. Whenever this
+happened, the wise mother would reach her head beneath, and fit the
+two halves of shell one within the other, or else thrust them out of
+the nest entirely, lest they should get slipped over another egg and
+smother the occupant. Sometimes she fitted several sets of the empty
+shells together, that they might take up less room; and altogether she
+showed that she perfectly understood her business. Then, late in the
+morning, when the green world among the willows and rushes was still
+and warm and sweet, she led her fluffy, sturdy brood straight down to
+the water, and taught them to feed on the insects that clung to the
+bulrush stalks.
+
+
+
+
+Mrs. Gammit and the Porcupines
+
+
+"I hain't come to borry yer gun, Mr. Barron, but to ax yer advice."
+
+Mrs. Gammit's rare appearances were always abrupt, like her speech;
+and it was without surprise--though he had not seen her for a month or
+more--that Joe Barron turned to greet her.
+
+"It's at yer sarvice, jest as the gun would be ef ye wanted it, Mrs.
+Gammit--_an'_ welcome! But come in an' set down an' git cooled off a
+mite. 'Tain't no place to talk, out here in the bilin' sun."
+
+Mrs. Gammit seated herself on the end of the bench, just inside the
+kitchen door, twitched off her limp, pink cotton sunbonnet, and wiped
+her flushed face with the sleeve of her calico waist. Quite unsubdued
+by the heat and moisture of the noonday sun, under which she had
+tramped nine miles through the forest, her short, stiff, grey hair
+stood up in irregular tufts above her weather-beaten forehead. Her
+host, sitting sidewise on the edge of the table so that he could swing
+one leg freely and spit cleanly through the open window, bit off a
+contemplative quid of "blackjack" tobacco, and waited for her to
+unfold the problems that troubled her.
+
+Mrs. Gammit's rugged features were modelled to fit an expression of
+vigorous, if not belligerent, self-confidence. She knew her
+capabilities, well-tried in some sixty odd years of unprotected
+spinsterhood. Merit alone, not matrimony, it was, that had crowned
+this unsullied spinsterhood with the honorary title of "Mrs." Her
+massive and energetic nose was usually carried somewhat high, in a not
+unjustifiable scorn of such foolish circumstance as might seek to
+thwart her will.
+
+But to-day these strenuous features found themselves surprised by an
+expression of doubt, of bewilderment, almost one might say of
+humility. At her little clearing in the heart of the great wilderness
+things had been happening which, to her amazement, she could not
+understand. Hitherto she had found an explanation, clear at least to
+herself, for everything that befell her in these silent backwoods
+which other folks seemed to find so absurdly mysterious. Armed with
+her self-confidence she had been able, hitherto, to deal with every
+situation that had challenged her, and in a manner quite satisfactory
+to herself, however the eternal verities may have smiled at it. But
+now, at last, she was finding herself baffled.
+
+Joe Barron waited with the patience of the backwoodsman and the
+Indian, to whom, as to Nature herself, time seems no object, though
+they always somehow manage to be on time. Mrs. Gammit continued to fan
+her hot face with her sunbonnet, and to ponder her problems, while the
+lines deepened between her eyes. A big black and yellow wasp buzzed
+angrily against the window-pane, bewildered because it could not get
+through the transparent barrier. A little grey hen, with large,
+drooping comb vividly scarlet, hopped on to the doorsill, eyed Mrs.
+Gammit with surprise and disapprobation, and ran away to warn the rest
+of the flock that there was a woman round the place. That, as they all
+knew by inheritance from the "shooings" which their forefathers had
+suffered, meant that they would no longer be allowed in the kitchen to
+pick up crumbs.
+
+At last Mrs. Gammit spoke--but with difficulty, for it came hard to
+her to ask advice of any one.
+
+"I sp'ose now, mebbe, Mr. Barron, you know more about the woods
+critters'n what I do?" she inquired, hopefully but doubtfully.
+
+The woodsman lifted his eyebrows in some surprise at the question.
+
+"Well, now, if I don't I'd _oughter_," said he, "seein' as how I've
+kinder lived round amongst 'em all my life. If I know _anything_, it's
+the backwoods an' all what pertains to that same!"
+
+"Yes, you'd _oughter_ know more about them than I do!" assented Mrs.
+Gammit, with a touch of severity which seemed to add "and see that you
+do!" Then she shut her mouth firmly and fell to fanning herself again,
+her thoughts apparently far away.
+
+"I hope 'tain't no _serious_ trouble ye're in!" ventured her host
+presently, with the amiable intention of helping her to deliver her
+soul of its burden.
+
+But, manlike, he struck the wrong note.
+
+"Do you suppose," snapped Mrs. Gammit, "I'd be traipsin' over here
+nine mile thro' the hot woods to ax yer advice, Mr. Barron, if
+_'twarn't_ serious?" And she began to regret that she had come. Men
+never did understand anything, anyway.
+
+At this sudden acerbity the woodsman stroked his chin with his hand,
+to hide the ghost of a smile which flickered over his lean mouth.
+
+"Jest like a woman, to git riled over nawthin'!" he thought. "Sounds
+kinder nice an' homey, too!" But aloud, being always patient with the
+sex, he said coaxingly--
+
+"Then it's right proud I am that ye should come to me about it, Mrs.
+Gammit. I reckon I kin help you out, mebbe. What's wrong?"
+
+With a burst of relief Mrs. Gammit declared her sorrow.
+
+"It's the aigs," said she, passionately. "Fer nigh on to a month,
+now, I've been alosin' of 'em as fast as the hens kin git 'em laid.
+An' all I kin do, I cain't find out what's atakin' 'em."
+
+Having reached the point of asking advice, an expression of pathetic
+hopefulness came into her weather-beaten face. Under quite other
+conditions it might almost have been possible for Mrs. Gammit to learn
+to lean on a man, if he were careful not to disagree with her.
+
+"Oh! Aigs!" said the woodsman, relaxing slightly the tension of his
+sympathy. "Well, now, let's try an' git right to the root of the
+trouble. Air ye plumb sure, in the first place, that the hens is
+really _layin'_ them aigs what ye don't git?"
+
+Mrs. Gammit stiffened.
+
+"Do I look like an eejut?" she demanded.
+
+"Not one leetle mite, you don't!" assented her host, promptly and
+cordially.
+
+"I was beginning to think mebbe I did!" persisted the injured lady.
+
+"Everybody knows," protested the woodsman, "as how what you don't
+know, Mrs. Gammit, ain't hardly wuth knowin'."
+
+"O' course, that's puttin' it a leetle too strong, Mr. Barron," she
+answered, much mollified. "But I do reckon as how I've got _some_
+horse sense. Well, I _thought_ as how them 'ere hens _might_ 'ave
+stopped layin' on the suddint; so I up an' watched 'em. Land's sakes,
+but they was alayin' fine. Whenever I kin take time to stan' right by
+an' _watch_ 'em lay, I git all the aigs I know what to do with. But
+when I _don't_ watch 'em, _clost_--nary an aig. Ye ain't agoin' to
+persuade me a hen kin jest quit layin' when she's a mind ter, waitin'
+tell ye pass her the compliment o' holdin' out yer hand fer the aig!"
+
+"There's lots o' hens that pervarted they'll turn round an' _eat_
+their own aigs!" suggested the woodsman, spitting thoughtfully through
+the open window. The cat, coiled in the sun on a log outside, sprang
+up angrily, glared with green eyes at the offending window, and
+scurried away to cleanse her defiled coat.
+
+"Them's not _my_ poultry!" said Mrs. Gammit with decision. "I thought
+o' that, too. An' I watched 'em on the sly. But they hain't a one of
+'em got no sech onnateral tricks. When they're through layin', they
+jest hop off an' run away acacklin', as they should." And she shook
+her head heavily, as one almost despairing of enlightenment. "No, ef
+ye ain't got no more idees to suggest than that, I might as well be
+goin'."
+
+"Oh, I was jest kinder clearin' out the underbrush, so's to git a
+square good look at the situation," explained Barron. "Now, I kin till
+ye somethin' about it. Firstly, it's a weasel, bein' so sly, an'
+quick, an' audashus! Ten to one, it's a weasel; an' ye've got to
+trap it. Secondly, if 'tain't a weasel, it's a fox, an' a _mighty_
+cute fox, as ye're goin' to have some trouble in aketchin'. An'
+thirdly--an' lastly--if 'tain't neither weasel nor fox, it's jest
+bound to be an extra cunnin' skunk, what's takin' the trouble to be
+keerful. Generally speakin', skunks ain't keerful, because they don't
+have to be, nobody wantin' much to fool with 'em. But onc't in a
+while ye'll come across't one that's as sly as a weasel."
+
+"Oh, 'tain't none o' them!" said Mrs. Gammit, in a tone which conveyed
+a poor opinion of her host's sagacity and woodcraft. "I've suspicioned
+the weasels, an' the foxes, an' the woodchucks, but hain't found a
+sign o' any one of 'em round the place. An' _as_ fer _skunks_--well, I
+reckon, I've got a nose on my face." And to emphasize the fact, she
+sniffed scornfully.
