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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rolf In The Woods, by Ernest Thompson Seton
+
+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: Rolf In The Woods
+
+Author: Ernest Thompson Seton
+
+Posting Date: August 3, 2008 [EBook #1088]
+Release Date: October, 1997
+Last Updated: March 16, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROLF IN THE WOODS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Anonymous Volunteers, and Ted Soldan
+
+
+
+
+
+ROLF IN THE WOODS
+
+By Ernest Thompson Seton
+
+[Chapters 10 and 60 not designated in the original file.]
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+In this story I have endeavoured to realize some of the influences that
+surrounded the youth of America a hundred years ago, and made of them,
+first, good citizens, and, later, in the day of peril, heroes that won
+the battles of Lake Erie, Plattsburg, and New Orleans, and the great sea
+fights of Porter, Bainbridge, Decatur, Lawrence, Perry, and MacDonough.
+
+I have especially dwelt in detail on the woodland and peace scouting
+in the hope that I may thus help other boys to follow the hard-climbing
+trail that leads to the higher uplands.
+
+For the historical events of 1812-14, I have consulted among books
+chiefly, Theodore Roosevelt's “Naval War of 1812,” Peter S. Palmer's
+“History of Lake Champlain,” and Walter Hill Crockett's “A History of
+Lake Champlain,” 1909. But I found another and more personal mine of
+information. Through the kindness of my friend, Edmund Seymour, a native
+of the Champlain region, now a resident of New York, I went over all the
+historical ground with several unpublished manuscripts for guides, and
+heard from the children of the sturdy frontiersmen new tales of the
+war; and in getting more light and vivid personal memories, I was glad,
+indeed, to realize that not only were there valour and heroism on both
+sides, but also gentleness and courtesy. Histories written by either
+party at the time should be laid aside. They breathe the rancourous
+hate of the writers of the age--the fighters felt not so--and the
+many incidents given here of chivalry and consideration were actual
+happenings, related to me by the descendants of those who experienced
+them; and all assure me that these were a true reflex of the feelings of
+the day.
+
+I am much indebted to Miss Katherine Palmer, of Plattsburg, for kindly
+allowing me to see the unpublished manuscript memoir of her grandfather,
+Peter Sailly, who was Collector of the Port of Plattsburg at the time of
+the war.
+
+Another purpose in this story was to picture the real Indian with his
+message for good or for evil.
+
+Those who know nothing of the race will scoff and say they never heard
+of such a thing as a singing and religious red man. Those who know him
+well will say, “Yes, but you have given to your eastern Indian songs
+and ceremonies which belong to the western tribes, and which are of
+different epochs.” To the latter I reply:
+
+“You know that the western Indians sang and prayed in this way. How do
+you know that the eastern ones did not? We have no records, except
+those by critics, savagely hostile, and contemptuous of all religious
+observances but their own. The Ghost Dance Song belonged to a much more
+recent time, no doubt, but it was purely Indian, and it is generally
+admitted that the races of continental North America were of one stock,
+and had no fundamentally different customs or modes of thought.”
+
+The Sunrise Song was given me by Frederick R. Burton, author of
+“American Primitive Music.” It is still in use among the Ojibwa.
+
+The songs of the Wabanaki may be read in C. G. Leland's “Kuloskap the
+Master.”
+
+The Ghost Dance Song was furnished by Alice C. Fletcher, whose “Indian
+Song and Story” will prove a revelation to those who wish to follow
+further.
+
+ERNEST THOMPSON SETON.
+
+
+
+Chapter 1. The Wigwam Under the Rock
+
+The early springtime sunrise was near at hand as Quonab, the last of the
+Myanos Sinawa, stepped from his sheltered wigwam under the cliff that
+borders the Asamuk easterly, and, mounting to the lofty brow of the
+great rock that is its highest pinnacle, he stood in silence, awaiting
+the first ray of the sun over the sea water that stretches between
+Connecticut and Seawanaky.
+
+His silent prayer to the Great Spirit was ended as a golden beam shot
+from a long, low cloud-bank over the sea, and Quonab sang a weird Indian
+song for the rising sun, an invocation to the Day God:
+
+     “O thou that risest from the low cloud
+     To burn in the all above;
+     I greet thee!  I adore thee!”
+
+Again and again he sang to the tumming of a small tom-tom, till the
+great refulgent one had cleared the cloud, and the red miracle of the
+sunrise was complete. Back to his wigwam went the red man, down to his
+home tucked dosed under the sheltering rock, and, after washing his
+hands in a basswood bowl, began to prepare his simple meal.
+
+A tin-lined copper pot hanging over the fire was partly filled with
+water; then, when it was boiling, some samp or powdered corn and some
+clams were stirred in. While these were cooking, he took his smooth-bore
+flint-lock, crawled gently over the ridge that screened his wigwam from
+the northwest wind, and peered with hawk-like eyes across the broad
+sheet of water that, held by a high beaver-dam, filled the little valley
+of Asamuk Brook.
+
+The winter ice was still on the pond, but in all the warming shallows
+there was open water, on which were likely to be ducks. None were to be
+seen, but by the edge of the ice was a round object which, although so
+far away, he knew at a glance for a muskrat.
+
+By crawling around the pond, the Indian could easily have come within
+shot, but he returned at once to his wigwam, where he exchanged his gun
+for the weapons of his fathers, a bow and arrows, and a long fish-line.
+A short, quick stalk, and the muskrat, still eating a flagroot, was
+within thirty feet. The fish-line was coiled on the ground and then
+attached to an arrow, the bow bent--zip--the arrow picked up the line,
+coil after coil, and trans-fixed the muskrat. Splash! and the animal was
+gone under the ice.
+
+But the cord was in the hands of the hunter; a little gentle pulling and
+the rat came to view, to be despatched with a stick and secured. Had he
+shot it with a gun, it had surely been lost.
+
+He returned to his camp, ate his frugal breakfast, and fed a small,
+wolfish-looking yellow dog that was tied in the lodge.
+
+He skinned the muskrat carefully, first cutting a slit across the rear
+and then turning the skin back like a glove, till it was off to the
+snout; a bent stick thrust into this held it stretched, till in a day,
+it was dry and ready for market. The body, carefully cleaned, he hung in
+the shade to furnish another meal.
+
+As he worked, there were sounds of trampling in the woods, and
+presently a tall, rough-looking man, with a red nose and a curling white
+moustache, came striding through brush and leaves. He stopped when
+he saw the Indian, stared contemptuously at the quarry of the morning
+chase, made a scornful remark about “rat-eater,” and went on toward the
+wigwam, probably to peer in, but the Indian's slow, clear, “keep away!”
+ changed his plan. He grumbled something about “copper-coloured tramp,”
+ and started away in the direction of the nearest farmhouse.
+
+
+
+Chapter 2. Rolf Kittering and the Soldier Uncle
+
+     A feller that chatters all the time is bound to talk a
+     certain amount of drivel.--The Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+This was the Crow Moon, the white man's March. The Grass Moon was at
+hand, and already the arrow bands of black-necked honkers were passing
+northward from the coast, sending down as they flew the glad tidings
+that the Hunger Moon was gone, that spring was come, yea, even now was
+in the land. And the flicker clucked from a high, dry bough, the spotted
+woodwale drummed on his chosen branch, the partridge drummed in the pine
+woods, and in the sky the wild ducks, winging, drummed their way. What
+wonder that the soul of the Indian should seek expression in the drum
+and the drum song of his race?
+
+Presently, as though remembering something, he went quietly to the
+southward under the ridge, just where it breaks to let the brook go by,
+along the edge of Strickland's Plain, and on that hill of sliding stone
+he found, as he always had, the blue-eyed liver-leaf smiling, the first
+sweet flower of spring! He did not gather it, he only sat down and
+looked at it. He did not smile, or sing, or utter words, or give it
+a name, but he sat beside it and looked hard at it, and, in the first
+place, he went there knowingly to find it. Who shall say that its beauty
+did not reach his soul?
+
+He took out his pipe and tobacco bag, but was reminded of something
+lacking--the bag was empty. He returned to his wigwam, and from their
+safe hanger or swinging shelf overhead, he took the row of stretched
+skins, ten muskrats and one mink, and set out along a path which led
+southward through the woods to the broad, open place called Strickland's
+Plain, across that, and over the next rock ridge to the little town and
+port of Myanos.
+
+               SILAS PECK
+               Trading Store
+
+was the sign over the door he entered. Men and women were buying and
+selling, but the Indian stood aside shyly until all were served, and
+Master Peck cried out:
+
+“Ho, Quonab! what have ye got for trade to-day?”
+
+Quonab produced his furs. The dealer looked at them narrowly and said:
+
+“They are too late in the season for primes; I cannot allow you more
+than seven cents each for the rats and seventy-five cents for the mink,
+all trade.”
+
+The Indian gathered up the bundle with an air of “that settles it,” when
+Silas called out:
+
+“Come now, I'll make it ten cents for the rats.”
+
+“Ten cents for rats, one dollar for mink, all cash, then I buy what I
+like,” was the reply.
+
+It was very necessary to Silas's peace that no customer of his should
+cross the street to the sign,
+
+              SILAS MEAD
+              Trading Store
+
+So the bargain, a fair one now, was made, and the Indian went off with a
+stock of tobacco, tea, and sugar.
+
+His way lay up the Myanos River, as he had one or two traps set along
+the banks for muskrats, although in constant danger of having them
+robbed or stolen by boys, who considered this an encroachment on their
+trapping grounds.
+
+After an hour he came to Dumpling Pond, then set out for his home,
+straight through the woods, till he reached the Catrock line, and
+following that came to the farm and ramshackle house of Micky Kittering.
+He had been told that the man at this farm had a fresh deer hide for
+sale, and hoping to secure it, Quonab walked up toward the house. Micky
+was coming from the barn when he saw the Indian. They recognized each
+other at a glance. That was enough for Quonab; he turned away. The
+farmer remembered that he had been “insulted.” He vomited a few oaths,
+and strode after the Indian, “To take it out of his hide”; his purpose
+was very clear. The Indian turned quickly, stood, and looked calmly at
+Michael.
+
+Some men do not know the difference between shyness and cowardice, but
+they are apt to find it out unexpectedly Something told the white man,
+“Beware! this red man is dangerous.” He muttered something about, “Get
+out of that, or I'll send for a constable.” The Indian stood gazing
+coldly, till the farmer backed off out of sight, then he himself turned
+away to the woods.
+
+Kittering was not a lovely character. He claimed to have been a soldier.
+He certainly looked the part, for his fierce white moustache was curled
+up like horns on his purple face, at each side of his red nose, in
+a most milita style. His shoulders were square and his gait was
+swaggering, beside which, he had an array of swear words that was new
+and tremendously impressive in Connecticut. He had married late in life
+a woman who would have made him a good wife, had he allowed her. But, a
+drunkard himself he set deliberately about bringing his wife to his own
+ways and with most lamentable success. They had had no children, but
+some months before a brother's child, fifteen-year-old lad, had become
+a charge on their hands and, with any measure of good management, would
+have been a blessing to all. But Micky had gone too far. His original
+weak good-nature was foundered in rum. Always blustery and frothy, he
+divided the world in two--superior officers, before whom he grovelled,
+and inferiors to whom he was a mouthy, foul-tongued, contemptible bully,
+in spite of a certain lingering kindness of heart that showed itself at
+such rare times when he was neither roaring drunk nor crucified by black
+reaction. His brother's child, fortunately, had inherited little of the
+paternal family traits, but in both body and brain favoured his mother,
+the daughter of a learned divine who had spent unusual pains on her book
+education, but had left her penniless and incapable of changing that
+condition.
+
+Her purely mental powers and peculiarities were such that, a hundred
+years before, she might have been burned for a witch, and fifty years
+later might have been honoured as a prophetess. But she missed the crest
+of the wave both ways and fell in the trough; her views on religious
+matters procured neither a witch's grave nor a prophet's crown, but a
+sort of village contempt.
+
+The Bible was her standard--so far so good--but she emphasized the wrong
+parts of it. Instead of magnifying the damnation of those who follow not
+the truth (as the village understood it), she was content to semi-quote:
+
+“Those that are not against me are with me,” and “A kind heart is the
+mark of His chosen.” And then she made a final utterance, an echo really
+of her father: “If any man do anything sincerely, believing that thereby
+he is worshipping God, he is worshipping God.”
+
+Then her fate was sealed, and all who marked the blazing eyes, the
+hollow cheeks, the yet more hollow chest and cough, saw in it all the
+hand of an offended God destroying a blasphemer, and shook their heads
+knowingly when the end came.
+
+So Rolf was left alone in life, with a common school education, a
+thorough knowledge of the Bible and of “Robinson Crusoe,” a vague
+tradition of God everywhere, and a deep distrust of those who should
+have been his own people.
+
+The day of the little funeral he left the village of Redding to tramp
+over the unknown road to the unknown south where his almost unknown
+Uncle Michael had a farm and, possibly, a home for him.
+
+Fifteen miles that day, a night's rest in a barn, twenty-five miles the
+next day, and Rolf had found his future home.
+
+“Come in, lad,” was the not unfriendly reception, for his arrival
+was happily fallen on a brief spell of good humour, and a strong,
+fifteen-year-old boy is a distinct asset on a farm.
+
+
+
+Chapter 3. Rolf Catches a Coon and Finds a Friend
+
+Aunt Prue, sharp-eyed and red-nosed, was actually shy at first, but
+all formality vanished as Rolf was taught the mysteries of pig-feeding,
+hen-feeding, calf-feeding, cow-milking, and launched by list only in
+a vast number of duties familiar to him from his babyhood. What a list
+there was. An outsider might have wondered if Aunt Prue was saving
+anything for herself, but Rolf was used to toil. He worked without
+ceasing and did his best, only to learn in time that the best could win
+no praise, only avert punishment. The spells of good nature arrived more
+seldom in his uncle's heart. His aunt was a drunken shrew and soon Rolf
+looked on the days of starving and physical misery with his mother as
+the days of his happy youth gone by.
+
+He was usually too tired at night and too sleepy in the morning to say
+his prayers, and gradually he gave it up as a daily habit. The more he
+saw of his kinsfolk, the more wickedness came to view; and yet it was
+with a shock that he one day realized that some fowls his uncle brought
+home by night were there without the owner's knowledge or consent. Micky
+made a jest of it, and intimated that Rolf would have to “learn to do
+night work very soon.” This was only one of the many things that showed
+how evil a place was now the orphan's home.
+
+At first it was not clear to the valiant uncle whether the silent boy
+was a superior to be feared, or an inferior to be held in fear, but
+Mick's courage grew with non-resistance, and blows became frequent;
+although not harder to bear than the perpetual fault-finding and
+scolding of his aunt, and all the good his mother had implanted was
+being shrivelled by the fires of his daily life.
+
+Rolf had no chance to seek for companions at the village store, but an
+accident brought one to him. Before sunrise one spring morning he went,
+as usual, to the wood lot pasture for the cow, and was surprised to find
+a stranger, who beckoned him to come. On going near he saw a tall
+man with dark skin and straight black hair that was streaked with
+gray--undoubtedly an Indian. He held up a bag and said, “I got coon
+in that hole. You hold bag there, I poke him in.” Rolf took the sack
+readily and held it over the hole, while the Indian climbed the tree to
+a higher opening, then poked in this with a long pole, till all at once
+there was a scrambling noise and the bag bulged full and heavy. Rolf
+closed its mouth triumphantly. The Indian laughed lightly, then swung to
+the ground.
+
+“Now, what will you do with him?” asked Rolf.
+
+“Train coon dog,” was the answer.
+
+“Where?”
+
+The Indian pointed toward the Asamuk Pond.
+
+“Are you the singing Indian that lives under Ab's Rock?
+
+“Ugh! [*] Some call me that. My name is Quonab.”
+
+“Wait for an hour and then I will come and help,” volunteered Rolf
+impulsively, for the hunting instinct was strong in him.
+
+The Indian nodded. “Give three yelps if you no find me;” then he
+shouldered a short stick, from one end of which, at a safe distance from
+his back, hung the bag with the coon. And Rolf went home with the cow.
+
+He had acted on hasty impulse in offering to come, but now, in the
+normal storm state of the household, the difficulties of the course
+appeared. He cudgelled his brain for some plan to account for his
+absence, and finally took refuge unwittingly in ancient wisdom: “When
+you don't know a thing to do, don't do a thing.” Also, “If you can't
+find the delicate way, go the blunt way.”
+
+So having fed the horses, cleaned the stable, and milked the cow, fed
+the pigs, the hens, the calf, harnessed the horses, cut and brought in
+wood for the woodshed, turned out the sheep, hitched the horses to the
+wagon, set the milk out in the creaming pans, put more corn to soak for
+the swill barrel, ground the house knife, helped to clear the breakfast
+things, replaced the fallen rails of a fence, brought up potatoes from
+the root cellar, all to the maddening music of a scolding tongue, he set
+out to take the cow back to the wood lot, sullenly resolved to return
+when ready.
+
+
+     * Ugh (yes) and wah (no) are Indianisms that continue no
+     matter how well the English has been acquired.
+
+
+
+Chapter 4. The Coon Hunt Makes Trouble for Rolf
+
+Not one hour, but nearly three, had passed before Rolf sighted the
+Pipestave Pond, as it was called. He had never been there before, but
+three short whoops, as arranged, brought answer and guidance. Quonab was
+standing on the high rock. When Rolf came he led down to the wigwam on
+its south side. It was like stepping into a new life. Several of the
+old neighbours at Redding were hunters who knew the wild Indians and had
+told him tales that glorified at least the wonderful woodcraft of the
+red man. Once or twice Rolf had seen Indians travelling through, and he
+had been repelled by their sordid squalour. But here was something of
+a different kind; not the Champlain ideal, indeed, for the Indian wore
+clothes like any poor farmer, except on his head and his feet; his head
+was bare, and his feet were covered with moccasins that sparkled with
+beads on the arch. The wigwam was of canvas, but it had one or two
+of the sacred symbols painted on it. The pot hung over the fire was
+tin-lined copper, of the kind long made in England for Indian trade,
+but the smaller dishes were of birch bark and basswood. The gun and the
+hunting knife were of white man's make, but the bow, arrows, snowshoes,
+tom-tom, and a quill-covered gun case were of Indian art, fashioned of
+the things that grow in the woods about.
+
+The Indian led into the wigwam. The dog, although not fully grown,
+growled savagely as it smelled the hated white man odour. Quonab gave
+the puppy a slap on the head, which is Indian for, “Be quiet; he's all
+right;” loosed the rope, and led the dog out. “Bring that,” and the
+Indian pointed to the bag which hung from a stick between two trees. The
+dog sniffed suspiciously in the direction of the bag and growled, but
+he was not allowed to come near it. Rolf tried to make friends with the
+dog, but without success and Quonab said, “Better let Skookum [*] alone.
+He make friends when he ready--maybe never.”
+
+The two hunters now set out for the open plain, two or three hundred
+yards to the southward. Here the raccoon was dumped out of the sack,
+and the dog held at a little distance, until the coon had pulled itself
+together and began to run. Now the dog was released and chivvied on.
+With a tremendous barking he rushed at the coon, only to get a nip that
+made him recoil, yelping. The coon ran as hard as it could, the dog
+and hunters came after it; again it was overtaken, and, turning with a
+fierce snarl, it taught the dog a second lesson. Thus, running, dodging,
+and turning to fight, the coon got back to the woods, and there made
+a final stand under a small, thick tree; and, when the dog was again
+repulsed, climbed quickly up into the branches.
+
+The hunters did all they could to excite the dog, until he was jumping
+about, trying to climb the tree, and barking uproariously. This was
+exactly what they wanted. Skookum's first lesson was learned--the duty
+of chasing the big animal of that particular smell, then barking up the
+tree it had climbed.
+
+Quonab, armed with a forked stick and a cord noose, now went up the
+tree. After much trouble he got the noose around the coon's neck, then,
+with some rather rough handling, the animal was dragged down, maneuvered
+into the sack, and carried back to camp, where it was chained up to
+serve in future lessons; the next two or three being to tree the coon,
+as before; in the next, the coon was to be freed and allowed to get out
+of sight, so that the dog might find it by trailing, and the last, in
+which the coon was to be trailed, treed, and shot out of the tree, so
+that the dog should have the final joy of killing a crippled coon, and
+the reward of a coon-meat feast. But the last was not to be, for the
+night before it should have taken place the coon managed to slip its
+bonds, and nothing but the empty collar and idle chain were found in the
+captive's place next morning.
+
+These things were in the future however. Rolf was intensely excited over
+all he had seen that day. His hunting instincts were aroused. There had
+been no very obvious or repellant cruelty; the dog alone had suffered,
+but he seemed happy. The whole affair was so exactly in the line of
+his tastes that the boy was in a sort of ecstatic uplift, and already
+anticipating a real coon hunt, when the dog should be properly trained.
+The episode so contrasted with the sordid life he had left an hour
+before that he was spellbound. The very animal smell of the coon seemed
+to make his fibre tingle. His eyes were glowing with a wild light. He
+was so absorbed that he did not notice a third party attracted by the
+unusual noise of the chase, but the dog did. A sudden, loud challenge
+called all attention to a stranger on the ridge behind the camp. There
+was no mistaking the bloated face and white moustache of Rolf's uncle.
+
+“So, you young scut! that is how you waste your time. I'll larn ye a
+lesson.”
+
+The dog was tied, the Indian looked harmless, and the boy was cowed,
+so the uncle's courage mounted high. He had been teaming in the nearby
+woods, and the blacksnake whip was in his hands. In a minute its thong
+was lapped, like a tongue of flame, around Rolf's legs. The boy gave a
+shriek and ran, but the man followed and furiously plied the whip.
+The Indian, supposing it was Rolf's father, marvelled at his method
+of showing affection, but said nothing, for the Fifth Commandment is a
+large one in the wigwam. Rolf dodged some of the cruel blows, but was
+driven into a corner of the rock. One end of the lash crossed his face
+like a red-hot wire.
+
+“Now I've got you!” growled the bully.
+
+Rolf was desperate. He seized two heavy stones and hurled the first with
+deadly intent at his uncle's head. Mick dodged in time, but the second,
+thrown lower, hit him on the thigh. Mick gave a roar of pain. Rolf
+hastily seized more stones and shrieked out, “You come on one step and
+I'll kill you!”
+
+Then that purple visage turned a sort of ashen hue. Its owner mouthed in
+speechless rage. He “knew it was the Indian had put Rolf up to it. He'd
+see to it later,” and muttering, blasting, frothing, the hoary-headed
+sinner went limping off to his loaded wagon.
+
+
+     * “Skookum” or “Skookum Chuck,” in Chinook means “Troubled
+     waters.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 5. Good-bye to Uncle Mike
+
+     For counsel comes with the night, and action comes with the
+     day; But the gray half light, neither dark nor bright, is a
+     time to hide away.
+
+
+Rolf had learned one thing at least--his uncle was a coward. But he also
+knew that he himself was in the wrong, for he was neglecting his work
+and he decided to go back at once and face the worst. He made little
+reply to the storm of scolding that met him. He would have been
+disappointed if it had not come. He was used to it; it made him feel at
+home once more. He worked hard and silently.
+
+Mick did not return till late. He had been drawing wood for Horton that
+day, which was the reason he happened in Quonab's neighbourhood; but his
+road lay by the tavern, and when he arrived home he was too helpless to
+do more than mutter.
+
+The next day there was an air of suspended thunder. Rolf overheard his
+uncle cursing “that ungrateful young scut--not worth his salt.” But
+nothing further was said or done. His aunt did not strike at him once
+for two days. The third night Micky disappeared. On the next he returned
+with another man; they had a crate of fowls, and Rolf was told to keep
+away from “that there little barn.”
+
+So he did all morning, but he peeped in from the hayloft when a chance
+came, and saw a beautiful horse. Next day the “little barn” was open and
+empty as before.
+
+That night this worthy couple had a jollification with some callers, who
+were strangers to Rolf. As he lay awake, listening to the carouse, he
+overheard many disjointed allusions that he did not understand, and some
+that he could guess at: “Night work pays better than day work any time,”
+ etc. Then he heard his own name and a voice, “Let's go up and settle it
+with him now.” Whatever their plan, it was clear that the drunken crowd,
+inspired by the old ruffian, were intent on doing him bodily harm. He
+heard them stumbling and reeling up the steep stairs. He heard, “Here,
+gimme that whip,” and knew he was in peril, maybe of his life, for they
+were whiskey-mad. He rose quickly, locked the door, rolled up an old rag
+carpet, and put it in his bed. Then he gathered his clothes on his arm,
+opened the window, and lowered himself till his head only was above the
+sill, and his foot found a resting place. Thus he awaited. The raucous
+breathing of the revellers was loud on the stairs; then the door was
+tried; there was some muttering; then the door was burst open and in
+rushed two, or perhaps three, figures. Rolf could barely see in the
+gloom, but he knew that his uncle was one of them. The attack they made
+with whip and stick on that roll of rags in the bed would have broken
+his bones and left him shapeless, had he been in its place. The men were
+laughing and took it all as a joke, but Rolf had seen enough; he slipped
+to the ground and hurried away, realizing perfectly well now that this
+was “good-bye.”
+
+Which way? How naturally his steps turned northward toward Redding, the
+only other place he knew. But he had not gone a mile before he stopped.
+The yapping of a coon dog came to him from the near woods that lay to
+the westward along Asamuk. He tramped toward it. To find the dog is one
+thing, to find the owner another; but they drew near at last. Rolf gave
+the three yelps and Quonab responded.
+
+“I am done with that crowd,” said the boy. “They tried to kill me
+tonight. Have you got room for me in your wigwam for a couple of days?”
+
+“Ugh, come,” said the Indian.
+
+That night, for the first time, Rolf slept in the outdoor air of a
+wigwam. He slept late, and knew nothing of the world about him till
+Quonab called him to breakfast.
+
+
+
+Chapter 6. Skookum Accepts Rolf at Last
+
+Rolf expected that Micky would soon hear of his hiding place and come
+within a few days, backed by a constable, to claim his runaway ward. But
+a week went by and Quonab, passing through Myanos, learned, first, that
+Rolf had been seen tramping northward on the road to Dumpling Pond, and
+was now supposed to be back in Redding; second, that Micky Kittering was
+lodged in jail under charge of horse-stealing and would certainly get
+a long sentence; third, that his wife had gone back to her own folks at
+Norwalk, and the house was held by strangers.
+
+All other doors were closed now, and each day that drifted by made it
+the more clear that Rolf and Quonab were to continue together. What boy
+would not exult at the thought of it? Here was freedom from a brutal
+tyranny that was crushing out his young life; here was a dream of the
+wild world coming true, with gratification of all the hunter instincts
+that he had held in his heart for years, and nurtured in that single,
+ragged volume of “Robinson Crusoe.” The plunge was not a plunge, except
+it be one when an eagle, pinion-bound, is freed and springs from a cliff
+of the mountain to ride the mountain wind.
+
+The memory of that fateful cooning day was deep and lasting. Never
+afterward did smell of coon fail to bring it back; in spite of the many
+evil incidents it was a smell of joy.
+
+“Where are you going, Quonab?” he asked one morning, as he saw the
+Indian rise at dawn and go forth with his song drum, after warming it at
+the fire. He pointed up to the rock, and for the first time Rolf heard
+the chant for the sunrise. Later he heard the Indian's song for “Good
+Hunting,” and another for “When His Heart Was Bad.” They were prayers or
+praise, all addressed to the Great Spirit, or the Great Father, and it
+gave Rolf an entirely new idea of the red man, and a startling light
+on himself. Here was the Indian, whom no one considered anything but a
+hopeless pagan, praying to God for guidance at each step in life, while
+he himself, supposed to be a Christian, had not prayed regularly for
+months--was in danger of forgetting how.
+
+Yet there was one religious observance that Rolf never forgot--that was
+to keep the Sabbath, and on that day each week he did occasionally say
+a little prayer his mother had taught him. He avoided being seen at such
+times and did not speak of kindred doings. Whereas Quonab neither hid
+nor advertised his religious practices, and it was only after many
+Sundays had gone that Quonab remarked:
+
+“Does your God come only one day of the week? Does He sneak in after
+dark? Why is He ashamed that you only whisper to Him? Mine is here all
+the time. I can always reach Him with my song; all days are my Sunday.”
+
+The evil memories of his late life were dimming quickly, and the joys of
+the new one growing. Rolf learned early that, although one may talk of
+the hardy savage, no Indian seeks for hardship. Everything is done that
+he knows to make life pleasant, and of nothing is he more careful than
+the comfort of his couch. On the second day, under guidance of his host,
+Rolf set about making his own bed. Two logs, each four inches thick and
+three feet long, were cut. Then two strong poles, each six feet long,
+were laid into notches at the ends of the short logs. About seventy-five
+straight sticks of willow were cut and woven with willow bark into a
+lattice, three feet wide and six feet long. This, laid on the poles,
+furnished a spring mattress, on which a couple of blankets made a most
+comfortable couch, dry, warm, and off the ground. In addition to the
+lodge cover, each bed had a dew cloth which gave perfect protection, no
+matter how the storm might rage outdoors. There was no hardship in it,
+only a new-found pleasure, to sleep and breathe the pure night air of
+the woods.
+
+The Grass Moon--April--had passed, and the Song Moon was waxing, with
+its hosts of small birds, and one of Rolf's early discoveries was that
+many of these love to sing by night. Again and again the familiar voice
+of the song sparrow came from the dark shore of Asamuk, or the field
+sparrow trilled from the top of some cedar, occasionally the painted
+one, Aunakeu, the partridge, drummed in the upper woods, and nightly
+there was the persistent chant of Muckawis, the whippoorwill, the myriad
+voices of the little frogs called spring-peepers, and the peculiar,
+“peent, peent,” from the sky, followed by a twittering, that Quonab told
+him was the love song of the swamp bird--the big snipe, with the fantail
+and long, soft bill, and eyes like a deer.
+
+“Do you mean the woodcock?” “Ugh, that's the name; Pah-dash-ka-anja we
+call it.”
+
+The waning of the moon brought new songsters, with many a nightingale
+among them. A low bush near the plain was vocal during the full moon
+with the sweet but disconnected music of the yellow-breasted chat. The
+forest rang again and again with a wild, torrential strain of music
+that seemed to come from the stars. It sent peculiar thrill into Rolf's
+heart, and gave him a lump his throat as he listened.
+
+“What is that, Quonab?”
+
+The Indian shook his head. Then, later, when it ended, he said: “That
+is the mystery song of some one I never saw him.”
+
+There was a long silence, then the lad began, “There's no good hunting
+here now, Quonab. Why don't you go to the north woods, where deer are
+plentiful?”
+
+The Indian gave a short shake of his head, and then to prevent further
+talk, “Put up your dew cloth; the sea wind blows to-night.”
+
+He finished; both stood for a moment gazing into the fire. Then Rolf
+felt something wet and cold thrust into his hand. It was Skookum's nose.
+At last the little dog had made up his mind to accept the white boy as a
+friend.
+
+
+
+Chapter 7. Rolf Works Out with Many Results
+
+     He is the dumbest kind of a dumb fool that ain't king in
+     some little corner.--Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+The man who has wronged you will never forgive you, and he who has
+helped you will be forever grateful. Yes, there is nothing that draws
+you to a man so much as the knowledge that you have helped him.
+
+Quonab helped Rolf, and so was more drawn to him than to many of the
+neighbours that he had known for years; he was ready to like him.
+Their coming together was accidental, but it was soon very clear that a
+friendship was springing up between them. Rolf was too much of a child
+to think about the remote future; and so was Quonab. Most Indians are
+merely tall children.
+
+But there was one thing that Rolf did think of--he had no right to
+live in Quonab's lodge without contributing a fair share of the things
+needful. Quonab got his living partly by hunting, partly by fishing,
+partly by selling baskets, and partly by doing odd jobs for the
+neighbours. Rolf's training as a loafer had been wholly neglected,
+and when he realized that he might be all summer with Quonab he said
+bluntly:
+
+“You let me stay here a couple of months. I'll work out odd days, and
+buy enough stuff to keep myself any way.” Quonab said nothing, but their
+eyes met, and the boy knew it was agreed to.
+
+Rolf went that very day to the farm of Obadiah Timpany, and offered to
+work by the day, hoeing corn and root crops. What farmer is not glad of
+help in planting time or in harvest? It was only a question of what did
+he know and how much did he want? The first was soon made clear; two
+dollars a week was the usual thing for boys in those times, and when he
+offered to take it half in trade, he was really getting three dollars a
+week and his board. Food was as low as wages, and at the end of a week,
+Rolf brought back to camp a sack of oatmeal, a sack of cornmeal, a
+bushel of potatoes, a lot of apples, and one dollar cash. The dollar
+went for tea and sugar, and the total product was enough to last them
+both a month; so Rolf could share the wigwam with a good conscience.
+
+Of course, it was impossible to keep the gossipy little town of Myanos
+from knowing, first, that the Indian had a white boy for partner; and,
+later, that that boy was Rolf. This gave rise to great diversity of
+opinion in the neighbourhood. Some thought it should not be allowed, but
+Horton, who owned the land on which Quonab was camped, could not see any
+reason for interfering.
+
+Ketchura Peck, spinster, however, did see many most excellent reasons.
+She was a maid with a mission, and maintained it to be an outrage that a
+Christian boy should be brought up by a godless pagan. She worried over
+it almost as much as she did over the heathen in Central Africa, where
+there are no Sunday schools, and clothes are as scarce as churches.
+Failing to move Parson Peck and Elder Knapp in the matter, and
+despairing of an early answer to her personal prayers, she resolved on
+a bold move, “An' it was only after many a sleepless, prayerful night,”
+ namely, to carry the Bible into the heathen's stronghold.
+
+Thus it was that one bright morning in June she might have been seen,
+prim and proper--almost glorified, she felt, as she set her lips just
+right in the mirror--making for the Pipestave Pond, Bible in hand and
+spectacles clean wiped, ready to read appropriate selections to the
+unregenerate.
+
+She was full of the missionary spirit when she left Myanos, and partly
+full when she reached the Orchard Street Trail; but the spirit was
+leaking badly, and the woods did appear so wild and lonely that she
+wondered if women had any right to be missionaries. When she came in
+sight of the pond, the place seemed unpleasantly different from Myanos
+and where was the Indian camp? She did not dare to shout; indeed, she
+began to wish she were home again, but the sense of duty carried her
+fully fifty yards along the pond, and then she came to an impassable
+rock, a sheer bank that plainly said, “Stop!” Now she must go back or up
+the bank. Her Yankee pertinacity said, “Try first up the bank,” and she
+began a long, toilsome ascent, that did not end until she came out on a
+high, open rock which, on its farther side, had a sheer drop and gave a
+view of the village and of the sea.
+
+Whatever joy she had on again seeing her home was speedily queued in the
+fearsome discovery that she was right over the Indian camp, and the two
+inmates looked so utterly, dreadfully savage that she was thankful
+they had not seen her. At once she shrank back; but on recovering
+sufficiently to again peer down, she saw something roasting before the
+fire--“a tiny arm with a hand that bore five fingers,” as she afterward
+said, and “a sickening horror came over her.” Yes, she had heard of
+such things. If she could only get home in safety! Why had she tempted
+Providence thus? She backed softly and prayed only to escape. What, and
+never even deliver the Bible? “It would be wicked to return with it!” In
+a cleft of the rock she placed it, and then, to prevent the wind blowing
+off loose leaves, she placed a stone on top, and fled from the dreadful
+place.
+
+That night, when Quonab and Rolf had finished their meal of corn and
+roasted coon, the old man climbed the rock to look at the sky. The book
+caught his eye at once, evidently hidden there carefully, and therefore
+in cache. A cache is a sacred thing to an Indian. He disturbed it not,
+but later asked Rolf, “That yours?”
+
+“No.”
+
+It was doubtless the property of some one who meant to return for it, so
+they left it untouched. It rested there for many months, till the winter
+storms came down, dismantling the covers, dissolving the pages, but
+leaving such traces as, in the long afterward, served to identify the
+book and give the rock the other name, the one it bears to-day--“Bible
+Rock, where Quonab, the son of Cos Cob, used to live.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 8. The Law of Property Among Our Four-Footed Kin
+
+Night came down on the Asamuk woods, and the two in the wigwam were
+eating their supper of pork, beans, and tea, for the Indian did not, by
+any means object to the white man's luxuries, when a strange “yap-yurr”
+ was heard out toward the plain. The dog was up at once with a growl.
+Rolf looked inquiringly, and Quonab said, “Fox,” then bade the dog be
+still.
+
+“Yap-yurr, yap-yurr,” and then, “yurr, yeow,” it came again and again.
+“Can we get him?” said the eager young hunter. The Indian shook his
+head.
+
+“Fur no good now. An' that's a she-one, with young ones on the
+hillside.”
+
+“How do you know?” was the amazed inquiry. “I know it's a she-one,
+'cause she says:
+
+“Yap-yurr” (high pitched)
+
+If it was a he-one he'd say:
+
+“Yap-yurr” (low pitched)
+
+“And she has cubs, 'cause all have at this season. And they are on that
+hillside, because that's the nearest place where any fox den is, and
+they keep pretty much to their own hunting grounds. If another fox
+should come hunting on the beat of this pair, he'd have to fight for it.
+That is the way of the wild animals; each has his own run, and for that
+he will fight an outsider that he would be afraid of at any other
+place. One knows he is right--that braces him up; the other knows he is
+wrong--and that weakens him.” Those were the Indian's views, expressed
+much less connectedly than here given, and they led Rolf on to a train
+of thought. He remembered a case that was much to the point.
+
+Their little dog Skookum several times had been worsted by the dog on
+the Horton farm, when, following his master, he had come into the
+house yard. There was no question that the Horton dog was stronger. But
+Skookum had buried a bone under some brushes by the plain and next day
+the hated Horton dog appeared. Skookum watched him with suspicion and
+fear, until it was no longer doubtful that the enemy had smelled the
+hidden food and was going for it. Then Skookum, braced up by some
+instinctive feeling, rushed forward with bristling mane and gleaming
+teeth, stood over his cache, and said in plainest dog, “You can't touch
+that while I live!”
+
+And the Horton dog--accustomed to domineer over the small yellow
+cur--growled contemptuously, scratched with his hind feet, smelled
+around an adjoining bush, and pretending not to see or notice, went off
+in another direction.
+
+What was it that robbed him of his courage, but the knowledge that he
+was in the wrong?
+
+Continuing with his host Rolf said, “Do you think they have any idea
+that it is wrong to steal?”
+
+“Yes, so long as it is one of their own tribe. A fox will take all he
+can get from a bird or a rabbit or a woodchuck, but he won't go far on
+the hunting grounds of another fox. He won't go into another fox's den
+or touch one of its young ones, and if he finds a cache of food with
+another fox's mark on it, he won't touch it unless he is near dead of
+hunger.”
+
+“How do you mean they cache food and how do they mark it?”
+
+“Generally they bury it under the leaves and soft earth, and the only
+mark is to leave their body scent. But that is strong enough, and every
+fox knows it.”
+
+“Do wolves make food caches?”
+
+“Yes, wolves, cougars, weasels, squirrels, bluejays, crows, owls, mice,
+all do, and all have their own way of marking a place.”
+
+“Suppose a fox finds a wolf cache, will he steal from it?”
+
+“Yes, always. There is no law between fox and wolf. They are always at
+war with each other. There is law only between fox and fox, or wolf and
+wolf.”
+
+“That is like ourselves, ain't it? We say, 'Thou shalt not steal,' and
+then when we steal the Indian's land or the Frenchman's ships, we say,
+'Oh, that don't mean not steal from our enemies; they are fair game.'”
+
+Quonab rose to throw some sticks on the fire, then went out to turn the
+smoke flap of the wigwam, for the wind was changed and another set
+was needed to draw the smoke. They heard several times again the
+high-pitched “yap yurr,” and once the deeper notes, which told that the
+dog fox, too, was near the camp, and was doubtless seeking food to carry
+home.
+
+
+
+Chapter 9. Where the Bow Is Better Than the Gun
+
+Of all popular errors about the Indians, the hardest to down is the idea
+that their women do all the work. They do the housework, it is true, but
+all the heavy labour beyond their strength is done by the men. Examples
+of this are seen in the frightful toil of hunting, canoeing, and
+portaging, besides a multitude of kindred small tasks, such as making
+snowshoes, bows, arrows, and canoes.
+
+Each warrior usually makes his own bow and arrows, and if, as often
+happens, one of them proves more skilful and turns out better weapons,
+it is a common thing for others to offer their own specialty in
+exchange.
+
+The advantages of the bow over the gun are chiefly its noiselessness,
+its cheapness, and the fact that one can make its ammunition anywhere.
+As the gun chiefly used in Quonab's time was the old-fashioned,
+smooth-bore flint-lock, there was not much difference in the accuracy
+of the two weapons. Quonab had always made a highclass bow, as well as
+high-class arrows, and was a high-class shot. He could set up ten clam
+shells at ten paces and break all in ten shots. For at least half of
+his hunting he preferred the bow; the gun was useful to him chiefly
+when flocks of wild pigeons or ducks were about, and a single charge of
+scattering shot might bring down a dozen birds.
+
+But there is a law in all shooting--to be expert, you must practise
+continually--and when Rolf saw his host shoot nearly every day at some
+mark, he tried to join in the sport.
+
+It took not many trys to show that the bow was far too strong for him
+to use, and Quonab was persuaded at length to make an outfit for his
+visitor.
+
+From the dry store hole under the rock, he produced a piece of common
+red cedar. Some use hickory; it is less liable to break and will stand
+more abuse, but it has not the sharp, clean action of cedar. The latter
+will send the arrow much farther, and so swiftly does it leave the
+string that it baffles the eye. But the cedar bow must be cared for like
+a delicate machine; overstring it, and it breaks; twang it without an
+arrow, and it sunders the cords; scratch it, and it may splinter; wet
+it, and it is dead; let it lie on the ground, even, and it is weakened.
+But guard it and it will serve you as a matchless servant, and as can no
+other timber in these woods.
+
+Just where the red heart and the white sap woods join is the bowman's
+choice. A piece that reached from Rolf's chin to the ground was shaved
+down till it was flat on the white side and round on the red side,
+tapering from the middle, where it was one inch wide and one inch thick
+to the ends, where it was three fourths of an inch wide and five eighths
+of an inch thick, the red and white wood equal in all parts.
+
+The string was made of sinew from the back of a cow, split from the
+long, broad sheath that lies on each side the spine, and the bow strung
+for trial. Now, on drawing it (flat or white side in front), it was
+found that one arm bent more than the other, so a little more scraping
+was done on the strong side, till both bent alike.
+
+Quonab's arrows would answer, but Rolf needed a supply of his own. Again
+there was great choice of material. The long, straight shoots ol' the
+arrowwood (Viburnuin dentatum) supplied the ancient Indians, but
+Quonab had adopted a better way, since the possession of an axe made it
+possible. A 25-inch block of straight-grained ash was split and split
+until it yielded enough pieces. These were shaved down to one fourth of
+an inch thick, round, smooth, and perfectly straight. Each was notched
+deeply at one end; three pieces of split goose feather were lashed on
+the notched end, and three different kinds of arrows were made. All were
+alike in shaft and in feathering, but differed in the head. First, the
+target arrows: these were merely sharpened, and the points hardened by
+roasting to a brown colour. They would have been better with conical
+points of steel, but none of these were to be had. Second, the ordinary
+hunting arrows with barbed steel heads, usually bought ready-made, or
+filed out of a hoop: these were for use in securing such creatures as
+muskrats, ducks close at hand, or deer. Third, the bird bolts: these
+were left with a large, round, wooden head. They were intended for
+quail, partridges, rabbits, and squirrels, but also served very often,
+and most admirably, in punishing dogs, either the Indian's own when he
+was not living up to the rules and was too far off for a cuff or kick,
+or a farmer's dog that was threatening an attack.
+
+Now the outfit was complete, Rolf thought, but one other touch was
+necessary. Quonab painted the feather part of the shaft bright red, and
+Rolf learned why. Not for ornament, not as an owner's mark, but as a
+finding mark. Many a time that brilliant red, with the white feather
+next it, was the means of saving the arrow from loss. An uncoloured
+arrow among the sticks and leaves of the woods was usually hidden, but
+the bright-coloured shaft could catch the eye 100 yards away.
+
+It was very necessary to keep the bow and arrows from the wet. For this,
+every hunter provides a case, usually of buckskin, but failing that they
+made a good quiver of birch bark laced with spruce roots for the arrows,
+and for the bow itself a long cover of tarpaulin.
+
+Now came the slow drilling in archery; the arrow held and the bow
+drawn with three fingers on the cord--the thumb and little finger doing
+nothing. The target was a bag of hay set at twenty feet, until the
+beginner could hit it every time: then by degrees it was moved away
+until at the standard distance of forty yards he could do fair shooting,
+although of course he never shot as well as the Indian, who had
+practised since he was a baby.
+
+There are three different kinds of archery tests: the first for aim: Can
+you shoot so truly as to hit a three-inch mark, ten times in succession,
+at ten paces?
+
+Next for speed: Can you shoot so quickly and so far up, as to have five
+arrows in the air at once? If so, you are good: Can you keep up six?
+Then you are very good. Seven is wonderful. The record is said to be
+eight. Last for power: Can you pull so strong a bow and let the arrow go
+so clean that it will fly for 250 yards or will pass through a deer at
+ten paces? There is a record of a Sioux who sent an arrow through three
+antelopes at one shot, and it was not unusual to pierce the huge buffalo
+through and through; on one occasion a warrior with one shot pierced the
+buffalo and killed her calf running at the other side.
+
+If you excel in these three things, you can down your partridge and
+squirrel every time; you can get five or six out of each flock of birds;
+you can kill your deer at twenty-five yards, and so need never starve in
+the woods where there is game.
+
+Of course, Rolf was keen to go forth and try in the real chase, but it
+was many a shot he missed and many an arrow lost or broken, before
+he brought in even a red squirrel, and he got, at least, a higher
+appreciation of the skill of those who could count on the bow for their
+food.
+
+For those, then, who think themselves hunters and woodmen, let this be
+a test and standard: Can you go forth alone into the wilderness where
+there is game, take only a bow and arrows for weapons, and travel afoot
+250 miles, living on the country as you go?
+
+
+
+Chapter 10. Rolf Works Out with Many Results
+
+    He is the dumbest kind of a dumb fool that ain't king in some
+    little corner.--_Sayings of Si Sylvanne_
+
+
+The man who has wronged you will never forgive you, and he who has
+helped you will be forever grateful. Yes, there is nothing that draws
+you to a man so much as the knowledge that you have helped him.
+
+Quonab helped Rolf, and so was more drawn to him than to many of the
+neighbours that he had known cor years; he was ready to like him. Their
+coming together ffas accidental, but it was soon very clear that a
+friendship was springing up between them. Rolf was too much of a child
+to think about the remote future; and so was Quonab. Most Indians are
+merely tall children.
+
+But there was one thing that Rolf did think of--he had no right to live
+in Quonab's lodge without contributing a fair share of the things
+needful. Quonab got his living partly by hunting, partly by fishing,
+partly by selling baskets, and partly by doing odd jobs for the
+neighbours. Rolf's training as a loafer had been wholly neglected, and
+when he realized that he might be all summer with Quonab he said
+bluntly:
+
+“You let me stay here a couple of months. I'll work out odd days, and
+buy enough stuff to keep myself any way.” Quonab said nothing, but
+their eyes met, and the boy knew it was agreed to.
+
+Rolf went that very day to the farm of Obadiah Timpany, and offered to
+work by the day, hoeing corn and root crops. What farmer is not glad of
+help in planting time 01 in harvest? It was only a question of what did
+he know and how much did he want? The first was soon made clear; two
+dollars a week was the usual thing for boys in those times, and when he
+offered to take it half in trade, he was really getting three dollars a
+week and his board. Food was as low as wages, and at the end of a week,
+Rolf brought back to camp a sack of oatmeal, a sack of cornmeal, a
+bushel of potatoes, a lot of apples, and one dollar cash. The dollar
+went for tea and sugar, and the total product was enough to last them
+both a month; so Rolf could share the wigwam with a good conscience.
+
+Of course, it was impossible to keep the gossipy little town of Myanos
+from knowing, first, that the Indian had a white boy for partner; and,
+later, that that boy was Rolf. This gave rise to great diversity of
+opinion in the neighbourhood. Some thought it should not be allowed,
+but Horton, who owned the land on which Quonab was camped, could not
+see any reason for interfering.
+
+Ketchura Peck, spinster, however, did see many most excellent reasons.
+She was a maid with a mission, and maintained it to be an outrage that
+a Christian boy should be brought up by a godless pagan. She worried
+over it almost as much as she did over the heathen in Central Africa,
+where there are no Sunday schools, and clothes are as scarce as
+churches. Failing to move Parson Peck and Elder Knapp in the matter,
+and despairing of an early answer to her personal prayers, she resolved
+on a bold move, “An' it was only after many a sleepless, prayerful
+night,” namely, to carry the Bible into the heathen's stronghold.
+
+Thus it was that one bright morning in June she might have been seen,
+prim and proper--almost glorified, she felt, as she set her lips just
+right in the mirror--making for the Pipestave Pond, Bible in hand and
+spectacles clear wiped, ready to read appropriate selections to the
+unregenerate.
+
+She was full of the missionary spirit when she left Myanos, and partly
+full when she reached the Orchard Street Trail; but the spirit was
+leaking badly, and the woods did appear so wild and lonely that she
+wondered if women had any right to be missionaries. When she came in
+sight of the pond, the place seemed unpleasantly different from Myanos
+and where was the Indian camp? She did not dare to shout; indeed, she
+began to wish she were home again, but the sense of duty carried her
+fully fifty yards along the pond, and then she came to an impassable
+rock, a sheer bank that plainly said, “Stop!” Now she must go back or
+up the bank. Her Yankee pertinacity said, “Try first up the bank,” and
+she began a long, toilsome ascent, that did not end until she came out
+on a high, open rock which, on its farther side, had a sheer drop and
+gave a view of the village and of the sea.
+
+Whatever joy she had on again seeing her home was speedily quelled in
+the fearsome discovery that she was right over the Indian camp, and the
+two inmates looked so utterly, dreadfully savage that she was thankful
+they had not seen her. At once she shrank back; but on recovering
+sufficiently to again peer down, she saw something roasting before the
+fire--“a tiny arm with a hand that bore five fingers,” as she afterward
+said, and “a sickening horror came over her.” Yes, she had heard of
+such things. If she could only get home in safety! Why had she tempted
+Providence thus? She backed softly and prayed only to escape. What, and
+never even deliver the Bible? “It would be wicked to return with it!”
+ In a cleft of the rock she placed it, and then, to prevent the wind
+blowing off loose leaves, she placed a stone on top, and fled from the
+dreadful place.
+
+That night, when Quonab and Rolf had finished theic meal of corn and
+roasted coon, the old man climbed the rock to look at the sky. The book
+caught his eye at once, evidently hidden there carefully, and therefore
+in cache. A cache is a sacred thing to an Indian. He disturbed it not,
+but later asked Rolf, “That yours?”
+
+“No.”
+
+It was doubtless the property of some one who meant to return for it,
+so they left it untouched. It rested there for many months, till the
+winter storms came down, dismantling the covers, dissolving the pages,
+but leaving such traces as, in the long afterward, served to identify
+the book and give the rock the other name, the one it bears
+to-day--“Bible Rock, where Quonab, the son of Cos Cob, used to live.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 11. The Thunder-storm and the Fire Sticks
+
+When first Rolf noticed the wigwam's place, he wondered that Quonab had
+not set it somewhere facing the lake, but he soon learned that it is
+best to have the morning sun, the afternoon shade, and shelter from the
+north and west winds.
+
+The first two points were illustrated nearly every day; but it was two
+weeks before the last was made clear.
+
+That day the sun came up in a red sky, but soon was lost to view in a
+heavy cloud-bank. There was no wind, and, as the morning passed, the day
+grew hotter and closer. Quonab prepared for a storm; but it came with
+unexpected force, and a gale of wind from the northwest that would
+indeed have wrecked the lodge, but for the great sheltering rock. Under
+its lea there was hardy a breeze; but not fifty yards away were two
+trees that rubbed together, and in the storm they rasped so violently
+that fine shreds of smoking wood were dropped and, but for the rain,
+would surely have made a blaze. The thunder was loud and lasted long,
+and the water poured down in torrents. They were ready for rain, but not
+for the flood that rushed over the face of the cliff, soaking everything
+in the lodge except the beds, which, being four inches off the ground,
+were safe; and lying on them the two campers waited patiently, or
+impatiently, while the weather raged for two drenching hours. And then
+the pouring became a pattering; the roaring, a swishing; the storm, a
+shower which died away, leaving changing patches of blue in the lumpy
+sky, and all nature calm and pleased, but oh, so wet! Of course the fire
+was out in the lodge and nearly all the wood was wet. Now Quonab drew
+from a small cave some dry cedar and got down his tinder-box with flint
+and steel to light up; but a serious difficulty appeared at once--the
+tinder was wet and useless.
