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diff --git a/28960-8.txt b/28960-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3d8980 --- /dev/null +++ b/28960-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7156 @@ +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.... 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