+
+"To be sure! An' a fine, handsome nose it is, Mrs. Gammit!" replied
+the woodsman, diplomatically. "But what you _don't_ appear to know
+about skunks is that when they're up to mischief is jest the time when
+you don't smell 'em. Ye got to bear that in mind!"
+
+Mrs. Gammit looked at him with suspicion.
+
+"Be that reelly so?" demanded she, sternly.
+
+"True's gospel!" answered Barron. "A skunk ain't got no smell unless
+he's a mind to."
+
+"Well," said she, "I guess it ain't no skunk, anyhow. I kind o' feel
+it in my bones 'tain't no skunk, smell or no smell."
+
+The woodsman looked puzzled. He had not imagined her capable of such
+unreasoning obstinacy. He began to wonder if he had overrated her
+intelligence.
+
+"Then I give it up, Mrs. Gammit," said he, with an air of having lost
+all interest in the problem.
+
+But that did not suit his visitor at all. Her manner became more
+conciliatory. Leaning forward, with an almost coaxing look on her
+face, she murmured--
+
+"I've had an _idee_ as how it _might_ be--mind, I don't say it is, but
+jest it _might_ be----" and she paused dramatically.
+
+"Might be what?" inquired Barron, with reviving interest.
+
+"Porkypines!" propounded Mrs. Gammit, with a sudden smile of triumph.
+
+Joe Barron neither spoke nor smiled. But in his silence there was
+something that made Mrs. Gammit uneasy.
+
+"Why _not_ porkypines?" she demanded, her face once more growing
+severe.
+
+"It _might_ be porkypines as took them aigs o' yourn, Mrs. Gammit, an'
+it _might be bumbly-bees_!" responded Barron. "But 'tain't likely!"
+
+Mrs. Gammit snorted at the sarcasm.
+
+"Mebbe," she sneered, "ye kin tell me _why_ it's so impossible it
+could be porkypines. I seen a big porkypine back o' the barn, only
+yestiddy. An' that's more'n kin be said o' yer weasels, an' foxes, an'
+skunks, what ye're so sure about, Mr. Barron."
+
+"A porkypine ain't necess_ar_ily after aigs jest because he's back of
+a barn," said the woodsman. "An' anyways, a porkypine don't eat aigs.
+He hain't got the right kind o' teeth fer them kind o' vittles. He's
+_got_ to have something he kin gnaw on, somethin' substantial an'
+solid--the which he prefers a young branch o' good tough spruce,
+though it _do_ make his meat kinder strong. No, Mrs. Gammit, it ain't
+no porkypine what's stealin' yer aigs, take my word fer it. An' the
+more I think o' it the surer I be that it's a weasel. When a weasel
+learns to suck aigs, he gits powerful cute. Ye'll have to be right
+smart, I'm telling ye, to trap him."
+
+During this argument of Barron's his obstinate and offended listener
+had become quite convinced of the justice of her own conclusions. The
+sarcasm had settled it. She _knew_, now, that she had been right all
+along in her suspicion of the porcupines. And with this certainty her
+indignation suddenly disappeared. It is _such_ a comfort to be
+certain. So now, instead of flinging his ignorance in his face, she
+pretended to be convinced--remembering that she needed his advice as
+to how to trap the presumptuous porcupine.
+
+"Well, Mr. Barron," said she, with the air of one who would take
+defeat gracefully, "supposin' ye're right--an' ye'd _oughter_
+know--how would ye go about _ketchin'_ them weasels?"
+
+Pleased at this sudden return to sweet reasonableness, the woodsman
+once more grew interested.
+
+"I reckon we kin fix _that_!" said he, confidently and cordially.
+"I'll give ye three of my little mink traps. There's holes, I reckon,
+under the back an' sides o' the shed, or barn, or wherever it is that
+the hens have their nests?"
+
+"Nat'rally!" responded Mrs. Gammit. "The thieves ain't agoin' to come
+in by the front doors, right under my nose, be they?"
+
+"Of course," assented the woodsman. "Well, you jest set them 'ere
+traps in three o' them holes, well under the sills an' out o' the way.
+Don't go fer to bait'em, mind, or Mr. Weasel'll git to suspicionin'
+somethin', right off. Jest sprinkle bits of straw, an' hayseed, an'
+sech rubbish over 'em, so it all looks no ways out o' the ordinary.
+You do this right, Mrs. Gammit; an' first thing ye know ye'll have yer
+thief. I'll git the traps right now, an' show ye how to set 'em."
+
+And as Mrs. Gammit walked away with the three steel traps under her
+arm, she muttered to herself--
+
+"Yes, Joe Barron, an' I'll show ye the thief. An' he'll have quills on
+him, sech as no _weasel_ ain't never had on him, I reckon."
+
+On her return, Mrs. Gammit was greeted by the sound of high
+excitement among the poultry. They were all cackling wildly, and
+craning their necks to stare into the shed as if they had just seen a
+ghost there. Mrs. Gammit ran in to discover what all the fuss was
+about. The place was empty; but a smashed egg lay just outside one of
+the nests, and a generous tuft of fresh feathers showed her that there
+had been a tussle of some kind. Indignant but curious, Mrs. Gammit
+picked up the feathers, and examined them with discriminating eyes to
+see which hen had suffered the loss.
+
+"Lands sakes!" she exclaimed presently, "ef 'tain't the old rooster!
+He's made a fight fer that 'ere aig! Lucky he didn't git stuck full o'
+quills!"
+
+Then, for perhaps the hundredth time, she ran fiercely and noisily
+behind the barn, in the hope of surprising the enemy. Of course she
+surprised nothing which Nature had endowed with even the merest
+apology for eyes and ears; and a cat-bird in the choke-cherry bushes
+squawked at her derisively. Stealth was one of the things which Mrs.
+Gammit did not easily achieve. Staring defiantly about her, her eyes
+fell upon a dark, bunchy creature in the top of an old hemlock at the
+other side of the fence. Seemingly quite indifferent to her vehement
+existence, and engrossed in its own affairs, it was crawling out upon
+a high branch and gnawing, in a casual way, at the young twigs as it
+went.
+
+"Ah, ha! What did I tell ye? I knowed all along as how it was a
+porkypine!" exclaimed Mrs. Gammit, triumphantly, as if Joe Barron
+could hear her across eight miles of woods. Then, as she eyed the
+imperturbable animal on the limb above her, her face flushed with
+quick rage, and snatching up a stone about the size of her fist she
+hurled it at him with all her strength.
+
+In a calmer moment she would never have done this--not because it was
+rude, but because she had a conviction, based on her own experience,
+that a stone would hit anything rather than what it was aimed at. And
+in the present instance she found no reason to change her views on the
+subject. The stone did not hit the porcupine. It did not, even for one
+moment, distract his attention from the hemlock twigs. Instead of
+that, it struck a low branch, on the other side of the tree, and
+bounced back briskly upon Mrs. Gammit's toes.
+
+With a hoarse squeak of surprise and pain the good lady jumped
+backwards, and hopped for some seconds on one foot while she gripped
+the other with both hands. It was a sharp and disconcerting blow. As
+the pain subsided a concentrated fury took its place. The porcupine
+was now staring down at her, in mild wonder at her inexplicable
+gyrations. She glared up at him, and the tufts of grey hair about her
+sunbonnet seemed to rise and stand rigid.
+
+"Ye think ye're smart!" she muttered through her set teeth. "But I'll
+fix ye fer that! Jest you wait!" And turning on her heel she stalked
+back to the house. The big, brown teapot was on the back of the stove,
+where it had stood since breakfast, with a brew rust-red and
+bitter-strong enough to tan a moose-hide. Not until she had reheated
+it and consumed five cups, sweetened with molasses, did she recover
+any measure of self-complacency.
+
+That same evening, when the last of the sunset was fading in
+pale violet over the stump pasture and her two cow-bells were
+_tonk-tonking_ softly along the edge of the dim alder swamp, Mrs.
+Gammit stealthily placed the traps according to the woodsman's
+directions. Between the massive logs which formed the foundations
+of the barn and shed, there were openings numerous enough, and
+some of them spacious enough, almost, to admit a bear--a very
+small, emaciated bear. Selecting three of these, which somehow
+seemed to her fancy particularly adapted to catch a porcupine's
+taste, she set the traps, tied them, and covered them lightly
+with fine rubbish so that, as she murmured to herself when all
+was done, "everythin' looked as nat'ral as nawthin'." Then, when
+her evening chores were finished, she betook herself to her
+slumbers, in calm confidence that in the morning she would find
+one or more porcupines in the trap.