+
+These were the days before matches were invented. Every one counted on
+flint and steel for their fire, but the tinder was an essential, and now
+a fire seemed hopeless; at least Rolf thought so.
+
+“Nana Bojou was dancing that time,” said the Indian.
+
+“Did you see him make fire with those two rubbing trees? So he taught
+our fathers, and so make we fire when the tricks of the white man fail
+us.”
+
+Quonab now cut two pieces of dry cedar, one three fourths of an inch
+thick and eighteen inches long, round, and pointed at both ends; the
+other five eighths of an inch thick and flat. In the flat one he cut a
+notch and at the end of the notch a little pit. Next he made a bow of
+a stiff, curved stick, and a buckskin thong: a small pine knot was
+selected and a little pit made in it with the point of a knife. These
+were the fare-making sticks, but it was necessary to prepare the
+firewood, lay the fire, and make some fibre for tinder. A lot of fine
+cedar shavings, pounded up with cedar bark and rolled into a two-inch
+ball, made good tinder, and all was ready. Quonab put the bow thong once
+around the long stick, then held its point in the pit of the flat stick,
+and the pine knot on the top to steady it. Now he drew the bow back and
+forth, slowly, steadily, till the long stick or drill revolving ground
+smoking black dust out of the notch. Then faster, until the smoke was
+very strong and the powder filled the notch. Then he lifted the flat
+stick, fanning the powder with his hands till a glowing coal appeared.
+Over this he put the cedar tinder and blew gently, till it flamed, and
+soon the wigwam was aglow.
+
+The whole time taken, from lifting the sticks to the blazing fire, was
+less than one minute.
+
+This is the ancient way of the Indian; Rolf had often heard of it as a
+sort of semi-myth; never before had he seen it, and so far as he could
+learn from the books, it took an hour or two of hard work, not a few
+deft touches and a few seconds of time.
+
+He soon learned to do it himself, and in the years which followed,
+he had the curious experience of showing it to many Indians who had
+forgotten how, thanks to the greater portability of the white man's
+flint and steel.
+
+As they walked in the woods that day, they saw three trees that had been
+struck by lightning during the recent storm; all three were oaks. Then
+it occurred to Rolf that he had never seen any but an oak struck by
+lightning.
+
+“Is it so, Quonab?”
+
+“No, there are many others; the lightning strikes the oaks most of all,
+but it will strike the pine, the ash, the hemlock, the basswood, and
+many more. Only two trees have I never seen struck, the balsam and the
+birch.”
+
+“Why do they escape?”
+
+“My father told me when I was a little boy it was because they sheltered
+and warmed the Star-girl, who was the sister of the Thunder-bird.”
+
+“I never heard that; tell me about it.”
+
+“Sometime maybe, not now.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 12. Hunting the Woodchucks
+
+Cornmeal and potatoes, with tea and apples, three times a day, are apt
+to lose their charm. Even fish did not entirely satisfy the craving for
+flesh meat. So Quonab and Rolf set out one morning on a regular hunt for
+food. The days of big game were over on the Asamuk, but there were still
+many small kinds and none more abundant than the woodchuck, hated of
+farmers. Not without reason. Each woodchuck hole in the field was a
+menace to the horses' legs. Tradition, at least, said that horses' legs
+and riders' necks had been broken by the steed setting foot in one of
+these dangerous pitfalls: besides which, each chuck den was the hub
+centre of an area of desolation whenever located, as mostly it was, in
+the cultivated fields. Undoubtedly the damage was greatly exaggerated,
+but the farmers generally agreed that the woodchuck was a pest.
+
+Whatever resentment the tiller of the soil might feel against the
+Indian's hunting quail on his land, he always welcomed him as a killer
+of woodchucks.
+
+And the Indian looked on this animal as fair game and most excellent
+eating.
+
+Rolf watched eagerly when Quonab, taking his bow and arrows, said they
+were going out for a meat hunt. Although there were several fields
+with woodchucks resident, they passed cautiously from one to another,
+scanning the green expanse for the dark-brown spots that meant
+woodchucks out foraging. At length they found one, with a large and two
+small moving brown things among the clover. The large one stood up on
+its hind legs from time to time, ever alert for danger. It was a broad,
+open field, without cover; but close to the cleared place in which,
+doubtless, was the den, there was a ridge that Quonab judged would help
+him to approach.
+
+Rolf was instructed to stay in hiding and make some Indian signs that
+the hunter could follow when he should lose sight of the prey. First,
+“Come on” (beckoning); and, second, “Stop,” (hand raised, palm forward);
+“All right” (hand drawn across level and waist high); forefinger moved
+forward, level, then curved straight down, meant “gone in hole.” But
+Rolf was not to sign anything or move, unless Quonab asked him by making
+the question sign (that is waving his hand with palm forward and spread
+fingers).
+
+Quonab went back into the woods, then behind the stone walls to get
+around to the side next the ridge, and crawling so flat on his breast in
+the clover that, although it was but a foot high, he was quite invisible
+to any one not placed much above him.
+
+In this way he came to the little ridge back of the woodchuck den, quite
+unknown to its occupants. But now he was in a difficulty. He could not
+see any of them.
+
+They were certainly beyond range of his bow, and it was difficult to
+make them seek the den without their rushing into it. But he was
+equal to the occasion. He raised one hand and made the query sign, and
+watching Rolf he got answer, “All well; they are there.” (A level sweep
+of the flat hand and a finger pointing steadily.) Then he waited a few
+seconds and made exactly the same sign, getting the same answer.
+
+He knew that the movement of the distant man would catch the eye of the
+old woodchuck; she would sit up high to see what it was, and when it
+came a second time she would, without being exactly alarmed, move toward
+the den and call the young ones to follow.
+
+The hunter had not long to wait. He heard her shrill, warning whistle,
+then the big chuck trotted and waddled into sight, stopping occasionally
+to nibble or look around. Close behind her were the two fat cubs.
+Arrived near the den their confidence was restored, and again they began
+to feed, the young ones close to the den. Then Quonab put a blunt bird
+dart in his bow and laid two others ready. Rising as little as possible,
+he drew the bow. 'Tsip! the blunt arrow hit the young chuck on the nose
+and turned him over. The other jumped in surprise and stood up. So did
+the mother. 'Tsip! another bolt and the second chuck was kicking. But
+the old one dashed like a flash into the underground safety of her den.
+Quonab knew that she had seen nothing of him and would likely come forth
+very soon. He waited for some time; then the gray-brown muzzle of the
+fat old clover-stealer came partly to view; but it was not enough for
+a shot, and she seemed to have no idea of coming farther. The Indian
+waited what seemed like a long time, then played an ancient trick. He
+began to whistle a soft, low air. Whether the chuck thinks it is another
+woodchuck calling, or merely a pleasant sound, is not known, but she
+soon did as her kind always does, came out of the hole slowly and ever
+higher, till she was half out and sitting up, peering about.
+
+This was Quonab's chance. He now drew a barbed hunting arrow to the head
+and aimed it behind her shoulders. 'Tsip! and the chuck was transfixed
+by a shaft that ended her life a minute later, and immediately prevented
+that instinctive scramble into the hole, by which so many chucks elude
+the hunter, even when mortally wounded.
+
+Now Quonab stood up without further concealment, and beckoned to Rolf,
+who came running. Three fat woodchucks meant abundance of the finest
+fresh meat for a week; and those who have not tried it have no idea
+what a delicacy is a young, fat, clover-fed woodchuck, pan-roasted, with
+potatoes, and served at a blazing campfire to a hunter who is young,
+strong, and exceedingly hungry.
+
+
+
+Chapter 13. The Fight with the Demon of the Deep
+
+One morning, as they passed the trail that skirts the pond, Quonab
+pointed to the near water. There was something afloat like a small,
+round leaf, with two beads well apart, on it. Then Rolf noticed, two
+feet away, a larger floating leaf, and now he knew that the first was
+the head and eyes, the last the back, of a huge snapping turtle. A
+moment more and it quickly sank from view. Turtles of three different
+kinds were common, and snappers were well known to Rolf; but never
+before had he seen such a huge and sinister-looking monster of the deep.
+
+“That is Bosikado. I know him; he knows me,” said the red man. “There
+has long been war between us; some day we will settle it. I saw him
+here first three years ago. I had shot a duck; it floated on the water.
+Before I could get to it something pulled it under, and that was the
+last of it. Then a summer duck came with young ones. One by one he took
+them, and at last got her. He drives all ducks away, so I set many night
+lines for him. I got some little snappers, eight and ten pounds each.
+They were good to eat, and three times already I took Bosikado on the
+hooks, but each time when I pulled him up to the canoe, he broke my
+biggest line and went down. He was as broad as the canoe; his claws
+broke through the canoe skin; he made it bulge and tremble. He looked
+like the devil of the lake. I was afraid!
+
+“But my father taught me there is only one thing that can shame a
+man--that is to be afraid, and I said I will never let fear be my guide.
+I will seek a fair fight with Bosikado. He is my enemy. He made me
+afraid once; I will make him much afraid. For three years we have been
+watching each other. For three years he has kept all summer ducks away,
+and robbed my fish-lines, my nets, and my muskrat traps. Not often do I
+see him--mostly like today.
+
+“Before Skookum I had a little dog, Nindai. He was a good little dog. He
+could tree a coon, catch a rabbit, or bring out a duck, although he was
+very small. We were very good friends. One time I shot a duck; it fell
+into the lake; I called Nindai. He jumped into the water and swam to
+the duck. Then that duck that I thought dead got up and flew away, so I
+called Nindai. He came across the water to me. By and by, over that deep
+place, he howled and splashed. Then he yelled, like he wanted me. I ran
+for the canoe and paddled quick; I saw my little dog Nindai go down.
+Then I knew it was that Bosikado again. I worked a long time with a
+pole, but found nothing; only five days later one of Nindai's paws
+floated down the stream. Some day I will tear open that Bosikado!
+
+“Once I saw him on the bank. He rolled down like a big stone to the
+water. He looked at me before he dived, and as we looked in each other's
+eyes I knew he was a Manito; but he is evil, and my father said, 'When
+an evil Manito comes to trouble you, you must kill him.'
+
+“One day, when I swam after a dead duck, he took me by the toe, but I
+reached shallow water and escaped him; and once I drove my fish-spear
+in his back, but it was not strong enough to hold him. Once he caught
+Skookum's tail, but the hair came out; the dog has not since swum across
+the pond.
+
+“Twice I have seen him like today and might have killed him with the
+gun, but I want to meet him fighting. Many a time I have sat on the bank
+and sung to him the 'Coward's Song,' and dared him to come and fight in
+the shallow water where we are equals. He hears me. He does not come.
+
+“I know he made me sick last winter; even now he is making trouble with
+his evil magic. But my magic must prevail, and some day we shall meet.
+He made me afraid once. I will make him much afraid, and will meet him
+in the water.”
+
+Not many days were to pass before the meeting. Rolf had gone for water
+at the well, which was a hole dug ten feet from the shore of the lake.
+He had learned the hunter's cautious trick of going silently and peering
+about, before he left cover. On a mud bank in a shallow bay, some fifty
+yards off, he described a peculiar gray and greenish form that he slowly
+made out to be a huge turtle, sunning itself. The more he looked and
+gauged it with things about, the bigger it seemed. So he slunk back
+quickly and silently to Quonab. “He is out sunning himself--Bosikado--on
+the bank!”
+
+The Indian rose quickly, took his tomahawk and a strong line. Rolf
+reached for the gun, but Quonab shook his head. They went to the lake.
+Yes! There was the great, goggle-eyed monster, like a mud-coloured
+log. The bank behind him was without cover. It would be impossible to
+approach the watchful creature within striking distance before he could
+dive. Quonab would not use the gun; in this case he felt he must atone
+by making an equal fight. He quickly formed a plan; he fastened the
+tomahawk and the coiled rope to his belt, then boldly and silently
+slipped into the lake, to approach the snapper from the water
+side--quite the easiest in this case, not only because the snapper would
+naturally watch on the land side, but because there was a thick clump of
+rushes behind which the swimmer could approach.
+
+Then, as instructed, Rolf went back into the woods, and came silently
+to a place whence he could watch the snapper from a distance of twenty
+yards.
+
+The boy's heart beat fast as he watched the bold swimmer and the savage
+reptile. There could be little doubt that the creature weighed a
+hundred pounds. It is the strongest for its size and the fiercest of all
+reptiles. Its jaws, though toothless, have cutting edges, a sharp beak,
+and power to the crushing of bones. Its armour makes it invulnerable to
+birds and beasts of prey. Like a log it lay on the beach, with its long
+alligator tail stretched up the bank and its serpentine head and tiny
+wicked eyes vigilantly watching the shore. Its shell, broad and ancient,
+was fringed with green moss, and its scaly armpits exposed, were decked
+with leeches, at which a couple of peetweets pecked with eager interest,
+apparently to the monster's satisfaction. Its huge limbs and claws were
+in marked contrast to the small, red eyes. But the latter it was that
+gave the thrill of unnervement.
+
+Sunk down nearly out of sight, the Indian slowly reached the reeds. Here
+he found bottom, and pausing, he took the rope in one hand, the tomahawk
+in the other, and dived, and when he reappeared he was within ten yards
+of the enemy, and in water but four feet deep.
+
+With a sudden rush the reptile splashed into the pond and out of sight,
+avoiding the rope noose. But Quonab clutched deep in the water as
+it passed, and seized the monster's rugged tail. Then it showed its
+strength. In a twinkling that mighty tail was swung sidewise, crushing
+the hand with terrible force against the sharp-edged points of the back
+armour. It took all the Indian's grit to hold on to that knife-edged war
+club. He dropped his tomahawk, then with his other hand swung the rope
+to catch the turtle's head, but it lurched so quickly that the rope
+missed again, slipped over the shell, and, as they struggled, encircled
+one huge paw. The Indian jerked it tight, and they were bound together.
+But now his only weapon was down at the bottom and the water all
+muddied. He could not see, but plunged to grope for the tomahawk. The
+snapper gave a great lurch to escape, releasing the injured hand, but
+jerking the man off his legs. Then, finding itself held by a forepaw, it
+turned with gaping, hissing jaws, and sprang on the foe that struggled
+in bottom of the water.
+
+The snapper has the bulldog habit to seize and hold till the piece tears
+out. In the muddy water it had to seize in the dark, and fending first
+the left arm of its foe, fastened on with fierce beak and desperate
+strength. At this moment Quonab recovered his tomahawk; rising into the
+air he dragged up the hanging snapper, and swung the weapon with all the
+force of his free arm. The blow sank through the monster's shell, deep
+into its back, without any visible effect, except to rob the Indian of
+his weapon as he could not draw it out.
+
+Then Rolf rushed into the water to help. But Quonab gasped, “No, no, go
+back--I'm alone.”
+
+The creature's jaws were locked on his arm, but its front claws, tearing
+downward and outward, were demolishing the coat that had protected it,
+and long lines of mingled blood were floating on the waves.
+
+After a desperate plunge toward shallow water, Quonab gave another
+wrench to the tomahawk--it moved, loosed; another, and it was free.
+Then “chop, chop, chop,” and that long, serpentine neck was severed; the
+body, waving its great scaly legs and lashing its alligator tail, went
+swimming downward, but the huge head, blinking its bleary, red eyes and
+streaming with blood, was clinched on his arm. The Indian made for the
+bank hauling the rope that held the living body, and fastened it to a
+tree, then drew his knife to cut the jaw muscles of the head that ground
+its beak into his flesh. But the muscles were protected by armour
+plates and bone; he could not deal a stab to end their power. In vain he
+fumbled and slashed, until in a spasmodic quiver the jaws gaped wide and
+the bloody head fell to the ground. Again it snapped, but a tree branch
+bore the brunt; on this the strong jaws clinched, and so remained.
+
+For over an hour the headless body crawled, or tried to crawl, always
+toward the lake. And now they could look at the enemy. Not his size so
+much as his weight surprised them. Although barely four feet long, he
+was so heavy that Rolf could not lift him. Quonab's scratches were many
+but slight; only the deep bill wound made his arm and the bruises of the
+jaws were at all serious and of these he made light. Headed by Skookum
+in full 'yap,' they carried the victim's body to camp; the head, still
+dutching the stick, was decorated with three feathers, then set on a
+pole near the wigwam. And the burden of the red man's song when next he
+sang was:
+
+“Bosikado, mine enemy was mighty, But I went into his country And made
+him afraid!”
+
+
+
+Chapter 14. Selectman Horton Appears at the Rock
+
+Summer was at its height on the Asamuk. The woodthrush was nearing the
+end of its song; a vast concourse of young robins in their speckled
+plumage joined chattering every night in the thickest cedars; and one or
+two broods of young ducks were seen on the Pipestave Pond.
+
+Rolf had grown wonderfully well into his wigwam life. He knew now
+exactly how to set the flap so as to draw out all the smoke, no matter
+which way the wind blew; he had learned the sunset signs, which tell
+what change of wind the night might bring. He knew without going to the
+shore whether the tide was a little ebb, with poor chances, or a mighty
+outflow that would expose the fattest oyster beds. His practiced fingers
+told at a touch whether it was a turtle or a big fish on his night line;
+and by the tone of the tom-tom he knew when a rainstorm was at hand.
+
+Being trained in industry, he had made many improvements in their camp,
+not the least of which was to clean up and burn all the rubbish and
+garbage that attracted hordes of flies. He had fitted into the camp
+partly by changing it to fit himself, and he no longer felt that his
+stay there was a temporary shift. When it was to end, he neither knew
+nor cared. He realized only that he was enjoying life as he never had
+done before. His canoe had passed a lot of rapids and was now in a
+steady, unbroken stream--but it was the swift shoot before the fall.
+A lull in the clamour does not mean the end of war, but a new onset
+preparing; and, of course, it came in the way least looked for.
+
+Selectman Horton stood well with the community; he was a man of good
+judgment, good position, and kind heart. He was owner of all the
+woods along the Asamuk, and thus the Indian's landlord on the Indian's
+ancestral land. Both Rolf and Quonab had worked for Horton, and so they
+knew him well, and liked him for his goodness.
+
+It was Wednesday morning, late in July, when Selectman Horton,
+clean-shaven and large, appeared at the wigwam under the rock.
+
+“Good morrow to ye both!” Then without wasting time he plunged in.
+“There's been some controversy and much criticism of the selectmen for
+allowing a white lad, the child of Christian parents, the grandson of a
+clergyman, to leave all Christian folk and folds, and herd with a pagan,
+to become, as it were, a mere barbarian. I hold not, indeed, with those
+that out of hand would condemn as godless a good fellow like Quonab,
+who, in my certain knowledge and according to his poor light, doth
+indeed maintain in some kind a daily worship of a sort. Nevertheless,
+the selectmen, the magistrates, the clergy, the people generally, and
+above all the Missionary Society, are deeply moved in the matter. It
+hath even been made a personal charge against myself, and with much
+bitterness I am held up as unzealous for allowing such a nefarious
+stronghold of Satan to continue on mine own demesne, and harbour one,
+escaped, as it were, from grace. Acting, therefore, not according to my
+heart, but as spokesman of the Town Council, the Synod of Elders, and
+the Society for the Promulgation of Godliness among the Heathen, I am
+to state that you, Rolf Kittering, being without kinsfolk and under age,
+are in verity a ward of the parish, and as such, it hath been arranged
+that you become a member of the household of the most worthy Elder
+Ezekiel Peck, a household filled with the spirit of estimable piety and
+true doctrine; a man, indeed, who, notwithstanding his exterior coldness
+and severity, is very sound in all matters regarding the Communion of
+Saints, and, I may even say in a measure a man of fame for some most
+excellent remarks he hath passed on the shorter catechism, beside which
+he hath gained much approval for having pointed out two hidden meanings
+in the 27th verse of the 12th chapter of Hebrews; one whose very
+presence, therefore, is a guarantee against levity, laxity, and false
+preachment.
+
+“There, now, my good lad, look not so like a colt that feels the whip
+for the first time. You will have a good home, imbued with the spirit of
+a most excellent piety that will be ever about you.”
+
+“Like a colt feeling the whip,” indeed! Rolf reeled like a stricken
+deer. To go back as a chore-boy drudge was possible, but not alluring;
+to leave Quonab, just as the wood world was opening to him, was
+devastating; but to exchange it all for bondage in the pious household
+of Old Peck, whose cold cruelty had driven off all his own children, was
+an accumulation of disasters that aroused him.
+
+“I won't go!” he blurted out, and gazed defiantly at the broad and
+benevolent selectman.
+
+“Come now, Rolf, such language is unbecoming. Let not a hasty tongue
+betray you into sin. This is what your mother would have wished. Be
+sensible; you will soon find it was all for the best. I have ever liked
+you, and will ever be a friend you can count on.
+
+“Acting, not according to my instructions, but according to my heart,
+I will say further that you need not come now, you need not even give
+answer now, but think it over. Nevertheless, remember that on or before
+Monday morning next, you will be expected to appear at Elder Peck's, and
+I fear that, in case you fail, the messenger next arriving will be
+one much less friendly than myself. Come now, Rolf, be a good lad, and
+remember that in your new home you will at least be living for the glory
+of God.”
+
+Then, with a friendly nod, but an expression of sorrow, the large, black
+messenger turned and tramped away.
+
+Rolf slowly, limply, sank down on a rock and stared at the fire. After
+awhile Quonab got up and began to prepare the mid-day meal. Usually Rolf
+helped him. Now he did nothing but sullenly glare at the glowing coals.
+In half an hour the food was ready. He ate little; then went away in the
+woods by himself. Quonab saw him lying on a flat rock, looking at the
+pond, and throwing pebbles into it. Later Quonab went to Myanos. On his
+return he found that Rolf had cut up a great pile of wood, but not a
+word passed between them. The look of sullen anger and rebellion on
+Rolf's face was changing to one of stony despair. What was passing in
+each mind the other could not divine.
+
+The evening meal was eaten in silence; then Quonab smoked for an hour,
+both staring into the fire. A barred owl hooted and laughed over their
+heads, causing the dog to jump up and bark at the sound that ordinarily
+he would have heeded not at all. Then silence was restored, and the red
+man's hidden train of thought was in a flash revealed.
+
+“Rolf, let's go to the North Woods!”
+
+It was another astounding idea. Rolf had realized more and more how much
+this valley meant to Quonab, who worshipped the memory of his people.
+
+“And leave all this?” he replied, making a sweep with his hand toward
+the rock, the Indian trail, the site of bygone Petuquapen, and the
+graves of the tribe.
+
+For reply their eyes met, and from the Indian's deep chest came the
+single word, “Ugh.” One syllable, deep and descending, but what a tale
+it told of the slowly engendered and strong-grown partiality, of a
+struggle that had continued since the morning when the selectman came
+with words of doom, and of friendship's victory won.
+
+Rolf realized this, and it gave him a momentary choking in his throat,
+and, “I'm ready if you really mean it.”
+
+“Ugh I go, but some day come back.”
+
+There was a long silence, then Rolf, “When shall we start?” and the
+answer, “To-morrow night.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 15. Bound for the North Woods
+
+When Quonab left camp in the morning he went heavy laden, and the
+trail he took led to Myanos. There was nothing surprising in it when
+he appeared at Silas Peck's counter and offered for sale a pair of
+snowshoes, a bundle of traps, some dishes of birch bark and basswood,
+and a tom-tom, receiving in exchange some tea, tobacco, gunpowder, and
+two dollars in cash. He turned without comment, and soon was back in
+camp. He now took the kettle into the woods and brought it back filled
+with bark, fresh chipped from a butternut tree. Water was added, and the
+whole boiled till it made a deep brown liquid. When this was cooled he
+poured it into a flat dish, then said to Rolf: “Come now, I make you a
+Sinawa.”
+
+With a soft rag the colour was laid on. Face, head, neck, and hands were
+all at first intended, but Rolf said, “May as well do the whole thing.”
+ So he stripped off; the yellow brown juice on his white skin turned it
+a rich copper colour, and he was changed into an Indian lad that none
+would have taken for Rolf Kittering. The stains soon dried, and Rolf,
+re-clothed, felt that already he had burned a bridge.
+
+Two portions of the wigwam cover were taken off; and two packs were
+made of the bedding. The tomahawk, bows, arrows, and gun, with the few
+precious food pounds in the copper pot, were divided between them and
+arranged into packs with shoulder straps; then all was ready. But there
+was one thing more for Quonab; he went up alone to the rock. Rolf knew
+what he went for, and judged it best not to follow.
+
+The Indian lighted his pipe, blew the four smokes to the four winds,
+beginning with the west, then he sat in silence for a time. Presently
+the prayer for good hunting came from the rock:
+
+     “Father lead us!
+     Father, help us!
+     Father, guide us to the good hunting.”
+
+And when that ceased a barred owl hooted in the woods, away to the
+north.
+
+“Ugh! good,” was all he said as he rejoined Rolf; and they set out, as
+the sun went down, on their long journey due northward, Quonab, Rolf,
+and Skookum. They had not gone a hundred yards before the dog turned
+back, raced to a place where he had a bone in cache and rejoining there
+trotted along with his bone.
+
+The high road would have been the easier travelling, but it was very
+necessary to be unobserved, so they took the trail up the brook Asamuk,
+and after an hour's tramp came out by the Cat-Rock road that runs
+westerly. Again they were tempted by the easy path, but again Quonab
+decided on keeping to the woods. Half an hour later they were halted by
+Skookum treeing a coon. After they had secured the dog, they tramped on
+through the woods for two hours more, and then, some eight miles from
+the Pipestave, they halted, Rolf, at least, tired out. It was now
+midnight. They made a hasty double bed of the canvas cover over a pole
+above them, and slept till morning, cheered, as they closed their drowsy
+eyes, by the “Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, yah, hoo,” of their friend, the barred
+owl, still to the northward.
+
+The sun was high, and Quonab had breakfast ready before Rolf awoke. He
+was so stiff with the tramp and the heavy pack that it was with secret
+joy he learned that they were to rest, concealed in the woods, that day,
+and travel only by night, until in a different region, where none knew
+or were likely to stop them. They were now in York State, but that did
+not by any means imply that they were beyond pursuit.
+
+As the sun rose high, Rolf went forth with his bow and blunt arrows, and
+then, thanks largely to Skookum, he succeeded in knocking over a couple
+of squirrels, which, skinned and roasted, made their dinner that day.
+At night they set out as before, making about ten miles. The third night
+they did better, and the next day being Sunday, they kept out of sight.
+But Monday morning, bright and clear, although it was the first morning
+when they were sure of being missed, they started to tramp openly along
+the highway, with a sense of elation that they had not hitherto known
+on the joumey. Two things impressed Rolf by their novelty: the curious
+stare of the country folk whose houses and teams they passed, and the
+violent antagonism of the dogs. Usually the latter could be quelled by
+shaking a stick at them, or by pretending to pick up a stone, but one
+huge and savage brindled mastiff kept following and barking just out of
+stick range, and managed to give Skookum a mauling, until Quonab drew
+his bow and let fly a blunt arrow that took the brute on the end of
+the nose, and sent him howling homeward, while Skookum got a few highly
+satisfactory nips at the enemy's rear. Twenty miles they made that day
+and twenty-five the next, for now they were on good roads, and their
+packs were lighter. More than once they found kind farmer folk who gave
+them a meal. But many times Skookum made trouble for them. The farmers
+did not like the way he behaved among their hens. Skookum never could be
+made to grasp the fine zoological distinction between partridges which
+are large birds and fair game, and hens which are large birds, but not
+fair game. Such hair splitting was obviously unworthy of study, much
+less of acceptance.
+
+Soon it was clearly better for Rolf, approaching a house, to go alone,
+while Quonab held Skookum. The dogs seemed less excited by Rolf's smell,
+and remembering his own attitude when tramps came to one or another
+of his ancient homes, he always asked if they would let him work for a
+meal, and soon remarked that his success was better when he sought first
+the women of the house, and then, smiling to show his very white teeth,
+spoke in clear and un-Indian English, which had the more effect coming
+from an evident Indian.
+
+“Since I am to be an Indian, Quonab, you must give me an Indian name,”
+ he said after one of these episodes.
+
+“Ugh! Good! That's easy! You are 'Nibowaka,' the wise one.” For the
+Indian had not missed any of the points, and so he was named.
+
+Twenty or thirty miles a day they went now, avoiding the settlements
+along the river. Thus they saw nothing of Albany, but on the tenth
+day they reached Fort Edward, and for the first time viewed the great
+Hudson. Here they stayed as short a time as might be, pushed on by
+Glen's Falls, and on the eleventh night of the journey they passed the
+old, abandoned fort, and sighted the long stretch of Lake George, with
+its wooded shore, and glimpses of the mountains farther north.
+
+Now a new thought possessed them--“If only they had the canoe that they
+had abandoned on the Pipestave.” It came to them both at the sight of
+the limit less water, and especially when Rolf remembered that Lake
+George joined with Champlain, which again was the highway to all the
+wilderness.
+
+They camped now as they had fifty times before, and made their meal. The
+bright blue water dancing near was alluring, inspiring; as they sought
+the shore Quonab pointed to a track and said, “Deer.” He did not show
+much excitement, but Rolf did, and they returned to the camp fire with
+a new feeling of elation--they had reached the Promised Land. Now they
+must prepare for the serious work of finding a hunting ground that was
+not already claimed.
+
+Quonab, remembering the ancient law of the woods, that parcels off the
+valleys, each to the hunter first arriving, or succeeding the one who
+had, was following his own line of thought. Rolf was puzzling over means
+to get an outfit, canoe, traps, axes, and provisions. The boy broke
+silence.
+
+“Quonab, we must have money to get an outfit; this is the beginning of
+harvest; we can easily get work for a month. That will feed us and give
+us money enough to live on, and a chance to learn something about the
+country.”
+
+The reply was simple, “You are Nibowaka.”
+
+The farms were few and scattered here, but there were one or two along
+the lake. To the nearest one with standing grain Rolf led the way. But
+their reception, from the first brush with the dog to the final tilt
+with the farmer, was unpleasant--“He didn't want any darn red-skins
+around there. He had had two St. Regis Indians last year, and they were
+a couple of drunken good-for-nothings.”
+
+The next was the house of a fat Dutchman, who was just wondering how he
+should meet the compounded accumulated emergencies of late hay, early
+oats, weedy potatoes, lost cattle, and a prospective increase of
+his family, when two angels of relief appeared at his door, in
+copper-coloured skins.
+
+“Cahn yo work putty goood?
+
+“Yes, I have always lived on a farm,” and Rolf showed his hands, broad
+and heavy for his years.
+
+“Cahn yo mebby find my lost cows, which I haf not find, already yet?”
+
+Could they! it would be fun to try.
+
+“I giff yo two dollars you pring dem putty kvick.”
+
+So Quonab took the trail to the woods, and Rolf started into the
+potatoes with a hoe, but he was stopped by a sudden outcry of poultry.
+Alas! It was Skookum on an ill-judged partridge hunt. A minute later he
+was ignominiously chained to a penitential post, nor left it during the
+travellers' sojourn.
+
+In the afternoon Quonab returned with the cattle, and as he told Rolf he
+saw five deer, there was an unmistakable hunter gleam in his eye.
+
+Three cows in milk, and which had not been milked for two days, was a
+serious matter, needing immediate attention. Rolf had milked five cows
+twice a day for five years, and a glance showed old Van Trumper that the
+boy was an expert.
+
+“Good, good! I go now make feed swine.”
+
+He went into the outhouse, but a tow-topped, redcheeked girl ran after
+him. “Father, father, mother says--” and the rest was lost.
+
+“Myn Hemel! Myn Hemel! I thought it not so soon,” and the fat Dutchman
+followed the child. A moment later he reappeared, his jolly face clouded
+with a look of grave concern. “Hi yo big Injun, yo cahn paddle canoe?”
+ Quonab nodded. “Den coom. Annette, pring Tomas und Hendrik.” So
+the father carried two-year-old Hendrik, while the Indian carried
+six-year-old Tomas, and twelve-year-old Annette followed in vague,
+uncomprehended alarm. Arrived at the shore the children were placed in
+the canoe, and then the difficulties came fully to the father's
+mind--he could not leave his wife. He must send the children with the
+messenger--In a sort of desperation, “Cahn you dem childen take to de
+house across de lake, and pring back Mrs. Callan? Tell her Marta Van
+Trumper need her right now mooch very kvick.” The Indian nodded. Then
+the father hesitated, but a glance at the Indian was enough. Something
+said, “He is safe,” and in spite of sundry wails from the little ones
+left with a dark stranger, he pushed off the canoe: “Yo take care for my
+babies,” and turned his brimming eyes away.
+
+The farmhouse was only two miles off, and the evening calm; no time was
+lost: what woman will not instantly drop all work and all interests, to
+come to the help of another in the trial time of motherhood?
+
+Within an hour the neighbour's wife was holding hands with the mother of
+the banished tow-heads. He who tempers the wind and appoints the season
+of the wild deer hinds had not forgotten the womanhood beyond the reach
+of skilful human help, and with the hard and lonesome life had conjoined
+a sweet and blessed compensation. What would not her sister of the city
+give for such immunity; and long before that dark, dread hour of
+night that brings the ebbing life force low, the wonderful miracle was
+complete; there was another tow-top in the settler's home, and all was
+well.
+
+
+
+Chapter 16. Life with the Dutch Settler
+
+The Indians slept in the luxuriant barn of logs, with blankets, plenty
+of hay, and a roof. They were more than content, for now, on the edge of
+the wilderness, they were very close to wild life. Not a day or a night
+passed without bringing proof of that.
+
+One end of the barn was portioned off for poultry. In this the working
+staff of a dozen hens were doing their duty, which, on that first night
+of the “brown angels' visit,” consisted of silent slumber, when all at
+once the hens and the new hands were aroused by a clamorous cackling,
+which speedily stopped. It sounded like a hen falling in a bad dream,
+then regaining her perch to go to sleep again. But next morning the body
+of one of these highly esteemed branches of the egg-plant was found in
+the corner, partly devoured. Quonab examined the headless hen, the dust
+around, and uttered the word, “Mink.”
+
+Rolf said, “Why not skunk?”
+
+“Skunk could not climb to the perch.”
+
+“Weasel then.”
+
+“Weasel would only suck the blood, and would kill three or four.”
+
+“Coon would carry him away, so would fox or wildcat, and a marten would
+not come into the building by night.”
+
+There was no question, first, that it was a mink, and, second, that he
+was hiding about the barn until the hunger pang should send him again
+to the hen house. Quonab covered the hen's body with two or three large
+stones so that there was only one approach. In the way of this approach
+he buried a “number one” trap.
+
+That night they were aroused again; this time by a frightful screeching,
+and a sympathetic, inquiring cackle from the fowls.
+
+Arising, quickly they entered with a lantem. Rolf then saw a sight that
+gave him a prickling in his hair. The mink, a large male, was caught by
+one front paw. He was writhing and foaming, tearing, sometimes at the
+trap, sometimes at the dead hen, and sometimes at his own imprisoned
+foot, pausing now and then to utter the most ear-piercing shrieks, then
+falling again in crazy animal fury on the trap, splintering his sharp
+white teeth, grinding the cruel metal with bruised and bloody jaws,
+frothing, snarling, raving mad. As his foemen entered he turned on them
+a hideous visage of inexpressible fear and hate, rage and horror.
+His eyes glanced back green fire in the lantern light; he strained in
+renewed efforts to escape; the air was rank with his musky smell. The
+impotent fury of his struggle made a picture that continued in Rolf's
+mind. Quonab took a stick and with a single blow put an end to the
+scene, but never did Rolf forget it, and never afterward was he a
+willing partner when the trapping was done with those relentless jaws of
+steel.
+
+A week later another hen was missing, and the door of the hen house left
+open. After a careful examination of the dust, inside and out of the
+building, Quonab said, “Coon.” It is very unusual for coons to raid a
+hen house. Usually it is some individual with abnormal tastes, and once
+he begins, he is sure to come back. The Indian judged that he might be
+back the next night, so prepared a trap. A rope was passed from the door
+latch to a tree; on this rope a weight was hung, so that the door was
+selfshutting, and to make it self-locking he leaned a long pole against
+it inside. Now he propped it open with a single platform, so set that
+the coon must walk on it once he was inside, and so release the door.
+The trappers thought they would hear in the night when the door closed,
+but they were sleepy; they knew nothing until next morning. Then they
+found that the self-shutter had shut, and inside, crouched in one of the
+nesting boxes, was a tough, old fighting coon. Strange to tell, he had
+not touched a second hen. As soon as he found himself a prisoner he had
+experienced a change of heart, and presently his skin was nailed on the
+end of the barn and his meat was hanging in the larder.
+
+“Is this a marten,” asked little Annette. And when told not,
+her disappointment elicited the information that old Warren, the
+storekeeper, had promised her a blue cotton dress for a marten skin.
+
+“You shall have the first one I catch,” said Rolf.
+
+Life in Van Trumper's was not unpleasant. The mother was going about
+again in a week. Annette took charge of the baby, as well as of
+the previous arrivals. Hendrik senior was gradually overcoming his
+difficulties, thanks to the unexpected help, and a kindly spirit made
+the hard work not so very hard. The shyness that was at first felt
+toward the Indians wore off, especially in the case of Rolf, he was
+found so companionable; and the Dutchman, after puzzling over the
+combination of brown skin and blue eyes, decided that Rolf was a
+half-breed.
+
+August wore on not unpleasantly for the boy, but Quonab was getting
+decidedly restless. He could work for a week as hard as any white man,
+but his race had not risen to the dignity of patient, unremitting,
+life-long toil.
+
+“How much money have we now, Nibowaka?” was one of the mid-August
+indications of restlessness. Rolf reckoned up; half a month for Quonab,
+$15.00; for himself, $10.00; for finding the cows $2.00--$27.00 in all.
+Not enough.
+
+Three days later Quonab reckoned up again. Next day he said: “We need
+two months' open water to find a good country and build a shanty.” Then
+did Rolf do the wise thing; he went to fat Hendrik and told him all
+about it. They wanted to get a canoe and an outfit, and seek for a
+trapping or hunting ground that would not encroach on those already
+possessed, for the trapping law is rigid; even the death penalty is not
+considered too high in certain cases of trespass, provided the injured
+party is ready to be judge, jury, and executioner. Van Trumper was able
+to help them not a little in the matter of location--there was no use
+trying on the Vermont side, nor anywhere near Lake Champlain, nor near
+Lake George; neither was it worth while going to the far North, as the
+Frenchmen came in there, and they were keen hunters, so that
+Hamilton County was more promising than any other, but it was almost
+inaccessible, remote from all the great waterways, and of course without
+roads; its inaccessibility was the reason why it was little known. So
+far so good; but happy Hendrik was unpleasantly surprised to learn that
+the new help were for leaving at once. Finally he made this offer: If
+they would stay till September first, and so leave all in “good shape
+fer der vinter,” he would, besides the wages agreed, give them the
+canoe, one axe, six mink traps, and a fox trap now hanging in the barn,
+and carry them in his wagon as far as the Five-mile portage from Lake
+George to Schroon River, down which they could go to its junction with
+the upper Hudson, which, followed up through forty miles of rapids and
+hard portages, would bring them to a swampy river that enters from the
+southwest, and ten miles up this would bring them to Jesup's Lake, which
+is two miles wide and twelve miles long. This country abounded with
+game, but was so hard to enter that after Jesup's death it was deserted.
+
+There was only one possible answer to such an offer--they stayed.
+
+In spare moments Quonab brought the canoe up to the barn, stripped off
+some weighty patches of bark and canvas and some massive timber thwarts,
+repaired the ribs, and when dry and gummed, its weight was below one
+hundred pounds; a saving of at least forty pounds on the soggy thing he
+crossed the lake in that first day on the farm.
+
+September came. Early in the morning Quonab went alone to the lakeside;
+there on a hill top he sat, looking toward the sunrise, and sang a song
+of the new dawn, beating, not with a tom-tom--he had none--but with one
+stick on another. And when the sunrise possessed the earth he sang again
+the hunter's song:
+
+“Father, guide our feet, Lead us to the good hunting.”
+
+Then he danced to the sound, his face skyward, his eyes closed, his feet
+barely raised, but rythmically moved. So went he three times round to
+the chant in three sun circles, dancing a sacred measure, as royal David
+might have done that day when he danced around the Ark of the Covenant
+on its homeward joumey. His face was illumined, and no man could have
+seen him then without knowing that this was a true heart's worship of a
+true God, who is in all things He has made.
+
+
+
+Chapter 17. Canoeing on the Upper Hudson
+
+     There is only one kind of a man I can't size up; that's the
+     faller that shets up and says nothing.--Sayings of Si
+     Sylvanne.
+
+A settler named Hulett had a scow that was borrowed by the neighbours
+whenever needed to take a team across the lake. On the morning of their
+journey, the Dutchman's team and wagon, the canoe and the men, were
+aboard the scow, Skookum took his proper place at the prow, and all
+was ready for “Goodbye.” Rolf found it a hard word to say. The good old
+Dutch mother had won his heart, and the children were like his brothers
+and sisters.
+
+“Coom again, lad; coom and see us kvick.” She kissed him, he kissed
+Annette and the three later issues. They boarded the scow to ply the
+poles till the deep water was reached, then the oars. An east wind
+springing up gave them a chance to profit by a wagon-cover rigged as a
+sail, and two hours later the scow was safely landed at West Side,
+where was a country store, and the head of the wagon road to the Schroon
+River.
+
+As they approached the door, they saw a rough-looking man slouching
+against the building, his hands in his pockets, his blear eyes taking in
+the new-comers with a look of contemptuous hostility. As they passed, he
+spat tobacco juice on the dog and across the feet of the men.
+
+Old Warren who kept the store was not partial to Indians, but he was
+a good friend of Hendrik and very keen to trade for fur, so the new
+trappers were well received; and now came the settling of accounts.
+Flour, oatmeal, pork, potatoes, tea, tobacco, sugar, salt, powder,
+ball, shot, clothes, lines, an inch-auger, nails, knives, awls, needles,
+files, another axe, some tin plates, and a frying pan were selected and
+added to Hendrik's account.
+
+“If I was you, I'd take a windy-sash; you'll find it mighty convenient
+in cold weather.” The store keeper led them into an outhouse where was a
+pile of six-lighted window-frames all complete. So the awkward thing was
+added to their load.
+
+“Can't I sell you a fine rifle?” and he took down a new, elegant small
+bore of the latest pattern. “Only twenty-five dollars.” Rolf shook his
+head; “part down, and I'll take the rest in fur next spring.” Rolf was
+sorely tempted; however, he had an early instilled horror of debt. He
+steadfastly said: “No.” But many times he regretted it afterward! The
+small balance remaining was settled in cash.
+
+As they were arranging and selecting, they heard a most hideous
+yelping outdoors, and a minute later Skookum limped in, crying as if
+half-killed. Quonab was out in a moment.
+
+“Did you kick my dog?”
+
+The brutal loafer changed countenance as he caught the red man's eye.
+“Naw! never touched him; hurted himself on that rake.”
+
+It was obviously a lie, but better to let it pass, and Quonab came in
+again.
+
+Then the rough stranger appeared at the door and growled: “Say, Warren!
+ain't you going to let me have that rifle? I guess my word's as good as
+the next man's.”
+
+“No,” said Warren; “I told you, no!”
+
+“Then you can go to blazes, and you'll never see a cent's worth of fur
+from the stuff I got last year.”
+
+“I don't expect to,” was the reply; “I've learned what your word's
+worth.” And the stranger slouched away.
+
+“Who vas he?” asked Hendrik.
+
+“I only know that his name is Jack Hoag; he's a little bit of a trapper
+and a big bit of a bum; stuck me last year. He doesn't come out this
+way; they say he goes out by the west side of the mountains.”
+
+New light on their course was secured from Warren, and above all, the
+important information that the mouth of Jesup's River was marked by an
+eagle's nest in a dead pine. “Up to that point keep the main stream, and
+don't forget next spring I'm buying fur.”
+
+The drive across Five-mile portage was slow. It took over two hours to
+cover it, but late that day they reached the Schroon.
+
+Here the Dutchman said “Good-bye: Coom again some noder time.” Skookum
+saluted the farmer with a final growl, then Rolf and Quonab were left
+alone in the wilderness.
+
+It was after sundown, so they set about camping for the night. A wise
+camper always prepares bed and shelter in daylight, if possible. While
+Rolf made a fire and hung the kettle, Quonab selected a level, dry place
+between two trees, and covered it with spruce boughs to make the beds,
+and last a low tent was made by putting the lodge cover over a pole
+between the trees. The ends of the covers were held down by loose
+green logs quickly cut for the purpose, and now they were safe against
+weather.
+
+Tea, potatoes, and fried pork, with maple syrup and hard-tack, made
+their meal of the time, after which there was a long smoke. Quonab took
+a stick of red willow, picked up-in the daytime, and began shaving it
+toward one end, leaving the curling shreds still on the stick. When
+these were bunched in a fuzzy mop, he held them over the fire until they
+were roasted brown; then, grinding all up in his palm with some tobacco,
+and filling his pipe he soon was enveloped in that odour of woodsy smoke
+called the “Indian smell,” by many who do not know whence or how it
+comes. Rolf did not smoke. He had promised his mother that he would
+not until he was a man, and something brought her back home now with
+overwhelming force; that was the beds they had made of fragrant balsam
+boughs. “Cho-ko-tung or blister tree” as Quonab called it. His mother
+had a little sofa pillow, brought from the North--a “northern pine”
+ pillow they called it, for it was stuffed with pine needles of a kind
+not growing in Connecticut. Many a time had Rolf as a baby pushed his
+little round nose into that bag to inhale the delicious odour it gave
+forth, and so it became the hallowed smell of all that was dear in his
+babyhood, and it never lost its potency. Smell never does. Oh, mighty
+aura! that, in marching by the nostrils, can reach and move the soul;
+how wise the church that makes this power its handmaid, and through its
+incense overwhelms all alien thought when the worshipper, wandering,
+doubting, comes again to see if it be true, that here doubt dies. Oh,
+queen of memory that is master of the soul! how fearful should we be of
+letting evil thought associated grow with some recurrent odour that
+we love. Happy, indeed, are they that find some ten times pure and
+consecrated fragrance, like the pine, which entering in is master
+of their moods, and yet through linking thoughts has all its power,
+uplifting, full of sweetness and blessed peace. So came to Rolf his
+medicine tree.
+
+The balsam fir was his tree of hallowed memory. Its odour never failed,
+and he slept that night with its influence all about him.
+
+Starting in the morning was no easy matter. There was so much to be
+adjusted that first day. Packs divided in two, new combinations to trim
+the canoe, or to raise such and such a package above a possible leak.
+The heavy things, like axes and pans, had to be fastened to the canoe or
+to packages that would float in case of an upset. The canoe itself had
+to be gummed in one or two places; but they got away after three hours,
+and began the voyage down the Schroon.
+
+This was Rolf's first water journey. He had indeed essayed the canoe on
+the Pipestave Pond, but that was a mere ferry. This was real travel. He
+marvelled at the sensitiveness of the frail craft; the delicacy of its
+balance; its quick response to the paddle; the way it seemed to shrink
+from the rocks; and the unpleasantly suggestive bend-up of the ribs
+when the bottom grounded upon a log. It was a new world for him. Quonab
+taught him never to enter the canoe except when she was afloat; never to
+rise in her or move along without hold of the gunwale; never to make a
+sudden move; and he also learned that it was easier to paddle when there
+were six feet of water underneath than when only six inches.
+
+In an hour they had covered the five miles that brought them to the
+Hudson, and here the real labour began, paddling up stream. Before long
+they came to a shallow stretch with barely enough water to float the
+canoe. Here they jumped out and waded in the stream, occasionally
+lifting a stone to one side, till they reached the upper stretch of deep
+water and again went merrily paddling. Soon they came to an impassable
+rapid, and Rolf had his first taste of a real carry or portage. Quonab's
+eye was watching the bank as soon as the fierce waters appeared; for
+the first question was, where shall we land? and the next, how far do we
+carry? There are no rapids on important rivers in temperate America
+that have not been portaged more or less for ages. No canoe man portages
+without considering most carefully when, where, and how to land. His
+selection of the place, then, is the result of careful study. He cannot
+help leaving some mark at the place, slight though it be, and the next
+man looks for that mark to save himself time and trouble.
+
+“Ugh” was the only sound that Rolf heard from his companion, and
+the canoe headed for a flat rock in the pool below the rapids. After
+landing, they found traces of an old camp fire. It was near noon now,
+so Rolf prepared the meal while Quonab took a light pack and went on to
+learn the trail. It was not well marked; had not been used for a year
+or two, evidently, but there are certain rules that guide one. The trail
+keeps near the water, unless there is some great natural barrier, and it
+is usually the easiest way in sight. Quonab kept one eye on the river,
+for navigable water was the main thing, and in about one hundred yards
+he was again on the stream's edge, at a good landing above the rapid.
+
+After the meal was finished and the Indian had smoked, they set to work.
+In a few loads each, the stuff was portaged across, and the canoe was
+carried over and moored to the bank.
+
+The cargo replaced, they went on again, but in half an hour after
+passing more shoal water, saw another rapid, not steep, but too shallow
+to float the canoe, even with both men wading. Here Quonab made what
+the Frenchmen call a demi-charge. He carried half the stuff to the bank;
+then, wading, one at each end, they hauled the canoe up the portage and
+reloaded her above. Another strip of good going was succeeded by a long
+stretch of very swift water that was two or three feet deep and between
+shores that were densely grown with alders. The Indian landed, cut two
+light, strong poles, and now, one at the bow, the other at the stern,
+they worked their way foot by foot up the fierce current until safely on
+the upper level.
+
+Yet one more style of canoe propulsion was forced on them. They came to
+a long stretch of smooth, deep, very swift water, almost a rapid-one of
+the kind that is a joy when you are coming down stream. It differed from
+the last in having shores that were not alder-hidden, but open gravel
+banks. Now did Quonab take a long, strong line from his war sack. One
+end he fastened, not to the bow, but to the forward part of the canoe,
+the other to a buckskin band which he put across his breast. Then, with
+Rolf in the stern to steer and the Indian hauling on the bank, the canoe
+was safely “tracked” up the “strong waters.”
+
+Thus they fought their way up the hard river, day after day, making
+sometimes only five miles after twelve hours' toilsome travel. Rapids,
+shoals, portages, strong waters, abounded, and before they had covered
+the fifty miles to the forks of Jesup's River, they knew right well why
+the region was so little entered.
+
+It made a hardened canoe man of Rolf, and when, on the evening of the
+fifth day, they saw a huge eagle's nest in a dead pine tree that stood
+on the edge of a long swamp, both felt they had reached their own
+country, and were glad.
+
+
+
+Chapter 18. Animal Life Along the River
+
+It must not be supposed that, because it has been duly mentioned, they
+saw no wild life along the river. The silent canoe man has the best of
+opportunities. There were plenty of deer tracks about the first camp,
+and that morning, as they turned up the Hudson, Rolf saw his first deer.
+They had rounded a point in rather swift water when Quonab gave two taps
+on the gunwale, the usual sign, “Look out,” and pointed to the shore.
+There, fifty yards away on bank, gazing at them, was a deer. Stock still
+he stood like a red statue, for he was yet in the red coat. With three
+or four strong strokes, Quonab gave a long and mighty forward spurt;
+then reached for his gun. But the deer's white flag went up. It turned
+and bounded away, the white flag the last thing to disappear. Rolf sat
+spellbound. It was so sudden; so easy; it soon melted into the woods
+again. He trembled after it was gone.
+
+Many a time in the evening they saw muskrats in the eddies, and once
+they glimpsed a black, shiny something like a monstrous leech rolling up
+and down as it travelled in the stream. Quonab whispered, “Otter,” and
+made ready his gun, but it dived and showed itself no more. At one of
+the camps they were awakened by an extraordinary tattoo in the middle of
+the night--a harsh rattle close by their heads; and they got up to find
+that a porcupine was rattling his teeth on the frying-pan in an effort
+to increase the amount of salt that he could taste on it. Skookum, tied
+to a tree, was vainly protesting against the intrusion and volunteered
+to make a public example of the invader. The campers did not finally get
+rid of the spiny one till all their kitchen stuff was hung beyond his
+reach.
+
+Once they heard the sharp, short bark of a fox, and twice or thrice
+the soft, sweet, moaning call of the gray wolf out to hunt. Wild fowl
+abounded, and their diet was varied by the ducks that one or other of
+the hunters secured at nearly every camp.
+
+On the second day they saw three deer, and on the third morning Quonab
+loaded his gun with buckshot, to be ready, then sallied forth at dawn.
+Rolf was following, but the Indian shook his head, then said: “Don't
+make fire for half an hour.”
+
+In twenty minutes Rolf heard the gun, then later the Indian returned
+with a haunch of venison, and when they left that camp they stopped a
+mile up the river to add the rest of the venison to their cargo. Seven
+other deer were seen, but no more killed; yet Rolf was burning to try
+his hand as a hunter. Many other opportunities he had, and improved some
+of them. On one wood portage he, or rather Skookum, put up a number
+of ruffed grouse. These perched in the trees above their heads and the
+travellers stopped. While the dog held their attention Rolf with blunt
+arrows knocked over five that proved most acceptable as food. But his
+thoughts were now on deer, and his ambition was to go out alone and
+return with a load of venison.
+
+Another and more thrilling experience followed quickly. Rounding a bend
+in the early dawn they sighted a black bear and two cubs rambling along
+the gravelly bank and stopping now and then to eat something that turned
+out to be crayfish.
+
+Quonab had not seen a bear since childhood, when he and his father
+hunted along the hardwood ridges back of Myanos, and now he was excited.
+He stopped paddling, warned Rolf to do the same, and let the canoe drift
+backward until out of sight; then made for the land. Quickly tying up
+the canoe he took his gun and Rolf his hunting arrows, and, holding
+Skookum in a leash, they dashed into the woods. Then, keeping out of
+sight, they ran as fast and as silently as possible in the direction
+of the bears. Of course, the wind was toward the hunters, or they never
+could have got so near. Now they were opposite the family group and
+needed only a chance for a fair shot. Sneaking forward with the utmost
+caution, they were surely within twenty-five yards, but still the bushes
+screened the crab-eaters. As the hunters sneaked, the old bear stopped
+and sniffed suspiciously; the wind changed, she got an unmistakable
+whiff; then gave a loud warning “Koff! Koff! Koff! Koff!” and ran as
+fast as she could. The hunters knowing they were discovered rushed out,
+yelling as loudly as possible, in hopes of making the bears tree. The
+old bear ran like a horse with Skookum yapping bravely in her rear. The
+young ones, left behind, lost sight of her, and, utterly bewildered by
+the noise, made for a tree conveniently near and scrambled up into the
+branches. “Now,” Rolf thought, judging by certain tales he had heard,
+“that old bear will come back and there will be a fight.”
+
+“Is she coming back?” he asked nervously.
+
+The Indian laughed. “No, she is running yet. Black bear always a coward;
+they never fight when they can run away.”
+
+The little ones up the tree were, of course, at the mercy of the
+hunters, and in this case it was not a broken straw they depended on,
+but an ample salvation. “We don't need the meat and can't carry it
+with us; let's leave them,” said Rolf, but added, “Will they find their
+mother?”
+
+“Yes, bime-by; they come down and squall all over woods. She will hang
+round half a mile away and by night all will be together.”
+
+Their first bear hunt was over. Not a shot fired, not a bear wounded,
+not a mile travelled, and not an hour lost. And yet it seemed much more
+full of interesting thrills than did any one of the many stirring bear
+hunts that Rolf and Quonab shared together in the days that were to
+come.
+
+
+
+Chapter 19. The Footprint on the Shore
+
+Jesup's River was a tranquil stream that came from a region of swamps,
+and would have been easy canoeing but for the fallen trees. Some of
+these had been cut years ago, showing that the old trapper had used this
+route. Once they were unpleasantly surprised by seeing a fresh chopping
+on the bank, but their mourning was changed into joy when they found it
+was beaver-work.
+
+Ten miles they made that day. In the evening they camped on the shore of
+Jesup's Lake, proud and happy in the belief that they were the rightful
+owners of it all. That night they heard again and again the howling of
+wolves, but it seemed on the far side of the lake. In the morning they
+went out on foot to explore, and at once had the joy of seeing five
+deer, while tracks showed on every side. It was evidently a paradise for
+deer, and there were in less degree the tracks of other animals--mink in
+fair abundance, one or two otters, a mountain lion, and a cow moose with
+her calf. It was thrilling to see such a feast of possibilities. The
+hunters were led on and on, revelling in the prospect of many joys
+before them, when all at once they came on something that turned their
+joy to grief--the track of a man; the fresh imprint of a cowhide boot.
+It was maddening. At first blush, it meant some other trapper ahead of
+them with a prior claim to the valley; a claim that the unwritten law
+would allow. They followed it a mile. It went striding along the shore
+at a great pace, sometimes running, and keeping down the west shore.
+Then they found a place where he had sat down and broken a lot of clam
+shells, and again had hastened on. But there was no mark of gunstock
+or other weapon where he sat; and why was he wearing boots? The hunters
+rarely did.
+
+For two miles the Indian followed with Rolf, and sometimes found
+that the hated stranger had been running hard. Then they turned back,
+terribly disappointed. At first it seemed a crushing blow. They had
+three courses open to them--to seek a location farther north, to assume
+that one side of the lake was theirs, or to find out exactly who and
+what the stranger was. They decided on the last. The canoe was launched
+and loaded, and they set out to look for what they hoped they would not
+find, a trapper's shanty on the lake.
+
+After skirting the shore for four or five miles and disturbing one or
+two deer, as well as hosts of ducks, the voyagers landed and there still
+they found that fateful bootmark steadily tramping southward. By noon
+they had reached the south end of the west inlet that leads to another
+lake, and again an examination of the shore showed the footmarks, here
+leaving the lake and going southerly. Now the travellers retired to the
+main lake and by noon had reached the south end. At no point had they
+seen any sign of a cabin, though both sides of the lake were in plain
+view all day. The travelling stranger was a mystery, but he did not live
+here and there was no good reason why they should not settle.
+
+Where? The country seemed equally good at all points, but it is usually
+best to camp on an outlet. Then when a storm comes up, the big waves
+do not threaten your canoe, or compel you to stay on land. It is a
+favourite crossing for animals avoiding the lake, and other trappers
+coming in are sure to see your cabin before they enter.
+
+Which side of the outlet? Quonab settled that--the west. He wanted to
+see the sun rise, and, not far back from the water, was a hill with a
+jutting, rocky pinnade. He pointed to this and uttered the one word,
+“Idaho.” Here, then, on the west side, where the lake enters the river,
+they began to clear the ground for their home.
+
+
+
+Chapter 20. The Trappers' Cabin
+
+     It's a smart fellow that knows what he can't do.--Sayings of
+     Si Sylvanne.
+
+I suppose every trapper that ever lived, on first building a cabin,
+said, “Oh, any little thing will do, so long as it has a roof and is
+big enough to lie down in.” And every trapper has realized before spring
+that he made a sad mistake in not having it big enough to live in and
+store goods in. Quonab and Rolf were new at the business, and made the
+usual mistake. They planned their cabin far too small; 10 X 12 ft.,
+instead of 12 X 20 ft. they made it, and 6-ft. walls, instead of 8-ft.
+walls. Both were expert axemen. Spruce was plentiful and the cabin rose
+quickly. In one day the walls were up. An important thing was the roof.
+What should it be? Overlapping basswood troughs, split shingles, also
+called shakes, or clay? By far the easiest to make, the warmest
+in winter and coolest in summer, is the clay roof. It has three
+disadvantages: It leaks in long-continued wet weather; it drops down
+dust and dirt in dry weather; and is so heavy that it usually ends by
+crushing in the log rafters and beams, unless they are further supported
+on posts, which are much in the way. But its advantages were so obvious
+that the builders did not hesitate. A clay roof it was to be.
+
+When the walls were five feet high, the doorway and window were cut
+through the logs, but leaving in each case one half of the log at the
+bottom of the needed opening. The top log was now placed, then rolled
+over bottom up, while half of its thickness was cut away to fit over
+the door: a similar cut out was made over the window. Two flat pieces
+of spruce were prepared for door jambs and two shorter ones for window
+jambs. Auger holes were put through, so as to allow an oak pin to
+be driven through the jamb into each log, and the doorway and window
+opening were done.
+
+In one corner they planned a small fireplace, built of clay and stone.
+Not stone from the lake, as Rolf would have had it, but from the
+hillside; and why? Quonab said that the lake stone was of the water
+spirits, and would not live near fire, but would burst open; while the
+hillside stone was of the sun and fire spirit, and in the fire would add
+its heat.
+
+The facts are that lake stone explodes when greatly heated and hill
+stone does not; and since no one has been able to improve upon Quonab's
+explanation, it must stand for the present.
+
+The plan of the fireplace was simple. Rolf had been present at the
+building of several, and the main point was to have the chimney large
+enough, and the narrowest point just above the fire.
+
+The eaves logs, end logs, and ridge logs were soon in place; then came
+the cutting of small poles, spruce and tamarack, long enough to reach
+from ridge to eaves, and in sufficient number to completely cover the
+roof. A rank sedge meadow near by afforded plenty of coarse grass with
+which the poles were covered deeply; and lastly clay dug out with a
+couple of hand-made, axe-hewn wooden spades was thrown evenly on the
+grass to a depth of six inches; this, when trampled flat, made a roof
+that served them well.
+
+The chinks of the logs when large were filled with split pieces of wood;
+when small they were plugged with moss. A door was made of hewn planks,
+and hinged very simply on two pins; one made by letting the plank
+project as a point, the other by nailing on a pin after the door was
+placed; both pins fitting, of course, into inch auger holes.
+
+A floor was not needed, but bed bunks were, and in making these they
+began already to realize that the cabin was too small. But now after a
+week's work it was done. It had a sweet fragrance of wood and moss, and
+the pleasure it gave to Rolf at least was something he never again could
+expect to find in equal measure about any other dwelling he might make.
+
+Quonab laid the fire carefully, then lighted his pipe, sang a little
+crooning song about the “home spirits,” which we call “household gods,”
+ walked around the shanty, offering the pipestem to each of the four
+winds in turn, then entering lighted the fire from his pipe, threw some
+tobacco and deer hair on the blaze, and the house-warming was ended.
+
+Nevertheless, they continued to sleep in the tent they had used all
+along, for Quonab loved not the indoors, and Rolf was growing daily more
+of his mind.
+
+
+
+Chapter 21. Rolf's First Deer
+
+Anxious to lose no fine day they had worked steadily on the shanty, not
+even going after the deer that were seen occasionally over the lake, so
+that now they were out of fresh meat, and Rolf saw a chance he long had
+looked for. “Quonab, I want to go out alone and get a deer, and I want
+your gun.
+
+“Ugh! you shall go. To-night is good.”
+
+“To-night” meant evening, so Rolf set out alone as soon as the sun was
+low, for during the heat of the day the deer are commonly lying in some
+thicket. In general, he knew enough to travel up wind, and to go as
+silently as possible. The southwest wind was blowing softly, and so he
+quickened his steps southwesterly which meant along the lake. Tracks and
+signs abounded; it was impossible to follow any one trail. His plan was
+to keep on silently, trusting to luck, nor did he have long to wait.
+Across a little opening of the woods to the west he saw a movement in
+the bushes, but it ceased, and he was in doubt whether the creature,
+presumably a deer, was standing there or had gone on. “Never quit till
+you are sure,” was one of Quonab's wise adages. Rolf was bound to know
+what it was that had moved. So he stood still and waited. A minute
+passed; another; many; a long time; and still he waited, but got no
+further sign of life from the bush. Then he began to think he was
+mistaken; yet it was good huntercraft to find out what that was. He
+tried the wind several times, first by wetting his finger, which test
+said “southwest”; second, by tossing up some handfuls of dried grass,
+which said “yes, southwest, but veering southerly in this glade.” So he
+knew he might crawl silently to the north side of that bush. He looked
+to the priming of his gun and began a slow and stealthy stalk, selecting
+such openings as might be passed without effort or movement of bushes or
+likelihood of sound. He worked his way step by step; each time his foot
+was lifted he set it down again only after trying the footing. At each
+step he paused to look and listen. It was only one hundred yards to the
+interesting spot, but Rolf was fifteen minutes in covering the distance,
+and more than once, he got a great start as a chicadee flew out or
+a woodpecker tapped. His heart beat louder and louder, so it seemed
+everything near must hear; but he kept on his careful stalk, and at last
+had reached the thicket that had given him such thrills and hopes. Here
+he stood and watched for a full minute. Again he tried the wind, and
+proceeded to circle slowly to the west of the place.
+
+After a long, tense crawl of twenty yards he came on the track and sign
+of a big buck, perfectly fresh, and again his heart worked harder;
+it seemed to be pumping his neck full of blood, so he was choking. He
+judged it best to follow this hot trail for a time, and holding his gun
+ready cocked he stepped softly onward. A bluejay cried out, “jay, jay!”
+ with startling loudness, and seemingly enjoyed his pent-up excitement. A
+few steps forward at slow, careful stalk, and then behind him he heard
+a loud whistling hiss. Instantly turning he found himself face to face
+with a great, splendid buck in the short blue coat. There not thirty
+yards away he stood, the creature he had been stalking so long, in plain
+view now, broadside on. They gazed each at the other, perfectly still
+for a few seconds, then Rolf without undue movement brought the gun
+to bear, and still the buck stood gazing. The gun was up, but oh, how
+disgustingly it wabbled and shook! and the steadier Rolf tried to bold
+it, the more it trembled, until from that wretched gun the palsy spread
+all over his body; his breath came tremulously, his legs and arms were
+shaking, and at last, as the deer moved its head to get a better view
+and raised its tail, the lad, making an effort at selfcontrol, pulled
+the trigger. Bang! and the buck went lightly bounding out of sight.
+
+Poor Rolf; how disgusted he felt; positively sick with self-contempt.
+Thirty yards, standing, broadside on, full daylight, a big buck, a clean
+miss. Yes, there was the bullet hole in a tree, five feet above the
+deer's head. “I'm no good; I'll never be a hunter,” he groaned, then
+turned and slowly tramped back to camp. Quonab looked inquiringly, for,
+of course, he heard the shot. He saw a glum and sorry-looking youth, who
+in response to his inquiring look gave merely a head-shake, and hung up
+the gun with a vicious bang.
+
+Quonab took down the gun, wiped it out, reloaded it, then turning to the
+boy said: “Nibowaka, you feel pretty sick. Ugh! You know why? You got
+a good chance, but you got buck fever. It is always so, every one the
+first time. You go again to-morrow and you get your deer.”
+
+Rolf made no reply. So Quonab ventured, “You want me to go?” That
+settled it for Rolf; his pride was touched.
+
+“No; I'll go again in the morning.”
+
+In the dew time he was away once more on the hunting trail. There was
+no wind, but the southwest was the likeliest to spring up. So he went
+nearly over his last night's track. He found it much easier to go
+silently now when all the world was dew wet, and travelled quickly. Past
+the fateful glade he went, noted again the tree torn several feet too
+high up, and on. Then the cry of a bluejay rang out; this is often a
+notification of deer at hand. It always is warning of something doing,
+and no wise hunter ignores it.
+
+Rolf stood for a moment listening and peering. He thought he heard a
+scraping sound; then again the bluejay, but the former ceased and the
+jay-note died in the distance. He crept cautiously on again for a few
+minutes; another opening appeared. He studied this from a hiding place;
+then far across he saw a little flash near the ground. His heart gave
+a jump; he studied the place, saw again the flash and then made out the
+head of a deer, a doe that was lying in the long grass. The flash was
+made by its ear shaking off a fly. Rolf looked to his priming, braced
+himself, got fully ready, then gave a short, sharp whistle; instantly
+the doe rose to her feet; then another appeared, a sinal one; then a
+young buck; all stood gazing his way.
+
+Up went the gun, but again its muzzle began to wabble. Rolf lowered it,
+said grimly and savagely to himself, “I will not shake this time.” The
+deer stretched themselves and began slowly walking toward the lake. All
+had disappeared but the buck. Rolf gave another whistle that turned the
+antler-bearer to a statue. Controlling himself with a strong “I
+will,” he raised the gun, held it steadily, and fired. The buck gave
+a gathering spasm, a bound, and disappeared. Rolf felt sick again with
+disgust, but he reloaded, then hastily went forward.
+
+There was the deep imprint showing where the buck had bounded at the
+shot, but no blood. He followed, and a dozen feet away found the next
+hoof marks and on them a bright-red stain; on and another splash; and
+more and shortening bounds, till one hundred yards away--yes, there it
+lay; the round, gray form, quite dead, shot through the heart.
+
+Rolf gave a long, rolling war cry and got an answer from a point that
+was startlingly near, and Quonab stepped from behind a tree.
+
+“I got him,” shouted Rolf.
+
+The Indian smiled. “I knew you would, so I followed; last night I knew
+you must have your shakes, so let you go it alone.”
+
+Very carefully that deer was skinned, and Rolf learned the reason for
+many little modes of procedure.
+
+After the hide was removed from the body (not the hand or legs), Quonab
+carefully cut out the-broad sheath of tendon that cover the muscles,
+beginning at the hip bones on the back and extending up to the
+shoulders; this is the sewing sinew. Then he cut out the two long
+fillets of meat that lie on each side of the spine outside (the loin)
+and the two smaller ones inside (the tenderloin).
+
+These, with the four quarters, the heart, and the kidneys, were put into
+the hide. The entrails, head, neck, legs, feet, he left for the foxes,
+but the hip bone or sacrum he hung in a tree with three little red
+yarns from them, so that the Great Spirit would be pleased and send good
+hunting. Then addressing the head he said: “Little brother, forgive
+us. We are sorry to kill you. Behold! we give you the honour of red
+streamers.” Then bearing the rest they tramped back to camp.
+
+The meat wrapped in sacks to keep off the flies was hung in the shade,
+but the hide he buried in the warm mud of a swamp hole, and three days
+later, when the hair began to slip, he scraped it clean. A broad ash
+wood hoop he had made ready and when the green rawhide was strained on
+it again the Indian had an Indian drum.
+
+It was not truly dry for two or three days and as it tightened on its
+frame it gave forth little sounds of click and shrinkage that told of
+the strain the tensioned rawhide made. Quonab tried it that night as he
+sat by the fire softly singing:
+
+“Ho da ho-he da he.”
+
+But the next day before sunrise he climbed the hill and sitting on the
+sun-up rock he hailed the Day God with the invocation, as he had not
+sung it since the day they left the great rock above the Asalnuk, and
+followed with the song:
+
+“Father, we thank thee; We have found the good hunting. There is meat in
+the wigwam.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 22. The Line of Traps
+
+Now that they had the cabin for winter, and food for the present,
+they must set about the serious business of trapping and lay a line of
+deadfalls for use in the coming cold weather. They were a little ahead
+of time, but it was very desirable to get their lines blazed through the
+woods in all proposed directions in case of any other trapper coming in.
+Most fur-bearing animals are to be found along the little valleys of the
+stream: beaver, otter, mink, muskrat, coon, are examples. Those that
+do not actually live by the water seek these places because of their
+sheltered character and because their prey lives there; of this class
+are the lynx, fox, fisher, and marten that feed on rabbits and mice.
+Therefore a line of traps is usually along some valley and over the
+divide and down some other valley back to the point of beginning.
+
+So, late in September, Rolf and Quonab, with their bedding, a pot, food
+for four days, and two axes, alternately followed and led by Skookum,
+set out along a stream that entered the lake near their cabin. A quarter
+mile up they built their first deadfall for martens. It took them one
+hour and was left unset. The place was under a huge tree on a neck of
+land around which the stream made a loop. This tree they blazed on three
+sides. Two hundred yards up another good spot was found and a deadfall
+made. At one place across a neck of land was a narrow trail evidently
+worn by otters. “Good place for steel trap, bime-by,” was Quonab's
+remark.
+
+From time to time they disturbed deer, and in a muddy place where a
+deer path crossed the creek, they found, among the numerous small hoof
+prints, the track of wolves, bears, and a mountain lion, or panther. At
+these little Skookum sniffed fearsomely, and showed by his bristly mane
+that he was at least much impressed.
+
+After five hours' travel and work they came to another stream joining
+on, and near the angle of the two little valleys they found a small tree
+that was chewed and scratched in a remarkable manner for three to six
+feet up. “Bear tree,” said Quonab, and by degrees Rolf got the facts
+about it.
+
+The bears, and indeed most animals, have a way of marking the range that
+they consider their own. Usually this is done by leaving their personal
+odour at various points, covering the country claimed, but in some cases
+visible marks are added. Thus the beaver leaves a little dab of mud, the
+wolf scratches with his hind feet, and the bear tears the signal tree
+with tooth and claw. Since this is done from time to time, when the bear
+happens to be near the tree, it is kept fresh as long as the region
+is claimed. But it is especially done in midsummer when the bears are
+pairing, and helps them to find suitable companions, nor all are then
+roaming the woods seeking mates; all call and leave their mark on the
+sign post, so the next bear, thanks to his exquisite nose, can tell at
+once the sex of the bear that called last and by its track tell which
+way it travelled afterward.
+
+In this case it was a bear's register, but before long Quonab showed
+Rolf a place where two long logs joined at an angle by a tree that was
+rubbed and smelly, and showed a few marten hairs, indicating that this
+was the sign post of a marten and a good place to make a deadfall.
+
+Yet a third was found in an open, grassy glade, a large, white stone on
+which were pellets left by foxes. The Indian explained:
+
+“Every fox that travels near will come and smell the stone to see who
+of his kind is around, so this is a good place for a fox-trap; a steel
+trap, of course, for no fox will go into a deadfall.”
+
+And slowly Rolf learned that these habits are seen in some measure
+in all animals; yes, down to the mice and shrews. We see little of
+it because our senses are blunt and our attention untrained; but the
+naturalist and the hunter always know where to look for the four-footed
+inhabitants and by them can tell whether or not the land is possessed by
+such and such a furtive tribe.
+
+
+
+Chapter 23. The Beaver Pond
+
+AT THE noon halt they were about ten miles from home and had made
+fifteen deadfalls for marten, for practice was greatly reducing the time
+needed for each.
+
+In the afternoon they went on, but the creek had become a mere rill and
+they were now high up in a more level stretch of country that was
+more or less swampy. As they followed the main course of the dwindling
+stream, looking ever for signs of fur-bearers, they crossed and
+recrossed the water. At length Quonab stopped, stared, and pointed at
+the rill, no longer clear but clouded with mud. His eyes shone as he
+jerked his head up stream and uttered the magic word, “Beaver.”
+
+They tramped westerly for a hundred yards through a dense swamp of
+alders, and came at last to an irregular pond that spread out among the
+willow bushes and was lost in the swampy thickets. Following the stream
+they soon came to a beaver dam, a long, curving bank of willow branches
+and mud, tumbling through the top of which were a dozen tiny streams
+that reunited their waters below to form the rivulet they had been
+following.
+
+Red-winged blackbirds were sailing in flocks about the pond; a number
+of ducks were to be seen, and on a dead tree, killed by the backed up
+water, a great blue heron stood. Many smaller creatures moved or flitted
+in the lively scene, while far out near the middle rose a dome-like pile
+of sticks, a beaver lodge, and farther three more were discovered. No
+beaver were seen, but the fresh cut sticks, the floating branches peeled
+of all the bark, and the long, strong dam in good repair were enough
+to tell a practised eye that here was a large colony of beavers in
+undisturbed possession.
+
+In those days beaver was one of the most valued furs. The creature is
+very easy to trap; so the discovery of the pond was like the finding of
+a bag of gold. They skirted its uncertain edges and Quonab pointed out
+the many landing places of the beaver; little docks they seemed, built
+up with mud and stones with deep water plunge holes alongside. Here and
+there on the shore was a dome-shaped ant's nest with a pathway to it
+from the pond, showing, as the Indian said, that here the beaver came on
+sunny days to lie on the hill and let the swarming ants come forth and
+pick the vermin from their fur. At one high point projecting into the
+still water they found a little mud pie with a very strong smell; this,
+the Indian said, was a “castor cache,” the sign that, among beavers,
+answers the same purpose as the bear tree among bears.
+
+Although the pond seemed small they had to tramp a quarter of a mile
+before reaching the upper end and here they found another dam, with its
+pond. This was at a slightly higher level and contained a single lodge;
+after this they found others, a dozen ponds in a dozen successive rises,
+the first or largest and the second only having lodges, but all were
+evidently part of the thriving colony, for fresh cut trees were seen on
+every side. “Ugh, good; we get maybe fifty beaver,” said the Indian, and
+they knew they had reached the Promised Land.
+
+Rolf would gladly have spent the rest of the day exploring the pond and
+trying for a beaver, when the eventide should call them to come forth,
+but Quonab said, “Only twenty deadfall; we should have one hundred and
+fifty.” So making for a fine sugar bush on the dry ground west of the
+ponds they blazed a big tree, left a deadfall there, and sought the
+easiest way over the rough hills that lay to the east, in hopes of
+reaching the next stream leading down to their lake.
+
+
+
+Chapter 24. The Porcupine
+
+Skookum was a partly trained little dog; he would stay in camp when
+told, if it suited him; and would not hesitate to follow or lead his
+master, when he felt that human wisdom was inferior to the ripe product
+of canine experience covering more than thirteen moons of recollection.
+But he was now living a life in which his previous experience must often
+fail him as a guide. A faint rustling on the leafy ground had sent
+him ahead at a run, and his sharp, angry bark showed that some hostile
+creature of the woods had been discovered. Again and again the angry
+yelping was changed into a sort of yowl, half anger, half distress. The
+hunters hurried forward to find the little fool charging again and
+again a huge porcupine that was crouched with its head under a log, its
+hindquarters exposed but bristling with spines; and its tail lashing
+about, left a new array of quills in the dog's mouth and face each time
+he charged. Skookum was a plucky fighter, but plainly he was nearly sick
+of it. The pain of the quills would, of course, increase every minute
+and with each movement. Quonab took a stout stick and threw the
+porcupine out of its retreat, (Rolf supposed to kill it when the head
+was exposed,) but the spiny one, finding a new and stronger enemy,
+wasted no time in galloping at its slow lumbering pace to the nearest
+small spruce tree and up that it scrambled to a safe place in the high
+branches.
+
+Now the hunters called the dog. He was a sorry-looking object, pawing at
+his muzzle, first with one foot, then another, trying to unswallow the
+quills in his tongue, blinking hard, uttering little painful grunts and
+whines as he rubbed his head upon the ground or on his forelegs. Rolf
+held him while Quonab, with a sharp jerk, brought out quill after quill.
+Thirty or forty of the poisonous little daggers were plucked from his
+trembling legs, head, face, and nostrils, but the dreadful ones were
+those in his lips and tongue. Already they were deeply sunk in the soft,
+quivering flesh. One by one those in the lips were with-drawn by the
+strong fingers of the red man, and Skookum whimpered a little, but he
+shrieked outright when those in the tongue were removed. Rolf had hard
+work to hold him, and any one not knowing the case might have thought
+that the two men were deliberately holding the dog to administer the
+most cruel torture.
+
+But none of the quills had sunk very deep. All were got out at last and
+the little dog set free.
+
+Now Rolf thought of vengeance on the quill-pig snugly sitting in the
+tree near by.
+
+Ammunition was too precious to waste, but Rolf was getting ready to climb
+when Quonab said: “No, no; you must not. Once I saw white man climb
+after the Kahk; it waited till he was near, then backed down, lashing
+its tail. He put up his arm to save his face. It speared his arm in
+fifty places and he could not save his face, so he tried to get down,
+but the Kahk came faster, lashing him; then he lost his hold and
+dropped. His leg was broken and his arm was swelled up for half a year.
+They are very poisonous. He nearly died.”
+
+“Well, I can at least chop him down,” and Rolf took the axe.
+
+“Wah!” Quonab said, “no; my father said you must not kill the Kahk,
+except you make sacrifice and use his quills for household work. It is
+bad medicine to kill the Kahk.”
+
+So the spiny one was left alone in the place he had so ably fought for.
+But Skookum, what of him? He was set free at last. To be wiser? Alas,
+no! before one hour he met with another porcupine and remembering only
+his hate of the creature repeated the same sad mistake, and again had to
+have the painful help, without which he must certainly have died. Before
+night, however, he began to feel his real punishment and next morning
+no one would have known the pudding-headed thing that sadly followed the
+hunters, for the bright little dog that a day before had run so joyously
+through the woods. It was many a long day before he fully recovered and
+at one time his life was in the balance; and yet to the last of his
+days he never fully realized the folly of his insensate attacks on the
+creature that fights with its tail.
+
+“It is ever so,” said the Indian. “The lynx, the panther, the wolf, the
+fox, the eagle, all that attack the Kahk must die. Once my father saw
+a bear that was killed by the quills. He had tried to bite the Kahk;
+it filled his mouth with quills that he could not spit out. They sunk
+deeper and his jaws swelled so he could not open or shut his mouth
+to eat; then he starved. My people found him near a fish pond below a
+rapid. There were many fish. The bear could kill them with his paw but
+not eat, so with his mouth wide open and plenty about him he died of
+starvation in that pool.
+
+“There is but one creature that can kill the Kahk that is the Ojeeg the
+big fisher weasel. He is a devil. He makes very strong medicine; the
+Kahk cannot harm him. He turns it on its back and tears open its smooth
+belly. It is ever so. We not know, but my father said, that it is
+because when in the flood Nana Bojou was floating on the log with Kahk
+and Ojeeg, Kahk was insolent and wanted the highest place, but Ojeeg was
+respectful to Nana Bojou, he bit the Kahk to teach him a lesson and got
+lashed with the tail of many stings. But the Manito drew out the quills
+and said: 'It shall be ever thus; the Ojeeg shall conquer the Kahk and
+the quills of Kahk shall never do Ojeeg any harm.'”
+
+
+
+Chapter 25. The Otter Slide
+
+It was late now and the hunters camped in the high cool woods. Skookum
+whined in his sleep so loudly as to waken them once or twice. Near dawn
+they heard the howling of wolves and the curiously similar hooting of
+a horned owl. There is, indeed, almost no difference between the short
+opening howl of a she-wolf and the long hoot of the owl. As he listened,
+half awake, Rolf heard a whirr of wings which stopped overhead, then
+a familiar chuckle. He sat up and saw Skookum sadly lift his misshapen
+head to gaze at a row of black-breasted grouse partridge on a branch
+above, but the poor doggie was feeling too sick to take any active
+interest. They were not ruffed grouse, but a kindred kind, new to Rolf.
+As he gazed at the perchers, he saw Quonab rise gently, go to nearest
+willow and cut a long slender rod at least two feet long; on the top of
+this he made a short noose of cord. Then he went cautiously under the
+watching grouse, the spruce partridges, and reaching up slipped the
+noose over the neck of the first one; a sharp jerk then tightened noose,
+and brought the grouse tumbling out of the tree while its companions
+merely clucked their puzzlement, made no effort to escape.
+
+A short, sharp blow put the captive out of pain. The rod was reached
+again and a second, the lowest always, was jerked down, and the trick
+repeated till three grouse were secured. Then only did it dawn on the
+others that they were in a most perilous neighbourhood, so they took
+flight.
+
+Rolf sat up in amazement. Quonab dropped the three birds by the fire and
+set about preparing breakfast.
+
+“These are fool hens,” he explained. “You can mostly get them this way;
+sure, if you have a dog to help, but ruffed grouse is no such fool.”
+
+Rolf dressed the birds and as usual threw the entrails Skookum. Poor
+little dog! he was, indeed, a sorry sight. He looked sadly out of his
+bulging eyes, feebly moved swollen jaws, but did not touch the food he
+once would have pounced on. He did not eat because he could not open his
+mouth.
+
+At camp the trappers made a log trap and continued the line with blazes
+and deadfalls, until, after a mile, they came to a broad tamarack swamp,
+and, skirting its edge, found a small, outflowing stream that brought
+them to an eastward-facing hollow. Everywhere there were signs game,
+but they were not prepared for the scene that opened as they cautiously
+pushed through the thickets into a high, hardwood bush. A deer rose
+out of the grass and stared curiously at them; then another and another
+until nearly a dozen were in sight; still farther many others appeared;
+to the left were more, and movements told of yet others to the right.
+Then their white flags went up and all loped gently away on the slope
+that rose to the north. There may have been twenty or thirty deer in
+sight, but the general effect of all their white tails, bobbing away,
+was that the woods were full of deer. They seemed to be there by the
+hundreds and the joy of seeing so many beautiful live things was helped
+in the hunters by the feeling that this was their own hunting-ground.
+They had, indeed, reached the land of plenty.
+
+The stream increased as they marched; many springs and some important
+rivulets joined on. They found some old beaver signs but none new; and
+they left their deadfalls every quarter mile or less.
+
+The stream began to descend more quickly until it was in a long, narrow
+valley with steep clay sides and many pools. Here they saw again and
+again the tracks and signs of otter and coming quietly round a turn that
+opened a new reach they heard a deep splash, then another and another.
+
+The hunters' first thought was to tie up Skookum, but a glance showed
+that this was unnecessary. They softly dropped the packs and the sick
+dog lay meekly down beside them. Then they crept forward with hunter
+caution, favoured by an easterly breeze. Their first thought was of
+beaver, but they had seen no recent sign, nor was there anything that
+looked like a beaver pond. The measured splash, splash, splash--was not
+so far ahead. It might be a bear snatching fish, or--no, that was too
+unpleasant--a man baling out a canoe. Still the slow splash, splash,
+went on at intervals, not quite regular.
+
+Now it seemed but thirty yards ahead and in the creek.
+
+With the utmost care they crawled to the edge of the clay and opposite
+they saw a sight but rarely glimpsed by man. Here were six otters; two
+evidently full-grown, and four seeming young of the pair, engaged in a
+most hilarious and human game of tobogganing down a steep clay hill to
+plump into a deep part at its foot.
+
+Plump went the largest, presumably the father; down he went, to reappear
+at the edge, scramble out and up an easy slope to the top of the
+twenty-foot bank. Splash, splash, splash, came three of the young ones;
+splash, splash, the mother and one of the cubs almost together.
+
+“Scoot” went the big male again, and the wet furslopping and rubbing on
+the long clay chute made it greasier and slipperier every time.
+
+Splash, plump, splash--splash, plump, splash, went the otter family
+gleefully, running up the bank again, eager each to be first, it seemed,
+and to do the chute the oftenest.
+
+The gambolling grace, the obvious good humour, the animal hilarity of
+it all, was absorbingly amusing. The trappers gazed with pleasure that
+showed how near akin are naturalist and hunter. Of course, they had
+some covetous thought connected with those glossy hides, but this
+was September still, and even otter were not yet prime. Shoot, plump,
+splash, went the happy crew with apparently unabated joy and hilarity.
+The slide improved with use and the otters seemed tireless; when all
+at once a loud but muffled yelp was heard and Skookum, forgetting all
+caution, came leaping down the bank to take a hand.
+
+With a succession of shrill, birdy chirps the old otters warned their
+young. Plump, plump, plump, all shot into the pool, but to reappear,
+swimming with heads out, for they were but slightly alarmed. This was
+too much for Quonob; he levelled his flintlock; snap, bang, it went,
+pointed at the old male, but he dived at the snap and escaped. Down the
+bank now rushed the hunters, joined by Skookum, to attack the otters
+in the pool, for it was small and shallow; unless a burrow led from it,
+they were trapped.
+
+But the otters realized the peril. All six dashed out of the pool, down
+the open, gravelly stream the old ones uttering loud chirps that rang
+like screams. Under the fallen logs and brush they glided, dodging
+beneath roots and over banks, pursued by the hunters, each armed with a
+club and by Skookum not armed at all.
+
+The otters seemed to know where they were going and distanced all but
+the dog. Forgetting his own condition Skookum had almost overtaken
+one of the otter cubs when the mother wheeled about and, hissing and
+snarling, charged. Skookum was lucky to get off with a slight nip, for
+the otter is a dangerous fighter. But the unlucky dog was sent howling
+back to the two packs that he never should have left.
+
+The hunters now found an open stretch of woods through which Quonab
+could run ahead and intercept the otters as they bounded on down the
+stream bed, pursued by Rolf, who vainly tried to deal a blow with his
+club. In a few seconds the family party was up to Quonab, trapped it
+seemed, but there is no more desperate assailant than an otter
+fighting for its young. So far from being cowed the two old ones made a
+simultaneous, furious rush at the Indian. Wholly taken by surprise, he
+missed with his club, and sprang aside to escape their jaws. The family
+dashed around then past him, and, urged by the continuous chirps of the
+mother, they plunged under a succession of log jams and into a willow
+swamp that spread out into an ancient beaver lake and were swallowed up
+in the silent wilderness.
+
+
+
+Chapter 26. Back to the Cabin
+
+The far end of the long swamp the stream emerged, now much larger, and
+the trappers kept on with their work. When night fell they had completed
+fifty traps, all told, and again they camped without shelter overhead.
+
+Next day Skookum was so much worse that they began to fear for his life.
+He had eaten nothing since the sad encounter. He could drink a little,
+so Rolf made a pot of soup, and when it was cool the poor doggie managed
+to swallow some of the liquid after half an hour's patient endeavour.
+
+They were now on the home line; from a hill top they got a distant view
+of their lake, though it was at least five miles away. Down the creek
+they went, still making their deadfalls at likely places and still
+seeing game tracks at the muddy spots. The creek came at length to an
+extensive, open, hardwood bush, and here it was joined by another stream
+that came from the south, the two making a small river. From then on
+they seemed in a land of game; trails of deer were seen on the ground
+everywhere, and every few minutes they started one or two deer. The
+shady oak wood itself was flanked and varied with dense cedar swamps
+such as the deer love to winter in, and after they had tramped through
+two miles of it, the Indian said, “Good! now we know where to come in
+winter when we need meat.”
+
+At a broad, muddy ford they passed an amazing number of tracks, mostly
+deer, but a few of panther, lynx, fisher, wolf, otter, and mink.
+
+In the afternoon they reached the lake. The stream, quite a broad one
+here, emptied in about four miles south of the camp. Leaving a deadfall
+near its mouth they followed the shore and made a log trap every quarter
+mile just above the high water mark.
+
+When they reached the place of Rolf's first deer they turned aside to
+see it. The gray jays had picked a good deal of the loose meat. No large
+animal had troubled it, and yet in the neighbourhood they found the
+tracks of both wolves and foxes.
+
+“Ugh,” said Quonab, “they smell it and come near, but they know that a
+man has been here; they are not very hungry, so keep away. This is good
+for trap.”
+
+So they made two deadfalls with the carrion half way between them. Then
+one or two more traps and they reached home, arriving at the camp just
+as darkness and a heavy rainfall began.
+
+“Good,” said Quonab, “our deadfalls are ready; we have done all the work
+our fingers could not do when the weather is very cold, and the ground
+too hard for stakes to be driven. Now the traps can get weathered before
+we go round and set them. Yet we need some strong medicine, some trapper
+charm.”
+
+Next morning he went forth with fish-line and fish-spear; he soon
+returned with a pickerel. He filled a bottle with cut-up shreds of this,
+corked it up, and hung it on the warm, sunny side of the shanty. “That
+will make a charm that every bear will come to,” he said, and left it
+to the action of the sun.
+
+
+
+Chapter 27. Sick Dog Skookum
+
+Getting home is always a joy; but walking about the place in the morning
+they noticed several little things that were wrong. Quonab's lodge was
+down, the paddles that stood against the shanty were scattered on the
+ground, and a bag of venison hung high at the ridge was opened and
+empty.
+
+Quonab studied the tracks and announced “a bad old black bear; he has
+rollicked round for mischief, upsetting things. But the venison he could
+not reach; that was a marten that ripped open the bag.”
+
+“Then that tells what we should do; build a storehouse at the end of the
+shanty,” said Rolf, adding, “it must be tight and it must be cool.”
+
+“Maybe! sometime before winter,” said the Indian; “but now we should
+make another line of traps while the weather is fine.”
+
+“No,” replied the lad, “Skookum is not fit to travel now. We can't leave
+him behind, and we can make a storehouse in three days.”
+
+The unhappy little dog was worse than ever. He could scarcely breathe,
+much less eat or drink, and the case was settled.
+
+First they bathed the invalid's head in water as hot as he could stand
+it. This seemed to help him so much that he swallowed eagerly some soup
+that they poured into his mouth. A bed was made for him in a sunny place
+and the hunters set about the new building.
+
+In three days the storehouse was done, excepting the chinking. It was
+October now, and a sharp night frost warned them of the hard white moons
+to come. Quonab, as he broke the ice in a tin cup and glanced at the
+low-hung sun, said: “The leaves are falling fast; snow comes soon; we
+need another line of traps.”
+
+He stopped suddenly; stared across the lake. Rolf looked, and here came
+three deer, two bucks and a doe, trotting, walking, or lightly clearing
+obstacles, the doe in advance; the others, rival followers. As they kept
+along the shore, they came nearer the cabin. Rolf glanced at Quonab, who
+nodded, then slipped in, got down the gun, and quickly glided unseen to
+the river where the deer path landed. The bucks did not actually fight,
+for the season was not yet on, but their horns were clean, their necks
+were swelling, and they threatened each other as they trotted after the
+leader. They made for the ford as for some familiar path, and splashed
+through, almost without swimming. As they landed, Rolf waited a clear
+view, then gave a short sharp “Hist!” It was like a word of magic, for
+it turned the three moving deer to three stony-still statues. Rolf's
+sights were turned on the smaller buck, and when the great cloud
+following the bang had deared away, the two were gone and the lesser
+buck was kicking on the ground some fifty yards away.
+
+“We have found the good hunting; the deer walk into camp,” said Quonab;
+and the product of the chase was quickly stored, the first of the
+supplies to be hung in the new storehouse.
+
+The entrails were piled up and covered with brush and stones. “That will
+keep off ravens and jays; then in winter the foxes will come and we can
+take their coats.”
+
+Now they must decide for the morning. Skookum was somewhat better, but
+still very sick, and Rolf suggested: “Quonab, you take the gun and axe
+and lay a new line. I will stay behind and finish up the cabin for the
+winter and look after the dog.” So it was agreed. The Indian left the
+camp alone this time and crossed to the east shore of the lake; there to
+follow up another stream as before and to return in three or four days
+to the cabin.
+
+
+
+Chapter 28. Alone in the Wilderness
+
+Rolf began the day by giving Skookum a bath as hot as he could stand it,
+and later his soup. For the first he whined feebly and for the second
+faintly wagged his tail; but clearly he was on the mend.
+
+Now the chinking and moss-plugging of the new cabin required all
+attention. That took a day and looked like the biggest job on hand, but
+Rolf had been thinking hard about the winter. In Connecticut the
+wiser settlers used to bank their houses for the cold weather; in the
+Adirondacks he knew it was far, far colder, and he soon decided to bank
+the two shanties as deeply as possible with earth. A good spade made of
+white oak, with its edge hardened by roasting it brown, was his first
+necessity, and after two days of digging he had the cabin with its annex
+buried up to “the eyes” in fresh, clean earth.
+
+A stock of new, dry wood for wet weather helped to show how much too
+small the cabin was; and now the heavier work was done, and Rolf had
+plenty of time to think.
+
+Which of us that has been left alone in the wilderness does not remember
+the sensations of the first day! The feeling of self-dependency, not
+unmixed with unrestraint; the ending of civilized thought; the total
+reversion to the primitive; the nearness of the wood-folk; a sense of
+intimacy; a recurrent feeling of awe at the silent inexorability of
+all around; and a sweet pervading sense of mastery in the very freedom.
+These were among the feelings that swept in waves through Rolf, and
+when the first night came, he found such comfort--yes, he had to confess
+it--in the company of the helpless little dog whose bed was by his own.
+
+But these were sensations that come not often; in the four days and
+nights that he was alone they lost all force.
+
+The hunter proverb about “strange beasts when you have no gun” was amply
+illustrated now that Quonab had gone with their only firearm. The second
+night before turning in (he slept in the shanty now), he was taking a
+last look at the stars, when a large, dark form glided among the tree
+trunks between him and the shimmering lake; stopped, gazed at him, then
+silently disappeared along the shore. No wonder that he kept the shanty
+door closed that night, and next morning when he studied the sandy
+ridges he read plainly that his night visitor had been not a lynx or a
+fox, but a prowling cougar or panther.
+
+On the third morning as he went forth in the still early dawn he heard
+a snort, and looking toward the spruce woods, was amazed to see towering
+up, statuesque, almost grotesque, with its mulish ears and antediluvian
+horns, a large bull moose.
+
+Rolf was no coward, but the sight of that monster so close to him set
+his scalp a-prickling. He felt so helpless without any firearms. He
+stepped into the cabin, took down his bow and arrows, then gave a
+contemptuous “Humph; all right for partridge and squirrels, but give me
+a rifle for the woods!” He went out again; there was the moose standing
+as before. The lad rushed toward it a few steps, shouting; it stared
+unmoved. But Rolf was moved, and he retreated to the cabin. Then
+remembering the potency of fire he started a blaze on the hearth. The
+thick smoke curled up on the still air, hung low, made swishes through
+the grove, until a faint air current took a wreath of it to the moose.
+The great nostrils drank in a draught that conveyed terror to the
+creature's soul, and wheeling it started at its best pace to the distant
+swamp, to be seen no more.
+
+Five times, during these four days, did deer come by and behave as
+though they knew perfectly well that this young human was harmless,
+entirely without the power of the far-killing mystery.
+
+How intensely Rolf wished for a gun. How vividly came back the scene
+in the trader's store,--when last month he had been offered a beautiful
+rifle for twenty-five dollars, to be paid for in fur next spring, and
+savagely he blamed himself for not realizing what a chance it was. Then
+and there he made resolve to be the owner of a gun as soon as another
+chance came, and to make that chance come right soon.
+
+One little victory he had in that time. The creature that had torn open
+the venison bag was still around the camp; that was plain by the further
+damage on the bag hung in the storehouse, the walls of which were not
+chinked. Mindful of Quonab's remark, he set two marten traps, one on
+the roof, near the hole that had been used as entry; the other on a log
+along which the creature must climb to reach the meat. The method of
+setting is simple; a hollow is made, large enough to receive the trap
+as it lies open; on the pan of the trap some grass is laid smoothly;
+on each side of the trap a piece of prickly brush is placed, so that
+in leaping over these the creature will land on the lurking snare. The
+chain was made fast to a small log.
+
+Although so seldom seen there is no doubt that the marten comes out
+chiefly by day. That night the trap remained unsprung; next morning
+as Rolf went at silent dawn to bring water from the lake, he noticed
+a long, dark line that proved to be ducks. As he sat gazing he heard
+a sound in the tree beyond the cabin. It was like the scratching of
+a squirrel climbing about. Then he saw the creature, a large, dark
+squirrel, it seemed. It darted up this tree and down that, over logs and
+under brush, with the lightning speed of a lightning squirrel, and from
+time to time it stopped still as a bump while it gazed at some far and
+suspicious object. Up one trunk it went like a brown flash, and a moment
+later, out, cackling from its top, flew two partridges. Down to the
+ground, sinuous, graceful, incessantly active flashed the marten. Along
+a log it raced in undulating leaps; in the middle it stopped as though
+frozen, to gaze intently into a bed of sedge; with three billowy bounds
+its sleek form reached the sedge, flashed in and out again with a
+mouse in its snarling jaws; a side leap now, and another squeaker was
+squeakless, and another. The three were slain, then thrown aside, as the
+brown terror scanned a flight of ducks passing over. Into a thicket of
+willow it disappeared and out again like an eel going through the mud,
+then up a tall stub where woodpecker holes were to be seen. Into the
+largest it went so quickly Rolf could scarcely see how it entered,
+and out in a few seconds bearing a flying squirrel whose skull it had
+crushed. Dropping the squirrel it leaped after it, and pounced again on
+the quivering form with a fearsome growl; then shook it savagely, tore
+it apart, cast it aside. Over the ground it now undulated, its shining
+yellow breast like a target of gold. Again it stopped. Now in pose like
+a pointer, exquisitely graceful, but oh, so wicked! Then the snaky
+neck swung the cobra head in the breeze and the brown one sniffed and
+sniffed, advanced a few steps, tried the wind and the ground. Still
+farther and the concentrated interest showed in its outstretched neck
+and quivering tail. Bounding into a thicket it went, when out of the
+other side there leaped a snowshoe rabbit, away and away for dear life.
+Jump, jump, jump; twelve feet at every stride, and faster than the eye
+could follow, with the marten close behind. What a race it was, and
+how they twinkled through the brush! The rabbit is, indeed, faster, but
+courage counts for much, and his was low; but luck and his good stars
+urged him round to the deer trail crossing of the stream; once there he
+could not turn. There was only one course. He sprang into the open river
+and swam for his life. And the marten--why should it go in? It hated the
+water; it was not hungry; it was out for sport, and water sport is not
+to its liking. It braced its sinewy legs and halted at the very brink,
+while bunny crossed to the safe woods.
+
+Back now came Wahpestan, the brown death, over the logs like a winged
+snake, skimming the ground like a sinister shadow, and heading for the
+cabin as the cabin's owner watched. Passing the body of the squirrel it
+paused to rend it again, then diving into the brush came out so far away
+and so soon that the watcher supposed at first that this was another
+marten. Up the shanty corner it flashed, hardly appearing to climb,
+swung that yellow throat and dark-brown muzzle for a second, then made
+toward the entry.
+
+Rolf sat with staring eyes as the beautiful demon, elegantly
+spurning the roof sods, went at easy, measured bounds toward the open
+chink--toward its doom. One, two, three--clearing the prickly cedar
+bush, its forefeet fell on the hidden trap; clutch, a savage shriek, a
+flashing,--a struggle baffling the eyes to follow, and the master of the
+squirrels was himself under mastery.
+
+Rolf rushed forward now. The little demon in the trap was frothing with
+rage and hate; it ground the iron with its teeth; it shrieked at the
+human foeman coming.
+
+The scene must end, the quicker the better, and even as the marten
+itself had served the flying squirrel and the mice, and as Quonab served
+the mink, so Rolf served the marten and the woods was still.
+
+
+
+Chapter 29. Snowshoes
+
+“That's for Annette,” said Rolf, remembering his promise as he hung the
+stretched marten skin to dry.
+
+“Yi! Yi! Yi!” came three yelps, just as he had heard them the day he
+first met Quonab, and crossing the narrow lake he saw his partner's
+canoe.
+
+“We have found the good hunting,” he said, as Rolf steadied the canoe at
+the landing and Skookum, nearly well again, wagged his entire ulterior
+person to welcome the wanderer home. The first thing to catch the boy's
+eye was a great, splendid beaver skin stretched on a willow hoop.
+
+“Ho, ho!” he exclaimed.
+
+“Ugh; found another pond.”
+
+“Good, good,” said Rolf as he stroked the first beaver skin he had ever
+seen in the woods.
+
+“This is better,” said Quonab, and held up the two barkstones, castors,
+or smell-glands that are found in every beaver and which for some hid
+reason have an irresistible attraction for all wild animals. To us the
+odour is slight, but they have the power of intensifying, perpetuating,
+and projecting such odorous substances as may be mixed with them.
+No trapper considers his bait to be perfect without a little of the
+mysterious castor. So that that most stenchable thing they had already
+concocted of fish-oil, putrescence, sewer-gas, and sunlight, when
+commingled and multiplied with the dried-up powder of a castor, was
+intensified into a rich, rancid, gas-exhaling hell-broth as rapturously
+bewitching to our furry brothers as it is poisonously nauseating to
+ourselves--seductive afar like the sweetest music, inexorable as fate,
+insidious as laughing-gas, soothing and numbing as absinthe--this, the
+lure and caution-luller, is the fellest trick in all the trappers' code.
+As deadly as inexplicable, not a few of the states have classed it with
+black magic and declared its use a crime.
+
+But no such sentiment prevailed in the high hills of Quonab's time, and
+their preparations for a successful trapping season were nearly perfect.
+Thirty deadfalls made by Quonab, with the sixty made on the first trip
+and a dozen steel traps, were surely promise of a good haul. It was
+nearly November now; the fur was prime; then why not begin? Because
+the weather was too fine. You must have frosty weather or the creatures
+taken in the deadfalls are spoiled before the trapper can get around.
+
+Already a good, big pile of wood was cut; both shanty and storeroom
+were chinked, plugged, and banked for the winter. It was not safe yet to
+shoot and store a number of deer, but there was something they could do.
+Snowshoes would soon be a necessary of life; and the more of this finger
+work they did while the weather was warm, the better.
+
+Birch and ash are used for frames; the former is less liable to split,
+but harder to work. White ash was plentiful on the near flat, and a
+small ten-foot log was soon cut and split into a lot of long laths.