+
+Having a clear conscience and a fine appetite, in spite of the potency
+of her tea Mrs. Gammit slept soundly. Nevertheless, along toward dawn,
+in that hour when dream and fact confuse themselves, her nightcapped
+ears became aware of a strange sound in the yard. She snorted
+impatiently and sat up in bed. Could some beneficent creature of the
+night be out there sawing wood for her? It sounded like it. But she
+rejected the idea at once. Rubbing her eyes with both fists, she crept
+to the window and looked out.
+
+There was a round moon in the sky, shining over the roof of the barn,
+and the yard was full of a white, witchy radiance. In the middle of it
+crouched two big porcupines, gnawing assiduously at a small wooden
+tub. The noise of their busy teeth on the hard wood rang loud upon the
+stillness, and a low _tonk-a-tonk_ of cow-bells came from the pasture
+as the cows lifted their heads to listen.
+
+The tub was a perfectly good tub, and Mrs. Gammit was indignant at
+seeing it eaten. It had contained salt herrings; and she intended,
+after getting the flavour of fish scoured out of it, to use it for
+packing her winter's butter. She did not know that it was for the sake
+of its salty flavour that the porcupines were gnawing at it, but
+leaped to the conclusion that their sole object was to annoy and
+persecute herself.
+
+"Shoo! Shoo!" she cried, snatching off her nightcap and flapping it at
+them frantically. But the animals were too busy to even look up at
+her. The only sign they gave of having heard her was to raise their
+quills straight on end so that their size apparently doubled itself
+all at once.
+
+Mrs. Gammit felt herself wronged. As she turned and ran downstairs she
+muttered, "First it's me aigs--an' now it's me little tub--an' Lordy
+knows what it's goin' to be next!" Then her dauntless spirit flamed up
+again, and she snapped, "But there ain't agoin' to be no next!" and
+cast her eyes about her for the broom.
+
+Of course, at this moment, when it was most needed, that usually
+exemplary article was not where it ought to have been--standing beside
+the dresser. Having no time to look for it, Mrs. Gammit snatched up
+the potato-masher, and rushed forth into the moonlight with a gurgling
+yell, resolved to save the tub.
+
+She was a formidable figure as she charged down the yard, and at
+ordinary times the porcupines might have given way. But when a
+porcupine has found something it really likes to eat, its courage is
+superb. These two porcupines found the herring-tub delicious beyond
+anything they had ever tasted. Reluctantly they stopped gnawing for a
+moment, and turned their little twinkling eyes upon Mrs. Gammit in
+sullen defiance.
+
+Now this was by no means what she had expected, and the ferocity of
+her attack slackened. Had it been a lynx, or even a bear, her courage
+would probably not have failed her. Had it been a man, a desperado
+with knife in hand and murder in his eyes, she would have flown upon
+him in contemptuous fury. But porcupines were different. They were
+mysterious to her. She believed firmly that they could shoot their
+quills, like arrows, to a distance of ten feet. She had a swift vision
+of herself stuck full of quills, like a pincushion. At a distance of
+eleven feet she stopped abruptly, and hurled the potato-masher with a
+deadly energy which carried it clean over the barn. Then the
+porcupines resumed their feasting, while she stared at them
+helplessly. Two large tears of rage brimmed her eyes, and rolled down
+her battered cheeks; and backing off a few paces she sat down upon the
+saw-horse to consider the situation.
+
+But never would Mrs. Gammit have been what she was had she been
+capable of acknowledging defeat. In a very few moments her resourceful
+wits reasserted themselves.
+
+"Queer!" she mused. "One don't never kinder seem to hit what one aims
+at! But one always hits _somethin'_! Leastways, I do! If I jest fling
+enough things, an' keep on aflingin', I might hit a porkypine jest as
+well as anything else. There ain't nawthin' onnateral about a
+porkypine, to keep one from hitt'n' him, I reckon."
+
+The wood-pile was close by; and the wood, which she had sawed and
+split for the kitchen stove, was of just the handy size. She was
+careful, now, not to take aim, but imagined herself anxious to
+establish a new wood-pile, in haste, just about where that sound of
+insolent gnawing was disturbing the night. In a moment a shower of
+sizable firewood was dropping all about the herring-tub.
+
+The effect was instantaneous. The gnawing stopped, and the porcupines
+glanced about uneasily. A stick fell plump upon the bottom of the tub,
+staving it in. The porcupines backed away and eyed it with grieved
+suspicion. Another stick struck it on the side, so that it bounced
+like a jumping, live thing, and hit one of the porcupines sharply,
+rolling him over on his back. Instantly his valiant quills went down
+quite flat; and as he wriggled to his feet with a squeak of alarm, he
+looked all at once little and lean and dark, like a wet hen. Mrs.
+Gammit smiled grimly.
+
+"Ye ain't feelin' quite so sassy now, be ye?" she muttered; and the
+sticks flew the faster from her energetic hands. Not many of them, to
+be sure, went at all in the direction she wished, but enough were
+dropping about the herring-tub to make the porcupines remember that
+they had business elsewhere. The one that had been struck had no
+longer any regard for his dignity, but made himself as small as
+possible and scurried off like a scared rat. The other, unvanquished
+but indignant, withdrew slowly, with every quill on end. The sticks
+fell all about him; but Mrs. Gammit, in the excitement of her
+triumph, was now forgetting herself so far as to take aim, therefore
+never a missile touched him. And presently, without haste, he
+disappeared behind the barn.
+
+With something almost like admiration Mrs. Gammit eyed his departure.
+
+"Well, seein' as I hain't scairt ye _much_," she muttered dryly,
+"mebbe ye'll obleege me by coming back an' gittin' into my trap. But
+ye ain't agoin' to hev no more o' my good herrin'-tub, ye ain't." And
+she strode down the yard to get the tub. It was no longer a good tub,
+for the porcupines had gnawed two big holes in the sides, and Mrs.
+Gammit's own missiles had broken in the bottom. But she obstinately
+bore the poor relics into the kitchen. Firewood they might become, but
+not food for the enemy.
+
+No more that night was the good woman's sleep disturbed, and she slept
+later than usual. As she was getting up, conscience-stricken at the
+sound of the cows in the pasture lowing to be milked, she heard a
+squawking and fluttering under the barn, and rushed out half dressed
+to see what was the matter. She had no doubt that one of the audacious
+porcupines had got himself into a trap.
+
+But no, it was neither porcupine, fox, nor weasel. To her consternation,
+it was her old red top-knot hen, which now lay flat upon the trap,
+with outstretched wings, exhausted by its convulsive floppings. She
+picked it up, loosed the deadly grip upon its leg, and slammed the
+offending trap across the barn with such violence that it bounced up
+and fell into the swill-barrel. Her feelings thus a little relieved,
+she examined Red Top-knot's leg with care. It was hopelessly shattered
+and mangled.
+
+"Ye cain't never scratch with _that_ ag'in, ye cain't!" muttered Mrs.
+Gammit, compassionately. "Poor dear, ther ain't nawthin' fer it but to
+make vittles of ye now! Too bad! Too bad! Ye was always sech a fine
+layer an' a right smart setter!" And carrying the victim to the block
+on which she was wont to split kindling wood, she gently but firmly
+chopped her head off.
+
+Half an hour later, as Mrs. Gammit returned from the pasture with a
+brimming pail of milk, again she heard a commotion under the barn. But
+she would not hurry, lest she should spill the milk. "Whatever it be,
+it'll be there when I git there!" she muttered philosophically; and
+kept on to the cool cellar with her milk. But as soon as she had
+deposited the pail she turned and fairly ran in her eagerness. The
+speckled hen was cackling vain-gloriously; and as Mrs. Gammit passed
+the row of nests in the shed she saw a white egg shining. But she did
+not stop to secure it.
+
+As she entered the barn, a little yellowish brown animal, with a
+sharp, triangular nose and savage eyes like drops of fire, ran at her
+with such fury that for an instant she drew back. Then, with a roar
+of indignation at its audacity, she rushed forward and kicked at it.
+The kick struck empty air; but the substantial dimensions of the foot
+seemed to daunt the daring little beast, and it slipped away like a
+darting flame beneath the sill of the barn. The next moment, as she
+stooped to look at the nearest of the two traps, another slim yellow
+creature, larger than the first, leaped up, with a vicious cry, and
+almost reached her face. But, fortunately for her, it was held fast by
+both hind legs in the trap, and fell back impotent.
+
+Startled and enraged, Mrs. Gammit kicked at it, where it lay darting
+and twisting like a snake. Naturally, she missed it; but it did not
+miss her. With unerring aim it caught the toe of her heavy cowhide
+shoe, and fixed its teeth in the tough leather. Utterly taken by
+surprise, Mrs. Gammit tried to jump backwards. But instead of that,
+she fell flat on her back, with a yell. Her sturdy heels flew up in
+the air, while her petticoats flopped back in her face, bewildering
+her. The weasel, however, had maintained his dogged grip upon the toe
+of her shoe; so something _had_ to give. That something was the cord
+which anchored the trap. It broke under the sudden strain. Trap and
+weasel together went flying over Mrs. Gammit's prostrate head. They
+brought up with a stupefying slam against the wall of the pig-pen,
+making the pig squeal apprehensively.