+Quonab of course took charge; but Rolf followed in everything. Each took
+a lath and shaved it down evenly until an inch wide and three quarters
+of an inch thick. The exact middle was marked, and for ten inches at
+each side of that it was shaved down to half an inch in thickness. Two
+flat crossbars, ten and twelve inches long, were needed and holes to
+receive these made half through the frame. The pot was ready boiling and
+by using a cord from end to end of each lath they easily bent it in the
+middle and brought the wood into touch with the boiling water. Before an
+hour the steam had so softened the wood, and robbed it of spring, that
+it was easy to make it into any desired shape. Each lath was cautiously
+bent round; the crossbars slipped into their prepared sockets; a
+temporary lashing of cord kept all in place; then finally the frames
+were set on a level place with the fore end raised two inches and a
+heavy log put on the frame to give the upturn to the toe.
+
+Here they were left to dry and the Indian set about preparing the
+necessary thongs. A buckskin rolled in wet, hard wood ashes had been
+left in the mud hole. Now after a week the hair was easily scraped off
+and the hide, cleaned and trimmed of all loose ends and tags, was spread
+out--soft, white, and supple. Beginning outside, and following round and
+round the edge, Quonab cut a thong of rawhide as nearly as possible a
+quarter inch wide. This he carried on till there were many yards of it,
+and the hide was all used up. The second deer skin was much smaller and
+thinner. He sharpened his knife and cut it much finer, at least half the
+width of the other. Now they were ready to lace the shoes, the finer for
+the fore and back parts, the heavy for the middle on which the wearer
+treads. An expert squaw would have laughed at the rude snowshoes that
+were finished that day, but they were strong and serviceable.
+
+Naturally the snowshoes suggested a toboggan. That was easily made by
+splitting four thin boards of ash, each six inches wide and ten feet
+long. An up-curl was steamed on the prow of each, and rawhide lashings
+held all to the crossbars.
+
+
+
+Chapter 30. Catching a Fox
+
+     “As to wisdom, a man ain't a spring; he's a tank, an' gives
+     out only what he gathers”--Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+Quonab would not quit his nightly couch in the canvas lodge so Rolf and
+Skookum stayed with him. The dog was himself again, and more than once
+in the hours of gloom dashed forth in noisy chase of something which
+morning study of the tracks showed to have been foxes. They were
+attracted partly by the carrion of the deer, partly by the general
+suitability of the sandy beach for a gambolling place, and partly by a
+foxy curiosity concerning the cabin, the hunters, and their dog.
+
+One morning after several night arousings and many raids by Skookum,
+Rolf said: “Fox is good now; why shouldn't I add some fox pelts to
+that?” and he pointed with some pride to the marten skin.
+
+“Ugh, good; go ahead; you will learn,” was the reply.
+
+So getting out the two fox traps Rolf set to work. Noting where chiefly
+the foxes ran or played he chose two beaten pathways and hid the traps
+carefully, exactly as he did for the marten; then selecting a couple of
+small cedar branches he cut these and laid them across the path, one on
+each side of the trap, assuming that the foxes following the usual route
+would leap over the boughs and land in disaster. To make doubly sure he
+put a piece of meat by each trap and half-way between them set a large
+piece on a stone.
+
+Then he sprinkled fresh earth over the pathways and around each trap and
+bait so he should have a record of the tracks.
+
+Foxes came that night, as he learned by the footprints along the beach,
+but never one went near his traps. He studied the marks; they slowly
+told him all the main facts. The foxes had come as usual, and frolicked
+about. They had discovered the bait and the traps at once--how could
+such sharp noses miss them--and as quickly noted that the traps were
+suspicious-smelling iron things, that manscent, hand, foot, and body,
+were very evident all about; that the only inducement to go forward was
+some meat which was coarse and cold, not for a moment to be compared
+with the hot juicy mouse meat that abounded in every meadow. The foxes
+were well fed and unhungry. Why should they venture into such evident
+danger? In a word, walls of stone could not have more completely
+protected the ground and the meat from the foxes than did the obvious
+nature of the traps; not a track was near, and many afar showed how
+quickly they had veered off.
+
+“Ugh, it is always so,” said Quonab. “Will you try again?”
+
+“Yes, I will,” replied Rolf, remembering now that he had omitted to
+deodorize his traps and his boots.
+
+He made a fire of cedar and smoked his traps, chains, and all. Then
+taking a piece of raw venison he rubbed it on his leather gloves and
+on the soles of his boots, wondering how he had expected to succeed the
+night before with all these man-scent killers left out. He put fine,
+soft moss under the pan of each trap, then removed the cedar brush, and
+gently sprinkled all with fine, dry earth. The set was perfect; no human
+eye could have told that there was any trap in the place. It seemed a
+foregone success.
+
+“Fox don't go by eye,” was all the Indian said, for he reckoned it best
+to let the learner work it out.
+
+In the morning Rolf was up eager to see the results. There was nothing
+at all. A fox had indeed, come within ten feet at one place, but behaved
+then as though positively amused at the childishness of the whole smelly
+affair. Had a man been there on guard with a club, he could not have
+kept the spot more wholly clear of foxes. Rolf turned away baffled and
+utterly puzzled. He had not gone far before he heard a most terrific
+yelping from Skookum, and turned to see that trouble-seeking pup caught
+by the leg in the first trap. It was more the horrible surprise than the
+pain, but he did howl.
+
+The hunters came quickly to the rescue and at once he was freed, none
+the worse, for the traps have no teeth; they merely hold. It is the
+long struggle and the starvation chiefly that are cruel, and these every
+trapper should cut short by going often around his line.
+
+Now Quonab took part. “That is a good setting for some things. It would
+catch a coon, a mink, or a marten,--or a dog--but not a fox or a wolf.
+They are very clever. You shall see.”
+
+The Indian got out a pair of thick leather gloves, smoked them in cedar,
+also the traps. Next he rubbed his moccasin soles with raw meat and
+selecting a little bay in the shore he threw a long pole on the sand,
+from the line of high, dry shingle across to the water's edge. In
+his hand he carried a rough stake. Walking carefully on the pole and
+standing on it, he drove the stake in at about four feet from the shore;
+then split it, and stuffed some soft moss into the split. On this he
+poured three or four drops of the “smell-charm.” Now he put a lump of
+spruce gum on the pan of the trap, holding a torch under it till the gum
+was fused, and into this he pressed a small, flat stone. The chain of
+the trap he fastened to a ten-pound stone of convenient shape, and sank
+the stone in the water half-way between the stake and the shore. Last
+he placed the trap on this stone, so that when open everything would be
+under water except the flat stone on the pan. Now he returned along the
+pole and dragged it away with him.
+
+Thus there was now no track or scent of human near the place.
+
+The setting was a perfect one, but even then the foxes did not go near
+it the following night; they must become used to it. In their code, “A
+strange thing is always dangerous.” In the morning Rolf was inclined to
+scoff. But Quonab said: “Wah! No trap goes first night.”
+
+They did not need to wait for the second morning. In the middle of the
+night Skookum rushed forth barking, and they followed to see a wild
+struggle, the fox leaping to escape and fast to his foot was the trap
+with its anchor stone a-dragging.
+
+Then was repeated the scene that ended the struggle of mink and marten.
+The creature's hind feet were tied together and his body hung from a
+peg in the shanty. In the morning they gloated over his splendid fur and
+added his coat to their store of trophies.
+
+
+
+Chapter 31. Following the Trap Line
+
+That night the moon changed. Next day came on with a strong north wind.
+By noon the wild ducks had left the lake. Many long strings of geese
+passed southeastward, honking as they flew. Colder and colder blew the
+strong wind, and soon the frost was showing on the smaller ponds. It
+snowed a little, but this ceased. With the clearing sky the wind fell
+and the frost grew keener.
+
+At daybreak, when the hunters rose, it was very cold. Everything but the
+open lake was frozen over, and they knew that winter was come; the time
+of trapping was at hand. Quonab went at once to the pinnacle on the
+hill, made a little fire, then chanting the “Hunter's Prayer,” he cast
+into the fire the whiskers of the fox and the marten, some of the
+beaver castor, and some tobacco. Then descended to prepare for the
+trail--blankets, beaver traps, weapons, and food for two days, besides
+the smell-charm and some fish for bait.
+
+Quickly the deadfalls were baited and set; last the Indian threw into
+the trap chamber a piece of moss on which was a drop of the “smell,” and
+wiped another drop on each of his moccasins. “Phew,” said Rolf.
+
+“That make a trail the marten follow for a month,” was the explanation.
+Skookum seemed to think so too, and if he did not say “phew,” it was
+because he did not know how.
+
+Very soon the little dog treed a flock of partridge and Rolf with blunt
+arrows secured three. The breasts were saved for the hunters' table, but
+the rest with the offal and feathers made the best of marten baits and
+served for all the traps, till at noon they reached the beaver pond.
+It was covered with ice too thin to bear, but the freshly used
+landing places were easily selected. At each they set a strong, steel
+beaver-trap, concealing it amid some dry grass, and placing in a split
+stick a foot away a piece of moss in which were a few drops of the magic
+lure. The ring on the trap chain was slipped over a long, thin, smooth
+pole which was driven deep in the mud, the top pointing away from
+the deep water. The plan was old and proven. The beaver, eager
+to investigate that semifriendly smell, sets foot in the trap;
+instinctively when in danger he dives for the deep water; the ring slips
+along the pole till at the bottom and there it jams so that the beaver
+cannot rise again and is drowned.
+
+In an hour the six traps were set for the beavers; presently the
+hunters, skirmishing for more partridges, had much trouble to save
+Skookum from another porcupine disaster.
+
+They got some more grouse, baited the traps for a couple of miles, then
+camped for the night.
+
+Before morning it came on to snow and it was three inches deep when they
+arose. There is no place on earth where the first snow is more beautiful
+than in the Adirondacks. In early autumn nature seems to prepare for
+it. Green leaves are cleared away to expose the berry bunches in red;
+rushbeds mass their groups, turn golden brown and bow their heads to
+meet the silver load; the low hills and the lines of various Christmas
+trees are arrayed for the finest effect: the setting is perfect and the
+scene, but it lacks the lime light yet. It needs must have the lavish
+blaze of white. And when it comes like the veil on a bride, the silver
+mountings on a charger's trappings, or the golden fire in a sunset, the
+shining crystal robe is the finishing, the crowning glory, without which
+all the rest must fail, could have no bright completeness. Its beauty
+stirred the hunters though it found no better expression than Rolf's
+simple words, “Ain't it fine,” while the Indian gazed in silence.
+
+There is no other place in the eastern woods where the snow has
+such manifold tales to tell, and the hunters that day tramping found
+themselves dowered over night with the wonderful power of the hound
+to whom each trail is a plain record of every living creature that has
+passed within many hours. And though the first day after a storm has
+less to tell than the second, just as the second has less than the
+third, there was no lack of story in the snow. Here sped some antlered
+buck, trotting along while yet the white was flying. There went a
+fox, sneaking across the line of march, and eying distrustfully that
+deadfall. This broad trail with many large tracks not far apart was
+made by one of Skookum's friends, a knight of many spears. That bounding
+along was a marten. See how he quartered that thicket like a hound, here
+he struck our odour trail. Mark, how he paused and whiffed it; now away
+he goes; yes, straight to our trap.
+
+“It's down; hurrah!” Rolf shouted, for there, dead under the log, was
+an exquisite marten, dark, almost black, with a great, broad, shining
+breast of gold.
+
+They were going back now toward the beaver lake. The next trap was
+sprung and empty; the next held the body of a red squirrel, a nuisance
+always and good only to rebait the trap he springs. But the next held a
+marten, and the next a white weasel. Others were unsprung, but they
+had two good pelts when they reached the beaver lake. They were in high
+spirits with their good luck, but not prepared for the marvellous haul
+that now was theirs. Each of the six traps held a big beaver, dead,
+drowned, and safe. Each skin was worth five dollars, and the hunters
+felt rich. The incident had, moreover, this pleasing significance: It
+showed that these beavers were unsophisticated, so had not been hunted.
+Fifty pelts might easily be taken from these ponds.
+
+The trappers reset the traps; then dividing the load, sought a remote
+place to camp, for it does not do to light a fire near your beaver pond.
+One hundred and fifty pounds of beaver, in addition, to their packs, was
+not a load to be taken miles away; within half a mile on a lower level
+they selected a warm place, made a fire, and skinned their catch. The
+bodies they opened and hung in a tree with a view to future use, but the
+pelts and tails they carried on.
+
+They made a long, hard tramp that day, baiting all the traps and reached
+home late in the night.
+
+
+
+Chapter 32. The Antler-bound Bucks
+
+IN THE man-world, November is the month of gloom, despair, and many
+suicides. In the wild world, November is the Mad Moon. Many and diverse
+the madnesses of the time, but none more insane than the rut of the
+white-tailed deer. Like some disease it appears, first in the swollen
+necks of the antler-bearers, and then in the feverish habits of all.
+Long and obstinate combats between the bucks now, characterize the time;
+neglecting even to eat, they spend their days and nights in rushing
+about and seeking to kill.
+
+Their horns, growing steadily since spring, are now of full size, sharp,
+heavy, and cleaned of the velvet; in perfection. For what? Has Nature
+made them to pierce, wound, and destroy? Strange as it may seem, these
+weapons of offence are used for little but defence; less as spears than
+as bucklers they serve the deer in battles with its kind. And the long,
+hard combats are little more than wrestling and pushing bouts; almost
+never do they end fatally. When a mortal thrust is given, it is rarely a
+gaping wound, but a sudden springing and locking of the antlers, whereby
+the two deer are bound together, inextricably, hopelessly, and so suffer
+death by starvation. The records of deer killed by their rivals and left
+on the duel-ground are few; very few and far between. The records of
+those killed by interlocking are numbered by the scores.
+
+There were hundreds of deer in this country that Rolf and Quonab
+claimed. Half of them were bucks, and at least half of these engaged in
+combat some times or many times a day, all through November; that is to
+say, probably a thousand duels were fought that month within ten miles
+of the cabin. It was not surprising that Rolf should witness some of
+them, and hear many more in the distance.
+
+They were living in the cabin now, and during the still, frosty nights,
+when he took a last look at the stars, before turning in, Rolf formed
+the habit of listening intently for the voices of the gloom. Sometimes
+it was the “hoo-hoo” of the horned-owl, once or twice it was the long,
+smooth howl of the wolf; but many times it was the rattle of antlers
+that told of two bucks far up in the hardwoods, trying out the
+all-important question, “Which is the better buck?”
+
+One morning he heard still an occasional rattle at the same place as the
+night before. He set out alone, after breakfast, and coming cautiously
+near, peered into a little, open space to see two bucks with heads
+joined, slowly, feebly pushing this way and that. Their tongues were
+out; they seemed almost exhausted, and the trampled snow for an acre
+about plainly showed that they had been fighting for hours; that indeed
+these were the ones he had heard in the night. Still they were evenly
+matched, and the green light in their eyes told of the ferocious spirit
+in each of these gentle-looking deer.
+
+Rolf had no difficulty in walking quite near. If they saw him, they gave
+slight heed to the testimony of their eyes, for the unenergetic struggle
+went on until, again pausing for breath, they separated, raised their
+heads a little, sniffed, then trotted away from the dreaded enemy so
+near. Fifty yards off, they turned, shook their horns, seemed in doubt
+whether to run away, join battle again, or attack the man. Fortunately
+the first was their choice, and Rolf returned to the cabin.
+
+Quonab listened to his account, then said: “You might have been killed.
+Every buck is crazy now. Often they attack man. My father's brother was
+killed by a Mad Moon buck. They found only his body, torn to rags. He
+had got a little way up a tree, but the buck had pinned him. There were
+the marks, and in the snow they could see how he held on to the deer's
+horns and was dragged about till his strength gave out. He had no gun.
+The buck went off. That was all they knew. I would rather trust a bear
+than a deer.”
+
+The Indian's words were few, but they drew a picture all too realistic.
+The next time Rolf heard the far sound of a deer fight, it brought back
+the horror of that hopeless fight in the snow, and gave him a new and
+different feeling for the antler-bearer of the changing mood.
+
+It was two weeks after this, when he was coming in from a trip alone on
+part of the line, when his ear caught some strange sounds in the
+woods ahead; deep, sonorous, semi-human they were. Strange and weird
+wood-notes in winter are nearly sure to be those of a raven or a jay; if
+deep, they are likely to come from a raven.
+
+“Quok, quok, ha, ha, ha-hreww, hrrr, hooop, hooop,” the diabolic noises
+came, and Rolf, coming gently forward, caught a glimpse of sable pinions
+swooping through the lower pines.
+
+“Ho, ho, ho yah--hew--w--w--w” came the demon laughter of the death
+birds, and Rolf soon glimpsed a dozen of them in the branches, hopping
+or sometimes flying to the ground. One alighted on a brown bump. Then
+the bump began to move a little. The raven was pecking away, but
+again the brown bump heaved and the raven leaped to a near perch.
+“Wah--wah--wah--wo--hoo--yow--wow--rrrrrr-rrrr-rrrr”--and the other
+ravens joined in.
+
+Rolf had no weapons but his bow, his pocket knife, and a hatchet. He
+took the latter in his hand and walked gently forward; the hollow-voiced
+ravens “haw--hawed,” then flew to safe perches where they chuckled like
+ghouls over some extra-ghoulish joke.
+
+The lad, coming closer, witnessed a scene that stirred him with mingled
+horror and pity. A great, strong buck--once strong, at least--was
+standing, staggering, kneeling there; sometimes on his hind legs,
+spasmodically heaving and tugging at a long gray form on the ground,
+the body of another buck, his rival, dead now, with a broken neck, as
+it proved, but bearing big, strong antlers with which the antlers of the
+living buck were interlocked as though riveted with iron, bolted with
+clamps of steel. With all his strength, the living buck could barely
+move his head, dragging his adversary's body with him. The snow marks
+showed that at first he had been able to haul the carcass many yards;
+had nibbled a little at shoots and twigs; but that was when he was
+stronger, was long before. How long? For days, at least, perhaps a week,
+that wretched buck was dying hopelessly a death that would not come. His
+gaunt sides, his parched and lolling tongue, less than a foot from the
+snow and yet beyond reach, the filmy eye, whose opaque veil of death was
+illumined again with a faint fire of fighting green as the new foe came.
+The ravens had picked the eyes out of the dead buck and eaten a hole in
+its back. They had even begun on the living buck, but he had been able
+to use one front foot to defend his eyes; still his plight could scarce
+have been more dreadful. It made the most pitiful spectacle Rolf had
+ever seen in wild life; yes, in all his life. He was full of compassion
+for the poor brute. He forgot it as a thing to be hunted for food;
+thought of it only as a harmless, beautiful creature in dire and
+horrible straits; a fellow-being in distress; and he at once set about
+being its helper. With hatchet in hand he came gently in front, and
+selecting an exposed part at the base of the dead buck's antler he
+gave a sharp blow with the hatchet. The effect on the living buck was
+surprising. He was roused to vigorous action that showed him far from
+death as yet. He plunged, then pulled backward, carrying with him the
+carcass and the would-be rescuer. Then Rolf remembered the Indian's
+words: “You can make strong medicine with your mouth.” He spoke to
+the deer, gently, softly. Then came nearer, and tapped o'n the horn he
+wished to cut; softly speaking and tapping he increased his force, until
+at last he was permitted to chop seriously at that prison bar. It took
+many blows, for the antler stuff is very thick and strong at this time,
+but the horn was loose at last. Rolf gave it a twist and the strong buck
+was free. Free for what?
+
+Oh, tell it not among the folk who have been the wild deer's friend!
+Hide it from all who blindly believe that gratitude must always follow
+good-will! With unexpected energy, with pent-up fury, with hellish
+purpose, the ingrate sprang on his deliverer, aiming a blow as deadly as
+was in his power.
+
+Wholly taken by surprise, Rolf barely had time to seize the murderer's
+horns and ward them off his vitals. The buck made a furious lunge. Oh!
+what foul fiend was it gave him then such force?--and Rolf went down.
+Clinging for dear life to those wicked, shameful horns, he yelled as he
+never yelled before: “Quonab, Quonabi help me, oh, help me!” But he
+was pinned at once, the fierce brute above him pressing on his chest,
+striving to bring its horns to bear; his only salvation had been that
+their wide spread gave his body room between. But the weight on his
+chest was crushing out his force, his life; he had no breath to call
+again. How the ravens chuckled, and “haw-hawed” in the tree!
+
+The buck's eyes gleamed again with the emerald light of murderous
+hate, and he jerked his strong neck this way and that with the power of
+madness. It could not last for long. The boy's strength was going fast;
+the beast was crushing in his chest.
+
+“Oh, God, help me!” he gasped, as the antlered fiend began again
+struggling for the freedom of those murderous horns. The brute was
+almost free, when the ravens rose with loud croaks, and out of the woods
+dashed another to join the fight. A smaller deer? No; what? Rolf knew
+not, nor how, but in a moment there was a savage growl and Skookum
+had the murderer by the hind leg. Worrying and tearing he had not the
+strength to throw the deer, but his teeth were sharp, his heart was in
+his work, and when he transferred his fierce attack to parts more tender
+still, the buck, already spent, reared, wheeled, and fell. Before he
+could recover Skookum pounced upon him by the nose and hung on like a
+vice. The buck could swing his great neck a little, and drag the
+dog, but he could not shake him off. Rolf saw the chance, rose to his
+tottering legs, seized his hatchet, stunned the fierce brute with a
+blow. Then finding on the snow his missing knife he gave the hunter
+stroke that spilled the red life-blood and sank on the ground to know no
+more till Quonab stood beside him.
+
+
+
+Chapter 33. A Song of Praise
+
+ROLF was lying by a fire when he came to, Quonab bending over him with a
+look of grave concern. When he opened his eyes, the Indian smiled; such
+a soft, sweet smile, with long, ivory rows in its background.
+
+Then he brought hot tea, and Rolf revived so he could sit up and tell
+the story of the morning.
+
+“He is an evil Manito,” and he looked toward the dead buck; “we must not
+eat him. You surely made medicine to bring Skookum.”
+
+“Yes, I made medicine with my mouth,” was the answer, “I called, I
+yelled, when he came at me.”
+
+“It is a long way from here to the cabin,” was Quonab's reply. “I could
+not hear you; Skookum could not hear you; but Cos Cob, my father, told
+me that when you send out a cry for help, you send medicine, too, that
+goes farther than the cry. May be so; I do not know: my father was very
+wise.”
+
+“Did you see Skookum come, Quonab?”
+
+“No; he was with me hours after you left, but he was restless and
+whimpered. Then he left me and it was a long time before I heard him
+bark. It was the 'something-wrong' bark. I went. He brought me here.”
+
+“He must have followed my track all 'round the line.”
+
+After an hour they set out for the cabin. The ravens “Ha-ha-ed” and
+“Ho-ho-ed” as they went. Quonab took the fateful horn that Rolf had
+chopped off, and hung it on a sapling with a piece of tobacco and a red
+yam streamer ', to appease the evil spirit that surely was near. There
+it hung for years after, until the sapling grew to a tree that swallowed
+the horn, all but the tip, which rotted away.
+
+Skookum took a final sniff at his fallen enemy, gave the body the
+customary expression of a dog's contempt, then led the procession
+homeward.
+
+Not that day, not the next, but on the first day of calm, red, sunset
+sky, went Quonab to his hill of worship; and when the little fire that
+he lit sent up its thread of smoke, like a plumb-line from the red cloud
+over him, he burnt a pinch of tobacco, and, with face and arms upraised
+in the red light, he sang a new song:
+
+     “The evil one set a trap for my son,
+     But the Manito saved him;
+     In the form of a Skookum he saved him.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 34. The Birch-bark Vessels
+
+Rolf was sore and stiff for a week afterward; so was Skookum. There were
+times when Quonab was cold, moody, and silent for days. Then some milder
+wind would blow in the region of his heart and the bleak ice surface
+melted into running rills of memory or kindly emanation.
+
+Just before the buck adventure, there had been an unpleasant time of
+chill and aloofness. It arose over little. Since the frost had come,
+sealing the waters outside, Quonab would wash his hands in the vessel
+that was also the bread pan. Rolf had New England ideas of propriety
+in cooking matters, and finally he forgot the respect due to age and
+experience. That was one reason why he went out alone that day. Now,
+with time to think things over, the obvious safeguard would be to have
+a wash bowl; but where to get it? In those days, tins were scarce and
+ex-pensive. It was the custom to look in the woods for nearly all the
+necessaries of life; and, guided by ancient custom and experience, they
+seldom looked in vain. Rolf had seen, and indeed made, watering troughs,
+pig troughs, sap troughs, hen troughs, etc., all his life, and he now
+set to work with the axe and a block of basswood to hew out a trough
+for a wash bowl. With adequate tools he might have made a good one; but,
+working with an axe and a stiff arm, the result was a very heavy, crude
+affair. It would indeed hold water, but it was almost impossible to dip
+it into the water hole, so that a dipper was needed.
+
+When Quonab saw the plan and the result, he said: “In my father's lodge
+we had only birch bark. See; I shall make a bowl.” He took from the
+storehouse a big roll of birch bark, gathered in warm weather (it can
+scarcely be done in cold), for use in repairing the canoe. Selecting a
+good part he cut out a square, two feet each way, and put it in the big
+pot which was full of boiling water. At the same time he soaked with
+it a bundle of wattap, or long fibrous roots of the white spruce, also
+gathered before the frost came, with a view to canoe repairs in the
+spring.
+
+While these were softening in the hot water, he cut a couple of long
+splints of birch, as nearly as possible half an inch wide and an eighth
+of an inch thick, and put them to steep with the bark. Next he made two
+or three straddle pins or clamps, like clothes pegs, by splitting the
+ends of some sticks which had a knot at one end.
+
+Now he took out the spruce roots, soft and pliant, and selecting a lot
+that were about an eighth of an inch in diameter, scraped off the bark
+and roughness, until he had a bundle of perhaps ten feet of soft, even,
+white cords.
+
+The bark was laid flat and cut as below.
+
+The rounding of A and B is necessary, for the holes of the sewing would
+tear the piece off if all were on the same line of grain. Each corner
+was now folded and doubled on itself (C), then held so with a straddle
+pin (D). The rim was trimmed so as to be flat where it crossed the fibre
+of the bark, and arched where it ran along. The pliant rods of birch
+were bent around this, and using the large awl to make holes, Quonab
+sewed the rim rods to the bark with an over-lapping stitch that made
+a smooth finish to the edge, and the birch-bark wash pan was complete.
+(E.) Much heavier bark can be used if the plan F G be followed, but it
+is hard to make it water-tight.
+
+So now they had a wash pan and a cause of friction was removed. Rolf
+found it amusing as well as useful to make other bark vessels of varying
+sizes for dippers and dunnage. It was work that he could do now while he
+was resting and recovering and he became expert. After watching a fairly
+successful attempt at a box to hold fish-hooks and tackle, Quonab said:
+“In my father's lodge these would bear quill work in colours.”
+
+“That's so,” said Rolf, remembering the birch-bark goods often sold by
+the Indians. “I wish we had a porcupine now.”
+
+“Maybe Skookum could find one,” said the Indian, with a smile.
+
+“Will you let me kill the next Kahk we find?”
+
+“Yes, if you use the quills and burn its whiskers.”
+
+“Why burn its whiskers?”
+
+“My father said it must be so. The smoke goes straight to the All-above;
+then the Manito knows we have killed, but we have remembered to kill
+only for use and to thank Him.”
+
+It was some days before they found a porcupine, and when they did,
+it was not necessary for them to kill it. But that belongs to another
+chapter.
+
+They saved its skin with all its spears and hung it in the storehouse.
+The quills with the white bodies and ready-made needle at each end are
+admirable for embroidering, but they are white only.
+
+“How can we dye them, Quonab?
+
+“In the summer are many dyes; in winter they are hard to get. We can get
+some.”
+
+So forth he went to a hemlock tree, and cut till he could gather the
+inner pink bark, which, boiled with the quills, turned them a dull pink;
+similarly, alder bark furnished rich orange, and butternut bark a brown.
+Oak chips, with a few bits of iron in the pot, dyed black.
+
+“Must wait till summer for red and green,” said the Indian. “Red comes
+only from berries; the best is the blitum. We call it squaw-berry and
+mis-caw-wa, yellow comes from the yellow root (Hydrastis).”
+
+But black, white, orange, pink, brown, and a dull red made by a double
+dip of orange and pink, are a good range of colour. The method in using
+the quills is simple. An awl to make holes in the bark for each;
+the rough parts behind are concealed afterward with a lining of bark
+stitched over them; and before the winter was over, Rolf had made a
+birch-bark box, decorated lid and all, with porcupine quill work, in
+which he kept the sable skin that was meant to buy Annette's new
+dress, the costume she had dreamed of, the ideal and splendid, almost
+unbelievable vision of her young life, ninety-five cents' worth of
+cotton print.
+
+There was one other point of dangerous friction. Whenever it fell to
+Quonab to wash the dishes, he simply set them on the ground and let
+Skookum lick them off. This economical arrangement was satisfactory to
+Quonab, delightful to Skookum, and apparently justified by the finished
+product, but Rolf objected. The Indian said: “Don't he eat the same food
+as we do? You cannot tell if you do not see.”
+
+Whenever he could do so, Rolf washed the doubtful dishes over again, yet
+there were many times when this was impossible, and the situation became
+very irritating. But he knew that the man who loses his temper has
+lost the first round of the fight, so, finding the general idea of
+uncleanness without avail, he sought for some purely Indian argument.
+As they sat by the evening fire, one day, he led up to talk of his
+mother--of her power as a medicine woman, of the many evil medicines
+that harmed her. “It was evil medicine for her if a dog licked her hand
+or touched her food. A dog licked her hand and the dream dog came to her
+three days before she died.” After a long pause, he added, “In some ways
+I am like my mother.”
+
+Two days later, Rolf chanced to see his friend behind the shanty give
+Skookum the pan to clean off after they had been frying deer fat. The
+Indian had no idea that Rolf was near, nor did he ever learn the truth
+of it.
+
+That night, after midnight, the lad rose quietly, lighted the pine
+splints that served them for a torch, rubbed some charcoal around each
+eye to make dark rings that should supply a horror-stricken look. Then
+he started in to pound on Quonab's tom-tom, singing:
+
+     “Evil spirit leave me;
+     Dog-face do not harm me.”
+
+Quonab sat up in amazement. Rolf paid no heed, but went on, bawling
+and drumming and staring upward into vacant space. After a few minutes
+Skookum scratched and whined at the shanty door. Rolf rose, took his
+knife, cut a bunch of hair from Skookum's neck and burned it in the
+torch, then went on singing with horrid solemnity:
+
+     “Evil spirit leave me;
+     Dog-face do not harm me.”
+
+At last he turned, and seeming to discover that Quonab was looking on,
+said:
+
+“The dream dog came to me. I thought I saw him lick deer grease from the
+frying pan behind the shanty. He laughed, for he knew that he made evil
+medicine for me. I am trying to drive him away, so he cannot harm me. I
+do not know. I am like my mother. She was very wise, but she died after
+it.”
+
+Now Quonab arose, cut some more hair from Skookum, added a pinch of
+tobacco, then, setting it ablaze, he sang in the rank odour of the
+burning weed and hair, his strongest song to kill ill magic; and Rolf,
+as he chuckled and sweetly sank to sleep, knew that the fight was won.
+His friend would never, never more install Skookum in the high and
+sacred post of pot-licker, dishwasher, or final polisher.
+
+
+
+Chapter 35. Snaring Rabbits
+
+The deepening snow about the cabin was marked in all the thickets by
+the multitudinous tracks of the snowshoe rabbits or white hares.
+Occasionally the hunters saw them, but paid little heed. Why should they
+look at rabbits when deer were plentiful?
+
+“You catch rabbit?” asked Quonab one day when Rolf was feeling fit
+again.
+
+“I can shoot one with my bow,” was the answer, “but why should I, when
+we have plenty of deer?”
+
+“My people always hunted rabbits. Sometimes no deer were to be found;
+then the rabbits were food. Sometimes in the enemy's country it was not
+safe to hunt, except rabbits, with blunt arrows, and they were food.
+Sometimes only squaws and children in camp--nothing to eat; no guns;
+then the rabbits were food.”
+
+“Well, see me get one,” and Rolf took his bow and arrow. He found many
+white bunnies, but always in the thickest woods. Again and again he
+tried, but the tantalizing twigs and branches muffled the bow and
+turned the arrow. It was hours before he returned with a fluffy snowshoe
+rabbit.
+
+“That is not our way.” Quonab led to the thicket and selecting a place
+of many tracks he cut a lot of brush and made a hedge across with half a
+dozen openings. At each of these openings he made a snare of strong cord
+tied to a long pole, hung on a crotch, and so arranged that a tug at the
+snare would free the pole which in turn would hoist the snare and the
+creature in it high in the air.
+
+Next morning they went around and found that four of the snares had
+each a snow-white rabbit hanging by the neck. As he was handling these,
+Quonab felt a lump I on the hind leg of one. He carefully cut it open
+and turned out a curious-looking object about the size of an acorn,
+flattened, made of flesh and covered with hair, and nearly the shape of
+a large bean. He gazed at it, and, turning to Rolf, said with intense
+meaning:
+
+“Ugh! we have found the good hunting. This is the Peeto-wab-oos-once,
+the little medicine rabbit. Now we have strong medicine in the lodge.
+You shall see.”
+
+He went out to the two remaining snares and passed the medicine rabbit
+through each. An hour later, when they returned, they found a rabbit
+taken in the first snare.
+
+“It is ever so,” said the Indian. “We can always catch rabbits now. My
+father had the Peeto-wab-i-ush once, the little medicine deer, and so
+he never failed in hunting but twice. Then he found that his papoose,
+Quonab, had stolen his great medicine. He was a very wise papoose. He
+killed a chipmunk each of those days.”
+
+“Hark! what is that?” A faint sound of rustling branches, and some short
+animal noises in the woods had caught Rolf's ear, and Skookum's, too,
+for he was off like one whose life is bound up in a great purpose.
+
+“Yap, yap, yap,” came the angry sound from Skookum. Who can say that
+animals have no language? His merry “yip, yip, yip,” for partridge up a
+tree, or his long, hilarious, “Yow, yow, yow,” when despite all orders
+he chased some deer, were totally distinct from the angry “Yap, yap,”
+ he gave for the bear up the tree, or the “Grrryapgrryap,” with which he
+voiced his hatred of the porcupine.
+
+But now it was the “Yap, yap,” as when he had treed the bears.
+
+“Something up a tree,” was the Indian's interpretation, as they followed
+the sound. Something up a tree! A whole menagerie it seemed to Rolf when
+they got there. Hanging by the neck in the remaining snare, and limp
+now, was a young lynx, a kit of the year. In the adjoining tree, with
+Skookum circling and yapping 'round the base, was a savage old lynx.
+In the crotch above her was another young one, and still higher was a
+third, all looking their unutterable disgust at the noisy dog below;
+the mother, indeed, expressing it in occasional hisses, but none of them
+daring to come down and face him. The lynx is very good fur and very
+easy prey. The Indian brought the old one down with a shot; then, as
+fast as he could reload, the others were added to the bag, and, with the
+one from the snare, they returned laden to the cabin.
+
+The Indian's eyes shone with a peculiar light. “Ugh! Ugh! My father told
+me; it is great medicine. You see, now, it does not fail.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 36. Something Wrong at the Beaver Traps
+
+Once they had run the trap lines, and their store of furs was increasing
+finely. They had taken twenty-five beavers and counted on getting two
+or three each time they went to the ponds. But they got an unpleasant
+surprise in December, on going to the beaver grounds, to find all the
+traps empty and unmistakable signs that some man had been there and had
+gone off with the catch. They followed the dim trail of his snowshoes,
+half hidden by a recent wind, but night came on with more snow, and all
+signs were lost.
+
+The thief had not found the line yet, for the haul of marten and mink
+was good. But this was merely the beginning.
+
+The trapper law of the wilderness is much like all primitive laws; first
+come has first right, provided he is able to hold it. If a strong rival
+comes in, the first must fight as best he can. The law justifies him
+in anything he may do, if he succeeds. The law justifies the second in
+anything he may do, except murder. That is, the defender may shoot to
+kill; the offender may not.
+
+But the fact of Quonab's being an Indian and Rolf supposedly one, would
+turn opinion against them in the Adirondacks, and it was quite likely
+that the rival considered them trespassers on his grounds, although the
+fact that he robbed their traps without removing them, and kept out of
+sight, rather showed the guilty conscience of a self-accused poacher.
+
+He came in from the west, obviously; probably the Racquet River
+country; was a large man, judging by his foot and stride, and understood
+trapping; but lazy, for he set no traps. His principal object seemed to
+be to steal.
+
+And it was not long before he found their line of marten traps, so his
+depredations increased. Primitive emotions are near the surface at all
+times, and under primitive conditions are very ready to appear. Rolf and
+Quonab felt that now it was war.
+
+
+
+Chapter 37. The Pekan or Fisher
+
+There was one large track in the snow that they saw several times--it
+was like that of a marten, but much larger. “Pekan,” said the Indian,
+“the big marten; the very strong one, that fights without fear.”
+
+“When my father was a papoose he shot an arrow at a pekan. He did not
+know what it was; it seemed only a big black marten. It was wounded, but
+sprang from the tree on my father's breast. It would have killed him,
+but for the dog; then it would have killed the dog, but my grandfather
+was near.
+
+“He made my father eat the pekan's heart, so his heart might be like it.
+It sought no fight, but it turned, when struck, and fought without fear.
+That is the right way; seek peace, but fight without fear. That was my
+father's heart and mine.” Then glancing toward the west he continued in
+a tone of menace: “That trap robber will find it so. We sought no fight,
+but some day I kill him.”
+
+The big track went in bounds, to be lost in a low, thick woods. But they
+met it again.
+
+They were crossing a hemlock ridge a mile farther on, when they came to
+another track which was first a long, deep furrow, some fifteen inches
+wide, and in this were the wide-spread prints of feet as large as those
+of a fisher.
+
+“Kahk,” said Quonab, and Skookum said “Kahk,” too, but he did it
+by growling and raising his back hair, and doubtless also by sadly
+remembering. His discretion seemed as yet embryonic, so Rolf slipped
+his sash through the dog's collar, and they followed the track, for the
+porcupine now stood in Rolf's mind as a sort of embroidery outfit.
+
+They had not followed far before another track joined on--the track
+of the fisher-pekan; and soon after they heard in the woods ahead
+scratching sounds, as of something climbing, and once or twice a faint,
+far, fighting snarl.
+
+Quickly tying the over-valiant Skookum to a tree, they crept forward,
+ready for anything, and arrived on the scene of a very peculiar action.
+
+Action it was, though it was singularly devoid of action. First, there
+was a creature, like a huge black marten or a short-legged black fox,
+standing at a safe distance, while, partly hidden under a log, with hind
+quarters and tail only exposed, was a large porcupine. Both were
+very still, but soon the fisher snarled and made a forward lunge. The
+porcupine, hearing the sounds or feeling the snow dash up on that side,
+struck with its tail; but the fisher kept out of reach. Next a feint was
+made on the other side, with the same result; then many, as though the
+fisher were trying to tire out the tail or use up all its quills.
+
+Sometimes the assailant leaped on the log and teased the quill-pig to
+strike upward, while many white daggers already sunk in the bark showed
+that these tactics had been going on for some time.
+
+Now the two spectators saw by the trail that a similar battle had
+been fought at another log, and that the porcupine trail from that was
+spotted with blood. How the fisher had forced it out was not then clear,
+but soon became so.
+
+After feinting till the Kahk would not strike, the pekan began a new
+manceuvre. Starting on the opposite side of the log that protected the
+spiny one's nose, he burrowed quickly through the snow and leaves. The
+log was about three inches from the ground, and before the porcupine
+could realize it, the fisher had a space cleared and seized the spiny
+one by its soft, unspiny nose. Grunting and squealing it pulled back and
+lashed its terrible tail. To what effect? Merely to fill the log around
+with quills. With all its strength the quill-pig pulled and writhed, but
+the fisher was stronger. His claws enlarged the hole and when the victim
+ceased from exhaustion, the fisher made a forward dash and changed
+his hold from the tender nose to the still more tender throat of the
+porcupine. His hold was not deep enough and square enough to seize the
+windpipe, but he held on. For a minute or two the struggles of Kahk were
+of desperate energy and its lashing tail began to be short of spines,
+but a red stream trickling from the wound was sapping its strength.
+Protected by the log, the fisher had but to hold on and play a waiting
+game.
+
+The heaving and backward pulling of Kahk were very feeble at length; the
+fisher had nearly finished the fight. But he was impatient of further
+delay and backing out of the hole he mounted the log, displaying a much
+scratched nose; then reaching down with deft paw, near the quill-pig's
+shoulder, he gave a sudden jerk that threw the former over on its back,
+and before it could recover, the fisher's jaws closed on its ribs, and
+crushed and tore. The nerveless, almost quilless tail could not harm him
+there. The red blood flowed and the porcupine lay still. Again and again
+as he uttered chesty growls the pekan ground his teeth into the warm
+flesh and shook and worried the unconquerable one he had conquered. He
+was licking his bloody chops for the twentieth time, gloating in gore,
+when “crack” went Quonab's gun, and the pekan had an opportunity of
+resuming the combat with Kahk far away in the Happy Hunting.
+
+“Yap, yap, yap!” and in rushed Skookum, dragging the end of Rolf's sash
+which he had gnawed through in his determination to be in the fight,
+no matter what it cost; and it was entirely due to the fact that the
+porcupine was belly up, that Skookum did not have another hospital
+experience.
+
+This was Rolf's first sight of a fisher, and he examined it as one does
+any animal--or man--that one has so long heard described in superlative
+terms that it has become idealized into a semi-myth. This was the
+desperado of the woods; the weird black cat that feared no living thing.
+This was the only one that could fight and win against Kahk.
+
+They made a fire at once, and while Rolf got the mid-day meal of tea and
+venison, Quonab skinned the fisher. Then he cut out its heart and liver.
+When these were cooked he gave the first to Rolf and the second to
+Skookum, saying to the one, “I give you a pekan heart;” and to the
+dog, “That will force all of the quills out of you if you play the fool
+again, as I think you will.”
+
+In the skin of the fisher's neck and tail they found several quills,
+some of them new, some of them dating evidently from another fight
+of the same kind, but none of them had done any damage. There was no
+inflammation or sign of poisoning. “It is ever so,” said Quonab, “the
+quills cannot hurt him.” Then, turning to the porcupine, he remarked, as
+he prepared to skin it:
+
+“Ho, Kahk! you see now it was a big mistake you did not let Nana Bojou
+sit on the dry end of that log.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 38. The Silver Fox
+
+They were returning to the cabin, one day, when Quonab stopped and
+pointed. Away off on the snow of the far shore was a moving shape to be
+seen.
+
+“Fox, and I think silver fox; he so black. I think he lives there.”
+
+“Why?” “I have seen many times a very big fox track, and they do not go
+where they do not live. Even in winter they keep their own range.”
+
+“He's worth ten martens, they say?” queried Rolf.
+
+“Ugh! fifty.”
+
+“Can't we get him?”
+
+“Can try. But the water set will not work in winter; we must try
+different.”
+
+This was the plan, the best that Quonab could devise for the snow:
+Saving the ashes from the fire (dry sand would have answered), he
+selected six open places in the woods on the south of the lake, and in
+each made an ash bed on which he scattered three or four drops of the
+smell-charm. Then, twenty-five yards from each, on the north or west
+side (the side of the prevailing wind) he hung from some sapling a few
+feathers, a partridge wing or tail with some red yarns to it. He left
+the places unvisited for two weeks, then returned to learn the progress
+of act one.
+
+Judging from past experience of fox nature and from the few signs that
+were offered by the snow, this is what had happened: A fox came along
+soon after the trappers left, followed the track a little way, came to
+the first opening, smelled the seductive danger-lure, swung around it,
+saw the dangling feathers, took alarm, and went off. Another of the
+places had been visited by a marten. He had actually scratched in the
+ashes. A wolf had gone around another at a safe distance.
+
+Another had been shunned several times by a fox or by foxes, but they
+had come again and again and at last yielded to the temptation to
+investigate the danger-smell; finally had rolled in it, evidently
+wallowing in an abandon of delight. So far, the plan was working there.
+
+The next move was to set the six strong fox traps, each thoroughly
+smoked, and chained to a fifteen-pound block of wood.
+
+Approaching the place carefully and using his blood-rubbed glove, Quonab
+set in each ash pile a trap. Under its face he put a wad of white rabbit
+fur. Next he buried all in the ashes, scattered a few bits of rabbit and
+a few drops of smell-charm, then dashed snow over the place, renewed
+the dangling feathers to lure the eye; and finally left the rest to the
+weather.
+
+Rolf was keen to go the next day, but the old man said: “Wah! no good!
+no trap go first night; man smell too strong.” The second day there
+was a snowfall, and the third morning Quonab said, “Now seem like good
+time.”
+
+The first trap was untouched, but there was clearly the track of a large
+fox within ten yards of it.
+
+The second was gone. Quonab said, with surprise in his voice, “Deer!”
+ Yes, truly, there was the record. A deer--a big one--had come wandering
+past; his keen nose soon apprised him of a strong, queer appeal near
+by. He had gone unsuspiciously toward it, sniffed and pawed the
+unaccountable and exciting nose medicine; then “snap!” and he had sprung
+a dozen feet, with that diabolic smell-thing hanging to his foot. Hop,
+hop, hop, the terrified deer had gone into a slashing windfall. Then the
+drag had caught on the logs, and, thanks to the hard and taper hoofs,
+the trap had slipped off and been left behind, while the deer had sought
+safer regions.
+
+In the next trap they found a beautiful marten dead, killed at once
+by the clutch of steel. The last trap was gone, but the tracks and the
+marks told a tale that any one could read; a fox had been beguiled and
+had gone off, dragging the trap and log. Not far did they need to go;
+held in a thicket they found him, and Rolf prepared the mid-day meal
+while Quonab gathered the pelt. After removing the skin the Indian cut
+deep and carefully into the body of the fox and removed the bladder. Its
+contents sprinkled near each of the traps was good medicine, he said; a
+view that was evidently shared by Skookum.
+
+More than once they saw the track of the big fox of the region,
+but never very near the snare. He was too clever to be fooled by
+smell-spells or kidney products, no matter how temptingly arrayed. The
+trappers did, indeed, capture three red foxes; but it was at cost of
+great labour. It was a venture that did not pay. The silver fox was
+there, but he took too good care of his precious hide. The slightest
+hint of a man being near was enough to treble his already double
+wariness. They would never have seen him near at hand, but for a
+stirring episode that told a tale of winter hardship.
+
+
+
+Chapter 39. The Humiliation of Skookum
+
+If Skookum could have been interviewed by a newspaper man, he would
+doubtless have said: “I am a very remarkable dog. I can tree partridges.
+I'm death on porcupines. I am pretty good in a dog fight; never was
+licked in fact: but my really marvellous gift is my speed; I'm a terror
+to run.”
+
+Yes, he was very proud of his legs, and the foxes that came about in the
+winter nights gave him many opportunities of showing what he could do.
+Many times over he very nearly caught a fox. Skookum did not know that
+these wily ones were playing with him; but they were, and enjoyed it
+immensely.
+
+The self-sufficient cur never found this out, and never lost a chance of
+nearly catching a fox. The men did not see those autumn chases because
+they were by night; but foxes hunt much by day in winter, perforce, and
+are often seen; and more than once they witnessed one of these farcical
+races.
+
+And now the shining white furnished background for a much more important
+affair.
+
+It was near sundown one day when a faint fox bark was heard out on the
+snow-covered ice of the lake.
+
+“That's for me,” Skookum seemed to think, and jumping up, with a very
+fierce growl, he trotted forth; the men looked first from the window.
+Out on the snow, sitting on his haunches, was their friend, the big,
+black silver fox.
+
+Quonab reached for his gun and Rolf tried to call Skookum, but it was
+too late. He was out to catch that fox; their business was to look on
+and applaud. The fox sat on his haunches, grinning apparently, until
+Skookum dashed through the snow within twenty yards. Then, that shining,
+black fox loped gently away, his huge tail level out behind him, and
+Skookum, sure of success, raced up, within six or seven yards. A few
+more leaps now, and the victory would be won. But somehow he could not
+close that six or seven yard gap. No matter how he strained and leaped,
+the great black brush was just so far ahead. At first they had headed
+for the shore, but the fox wheeled back to the ice and up and down.
+Skookum felt it was because escape was hopeless, and he redoubled
+his effort. But all in vain. He was only wearing himself out, panting
+noisily now. The snow was deep enough to be a great disadvantage,
+more to dog than to fox, since weight counted as such a handicap.
+Unconsciously Skookum slowed up. The fox increased his headway; then
+audaciously turned around and sat down in the snow.
+
+This was too much for the dog. He wasted about a lungful of air in an
+angry bark, and again went after the enemy. Again the chase was round
+and round, but very soon the dog was so wearied that he sat down, and
+now the black fox actually came back and barked at him.
+
+It was maddening. Skookum's pride was touched.
+
+He was in to win or break. His supreme effort brought him within five
+feet of that white-tipped brush. Then, strange to tell, the big black
+fox put forth his large reserve of speed, and making for the woods,
+left Skookum far behind. Why? The cause was clear. Quonab, after vainly
+watching for a chance to shoot, that would not endanger the dog, had,
+under cover, crept around the lake and now was awaiting in a thicket.
+But the fox's keen nose had warned him. He knew that the funny part was
+over, so ran for the woods and disappeared as a ball tossed up the snow
+behind him.
+
+Poor Skookum's tongue was nearly a foot long as he walked meekly ashore.
+He looked depressed; his tail was depressed; so were his ears; but there
+was nothing to show whether he would have told that reporter that he
+“wasn't feeling up to his usual, to-day,” or “Didn't you see me get the
+best of him?”
+
+
+
+Chapter 40. The Rarest of Pelts
+
+They saw that silver fox three or four times during the winter, and once
+found that he had had the audacity to jump from a high snowdrift onto
+the storehouse and thence to the cabin roof, where he had feasted on
+some white rabbits kept there for deadfall baits. But all attempts to
+trap or shoot him were vain, and their acquaintance might have ended as
+it began, but for an accident.
+
+It proved a winter of much snow. Heavy snow is the worst misfortune that
+can befall the wood folk in fur. It hides their food beyond reach, and
+it checks their movements so they can neither travel far in search of
+provender nor run fast to escape their enemies. Deep snow then means
+fetters, starvation, and death. There are two ways of meeting the
+problem: stilts and snowshoes. The second is far the better. The
+caribou, and the moose have stilts; the rabbit, the panther, and the
+lynx wear snowshoes. When there are three or four feet of soft snow, the
+lynx is king of all small beasts, and little in fear of the large ones.
+Man on his snowshoes has most wild four-foots at his mercy.
+
+Skookum, without either means of meeting the trouble was left much alone
+in the shanty. Apparently, it was on one of these occasions that the
+silver fox had driven him nearly frantic by eating rabbits on the roof
+above him.
+
+The exasperating robbery of their trap line had gone on irregularly all
+winter, but the thief was clever enough or lucky enough to elude them.
+
+They were returning to the cabin after a three days' round, when they
+saw, far out on the white expanse of the lake, two animals, alternately
+running and fighting. “Skookum and the fox,” was the first thought that
+came, but on entering the cabin Skookum greeted them in person.
+
+Quonab gazed intently at the two running specks and said: “One has no
+tail. I think it is a peeshoo (lynx) and a fox.”
+
+Rolf was making dinner. From time to time he glanced over the lake and
+saw the two specks, usually running. After dinner was over, he said,
+“Let's sneak 'round and see if we can get a shot.”
+
+So, putting on their snowshoes and keeping out of sight, they skimmed
+over the deer crossing and through the woods, till at a point near the
+fighters, and there they saw something that recalled at once the day of
+Skookum's humiliation.
+
+A hundred yards away on the open snow was a huge lynx and their
+old friend, the black and shining silver fox, face to face; the fox
+desperate, showing his rows of beautiful teeth, but sinking belly deep
+in the snow as he strove to escape. Already he was badly wounded. In
+any case he was at the mercy of the lynx who, in spite of his greater
+weight, had such broad and perfect snowshoes that he skimmed on the
+surface, while the fox's small feet sank deep. The lynx was far from
+fresh, and still stood in some awe of those rows of teeth that snapped
+like traps when he came too near. He was minded, of course, to kill his
+black rival, but not to be hurt in doing so. Again and again there was
+in some sort a closing fight, the wearied fox plunging breathlessly
+through the treacherous, relentless snow. If he could only get back to
+cover, he might find a corner to protect his rear and have some fighting
+chance for life. But wherever he turned that huge cat faced him, doubly
+armed, and equipped as a fox can never be for the snow.
+
+No one could watch that plucky fight without feeling his sympathies go
+out to the beautiful silver fox. Rolf, at least, was for helping him to
+escape, when the final onset came. In another dash for the woods the fox
+plunged out of sight in a drift made soft by sedge sticking through, and
+before he could recover, the lynx's jaws closed on the back of his neck
+and the relentless claws had pierced his vitals.