+
+Disconcerted and mortified, Mrs. Gammit scrambled to her feet, shook
+her petticoats into shape, and glanced about to see if the wilderness
+in general had observed her indiscretion. Apparently, nothing had
+noticed it. Then, with an air of relief, she glanced down at her
+vicious little antagonist. The weasel lay stunned, apparently dead.
+But she was not going to trust appearances. Picking trap and victim up
+together, on the end of a pitchfork, she carried them out and dropped
+them into the barrel of rain water at the corner of the house.
+Half-revived by the shock, the yellow body wriggled for a moment or
+two at the bottom of the barrel. As she watched it, a doubt passed
+through Mrs. Gammit's mind. Could Joe Barron have been right? _Was_ it
+weasels, after all, that were taking her eggs? But she dismissed the
+idea at once. Joe Barron didn't know everything! And there,
+indisputably, were the porcupines, bothering her all the time, with
+unheard-of impudence. Weasels, indeed!
+
+"'Twa'n't _you_ I was after," she muttered obstinately, apostrophizing
+the now motionless form in the rain-barrel. "It was them dratted
+porkypines, as comes after my aigs. But _ye're_ a bad lot, too, an'
+I'm right glad to have got ye where ye won't be up to no mischief."
+
+All athrill with excitement, Mrs. Gammit hurried through her morning's
+chores, and allowed herself no breakfast except half a dozen violent
+cups of tea "with sweetenin'." Then, satisfied that the weasel in the
+rain-barrel was by this time securely and permanently dead, she fished
+it out, and reset the trap in its place under the barn. The other trap
+she discovered in the swill-barrel, after a long search. Relieved to
+find it unbroken, she cleaned it carefully and put it away to be
+returned, in due time, to its owner. She would not set it again--and,
+indeed, she would have liked to smash it to bits, as a sacrifice to
+the memory of poor Red Top-knot.
+
+"I hain't got no manner o' use fer a porkypine trap what'll go out o'
+its way to ketch hens," she grumbled.
+
+The silent summer forenoon, after this, wore away without event. Mrs.
+Gammit, working in her garden behind the house, with the hot, sweet
+scent of the flowering buckwheat-field in her nostrils and the drowsy
+hum of bees in her ears, would throw down her hoe about once in every
+half-hour and run into the barn to look hopefully at the traps. But
+nothing came to disturb them. Neither did anything come to disturb the
+hens, who attended so well to business that at noon Mrs. Gammit had
+seven fresh eggs to carry in. When night came, and neither weasels nor
+porcupines had given any further sign of their existence, Mrs. Gammit
+was puzzled. She was one of those impetuous women who expect
+everything to happen all at once. When milking was over, and her
+solitary, congenial supper, she sat down on the kitchen doorstep and
+considered the situation very carefully.
+
+What she had set herself out to do, after the interview with Joe
+Barron, was to catch a porcupine in one of his traps, and thus,
+according to her peculiar method of reasoning, convince the confident
+woodsman that porcupines _did_ eat eggs! As for the episode of the
+weasel, she resolved that she would not say anything to him about it,
+lest he should twist it into a confirmation of his own views. As for
+those seven eggs, so happily spared to her, she argued that the
+capture of the weasel, with all its attendant excitement, had served
+as a warning to the porcupines and put them on their guard. Well, she
+would give them something else to think about. She was now all
+impatience, and felt unwilling to await the developments of the
+morrow, which, after all, might refuse to develop! With a sudden
+resolution she arose, fetched the gnawed and battered remains of the
+herring-tub from their concealment behind the kitchen door, and
+propped them up against the side of the house, directly beneath her
+bedroom window.
+
+At first her purpose in this was not quite clear to herself. But the
+memory of her triumph of the previous night was tingling in her veins,
+and she only knew she wanted to lure the porcupines back, that she
+might do _something_ to them. And first, being a woman, that
+something occurred to her in connexion with hot water. How conclusive
+it would be to wait till the porcupines were absorbed in their
+consumption of the herring-tub, and then pour scalding water down upon
+them. After all, it was more important that she should vanquish her
+enemies than prove to a mere man that they really were her enemies.
+What did she care, anyway, what that Joe Barron thought? Then, once
+more, a doubt assailed her. What if he were right? Not that she would
+admit it, for one moment. But just supposing! Was she going to pour
+hot water on those porcupines, and scald all the bristles off their
+backs, if they really _didn't_ come after her eggs? Mrs. Gammit was
+essentially just and kind-hearted, and she came to the conclusion that
+the scheme might be too cruel.
+
+"Ef it be you uns as takes the aigs," she murmured thoughtfully, "a
+kittle o' bilin' water to yer backs ain't none too bad fer ye! But ef
+it be _only_ my old herrin'-tub ye're after, then bilin' water's too
+ha'sh!"
+
+In the end, the weapon she decided upon was the big tin pepper-pot,
+well loaded.
+
+Through the twilight, while the yard was all in shadow, Mrs. Gammit
+sat patient and motionless beside her open window. The moon rose,
+seeming to climb with effort out of the tangle of far-off treetops.
+The faint, rhythmic breathing of the wilderness, which, to the
+sensitive ear, never ceases even in the most profound calm, took on
+the night change, the whisper of mystery, the furtive suggestion of
+menace which the daylight lacks. Sitting there in ambush, Mrs. Gammit
+felt it all, and her eager face grew still and pale and solemn like a
+statue's. The moonlight crept down the roofs of the barn and shed and
+house, then down the walls, till only the ground was in shadow. And at
+last, through this lower stratum of obscurity, Mrs. Gammit saw two
+squat, sturdy shapes approaching leisurely from behind the barn.
+
+She held her breath. Yes, it was undoubtedly the porcupines. Undaunted
+by the memory of their previous discomfiture, they came straight
+across the yard, and up to the house, and fell at once to their
+feasting on the herring-tub. The noise of their enthusiastic gnawing
+echoed strangely across the attentive air.
+
+Very gently, with almost imperceptible motion, Mrs. Gammit slid her
+right hand, armed with the pepper-pot, over the edge of the
+window-sill. The porcupines, enraptured with the flavour of the
+herring-tub, never looked up. Mrs. Gammit was just about to turn the
+pepper-pot over, when she saw a third dim shape approaching, and
+stayed her hand. It was bigger than a porcupine. She kept very still,
+breathing noiselessly through parted lips. Then the moonlight reached
+the ground, the shadows vanished, and she saw a big wildcat stealing
+up to find out what the porcupines were eating.
+
+Seeing the feasters so confident and noisy, yet undisturbed, the
+usually cautious wildcat seemed to think there could be no danger
+near. Had Mrs. Gammit stirred a muscle, he would have marked her; but
+in her movelessness her head and hand passed for some harmless natural
+phenomenon. The wildcat crept softly up, and as he drew near, the
+porcupines raised their quills threateningly, till nothing could be
+seen of their bodies but their blunt snouts still busy on the
+herring-tub. At a distance of about six feet the big cat stopped, and
+crouched, glaring with wide, pale eyes, and sniffing eagerly. Mrs.
+Gammit was amazed that the porcupines did not at once discharge a
+volley at him and fill him full of quills for his intrusion.
+
+The wildcat knew too much about porcupines to dream of attacking them.
+It was what they were eating that interested him. They seemed to enjoy
+it so much. He crept a few inches nearer, and caught a whiff of the
+herring-tub. Yes, it was certainly fish. A true cat, he doted on fish,
+even salt fish. He made another cautious advance, hoping that the
+porcupines might retire discreetly. But instead of that they merely
+stopped gnawing, put their noses between their forelegs, squatted
+flat, and presented an unbroken array of needle points to his
+dangerous approach.
+
+The big cat stopped, quite baffled, his little short tail, not more
+than three inches long, twitching with anger. He could not see that
+the tub was empty; but he could smell it, and he drew in his breath
+with noisy sniffling. It filled him with rage to be so baffled; for he
+knew it would be fatal to go any nearer, and so expose himself to a
+deadly slap from the armed tails of the porcupines.
+
+Just what he would have attempted, however, in his eagerness, will
+never be known. For at this point, Mrs. Gammit's impatience overcame
+her curiosity. With a gentle motion of her wrist she turned the
+pepper-pot over, and softly shook it. The eyes of the wildcat were
+fixed upon that wonderful, unattainable herring-tub, and he saw
+nothing else. But Mrs. Gammit in the vivid moonlight saw a fine cloud
+of pepper sinking downwards slowly on the moveless air.
+
+Suddenly the wildcat pawed at his nose, drew back, and grew rigid with
+what seemed an effort to restrain some deep emotion. The next moment
+he gave vent to a loud, convulsive sneeze, and began to spit savagely.