+
+The justification of killing is self-preservation, and in this case the
+proof would have been the lynx making a meal of the fox. Did he do
+so? Not at all. He shook his fur, licked his chest and paws in a
+self-congratulatory way, then giving a final tug at the body, walked
+calmly over the snow along the shore.
+
+Quonab put the back of his hand to his mouth and made a loud squeaking,
+much like a rabbit caught in a snare. The lynx stopped, wheeled, and
+came trotting straight toward the promising music. Unsuspectingly he
+came within twenty yards of the trappers. The flint-lock banged and the
+lynx was kicking in the snow.
+
+The beautiful silver fox skin was very little injured and proved of
+value almost to double their catch so far; while the lynx skin was as
+good as another marten.
+
+They now had opportunity of studying the tracks and learned that the fox
+had been hunting rabbits in a thicket when he was set on by the lynx.
+At first he had run around in the bushes and saved himself from serious
+injury, for the snow was partly packed by the rabbits. After perhaps an
+hour of this, he had wearied and sought to save himself by abandoning
+the lynx's territory, so had struck across the open lake. But here the
+snow was too soft to bear him at all, and the lynx could still skim
+over. So it proved a fatal error. He was strong and brave. He fought at
+least another hour here before the much stronger, heavier lynx had
+done him to death. There was no justification. It was a clear case of
+tyrannical murder, but in this case vengeance was swift and justice came
+sooner than its wont.
+
+
+
+Chapter 41. The Enemy's Fort
+
+     It pays 'bout once in  a hundred times to git mad, but there
+     ain't any  way o' tellin' beforehand which is the time.
+     --Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+It generally took two days to run the west line of traps. At a
+convenient point they had built a rough shack for a half-way house. On
+entering this one day, they learned that since their last visit it had
+been occupied by some one who chewed tobacco. Neither of them had this
+habit. Quonab's face grew darker each time fresh evidence of the enemy
+was discovered, and the final wrong was added soon.
+
+Some trappers mark their traps; some do not bother. Rolf had marked all
+of theirs with a file, cutting notches on the iron. Two, one, three, was
+their mark, and it was a wise plan, as it turned out.
+
+On going around the west beaver pond they found that all six traps had
+disappeared. In some, there was no evidence of the thief; in some, the
+tracks showed clearly that they were taken by the same interloper that
+had bothered them all along, and on a jagged branch was a short blue
+yarn.
+
+“Now will I take up his trail and kill him,” said the Indian.
+
+Rolf had opposed extreme measures, and again he remonstrated. To his
+surprise, the Indian turned fiercely and said: “You know it is white
+man. If he was Indian would you be patient? No!”
+
+“There is plenty of country south of the lake; maybe he was here first.”
+
+“You know he was not. You should eat many pekan hearts. I have sought
+peace, now I fight.”
+
+He shouldered his pack, grasped his gun, and his snowshoes went “tssape,
+tssape, tssape,” over the snow.
+
+Skookum was sitting by Rolf. He rose to resume the march, and trotted
+a few steps on Quonab's trail. Rolf did not move; he was dazed by the
+sudden and painful situation. Mutiny is always worse than war. Skookum
+looked back, trotted on, still Rolf sat staring. Quonab's figure was
+lost in the distance; the dog's was nearly so. Rolf moved not. All the
+events of the last year were rushing through his mind; the refuge he
+had found with the Indian; the incident of the buck fight and the tender
+nurse the red man proved. He wavered. Then he saw Skookum coming back
+on the trail. The dog trotted up to the boy and dropped a glove, one of
+Quonab's. Undoubtedly the Indian had lost it; Skookum had found it on
+the trail and mechanically brought it to the nearest of his masters.
+Without that glove Quonab's hand would freeze. Rolf rose and sped along
+the other's trail. Having taken the step, he found it easy to send a
+long halloo, then another and another, till an answer came. In a few
+minutes Rolf came up. The Indian was sitting on a log, waiting. The
+glove was handed over in silence, and received with a grunt.
+
+After a minute or two, Rolf said “Let's get on,” and started on the dim
+trail of the robber.
+
+For an hour or two they strode in silence. Then their course rose as
+they reached a rocky range. Among its bare, wind-swept ridges all sign
+was lost, but the Indian kept on till they were over and on the other
+side. A far cast in the thick, windless woods revealed the trail again,
+surely the same, for the snowshoe was two fingers wider on every side,
+and a hand-breadth longer than Quonab's; besides the right frame had
+been broken and the binding of rawhide was faintly seen in the snow
+mark. It was a mark they had seen all winter, and now it was headed as
+before for the west.
+
+When night came down, they camped in a hollow. They were used to snow
+camps. In the morning they went on, but wind and snow had hidden their
+tell-tale guide.
+
+What was the next move? Rolf did not ask, but wondered.
+
+Quonab evidently was puzzled.
+
+At length Rolf ventured: “He surely lives by some river--that way--and
+within a day's journey. This track is gone, but we may strike a fresh
+one. We'll know it when we see it.”
+
+The friendly look came back to the Indian's face. “You are Nibowaka.”
+
+They had not gone half a mile before they found a fresh track--their old
+acquaintance. Even Skookum showed his hostile recognition. And in a few
+minutes it led them to a shanty. They slipped off their snowshoes,
+and hung them in a tree. Quonab opened the door without knocking. They
+entered, and in a moment were face to face with a lanky, ill-favoured
+white man that all three, including Skookum, recognized as Hoag, the man
+they had met at the trader's.
+
+That worthy made a quick reach for his rifle, but Quonab covered him and
+said in tones that brooked no discussion, “Sit down!”
+
+Hoag did so, sullenly, then growled: “All right; my partners will be
+here in ten minutes.”
+
+Rolf was startled. Quonab and Skookum were not.
+
+“We settled your partners up in the hills,” said the former, knowing
+that one bluff was as good as another. Skookum growled and sniffed at
+the enemy's legs. The prisoner made a quick move with his foot.
+
+“You kick that dog again and it's your last kick,” said the Indian.
+
+“Who's kicked yer dog, and what do you mean coming here with yer
+cutthroat ways? You'll find there's law in this country before yer
+through,” was the answer.
+
+“That's what we're looking for, you trap robber, you thief. We're here
+first to find our traps; second to tell you this: the next time you come
+on our line there'll be meat for the ravens. Do you suppose I don't
+know them?” and the Indian pointed to a large pair of snowshoes with long
+heels and a repair lashing on the right frame. “See that blue yarn,” and
+the Indian matched it with a blue sash hanging to a peg.
+
+“Yes, them belongs to Bill Hawkins; he'll be 'round in five minutes
+now.”
+
+The Indian made a gesture of scorn; then turning to Rolf said: “look
+'round for our traps.” Rolf made a thorough search in and about the
+shanty and the adjoining shed. He found some traps but none with his
+mark; none of a familiar make even.
+
+“Better hunt for a squaw and papoose,” sneered Hoag, who was utterly
+puzzled by the fact that now Rolf was obviously a white lad.
+
+But all the search was vain. Either Hoag had not stolen the traps or had
+hidden them elsewhere. The only large traps they found were two of the
+largest size for taking bear.
+
+Hoag's torrent of bad language had been quickly checked by the threat of
+turning Skookum loose on his legs, and he looked such a grovelling beast
+that presently the visitors decided to leave him with a warning.
+
+The Indian took the trapper's gun, fired it off out of doors, not in
+the least perturbed by the possibility of its being heard by Hoag's
+partners. He knew they were imaginary. Then changing his plan, he said
+“Ugh! You find your gun in half a mile on our trail. But don't come
+farther and don't let me see the snowshoe trail on the divide again.
+Them ravens is awful hungry.”
+
+Skookum, to his disappointment, was called off and, talking the
+trapper's gun for a time, they left it in a bush and made for their own
+country.
+
+
+
+Chapter 42. Skookum's Panther
+
+“Why are there so few deer tracks now?”
+
+“Deer yarded for winter,” replied the Indian; “no travel in deep snow.”
+
+“We'll soon need another,” said Rolf, which unfortunately was true. They
+could have killed many deer in early winter, when the venison was in
+fine condition, but they had no place to store it. Now they must get it
+as they could, and of course it was thinner and poorer every week.
+
+They were on a high hill some days later. There was a clear view and
+they noticed several ravens circling and swooping.
+
+“Maybe dead deer; maybe deer yard,” said the Indian.
+
+It was over a thick, sheltered, and extensive cedar swamp near the woods
+where last year they had seen so many deer, and they were not surprised
+to find deer tracks in numbers, as soon as they got into its dense
+thicket.
+
+A deer yard is commonly supposed to be a place in which the deer have a
+daily “bee” at road work all winter long and deliberately keep the snow
+hammered down so they can run on a hard surface everywhere within its
+limits. The fact is, the deer gather in a place where there is plenty
+of food and good shelter. The snow does not drift here, so the deer,
+by continually moving about, soon make a network of tracks in all
+directions, extending them as they must to seek more food. They may,
+of course, leave the yard at any time, but at once they encounter the
+dreaded obstacle of deep, soft snow in which they are helpless.
+
+Once they reached the well-worn trails, the hunters took off their
+snowshoes and went gently on these deer paths. They saw one or two
+disappearing forms, which taught them the thick cover was hiding many
+more. They made for the sound of the ravens, and found that the feast of
+the sable birds was not a deer but the bodies of three, quite recently
+killed.
+
+Quonab made a hasty study of the signs and said, “Panther.”
+
+Yes, a panther, cougar, or mountain lion also had found the deer yard;
+and here he was living, like a rat in a grocer shop with nothing to do
+but help himself whenever he felt like feasting.
+
+Pleasant for the panther, but hard on the deer; for the killer is
+wasteful and will often kill for the joy of murder.
+
+Not a quarter of the carcasses lying here did he eat; he was feeding at
+least a score of ravens, and maybe foxes, martens, and lynxes as well.
+
+Before killing a deer, Quonab thought it well to take a quiet prowl
+around in hopes of seeing the panther. Skookum was turned loose and
+encouraged to display his talents.
+
+Proud as a general with an ample and obedient following, he dashed
+ahead, carrying fresh dismay among the deer, if one might judge from the
+noise. Then he found some new smell of excitement, and voiced the new
+thrill in a new sound, one not unmixed with fear. At length his barking
+was far away to the west in a rocky part of the woods. Whatever the
+prey, it was treed, for the voice kept one place.
+
+The hunters followed quickly and found the dog yapping furiously under
+a thick cedar. The first thought was of porcupine; but a nearer view
+showed the game to be a huge panther on the ground, not greatly excited,
+disdaining to climb, and taking little notice of the dog, except to
+curl his nose and utter a hissing kind of snarl when the latter came too
+near.
+
+But the arrival of the hunters gave a new colour to the picture. The
+panther raised his head, then sprang up a large tree and ensconced
+himself on a fork, while the valorous Skookum reared against the trunk,
+threatening loudly to come up and tear him to pieces.
+
+This was a rare find and a noble chance to conserve their stock of deer,
+so the hunters went around the tree seeking for a fair shot. But
+every point of view had some serious obstacle. It seemed as though the
+branches had been told off to guard the panther's vitals, for a big one
+always stood in the bullet's way.
+
+After vainly going around, Quonab said to Rolf: “Hit him with something,
+so he'll move.”
+
+Rolf always was a good shot with stones, but he found none to throw.
+Near where they stood, however, was an unfreezing spring, and the soggy
+snow on it was easily packed into a hard, heavy snowball. Rolf threw it
+straight, swift, and by good luck it hit the panther square on the nose
+and startled him so that he sprang right out of the tree and flopped
+into the snow.
+
+Skookum was on him at once, but got a slap on the ear that changed
+his music, and the panther bounded away out of sight with the valiant
+Skookum ten feet behind, whooping and yelling like mad.
+
+It was annoyance rather than fear that made that panther take to a low
+tree while Skookum boxed the compass, and made a beaten dog path all
+around him. The hunters approached very carefully now, making little
+sound and keeping out of sight. The panther was wholly engrossed with
+observing the astonishing impudence of that dog, when Quonab came
+quietly up, leaned his rifle against a tree and fired. The smoke cleared
+to show the panther on his back, his legs convulsively waving in the
+air, and Skookum tugging valiantly at his tail.
+
+“My panther,” he seemed to say; “whatever would you do without me?”
+
+A panther in a deer yard is much like a wolf shut up in a sheepfold. He
+would probably have killed all the deer that winter, though there were
+ten times as many as he needed for food; and getting rid of him was a
+piece of good luck for hunters and deer, while his superb hide made a
+noble trophy that in years to come had unexpected places of honour.
+
+
+
+Chapter 43. Sunday in the Woods
+
+Rolf still kept to the tradition of Sunday, and Quonab had in a manner
+accepted it. It was a curious fact that the red man had far more
+toleration for the white man's religious ideas than the white man had
+for the red's.
+
+Quonab's songs to the sun and the spirit, or his burning of a tobacco
+pinch, or an animal's whiskers were to Rolf but harmless nonsense. Had
+he given them other names, calling them hymns and incense, he would
+have been much nearer respecting them. He had forgotten his mother's
+teaching: “If any man do anything sincerely, believing that thereby he
+is worshipping God, he is worshipping God.” He disliked seeing Quonab
+use an axe or a gun on Sunday, and the Indian, realizing that such
+action made “evil medicine” for Rolf, practically abstained. But Rolf
+had not yet learned to respect the red yarns the Indian hung from a
+deer's skull, though he did come to understand that he must let them
+alone or produce bad feeling in camp.
+
+Sunday had become a day of rest and Quonab made it also a day of song
+and remembrance.
+
+They were sitting one Sunday night by the fire in the cabin, enjoying
+the blaze, while a storm rattled on the window and door. A white-footed
+mouse, one of a family that lived in the shanty, was trying how close he
+could come to Skookum's nose without being caught, while Rolf looked
+on. Quonab was lying back on a pile of deer skins, with his pipe in his
+mouth, his head on the bunk, and his hands clasped back of his neck.
+
+There was an atmosphere of content and brotherly feeling; the evening
+was young, when Rolf broke silence:
+
+“Were you ever married, Quonab?”
+
+“Ugh,” was the Indian's affirmative.
+
+“Where?”
+
+“Myanos.”
+
+Rolf did not venture more questions, but left the influence of the hour
+to work. It was a moment of delicate poise, and Rolf knew a touch would
+open the door or double bar it. He wondered how he might give that touch
+as he wished it. Skookum still slept. Both men watched the mouse, as,
+with quick movements it crept about. Presently it approached a long
+birch stick that stood up against the wall. High hanging was the
+song-drum. Rolf wished Quonab would take it and let it open his heart,
+but he dared not offer it; that might have the exact wrong effect. Now
+the mouse was behind the birch stick. Then Rolf noticed that the stick
+if it were to fall would strike a drying line, one end of which was
+on the song-drum peg. So he made a dash at the mouse and displaced the
+stick; the jerk it gave the line sent the song-drum with hollow bumping
+to the ground. The boy stooped to replace it; as he did, Quonab grunted
+and Rolf turned to see his hand stretched for the drum. Had Rolf
+officiously offered it, it would have been refused; now the Indian took
+it, tapped and warmed it at the fire, and sang a song of the Wabanaki.
+It was softly done, and very low, but Rolf was close, for almost the
+first time in any long rendition, and he got an entirely new notion of
+the red music. The singer's face brightened as he tummed and sang with
+peculiar grace notes and throat warbles of “Kaluscap's war with the
+magi,” and the spirit of his people, rising to the sweet magic of
+melody, came shining in his eyes. He sang the lovers' song, “The Bark
+Canoe.” (See F. R. Burton's “American Primitive Music.)
+
+“While the stars shine and falls the dew, I seek my love in bark canoe.”
+
+And then the cradle song,
+
+     “The Naked Bear Shall Never Catch Thee.”
+
+When he stopped, he stared at the fire; and after a long pause Rolf
+ventured, “My mother would have loved your songs.”
+
+Whether he heard or not, the warm emanation surely reached the Indian,
+and he began to answer the question of an hour before:
+
+“Her name was Gamowini, for she sang like the sweet night bird at
+Asamuk. I brought her from her father's house at Saugatuck. We lived at
+Myanos. She made beautiful baskets and moccasins. I fished and trapped;
+we had enough. Then the baby came. He had big round eyes, so we called
+him Wee-wees, 'our little owl,' and we were very happy. When Gamowini
+sang to her baby, the world seemed full of sun. One day when Wee-wees
+could walk she left him with me and she went to Stamford with some
+baskets to sell. A big ship was in the harbour. A man from the ship told
+her that his sailors would buy all her baskets. She had no fear. On the
+ship they seized her for a runaway slave, and hid her till they sailed
+away.
+
+“When she did not come back I took Wee-wees on my shoulder and went
+quickly to Stamford. I soon found out a little, but the people did not
+know the ship, or whence she came, or where she went, they said. They
+did not seem to care. My heart grew hotter and wilder. I wanted to
+fight. I would have killed the men on the dock, but they were many. They
+bound me and put me in jail for three months. 'When I came out Wee-wees
+was dead. They did not care. I have heard nothing since. Then I went to
+live under the rock, so I should not see our first home. I do not know;
+she may be alive. But I think it killed her to lose her baby.”
+
+The Indian stopped; then rose quickly. His face was hard set. He stepped
+out into the snowstorm and the night. Rolf was left alone with Skookum.
+
+Sad, sad, everything seemed sad in his friend's life, and Rolf, brooding
+over it with wisdom beyond his years, could not help asking: “Had Quonab
+and Gamowini been white folk, would it have happened so? Would his agony
+have been received with scornful indifference?” Alas! he knew it would
+not. He realized it would have been a very different tale, and the
+sequent questions that would not down, were, “Will this bread cast
+on the waters return after many days?” “Is there a God of justice and
+retribution?” “On whom will the flail of vengeance fall for all these
+abominations?”
+
+Two hours later the Indian returned. No word was spoken as he entered.
+He was not cold. He must have walked far. Rolf prepared for bed. The
+Indian stooped, picked up a needle from the dusty ground, one that had
+been lost the day before, silently handed it to his companion, who gave
+only a recognizant “Hm,” and dropped it into the birch-bark box.
+
+
+
+Chapter 44. The Lost Bundle of Furs
+
+There had been a significant cessation of robbery on their trap line
+after the inconclusive visit to the enemy's camp. But a new and extreme
+exasperation arose in the month of March, when the alternation of thaw
+and frost had covered the snow with a hard crust that rendered snowshoes
+unnecessary and made it easy to run anywhere and leave no track.
+
+They had gathered up a fisher and some martens before they reached the
+beaver pond. They had no beaver traps now, but it was interesting to
+call and see how many of the beavers were left, and what they were
+doing.
+
+Bubbling springs on the bank of the pond had made open water at several
+places, now that the winter frost was weakening. Out of these the
+beavers often came, as was plainly seen in the tracks, so the trappers
+approached them carefully.
+
+They were scrutinizing one of them from behind a log, Quonab with ready
+gun, Rolf holding the unwilling Skookum, when the familiar broad, flat
+head appeared. A large beaver swam around the hole, sniffed and looked,
+then silently climbed the bank, evidently making for a certain aspen
+tree that he had already been cutting. He was in easy range, and the
+gunner was about to fire when Rolf pressed his arm and pointed. Here,
+wandering through the wood, came a large lynx. It had not seen or smelt
+any of the living creatures ahead, as yet, but speedily sighted the
+beaver now working away to cut down his tree.
+
+As a pelt, the beaver was worth more than the lynx, but the naturalist
+is strong in most hunters, and they watched to see what would happen.
+
+The lynx seemed to sink into the ground, and was lost to sight as soon
+as he knew of a possible prey ahead. And now he began his stalk. The
+hunters sighted him once as he crossed a level opening in the snow. He
+seemed less than four inches high as he crawled. Logs, ridges, trees,
+or twigs, afforded ample concealment, till his whiskers appeared in a
+thicket within fifteen feet of the beaver.
+
+All this was painfully exciting to Skookum, who, though he could not
+see, could get some thrilling whiffs, and he strained forward to improve
+his opportunities. The sound of this slight struggle caught the beaver's
+ear. It stopped work, wheeled, and made for the water hole. The lynx
+sprang from his ambush, seized the beaver by the back, and held on;
+but the beaver was double the lynx's weight, the bank was steep and
+slippery, the struggling animals kept rolling down hill, nearer and
+nearer the hole. Then, on the very edge, the beaver gave a great plunge,
+and splashed into the water with the lynx clinging to its back. At once
+they disappeared, and the hunters rushed to the place, expecting them to
+float up and be an easy prey; but they did not float. At length it was
+clear that the pair had gone under the ice, for in water the beaver was
+master.
+
+After five minutes it was certain that the lynx must be dead. Quonab cut
+a sapling and made a grappler. He poked this way and that way under the
+ice, until at length he felt something soft. With the hatchet they cut
+a hole over the place and then dragged out the body of the lynx. The
+beaver, of course, escaped and was probably little the worse.
+
+While Quonab skinned the catch, Rolf prowled around the pond and soon
+came running back to tell of a remarkable happening.
+
+At another open hole a beaver had come out, wandered twenty yards to a
+mound which he had castorized, then passed several hard wood trees to
+find a large poplar or aspen, the favourite food tree. This he had begun
+to fell with considerable skill, but for some strange reason, perhaps
+because alone, he had made a miscalculation, and when the tree came
+crashing down, it had fallen across his back, killed him, and pinned him
+to the ground.
+
+It was an easy matter for the hunters to remove the log and secure his
+pelt, so they left the beaver pond, richer than they had expected.
+
+Next night, when they reached their half-way shanty, they had the best
+haul they had taken on this line since the memorable day when they got
+six beavers.
+
+The morning dawned clear and bright. As they breakfasted, they noticed
+an extraordinary gathering of ravens far away to the north, beyond any
+country they had visited. At least twenty or thirty of the birds were
+sailing in great circles high above a certain place, uttering a deep,
+sonorous croak, from time to time. Occasionally one of the ravens would
+dive down out of sight.
+
+“Why do they fly above that way?”
+
+“That is to let other ravens know there is food here. Their eyes are
+very good. They can see the signal ten miles away, so all come to the
+place. My father told me that you can gather all the ravens for twenty
+miles by leaving a carcass so they can see it and signal each other.”
+
+“Seems as if we should look into that. Maybe another panther,” was
+Rolf's remark.
+
+The Indian nodded; so leaving the bundle of furs in a safe place with
+the snowshoes, that they carried on a chance, they set out over the
+hard crust. It was two or three miles to the ravens' gathering, and, as
+before, it proved to be over a cedar brake where was a deer yard.
+
+Skookum knew all about it. He rushed into the woods, filled with the
+joy of martial glory. But speedily came running out again as hard as
+he could, yelling “yow, yow, yowl” for help, while swiftly following,
+behind him were a couple of gray wolves. Quonab waited till they were
+within forty yards; then, seeing the men, the wolves slowed up and
+veered; Quonab fired; one of the wolves gave a little, doglike yelp.
+Then they leaped into the bushes and were lost to view.
+
+A careful study of the snow showed one or two trifling traces of blood.
+In the deer yard they found at least a dozen carcasses of deer killed by
+the wolves, but none very recent. They saw but few deer and nothing more
+of the wolves, for the crust had made all the country easy, and both
+kinds fled before the hunters.
+
+Exploring a lower level of willow country in hopes of finding beaver
+delayed them, and it was afternoon when they returned to the half-way
+shanty, to find everything as they left it, except that their Pack of
+furs had totally disappeared.
+
+Of course, the hard crust gave no sign of track. Their first thought
+was of the old enemy, but, seeking far and near for evidence, they found
+pieces of an ermine skin, and a quarter mile farther, the rest of it,
+then, at another place, fragments of a muskrat's skin. Those made it
+look like the work of the trapper's enemy, the wolverine, which, though
+rare, was surely found in these hills. Yes! there was a wolverine
+scratch mark, and here another piece of the rat skin. It was very clear
+who was the thief.
+
+“He tore up the cheapest ones of the lot anyway,” said Rolf.
+
+Then the trappers stared at each other significantly--only the cheap
+ones destroyed; why should a wolverine show such discrimination? There
+was no positive sign of wolverine; in fact, the icy snow gave no sign of
+anything. There was little doubt that the tom furs and the scratch marks
+were there to mislead; that this was the work of a human robber, almost
+certainly Hoag.
+
+He had doubtless seen them leave in the morning, and it was equally
+sure, since he had had hours of start, he would now be far away.
+
+“Ugh! Give him few days to think he safe, then I follow and settle all,”
+ and this time the Indian clearly meant to end the matter.
+
+
+
+Chapter 45. The Subjugation of Hoag
+
+     A feller as weeps for pity and never does a finger-tap to
+     help is 'bout as much use as an overcoat on a drowning man.
+     --Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+SOME remarkable changes of weather made some remarkable changes in their
+plan and saved their enemy from immediate molestation. For two weeks it
+was a succession of thaws and there was much rain. The lake was covered
+with six inches of water; the river had a current above the ice, that
+was rapidly eating, the latter away. Everywhere there were slush and wet
+snow that put an end to travel and brought on the spring with a rush.
+
+Each night there was, indeed, a trifling frost, but each day's sun
+seemed stronger, and broad, bare patches of ground appeared on all sunny
+slopes.
+
+On the first crisp day the trappers set out to go the rounds, knowing
+full well that this was the end of the season. Henceforth for six months
+deadfall and snare would lie idle and unset.
+
+They went their accustomed line, carrying their snowshoes, but rarely
+needing them. Then they crossed a large track to which Quonab pointed,
+and grunted affirmatively as Rolf said “Bear?” Yes! the bears were about
+once more; their winter sleep was over. Now they were fat and the fur
+was yet prime; in a month they would be thin and shedding. Now is the
+time for bear hunting with either trap or dog.
+
+Doubtless Skookum thought the party most fortunately equipped in the
+latter respect, but no single dog is enough to bay a bear. There must
+be three or four to bother him behind, to make him face about and fight;
+one dog merely makes him run faster.
+
+They had no traps, and knowing that a spring bear is a far traveller,
+they made no attempt to follow.
+
+The deadfalls yielded two martens, but one of them was spoiled by the
+warm weather. They learned at last that the enemy had a trap-line, for
+part of which he used their deadfalls. He had been the rounds lately and
+had profited at least a little by their labours.
+
+The track, though two days old, was not hard to follow, either on snow
+or ground. Quonab looked to the lock of his gun; his lower lip tightened
+and he strode along.
+
+“What are you going to do, Quonab? Not shoot?”
+
+“When I get near enough,” and the dangerous look in the red man's eye
+told Rolf to be quiet and follow.
+
+In three miles they passed but three of his marten traps--very lazy
+trapping--and then found a great triangle of logs by a tree with a bait
+and signs enough to tell the experienced eye that, in that corner, was
+hidden a huge steel trap for bear.
+
+They were almost too late in restraining the knowledge-hunger of
+Skookum. They went on a mile or two and realized in so doing that,
+however poor a trapper the enemy might be, he was a good tramper and
+knew the country.
+
+At sundown they came to their half-way shelter and put up there for the
+night. Once when Rolf went out to glimpse the skies before turning in,
+he heard a far tree creaking and wondered, for it was dead calm. Even
+Skookum noticed it. But it was not repeated. Next morning they went on.
+
+There are many quaint sounds in the woods at all times, the rasping
+of trees, at least a dozen different calls by jays, twice as many by
+ravens, and occasional notes from chicadees, grouse, and owls. The
+quadrupeds in general are more silent, but the red squirrel is ever
+about and noisy, as well as busy.
+
+Far-reaching sounds are these echoes of the woods--some of them very
+far. Probably there were not five minutes of the day or night when some
+weird, woodland chatter, scrape, crack, screech, or whistle did not
+reach the keen ears of that ever-alert dog. That is, three hundred times
+a day his outer ear submitted to his inner ear some report of things
+a-doing, which same report was as often for many days disregarded as of
+no interest or value. But this did not mean that he missed anything; the
+steady tramp, tramp of their feet, while it dulled all sounds for the
+hunter, seemed to have no effect on Skookum. Again the raspy squeal of
+some far tree reached his inmost brain, and his hair rose as he stopped
+and gave a low “woof.”
+
+The hunters held still; the wise ones always do, when a dog says “Stop!”
+ They waited. After a few minutes it came again--merely the long-drawn
+creak of a tree bough, wind-rubbed on its neighbour.
+
+And yet, “Woof, woof, woof,” said Skookum, and ran ahead.
+
+“Come back, you little fool!” cried Rolf.
+
+But Skookum had a mind of his own. He trotted ahead, then stopped,
+paused, and sniffed at something in the snow. The Indian picked it up.
+It was the pocket jackscrew that every bear trapper carries to set the
+powerful trap, and without which, indeed, one man cannot manage the
+springs.
+
+He held it up with “Ugh! Hoag in trouble now.” Clearly the rival trapper
+had lost this necessary tool.
+
+But the finding was an accident. Skookum pushed on. They came along a
+draw to a little hollow. The dog, far forward, began barking and angrily
+baying at something. The men hurried to the scene to find on the snow,
+fast held in one of those devilish engines called a bear trap--the body
+of their enemy--Hoag, the trapper, held by a leg, and a hand in the gin
+he himself had been setting.
+
+A fierce light played on the Indian's face. Rolf was stricken with
+horror. But even while they contemplated the body, the faint cry was
+heard again coming from it.
+
+“He's alive; hurry!” cried Rolf. The Indian did not hurry, but he came.
+He had vowed vengeance at sight; why should he haste to help?
+
+The implacable iron jaws had clutched the trapper by one knee and the
+right hand. The first thing was to free him. How? No man has power
+enough to force that spring. But the jackscrew!
+
+“Quonab, help him! For God's sake, come!” cried Rolf in agony,
+forgetting their feud and seeing only tortured, dying man.
+
+The Indian gazed a moment, then rose quickly, and put on the jackscrew.
+Under his deft fingers the first spring went down, but what about the
+other? They had no other screw. The long buckskin line they always
+carried was quickly lashed round and round the down spring to hold it.
+Then the screw was removed and put on the other spring; it bent, and the
+jaws hung loose. The Indian forced them wide open, drew out the mangled
+limbs, a the trapper was free, but so near death, it seemed they were
+too late.
+
+Rolf spread his coat. The Indian made a fire. In fifteen minutes they
+were pouring hot tea between victim's lips. Even as they did, his feeble
+throat gave out again the long, low moan.
+
+The weather was mild now. The prisoner was not actually frozen, but
+numbed and racked. Heat, hot tea, kindly rubbing, and he revived a
+little.
+
+At first they thought him dying, but in an hour recovered enough to
+talk. In feeble accents and broken phrases they learned the tale:
+
+“Yest--m-m-m. Yesterday--no; two or three days back--m-m-m-m-m--I dunno;
+I was a goin'--roun' me traps--me bear traps. Didn't have no luck m-m-m
+(yes, I'd like another sip; ye ain't got no whiskey no?) m-m-m. Nothing
+in any trap, and when I come to this un--oh-h--m-m; I seen--the bait
+was stole by birds, an' the pan--m-m-m; an' the pan, m-m-m--(yes, that's
+better)--an' the pan laid bare. So I starts to cover it with--ce-ce-dar;
+the ony thing I c'd get--m-m-m-w---wuz leanin' over--to fix tother
+side--me foot slipped on--the--ice--ev'rything was icy--an'--m-m-m-m--I
+lost--me balance--me knee the pan--O Lord--how I suffer!--m-m-m it
+grabbed me--knee an'--h-h-hand--” His voice died to a whisper and
+ceased; he seemed sinking.
+
+Quonab got up to hold him. Then, looking at Rolf, Indian shook his
+head as though to say all was over; the poor wretch had a woodman's
+constitution, and in spite of a mangled, dying body, he revived again.
+They gave him more hot tea, and again he began in a whisper:
+
+“I hed one arm free an'--an'--an'--I might--a--got out--m-m--but I hed
+no wrench--I lost it some place--m-m-m-m.
+
+“Then--I yelled--I dun--no--maybe some un might hear--it kin-kin-kinder
+eased me--to yell m-m-m.
+
+“Say--make that yer dog keep--away--will yer I dunno--it seems like a
+week--must a fainted some M-m-m--I yelled--when I could.”
+
+There was a long pause. Rolf said, “Seems to me I heard you last night,
+when we were up there. And dog heard you, too. Do you want me to move
+that leg around?”
+
+“M-m-m--yeh--that's better--say, you air white--ain't ye? Ye won't leave
+me--cos--I done some mean things--m-m-m. Ye won't, will ye?”
+
+“No, you needn't worry--we'll stay by ye.”
+
+Then he muttered, they could not tell what. He closed his eyes. After
+long silence he looked around wildly and began again:
+
+“Say--I done you dirt--but don't leave me--don't leave me.” Tears ran
+down his face and he moaned piteously. “I'll--make it--right--you're
+white, ain't ye?”
+
+Quonab rose and went for more firewood. The trapper whispered, “I'm
+scared o' him--now--he'll do me--say, I'm jest a poor ole man. If I do
+live--through--this--m-m-m-m--I'll never walk again. I'm crippled sure.”
+
+It was long before he resumed. Then he began: “Say, what day is
+it--Friday!--I must--been two days in there--m-m-m--I reckoned it was a
+week. When--the--dog came I thought it was wolves. Oh--ah, didn't care
+much--m-m-m. Say, ye won't leave me--coz--coz--I treated--ye mean.
+I--ain't had no l-l-luck.” He went off into a stupor, but presently let
+out a long, startling cry, the same as that they had heard in the night.
+The dog growled; the men stared. The wretch's eyes were rolling again.
+He seemed delirious.
+
+Quonab pointed to the east, made the sun-up sign, and shook his head at
+the victim. And Rolf understood it to mean that he would never see the
+sunrise. But they were wrong.
+
+The long night passed in a struggle between heath and the tough make-up
+of a mountaineer. The waiting light of dawn saw death defeated,
+retiring from the scene. As the sun rose high, the victim seemed to gain
+considerably in strength. There was no immediate danger of an end.
+
+Rolf said to Quonab: “Where shall we take him? Guess you better go home
+for the toboggan, and we'll fetch him to the shanty.”
+
+But the invalid was able to take part in the conversation. “Say, don't
+take me there. Ah--want to go home. 'Pears like--I'd be better at home.
+My folks is out Moose River way. I'd never get out if I went in
+there,” and by “there” he seemed to mean the Indian's lake, and glanced
+furtively at the unchanging countenance of the red man.
+
+“Have you a toboggan at your shanty?” asked Rolf.
+
+“Yes--good enough--it's on the roof--say,” and he beckoned feebly to
+Rolf, “let him go after it--don't leave me--he'll kill me,” and he wept
+feebly in his self pity.
+
+So Quonab started down the mountain--a sinewy man--a striding form, a
+speck in the melting distance.
+
+
+
+Chapter 46. Nursing Hoag
+
+In two hours the red man reached the trapper's shanty, and at once,
+without hesitation or delicacy, set about a thorough examination of its
+contents. Of course there was the toboggan on the roof, and in fairly
+good condition for such a shiftless owner.
+
+There were bunches of furs hanging from the rafters, but not many, for
+fur taking is hard work; and Quonab, looking suspiciously over them,
+was 'not surprised to see the lynx skin he had lost, easily known by the
+absence of wound and the fur still in points as it had dried from the
+wetting. In another bundle, he discovered the beaver that had killed
+itself, for there was the dark band across its back.
+
+The martens he could not be sure of, but he had a strong suspicion that
+most of this fur came out of his own traps.
+
+He tied Hoag's blankets on the toboggan, and hastened back to where he
+left the two on the mountain.
+
+Skookum met him long before he was near. Skookum did not enjoy Hoag's
+company.
+
+The cripple had been talking freely to Rolf, but the arrival of the
+Indian seemed to suppress him.
+
+With the wounded man on the toboggan, they set out, The ground was bare
+in many places, so that the going was hard; but, fortunately, it was all
+down hill, and four hours' toil brought them to the cabin.
+
+They put the sick man in his bunk, then Rolf set about preparing a meal,
+while Quonab cut wood.
+
+After the usual tea, bacon, and flour cakes, all were feeling refreshed.
+Hoag seemed much more like himself. He talked freely, almost cheerfully,
+while Quonab, with Skookum at his feet, sat silently smoking and staring
+into the fire.
+
+After a long silence, the Indian turned, looked straight at the trapper,
+and, pointing with his pipestem to the furs, said, “How many is ours?”
+
+Hoag looked scared, then sulky, and said; “I dunno what ye mean. I'm a
+awful sick man. You get me out to Lyons Falls all right, and ye can have
+the hull lot,” and he wept.
+
+Rolf shook his head at Quonab, then turned to the sufferer and said:
+“Don't you worry; we'll get you out all right. Have you a good canoe?”
+
+“Pretty fair; needs a little fixing.”
+
+The night passed with one or two breaks, when the invalid asked for a
+drink of water. In the morning he was evidently recovering, and they
+began to plan for the future.
+
+He took the first chance of wispering to Rolf, “Can't you send him away?
+I'll be all right with you.” Rolf said nothing.
+
+“Say,” he continued, “say, young feller, what's yer name?”
+
+“Rolf Kittering.”
+
+“Say, Rolf, you wait a week or ten days, and the ice 'll be out; then
+I'll be fit to travel. There ain't on'y a few carries between here an'
+Lyons Falls.”
+
+After a long pause, due to Quonab's entry, he continued again: “Moose
+River's good canoeing; ye can get me out in five days; me folks is at
+Lyons Falls.” He did not say that his folks consisted of a wife and boy
+that he neglected, but whom he counted on to nurse him now.
+
+Rolf was puzzled by the situation.
+
+“Say! I'll give ye all them furs if ye git me out.” Rolf gave him a
+curious look--as much as to say, “Ye mean our furs.”
+
+Again the conversation was ended by the entry of Quonab.
+
+Rolf stepped out, taking the Indian with him. They had a long talk,
+then, as Rolf reentered, the sick man began:
+
+“You stay by me, and git me out. I'll give ye my rifle”--then, after a
+short silence--“an' I'll throw in all the traps an' the canoe.”
+
+“I'll stay by you,” said Rolf, “and in about two weeks we'll take you
+down to Lyons Falls. I guess you can guide us.”
+
+“Ye can have all them pelts,” and again the trapper presented the spoils
+he had stolen, “an' you bet it's your rifle when ye get me out.”
+
+So it was arranged. But it was necessary for Quonab to go back to their
+own cabin. Now what should he do? Carry the new lot of fur there, or
+bring the old lot here to dispose of all at Lyons Falls?
+
+Rolf had been thinking hard. He had seen the evil side of many men,
+including Hoag. To go among Hoag's people with a lot of stuff that Hoag
+might claim was running risks, so he said:
+
+“Quonab, you come back in not more than ten days. We'll take a few furs
+to Lyons Falls so we can get supplies. Leave the rest of them in good
+shape, so we can go out later to Warren's. We'll get a square deal
+there, and we don't know what at Lyon's.”
+
+So they picked out the lynx, the beaver, and a dozen martens to leave,
+and making the rest into a pack, Quonab shouldered them, and followed by
+Skookum, trudged up the mountain and was lost to view in the woods.
+
+The ten days went by very slowly. Hoag was alternately querulous,
+weeping, complaining, unpleasantly fawning, or trying to insure good
+attention by presenting again and again the furs, the gun, and the
+canoe.
+
+Rolf found it pleasant to get away from the cabin when the weather was
+fine. One day, taking Hoag's gun, he travelled up the nearest stream for
+a mile, and came on a big beaver pond. Round this he scouted and soon
+discovered a drowned beaver, held in a trap which he recognized at once,
+for it had the (” ' “') mark on the frame. Then he found an empty trap
+with a beaver leg in it, and another, till six traps were found. Then
+he gathered up the six and the beaver, and returned to the cabin to be
+greeted with a string of complaints:
+
+“Ye didn't ought to leave me like this. I'm paying ye well enough. I
+don't ax no favours,” etc.
+
+“See what I got,” and Rolf showed the beaver. “An' see what I found;”
+ then he showed the traps. “Queer, ain't it,” he went on, “we had six
+traps just like them, and I marked the face just like these, and they
+all disappeared, and there was a snowshoe trail pointing this way. You
+haven't got any crooked neighbours about here, have you?”
+
+The trapper looked sulky and puzzled, and grumbled, “I bet it was Bill
+Hawkins done it”; then relapsed into silence.
+
+
+
+Chapter 47. Hoag's Home-coming
+
+     When it comes to personal feelin's better let yer friends
+     do the talkin' and jedgin'.  A man can't handle his own
+     case any more than a delirious doctor kin give hisself the
+     right physic--Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+The coming of springtime in the woods is one of the gentlest, sweetest
+advents in the world. Sometimes there are heavy rains which fill all the
+little rivers with an overflood that quickly eats away the ice and snow,
+but usually the woodland streams open, slowly and gradually. Very rarely
+is there a spate, an upheaval, and a cataclysmal sweep that bursts the
+ice and ends its reign in an hour or two. That is the way of the large
+rivers, whose ice is free and floating. The snow in the forest melts
+slowly, and when the ice is attacked, it goes gradually, gently, without
+uproar. The spring comes in the woods with swelling of buds and a
+lengthening of drooping catkins, with honking of wild geese, and cawing
+of crows coming up from the lower countries to divide with their larger
+cousins, the ravens, the spoils of winter's killing.
+
+The small birds from the South appear with a few short notes of spring,
+and the pert chicadees that have braved it all winter, now lead the
+singing with their cheery “I told you so” notes, till robins and
+blackbirds join in, and with their more ambitious singing make all the
+lesser roundelays forgot.
+
+Once the winter had taken a backward step--spring found it easy to turn
+retreat into panic and rout; and the ten days Quonab stayed away were
+days of revolutionary change. For in them semi-winter gave place to
+smiling spring, with all the snow-drifts gone, except perhaps in the
+shadiest hollows of the woods.
+
+It was a bright morning, and a happy one for Rolf, when he heard the
+Indian's short “Ho,” outside, and a minute later had Skookum dancing and
+leaping about him. On Hoag the effect was quite different. He was well
+enough to be up, to hobble about painfully on a stick; to be exceedingly
+fault-finding, and to eat three hearty meals a day; but the moment the
+Indian appeared, he withdrew into himself, and became silent and uneasy.
+Before an hour passed, he again presented the furs, the gun, the canoe,
+and the traps to Rolf, on condition that he should get him out to his
+folks.
+
+All three were glad to set out that very day on the outward trip to
+Lyons Falls.
+
+Down Little Moose River to Little Moose Lake and on to South Branch of
+Moose, then by the Main Moose, was their way. The streams were flush;
+there was plenty of water, and this fortunately reduced the number of
+carries; for Hoag could not walk and would not hobble. They sweat and
+laboured to carry him over every portage; but they covered the fifty
+miles in three days, and on the evening of the third, arrived at the
+little backwoods village of Lyons Falls.
+
+The change that took place in Hoag now was marked and unpleasant. He
+gave a number of orders, where, the day before, he would have made
+whining petitions. He told them to “land easy, and don't bump my canoe.”
+ He hailed the loungers about the mill with an effusiveness that they did
+not respond to. Their cool, “Hello, Jack, are you back?” was little but
+a passing recognition. One of them was persuaded to take Rolf's place in
+carrying Hoag to his cabin. Yes, his folks were there, but they did not
+seem overjoyed at his arrival. He whispered to the boy, who sullenly
+went out to the river and returned with the rifle, Rolf's rifle now, the
+latter supposed, and would have taken the bundle of furs had not Skookum
+sprung on the robber and driven him away from the canoe.
+
+And now Hoag showed his true character. “Them's my furs and my canoe,”
+ he said to one of the mill hands, and turning to the two who had saved
+him, he said: “An' you two dirty, cutthroat, redskin thieves, you can
+get out of town as fast as ye know how, or I'll have ye jugged,” and all
+the pent-up hate of his hateful nature frothed out in words insulting
+and unprintable.
+
+“Talks like a white man,” said Quonab coldly. Rolf was speechless.
+To toil so devotedly, and to have such filthy, humiliating words for
+thanks! He wondered if even his Uncle Mike would have shown so vile a
+spirit.
+
+Hoag gave free rein to his tongue, and found in his pal, Bill Hawkins,
+one with ready ears to hear his tale of woe. The wretch began to feel
+himself frightfully ill-used. So, fired at last by the evermore lurid
+story of his wrongs, the “partner” brought the magistrate, so they could
+swear out a warrant, arrest the two “outlaws,” and especially secure the
+bundle of “Hoag's furs” in the canoe.
+
+Old Silas Sylvanne, the mill-owner and pioneer of the place, was also
+its magistrate. He was tall, thin, blacklooking, a sort of Abe Lincoln
+in type, physically, and in some sort, mentally. He heard the harrowing
+tale of terrible crime, robbery, and torture, inflicted on poor harmless
+Hoag by these two ghouls in human shape; he listened, at first shocked,
+but little by little amused.
+
+“You don't get no warrant till I hear from the other side,” he said.
+Roff and Quonab came at call. The old pioneer sized up the two, as they
+stood, then, addressing Rolf, said:
+
+“Air you an Injun?” “No, sir.” “Air you half-breed?” “No, sir.” “Well,
+let's hear about this business,” and he turned his piercing eyes full on
+the lad's face.
+
+Rolf told the simple, straight story of their acquaintance with Hoag,
+from the first day at Warren's to their arrival at the Falls. There is
+never any doubt about the truth of a true story, if it be long enough,
+and this true story, presented in its nakedness to the shrewd and kindly
+old hunter, trader, mill-owner and magistrate, could have only one
+effect.
+
+“Sonny,” he said, slowly and kindly, “I know that ye have told me the
+truth. I believe every word of it. We all know that Hoag is the meanest
+cuss and biggest liar on the river. He's a nuisance, and always was.
+He only promised to give ye the canoe and the rifle, and since he don't
+want to, we can't help it. About the trouble in the woods, you got two
+witnesses to his one, and ye got the furs and the traps; it's just as
+well ye left the other furs behind, or ye might have had to divide 'em;
+so keep them and call the hull thing square. We'll find ye a canoe to
+get out of this gay metropolis, and as to Hoag, ye needn't a-worry; his
+travelling days is done.”
+
+A man with a bundle of high-class furs is a man of means in any frontier
+town. The magistrate was trader, too, so they set about disposing of
+their furs and buying the supplies they needed.
+
+The day was nearly done before their new canoe was gummed and ready with
+the new supplies. When dealing, old Sylvanne had a mild, quiet manner,
+and a peculiar way of making funny remarks that led some to imagine he
+was “easy” in business; but it was usual to find at the end that he had
+lost nothing by his manners, and rival traders shunned an encounter with
+Long Sylvanne of the unruffled brow.
+
+When business was done--keen and complete--he said: “Now, I'm a goin' to
+give each of ye a present,” and handed out two double-bladed jackknives,
+new things in those days, wonderful things, precious treasures in their
+eyes, sources of endless joy; and even had they known that one marten
+skin would buy a quart of them, their pleasant surprise and childish joy
+would not have been in any way tempered or alloyed.
+
+“Ye better eat with me, boys, an' start in the morning.” So they joined
+the miller's long, continuous family, and shared his evening meal.
+Afterward as they sat for three hours and smoked on the broad porch that
+looked out on the river, old Sylvanne, who had evidently taken a
+fancy to Rolf, regaled them with a long, rambling talk on “fellers and
+things,” that was one of the most interesting Rolf had ever listened to.
+At the time it was simply amusing; it was not till years after that the
+lad realized by its effect on himself, its insight, and its hold on his
+memory, that Si Sylvanne's talk was real wisdom. Parts of it would not
+look well in print; but the rugged words, the uncouth Saxonism, the
+obscene phrase, were the mere oaken bucket in which the pure and
+precious waters were hauled to the surface.
+
+“Looked like he had ye pinched when that shyster got ye in to Lyons
+Falls. Wall, there's two bad places for Jack Hoag; one is where they
+don't know him at all, an' take him on his looks; an' t'other is where
+they know him through and through for twenty years, like we hev. A smart
+rogue kin put up a false front fer a year or maybe two, but given twenty
+year to try him, for and bye, summer an' winter, an' I reckon a man's
+make is pretty well showed up, without no dark corners left unexplored.
+
+“Not that I want to jedge him harsh, coz I don't know what kind o'
+maggots is eatin' his innards to make him so ornery. I'm bound to
+suppose he has 'em, or he wouldn't act so dum like it. So I says, go
+slow and gentle before puttin' a black brand on any feller; as my mother
+used to say, never say a bad thing till ye ask, 'Is it true, is it kind,
+is it necessary?' An' I tell you, the older I git, the slower I jedge;
+when I wuz your age, I wuz a steel trap on a hair trigger, an' cocksure.
+I tell you, there ain't anythin' wiser nor a sixteen-year-old boy, 'cept
+maybe a fifteen-year-old girl.
+
+“Ye'll genilly find, lad, jest when things looks about as black as they
+kin look, that's the sign of luck a-comin' your way, pervidin' ye hold
+steady, keep cool and kind; something happens every time to make it all
+easy. There's always a way, an' the stout heart will find it.
+
+“Ye may be very sure o' this, boy, yer never licked till ye think ye air
+an' if ye won't think it, ye can't be licked. It's just the same as
+being sick. I seen a lot o' doctorin' in my day, and I'm forced to
+believe there ain't any sick folks 'cept them that thinks they air sick.
+
+“The older I git, the more I'm bound to consider that most things is
+inside, anyhow, and what's outside don't count for much.
+
+“So it stands to reason when ye play the game for what's inside, ye win
+over all the outside players. When ye done kindness to Hoag, ye mightn't
+a meant it, but ye was bracin' up the goodness in yerself, or bankin' it
+up somewher' on the trail ahead, where it was needed. And he was
+simply chawin' his own leg off, when he done ye dirt. I ain't much o'
+a prattlin' Christian, but I reckon as a cold-blooded, business
+proposition it pays to lend the neighbour a hand; not that I go much on
+gratitude. It's scarcer'n snowballs in hell--which ain't the point;
+but I take notice there ain't any man'll hate ye more'n the feller that
+knows he's acted mean to ye. An' there ain't any feller more ready to
+fight yer battles than the chap that by some dum accident has hed the
+luck to help ye, even if he only done it to spite some one else--which
+'minds me o' McCarthy's bull pup that saved the drowning kittens by
+mistake, and ever after was a fightin' cat protector, whereby he lost
+the chief joy o' his life, which had been cat-killin'. An' the way they
+cured the cat o' eatin' squirrels was givin' her a litter o' squirrels
+to raise.
+
+“I tell ye there's a lot o' common-sense an' kindness in the country,
+only it's so dum slow to git around; while the cussedness and meanness
+always acts like they felt the hell fire sizzlin' their hind-end
+whiskers, an' knowed they had jest so many minutes to live an' make a
+record. There's where a man's smart that fixes things so he kin hold out
+a long time, fer the good stuff in men's minds is what lasts; and the
+feller what can stay with it hez proved hisself by stayin'. How'd ye
+happen to tie up with the Injun, Rolf?”
+
+“Do ye want me to tell it long or short?” was the reply. “Wall, short,
+fer a start,” and Silas Sylvanne chuckled.
+
+So Rolf gave a very brief account of his early life.
+
+“Pretty good,” said the miller; “now let's hear it long.”
+
+And when he had finished, the miller said: “I've seen yer tried fer most
+everything that goes to make a man, Rolf, an' I hev my own notion of the
+results. You ain't goin' to live ferever in them hills. When ye've hed
+yer fling an' want a change, let me know.”
+
+Early next day the two hunters paddled up the Moose River with a good
+canoe, an outfit of groceries, and a small supply of ready cash.
+
+“Good-bye, lad, good-bye! Come back again and ye'll find we improve on
+acquaintance; an' don't forget I'm buying fur,” was Si Sylvanne's last
+word. And as they rounded the point, on the home way, Rolf turned in
+the canoe, faced Quonab, and said: “Ye see there are some good white men
+left;” but the Indian neither blinked, nor moved, nor made a sound.
+
+
+
+Chapter 48. Rolf's Lesson in Trailing
+
+The return journey was hard paddling against strong waters, but
+otherwise uneventful. Once over any trail is enough to fix it in the
+memory of a woodman. They made no mistakes and their loads were light,
+so the portages were scarcely any loss of time, and in two days they
+were back at Hoag's cabin.
+
+Of this they took possession. First, they gathered all things of value,
+and that was little since the furs and bedding were gone, but there were
+a few traps and some dishes. The stuff was made in two packs; now it
+was an overland journey, so the canoe was hidden in a cedar thicket,
+a quarter of a mile inland. The two were about to shoulder the packs,
+Quonab was lighting his pipe for a start, when Rolf said:
+
+“Say, Quonab! that fellow we saw at the Falls claimed to be Hoag's
+partner. He may come on here and make trouble if we don't head him off.