+He appeared to be not only very angry, but surprised as well. When he
+fell to clawing frantically at his eyes and nose with both paws, Mrs.
+Gammit almost strangled with the effort to keep from laughing. But she
+held herself in, and continued to shake down the pungent shower. A
+moment more, and the wildcat, after an explosion of sneezes which
+almost made him stand on his head, gave utterance to a yowl of
+consternation, and turned to flee. As he bounded across the yard he
+evidently did not see just where he was going, for he ran head first
+into the wheelbarrow, which straightway upset and kicked him. For an
+instant he clawed at it wildly, mistaking it for a living assailant.
+Then he recovered his wits a little, and scurried away across the
+pasture, sneezing and spitting as he went.
+
+Meanwhile the porcupines, with their noses to the ground and their
+eyes covered, had been escaping the insidious attack of the pepper.
+But at last it reached them. Mrs. Gammit saw a curious shiver pass
+over the array of quills.
+
+Now it was contrary to all the most rigid laws of the porcupine kind
+to uncoil themselves in the face of danger. At the same time, it was
+impossible to sneeze in so constrained an attitude. Their effort was
+heroic, but self-control at last gave way. As it were with a snap, one
+of the globes of quills straightened itself out, and sneezed and
+sneezed and sneezed. Then the other went through the same spasmodic
+process, while Mrs. Gammit, leaning halfway out of the window,
+squealed and choked with delight. But the porcupines were obstinate,
+and would not run away. Very slowly they turned and retired down the
+yard, halting every few feet to sneeze. With tears streaming down her
+cheeks Mrs. Gammit watched their retreat, till suddenly some of the
+vagrant pepper was wafted back to her own nostrils, and she herself
+was shaken with a mighty sneeze. This checked her mirth on the
+instant. Her face grew grave, and drawing back with a mortified air
+she slammed the window down.
+
+"Might 'a' knowed I'd be aketchin' cold," she muttered, "settin' in a
+draught this time o' night."
+
+Not until she had thoroughly mastered the tickling in her nostrils did
+she glance forth again. Then the porcupines were gone, and not even an
+echo of their far-off sneezes reached her ears.
+
+In the days that followed, neither weasel, wildcat, nor porcupine came
+to Mrs. Gammit's clearing, and the daily harvest of strictly fresh
+eggs was unfailing. At the end of a week, the good lady felt justified
+in returning the traps to Joe Barron, and letting him know how
+mistaken he had been.
+
+"There, Mr. Barron," said she, handing him the three traps, "I'm
+obleeged to you, an' there's yer traps. But there's one of 'em ain't
+no good."
+
+"Which one be it?" asked the woodsman as he took them.
+
+"I've marked it with a bit of string," replied Mrs. Gammit.
+
+"What's the matter with it? I don't see nawthin' wrong with it!" said
+Barron, examining it critically.
+
+"Tain't no good! You take my word fer it! That's all I've got to
+say!" persisted Mrs. Gammit.
+
+"Oh, well, seem' as it's you sez so, Mrs. Gammit, that's enough,"
+agreed the woodsman, civilly. "But the other is all right, eh? What
+did they ketch?"
+
+"Well, they ketched a big weasel!" said Mrs. Gammit, eyeing him with
+challenge.
+
+A broad smile went over Barron's face.
+
+"I knowed it," he exclaimed. "I knowed as how it was a weasel."
+
+"An' _I_ knowed as how ye'd say jest them very words," retorted Mrs.
+Gammit. "But ye don't know everythin', Joe Barron. It wa'n't no weasel
+as was takin' them there aigs!"
+
+"What were it then?" demanded the woodsman, incredulously.
+
+"It was two big porkypines an' a monstrous big wildcat," answered Mrs.
+Gammit in triumph.
+
+"Did ye ketch 'em at it?" asked the woodsman, with a faint note of
+sarcasm in his voice. But the sarcasm glanced off Mrs. Gammit's
+armour. She regarded the question as a quite legitimate one.
+
+"No, I kain't say as I did, _exackly_," she replied. "But they come
+anosin' round, an' to teach 'em a lesson to keep ther noses out o'
+other people's hens' nests I shook a little pepper over 'em. I tell
+ye, they took to the woods, asneezin' that bad I thought ye might 'a'
+heard 'em all the way over here. Ye'd 'ave bust yerself laffin', ef ye
+could 'a' seed 'em rootin'. An' since then, Mr. Barron, I git all the
+aigs I want. Don't ye talk to me o' _weasels_--the skinny little rats.
+_They_ ain't wuth noticin', no more'n a chipmunk."
+
+
+
+
+The Battle in the Mist
+
+
+In the silver-grey between dawn and sunrise the river was filled with
+mist from bank to bank. It coiled and writhed and rolled, here
+thinning, there thickening, as if breathed upon irregularly by
+innumerable unseen mouths. But there was no wind astir; and the
+brown-black, glistening current beneath the white folds was glassy
+smooth save where the occasional big swirls boiled up with a swishing
+gurgle, or the running wave broke musically around an upthrust
+shoulder of rock or a weedy snag. The river was not wide--not more
+than fifty yards from bank to bank; but from the birch canoe slipping
+quietly down along one shore, just outside the fringe of alder
+branches, the opposite shore was absolutely hidden. There was nothing
+to indicate that an opposite shore existed, save that now and again
+the dark top of a soaring pine or elm would show dimly for a moment,
+seeming to float above the ghostly gulfs of mist.
+
+The canoe kept close along the shore for guidance, as one feels one's
+way along a wall in the dark. The channel, moreover, was deep and
+clear in shore; while out under the mist the soft noises of ripples
+proclaimed to the ears of the two canoeists the presence of frequent
+rock and snag and shallow. Lest they should run upon unseen dangers
+ahead, the canoeists were travelling very slowly, the bow-man resting
+with his paddle across the gunwales before him, while the stern-man,
+his paddle noiselessly waving like the fin of a trout, did no more
+than keep his craft to her course and let her run with the current.
+
+Down along the shore, keeping just behind the canoe and close to the
+water's edge, followed a small, dark, sinuous creature, its piercing
+eyes, bead-black with a glint of red behind them, fixed in savage
+curiosity upon the canoemen. It was about two feet in length, with
+extremely short legs, and a sharp, triangular head. As it ran--and its
+movements were as soundless and effortless as those of a snake--it
+humped its long, lithe body in a way that suggested a snake's coils.
+It seemed to be following the canoe out of sheer curiosity--a
+curiosity, however, which was probably well mixed with malevolence,
+seeing that it was the curiosity of a mink. These two strange
+creatures moving on the water were, of course, too large and
+formidable for the big mink to dream of attacking them; but he could
+wonder at them and hate them--and who could say that some chance to do
+them a hurt might not arise? Stealthy, wary, and bold, he kept his
+distance about eight or ten feet from the canoe; and because he was
+behind he imagined himself unseen. As a matter of fact, however, the
+steersman of the canoe, wiser in woodcraft and cunninger even than he,
+had detected him and was watching him with interest from the corner of
+his eye. So large a mink, and one so daring in curiosity, was a
+phenomenon to be watched and studied with care. The canoeist did not
+take his comrade in the bow into his confidence for some minutes, lest
+the sound of the human voice should daunt the animal. But presently,
+in a monotonous, rhythmic murmur which carried no alarm to the mink's
+ear but only heightened its interest, he called the situation to his
+companion's notice; and the latter, without seeming to see, kept watch
+through half-closed lids.
+
+A little way down the shore, close to the water's edge, something
+round and white caught the mink's eye. Against the soft browns and
+dark greys of the wet soil, the object fairly shone in its whiteness,
+and seemed absurdly out of place. It was a hen's egg, either dropped
+there by a careless hen from the pioneer's cabin near by, or left by a
+musk-rat disturbed in his poaching. However it had got there, it was
+an egg; and the canoeists saw that they no longer held the mink's
+undivided attention. Gently the steersman sheered out a few feet
+farther from the bank, and at the same time checked the canoe's
+headway. He wanted to see how the mink would manipulate the egg when
+he got to it.
+
+The egg lay at the foot of a little path which led down the bushy bank
+to the water--a path evidently trodden by the pioneer's cattle. Down
+this path, stepping daintily and turning his long inquisitive nose and
+big, bright, mischievous eyes from side to side, came a raccoon. He
+was a small raccoon, a little shorter than the mink, but looking
+heavier by reason of his more stocky build and bushier, looser fur.
+His purpose was to fish or hunt frogs in the pool at the foot of the
+path; but when he saw the egg gleaming through the misty air, his eyes
+sparkled with satisfaction. A long summer passed in proximity to the
+pioneer's cabin had enabled him to find out that eggs were good. He
+hastened his steps, and with a sliding scramble, which attracted the
+attention of the men in the canoe, he arrived at the water's edge. But
+to his indignant astonishment he was not the first to arrive.