+Let's burn her,” and he nodded toward the shanty.
+
+“Ugh!” was the reply.
+
+They gathered some dry brush and a lot of birch bark, piled them up
+against the wall inside, and threw plenty of firewood on this. With
+flint and steel Quonab made the vital spark, the birch bark sputtered,
+the dry, resinous logs were easily set ablaze, and soon great volumes
+of smoke rolled from the door, the window, and the chimney; and Skookum,
+standing afar, barked pleasantly aloud.
+
+The hunters shouldered their packs and began the long, upward slope. In
+an hour they had reached a high, rocky ridge. Here they stopped to rest,
+and, far below them, marked with grim joy a twisted, leaning column of
+thick black smoke.
+
+That night they camped in the woods and next day rejoiced to be back
+again at their own cabin, their own lake, their home.
+
+Several times during the march they had seen fresh deer tracks, and now
+that the need of meat was felt, Rolf proposed a deer hunt.
+
+Many deer die every winter; some are winter-killed; many are devoured
+by beasts of prey, or killed by hunters; their numbers are at low ebb in
+April, so that now one could not count on finding a deer by roaming at
+random. It was a case for trailing.
+
+Any one can track a deer in the snow. It is not very hard to follow a
+deer in soft ground, when there are no other deer about. But it is very
+hard to take one deer trail and follow it over rocky ground and dead
+leaves, never losing it or changing off, when there are hundreds of deer
+tracks running in all directions.
+
+Rolf's eyes were better than Quonab's, but experience counts for as much
+as eyes, and Quonab was leading. They picked out a big buck track that
+was fresh--no good hunter kills a doe at this season. They knew it for a
+buck, because of its size and the roundness of the toes.
+
+Before long, Rolf said: “See, Quonab, I want to learn this business; let
+me do the trailing, and you set me right if I get off the line.”
+
+Within a hundred yards, Quonab gave a grunt and shook his head. Rolf
+looked surprised, for he was on a good, fresh track.
+
+Quonab said but one word, “Doe.”
+
+Yes, a closer view showed the tracks to be a little narrower, a little
+closer together, and a little sharper than those he began with.
+
+Back went Rolf to the last marks that he was sure of, and plainly read
+where the buck had turned aside. For a time, things went along smoothly,
+Quonab and Skookum following Rolf. The last was getting very familiar
+with that stub hoof on the left foot. At length they came to the “fumet”
+ or “sign”; it was all in one pile. That meant the deer had stood, so was
+unalarmed; and warm; that meant but a few minutes ahead. Now, they must
+use every precaution for this was the crux of the hunt. Of this much
+only they were sure--the deer was within range now, and to get him they
+must see him before he saw them.
+
+Skookum was leashed. Rolf was allowed to get well ahead, and crawling
+cautiously, a step at a time, he went, setting down his moccasined foot
+only after he had tried and selected a place. Once or twice he threw
+into the air a tuft of dry grass to make sure that the wind was right,
+and by slow degrees he reached the edge of a little opening.
+
+Across this he peered long, without entering it. Then he made a sweep
+with his hand and pointed, to let Quonab know the buck had gone across
+and he himself must go around. But he lingered still and with his eyes
+swept the near woods. Then, dim gray among the gray twigs, he saw a
+slight movement, so slight it might have been made by the tail of a
+tomtit. But it fixed his attention, and out of this gray haze he slowly
+made out the outline of a deer's head, antlers, and neck. A hundred
+yards away, but “take a chance when it comes” is hunter wisdom. Rolf
+glanced at the sight, took steady aim, fired, and down went the buck
+behind a log. Skookum whined and leaped high in his eagerness to see.
+Rolf restrained his impatience to rush forward, at once reloaded, then
+all three went quickly to the place. Before they were within fifty
+yards, the deer leaped up and bounded off. At seventy-five yards, it
+stood for a moment to gaze. Rolf fired again; again the buck fell down,
+but jumped to its feet and bounded away.
+
+They went to the two places, but found no blood. Utterly puzzled, they
+gave it up for the day, as already the shades of night were on the
+woods, and in spite of Skookum's voluble offer to solve and settle
+everything, they returned to the cabin.
+
+“What do you make of it, Quonab?'
+
+The Indian shook his head, then: “Maybe touched his head and stunned
+him, first shot; second, wah! I not know.”
+
+“I know this,” said Rolf. “I touched him and I mean to get him in the
+morning.”
+
+True to this resolve, he was there again at dawn, but examined the place
+in vain for a sign of blood. The red rarely shows up much on leaves,
+grass, or dust; but there are two kinds of places that the hunter can
+rely on as telltales--stones and logs. Rolf followed the deer track, now
+very dim, till at a bare place he found a speck of blood on a pebble.
+Here the trail joined onto a deer path, with so many tracks that it was
+hard to say which was the right one. But Rolf passed quickly along to a
+log that crossed the runway, and on that log he found a drop of dried-up
+blood that told him what he wished to know.
+
+Now he had a straight run of a quarter of a mile, and from time to time
+he saw a peculiar scratching mark that puzzled him. Once he found a
+speck of blood at one of these scratches but no other evidence that the
+buck was touched.
+
+A wounded deer is pretty sure to work down hill, and Quonab, leaving
+Skookum with Rolf, climbed a lookout that might show whither the deer
+was heading.
+
+After another half mile, the deer path forked; there were buck trails on
+both, and Rolf could not pick out the one he wanted. He went a few yards
+along each, studying the many marks, but was unable to tell which was
+that of the wounded buck.
+
+Now Skookum took a share in it. He had always been forbidden to run
+deer and knew it was a contraband amusement, but he put his nose to that
+branch of the trail that ran down hill, followed it for a few yards,
+then looked at Rolf, as much as to say: “You poor nose-blind creature;
+don't you know a fresh deer track when you smell it? Here it is; this is
+where he went.”
+
+Rolf stared, then said, “I believe he means it”; and followed the lower
+trail. Very soon he came to another scrape, and, just beyond it, found
+the new, velvet-covered antler of a buck, raw and bloody, and splintered
+at the base.
+
+From this on, the task was easier, as there were no other tracks, and
+this was pointing steadily down hill.
+
+Soon Quonab came striding along. He had not seen the buck, but a couple
+of jays and a raven were gathered in a thicket far down by the stream.
+The hunters quit the trail and made for that place. As they drew near,
+they found the track again, and again saw those curious scrapes.
+
+Every hunter knows that the bluejay dashing about a thicket means that
+hidden there is game of some kind, probably deer. Very, very slowly and
+silently they entered that copse. But nothing appeared until there was a
+rush in the thickest part and up leaped the buck. This was too much for
+Skookum. He shot forward like a wolf, fastened on one hind leg, and the
+buck went crashing head over heels. Before it could rise, another shot
+ended its troubles. And now a careful study shed the light desired.
+Rolf's first shot had hit the antler near the base, breaking it, except
+for the skin on one side, and had stunned the buck. The second shot had
+broken a hind leg. The scratching places he had made were efforts to
+regain the use of this limb, and at one of them the deer had fallen and
+parted the rag of skin by which the antler hung.
+
+It was Rolf's first important trailing on the ground; it showed how
+possible it was, and how quickly he was learning the hardest of all the
+feats of woodcraft.
+
+
+
+Chapter 49. Rolf Gets Lost
+
+Every one who lives in the big woods gets lost at some time. Yes, even
+Daniel Boone did sometimes go astray. And whether it is to end as a joke
+or a horrible tragedy depends entirely on the way in which the person
+takes it. This is, indeed, the grand test of a hunter and scout, the
+trial of his knowledge, his muscle, and, above everything, his courage;
+and, like all supreme trials, it comes without warning.
+
+The wonderful flocks of wild pigeons had arrived. For a few days in May
+they were there in millions, swarming over the ground in long-reaching
+hordes, walking along, pecking and feeding, the rearmost flying on
+ahead, ever to the front. The food they sought so eagerly now was
+chiefly the seeds of the slippery elm, tiny nuts showered down on wings
+like broad-brimmed hats. And when the flock arose at some alarm, the
+sound was like that of the sea beach in a storm.
+
+There seemed to be most pigeons in the low country southeast of the
+lake, of course, because, being low, it had most elms. So Rolf took
+his bow and arrows, crossed in the canoe, and confidently set about
+gathering in a dozen or two for broilers.
+
+It is amazing how well the game seems to gauge the range of your weapon
+and keep the exact safe distance. It is marvellous how many times you
+may shoot an arrow into a flock of pigeons and never kill one. Rolf went
+on and on, always in sight of the long, straggling flocks on the ground
+or in the air, but rarely within range of them. Again and again he fired
+a random shot into the distant mass, without success for two hours.
+Finally a pigeon was touched and dropped, but it rose as he ran forward,
+and flew ten yards, to drop once more. Again he rushed at it, but it
+fluttered out of reach and so led him on and on for about half an hour's
+breathless race, until at last he stopped, took deliberate aim, and
+killed it with an arrow.
+
+Now a peculiar wailing and squealing from the woods far ahead attracted
+him. He stalked and crawled for many minutes before he found out, as he
+should have known, that it was caused by a mischievous bluejay.
+
+At length he came to a spring in a low hollow, and leaving his bow and
+arrows on a dry log, he went down to get a drink.
+
+As he arose, he found himself face to face with a doe and a fat,
+little yearling buck, only twenty yards away. They stared at him, quite
+unalarmed, and, determining to add the yearling to his bag, Rolf went
+back quietly to his bow and arrows.
+
+The deer were just out of range now, but inclined to take a curious
+interest in the hunter. Once when he stood still for a long time,
+they walked forward two or three steps; but whenever he advanced, they
+trotted farther away.
+
+To kill a deer with an arrow is quite a feat of woodcraft, and Rolf was
+keen to show his prowess; so he kept on with varying devices, and was
+continually within sight of the success that did not actually arrive.
+
+Then the deer grew wilder and loped away, as he entered another valley
+that was alive with pigeons.
+
+He was feeling hungry now, so he plucked the pigeon he had secured, made
+a fire with the flint and steel he always carried, then roasted the bird
+carefully on a stick, and having eaten it, felt ready for more travel.
+
+The day was cloudy, so he could not see the sun; but he knew it was
+late, and he made for camp.
+
+The country he found himself in was entirely strange to him, and the
+sun's whereabouts doubtful; but he knew the general line of travel and
+strode along rapidly toward the place where he had left the canoe.
+
+After two hours' tramping, he was surprised at not seeing the lake
+through the trees, and he added to his pace.
+
+Three hours passed and still no sign of the water.
+
+He began to think he had struck too far to the north; so corrected his
+course and strode along with occasional spells of trotting. But another
+hour wore away and no lake appeared.
+
+Then Rolf knew he was off his bearings. He climbed a tree and got a
+partial view of the country. To the right was a small hill. He made for
+that. The course led him through a hollow. In this he recognized two
+huge basswood trees, that gave him a reassuring sense. A little farther
+he came on a spring, strangely like the one he had left some hours
+ago. As he stooped to drink, he saw deer tracks, then a human track. He
+studied it. Assuredly it was his own track, though now it seemed on the
+south side instead of the north. He stared at the dead gray sky, hoping
+for sign of sun, but it gave no hint. He tramped off hastily toward the
+hill that promised a lookout. He went faster and faster. In half an hour
+the woods opened a little, then dipped. He hastened down, and at the
+bottom found himself standing by the same old spring, though again it
+had changed its north bearing.
+
+He was stunned by this succession of blows. He knew now he was lost in
+the woods; had been tramping in a circle.
+
+The spring whirled around him; it seemed now north and now south. His
+first impulse was to rush madly northwesterly, as he understood it. He
+looked at all the trees for guidance. Most moss should be on the north
+side. It would be so, if all trees were perfectly straight and evenly
+exposed, but alas! none are so. All lean one way or another, and by
+the moss he could prove any given side to be north. He looked for the
+hemlock top twigs. Tradition says they always point easterly; but now
+they differed among themselves as to which was east.
+
+Rolf got more and more worried. He was a brave boy, but grim fear came
+into his mind as he realized that he was too far from camp to be heard;
+the ground was too leafy for trailing him; without help he could not get
+away from that awful spring. His head began to swim, when all at once he
+remembered a bit of advice his guide had given him long ago: “Don't get
+scared when you're lost. Hunger don't kill the lost man, and it ain't
+cold that does it; it's being afraid. Don't be afraid, and everything
+will come out all right.”
+
+So, instead of running, Rolf sat down to think it over.
+
+“Now,” said he, “I went due southeast all day from the canoe.” Then he
+stopped; like a shock it came to him that he had not seen the sun all
+day. Had he really gone southeast? It was a devastating thought, enough
+to unhinge some men; but again Rolf said to himself “Never mind, now;
+don't get scared, and it'll be all right. In the morning the sky will be
+clear.”
+
+As he sat pondering, a red squirrel chippered and scolded from a near
+tree; closer and closer the impudent creature came to sputter at the
+intruder.
+
+Rolf drew his bow, and when the blunt arrow dropped to the ground, there
+also dropped the red squirrel, turned into acceptable meat. Rolf put
+this small game into his pocket, realizing that this was his supper.
+
+It would soon be dark now, so he prepared to spend the night.
+
+While yet he could see, he gathered a pile of dry wood into a sheltered
+hollow. Then he made a wind-break and a bed of balsam boughs. Flint,
+steel, tinder, and birch bark soon created a cheerful fire, and there is
+no better comforter that the lone lost man can command.
+
+The squirrel roasted in its hide proved a passable supper, and Rolf
+curled up to sleep. The night would have been pleasant and uneventful,
+but that it turned chilly, and when the fire burnt low, the cold
+awakened him, so he had a succession of naps and fire-buildings.
+
+Soon after dawn, he heard a tremendous roaring, and in a few minutes the
+wood was filled again with pigeons.
+
+Rolf was living on the country now, so he sallied forth with his bow.
+Luck was with him; at the first shot he downed a big, fat cock. At the
+second he winged another, and as it scrambled through the brush, he
+rushed headlong in pursuit. It fluttered away beyond reach, half-flying,
+half-running, and Rolf, in reckless pursuit, went sliding and tumbling
+down a bank to land at the bottom with a horrid jar. One leg was twisted
+under him; he thought it was broken, for there was a fearful pain in
+the lower part. But when he pulled himself together he found no broken
+bones, indeed, but an ankle badly sprained. Now his situation was truly
+grave, for he was crippled and incapable of travelling.
+
+He had secured the second bird, and crawling painfully and slowly back
+to the fire, he could not but feel more and more despondent and gloomy
+as the measure of his misfortune was realized.
+
+“There is only one thing that can shame a man, that is to be afraid.”
+ And again, “There's always a way out.” These were the sayings that came
+ringing through his head to his heart; one was from Quonab, the other
+from old Sylvanne. Yes, there's always a way, and the stout heart can
+always find it.
+
+Rolf prepared and cooked the two birds, made a breakfast of one and put
+the other in his pocket for lunch, not realizing at the time that his
+lunch would be eaten on this same spot. More than once, as he sat, small
+flocks of ducks flew over the trees due northward. At length the sky,
+now clear, was ablaze with the rising sun, and when it came, it was in
+Rolf's western sky.
+
+Now he comprehended the duck flight. They were really heading southeast
+for their feeding grounds on the Indian Lake, and Rolf, had he been able
+to tramp, could have followed, but his foot was growing worse. It was
+badly swollen, and not likely to be of service for many a day--perhaps
+weeks--and it took all of his fortitude not to lie down and weep over
+this last misfortune.
+
+Again came the figure of that grim, kindly, strong old pioneer, with the
+gray-blue eyes and his voice was saying: “Jest when things looks about
+as black as they can look, if ye hold steady, keep cool and kind,
+something sure happens to make it all easy. There's always a way and the
+stout heart will find it.”
+
+What way was there for him? He would die of hunger and cold before
+Quonab could find him, and again came the spectre of fear. If only he
+could devise some way of letting his comrade know. He shouted once or
+twice, in the faint hope that the still air might carry the sound, but
+the silent wood was silent when he ceased.
+
+Then one of his talks with Quonab came to mind. He remembered how the
+Indian, as a little papoose, had been lost for three days. Though, then
+but ten years old, he had built a smoke fire that brought him help.
+Yes, that was the Indian way; two smokes means “I am lost”; “double for
+trouble.”
+
+Fired by this new hope, Rolf crawled a little apart from his camp
+and built a bright fire, then smothered it with rotten wood and green
+leaves. The column of smoke it sent up was densely white and towered
+above the trees.
+
+Then painfully he hobbled and crawled to a place one hundred yards away,
+and made another smoke. Now all he could do was wait.
+
+A fat pigeon, strayed from its dock, sat on a bough above his camp, in
+a way to tempt Providence. Rolf drew a blunt arrow to the head and
+speedily had the pigeon in hand for some future meal.
+
+As he prepared it, he noticed that its crop was crammed with the winged
+seed of the slippery elm, so he put them all back again into the body
+when it was cleaned, knowing well that they are a delicious food and in
+this case would furnish a welcome variant to the bird itself.
+
+An hour crawled by. Rolf had to go out to the far fire, for it was
+nearly dead. Instinctively he sought a stout stick to help him; then
+remembered how Hoag had managed with one leg and two crutches. “Ho!” he
+exclaimed. “That is the answer--this is the 'way.”'
+
+Now his attention was fixed on all the possible crutches. The trees
+seemed full of them, but all at impossible heights. It was long before
+he found one that he could cut with his knife. Certainly he was an hour
+working at it; then he heard a sound that made his blood jump.
+
+From far away in the north it came, faint but reaching;
+
+“Ye-hoo-o.”
+
+Rolf dropped his knife and listened with the instinctively open mouth
+that takes all pressure from the eardrums and makes them keen. It came
+again: “Ye-hoo-o.” No mistake now, and Rolf sent the ringing answer
+back:
+
+“Ye-hoo-o, ye-hoo-o.”
+
+In ten minutes there was a sharp “yap, yap,” and Skookum bounded out of
+the woods to leap and bark around Rolf, as though he knew all about it;
+while a few minutes later, came Quonab striding.
+
+“Ho, boy,” he said, with a quiet smile, and took Rolf's hand. “Ugh!
+That was good,” and he nodded to the smoke fire. “I knew you were in
+trouble.”
+
+“Yes,” and Rolf pointed to the swollen ankle.
+
+The Indian picked up the lad in his arms and carried him back to the
+little camp. Then, from his light pack, he took bread and tea and made a
+meal for both. And, as they ate, each heard the other's tale.
+
+“I was troubled when you did not come back last night, for you had no
+food or blanket. I did not sleep. At dawn I went to the hill, where
+I pray, and looked away southeast where you went in the canoe. I saw
+nothing. Then I went to a higher hill, where I could see the northeast,
+and even while I watched, I saw the two smokes, so I knew my son was
+alive.”
+
+“You mean to tell me I am northeast of camp?”
+
+“About four miles. I did not come very quickly, because I had to go for
+the canoe and travel here.
+
+“How do you mean by canoe?” said Rolf, in surprise.
+
+“You are only half a mile from Jesup River,” was the reply. “I soon bring
+you home.”
+
+It was incredible at first, but easy of proof. With the hatchet they
+made a couple of serviceable crutches and set out together.
+
+In twenty minutes they were afloat in the canoe; in an hour they
+were safely home again.
+
+And Rolf pondered it not a little. At the very moment of blackest
+despair, the way had opened, and it had been so simple, so natural, so
+effectual. Surely, as long as he lived, he would remember it. “There is
+always a way, and the stout heart will find it.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 50. Marketing the Fur
+
+If Rolf had been at home with his mother, she would have rubbed his
+black and swollen ankle with goose grease. The medical man at Stamford
+would have rubbed it with a carefully prepared and secret ointment. His
+Indian friend sang a little crooning song and rubbed it with deer's fat.
+All different, and all good, because each did something to reassure the
+patient, to prove that big things were doing on his behalf, and each
+helped the process of nature by frequent massage.
+
+Three times a day, Quonab rubbed that blackened ankle. The grease saved
+the skin from injury, and in a week Rolf had thrown his crutches away.
+
+The month of May was nearly gone; June was at hand; that is, the spring
+was over.
+
+In all ages, man has had the impulse, if not the habit, of spring
+migration. Yielding to it he either migrated or made some radical change
+in his life. Most of the Adirondack men who trapped in the winter sought
+work on the log drives in spring; some who had families and a permanent
+home set about planting potatoes and plying the fish nets. Rolf and
+Quonab having neither way open, yet feeling the impulse, decided to go
+out to Warren's with the fur.
+
+Quonab wanted tobacco--and a change.
+
+Rolf wanted a rifle, and to see the Van Trumpers--and a change.
+
+So June 1st saw them all aboard, with Quonab steering at the stern, and
+Skookum bow-wowing at the bow, bound for the great centre of Warren's
+settlement--one store and three houses, very wide apart.
+
+There was a noble flush of water in the streams, and, thanks to their
+axe work in September, they passed down Jesup's River without a pause,
+and camped on the Hudson that night, fully twenty-five miles from home.
+
+Long, stringing flocks of pigeons going north were the most numerous
+forms of life. But a porcupine on the bank and a bear in the water
+aroused Skookum to a pitch of frightful enthusiasm and vaulting ambition
+that he was forced to restrain.
+
+On the evening of the third day they landed at Warren's and found a
+hearty welcome from the trader, who left a group of loafers and came
+forward:
+
+“Good day to ye, boy. My, how ye have growed.”
+
+So he had. Neither Rolf nor Quonab had remarked it, but now they
+were much of the same height. “Wall, an' how'd ye make out with yer
+hunt?--Ah, that's fine!” as each of them dropped a fur pack on the
+counter. “Wall, this is fine; we must have a drink on the head of it,”
+ and the trader was somewhat nonplussed when both the trappers refused.
+He was disappointed, too, for that refusal meant that they would get
+much better prices for their fun But he concealed his chagrin and
+rattled on: “I reckon I'll sell you the finest rifle in the country this
+time,” and he knew by Rolf's face that there was business to do in that
+line.
+
+Now came the listing of the fur, and naturally the bargaining was
+between the shrewd Yankee boy and the trader. The Indian stood shyly
+aside, but he did not fail to help with significant grunts and glances.
+
+“There, now,” said Warren, as the row of martens were laid out side
+by side, “thirty martens--a leetle pale--worth three dollars and fifty
+cents each, or, to be generous, we'll say four dollars.” Rolf glanced
+at Quonab, who, unseen by the trader shook his head, held his right hand
+out, open hollow up, then raised it with a jerk for two inches.
+
+Quickly Rolf caught the idea and said; “No, I don't reckon them pale.
+I call them prime dark, every one of them.” Quonab spread his hand with
+all five fingers pointed up, and Rolf continued, “They are worth five
+dollars each, if they're worth a copper.”
+
+“Phew!” said the trader. “you forget fur is an awful risky thing; what
+with mildew, moth, mice, and markets, we have a lot of risk. But I
+want to please you, so let her go; five each. There's a fine black fox;
+that's worth forty dollars.”
+
+“I should think it is,” said Rolf, as Quonab, by throwing to his right
+an imaginary pinch of sand, made the sign “refuse.”
+
+They had talked over the value of that fox skin and Rolf said, “Why, I
+know of a black fox that sold for two hundred dollars.”
+
+“Where?”
+
+“Oh, down at Stamford.”
+
+“Why, that's near New York.”
+
+“Of course; don't you send your fur to New York?”
+
+“Yes, but it costs a lot to get it there.
+
+“Now,” said Warren, “if you'll take it in trade, I'll meet you half-way
+and call it one hundred dollars.”
+
+“Make it one hundred and twenty-five dollars and I'll take a rifle,
+anyway.”
+
+“Phew!” whistled the trader. “Where do ye get such notions?”
+
+“Nothing wrong about the notion; old Si Sylvanne offered me pretty near
+that, if I'd come out his way with the stuff.”
+
+This had the desired effect of showing that there were other traders. At
+last the deal was closed. Besides the fox skin, they had three hundred
+dollars' worth of fur. The exchange for the fox skin was enough to buy
+all the groceries and dry goods they needed. But Rolf had something else
+in mind.
+
+He had picked out some packages of candies, some calico prints and
+certain bright ribbons, when the trader grasped the idea. “I see; yer
+goin' visitin'. Who is it? Must be the Van Trumpers!”
+
+Rolf nodded and now he got some very intelligent guidance. He did not
+buy Annette's dress, because part of her joy was to be the expedition
+in person to pick it out; but he stocked up with some gorgeous pieces
+of jewellery that were ten cents each, and ribbons whose colours were
+as far beyond expression as were the joys they could create in the
+backwoods female heart.
+
+Proudly clutching his new rlile, and carrying in his wallet a memorandum
+of three hundred dollars for their joint credit, Rolf felt himself a
+person of no little importance. As he was stepping out of the store, the
+trader said, “Ye didn't run across Jack Hoag agin, did ye?”
+
+“Did we? Hmph!” and Rolf told briefly of their experience with that
+creature.
+
+“Just like him, just like him; served him right; he was a dirty cuss.
+But, say; don't you be led into taking your fur out Lyons Falls way.
+They're a mean lot in there, and it stands to reason I can give you
+better prices, being a hundred miles nearer New York.”
+
+And that lesson was not forgotten. The nearer New York the better the
+price; seventy-five dollars at Lyons Falls; one hundred and twenty-five
+dollars at Warren's; two hundred dollars at New York. Rolf pondered long
+and the idea was one which grew and bore fruit.
+
+
+
+Chapter 51. Back at Van Trumper's
+
+“Nibowaka”--Quonab always said “Nibowaka” when he was impressed with
+Rolf's astuteness--“What about the canoe and stuff?”
+
+“I think we better leave all here. Callan will lend us a canoe.” So they
+shouldered the guns, Rolf clung to his, and tramped across the portage,
+reaching Callan's in less than two hours.
+
+“Why, certainly you can have the canoe, but come in and eat first,” was
+the kindly backwoods greeting. However, Rolf was keen to push on; they
+launched the canoe at once and speedily were flashing their paddles on
+the lake.
+
+The place looked sweetly familiar as they drew near. The crops in the
+fields were fair; the crop of chickens at the barn was good; and the
+crop of children about the door was excellent.
+
+“Mein Hemel! mein Hemel!” shouted fat old Hendrik, as they walked up
+to the stable door. In a minute he was wringing their hands and smiling
+into great red, white, and blue smiles. “Coom in, coom in, lad. Hi,
+Marta, here be Rolf and Quonab. Mein Hemel! mein Hemel! what am I now so
+happy.”
+
+“Where's Annette?” asked Rolf.
+
+“Ach, poor Annette, she fever have a little; not mooch, some,” and he
+led over to a corner where on a low cot lay Annette, thin, pale, and
+listless.
+
+She smiled faintly, in response, when Rolf stooped and kissed her.
+
+“Why, Annette, I came back to see you. I want to take you over to
+Warren's store, so you can pick out that dress. See, I brought you my
+first marten and I made this box for you; you must thank Skookum for the
+quills on it.”
+
+“Poor chile; she bin sick all spring,” and Marta used a bunch of sedge
+to drive away the flies and mosquitoes that, bass and treble, hovered
+around the child.
+
+“What ails her?” asked Rolf anxiously.
+
+“Dot ve do not know,” was the reply.
+
+“Maybe there's some one here can tell,” and Roll glanced at the Indian.
+
+“Ach, sure! Have I you that not always told all-vays--eet is so.
+All-vays, I want sumpin bad mooch. I prays de good Lord and all-vays,
+all-vays, two times now, He it send by next boat. Ach, how I am spoil,”
+ and the good Dutchman's eyes filled with tears of thankfulness.
+
+Quonab knelt by the sufferer. He felt her hot, dry hand; he noticed her
+short, quick breathing, her bright eyes, and the untouched bowl of mush
+by her bed.
+
+“Swamp fever,” he said. “I bring good medicine.” He passed quietly out
+into the woods. When he returned, he carried a bundle of snake-root
+which he made into tea.
+
+Annette did not wish to touch it, but her mother persuaded her to take a
+few sips from a cup held by Rolf.
+
+“Wah! this not good,” and Quonab glanced about the close, fly-infested
+room. “I must make lodge.” He turned up the cover of the bedding; three
+or four large, fiat brown things moved slowly out of the light. “Yes, I
+make lodge.”
+
+It was night now, and all retired; the newcomers to the barn. They had
+scarcely entered, when a screaming of poultry gave a familiar turn
+to affairs. On running to the spot, it proved not a mink or coon, but
+Skookum, up to his old tricks. On the appearance of his masters, he fled
+with guilty haste, crouched beneath the post that he used to be, and
+soon again was, chained to.
+
+In the morning Quonab set about his lodge, and Rolf said: “I've got to
+go to Warren's for sugar.” The sugar was part truth and part blind. As
+soon as he heard the name swamp fever, Rolf remembered that, in Redding,
+Jesuit's bark (known later as quinine) was the sovereign remedy. He had
+seen his mother administer it many times, and, so far as he knew, with
+uniform success. Every frontier (or backwoods, it's the same) trader
+carries a stock of medicine, and in two hours Rolf left Warren's counter
+with twenty-five pounds of maple sugar and a bottle of quinine extract
+in his pack.
+
+“You say she's bothered with the flies; why don't you take some of
+this new stuff for a curtain?” and the trader held up a web of mosquito
+gauze, the first Rolf had seen. That surely was a good idea, and ten
+yards snipped off was a most interesting addition to his pack. The
+amount was charged against him, and in two hours more he was back at Van
+Trumper's.
+
+On the cool side of the house, Quonab had built a little lodge, using
+a sheet for cover. On a low bed of pine boughs lay the child. Near the
+door was a smouldering fire of cedar, whose aromatic fumes on the lazy
+wind reached every cranny of the lodge.
+
+Sitting by the bed head, with a chicken wing to keep off the few
+mosquitoes, was the Indian. The child's eyes were closed; she was
+sleeping peacefully. Rolf crept gently forward, laid his hand on hers,
+it was cool and moist. He went into the house with his purchases; the
+mother greeted him with a happy look: Yes, Annette was a little better;
+she had slept quietly ever since she was taken outdoors. The mother
+could not understand. Why should the Indian want to have her surrounded
+by pine boughs? why cedar-smoke? and why that queer song? Yes, there it
+was again. Rolf went out to see and hear. Softly summing on a tin
+pan, with a mudded stick, the Indian sang a song. The words which Rolf
+learned in the after-time were:
+
+“Come, Kaluskap, drive the witches; Those who came to harm the dear
+one.”
+
+Annette moved not, but softly breathed, as she slept a sweet, restful
+slumber, the first for many days.
+
+“Vouldn't she be better in de house?” whispered the anxious mother.
+
+“No, let Quonab do his own way,” and Rolf wondered if any white man had
+sat by little Wee-wees to brush away the flies from his last bed.
+
+
+
+Chapter 52. Annette's New Dress
+
+     Deep feelin's ain't any count by themselves; work 'em off,
+     an' ye're somebody; weep 'em off an' you'd be more use with
+     a heart o' stone--Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+“Quonab, I am going out to get her a partridge.” “Ugh, good.”
+
+So Rolf went off. For a moment he was inclined to grant Skookom's prayer
+for leave to, follow, but another and better plan came in mind. Skookum
+would most likely find a mother partridge, which none should kill in
+June, and there was a simple way to find a cock; that was, listen. It
+was now the evening calm, and before Rolf had gone half a mile he
+heard the distant “Thump, thump, thump, thump--rrrrrrr” of a partridge,
+drumming. He went quickly and cautiously toward the place, then waited
+for the next drumming. It was slow in coming, so he knelt down by a
+mossy, rotten log, and struck it with his hands to imitate the thump and
+roll of the partridge. At once this challenge procured response.
+
+“Thump--thump--thump,, thump rrrrrrrrrrrr” it came, with martial swing
+and fervour, and crawling nearer, Rolf spied the drummer, pompously
+strutting up and down a log some forty yards away. He took steady aim,
+not for the head--a strange gun, at forty yards--for the body. At the
+crack, the bird fell dead, and in Rolf's heart there swelled up a little
+gush of joy, which he believed was all for the sake of the invalid, but
+which a finer analysis might have proved to be due quite as much to
+pride in himself and his newly bought gun.
+
+Night was coming on when he got back, and he found the Dutch parents
+in some excitement. “Dot Indian he gay no bring Annette indoors for de
+night. How she sleep outdoors--like dog--like Bigger--like tramp? Yah
+it is bad, ain't it?” and poor old Hendrik looked sadly upset and
+mystified.
+
+“Hendrik, do you suppose God turns out worse air in the night than in
+the day?”
+
+“Ach, dunno.”
+
+“Well, you see Quonab knows what he's doing.”
+
+“Yah.”
+
+“Well, let him do it. He or I'll sleep alongside the child she'll be
+all right,” and Rolf thought of those horrible brown crawlers under the
+bedding indoors.
+
+Rolf had much confidence in the Indian as a doctor, but he had more in
+his own mother. He was determined to give Annette the quinine, yet he
+hesitated to interfere. At length, he said: “It is cool enough now; I
+will put these thin curtains round her bed.”
+
+“Ugh, good!” but the red man sat there while it was being done.
+
+“You need not stay now; I'll watch her, Quonab.”
+
+“Soon, give more medicine,” was the reply that Rolf did not want. So he
+changed his ruse. “I wish you'd take that partridge and make soup of it.
+I've had my hands in poison ivy, so I dare not touch it.”
+
+“Ach, dot shall I do. Dot kin myself do,” and the fat mother, laying the
+recent baby in its cradle, made cumbrous haste to cook the bird.
+
+“Foiled again,” was Rolf's thought, but his Yankee wit was with him. He
+laid one hand on the bowl of snake-root tea. It was lukewarm. “Do you
+give it hot or cold, Quonab?”
+
+“Hot.”
+
+“I'll take it in and heat it.” He carried it off, thinking, “If Quonab
+won't let me give the bark extract, I'll make him give it.” In the gloom
+of the kitchen he had no difficulty in adding to the tea, quite unseen,
+a quarter of the extract; when heated, he brought it again, and the
+Indian himself gave the dose.
+
+As bedtime drew near, and she heard the red man say he would sleep
+there, the little one said feebly, “Mother, mother,” then whispered in
+her mother's ear, “I want Rolf.”
+
+Rolf spread his blanket by the cot and slept lightly. Once or twice he
+rose to look at Annette. She was moving in her sleep, but did not awake.
+He saw to it that the mosquito bar was in place, and slept till morning.
+
+There was no question that the child was better. The renewed interest in
+food was the first good symptom, and the partridge served the end of its
+creation. The snakeroot and the quinine did noble work, and thenceforth
+her recovery was rapid. It was natural for her mother to wish the child
+back indoors. It was a matter of course that she should go. It was
+accepted as an unavoidable evil that they should always have those brown
+crawlers about the bed.
+
+But Rolf felt differently. He knew what his mother would have thought
+and done. It meant another visit to Warren's, and the remedy he brought
+was a strong-smelling oil, called in those days “rock oil”--a crude
+petroleum. When all cracks in the bed and near wall were treated with
+this, it greatly mitigated, if it did not quite end, the nuisance of the
+“plague that walks in the dark.”
+
+Meanwhile, Quonab had made good his welcome by working on the farm. But
+when a week had flown, he showed signs of restlessness. “We have enough
+money, Nibowaka, why do we stay?”
+
+Rolf was hauling a bucket of water from the well at the time. He stopped
+with his burden on the well-sweep, gazed into the well, and said slowly:
+“I don't know.” If the truth were set forth, it would be that this was
+the only home circle he knew. It was the clan feeling that held him, and
+soon it was clearly the same reason that was driving Quonab to roam.
+
+“I have heard,” said the Indian, “that my people still dwell in Canada,
+beyond Rouse's Point. I would see them. I will come again in the Red
+Moon (August).”
+
+So they hired a small canoe, and one bright morning, with Skookum in the
+bow, Quonab paddled away on his voyage of 120 miles on the plead waters
+of Lakes George and Champlain. His canoe became a dark spot on the
+water; slowly it faded till only the flashing paddle was seen, and that
+was lost around a headland.
+
+The next day Rolf was sorry he let Quonab go alone, for it was evident
+that Van Trumper needed no help for a month yet; that is, he could not
+afford to hire, and while it was well enough for Rolf to stay a few days
+and work to equalize his board, the arrangement would not long continue
+satisfactory to both.
+
+Yet there was one thing he must do before leaving, take Annette to pick
+out her dress. She was well again now, and they set off one morning
+in the canoe, she and Rolf. Neither father nor mother could leave the
+house. They had their misgivings, but what could they do? She was
+bright and happy, full of the childish joy that belongs to that age, and
+engaged on such an important errand for the first time in her life.
+
+There was something more than childish joy showing in her face, an older
+person would have seen that, but it was largely lost on Rolf. There was
+a tendency to blush when she laughed, a disposition to tease her “big
+brother,” to tyrannize over him in little things.
+
+“Now, you tell me some more about 'Robinson Crusoe,'” she began, as soon
+as they were in the canoe, and Rolf resumed the ancient, inspiring tale
+to have it listened to eagerly, but criticized from the standpoint of
+a Lake George farm. “Where was his wife?” “How could he have a farm
+without hens?” “Dried grapes must be nice, but I'd rather have pork than
+goat,” etc.
+
+Rolf, of course, took the part of Robinson Crusoe, and it gave him a
+little shock to hear Quonab called his man Friday.
+
+At the west side they were to invite Mrs. Callan to join their shopping
+trip, but in any case they were to borrow a horse and buckboard. Neither
+Mrs. Callan nor the buckboard was available, but they were welcome to
+the horse. So Annette was made comfortable on a bundle of blankets,
+and chattered incessantly while Rolf walked alongside with the grave
+interest and superiority of a much older brother. So they crossed the
+five-mile portage and came to Warren's store. Nervous and excited,
+with sparkling eyes, Annette laid down her marten skin, received five
+dollars, and set about the tremendous task of selecting her first dress
+of really, truly calico print; and Rolf realized that the joy he had
+found in his new rifle was a very small affair, compared with the
+epoch-making, soul-filling, life-absorbing, unspeakable, and cataclysmal
+bliss that a small girl can have in her first chance of unfettered
+action in choice of a cotton print.
+
+“Beautiful?” How can mere words do justice to masses of yellow corn,
+mixed recklessly with green and scarlet poppies on a bright blue ground.
+No, you should have seen Annette's dress, or you cannot expect to get
+the adequate thrill. And when they found that there was enough cash left
+over to add a red cotton parasol to the glorious spoils, every one there
+beamed in a sort of friendly joy, and the trader, carried away by the
+emotions of the hour, contributed a set of buttons of shining brass.
+
+Warren kept a “meal house,” which phrase was a ruse that saved him from
+a burdensome hospitality. Determined to do it all in the best style,
+Rolf took Annette to the meal-house table. She was deeply awed by the
+grandeur of a tablecloth and white plates, but every one was kind.
+
+Warren, talking to a stranger opposite, and evidently resuming a subject
+they had discussed, said:
+
+“Yes, I'd like to send the hull lot down to Albany this week, if I could
+get another man for the canoe.”
+
+Rolf was interested at once and said: “What wages are you offering?”
+
+“Twenty-five dollars and board.”
+
+“How will I do?”
+
+“Well,” said Warren, as though thinking it over: “I dunno but ye would.
+Could ye go to-morrow?”
+
+“Yes, indeed, for one month.”
+
+“All right, it's a bargain.”
+
+And so Rolf took the plunge that influenced his whole life.
+
+But Annette whispered gleefully and excitedly, “May I have some of that,
+and that?” pointing to every strange food she could see, and got them
+all.
+
+After noon they set out on their return journey, Annette clutching her
+prizes, and prattling incessantly, while Rolf walked alongside, thinking
+deeply, replying to her chatter, but depressed by the thought of
+good-bye tomorrow. He was aroused at length by a scraping sound overhead
+and a sharp reprimand, “Rolf, you'll tear my new parasol, if you don't
+lead the horse better.”
+
+By two o'clock they were at Callan's. Another hour and they had crossed
+the lake, and Annette, shrill with joy, was displaying her treasures to
+the wonder and envy of her kin.
+
+Making a dress was a simple matter in those and Marta promised: “Yah,
+soom day ven I one have, shall I it sew.” Meanwhile, Annette was
+quaffing deep, soul-satisfying draughts in the mere contempt of the
+yellow, red, green, and blue glories in which was soon to appear in
+public. And when the bed came, she fell asleep holding the dress-goods
+stuff in arms, and with the red parasol spread above her head, tired
+out, but inexpressibly happy.
+
+
+
+Chapter 53. Travelling to the Great City
+
+     He's a bad failure that ain't king in some little corner.
+     --Sayings of Sylvanne Sylvanne
+
+The children were not astir when Rolf was off in the morning. He caught
+a glimpse of Annette, still asleep under the red parasol, but the dress
+goods and the brass buttons had fallen to the floor. He stepped into the
+canoe. The dead calm of early morning was on the water, and the little
+craft went skimming and wimpling across. In half an hour it was beached
+at Callan's. In a little more than an hour's jog and stride he was at
+Warren's, ready for work. As he marched in, strong and brisk, his colour
+up, his blue eyes kindled with the thought of seeing Albany, the trader
+could not help being struck by him, especially when he remembered each
+of their meetings--meetings in which he discerned a keen, young mind of
+good judgment, one that could decide quickly.
+
+Gazing at the lithe, red-checked lad, he said: “Say, Rolf, air ye an
+Injun??”
+
+“No, sir.”
+
+“Air ye a half-breed?”
+
+“No, I'm a Yank; my name is Kittering; born and bred in Redding,
+Connecticut.”
+
+“Well, I swan, ye look it. At fust I took ye fur an Injun; ye did look
+dark (and Rolf laughed inside, as he thought of that butternut dye), but
+I'm bound to say we're glad yer white.”
+
+“Here, Bill, this is Rolf, Rolf Kittering, he'll go with ye to
+Albany.” Bill, a loose-jointed, middle-aged, flat-footed, large-handed,
+semi-loafer, with keen gray eyes, looked up from a bundle he was roping.
+
+Then Warren took Rolf aside and explained: “I'm sending down all my fur
+this trip. There's ten bales of sixty pounds each, pretty near my hull
+fortune. I want it took straight to Vandam's, and, night or day, don't
+leave it till ye git it there. He's close to the dock. I'm telling ye
+this for two reasons: The river's swarming with pirates and sneaks.
+They'd like nothing better than to get away with a five-hundred-dollar
+bundle of fur; and, next, while Bill is A1 on the river and true as
+steel, he's awful weak on the liquor; goes crazy, once it's in him. And
+I notice you've always refused it here. So don't stop at Troy, an'
+when ye get to Albany go straight past there to Vandam's. You'll have
+a letter that'll explain, and he'll supply the goods yer to bring back.
+He's a sort of a partner, and orders from him is same as from me.
+
+“I suppose I ought to go myself, but this is the time all the fur is
+coming in here, an' I must be on hand to do the dickering, and there's
+too much much to risk it any longer in the storehouse.”
+
+“Suppose,” said Rolf, “Bill wants to stop at Troy?”
+
+“He won't. He's all right, given he's sober. I've give him the letter.”
+
+“Couldn't you give me the letter, in case?”
+
+“Law, Bill'd get mad and quit.”
+
+“He'll never know.”
+
+“That's so; I will.” So when they paddled away, Bill had an important
+letter of instructions ostentatiously tucked in his outer pocket.
+Rolf, unknown to any one else but Warren, had a duplicate, wrapped in
+waterproof, hidden in an inside pocket.
+
+Bill was A1 on the river; a kind and gentle old woodman, much stronger
+than he looked. He knew the value of fur and the danger of wetting it,
+so he took no chances in doubtful rapids. This meant many portages and
+much hard labour.
+
+I wonder if the world realizes the hard labour of the portage or carry?
+Let any man who seeks for light, take a fifty-pound sack of flour on his
+shoulders and walk a quarter of a mile on level ground in cool weather.
+Unless he is in training, he will find it a heavy burden long before
+he is half-way. Suppose, instead of a flour sack, the burden has sharp
+angles; the bearer is soon in torture. Suppose the weight carried be
+double; then the strain is far more than doubled. Suppose, finally,
+the road be not a quarter mile but a mile, and not on level but through
+swamps, over rocks, logs, and roots, and the weather not cool, but
+suffocating summer weather in the woods, with mosquitoes boring into
+every exposed part, while both hands are occupied, steadying the burden
+or holding on to branches for help up steep places--and then he will
+have some idea of the horror of the portage; and there were many of
+these, each one calling for six loaded and five light trips for each
+canoe-man. What wonder that men will often take chances in some fierce
+rapid, rather than to make a long carry through the fly-infested woods.
+
+It was weighty evidence of Bill's fidelity that again and again they
+made a portage around rapids he had often run, because in the present
+case he was in sacred trust of that much prized commodity--fur.
+
+Eighty miles they called it from Warren's to Albany, but there were many
+halts and carries which meant long delay, and a whole week was covered
+before Bill and Rolf had passed the settlements of Glens Falls, Fort
+Edward, and Schuylerville, and guided their heavily laden canoe on the
+tranquil river, past the little town of Troy. Loafers hailed them from
+the bank, but Bill turned a deaf ear to all temptation; and they pushed
+on happy in the thought that now their troubles were over; the last
+rapid was past; the broad, smooth waters extended to their port.
+
+
+
+Chapter 54. Albany
+
+Only a man who in his youth has come at last in sight of some great city
+he had dreamed of all his life and longed to see, can enter into Rolf's
+feelings as they swept around the big bend, and Albany--Albany, hove in
+view. Albany, the first chartered city of the United States; Albany, the
+capital of all the Empire State; Albany, the thriving metropolis with
+nearly six thousand living human souls; Albany with its State House,
+beautiful and dignified, looking down the mighty Hudson highway that led
+to the open sea.
+
+Rolf knew his Bible, and now he somewhat realized the feelings of St.
+Paul on that historic day when his life-long dream came true, when
+first he neared the Eternal City--when at last he glimpsed the towers of
+imperial, splendid Rome.
+
+The long-strung docks were massed and webbed with ship rigging; the
+water was livened with boats and canoes; the wooden warehouses back of
+the docks were overtopped by wooden houses in tiers, until high above
+them all the Capitol itself was the fitting climax.
+
+Rolf knew something of shipping, and amid all the massed boats his eyes
+fell on a strange, square-looking craft with a huge water-wheel on each
+side. Then, swinging into better view, he read her name, the Clermont,
+and knew that this was the famous Fulton steamer, the first of the
+steamboat age.
+
+But Bill was swamped by no such emotion. Albany, Hudson, Clermont, and
+all, were familiar stories to him and he stolidly headed the canoe for
+the dock he knew of old.
+
+Loafers roosting on the snubbing posts hailed him, at first with
+raillery; but, coming nearer, he was recognized. “Hello, Bill; back
+again? Glad to see you,” and there was superabundant help to land the
+canoe.
+
+“Wall, wall, wall, so it's really you,” said the touter of a fur house,
+in extremely friendly voice; “come in now and we'll hev a drink.”
+
+“No, sir-ree,” said Bill decisively, “I don't drink till business is
+done.”
+
+“Wall, now, Bill, here's Van Roost's not ten steps away an' he hez
+tapped the finest bar'l in years.”
+
+“No, I tell ye, I'm not drinking--now.”
+
+“Wall, all right, ye know yer own business. I thought maybe ye'd be glad
+to see us.”
+
+“Well, ain't I?”
+
+“Hello, Bill,” and Bill's fat brother-in-law came up. “Thus does me good,
+an' yer sister is spilin' to see ye. We'll hev one on this.”
+
+“No, Sam, I ain't drinkin'; I've got biz to tend.”
+
+“Wall, hev just one to clear yer head. Then settle yer business and come
+back to us.”
+
+So Bill went to have one to clear his head. “I'll be back in two
+minutes, Rolf,” but Rolf saw him no more for many days.
+
+“You better come along, cub,” called out a red-nosed member of the
+group. But Rolf shook his head.
+
+“Here, I'll help you git them ashore,” volunteered an effusive stranger,
+with one eye.
+
+“I don't want help.”
+
+“How are ye gain' to handle 'em alone?”
+
+“Well, there's one thing I'd be glad to have ye do; that is, go up there
+and bring Peter Vandam.”
+
+“I'll watch yer stuff while you go.”
+
+“No, I can't leave.” “Then go to blazes; d'yte take me for yer errand
+boy?” And Rolf was left alone.
+
+He was green at the business, but already he was realizing the power of
+that word fur and the importance of the peltry trade. Fur was the one
+valued product of the wilderness that only the hunter could bring. The
+merchants of the world were as greedy for fur as for gold, and far more
+so than for precious stones.
+
+It was a commodity so light that, even in those days, a hundred weight
+of fur might range in value from one hundred to five thousand dollars,
+so that a man with a pack of fine furs was a capitalist. The profits
+of the business were good for trapper, very large for the trader, who
+doubled his first gain by paying in trade; but they were huge for the
+Albany middleman, and colossal for the New Yorker who shipped to London.
+
+With such allurements, it was small wonder that more country was
+explored and opened for fur than for settlement or even for gold; and
+there were more serious crimes and high-handed robberies over the right
+to trade a few furs than over any other legitimate business. These
+things were new to Rolf within the year, but he was learning the lesson,
+and Warren's remarks about fur stuck in his memory with growing value.
+Every incident since the trip began had given them new points.
+
+The morning passed without sign of Bill; so, when in the afternoon, some
+bare-legged boys came along, Rolf said to them: “Do any of ye know where
+Peter Vandam's house is?”
+
+“Yeh, that's it right there,” and they pointed to a large log house less
+than a hundred yards away.
+
+“Do ye know him?”
+
+“Yeh, he's my paw,” said a sun-bleached freckle-face.
+
+“If you bring him here right away, I'll give you a dime. Tell him I'm
+from Warren's with a cargo.”
+
+The dusty stampede that followed was like that of a mustang herd, for a
+dime was a dime in those days. And very soon, a tall, ruddy man appeared
+at the dock. He was a Dutchman in name only. At first sight he was much
+like the other loafers, but was bigger, and had a more business-like air
+when observed near at hand.
+
+“Are you from Warren's?”
+
+“Yes, sir.”
+
+“Alone?”
+
+“No, sir. I came with Bill Bymus. But he went off early this morning; I
+haven't seen him since. I'm afraid he's in trouble.”
+
+“Where'd he go?”
+
+“In there with some friends.”
+
+“Ha, just like him; he's in trouble all right. He'll be no good for a
+week. Last time he came near losing all our stuff. Now let's see what
+ye've got.”
+
+“Are you Mr. Peter Vandam?”
+
+“Of course I am.”
+
+Still Rolf looked doubtful. There was a small group around, and Rolf
+heard several voices, “Yes, this is Peter; ye needn't a-worry.” But Rolf
+knew none of the speakers. His look of puzzlement at first annoyed then
+tickled the Dutchman, who exploded into a hearty guffaw.
+
+“Wall, wall, you sure think ill of us. Here, now look at that,” and he
+drew out a bundle of letters addressed to Master Peter Vandam. Then he
+displayed a gold watch inscribed on the back “Peter Vandam”; next he
+showed a fob seal with a scroll and an inscription, “Petrus Vandamus”;
+then he turned to a youngster and said, “Run, there is the Reverend
+Dr. Powellus, he may help us”; so the black-garbed, knee-breached,
+shovel-hatted clergyman came and pompously said: “Yes, my young friend,
+without doubt you may rest assured that this is our very estimable
+parishioner, Master Peter Vandam; a man well accounted in the world of
+trade.”
+
+“And now,” said Peter, “with the help of my birth-register and
+marriage-certificate, which will be placed at your service with all
+possible haste, I hope I may win your recognition.” The situation, at
+first tense, had become more and more funny, and the bystanders laughed
+aloud. Rolf rose to it, and smiling said slowly, “I am inclined to think
+that you must be Master Peter Vandam, of Albany. If that's so, this
+letter is for you, also this cargo.” And so the delivery was made.
+
+Bill Bymus has not delivered the other letter to this day. Presumably he
+went to stay with his sister, but she saw little of him, for his stay at
+Albany was, as usual, one long spree. It was clear that, but for
+Rolf, there might have been serious loss of fur, and Vandam showed his
+appreciation by taking the lad to his own home, where the story of
+the difficult identification furnished ground for gusty laughter and
+primitive jest on many an after day.
+
+The return cargo for Warren consisted of stores that the Vandam
+warehouse had in stock, and some stuff that took a day or more to
+collect in town.
+
+As Rolf was sorting and packing next day, a tall, thin, well-dressed
+young man walked in with the air of one much at home.
+
+“Good morrow, Peter.”
+
+“Good day to ye, sir,” and they talked of crops and politics.
+
+Presently Vandam said, “Rolf, come over here.”
+
+He came and was presented to the tall man, who was indeed very thin,
+and looked little better than an invalid. “This,” said Peter, “is Master
+Henry van Cortlandt the son of his honour, the governor, and a very
+learned barrister. He wants to go on a long hunting trip for his health.
+I tell him that likely you are the man he needs.”
+
+This was so unexpected that Rolf turned red and gazed on the ground. Van
+Cortlandt at once began to clear things by interjecting: “You see, I'm
+not strong. I want to live outdoors for three months, where I can have
+some hunting and be beyond reach of business. I'll pay you a hundred
+dollars for the three months, to cover board and guidance. And providing
+I'm well pleased and have good hunting, I'll give you fifty dollars more
+when I get back to Albany.”
+
+“I'd like much to be your guide,” said Rolf, “but I have a partner. I
+must find out if he's willing.”
+
+“Ye don't mean-that drunken Bill Bymus?”
+
+“No! my hunting partner; he's an Indian.” Then, after a pause, he added,
+“You wouldn't go in fly-time, would you?”
+
+“No, I want to be in peace. But any time after the first of August.”
+
+“I am bound to help Van Trumper with his harvest; that will take most of
+August.”
+
+As he talked, the young lawyer sized him up and said to himself, “This
+is my man.”
+
+And before they parted it was agreed that Rolf should come to Albany
+with Quonab as soon as he could return in August, to form the camping
+party for the governor's son.
+
+
+
+Chapter 55. The Rescue of Bill
+
+Bales were ready and the canoe newly gummed three days after
+their arrival, but still no sign of Bill. A messengers sent to the
+brother-in-law's home reported that he had not been seen for two days.
+In spite of the fact that Albany numbered nearly “six thousand living
+human souls,” a brief search by the docksharps soon revealed the
+sinner's retreat. His worst enemy would have pitied him; a red-eyed
+wreck; a starved, sick and trembling weakling; conscience-stricken,
+for the letter intrusted to him was lost; the cargo stolen--so his
+comforters had said--and the raw country lad murdered and thrown out
+into the river. What wonder that he should shun the light of day! And
+when big Peter with Rolf in the living flesh, instead of the sheriff,
+stood before him and told him to come out of that and get into the
+canoe, he wept bitter tears of repentance and vowed that never, never,
+never, as long as he lived would he ever again let liquor touch his
+lips. A frame of mind which lasted in strength for nearly one day and a
+half, and did not entirely varnish for three.
+
+They passed Troy without desiring to stop, and began their fight with
+the river. It was harder than when coming, for their course was against
+stream when paddling, up hill when portaging, the water was lower, the
+cargo was heavier, and Bill not so able. Ten days it took them to cover
+those eighty miles. But they came out safely, cargo and all, and landed
+at Warren's alive and well on the twenty-first day since leaving.
+
+Bill had recovered his usual form. Gravely and with pride he marched
+up to Warren and handed out a large letter which read outside, “Bill of
+Lading,” and when opened, read: “The bearer of this, Bill Bymus, is no
+good. Don't trust him to Albany any more. (Signed) Peter Vandam.”
+
+Warren's eyes twinkled, but he said nothing. He took
+
+Rolf aside and said, “Let's have it.” Rolf gave him the real letter
+that, unknown to Bill, he had carried, and Warren learned some things
+that he knew before.
+
+Rolf's contract was for a month; it had ten days to run, and those ten
+days were put in weighing sugar, checking accounts, milking cows, and
+watching the buying of fur. Warren didn't want him to see too much of
+the fur business, but Rolf gathered quickly that these were the main
+principles: Fill the seller with liquor, if possible; “fire water for
+fur” was the idea; next, grade all fur as medium or second-class, when
+cash was demanded, but be easy as long as payment was to be in trade.
+That afforded many loopholes between weighing, grading, charging, and
+shrinkage, and finally he noticed that Albany prices were 30 to 50 per
+cent. higher than Warren prices. Yet Warren was reckoned a first-class
+fellow, a good neighbour, and a member of the church. But it was
+understood everywhere that fur, like horseflesh, was a business with
+moral standards of its own.
+
+A few days before their contract was up, Warren said: “How'd ye like to
+renew for a month?”
+
+“Can't; I promised to help Van Trumper with his harvest.”
+
+“What does he pay ye?”
+
+“Seventy-five cents a day and board.”
+
+“I'll make it a dollar.”
+
+“I've given my word,” said Rolf, in surprise.
+
+“Hey ye signed papers?”
+
+“They're not needed. The only use of signed papers is to show ye
+have given your word,” said Rolf, quoting his mother, with rising
+indignation.
+
+The trader sniffed a little contemptuously and said nothing. But he
+realized the value of a lad who was a steady, intelligent worker,
+wouldn't drink, and was absolutely bound by a promise; so, after awhile,
+he said: “Wall, if Van don't want ye now, come back for a couple of
+weeks.”
+
+Early in the morning Rolf gathered the trifles he had secured for the
+little children and the book he had bought for Annette, a sweet story of
+a perfect girl who died and went to heaven, the front embellished with a
+thrilling wood-cut. Then he crossed the familiar five-mile portage at a
+pace that in an hour brought him to the lake.
+
+The greeting at Van's was that of a brother come home.
+
+“Vell, Rolf, it's goood to see ye back. It's choost vat I vented. Hi,
+Marta, I told it you, yah. I say, now I hope ze good Gott send Rolf.
+Ach, how I am shpoil!”
+
+Yes, indeed. The hay was ready; the barley was changing. So Rolf took
+up his life on the farm, doing work that a year before was beyond his
+strength, for the spirit of the hills was on him, with its impulse of
+growth, its joy in effort, its glory in strength. And all who saw the
+longlegged, long-armed, flat-backed youth plying fork or axe or hoe, in
+some sort ventured a guess: “He'll be a good 'un some day; the kind o'
+chap to keep friendly with.
+
+
+
+Chapter 56. The Sick Ox
+
+The Thunder Moon passed quickly by; the hay was in; the barley partly
+so. Day by day the whitefaced oxen toiled at the creaking yoke, as the
+loads of hay and grain were jounced cumbrously over roots and stumps of
+the virgin fields. Everything was promising well, when, as usual, there
+came a thunderbolt out of the clear sky. Buck, the off ox, fell sick.
+
+Those who know little about cattle have written much of the meek and
+patient ox. Those who know them well tell us that the ox is the “most
+cussedest of all cussed” animals; a sneak, a bully, a coward, a thief,
+a shirk, a schemer; and when he is not in mischief he is thinking
+about it. The wickedest pack mule that ever bucked his burden is a
+pinfeathered turtle-dove compared with an average ox. There are
+some gentle oxen, but they are rare; most are treacherous, some are
+dangerous, and these are best got rid of, as they mislead their yoke
+mates and mislay their drivers. Van's two oxen, Buck and Bright,
+manifested the usual variety and contrariety of disposition. They were
+all right when well handled, and this Rolf could do better than Van,
+for he was “raised on oxen,” and Van's over voluble, sputtering,
+Dutch-English seemed ill comprehended of the massive yoke beasts. The
+simpler whip-waving and fewer orders of the Yankee were so obviously
+successful that Van had resigned the whip of authority and Rolf was
+driver.
+
+Ordinarily, an ox driver walks on the hew (nigh or left) side, near
+the head of his team, shouting “gee” (right), “haw” (left), “get up,”
+ “steady,” or “whoa” (stop), accompanying the order with a waving of the
+whip. Foolish drivers lash the oxen on the haw side when they wish them
+to gee--and vice versa; but it is notorious that all good drivers do
+little lashing. Spare the lash or spoil your team. So it was not long
+before Rolf could guide them from the top of the load, as they travelled
+from shook to shook in the field. This voice of command saved his life,
+or at least his limb, one morning, for he made a misstep that tumbled
+him down between the oxen and the wagon. At once the team started, but
+his ringing “Whoa!” brought them to a dead stop, and saved him; whereas,
+had it been Van's “Whoa!” it would have set them off at a run, for every
+shout from him meant a whip lick to follow.
+
+Thus Rolf won the respect, if not the love, of the huge beasts; more and
+more they were his charge, and when, on that sad morning, in the last of
+the barley, Van came in, “Ach, vot shall I do! Vot shall I do! Dot Buck
+ox be nigh dead.”
+
+Alas! there he lay on the ground, his head sometimes raised, sometimes
+stretched out flat, while the huge creature uttered short moans at
+times.
+
+Only four years before, Rolf had seen that same thing at Redding.
+The rolling eye, the working of the belly muscles, the straining and
+moaning. “It's colic; have you any ginger?”
+
+“No, I hat only dot soft soap.”
+
+What soft soap had to do with ginger was not clear, and Rolf wondered if
+it had some rare occult medical power that had escaped his mother.
+
+“Do you know where there's any slippery elm?”
+
+“Yah.”
+
+“Then bring a big boiling of the bark, while I get some peppermint.”
+
+The elm bark was boiled till it made a kettleful of brown slime. The
+peppermint was dried above the stove till it could be powdered,
+and mixed with the slippery slush. Some sulphur and some soda were
+discovered and stirred in, on general principles, and they hastened to
+the huge, helpless creature in the field.
+
+Poor Buck seemed worse than ever. He was flat on his side, with his
+spine humped up, moaning and straining at intervals. But now relief was
+in sight--so thought the men. With a tin dipper they tried to pour
+some relief into the open mouth of the sufferer, who had so little
+appreciation that he simply taxed his remaining strength to blow it out
+in their faces. Several attempts ended the same way. Then the brute, in
+what looked like temper, swung his muzzle and dashed the whole dipper
+away. Next they tried the usual method, mixing it with a bran mash,
+considered a delicacy in the bovine world, but Buck again took notice,
+under pressure only, to dash it away and waste it all.
+
+It occurred to them they might force it down his throat if they could
+raise his head. So they used a hand lever and a prop to elevate the
+muzzle, and were about to try another inpour, when Buck leaped to his
+feet, and behaving like one who has been shamming, made at full gallop
+for the stable, nor stopped till safely in his stall, where at once he
+dropped in all the evident agony of a new spasm.
+
+It is a common thing for oxen to sham sick, but this was the real thing,
+and it seemed they were going to lose the ox, which meant also lose a
+large part of the harvest.
+
+In the stable, now, they had a better chance; they tied him, then raised
+his head with a lever till his snout was high above his shoulders. Now
+it seemed easy to pour the medicine down that long, sloping passage. But
+his mouth was tightly closed, any that entered his nostrils was blown
+afar, and the suffering beast strained at the rope till he seemed likely
+to strangle.
+
+Both men and ox were worn out with the struggle; the brute was no
+better, but rather worse.
+
+“Wall,” said Rolf, “I've seen a good many ornery steers, but that's the
+orneriest I ever did handle, an' I reckon we'll lose him if he don't get
+that poison into him pretty soon.”
+
+Oxen never were studied as much as horses, for they were considered a
+temporary shift, and every farmer looked forward to replacing them with
+the latter. Oxen were enormously strong, and they could flourish without
+grain when the grass was good; they never lost their head in a swamp
+hole, and ploughed steadily among all kinds of roots and stumps; but
+they were exasperatingly slow and eternally tricky. Bright, being the
+trickier of the two, was made the nigh ox, to be more under control.
+Ordinarily Rolf could manage Buck easily, but the present situation
+seemed hopeless. In his memory he harked back to Redding days, and he
+recalled old Eli Gooch, the ox expert, and wondered what he would have
+done. Then, as he sat, he caught sight of the sick ox reaching out its
+head and deftly licking up a few drops of bran mash that had fallen from
+his yoke fellow's portion. A smile spread over Rolf's face. “Just like
+you; you think nothing's good except it's stolen. All right; we'll see.”
+ He mixed a big dose of medicine, with bran, as before. Then he tied
+Bright's head so that he could not reach the ground, and set the bucket
+of mash half way between the two oxen. “Here ye are, Bright,” he said,
+as a matter of form, and walked out of the stable; but, from a crack, he
+watched. Buck saw a chance to steal Bright's bran; he looked around; Oh,
+joy! his driver was away. He reached out cautiously; sniffed; his long
+tongue shot forth for a first taste, when Rolf gave a shout and ran in.
+“Hi, you old robber! Let that alone; that's for Bright.”
+
+The sick ox was very much in his own stall now, and stayed there for
+some time after Rolf went to resume his place at the peephole. But
+encouraged by a few minutes of silence, he again reached out, and
+hastily gulped down a mouthful of the mixture before Rolf shouted and
+rushed in armed with a switch to punish the thief. Poor Bright, by his
+efforts to reach the tempting mash, was unwittingly playing the game,
+for this was proof positive of its desirableness.
+
+After giving Buck a few cuts with the switch, Rolf retired, as before.
+Again the sick ox waited for silence, and reaching out with greedy
+haste, he gulped down the rest and emptied the bucket; seeing which,
+Rolf ran in and gave the rogue a final trouncing for the sake of
+consistency.
+
+Any one who knows what slippery elm, peppermint, soda, sulphur, colic,
+and ox do when thoroughly interincorporated will not be surprised to
+learn that in the morning the stable needed special treatment, and of
+all the mixture the ox was the only ingredient left on the active list.
+He was all right again, very thirsty, and not quite up to his usual
+standard, but, as Van said, after a careful look, “Ah, tell you vot, dot
+you vas a veil ox again, an' I t'ink I know not vot if you all tricky
+vas like Bright.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 57. Rolf and Skookum at Albany
+
+The Red Moon (August) follows the Thunder Moon, and in the early part of
+its second week Rolf and Van, hauling in the barley and discussing the
+fitness of the oats, were startled by a most outrageous clatter among
+the hens. Horrid murder evidently was stalking abroad, and, hastening
+to the rescue, Rolf heard loud, angry barks; then a savage beast with
+a defunct “cackle party” appeared, but dropped the victim to bark and
+bound upon the “relief party” with ecstatic expressions of joy, in spite
+of Rolf's--“Skookum! you little brute!”
+
+Yes! Quonab was back; that is, he was at the lake shore, and Skookum had
+made haste to plunge into the joys and gayeties of this social centre,
+without awaiting the formalities of greeting or even of dry-shod
+landing.
+
+The next scene was--a big, high post, a long, strong chain and a small,
+sad dog.
+
+“Ho, Quonab, you found your people? You had a good time?”
+
+“Ugh,” was the answer, the whole of it, and all the light Rolf got for
+many a day on the old man's trip to the North. The prospect of going to
+Albany for Van Cortlandt was much more attractive to Quonab than that of
+the harvest field, so a compromise was agreed on. Callan's barley was in
+the stock; if all three helped Callan for three days, Callan would owe
+them for nine, and so it was arranged.
+
+Again “good-bye,” and Rolf, Quonab, and little dog Skookum went sailing
+down the Schroon toward the junction, where they left a cache of their
+supplies, and down the broadening Hudson toward Albany.
+
+Rolf had been over the road twice; Quonab never before, yet his nose for
+water was so good and the sense of rapid and portage was so strong in
+the red man, that many times he was the pilot. “This is the way, because
+it must be”; “there it is deep because so narrow”; “that rapid is
+dangerous, because there is such a well-beaten portage trail”; “that
+we can run, because I see it,” or, “because there is no portage trail,”
+ etc. The eighty miles were covered in three sleeps, and in the mid-moon
+days of the Red Moon they landed at the dock in front of Peter Vandam's.
+If Quonab had any especial emotions for the occasion, he cloaked
+them perfectly under a calm and copper-coloured exterior of absolute
+immobility.
+
+Their Albany experiences included a meeting with the governor and an
+encounter with a broad and burly river pirate, who, seeing a lone and
+peaceable-looking red man, went out of his way to insult him; and when
+Quonab's knife flashed out at last, it was only his recently established
+relations with the governor's son that saved him from some very sad
+results, for there were many loafers about. But burly Vandam appeared in
+the nick of time to halt the small mob with the warning: “Don't you know
+that's Mr. Van Cortlandt's guide?” With the governor and Vandam to back
+him, Quonab soon had the mob on his side, and the dock loafer's own
+friends pelted him with mud as he escaped. But not a little credit
+is due to Skookum, for at the critical moment he had sprung on the
+ruffian's bare and abundant leg with such toothsome effect that the
+owner fell promptly backward and the knife thrust missed. It was quickly
+over and Quonab replaced his knife, contemptuous of the whole crowd
+before, during and after the incident. Not at the time, but days later,
+he said of his foe: “He was a talker; he was full of fear.”
+
+With the backwoods only thirty miles away, and the unbroken wilderness
+one hundred, it was hard to believe how little Henry van Cortlandt knew
+of the woods and its life. He belonged to the ultra-fashionable set, and
+it was rather their pose to affect ignorance of the savage world and
+its ways. But he had plenty of common-sense to fan back on, and the
+inspiring example of Washington, equally at home in the nation's
+Parliament, the army intrenchment, the glittering ball room, or the
+hunting lodge of the Indian, was a constant reminder that the perfect
+man is a harmonious development of mind, morals, and physique.
+
+His training had been somewhat warped by the ultraclassic fashion of
+the times, so he persisted in seeing in Quonab a sort of discoloured,
+barbaric clansman of Alaric or a camp follower of Xenophon's host,
+rather than an actual living, interesting, native American, exemplifying
+in the highest degree the sinewy, alert woodman, and the saturated
+mystic and pantheist of an age bygone and out of date, combined with
+a middle-measure intelligence. And Rolf, tall, blue-eyed with brown,
+curling hair, was made to pose as the youthful Achilles, rather than
+as a type of America's best young manhood, cleaner, saner, and of far
+higher ideals and traditions than ever were ascribed to Achilles by his
+most blinded worshippers. It recalled the case of Wordsworth and Southey
+living side by side in England; Southey, the famous, must needs seek in
+ancient India for material to write his twelve-volume romance that no
+one ever looks at; Wordsworth, the unknown, wrote of the things of his
+own time, about his own door? and produced immortal verse.
+
+What should we think of Homer, had he sung his impressions of the
+ancient Egyptians? or of Thackeray, had he novelized the life of the
+Babylonians? It is an ancient blindness, with an ancient wall to bruise
+one's head. It is only those who seek ointment of the consecrated clay
+that gives back sight, who see the shining way at their feet, who beat
+their face against no wall, who safely climb the heights. Henry van
+Cortlandt was a man of rare parts, of every advantage, but still he had
+been taught steadfastly to live in the past. His eyes were yet to be
+opened. The living present was not his--but yet to be.
+
+The young lawyer had been assembling his outfit at Vandam's warehouse,
+for, in spite of scoffing friends, he knew that Rolf was coming back to
+him.
+
+When Rolf saw the pile of stuff that was gathered for that outfit, he
+stared at it aghast, then looked at Vandam, and together they roared.
+There was everything for light housekeeping and heavy doctoring, even
+chairs, a wash stand, a mirror, a mortar, and a pestle. Six canoes could
+scarcely have carried the lot.
+
+“'Tain't so much the young man as his mother,” explained Big Pete; “at
+first I tried to make 'em understand, but it was no use; so I says, 'All
+right, go ahead, as long as there's room in the warehouse.' I reckon
+I'll set on the fence and have some fun seein' Rolf ontangle the
+affair.”
+
+“Phew, pheeeww--ph-e-e-e-e-w,” was all Rolf could say in answer. But
+at last, “Wall, there's always a way. I sized him up as pretty level
+headed. We'll see.”
+
+There was a way and it was easy, for, in a secret session, Rolf, Pete,
+and Van Cortlandt together sorted out the things needed. A small tent,
+blankets, extra clothes, guns, ammunition, delicate food for three
+months, a few medicines and toilet articles--a pretty good load for one
+canoe, but a trifle compared with the mountain of stuff piled up on the
+floor.
+
+“Now, Mr. van Cortlandt,” said Rolf, “will you explain to your mother
+that we are going on with this so as to travel quickly, and will send
+back for the rest as we need it?”
+
+A quiet chuckle was now heard from Big Pete. “Good! I wondered how he'd
+settle it.”
+
+The governor and his lady saw them off; therefore, there was a crowd.
+The mother never before had noted what a frail and dangerous thing a
+canoe is. She cautioned her son never to venture out alone, and to be
+sure that he rubbed his chest with the pectoral balm she had made from
+such and such a famous receipt, the one that saved the life but not
+the limb of old Governor Stuyvesant, and come right home if you catch a
+cold; and wait at the first camp till the other things come, and (in a
+whisper) keep away from that horrid red Indian with the knife, and never
+fail to let every one know who you are, and write regularly, and don't
+forget to take your calomel Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, alternating
+with Peruvian bark Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and squills on
+Sunday, except every other week, when he should devote Tuesdays,
+Fridays, and Sundays to rhubarb and catnip tea, except in the full
+moon, when the catnip was to be replaced with graveyard bergamot and the
+squills with opodeldoc in which an iron nail had been left for a week.
+
+So Henry was embraced, Rolf was hand-shaken, Quonab was nodded at,
+Skookum was wisely let alone, and the trim canoe swung from the dock.
+Amid hearty cheers, farewells, and “God speed ye's” it breasted the
+flood for the North.
+
+And on the dock, with kerchief to her eyes, stood the mother, weeping to
+think that her boy was going far, far away from his home and friends in
+dear, cultured, refined Albany, away, away, to that remote and barbarous
+inaccessible region almost to the shore land of Lake Champlain.
+
+
+
+Chapter 58. Back to Indian Lake
+
+Young Van Cortlandt, six feet two in his socks and thirty-four inches
+around the chest, was, as Rolf long afterward said, “awful good raw
+material, but awful raw.” Two years out of college, half of which had
+been spent at the law, had done little but launch him as a physical
+weakling and a social star. But his mental make-up was more than good;
+it was of large promise. He lacked neither courage nor sense, and the
+course he now followed was surely the best for man-making.
+
+Rolf never realized how much a farmer-woodman-canoeman-hunter-camper had
+to know, until now he met a man who did not know anything, nor dreamed
+how many wrong ways there were of doing a job, till he saw his new
+companion try it.
+
+There is no single simple thing that is a more complete measure of one's
+woodcraft than the lighting of a fire. There are a dozen good ways and
+a thousand wrong ones. A man who can light thirty fires on thirty
+successive days with thirty matches or thirty sparks from flint and
+steel is a graduated woodman, for the feat presupposes experience of
+many years and the skill that belongs to a winner.
+
+When Quonab and Rolf came back from taking each a load over the first
+little portage, they found Van Cortlandt getting ready for a fire with a
+great, solid pile of small logs, most of them wet and green. He knew how
+to use flint and steel, because that was the established household way
+of the times. Since childhood had he lighted the candle at home by this
+primitive means. When his pile of soggy logs was ready, he struck his
+flint, caught a spark on the tinder that is always kept on hand, blew
+it to a flame, thrust in between two of the wet logs, waited for all to
+blaze up, and wondered why the tiny blaze went out at once, no matter
+how often he tried.
+
+When the others came back, Van Cortlandt remarked: “It doesn't seem to
+burn.” The Indian turned away in silent contempt. Rolf had hard work to
+keep the forms of respect, until the thought came: “I suppose I looked
+just as big a fool in his world at Albany.”
+
+“See,” said he, “green wood and wet wood won't do, but yonder is some
+birch bark and there's a pine root.” He took his axe and cut a few
+sticks from the root, then used his knife to make a sliver-fuzz of each;
+one piece, so resinous that it would not whittle, he smashed with
+the back of the axe into a lot of matchwood. With a handful of finely
+shredded birch bark he was now quite ready. A crack of the flint a
+blowing of the spark caught on the tinder from the box, a little flame
+that at once was magnified by the birch bark, and in a minute the pine
+splinters made a sputtering fire. Quonab did not even pay Van Cortlandt
+the compliment of using one of his logs. He cut a growing poplar, built
+a fireplace of the green logs around the blaze that Rolf had made, and
+the meal was ready in a few minutes.
+
+Van Cortlandt was not a fool; merely it was all new to him. But his
+attention was directed to fire-making now, and long before they reached
+their cabin he had learned this, the first of the woodman's arts--he
+could lay and light a fire. And when, weeks later, he not only made the
+flint fire, but learned in emergency to make the rubbing stick spark,
+his cup of joy was full. He felt he was learning.
+
+Determined to be in everything, now he paddled all day; at first with
+vigour, then mechanically, at last feebly and painfully. Late in the
+afternoon they made the first long portage; it was a quarter mile. Rolf
+took a hundred pounds, Quonab half as much more, Van Cortlandt tottered
+slowly behind with his pill-kit and his paddle. That night, on his ample
+mattress, he slept the sleep of utter exhaustion. Next day he did little
+and said nothing. It came on to rain; he raised a huge umbrella and
+crouched under it till the storm was over. But the third day he began to
+show signs of new life, and before they reached the Schroon's mouth, on
+the fifth day, his young frame was already responding to the elixir of
+the hills.
+
+It was very clear that they could not take half of the stuff that they
+had cached at the Schroon's mouth, so that a new adjustment was needed
+and still a cache to await another trip.
+
+That night as they sat by their sixth camp fire, Van Cortlandt pondered
+over the recent days, and they seemed many since he had left home.
+He felt much older and stronger. He felt not only less strange, but
+positively intimate with the life, the river, the canoe, and his
+comrades; and, pleased with his winnings, he laid his hand on Skookum,
+slumbering near, only to arouse in response a savage growl, as that
+important animal arose and moved to the other side of the fire. Never
+did small dog give tall man a more deliberate snub. “You can't do that
+with Skookum; you must wait till he's ready,” said Rolf.
+
+The journey up the Hudson with its “mean” waters and its “carries” was
+much as before. Then they came to the eagle's nest and the easy waters
+of Jesup's River, and without important incident they landed at the
+cabin. The feeling of “home again” spread over the camp and every one
+was gay.
+
+
+
+Chapter 59. Van Cortlandt's Drugs
+
+“AIN'T ye feelin' all right?” said Rolf, one bright, calomel morning, as
+he saw Van Cortlandt preparing his daily physic.
+
+“Why, yes; I'm feeling fine; I'm better every day,” was the jovial
+reply.
+
+“Course I don't know, but my mother used to say: 'Med'cine's the stuff
+makes a sick man well, an' a well man sick.”'
+
+“My mother and your mother would have fought at sight, as you may judge.
+B-u-t,” he added with reflective slowness, and a merry twinkle in his
+eye, “if things were to be judged by their product, I am afraid your
+mother would win easily,” and he laid his long, thin, scrawny hand
+beside the broad, strong hand of the growing youth.
+
+“Old Sylvanne wasn't far astray when he said: 'There aren't any sick,
+'cept them as thinks they are,”' said Rolf. “I suppose I ought to begin
+to taper off,” was the reply. But the tapering was very sudden. Before a
+week went by, it seemed desirable to go back for the stuff left in cache
+on the Schroon, where, of course, it was subject to several risks. There
+seemed no object in taking Van Cortlandt back, but they could not
+well leave him alone. He went. He had kept time with fair
+regularity--calomel, rhubarb; calomel, rhubarb; calomel, rhubarb,
+squills--but Rolf's remarks had sunk into his intelligence, as a
+red-hot shot will sink through shingles, letting in light and creating
+revolution.
+
+This was a rhubarb morning. He drank his potion, then, carefully
+stoppering the bottle, he placed it with its companions in a box and
+stowed that near the middle of the canoe. “I'll be glad when it's
+finished,” he said reflectively; “I don't believe I need it now. I wish
+sometimes I could run short of it all.”
+
+That was what Rolf had been hoping for. Without such a remark, he would
+not have dared do as he did. He threw the tent cover over the canoe
+amidships, causing the unstable craft to cant: “That won't do,” he
+remarked, and took out several articles, including the medicine chest,
+put them ashore under the bushes, and, when he replaced them, contrived
+that the medicine should be forgotten.
+
+Next morning Van Cortlandt, rising to prepare his calomel, got a shock
+to find it not.
+
+“It strikes me,” says Rolf, “the last time I saw that, it was on the
+bank when we trimmed the canoe.” Yes, there could be no doubt of it.
+Van must live his life in utter druglessness for a time. It gave him
+somewhat of a scare, much like that a young swimmer gets when he finds
+he has drifted away from his floats; and, like that same beginner, it
+braced him to help himself. So Van found that he could swim without
+corks.
+
+They made a rapid journey down, and in a week they were back with the
+load.
+
+There was the potion chest where they had left it. Van Cortlandt
+picked it up with a sheepish smile, and they sat down for evening meal.
+Presently Rolf said: “I mind once I seen three little hawks in a nest
+together. The mother was teaching them to fly. Two of them started off
+all right, and pretty soon were scooting among the treetops. The other
+was scared. He says: 'No, mother, I never did fly, and I'm scared I'd
+get killed if I tried.' At last the mother got mad and shoved him over.
+As soon as he felt he was gone, he spread out his wings to save himself.
+The wings were all right enough, and long before he struck the ground,
+he was flying.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 60. Van Cortlandt's Adventure
+
+The coming of Van had compelled the trappers to build a new and much
+larger cabin. When they were planning it, the lawyer said: “If I were,
+you, I'd make it twenty by thirty, with a big stone fireplace.”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“I might want to come back some day and bring a friend.”
+
+Rolf looked at him keenly. Here was an important possibility, but it
+was too difficult to handle such large logs without a team; so the new
+cabin was made fifteen by twenty, and the twenty-foot logs were very
+slim indeed. Van Cortlandt took much trouble to fix it up inside with
+two white birch bedsteads, balsam beds, and basswood mats on the floor.
+
+After the first depression, he had recovered quickly since abandoning
+his apothecary diet, and now he was more and more in their life, one of
+themselves. But Quonab never liked him. The incident of the fire-making
+was one of many which reduced him far below zero in the red man's
+esteem. When he succeeded with the rubbing-stick fire, he rose a few
+points; since then he had fallen a little, nearly every day, and now an
+incident took place which reduced him even below his original low level.
+
+In spite of his admirable perseverance, Van Cortlandt failed in his
+attempts to get a deer. This was depressing and unfortunate because of
+the Indian's evident contempt, shown, not in any act, but rather in his
+avoiding Van and never noticing him; while Van, on his part, discovered
+that, but for this, that, and the other negligence on Quonab's part, he
+himself might have done thus and so.
+
+To relieve the situation, Rolf said privately to the Indian, “Can't we
+find some way of giving him a deer?”
+
+“Humph,” was the voluble reply.
+
+“I've heard of that jack-light trick.    Can ye work it?”
+
+“Ugh!”
+
+So it was arranged.
+
+Quonab prepared a box which he filled with sand. On three sides of it
+he put a screen of bark, eighteen inches high, and in the middle he
+made a good torch of pine knots with a finely frizzled lighter of birch
+bark. Ordinarily this is placed on the bow of the canoe, and, at the
+right moment, is lighted by the sportsman. But Quonab distrusted Van as
+a lighter, so placed this ancient search-light on the after thwart in
+front of himself and pointing forward, but quartering.
+
+The scheme is to go along the lake shore about dark, as the deer come
+to the water to drink or eat lily pads. As soon as a deer is located by
+the sound, the canoe is silently brought to the place, the torch is
+lighted, the deer stops to gaze at this strange sunrise; its body is
+not usually visible in the dim light, but the eyes reflect the glare
+like two lamps; and now the gunner, with a volley of buckshot, plays
+his part. It is the easiest and most unsportsmanlike of all methods. It
+has long been declared illegal; and was especially bad, because it
+victimized chiefly the does and fawns.
+
+But now it seemed the proper way to “save Van Cortlandt's face.”
+
+So forth they went; Van armed with his double-barrelled shotgun and
+carrying in his belt a huge and ornamental hunting knife, the badge of
+woodcraft or of idiocy, according as yon took Van's view or Quonab's.
+Rolf stayed in camp.
+
+At dusk they set out, a slight easterly breeze compelling them to take
+the eastern shore, for the deer must not smell them. As they silently
+crossed the lake, the guide's quick eye caught sight of a long wimple
+on the surface, across the tiny ripples of the breeze--surely the wake
+of some large animal, most likely a deer. Good luck. Putting on all
+speed, he sent the canoe flying after it, and in three or four minutes
+they sighted a large, dark creature moving fast to escape, but it was
+low on the water, and had no horns. They could not make out what it
+was. Van sat tensely gazing, with gun in hand, but the canoe overran
+the swimmer; it disappeared under the prow, and a moment later there
+scrambled over the gunwale a huge black fisher.
+
+“Knife,” cried Quonab, in mortal fear that Van would shoot and blow a
+hole throught the canoe.
+
+The fisher went straight at the lawyer hissing and snarling with voice
+like a bear.
+
+Van grasped his knife, and then and there began A most extraordinary
+fight; holding his assailant off as best he could, he stabbed again and
+again with that long blade. But the fisher seemed cased in iron. The
+knife glanced off or was solidly stopped again and again, while the
+fierce, active creature, squirming, struggling, clawing, and tearing
+had wounded the lawyer in a dozen places. Jab, jab went the knife in
+vain. The fisher seemed to gain in strength and fury. It fastened on
+Van's leg just below the knee, and grow/ed and tore like a bulldog. Van
+seized its throat in both hands and choked with all his strength. The
+brute at length let go and sprang back to attack again, when Quonab saw
+his chance and felled it with a blow of the paddle across the nose. It
+tumbled forward; Van lunged to avoid what seemed a new attack, and in a
+moment the canoe upset, and all were swimming for their lives.
+
+As luck would have it, they had drifted to the west side and the water
+was barely six feet deep. So Quonab swam ashore holding onto a paddle,
+and hauling the canoe, while Van waded ashore, hauling the dead fisher
+by the tail.
+
+Quonab seized a drift pole and stuck it in the mud as near the place as
+possible, so they could come again in daylight to get the guns; then
+silently paddled back to camp.
+
+Next day, thanks to the pole, they found the place and recovered first
+Van's gun, second, that mighty hunting knife; and learned to the
+amazement and disgust of all that it had not been out of its sheath:
+during all that stabbing and slashing, the keen edge was hidden and the
+knife was wearing its thick, round scabbard of leather and studs of
+brass.
+
+
+
+Chapter 61. Rolf Learns Something from Van
+
+     A man can't handle his own case, any more than a delirious
+     doctor kin give himself the right physic.--Saying of Si
+     Sylvanne.
+
+However superior Rolf might feel in the canoe or the woods, there was
+one place where Van Cortlandt took the lead, and that was in the long
+talks they had by the campfire or in Van's own shanty which Quonab
+rarely entered.
+
+The most interesting subjects treated in these were ancient Greece and
+modern Albany. Van Cortlandt was a good Greek scholar, and, finding an
+intelligent listener, he told the stirring tales of royal Ilion, Athens,
+and Pergamos, with the loving enthusiasm of one whom the teachers found
+it easy to instruct in classic lore. And when he recited or intoned
+the rolling Greek heroics of the siege of Troy, Rolf listened with an
+interest that was strange, considering that he knew not a word of it.
+But he said, “It sounded like real talk, and the tramp of men that were
+all astir with something big a-doing.”
+
+Albany and politics, too, were vital strains, and life at the Government
+House, with the struggling rings and cabals, social and political. These
+were extraordinarily funny and whimsical to Rolf. No doubt because Van
+Cortlandt presented them that way. And he more than once wondered how
+rational humans could waste their time in such tomfoolery and childish
+things as all conventionalities seemed to be. Van Cortlandt smiled at
+his remarks, but made no answer for long.
+
+One day, the first after the completion of Van Cortlandt's cabin, as the
+two approached, the owner opened the door and stood aside for Rolf to
+enter.
+
+“Go ahead,” said Rolf.
+
+“After you,” was the polite reply.
+
+“Oh, go on,” rejoined the lad, in mixed amusement and impatience.
+
+Van Cortlandt touched his hat and went in.
+
+Inside, Rolf turned squarely and said: “The other day you said there was
+a reason for all kinds o' social tricks; now will you tell me what the
+dickens is the why of all these funny-do's? It 'pears to me a free-born
+American didn't ought to take off his hat to any one but God.”
+
+Van Cortlandt chuckled softly and said: “You may be very sure that
+everything that is done in the way of social usage is the result
+of common-sense, with the exception of one or two things that have
+continued after the reason for them has passed, like the buttons you
+have behind on your coat; they were put there originally to button the
+tails out of the way of your sword. Sword wearing and using have passed
+away, but still you see the buttons.
+
+“As to taking off your hat to no man: it depends entirely on what you
+mean by it; and, being a social custom, you must accept its social
+meaning.
+
+“In the days of knight errantry, every one meeting a stranger had to
+suppose him an enemy; ten to one he was. And the sign and proof of
+friendly intention was raising the right hand without a weapon in it.
+The hand was raised high, to be seen as far as they could shoot with
+a bow, and a further proof was added when they raised the vizor and
+exposed the face. The danger of the highway continued long after knights
+ceased to wear armour; so, with the same meaning, the same gesture was
+used, but with a lifting of the hat. If a man did not do it, he was
+either showing contempt, or hostility for the other, or proving himself
+an ignorant brute. So, in all civilized countries, lifting the hat is a
+sign of mutual confidence and respect.”
+
+“Well! that makes it all look different. But why should you touch your
+hat when you went ahead of me just now?”
+
+“Because this is my house; you are my guest. I am supposed to serve you
+in reasonable ways and give you precedence. Had I let you open my door
+for me, it would have been putting you in the place of my servant; to
+balance that, I give you the sign of equality and respect.”
+
+“H'm,” said Rolf, “'it just shows,' as old Sylvanne sez, 'this yer
+steel-trap, hair-trigger, cocksure jedgment don't do. An' the more a
+man learns, the less sure he gits. An' things as hez lasted a long time
+ain't liable to be on a rotten foundation.'”
+
+
+
+Chapter 62. The Charm of Song
+
+With a regular tum ta tum ta, came a weird sound from the sunrise rock
+one morning, as Van slipped out of his cabin.
+
+     “Ag-aj-way-o-say
+     Pem-o-say
+     Gezhik-om era-bid ah-keen
+     Ena-bid ah-keen”
+
+“What's he doing, Rolf?”
+
+“That's his sunrise prayer,” was the answer.
+
+“Do you know what it means?”
+
+“Yes, it ain't much; jest 'Oh, thou that walkest in the sky in the
+morning, I greet thee.”'
+
+“Why, I didn't know Indians had such performances; that's exactly like
+the priests of Osiris. Did any one teach him? I mean any white folk.”
+
+“No, it's always been the Indian way. They have a song or a prayer
+for most every big event, sunrise, sunset, moonrise, good hunting, and
+another for when they're sick, or when they're going on a journey, or
+when their heart is bad.”
+
+“You astonish me. I had no idea they were so human. It carries me back
+to the temple of Delphi. It is worthy of Cassandra of Ilion. I supposed
+all Indians were just savage Indians that hunted till their bellies were
+full, and slept till they were empty again.”
+
+“H'm,” rejoined Rolf, with a gentle laugh. “I see you also have been
+doing some 'hair-trigger, steel-trap, cocksure jedgin'.'”
+
+“I wonder if he'd like to hear some of my songs?”
+
+“It's worth trying; anyway, I would,” said Rolf.
+
+That night, by the fire, Van sang the “Gay Cavalier,” “The Hunting of
+John Peel,” and “Bonnie Dundee.” He had a fine baritone voice. He was
+most acceptable in the musical circles of Albany. Rolf was delighted,
+Skookum moaned sympathetically, and Quonab sat nor moved till the music
+was over. He said nothing, but Rolf felt that it was a point gained,
+and, trying to follow it up, said:
+
+“Here's your drum, Quonab; won't you sing 'The Song of the Wabanaki?'”
+ But it was not well timed, and the Indian shook his head.
+
+“Say, Van,” said Rolf, (Van Cortlandt had suggested this abbreviation)
+“you'll never stand right with Quonab till you kill a deer.”
+
+“I've done some trying.”
+
+“Well, now, we'll go out to-morrow evening and try once more. What do
+you think of the weather, Quonab?”
+
+“Storm begin noon and last three days,” was the brief answer, as the red
+man walked away.
+
+“That settles it,” said Rolf; “we wait.”
+
+Van was surprised, and all the more so when in an hour the sky grew
+black and heavy rain set in, with squalls.
+
+“How in the name of Belshazzar's weather bugler does he tell?”
+
+“I guess you better not ask him, if you want to know. I'll find out and
+tell you later.”
+
+Rolf learned, not easily or at single talk:
+
+“Yesterday the chipmunks worked hard; to-day there are none to be seen.
+
+“Yesterday the loons were wailing; now they are still, and no small
+birds are about.
+
+“Yesterday it was a yellow sunrise; to-day a rosy dawn.
+
+“Last night the moon changed and had a thick little ring.
+
+“It has not rained for ten days, and this is the third day of easterly
+winds.
+
+“There was no dew last night. I saw Tongue Mountain at daybreak; my
+tom-tom will not sing.
+
+“The smoke went three ways at dawn, and Skookum's nose was hot.”
+
+So they rested, not knowing, but forced to believe, and it was not till
+the third day that the sky broke; the west wind began to pay back its
+borrowings from the east, and the saying was proved that “three days'
+rain will empty any sky.”
+
+That evening, after their meal, Rolf and Van launched the canoe and
+paddled down the lake. A mile from camp they landed, for this was a
+favourite deer run. Very soon Rolf pointed to the ground. He had found a
+perfectly fresh track, but Van seemed not to comprehend. They went along
+it, Rolf softly and silently, Van with his long feet and legs making a
+dangerous amount of clatter. Rolf turned and whispered, “That won't
+do. You must not stand on dry sticks.” Van endeavoured to move more
+cautiously and thought he was doing well, but Rolf found it very trying
+to his patience and began to understand how Quonab had felt about
+himself a year ago. “See,” said Rolf, “lift your legs so; don't turn
+your feet out that way. Look at the place before you put it down again;
+feel with your toe to make sure there is no dead stick, then wriggle it
+down to the solid ground. Of course, you'd do better in moccasins. Never
+brush past any branches; lift them aside and don't let them scratch;
+ease them back to the place; never try to bend a dry branch; go around
+it,” etc. Van had not thought of these things, but now he grasped them
+quickly, and they made a wonderful improvement in his way of going.
+
+They came again to the water's edge; across a little bay Rolf sighted at
+once the form of a buck, perfectly still, gazing their way, wondering,
+no doubt, what made those noises.
+
+“Here's your chance,” he whispered.
+
+“Where?” was the eager query.
+
+“There; see that gray and white thing?”
+
+“I can't see him.”
+
+For five minutes Rolf tried in vain to make his friend see that
+statuesque form; for five minutes it never moved. Then, sensing danger,
+the buck gave a bound and was lost to view.
+
+It was disheartening. Rolf sat down, nearly disgusted; then one of
+Sylvanne's remarks came to him: “It don't prove any one a fool, coz he
+can't play your game.”
+
+Presently Rolf said, “Van, hev ye a book with ye?”
+
+“Yes, I have my Virgil.”
+
+“Read me the first page.”
+
+Van read it, holding the book six inches from his nose.
+
+“Let's see ye read this page there,” and Rolf held it up four feet away.
+
+“I can't; it's nothing but a dim white spot.”
+
+“Well, can ye see that loon out there?”
+
+“You mean that long, dark thing in the bay?”
+
+“No, that's a pine log close to,” said Rolf, with a laugh, “away out
+half a mile.”
+
+“No, I can't see anything but shimmers.”
+
+“I thought so. It's no use your trying to shoot deer till ye get a pair
+of specs to fit yer eyes. You have brains enough, but you haven't got
+the eyesight of a hunter. You stay here till I go see if I have any
+luck.”
+
+Rolf melted into the woods. In twenty minutes Van heard a shot and very
+soon Rolf reappeared, carrying a two-year-old buck, and they returned
+to their camp by nightfall. Quonab glanced at their faces as they passed
+carrying the little buck. They tried to look inscrutable. But the Indian
+was not deceived. He gave out nothing but a sizzling “Humph!”
+
+
+
+Chapter 63. The Redemption of Van
+
+“WHEN things is looking black as black can be, it's a sure sign of luck
+coming your way.” so said Si Sylvanne, and so it proved to Van Cortlandt
+The Moon of the Falling Leaves was waning, October was nearly over, the
+day of his return to Albany was near, as he was to go out in time for
+the hunters to return in open water. He was wonderfully improved in
+strength and looks. His face was brown and ruddy. He had abandoned all
+drugs, and had gained fully twenty pounds in weight. He had learned to
+make a fire, paddle a canoe, and go through the woods in semi-silence.
+His scholarly talk had given him large place in Rolf's esteem, and
+his sweet singing had furnished a tiny little shelf for a modicum of
+Quonab's respect. But his attempts to get a deer were failures. “You
+come back next year with proper, farsight glasses and you'll all right,”
+ said Rolf; and that seemed the one ray of hope.
+
+The three days' storm had thrown so many trees that the hunters decided
+it would be worth while making a fast trip down to Eagle's Nest, to cut
+such timber as might have fallen across the stream, and so make an easy
+way for when they should have less time.
+
+The surmise was quite right. Much new-fallen timber was now across
+the channel. They chopped over twenty-five trunks before they reached
+Eagle's Nest at noon, and, leaving the river in better shape than ever
+it was, they turned, for the swift, straight, silent run of ten miles
+home.
+
+As they rounded the last point, a huge black form in the water loomed to
+view. Skookum's bristles rose. Quonab whispered, “Moose! Shoot quick!”
+ Van was the only one with a gun. The great black beast stood for a
+moment, gazing at them with wide-open eyes, ears, and nostrils, then
+shook his broad horns, wheeled, and dashed for the shore. Van fired
+and the bull went down with a mighty splash among the lilies. Rolf and
+Skookum let off a succession of most unhunterlike yells of triumph. But
+the giant sprang up again and reached the shore, only to fall to Van
+Cortlandt's second barrel. Yet the stop was momentary; he rose and
+dashed into the cover. Quonab turned the canoe at once and made for the
+land.
+
+A great sob came from the bushes, then others at intervals. Quonab
+showed his teeth and pointed. Rolf seized his rifle, Skookum sprang from
+the boat, and a little later was heard letting off his war-cry in the
+bushes not far away.
+
+The men rushed forward, guns in hand, but Quonab called, “Look out!
+Maybe he waiting.”
+
+“If he is, he'll likely get one of us.” said Rolf, with a light laugh,
+for he had some hearsay knowledge of moose.
+
+Covered each by a tree, they waited till Van had reloaded his
+double-barrelled, then cautiously approached. The great frothing sobs
+had resounded from time to time.
+
+Skookum's voice also was heard in the thicket, and when they neared and
+glimpsed the place, it was to see the monster on the ground, lying at
+full length, dinging up his head at times when he uttered that horrid
+sound of pain.
+
+The Indian sent a bullet through the moose's brain; then all was still,
+the tragedy was over.
+
+But now their attention was turned to Van Cortlandt. He reeled,
+staggered, his knees trembled, his face turned white, and, to save
+himself from falling, he sank onto a log. Here he covered his face with
+his hands, his feet beat the ground, and his shoulders heaved up and
+down.
+
+The others said nothing. They knew by the signs and the sounds that it
+was only through a mighty effort that young Van Cortlandt, grown man as
+he was, could keep himself from hysterical sobs and tears.
+
+Not then, but the next day it was that Quonab said: “It comes to some
+after they kill, to some before, as it came to you, Rolf; to me it came
+the day I killed my first chipmunk, that time when I stole my father's
+medicine.”
+
+They had ample work for several hours now, to skin the game and save the
+meat. It was fortunate they were so near home. A marvellous change there
+was in the atmosphere of the camp. Twice Quonab spoke to Van Cortlandt,
+as the latter laboured with them to save and store the meat of his
+moose. He was rubbed, doped, soiled, and anointed with its flesh, hair,
+and blood, and that night, as they sat by their camp fire, Skookum
+arose, stretched, yawned, walked around deliberately, put his nose
+in the lawyer's hand, gave it a lick, then lay down by his feet. Van
+Cortlandt glanced at Rolf, a merry twinkle was in the eyes of both.
+“It's all right. You can pat Skookum now, without risk of being
+crippled. He's sized you up. You are one of us at last;” and Quonab
+looked on with two long ivory rows a-gleaming in his smile.
+
+
+
+Chapter 64. Dinner at the Governor's
+
+Was ever there a brighter blazing sunrise after such a night of gloom?
+Not only a deer, but the biggest of all deer, and Van himself the only
+one of the party that had ever killed a moose. The skin was removed and
+afterward made into a hunting coat for the victor. The head and horns
+were carefully preserved to be carried back to Albany, where they were
+mounted and still hang in the hall of a later generation of the name.
+The final days at the camp were days of happy feeling; they passed too
+soon, and the long-legged lawyer, bronzed and healthy looking, took his
+place in their canoe for the flying trip to Albany. With an empty canoe
+and three paddles (two and one half, Van said), they flew down the open
+stretch of Jesup's River in something over two hours and camped that
+night fully thirty-five miles from their cabin. The next day they nearly
+reached the Schroon and in a week they rounded the great bend, and
+Albany hove in view.
+
+How Van's heart did beat! How he did exult to come in triumph home,
+reestablished in health and strengthened in every way. They were sighted
+and recognized. Messengers were seen running; a heavy gun was fired,
+the flag run up on the Capitol, bells set a-ringing, many people came
+running, and more flags ran up on vessels.
+
+A great crowd gathered by the dock.
+
+“There's father, and mother too!” shouted Van, waving his hat.
+
+“Hurrah,” and the crowd took it up, while the bells went jingle, jangle,
+and Skookum in the bow sent back his best in answer.
+
+The canoe was dragged ashore. Van seized his mother in his arms, as
+she cried: “My boy, my boy, my darling boy! how well you look. Oh, why
+didn't you write? But, thank God, you are back again, and looking so
+healthy and strong. I know you took your squills and opodeldoc. Thank
+God for that! Oh, I'm so happy! my boy, my boy! There's nothing like
+squills and God's blessing.”
+
+Rolf and Quonab were made to feel that they had a part in it all. The
+governor shook them warmly by the hand, and then a friendly voice was
+heard: “Wall, boy, here ye air agin; growed a little, settin' up and
+sassin' back, same as ever.” Rolf turned to see the gigantic, angular
+form and kindly face of grizzly old Si Sylvanne and was still more
+surprised to hear him addressed “senator.”
+
+“Yes,” said the senator, “one o' them freak elections that sometimes
+hits right; great luck for Albany, wa'nt it?”
+
+“Ho,” said Quonab, shaking the senator's hand, while Skookum looked
+puzzled and depressed.
+
+“Now, remember,” said the governor, addressing the Indian, the lad,
+and the senator, “we expect you to dine tonight at the mansion; seven
+o'clock.”
+
+Then the terror of the dragon conventionality, that guards the gate
+and hovers over the feast, loomed up in Rolf's imagination. He sought a
+private word with Van. “I'm afraid I have no fit clothes; I shan't know
+how to behave,” he said.
+
+“Then I'll show you. The first thing is to be perfectly clean and get a
+shave; put on the best clothes you have, and be sure they're clean; then
+you come at exactly seven o'clock, knowing that every one is going to
+be kind to you and you're bound to have a good time. As to any other
+'funny-do' you watch me, and you'll have no trouble.”
+
+So when the seven o'clock assemblage came, and guests were ascending the
+steps of the governor's mansion, there also mounted a tall, slim
+youth, an easy-pacing Indian, and a prick-eared, yellow dog. Young Van
+Cortlandt was near the door, on watch to save them any embarrassment.
+But what a swell he looked, cleanshaven, ruddy, tall, and handsome in
+the uniform of an American captain, surrounded by friends and immensely
+popular. How different it all was from that lonely cabin by the lake.
+
+A butler who tried to remove Skookum was saved from mutilation by the
+intervention first of Quonab and next of Van; and when they sat down,
+this uncompromising four-legged child of the forest ensconced himself
+under Quonab's chair and growled whenever the silk stockings of the
+footman seemed to approach beyond the line of true respect.
+
+Young Van Cortlandt was chief talker at the dinner, but a pompous
+military man was prominent in the company. Once or twice Rolf was
+addressed by the governor or Lady Van Cortlandt, and had to speak to the
+whole table; his cheeks were crimson, but he knew what he wanted to say
+and stopped when it was said, so suffered no real embarrassment.
+
+After what seemed an interminable feast of countless dishes and hours'
+duration, an extraordinary change set in. Led by the hostess, all stood
+up, the chairs were lifted out of their way, and the ladies trooped into
+another room; the doors were closed, and the men sat down again at the
+end next the governor.
+
+Van stayed by Rolf and explained: “This is another social custom that
+began with a different meaning. One hundred years ago, every man got
+drunk at every formal dinner, and carried on in a way that the ladies
+did not care to see, so to save their own feelings and give the men
+a free rein, the ladies withdrew. Nowadays, men are not supposed to
+indulge in any such orgy, but the custom continues, because it gives the
+men a chance to smoke, and the ladies a chance to discuss matters that
+do not interest the men. So again you see it is backed by common sense.”