+
+The mink was just ahead. He reached the egg, laid one paw upon it in
+possession, and turned with a snarl of defiance as the raccoon came
+down the bank. The latter paused to note the threatening fangs and
+malign eyes of his slim rival. Then, with that brisk gaiety which the
+raccoon carries into the most serious affairs of his life, and
+particularly into his battles, he ran to the encounter. The men in
+the canoe, eagerly interested, stole nearer to referee the match.
+
+Quick as the raccoon was, his snake-like adversary was quicker.
+Doubling back upon himself, the mink avoided that confident and
+dangerous rush, and with a lightning snap fixed hold upon his enemy's
+neck. But it was not, by half an inch, the hold he wanted; and his
+long, deadly teeth sank not, as he had planned, into the foe's throat,
+but into the great tough muscles a little higher up. He dared not let
+go to try for the deadlier hold, but locked his jaws and whipped his
+long body over the other's back, hoping to evade his antagonist's
+teeth.
+
+The raccoon had lost the first point, and his large eyes blazed with
+pain and anger. But his dauntless spirit was not in the least
+dismayed. Shaking the long, black body from his back, he swung himself
+half round and caught his enemy's slim loins between his jaws. It was
+a cruelly punishing grip, and under the stress of it the mink lashed
+out so violently that the two, still holding on with locked jaws,
+rolled over into the water, smashing the egg as they fell. The canoe,
+now close beside them, they heeded not at all.
+
+"Two to one on the mink!" whispered the traveller in the bow of the
+canoe, delightedly. But the steersman smiled, and said "Wait!"
+
+To be in the water suited the mink well enough. A hunter of fish in
+their holes, he was almost as much at home in the water as a fish. But
+the raccoon it did not suit at all. With a splutter he relinquished
+his hold on the mink's loins; and the latter, perceiving the
+advantage, let go and snapped again for the throat. But again he
+miscalculated the alertness of the raccoon's sturdy muscles. The
+latter had turned his head the instant that the mink's jaws relaxed,
+and the two gnashed teeth in each other's faces, neither securing a
+hold. The next moment the raccoon had leaped back to dry land, turning
+in threatening readiness as he did so.
+
+Though there was no longer anything to fight about, the mink's blood
+was up. His eyes glowed like red coals, his long, black shape looked
+very fit and dangerous, and his whole appearance was that of
+vindictive fury. The raccoon, on the other hand, though bedraggled
+from his ducking, maintained his gay, casual air, as if enjoying the
+whole affair too much to be thoroughly enraged. When the mink darted
+upon him, straight as a snake strikes, he met the attack with a
+curious little pirouette; and the next instant the two were once more
+locked in a death grapple.
+
+It was some moments before the breathless watchers in the canoe could
+make out which was getting the advantage, so closely were the grey
+body and the black intertwined. Then it was seen that the raccoon was
+using his flexible, hand-like paws as a bear might, to hold his foe
+down to the punishment. Both contestants were much cut, and bleeding
+freely; but the mink was now getting slow, while the raccoon was as
+cheerfully alert as ever. At length the mink tore loose and made one
+more desperate reach for his favourite throat-hold. But this time it
+was the raccoon who avoided. He danced aside, flashed back, and caught
+the mink fairly under the jaw. Then, bracing himself, he shook his foe
+as a terrier might. And in a minute or two the long, black shape
+straightened out limply amid the sand and dead leaves.
+
+When the body was quite still the raccoon let go and stood over it
+expectantly for some minutes. He bit it several times, and seeing that
+this treatment elicited no retort, suffered himself to feel assured of
+his victory. Highly pleased, he skipped back and forth over the body,
+playfully seized it with his fore-paws, and bundled it up into a heap.
+Then seeming to remember the origin of the quarrel, he sniffed
+regretfully at the crumbled fragments of egg-shell. His expression of
+disappointment was so ludicrous that in spite of themselves the men in
+the canoe exploded with laughter.
+
+As the harsh, incongruous sound startled the white stillnesses, in the
+lifting of an eyelid the little conqueror vanished. One of the
+canoeists stepped ashore, picked up the body of the slain mink, and
+threw it into the canoe. As the two resumed their paddles and slipped
+away into the mist, they knew that from some hiding-place on the bank
+two bright, indignant eyes were peering after them in wonder.
+
+
+
+
+Melindy and the Spring Bear
+
+
+Soft, wet and tender, with a faint green filming the sodden pasture
+field, and a rose-pink veil covering the maples, and blue-grey catkins
+tinting the dark alders, spring had come to the lonely little clearing
+in the backwoods. From the swampy meadow along the brook's edge,
+across the road from the cabin and the straw-littered barn-yard, came
+toward evening that music which is the distinctive note of the
+northern spring--the thrilling, mellow, inexpressibly wistful fluting
+of the frogs.
+
+The sun was just withdrawing his uppermost rim behind the far-off
+black horizon line of fir-tops. The cabin door stood wide open to
+admit the sweet air and the sweet sound. Just inside the door sat old
+Mrs. Griffis, rocking heavily, while the woollen sock which she was
+knitting lay forgotten in her lap. She was a strong-featured, muscular
+woman, still full of vigour, whom rheumatism had met and halted in the
+busy path of life. Her keen and restless eyes were following eagerly
+every movement of a slender, light-haired girl in a blue cotton waist
+and grey homespun skirt, who was busy at the other side of the yard,
+getting her little flock of sheep penned up for the night for fear of
+wild prowlers.
+
+Presently the girl slammed the pen door, jammed the hardwood peg into
+the staple, ran her fingers nervously through the pale fluff of her
+hair, and came hurrying across the yard to the door with a smile on
+her delicate young face.
+
+"_There_, Granny!" she exclaimed, with the air of one who has just got
+a number of troublesome little duties accomplished, "I guess no
+lynxes, or nothing, 'll get the sheep to-night, anyways. Now, I must
+go an' hunt up old 'Spotty' afore it gets too dark. I don't see what's
+made her wander off to-day. She always sticks around the barn close as
+a burr!"
+
+The old woman smiled, knowing that the survival of a wild instinct in
+the cow had led her to seek some hiding-place, near home but secluded,
+wherein to secrete her new-born calf.
+
+"I guess old 'Spotty' knows enough to come home when she gets ready,
+Child!" she answered. "She's been kept that close all winter, the snow
+bein' so deep, I don't wonder she wants to roam a bit now she can git
+'round. Land sakes, I wish't _I_ could roam a bit, 'stead er sittin',
+sittin', an' knittin', knittin', mornin', noon an' night, all along of
+these 'ere useless old legs of mine!"
+
+"Poor Granny!" murmured the girl, softly, tears coming into her eyes.
+"I wish't we could get 'round, the two of us, in these sweet-smellin'
+spring woods, an' get the first Mayflowers together! Couldn't you just
+try now, Granny? I believe you are goin' to walk all right again some
+day, just as well as any of us. Do try!"
+
+Thus adjured, the old woman grasped the arms of her chair sturdily,
+set her jaw, and lifted herself quite upright. But a groan forced
+itself from her lips, and she sank back heavily, her face creased with
+pain. Recovering herself with a resolute effort, however, she smiled
+rather ruefully.
+
+"Some day, mebbe, if the good Lord wills!" said she, shaking her head.
+"But 'tain't this day, Melindy! You'll be the death o' me yet, Child,
+you're so set on me gittin' 'round ag'in!"
+
+"Why, Granny, you did splendid!" cried the girl. "That was the best
+yet, the best you've ever done since I come to you. You stood just as
+straight as anybody for a minute. Now, I'll go an' hunt old 'Spotty.'"
+And she turned toward the tiny path that led across the pasture to the
+burnt-woods.
+
+But Mrs. Griffis's voice detained her.
+
+"What's the good o' botherin' about old 'Spotty' to-night, Melindy?
+Let her have her fling. Them frogs make me that lonesome to-night I
+can't bear to let ye a minnit out o' my sight, Child! Ther' ain't no
+other sound like it, to my way o' thinkin', for music nor for
+lonesomeness. It 'most breaks my heart with the sweetness of it,
+risin' an' fallin' on the wet twilight that way. But I just got to
+have somebody 'round when I listen to it!"
+
+"Yes, Granny, I love it, too!" assented Melindy in a preoccupied tone,
+"when I ain't too bothered to listen. Just now, I'm thinkin' about old
+'Spotty' out there alone in the woods, an' maybe some hungry lynxes
+watchin' for her to lie down an' go to sleep. You know how hungry the
+bears will be this spring, too, Granny, after the snow layin' deep so
+late. I just couldn't sleep, if I thought old 'Spotty' was out there
+in them queer, grey, empty woods all night. In summer it's different,
+an' then the woods are like home."
+
+"Well," said her grandmother, seeing that the girl was bent upon her
+purpose, "if ye're skeered for old 'Spotty,' ye'd better be a little
+mite skeered for yerself, Child! Take along the gun. Mebbe ye might
+see a chipmunk a-bitin' the old cow jest awful!"
+
+Heedless of her grandmother's gibe, Melindy, who had a very practical
+brain under her fluffy light hair, picked up the handy little axe
+which she used for chopping kindling.
+
+"No guns for me, Granny, you know," she retorted. "This 'ere little
+axe's good enough for me!" And swinging it over her shoulder she went
+lightly up the path, her head to one side, her small mouth puckered in
+a vain effort to learn to whistle.
+
+What Melindy and her grandmother called the "Burnt Lands" was a strip
+of country running back for miles from the clearing. The fire had gone
+over it years before, cutting a sharply defined, gradually widening
+path through the forest, and leaving behind it only a few scattered
+rampikes, or tall, naked trunks bleached to whiteness by the storms of
+many winters. Here and there amid these desolate spaces, dense
+thickets of low growth had sprung up, making a secure hiding-place of
+every hollow where the soil had not had all the life scorched out of
+it.
+
+Having crossed the pasture, Melindy presently detected those faint
+indications of a trail which the uninitiated eye finds it so
+impossible to see. Slight bendings and bruises of the blueberry and
+laurel scrub caught her notice. Then she found, in a bare spot, the
+unmistakable print of a cow's hoof. The trail was now quite clear to
+her; and it was clearly that of old "Spotty." Intent upon her quest
+she hurried on, heedless of the tender colours changing in the sky
+above her head, of the first swallows flitting and twittering across
+it, of the keen yet delicate fragrance escaping from every sap-swollen
+bud, and of the sweetly persuasive piping of the frogs from the water
+meadow. She had no thought at that moment but to find the truant cow
+and get her safely stabled before dark.
+
+The trail led directly to a rocky hollow about a hundred yards from
+the edge of the pasture--perhaps a hundred and fifty yards from the
+doorway wherein Mrs. Griffis sat intently watching Melindy's progress.
+The hollow was thick with young spruce and white birch, clustered
+about a single tall and massive rampike.
+
+Into this shadowy tangle the girl pushed fearlessly, peering ahead
+beneath the dark, balsam-scented branches. She could see, in a broken
+fashion, to the very foot of the rampike, across which lay a huge
+fallen trunk. But she could see nothing of old "Spotty," who, by
+reason of her vivid colouring of red and white splotches, would have
+been conspicuous against those dark surroundings.
+
+There was something in the silence, combined with the absence of the
+cow whom she confidently expected to find, which sent a little chill
+to the girl's heart. She gripped her axe more tightly, and stood quite
+motionless, accustoming her eyes to the confused gloom; and presently
+she thought she could distinguish a small brownish shape lying on a
+mound of moss near the foot of the rampike. A moment more and she
+could see that it was looking at her, with big, soft eyes. Then a pair
+of big ears moved. She realized that it was a calf she was looking at.
+Old "Spotty's" truancy was accounted for.
+
+But where was old "Spotty"? Melindy thought for a moment, and
+concluded very properly that the mother, considering the calf
+well-hidden, had slipped away to the spring for a drink. She was on
+the point of stepping forward to admire the little new-comer and see
+if it was yet strong enough to be led home to the barn, when a
+stealthy rustling at the farther side of the thicket arrested her.
+
+Certainly that could not be the cow, who was anything but stealthy in
+her movements. But what could it be?
+
+Melindy had a sudden prescience of peril. But her nerves stiffened to
+it, and she had no thought of retreat. It might be one of those savage
+lynxes, spying upon the calf in its mother's absence. At this idea
+Melindy's small mouth itself set very grimly, and she rejoiced that
+she had brought the axe along. The lynx, of all the wild creatures,
+she regarded with special antagonism.
+
+The stealthy movements came nearer, nearer, then suddenly died out. A
+moment more and a dark bulk took shape noiselessly among the
+fir-branches, some ten or twelve feet beyond the spot where the
+helpless calf was lying.
+
+For a second Melindy's heart stood still. What was her little axe
+against a bear! Then she recalled the general backwoods faith that the
+biggest black bear would run from a human being, if only he had plenty
+of room to run. She looked at the helpless little one curled up on
+its mossy bed. She looked at the savage black shape gliding slowly
+forward to devour it. And her heart leaped with returning courage.
+
+The bear, its fierce eyes glancing from side to side, was now within
+five or six feet of its intended prey. With a shrill cry of warning
+and defiance Melindy sprang forward, swinging her axe, and ordered the
+beast to "Git out!" She was greatly in hopes that the animal would
+yield to the authority of the human voice, and retire abashed.
+
+At any other season, it is probable that the bear would have done just
+as she hoped it would. But now, it had the courage of a rampant spring
+appetite. Startled it was, and disturbed, at the girl's sudden
+appearance and her shrill cry; and it half drew back, hesitating. But
+Melindy also hesitated; and the bear was quick to perceive her
+hesitation. For a few seconds he stood eyeing her, his head down and
+swinging from side to side. Then, seeming to conclude that she was not
+a formidable antagonist, he gave vent to a loud, grunting growl, and
+lurched forward upon the calf.
+
+With a wild scream, half of fury, half of fear, Melindy also darted
+forward, trusting that the animal would not really face her onslaught.
+And the calf, terrified at the sudden outcry, staggered to its feet
+with a loud bleating.
+
+The bear was just upon it, with great black paw uplifted for the
+fatal stroke that would have broken its back, when he saw Melindy's
+axe descending. With the speed of a skilled boxer he changed the
+direction of his stroke, and fended off the blow so cleverly that the
+axe almost flew from the girl's grasp. The fine edge, however, caught
+a partial hold, and cleft the paw to the bone.
+
+Furious with the pain, and his fighting blood now thoroughly aroused,
+the bear forgot the calf and sprang at his daring assailant.
+Light-footed as a cat, the girl leapt aside, just in time, darted over
+the fallen trunk, and dodged around the base of the rampike. She
+realized that she had undertaken too much, and her only hope now was
+that either she would be able to outrun the bear, or that the latter
+would turn his attentions again to the calf and forget about her.
+
+The bear, however, had no intention of letting her escape his
+vengeance. For all his bulk, he was amazingly nimble and was at her
+heels again in a second. Though she might have outstripped him in the
+open, he would probably have caught her in the hampering thicket; but
+at this crucial moment there came a bellow and a crashing of branches
+close behind him, and he whirled about just in time to receive the
+raging charge of old "Spotty," who had heard her youngster's call.
+
+The bear had no time to dodge or fend this onslaught, but only to
+brace himself. The cow's horns, unfortunately, were short and
+wide-spreading. She caught him full in the chest, with the force of a
+battering-ram, and would have hurled him backwards but that his mighty
+claws and forearms, at the same instant, secured a deadly clutch upon
+her shoulders. She bore him backward against the trunk indeed, but
+there he recovered himself; and when she strove to withdraw for
+another battering charge, she could not tear herself free. Foiled in
+these tactics, she lunged forward with all her strength, again and
+again, bellowing madly, and endeavouring to crush out her enemy's
+breath against the tree. And the bear, grunting, growling, and
+whining, held her fast while he tore at her with his deadly claws.
+
+Too much excited to think any longer of flight, Melindy stood upon the
+fallen trunk and breathlessly watched the battle. In a few moments she
+realized that old "Spotty" was getting the worst of it; and upon this
+her courage once more returned. Running down the great log as close as
+she dared, she swung up her axe, and paused for an opening. She was
+just about to strike, when a well-known voice arrested her, and she
+jumped back.
+
+"Git out of the way, Child," it commanded, piercing the turmoil. "Git
+out of the way an' let me shoot!"
+
+The crippled old woman, too, had heard the cry of her young. When that
+scream of Melindy's cleft the evening air, Mrs. Griffis had shot out
+of her chair as if she had never heard of rheumatism. She did not know
+anything hurt her. At the summons of this imperious need her old
+vigour all came back. Snatching up the big duck-gun from the corner,
+where it stood always loaded and ready, she went across the pasture
+and through the laurel patches at a pace almost worthy of Melindy
+herself. When she plunged through the bushes into the hollow, and saw
+the situation, her iron will steadied her nerves to meet the crisis.
+
+The instant Melindy had jumped out of the way Mrs. Griffis ran close
+up to the combatants. The bear was being kept too busy to spare her
+any attention whatever. Coolly setting the muzzle of the big gun
+(which was loaded with buckshot) close to the beast's side, just
+behind the fore-shoulder, she pulled the trigger. There was a roar
+that filled the hollow like the firing of a cannon, and the bear
+collapsed sprawling, with a great hole blown through his heart.
+
+Old "Spotty" drew back astonished, snorted noisily, and rolled wild
+eyes upon her mistress. Then, unable to believe that her late foe was
+really no longer a menace to her precious calf, she fell once more
+upon the lifeless form and tried to beat it out of all likeness to a
+bear. The calf, who had been knocked over but not hurt in the bear's
+charge upon Melindy, had struggled to its feet again; and Mrs.
+Griffis pushed it forward to attract its mother's attention. This move
+proved successful; and presently, in the task of licking the little
+creature all over to make sure it was not hurt, "Spotty" forgot her
+noble rage. Then, slowly and patiently, by pushing, pulling, and
+coaxing, the two women got the calf up out of the hollow and along the
+homeward path, while the mother, heedless of her streaming wounds,
+crowded against them, mooing softly with satisfaction. She was craving
+now, for her little one, the safe shelter of the barn-yard.
+
+At the well the quaint procession stopped, and the calf fell to
+nursing; while Melindy washed the cow's wounds, and Mrs. Griffis
+hunted up some tar to use as a salve upon them. As she moved briskly
+about the yard, Melindy broke into a peal of joyous but almost
+hysterical laughter.
+
+"I declare to goodness, Granny," she cried, in response to the old
+woman's questioning look, "if you ain't just as spry as me. I've heard
+tell that bear's grease was a great medicine for rheumatism. It's
+plain to be seen, Granny, that you've used up a whole bear for
+yours."
+
+"It wasn't the bear, Child!" answered the old woman, gravely. "It was
+that ter'ble scream o' yours cured my rheumatiz! Old 'Spotty,' she
+come to her young one's call. Could I do less, Child, when I heerd my
+little one cry out fer me?"
+
+
+
+
+WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE'S
+
+  A Certain Rich Man
+
+                                                    _Cloth, $1.50 net_
+
+  "It pulsates with humor, interest, passionate love, adventures,
+  pathos--every page is woven with threads of human nature, life as we
+  know it, life as it is, and above it all a spirit of righteousness,
+  true piety, and heroic patriotism. These inspire the author's genius
+  and fine literary quality, thrilling the reader with tenderest
+  emotion, and holding to the end his unflagging, absorbing
+  interest."--_The Public Ledger_, Philadelphia.
+
+  "Mr. White has written a big and satisfying book made up of the
+  elements of American life as we know them--the familiar humor,
+  sorrows, ambitions, crimes, sacrifices--revealed to us with peculiar
+  freshness and vigor in the multitude of human actions and by the
+  crowd of delightful people who fill his four-hundred odd pages....
+  It deserves a high place among the novels that deal with American
+  life. No recent American novel save one has sought to cover so broad
+  a canvas, or has created so strong an impression of ambition and of
+  sincerity."--_Chicago Evening Post._
+
+  "The great fictional expression of this mighty Twentieth Century
+  altruistic movement is sure to be something in kind and in degree
+  akin to Mr. White's 'A Certain Rich Man.'"--_Brooklyn Daily Eagle_.
+
+  "An American novel, home-grown in home soil, vital with homely
+  American motives, and fragrant with homely American memories, Mr.
+  White has certainly achieved."--_New York Times_.
+
+  Dr. Washington Gladden considered this book of sufficient importance
+  to take it and the text from which the title was drawn as his
+  subject for an entire sermon, in the course of which he said: "In
+  its ethical and social significance it is the most important piece
+  of fiction that has lately appeared in America. I do not think that
+  a more trenchant word has been spoken to this nation since 'Uncle
+  Tom's Cabin.' And it is profoundly to be hoped that this book may do
+  for the prevailing Mammonism what 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' did for
+  slavery."
+
+                             PUBLISHED BY
+                        THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+                     64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York
+
+
+
+
+                         AMONG RECENT NOVELS
+
+
+F. MARION CRAWFORD'S
+
+  Stradella
+
+                                 _Illustrated, cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_
+
+  "Schools of fiction have come and gone, but Mr. Crawford has always
+  remained in favor. There are two reasons for his continued
+  popularity; he always had a story to tell and he knew how to tell
+  it. He was a born story teller, and what is more rare, a trained
+  one."--_The Independent._
+
+  The White Sister
+
+                                 _Illustrated, cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_
+
+  "Mr. Crawford tells his love story with plenty of that dramatic
+  instinct which was ever one of his best gifts. We are, as always,
+  absorbed and amused."--_New York Tribune_.
+
+  "Good stirring romance, simple and poignant."--_Chicago Record
+  Herald._
+
+  "His people are always vividly real, invariably individual."--_Boston
+  Transcript._
+
+ROBERT HERRICK'S
+
+  Together
+
+                                              _Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_
+
+  "An able book, remarkably so, and one which should find a place in
+  the library of any woman who is not a fool."--_Editorial in the New
+  York American._
+
+  A Life for a Life
+
+                                              _Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_
+
+  Mr. W. D. Howells says in the North American Review: "What I should
+  finally say of his work is that it is more broadly based than that
+  of any other American novelist of his generation.... Mr. Herrick's
+  fiction is a force for the higher civilization, which to be widely
+  felt, needs only to be widely known."
+
+JAMES LANE ALLEN'S
+
+  The Bride of the Mistletoe
+
+                                              _Cloth, 12mo, $1.25 net_
+
+  "He has achieved a work of art more complete in expression than
+  anything that has yet come from him. It is like a cry of the soul,
+  so intense one scarcely realizes whether it is put into words or
+  not."--_Bookman_.
+
+  "It is a masterpiece ... the most carefully wrought out of all his
+  work."
+
+
+
+
+WINSTON CHURCHILL'S
+
+  Mr. Crewe's Career
+
+                                 _Illustrated, cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_
+
+  "Mr. Churchill rises to a level he has never known before and gives
+  us one of the best stories of American life ever written; ... it is
+  written out of a sympathy that goes deep.... We go on to the end
+  with growing appreciation.... It is good to have such a book."--_New
+  York Tribune._
+
+  "American realism, American romance, and American doctrine, all
+  overtraced by the kindliest, most appealing American humor."--_New
+  York World._
+
+ELLEN GLASGOW'S
+
+  The Romance of a Plain Man
+
+                                              _Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_
+
+  "To any one who has a genuine interest in American literature there
+  is no pleasanter thing than to see the work of some good American
+  writer strengthening and deepening year by year as has the work of
+  Miss Ellen Glasgow. From the first she has had the power to tell a
+  strong story, full of human interest, but as the years have passed
+  and her work has continued it has shown an increasing mellowness and
+  sympathy. This is particularly evident in 'The Romance of a Plain
+  Man.'"--_Chicago Daily Tribune._
+
+JACK LONDON'S
+
+  Martin Eden
+
+                                              _Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_
+
+  The stirring story of a man who rises by force of sheer ability and
+  perseverance from the humblest beginning to a position of fame and
+  influence. The elemental strength, the vigor and determination of
+  Martin Eden, make him the most interesting character that Mr. London
+  has ever created. The plan of the novel permits the author to cover
+  a wide sweep of society, the contrasting types of his characters
+  giving unfailing variety and interest to the story of Eden's love
+  and fight.
+
+ZONA GALE'S
+
+  Friendship Village
+
+                                              _Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_
+
+  "As charming as an April day, all showers and sunshine, and
+  sometimes both together, so that the delighted reader hardly knows
+  whether laughter or tears are fittest for his emotion.... The book
+  will stir the feelings deeply."--_New York Times_.
+
+  To be followed by "Friendship Village Love Stories."
+
+
+
+
+CHARLES MAJOR'S
+
+  A Gentle Knight of Old Brandenburg
+
+                                 _Illustrated, cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_
+
+  Mr. Major has selected a period to the romance of which other
+  historical novelists have been singularly blind. The boyhood of
+  Frederick the Great and the strange wooing of his charming sister
+  Wilhelmina have afforded a theme, rich in its revelation of human
+  nature and full of romantic situations.
+
+MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT'S
+
+  Poppea of the Post Office
+
+                                              _Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_
+
+  "A rainbow romance, ... tender yet bracing, cheerily stimulating ...
+  its genial entirety refreshes like a cooling shower."--_Chicago
+  Record Herald._
+
+  "There cannot be too many of these books by 'Barbara.' Mrs. Wright
+  knows good American stock through and through and presents it with
+  effective simplicity."--_Boston Advertiser_.
+
+FRANK DANBY'S
+
+  Sebastian
+
+                                              _Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_
+
+  Whenever a father's ideals conflict with a mother's hopes for the
+  son of their dreams, you meet the currents underlying the plot of
+  "Sebastian." Its author's skill in making vividly real the types and
+  conditions of London has never been shown to better advantage.
+
+EDEN PHILLPOTTS'
+
+  The Three Brothers
+
+                                              _Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_
+
+  "'The Three Brothers' seems to us the best yet of the long series of
+  these remarkable Dartmoor tales. If Shakespeare had written novels
+  we can think that some of his pages would have been like some of
+  these. Here certainly is language, turn of humor, philosophical
+  play, vigor of incident, such as might have come straight from
+  Elizabeth's day.... The book is full of a very moving interest and
+  is agreeable and beautiful."--_The New York Sun_.
+
+                             PUBLISHED BY
+                        THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+                     64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York
+
+
+
+
+
+
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