+
+This proved the best part of the dinner to Rolf. There was a peculiar
+sense of over-politeness, of insincerity, almost, while the ladies were
+present; the most of the talking had been done by young Van Cortlandt
+and certain young ladies, assisted by some very gay young men and the
+general. Their chatter was funny, but nothing more. Now a different air
+was on the group; different subjects were discussed, and by different
+men, in a totally different manner.
+
+“We've stood just about all we can stand,” said the governor, alluding
+to an incident newly told, of a British frigate boarding an American
+merchant vessel by force and carrying off half her crew, under presence
+that they were British seamen in disguise. “That's been going on for
+three years now. It's either piracy or war, and, in either case, it's
+our duty to fight.”
+
+“Jersey's dead against war,” said a legislator from down the river.
+
+“Jersey always was dead against everything that was for the national
+good, sir,” said a red-faced, puffy, military man, with a husky voice, a
+rolling eye, and a way of ending every sentence in “sir.”
+
+“So is Connecticut,” said another; “they say, 'Look at all our
+defenceless coasts and harbour towns.'”
+
+“They're not risking as much as New York,” answered the governor,
+“with her harbours all the way up the Hudson and her back door open to
+invasion from Canada.”
+
+“Fortunately, sir, Pennyslvania, Maryland, and the West have not
+forgotten the glories of the past. All I ask--is a chance to show what
+we can do, sir. I long for the smell of powder once more, sir.”
+
+“I understand that President Madison has sent several protests, and, in
+spite of Connecticut and New Jersey, will send an ultimatum within three
+months. He believes that Britain has all she can manage, with Napoleon
+and his allies battering at her doors, and will not risk a war.
+
+“It's my opinion,” said Sylvanne; “that these English men is too
+pig-headed an' ornery to care a whoop in hell whether we get mad or not.
+They've a notion Paul Jones is dead, but I reckon we've got plenty of
+the breed only waitin' a chance. Mor'n twenty-five of our merchantmen
+wrecked each year through being stripped of their crews by a 'friendly
+power.' 'Pears to me we couldn't be worse off going to war, an' might be
+a dum sight better.”
+
+“Your home an' holdings are three hundred safe miles from the seacoast,”
+ objected the man from Manhattan.
+
+“Yes, and right next Canada,” was the reply.
+
+“The continued insults to our flag, sir, and the personal indignities
+offered to our people are even worse than the actual loss in ships and
+goods. It makes my blood fairly boil,” and the worthy general looked the
+part as his purple jowl quivered over his white cravat.
+
+“Gosh all hemlock! the one pricks, but t'other festers, it's tarnal sure
+you steal a man's dinner and tell him he's one o' nature's noblemen,
+he's more apt to love you than if you give him five dollars to keep out
+o' your sight,” said Sylvanne, with slow emphasis.
+
+“There's something to be said on the other side,” said the timid one.
+“You surely allow that the British government is trying to do right,
+and after all we must admit that that Jilson affair resected very little
+credit on our own administration.”
+
+“A man ken make one awful big mistake an' still be all right, but he
+can't go on making a little mistake every day right along an' be fit
+company for a clean crowd,” retorted the new senator.
+
+At length the governor rose and led the way to the drawing-room, where
+they rejoined the ladies and the conversation took on a different colour
+and weight, by which it lost all value for those who knew not the art
+of twittering persiflage and found less joy in a handkerchief flirtation
+than in the nation's onward march. Rolf and Quonab enjoyed it now about
+as much as Skookum had done all the time.
+
+
+
+Chapter 65. The Grebes and the Singing Mouse
+
+Quonab puzzled long over the amazing fact that young Van Cortlandt had
+evident high standing “in his own tribe.” “He must be a wise counsellor,
+for I know he cannot fight and is a fool at hunting,” was the ultimate
+decision.
+
+They had a final interview with the governor and his son before they
+left. Rolf received for himself and his partner the promised one hundred
+and fifty dollars, and the hearty thanks of all in the governor's home.
+Next, each was presented with a handsome hunting knife, not unlike
+the one young Van had carried, but smaller. Quonab received his with
+“Ho--” then, after a pause, “He pull out, maybe, when I need him.”--“Ho!
+good!” he exclaimed, as the keen blade appeared.
+
+“Now, Rolf,” said the lawyer, “I want to come back next year and bring
+three companions, and we will pay you at the same rate per month for
+each. What do you say?”
+
+“Glad to have you again,” said Rolf: “we'll come for you on August
+fifteenth; but remember you should bring your guitar and your
+spectacles.”
+
+“One word,” said the governor, “do you know the canoe route through
+Champlain to Canada?”
+
+“Quonab does.”
+
+“Could you undertake to render scout service in that region?”
+
+The Indian nodded.
+
+“In case of war, we may need you both, so keep your ears open.”
+
+And once more the canoe made for the north, with Quonab in the stern and
+Skookum in the bow.
+
+In less than a week they were home, and none too soon; for already the
+trees were bare, and they had to break the ice on the river before they
+ended their trip.
+
+Rolf had gathered many ideas the last two-months. He did not propose to
+continue all his life as a trapper. He wanted to see New York. He wanted
+to plan for the future. He needed money for his plans. He and Quonab had
+been running a hundred miles of traps, but some men run more than that
+single handed. They must get out two new lines at once, before the frost
+came. One of these they laid up the Hudson, above Eagle's Nest; the
+other northerly on Blue Mountain, toward Racquet River. Doing this was
+hard work, and when they came again to their cabin the robins had gone
+from the bleak and leafless woods; the grouse were making long night
+flights; the hollows had tracks of racing deer; there was a sense of
+omen, a length of gloom, for the Mad Moon was afloat in the shimmering
+sky; its wan light ghasted all the hills.
+
+Next day the lake was covered with thin, glare ice; on the glassy
+surface near the shore were two ducks floundering. The men went as near
+as they could, and Quonab said, “No, not duck, but Shingebis, divers.
+They cannot rise except from water. In the night the new ice looks like
+water; they come down and cannot rise. I have often seen it.” Two days
+after, a harder frost came on. The ice was safe for a dog; the divers or
+grebes were still on its surface. So they sent Skookum. He soon returned
+with two beautiful grebes, whose shining, white breast feathers are as
+much prized as some furs.
+
+Quonab grunted as he held them up. “Ugh, it is often so in this Mad
+Moon. My father said it is because of Kaluskap's dancing.”
+
+“I don't remember that one.”
+
+“Yes, long ago. Kaluskap felt lazy. He wanted to eat, but did not wish
+to hunt, so he called the bluejay and said: 'Tell all the woods that
+to-morrow night Kaluskap gives a new dance and teaches a new song,'
+and he told the hoot owl to do the same, so one kept it up all
+day--'Kaluskap teaches a new dance to-morrow night,' and the other kept
+it up all night: 'Kaluskap teaches a new song at next council.'
+
+“Thus it came about that all the woods and waters sent their folk to the
+dance.
+
+“Then Kaluskap took his song-drum and said: 'When I drum and sing you
+must dance in a circle the same way as the sun, close your eyes tightly,
+and each one shout his war whoop, as I cry “new songs”!'
+
+“So all began, with Kaluskap drumming in the middle, singing:
+
+“'New songs from the south, brothers, Close your eyes tightly, brothers,
+Dance and learn a new song.
+
+“As they danced around, he picked out the fattest, and, reaching out
+one hand, seized them and twisted their necks, shouting out, 'More
+war-cries, more poise! that's it; now you are learning!'
+
+“At length Shingebis the diver began to have his doubts and he
+cautiously opened one eye, saw the trick, and shouted: 'Fly, brothers,
+fly! Kaluskap is killing us!'
+
+“Then all was confusion. Every one tried to escape, and Kaluskap, in
+revenge, tried to kill the Shingebis. But the diver ran for the water
+and, just as he reached the edge, Kaluskap gave him a kick behind that
+sent him half a mile, but it knocked off all his tail feathers and
+twisted his shape so that ever since his legs have stuck out where his
+tail was, and he cannot rise from the land or the ice. I know it is so,
+for my father, Cos Cob, told me it was true, and we ourselves have seen
+it. It is ever so. To go against Kaluskap brings much evil to brood
+over.”
+
+A few nights later, as they sat by their fire in the cabin, a curious
+squeaking was heard behind the logs. They had often heard it before, but
+never so much as now. Skookum turned his head on one side, set his ears
+at forward cock. Presently, from a hole 'twixt logs and chimney, there
+appeared a small, white breasted mouse.
+
+Its nose and ears shivered a little; its black eyes danced in the
+firelight. It climbed up to a higher log, scratched its ribs, then
+rising on its hind legs, uttered one or two squeaks like those they had
+heard so often, but soon they became louder and continuous:
+
+“Peg, peo, peo, peo, peo, peo, peo, oo. Tree, tree, tree, tree,
+trrrrrrr, Turr, turr, turr, tur, tur, Wee, wee, wee, we”--
+
+The little creature was sitting up high on its hind legs, its belly
+muscles were working, its mouth was gaping as it poured out its music.
+For fully half a minute this went on, when Skookum made a dash; but the
+mouse was quick and it flashed into the safety of its cranny.
+
+Rolf gazed at Quonab inquiringly.
+
+“That is Mish-a-boh-quas, the singing mouse. He always comes to tell of
+war. In a little while there will be fighting.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 66. A Lesson in Stalking
+
+“Did you ever see any fighting, Quonab?”
+
+“Ugh! In Revolution, scouted for General Gates.”
+
+“Judging by the talk, we're liable to be called on before a year. What
+will you do?”
+
+“Fight.”
+
+“As soldier?”
+
+“No! scout.”
+
+“They may not want us.”
+
+“Always want scouts,” replied the Indian.
+
+“It seems to me I ought to start training now.”
+
+“You have been training.”
+
+“How is that?”
+
+“A scout is everything that an army is, but it's all in one man. An' he
+don't have to keep step.”
+
+“I see, I see,” replied Rolf, and he realized that a scout is merely
+a trained hunter who is compelled by war to hunt his country's foes
+instead of the beasts of the woods.
+
+“See that?” said the Indian, and he pointed to a buck that was nosing
+for cranberries in the open expanse across the river where it left the
+lake. “Now, I show you scouting.” He glanced at the smoke from the fire,
+found it right for his plan, and said: “See! I take my bow. No cover,
+yet I will come close and kill that deer.”
+
+Then began a performance that was new to Rolf, and showed that the
+Indian had indeed reached the highest pitch of woodcraft. He took his
+bow and three good arrows, tied a band around his head, and into this
+stuck a lot of twigs and vines, so that his head looked like a tussock
+of herbage. Then he left the shanty door, and, concealed by the last
+bushes on the edge, he reached the open plain. Two hundred yards off was
+the buck, nosing among the herbage, and, from time to time, raising its
+superb head and columnar neck to look around. There was no cover but
+creeping herbage. Rolf suspected that the Indian would decoy the buck by
+some whistle or challenge, for the thickness of its neck showed the deer
+to be in fighting humour.
+
+Flat on his breast the Indian lay. His knees and elbow seemed to develop
+centipedic power; his head was a mere clump of growing stuff. He snaked
+his way quietly for twenty-five yards, then came to the open, sloping
+shore, with the river forty yards wide of level shining ice, all in
+plain view of the deer; how was this to be covered?
+
+There is a well-known peculiarity of the white tail that the Indian was
+counting on; when its head is down grazing, even though not hidden, the
+deer does not see distant objects; before the head is raised, its tail
+is raised or shaken. Quonab knew that if he could keep the tail in view,
+he could avoid being viewed by the head. In a word, only an ill-timed
+movement or a whiff could betray him.
+
+The open ice was, of course, a hard test, and the hunter might have
+failed, but that his long form looked like one of the logs that were
+lying about half stranded or frozen in the stream.
+
+Watching ever the alert head and tail, he timed his approach, working
+hard and moving East when the head was down; but when warned by a
+tail-jerk he turned to a log nor moved a muscle. Once the ice was
+crossed, the danger of being seen was less, but of being smelt was
+greater, for the deer was moving about, and Quonab watched the smoke
+from the cabin for knowledge of the wind. So he came within fifty yards,
+and the buck, still sniffing along and eagerly champing the few red
+cranberries it found above the frozen moss, was working toward a
+somewhat higher cover. The herbage was now fully eighteen inches high,
+and Quonab moved a little faster. The buck found a large patch of
+berries under a tussock and dropped on its knees to pick them out, while
+Quonab saw the chance and gained ten yards before the tail gave warning.
+After so long a feeding-spell, the buck took an extra long lookout,
+and then walked toward the timber, whereby the Indian lost all he had
+gained. But the browser's eye was drawn by a shining bunch of red, then
+another; and now the buck swung until there was danger of betrayal by
+the wind; then down went its head and Quonab retreated ten yards to keep
+the windward. Once the buck raised its muzzle and sniffed with flaring
+nostrils, as though its ancient friend had brought a warning. But soon
+he seemed reassured, for the landscape showed no foe, and nosed back and
+forth, while Quonab regained the yards he had lost. The buck worked now
+to the taller cover, and again a tempting bunch of berries under a low,
+dense bush caused it to kneel for farther under-reaching. Quonab glided
+swiftly forward, reached the twenty-five-yard limit, rose to one knee,
+bent the stark cedar bow. Rolf saw the buck bound in air, then make for
+the wood with great, high leaps; the dash of disappointment was on him,
+but Quonab stood erect, with right hand raised, and shouted:
+
+“Ho--ho.”
+
+He knew that those bounds were unnecessarily high, and before the woods
+had swallowed up the buck, it fell--rose--and fell again, to rise not.
+The arrow had pierced its heart.
+
+Then Rolf rushed up with kindled eye and exultant pride to slap his
+friend on the back, and exclaim:
+
+“I never thought it possible; the greatest feat in hunting I ever saw;
+you are a wonder!”
+
+To which the Indian softly replied, as he smiled:
+
+“Ho! it was so I got eleven British sentries in the war. They gave me a
+medal with Washington's head.”
+
+“They did! how is it I never heard of it? Where is it?”
+
+The Indian's face darkened. “I threw it after the ship that stole my
+Gamowini.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 67. Rolf Meets a Canuck
+
+The winter might have been considered eventful, had not so many of the
+events been repetitions of former experience. But there were several
+that by their newness deserve a place on these pages, as they did in
+Rolf's memory.
+
+One of them happened soon after the first sharp frost. It had been an
+autumn of little rain, so that many ponds had dried up, with the
+result that hundreds of muskrats were forced out to seek more habitable
+quarters. The first time Rolf saw one of these stranded mariners on its
+overland journey, he gave heedless chase. At first it made awkward haste
+to escape; then a second muskrat was discovered just ahead, and a third.
+This added to Rolf's interest. In a few bounds he was among them, but it
+was to get a surprise. Finding themselves overtaken, the muskrats turned
+in desperation and attacked the common enemy with courage and fury. Rolf
+leaped over the first, but the second sprang, caught him by the slack
+of the trouser leg, and hung on. The third flung itself on his foot and
+drove its sharp teeth through the moccasin. Quickly the first rallied
+and sprang on his other leg with all the force of its puny paws, and
+powerful jaws.
+
+Meanwhile Quonab was laughing aloud and holding back Skookum, who,
+breathing fire and slaughter, was mad to be in the fight.
+
+“Ho! a good fight! good musquas! Ho, Skookum, you must not always take
+care of him, or he will not learn to go alone.
+
+“Ugh, good!” as the third muskrat gripped Rolf by the calf.
+
+There could be but one finish, and that not long delayed. A well-placed
+kick on one, the second swung by the tail, the third crushed under
+his heel, and the affair ended. Rolf had three muskrats and five cuts.
+Quonab had much joy and Skookum a sense of lost opportunity.
+
+“This we should paint on the wigwam,” said Quonab. “Three great warriors
+attacked one Sagamore. They were very brave, but he was Nibowaka and
+very strong; he struck them down as the Thunderbird, Hurakan, strikes
+the dead pines the fire has left on the hilltop against the sky. Now
+shall you eat their hearts, for they were brave. My father told me a
+fighting muskrat's heart is great medicine; for he seeks peace while it
+is possible, then he turns and fights without fear.”
+
+A few days later, they sighted a fox. In order to have a joke on
+Skookum, they put him on its track, and away he went, letting off his
+joy-whoops at every jump. The men sat down to wait, knowing full well
+that after an hour Skookum would come back with a long tongue and an
+air of depression. But they were favoured with an unexpected view of
+the chase. It showed a fox bounding over the snow, and not twenty yards
+behind was their energetic four-legged colleague.
+
+And, still more unexpected, the fox was overtaken in the next thicket,
+shaken to limpness, and dragged to be dropped at Quonab's feet.
+This glorious victory by Skookum was less surprising, when a closer
+examination showed that the fox had been in a bad way. Through some sad,
+sudden indiscretion, he had tackled a porcupine and paid the penalty.
+His mouth, jaws and face, neck and legs, were bristling with quills. He
+was sick and emaciated. He could not have lasted many days longer, and
+Skookum's summary lynching was a blessing in disguise.
+
+The trappers' usual routine was varied by a more important happening.
+One day of deep snow in January, when they were running the northern
+line on Racquet River, they camped for the night at their shelter
+cabin, and were somewhat surprised at dusk to hear a loud challenge from
+Skookum replied to by a human voice, and a short man with black whiskers
+appeared. He raised one hand in token of friendliness and was invited to
+come in.
+
+He was a French Canadian from La Colle Mills. He had trapped here for
+some years. The almost certainty of war between Canada and the States
+had kept his usual companions away. So he had trapped alone, always a
+dangerous business, and had gathered a lot of good fur, but had fallen
+on the ice and hurt himself inwardly, so that he had no strength. He
+could tramp out on snowshoes, but could not carry his pack of furs. He
+had long known that he had neighbours on the south; the camp fire smoke
+proved that, and he had come now to offer all his furs for sale.
+
+Quonab shook his head, but Rolf said, “We'll come over and see them.”
+
+A two-hours' tramp in the morning brought them to the Frenchman's cabin.
+He opened out his furs; several otter, many sable, some lynx, over
+thirty beaver--the whole lot for two hundred dollars. At Lyons Falls
+they were worth double that.
+
+Rolf saw a chance for a bargain. He whispered, “We can double our money
+on it, Quonab. What do ye say?”
+
+The reply was simply, “Ugh! you are Nibowaka.”
+
+“We'll take your offer, if we can fix it up about payment, for I have no
+money with me and barely two hundred dollars at the cabin.”
+
+“You half tabac and grosairs?”
+
+“Yes, plenty.”
+
+“You can go 'get 'em? Si?”
+
+Rolf paused, looked down, then straight at the Frenchman.
+
+“Will you trust me to take half the fur now; when I come back with the
+pay I can get the rest.”
+
+The Frenchman looked puzzled, then, “By Gar you look de good look. I let
+um go. I tink you pretty good fellow, parbleu!”
+
+So Rolf marched away with half the furs and four days later he was back
+and paid the pale-faced but happy Frenchman the one hundred and fifty
+dollars he had received from Van Cortlandt, with other bills making one
+hundred and ninety-five dollars and with groceries and tobacco enough to
+satisfy the trapper. The Frenchman proved a most amiable character.
+He and Rolf took to each other greatly, and when they shook hands at
+parting, it was in the hope of an early and happier meeting.
+
+Francois la Colle turned bravely for the ninety-mile tramp over the snow
+to his home, while Rolf went south with the furs that were to prove
+a most profitable investment, shaping his life in several ways, and
+indirectly indeed of saving it on one occasion.
+
+
+
+Chapter 68. War
+
+Eighteen hundred and twelve had passed away. President Madison, driven
+by wrongs to his countrymen and indignities that no nation should meekly
+accept, had in the midsummer declared war on Great Britain. Unfitted to
+cope with the situation and surrounded by unfit counsellors, his little
+army of heroic men led by unfit commanders had suffered one reverse
+after another.
+
+The loss of Fort Mackinaw, Chicago, Detroit, Brownstown, and the total
+destruction of the American army that attacked Queenstown were but
+poorly offset by the victory at Niagara and the successful defence of
+Ogdensburg.
+
+Rolf and Quonab had repaired to Albany as arranged, but they left it
+as United States scouts, not as guides to the four young sportsmen who
+wished to hark back to the primitive.
+
+Their first commission had been the bearing of despatches to Plattsburg.
+
+With a selected light canoe and a minimum of baggage they reached
+Ticonderoga in two days, and there renewed their acquaintance
+with General Hampton, who was fussing about, and digging useless
+entrenchments as though he expected a mighty siege. Rolf was called
+before him to receive other despatches for Colonel Pike at Plattsburg.
+He got the papers and learned their destination, then immediately made a
+sad mistake. “Excuse me, sir,” he began, “if I meet with--”
+
+“Young man,” said the general, severely, “I don't want any of your 'ifs'
+or 'buts'; your orders are 'go.' 'How' and 'if' are matters for you to
+find out; that's what you are paid for.”
+
+Rolf bowed; his cheeks were tingling. He was very angry at what he
+thought a most uncalled for rebuke, but he got over it, and he never
+forgot the lesson. It was Si Sylvanne that put it into rememberable
+form.
+
+“A fool horse kin follow a turnpike, but it takes a man with wits to
+climb, swim, boat, skate, run, hide, go it blind, pick a lock, take the
+long way, round, when it's the short way across, run away at the right
+time, or fight when it's wise--all in one afternoon.” Rolf set out for
+the north carrying a bombastic (meant to be reassuring) message from
+Hampton that he would annihilate any enemy who dared to desecrate the
+waters of the lake.
+
+It was on this trip that Rolf learned from Quonab the details of the
+latter's visit to his people on the St. Regis. Apparently the joy of
+meeting a few of his own kin, with whom he could talk his own language,
+was offset by meeting with a large number of his ancient enemies the
+Mohawks. There had been much discussion of the possible war between the
+British and the Yankees. The Mohawks announced their intention to fight
+for the British, which was a sufficient reason for Quonab as a Sinawa
+remaining with the Americans; and when he left the St. Regis reserve the
+Indian was without any desire to reenter it.
+
+At Plattsburg Rolf and Quonab met with another Albany acquaintance in
+General Wilkinson, and from him received despatches which they brought
+back to Albany, having covered the whole distance in eight days.
+
+When 1812 was gone Rolf had done little but carry despatches up and down
+Lake Champlain. Next season found the Americans still under command of
+Generals Wilkinson and Hampton, whose utter incompetence was becoming
+daily more evident.
+
+The year 1813 saw Rolf, eighteen years old and six feet one in his
+socks, a trained scout and despatch bearer.
+
+By a flying trip on snowshoes in January he took letters, from General
+Hampton at Ticonderoga to Sackett's Harbour and back in eight days,
+nearly three hundred miles. It made him famous as a runner, but the
+tidings that he brought were sad. Through him they learned in detail of
+the total defeat and capture of the American army at Frenchtown. After a
+brief rest he was sent across country on snowshoes to bear a reassuring
+message to Ogdensburg. The weather was much colder now, and the single
+blanket bed was dangerously slight; so “Flying Kittering,” as they named
+him, took a toboggan and secured Quonab as his running mate. Skookum
+was given into safe keeping. Blankets, pots, cups, food, guns, and
+despatches were strapped on the toboggan, and they sped away at dawn
+from Ticonderoga on the 18th of February 1813, headed northwestward,
+guided by little but the compass. Thirty miles that day they made in
+spite of piercing blasts and driving snow. But with the night there
+began a terrible storm with winds of zero chill. The air was filled
+with stinging, cutting snow. When they rose at daylight they were nearly
+buried in drifts, although their camp was in a dense, sheltered thicket.
+Guided wholly by the compass they travelled again, but blinded by the
+whirling white they stumbled and blundered into endless difficulties
+and made but poor headway. After dragging the toboggan for three hours,
+taking turns at breaking the way, they were changing places when Rolf
+noticed a large gray patch on Quonab's cheek and nose.
+
+“Quonab, your face is frozen,” he said.
+
+“So is yours,” was the reply.
+
+Now they turned aside, followed a hollow until they reached a spruce
+grove, where they camped and took an observation, to learn that the
+compass and they held widely different views about the direction of
+travel. It was obviously useless to face the storm. They rubbed out
+their frozen features with dry snow and rested by the fire.
+
+No good scout seeks for hardship; he avoids the unnecessary trial of
+strength and saves himself for the unavoidable. With zero weather about
+them and twenty-four hours to wait in the storm, the scouts set about
+making themselves thoroughly comfortable.
+
+With their snowshoes they dug away the snow in a circle a dozen feet
+across, piling it up on the outside so as to make that as high as
+possible. When they were down to the ground, the wall of snow around
+them was five feet high. Now they went forth with the hatchets, cut many
+small spruces, and piled them against the living spruces about the camp
+till there was a dense mass of evergreen foliage ten feet high around
+them, open only at the top, where was a space five feet across. With
+abundance of dry spruce wood, a thick bed of balsam boughs, and plenty
+of blankets they were in what most woodmen consider comfort complete.
+
+They had nothing to do now but wait. Quonab sat placidly smoking, Rolf
+was sewing a rent in his coat, the storm hissed, and the wind-driven ice
+needles rattled through the trees to vary the crackle of the fire with a
+“siss” as they fell on the embers. The low monotony of sound was lulling
+in its evenness, when a faint crunch of a foot on the snow was heard.
+Rolf reached for his gun, the fir tree screen was shaken a little, and a
+minute later there bounded in upon them the snow covered form of little
+dog Skookum, expressing his good-will by excessive sign talk in which
+every limb and member had a part. They had left him behind, indeed, but
+not with his consent, so the bargain was incomplete.
+
+There was no need to ask now, What shall we do with him? Skookum had
+settled that, and why or how he never attempted to explain.
+
+He was wise who made it law that “as was his share who went forth to
+battle, so shall his be that abode with the stuff,” for the hardest of
+all is the waiting. In the morning there was less doing in the elemental
+strife. There were even occasional periods of calm and at length it grew
+so light that surely the veil was breaking.
+
+Quonab returned from a brief reconnoitre to say, “Ugh!--good going.”
+
+The clouds were broken and flying, the sun came out at times, but the
+wind was high, the cold intense, and the snow still drifting. Poor
+Skookum had it harder than the men, for they wore snowshoes; but he kept
+his troubles to himself and bravely trudged along behind. Had he been
+capable of such reflection he might have said, “What delightful weather,
+it keeps the fleas so quiet.”
+
+That day there was little to note but the intense cold, and again both
+men had their cheeks frost-bitten on the north side. A nook under an
+overhanging rock gave a good camp that night. Next day the bad weather
+resumed, but, anxious to push on they faced it, guided chiefly by the
+wind. It was northwest, and as long as they felt this fierce, burning
+cold mercilessly gnawing on their hapless tender right cheek bones, they
+knew they were keeping their proper main course.
+
+They were glad indeed to rest at dusk and thaw their frozen faces. Next
+day at dawn they were off; at first it was calm, but the surging of the
+snow waves soon began again, and the air was filled with the spray of
+their lashing till it was hard to see fifty yards in any direction. They
+were making very bad time. The fourth day should have brought them to
+Ogdensburg, but they were still far off; how far they could only guess,
+for they had not come across a house or a settler.
+
+
+
+Chapter 69. Ogdensburg
+
+The same blizzard was raging on the next day when Skookum gave
+unequivocal sign talk that he smelled something.
+
+It is always well to find out what stirs your dog. Quonab looked hard at
+Skookum. That sagacious mongrel was sniffing vigorously, up in the air,
+not on the ground; his mane was not bristling, and the patch of dark
+hair that every gray or yellow dog has at the base of his tail, was not
+lifted.
+
+“He smells smoke,” was the Indian's quick diagnosis. Rolf pointed Up the
+wind and made the sign-talk query. Quonab nodded.
+
+It was their obvious duty to find out who was their smoky neighbour.
+They were now not so far from the St. Lawrence; there was a small chance
+of the smoke being from a party of the enemy; there was a large chance
+of it being from friends; and the largest chance was that it came from
+some settler's cabin where they could get necessary guidance.
+
+They turned aside. The wind now, instead of on the right cheek, was
+square in their faces. Rolf went forward increasing his pace till he was
+as far ahead as was possible without being out of sight. After a mile
+their way led downward, the timber was thicker, the wind less, and the
+air no more befogged with flying snow. Rolf came to a long, deep trench
+that wound among the trees; the snow at the bottom of it was very hard.
+This was what he expected; the trail muffled under new, soft snow, but
+still a fresh trail and leading to the camp that Skookum had winded.
+
+He turned and made the sign for them to halt and wait. Then strode
+cautiously along the winding guide line.
+
+In twenty minutes the indications of a settlement increased, and the
+scout at length was peering from the woods across the open down to a
+broad stream on whose bank was a saw mill, with the usual wilderness of
+ramshackle shanties, sheds, and lumber piles about.
+
+There was no work going on, which was a puzzle till Rolf remembered
+it was Sunday. He went boldly up and asked for the boss. His whole
+appearance was that of a hunter and as such the boss received him.
+
+He was coming through from the other side and had missed his way in the
+storm, he explained.
+
+“What are ye by trade?”
+
+“A trapper.”
+
+“Where are ye bound now?”
+
+“Well, I'll head for the nearest big settlement, whatever that is.”
+
+“It's just above an even thing between Alexandria Bay and Ogdensburg.”
+
+So Rolf inquired fully about the trail to Alexandria Bay that he did not
+want to go to. Why should he be so careful? The mill owner was clearly
+a good American, but the scout had no right to let any outsider know his
+business. This mill owner might be safe, but he might be unwise and blab
+to some one who was not all right.
+
+Then in a casual way he learned that this was the Oswegatchie River and
+thirty miles down he would find the town of Ogdensburg.
+
+No great recent events did he hear of, but evidently the British
+troops across the river were only awaiting the springtime before taking
+offensive measures.
+
+For the looks of it, Rolf bought some tea and pork, but the hospitable
+mill man refused to take payment and, leaving in the direction of
+Alexandria Bay, Rolf presently circled back and rejoined his friends in
+the woods.
+
+A long detour took them past the mill. It was too cold for outdoor
+idling. Every window was curtained with frost, and not a soul saw them
+as they tramped along past the place and down to continue on the ice of
+the Oswegatchie.
+
+Pounded by the ceaseless wind, the snow on the ice was harder, travel
+was easier, and the same tireless blizzard wiped out the trail as soon
+as it was behind them.
+
+Crooked is the river trail, but good the footing, and good time was
+made. When there was a north reach, the snow was extra hard or the ice
+clear and the scouts slipped off their snow shoes, and trotted at a good
+six-mile gait. Three times they halted for tea and rest, but the fact
+that they were the bearers of precious despatches, the bringers of
+inspiring good news, and their goal ever nearer, spurred them on and
+on. It was ten o'clock that morning when they left the mill, some thirty
+miles from Ogdensburg. It was now near sundown, but still they figured
+that by an effort they could reach the goal that night. It was their
+best day's travel, but they were nerved to it by the sense of triumph as
+they trotted; and the prospective joy of marching up to the commandant
+and handing over the eagerly looked for, reassuring documents, gave
+them new strength and ambition. Yes! they must push on at any price that
+night. Day was over now; Rolf was leading at a steady trot. In his hand
+he held the long trace of his toboggan, ten feet behind was Quonab with
+the short trace, while Skookum trotted before, beside, or behind, as was
+dictated by his general sense of responsibility.
+
+It was quite dark now. There was no moon, the wooded shore was black.
+Their only guide was the broad, wide reach of the river, sometimes swept
+bare of snow by the wind, but good travelling at all times. They were
+trotting and walking in spells, going five miles an hour; Quonab was
+suffering, but Rolf was young and eager to finish. They rounded another
+reach, they were now on the last big bend, they were reeling off the
+miles; only ten more, and Rolf was so stirred that, instead of dropping
+to the usual walk on signal at the next one hundred yards spell, he
+added to his trot. Quonab, taken unawares, slipped and lost his hold of
+the trace. Rolf shot ahead and a moment later there was the crash of a
+breaking air-hole, and Rolf went through the ice, clutched at the broken
+edge and disappeared, while the toboggan was dragged to the hole.
+
+Quonab sprung to his feet, and then to the lower side of the hole.
+The toboggan had swung to the same place and the long trace was tight;
+without a moment's delay the Indian hauled at it steadily, heavily, and
+in a few seconds the head of his companion reappeared; still clutching
+that long trace he was safely dragged from the ice-cold flood, blowing
+and gasping, shivering and sopping, but otherwise unhurt.
+
+Now here a new danger presented itself. The zero wind would soon turn
+his clothes to boards. They stiffened in a few minutes, and the Indian
+knew that frozen hands and feet were all too easy in frozen clothes.
+
+He made at once for the shore, and, seeking the heart of a spruce
+thicket, lost no time in building two roaring fires between which Rolf
+stood while the Indian made the bed, in which, as soon as he could be
+stripped, the lad was glad to hide. Warm tea and warm blankets made
+him warm, but it would take an hour or two to dry his clothes. There is
+nothing more damaging than drying them too quickly. Quonab made racks of
+poles and spent the next two hours in regulating the fire, watching the
+clothes, and working the moccasins.
+
+It was midnight when they were ready and any question of going on at
+once was settled by Quonab. “Ogdensburg is under arms,” he said. “It is
+not wise to approach by night.”
+
+At six in the morning they were once more going, stiff with travel,
+sore-footed, face-frozen, and chafed by delay; but, swift and keen,
+trotting and walking, they went. They passed several settlements, but
+avoided them. At seven-thirty they had a distant glimpse of Ogdensburg
+and heard the inspiring roll of drums, and a few minutes later from
+the top of a hill they had a complete view of the heroic little town to
+see--yes! plainly enough--that the British flag was flying from the flag
+pole.
+
+
+
+Chapter 70. Saving the Despatches
+
+Oh, the sickening shock of it! Rolf did not know till now how tired he
+was, how eager to deliver the heartening message, and to relax a little
+from the strain. He felt weak through and through. There could be no
+doubt that a disaster had befallen his country's arms.
+
+His first care was to get out of sight with his sled and those precious
+despatches.
+
+Now what should he do? Nothing till he had fuller information. He sent
+Quonab back with the sled, instructing him to go to a certain place two
+miles off, there camp out of sight and wait.
+
+Then he went in alone. Again and again he was stung by the thought, “If
+I had come sooner they might have held out.”
+
+A number of teams gathered at the largest of a group of houses on the
+bank suggested a tavern. He went in and found many men sitting down
+to breakfast. He had no need to ask questions. It was the talk of the
+table. Ogdensburg had been captured the day before. The story is well
+known. Colonel MacDonnell with his Glengarry Highlanders at Prescott
+went to drill daily on the ice of the St. Lawrence opposite Ogdensburg.
+Sometimes they marched past just out of range, sometimes they charged
+and wheeled before coming too near. The few Americans that held the
+place watched these harmless exercises and often cheered some clever
+manceuvre. They felt quite safe behind their fortification. By an
+unwritten agreement both parties refrained from firing random shots at
+each other. There was little to suggest enemies entrenched; indeed, many
+men in each party had friends in the other, and the British had several
+times trotted past within easy range, without provoking a shot.
+
+On February 22d, the day when Rolf and Quonab struck the Oswegatchie,
+the British colonel directed his men as usual, swinging them ever nearer
+the American fort, and then, at the nearest point, executed a very
+pretty charge. The Americans watched it as it neared, but instead of
+wheeling at the brink the little army scrambled up with merry shouts,
+and before the garrison could realize that this was war, they were
+overpowered and Ogdensburg was taken.
+
+The American commander was captured. Captain Forsyth, the second in
+command, had been off on a snowshoe trip, so had escaped. All the
+rest were prisoners, and what to do with the despatches or how to get
+official instructions was now a deep problem. “When you don't know a
+thing to do, don't do a thing,” was one of Si Sylvanne's axioms; also,
+“In case of doubt lay low and say nothing.” Rolf hung around the town
+all day waiting for light. About noon a tall, straight, alert man in a
+buffalo coat drove up with a cutter. He had a hasty meal in an inside
+room. Rolf sized him up for an American officer, but there was a
+possibility of his being a Canadian. Rolf tried in vain to get light on
+him but the inner door was kept closed; the landlord was evidently in
+the secret. When he came out he was again swaddled in the buffalo coat.
+Rolf brushed past him--here was something hard and long in the right
+pocket of the big coat.
+
+The landlord, the guest, and the driver had a whispered conference.
+Rolf went as near as he dared, but got only a searching look. The driver
+spoke to another driver and Rolf heard the words “Black Lake.” Yes,
+that was what he suspected. Black Lake was on the inland sleigh route to
+Alexandria Bay and Sackett's Harbour.
+
+The driver, a fresh young fellow, was evidently interested in the
+landlord's daughter; the stranger was talking with the landlord. As soon
+as they had parted, Rolf went to the latter and remarked quietly: “The
+captain is in a hurry.” The only reply was a cold look and: “Guess
+that's his business.” So it was the captain. The driver's mitts were on
+the line back of the stove. Rolf shook them so that they fell in a dark
+corner. The driver missed his mitts, and glad of a chance went back in,
+leaving the officer alone. “Captain Forsyth,” whispered Rolf, “don't go
+till I have talked with you. I'll meet you a mile down the road.”
+
+“Who are you and what do you want?” was the curt and hostile reply,
+evidently admitting the identification correct however.
+
+Rolf opened his coat and showed his scout badge.
+
+“Why not talk now if you have any news--come in side.” So the two went
+to the inner room. “Who is this?” asked Rolf cautiously as the landlord
+came in.
+
+“He's all right. This is Titus Flack, the landlord.”
+
+“How am I to know that?”
+
+“Haven't you heard him called by name all day?” said the captain.
+
+Flack smiled, went out and returned with his license to sell liquor, and
+his commission as a magistrate of New York State. The latter bore his
+own signature. He took a pen and reproduced it. Now the captain threw
+back his overcoat and stood in the full uniform of an army officer.
+He opened his satchel and took out a paper, but Rolf caught sight of
+another packet addressed to General Hampton. The small one was merely a
+map. “I think that packet in there is meant for me,” remarked Rolf.
+
+“We haven't seen your credentials yet,” said the officer. “I have them
+two miles back there,” and Rolf pointed to the woods.
+
+“Let's go,” said the captain and they arose. Kittering had a way of
+inspiring confidence, but in the short, silent ride of two miles the
+captain began to have his doubts. The scout badge might have been
+stolen; Canadians often pass for Americans, etc. At length they stopped
+the sleigh, and Rolf led into the woods. Before a hundred yards the
+officer said, “Stop,” and Rolf stopped to find a pistol pointed at his
+head. “Now, young fellow, you've played it pretty slick, and I don't
+know yet what to make of it. But I know this; at the very first sign of
+treachery I'll blow your brains out anyway.” It gave Rolf a jolt. This
+was the first time he had looked down a pistol barrel levelled at him.
+He used to think a pistol a little thing, an inch through and a foot
+long, but he found now it seemed as big as a flour barrel and long
+enough to reach eternity. He changed colour but quickly recovered,
+smiled, and said: “Don't worry; in five minutes you will know it's all
+right.”
+
+Very soon a sharp bark was heard in challenge, and the two stepped into
+camp to meet Quonab and little dog Skookum.
+
+“Doesn't look much like a trap,” thought the captain after he had cast
+his eyes about and made sure that no other person was in the camp; then
+aloud, “Now what have you to show me?”
+
+“Excuse me, captain, but how am I to know you are Captain Forsyth? It is
+possible for a couple of spies to give all the proof you two gave me.”
+
+The captain opened his bag and showed first his instructions given
+before he left Ogdensburg four days ago; he bared his arm and showed a
+tattooed U. S. A., a relic of Academy days, then his linen marked J. F.,
+and a signet ring with similar initials, and last the great packet of
+papers addressed to General Hampton. Then he said: “When you hand over
+your despatches to me I will give mine to you and we shall have good
+guarantee each of the other.”
+
+Rolf rose, produced his bundle of papers, and exchanged them for those
+held by Forsyth; each felt that the other was safe. They soon grew
+friendly, and Rolf heard of some stirring doings on the lake and
+preparations for a great campaign in the spring.
+
+After half an hour the tall, handsome captain left them and strode away,
+a picture of manly vigour. Three hours later they were preparing their
+evening meal when Skookum gave notice of a stranger approaching. This
+was time of war; Rolf held his rifle ready, and a moment later in burst
+the young man who had been Captain Forsyth's driver.
+
+His face was white; blood dripped from his left arm, and in his other
+hand was the despatch bag. He glanced keenly at Rolf. “Are you General
+Hampton's scout?” Rolf nodded and showed the badge on his breast.
+“Captain Forsyth sent this back,” he gasped. “His last words were, 'Burn
+the despatches rather than let the British get them.' They got him--a
+foraging party--there was a spy at the hotel. I got away, but my tracks
+are easy to follow unless it drifts. Don't wait.”
+
+Poor boy, his arm was broken, but he carried out the dead officer's
+command, then left them to seek for relief in the settlement.
+
+Night was near, but Rolf broke camp at once and started eastward with
+the double packet. He did not know it then, but learned afterward that
+these despatches made clear the weakness of Oswego, Rochester, and
+Sackett's Harbour, their urgent need of help, and gave the whole plan
+for an American counter attack on Montreal. But he knew they were
+valuable, and they must at once be taken to General Hampton.
+
+It was rough, hard going in the thick woods and swamps away from the
+river, for he did not dare take the ice route now, but they pushed on
+for three hours, then, in the gloom, made a miserable camp in a cedar
+swamp.
+
+At dawn they were off again. To their disgust the weather now was dead
+calm; there was no drift to hide their tracks; the trail was as plain as
+a highway wherever they went. They came to a beaten road, followed that
+for half a mile, then struck off on the true line. But they had no idea
+that they were followed until, after an hour of travel, the sun came up
+and on a far distant slope, full two miles away, they saw a thin black
+line of many spots, at least a dozen British soldiers in pursuit.
+
+The enemy was on snowshoes, and without baggage evidently, for they
+travelled fast. Rolf and Quonab burdened with the sled were making
+a losing race. But they pushed on as fast as possible--toiling and
+sweating at that precious load. Rolf was pondering whether the time had
+not yet come to stop and burn the packet, when, glancing back from a
+high ridge that gave an outlook, he glimpsed a row of heads that dropped
+behind some rocks half a mile away, and a scheme came into his mind. He
+marched boldly across the twenty feet opening that was in the enemy's
+view, dropped behind the spruce thickets, called Quonab to follow, ran
+around the thicket, and again crossed the open view. So he and Quonab
+continued for five minutes, as fast as they could go, knowing perfectly
+well that they were watched. Round and round that bush they went,
+sometimes close together, carrying the guns, sometimes dragging the
+sled, sometimes with blankets on their shoulders, sometimes with a short
+bag or even a large cake of snow on their backs. They did everything
+they could to vary the scene, and before five minutes the British
+officer in charge had counted fifty-six armed Americans marching in
+single file up the bank with ample stores, accompanied by five yellow
+dogs. Had Skookum been allowed to carry out his ideas, there would have
+been fifty or sixty yellow dogs, so thoroughly did he enter into the
+spirit of the game.
+
+The track gave no hint of such a troop, but of course not, how could it?
+since the toboggan left all smooth after they had passed, or maybe this
+was a reinforcement arriving. What could he do with his ten men against
+fifty of the enemy? He thanked his stars that he had so cleverly evaded
+the trap, and without further attempt to gauge the enemy's strength, he
+turned and made all possible haste back to the shelter of Ogdensburg.
+
+
+
+Chapter 71. Sackett's Harbour
+
+It was hours before Rolf was sure that he had stopped the pursuit, and
+the thing that finally set his mind at rest was the rising wind that
+soon was a raging and drifting snow storm. “Oh, blessed storm!” he said
+in his heart, as he marked all trail disappear within a few seconds
+of its being made. And he thought: “How I cursed the wind that held me
+back--really from being made prisoner. How vexed I was at that ducking
+in the river, that really saved my despatches from the enemy. How
+thankful I am now for the storm that a little while back seemed so
+bitterly cruel.”
+
+That forenoon they struck the big bend of the river and now did not
+hesitate to use the easy travel on the ice as far as Rensselaer Falls,
+where, having got their bearings from a settler, they struck across the
+country through the storm, and at night were encamped some forty miles
+from Ogdensburg.
+
+Marvellously few signs of game had they seen in this hard trip;
+everything that could hide away was avoiding the weather. But in a cedar
+bottom land near Cranberry Lake they found a “yard” that seemed to be
+the winter home of hundreds of deer. It extended two or three miles one
+way a half a mile the other; in spite of the deep snow this was nearly
+all in beaten paths. The scouts saw at least fifty deer in going
+through, so, of course, had no difficulty in selecting a young buck for
+table use.
+
+The going from there on was of little interest. It was the same old
+daily battle with the frost, but less rigorous than before, for now the
+cold winds were behind, and on the 27th of February, nine days after
+leaving, they trotted into Ticonderoga and reported at the commandant's
+headquarters.
+
+The general was still digging entrenchments and threatening to
+annihilate all Canada. But the contents of the despatches gave him new
+topics for thought and speech. The part he must play in the proposed
+descent on Montreal was flattering, but it made the Ticonderoga
+entrenchments ridiculous.
+
+For three days Rolf was kept cutting wood, then he went with despatches
+to Albany.
+
+Many minor labours, from hog-killing to stable-cleaning and trenching,
+varied the month of March. Then came the uncertain time of April when
+it was neither canoeing nor snow-shoeing and all communication from the
+north was cut off.
+
+But May, great, glorious May came on, with its inspiring airs and
+livening influence. Canoes were afloat, the woods were brown beneath and
+gold above.
+
+Rolf felt like a young stag in his strength. He was spoiling for a run
+and volunteered eagerly to carry despatches to Sackett's Harbour. He
+would go alone, for now one blanket was sufficient bed, and a couple of
+pounds of dry meat was enough food for each day. A small hatchet would
+be useful, but his rifle seemed too heavy to carry; as he halted in
+doubt, a junior officer offered him a pistol instead, and he gladly
+stuck it in his belt.
+
+Taller than ever, considerably over six feet now, somewhat lanky, but
+supple of joint and square of shoulder, he strode with the easy stride
+of a strong traveller. His colour was up, his blue-gray eyes ablaze
+as he took the long trail in a crow line across country for Sackett's
+Harbour. The sentry saluted, and the officer of the day, struck by his
+figure and his glowing face as much as by the nature of his errand,
+stopped to shake hands and say, “Well, good luck, Kittering, and may you
+bring us better news than the last two times.”
+
+Rolf knew how to travel now; he began softly. At a long, easy stride he
+went for half an hour, then at a swinging trot for a mile or two. Five
+miles an hour he could make, but there was one great obstacle to speed
+at this season--every stream was at flood, all were difficult to cross.
+The brooks he could wade or sometimes could fell a tree across them, but
+the rivers were too wide to bridge, too cold and dangerous to swim. In
+nearly every case he had to make a raft. A good scout takes no chances.
+A slight raft means a risky passage; a good one, a safe crossing but
+loss of time in preparations. Fifteen good rafts did Rolf make in that
+cross-country journey of three days: dry spruce logs he found each time
+and bound them together with leather-wood and withes of willow. It meant
+a delay of at least an hour each time; that is five hours each day. But
+the time was wisely spent. The days were lengthening; he could travel
+much at dusk. Soon he was among settlements. Rumours he got at a
+settler's cabin of Sir George Prevost's attack on Sackett's Harbour and
+the gallant repulse and at morning of the fourth day he came on the hill
+above Sackett's Harbour--the same hill where he had stood three months
+before. It was with something like a clutching of his breath that he
+gazed; his past experiences suggested dreadful thoughts but no--thank
+God, “Old Glory” floated from the pole. He identified himself to the
+sentinels and the guard, entered the fort at a trot, and reported at
+headquarters.
+
+There was joy on every side. At last the tide had turned. Commodore
+Chauncey, after sweeping Lake Ontario, had made a sudden descent on York
+(Toronto now) the capital of Upper Canada, had seized and destroyed
+it. Sir George Prevost, taking advantage of Chauncey's being away, had
+attacked Sackett's Harbour, but, in spite of the absence of the fleet,
+the resistance had been so vigorous that in a few days the siege was
+abandoned.
+
+There were shot holes in walls and roofs, there were a few wounded
+in the hospital, the green embankments were torn, and the flag-pole
+splintered; but the enemy was gone, the starry flag was floating on the
+wind, and the sturdy little garrison filled with a spirit that grows
+only in heroes fighting for their homes.
+
+How joyfully different from Ogdensburg.
+
+
+
+Chapter 72. Scouting Across Country
+
+That very night, Rolf turned again with the latest news and the
+commandant's reports.
+
+He was learning the country well now, and, with the wonderful
+place-memory of a woodman, he was able to follow his exact back trail.
+It might not have been the best way, but it gave him this advantage--in
+nearly every case he was able to use again the raft he had made in
+coming, and thereby saved many hours of precious time.
+
+On the way out he had seen a good many deer and one bear, and had heard
+the howling of wolves every night; but always at a distance. On the
+second night, in the very heart of the wilderness, the wolves were noisy
+and seemed very near. Rolf was camping in the darkness. He made a small
+fire with such stuff as he could find by groping, then, when the fire
+blazed, he discovered by its light a dead spruce some twenty yards away.
+Taking his hatchet he went toward this, and, as he did so, a wolf rose
+up, with its forefeet on a log, only five yards beyond the tree and
+gazed curiously at him. Others were heard calling; presently this wolf
+raised its muzzle and uttered a long smooth howl.
+
+Rolf had left his pistol back at the fire; he dared not throw his
+hatchet, as that would have left him unarmed. He stooped, picked up a
+stick, and threw that; the wolf ducked so that it passed over, then,
+stepping back from the log, stood gazing without obvious fear or menace.
+The others were howling; Rolf felt afraid. He backed cautiously to the
+fire, got his pistol and came again to the place, but nothing more did
+he see of the wolf, though he heard them all night and kept up two great
+fires for a protection.
+
+In the morning he started as usual, and before half an hour he was aware
+of a wolf, and later of two, trotting along his trail, a few hundred
+yards behind. They did not try to overtake him; indeed, when he stopped,
+they did the same; and when he trotted, they, true to their dog-like
+nature, ran more rapidly in pursuit. How Rolf did wish for his long
+rifle; but they gave no opportunity for a shot with the pistol. They
+acted, indeed, as though they knew their safe distance and the exact
+range of the junior gun. The scout made a trap for them by stealing back
+after he had crossed a ridge, and hiding near his own trail. But the
+wind conveyed a warning, and the wolves merely sat down and waited
+till he came out and went on. All day long these two strange ban dogs
+followed him and gave no sign of hunger or malice; then, after he
+crossed a river, at three in the afternoon, he saw no more of them.
+Years after, when Rolf knew them better, he believed they followed him
+out of mild curiosity, or possibly in the hope that he would kill a deer
+in which they might share. And when they left him, it was because they
+were near the edge of their own home region; they had seen him off their
+hunting grounds.
+
+That night he camped sixty miles from Ticonderoga, but he was resolved
+to cover the distance in one day. Had he not promised to be back in a
+week? The older hands had shaken their heads incredulously, and he, in
+the pride of his legs, was determined to be as good as his promise. He
+scarcely dared sleep lest he should oversleep. At ten he lay down. At
+eleven the moon was due to rise; as soon as that was three hours high
+there would be light enough, and he proposed to go on. At least half
+a dozen times he woke with a start, fearing he had overslept, but
+reassured by a glance at the low-hung moon, he had slumbered again.
+
+At last the moon was four hours high, and the woods were plain in the
+soft light. A horned owl “hoo-hoo-ed,” and a far-off wolf uttered
+a drawn-out, soft, melancholy cry, as Rolf finished his dried meat,
+tightened his belt, and set out on a long, hard run that, in the days of
+Greece, would have furnished the theme of many a noble epic poem.
+
+No need to consult his compass. The blazing lamp of the dark sky was his
+guide, straight east his course, varied a little by hills and lakes, but
+nearly the crow-flight line. At first his pace was a steady, swinging
+stride; then after a mile he came to an open lake shore down which he
+went at a six-mile trot; and then an alder thicket through which his
+progress was very slow; but that soon passed, and for half a mile he
+splashed through swamps with water a foot deep: nor was he surprised
+at length to see it open into a little lake with a dozen beaver huts in
+view. “Splash, prong” their builders went at his approach, but he made
+for the hillside; the woods were open, the moonlight brilliant now, and
+here he trotted at full swing as long as the way was level or down,
+but always walked on the uphill. A sudden noise ahead was followed by
+a tremendous crashing and crackling of the brush. For a moment it
+continued, and what it meant, Rolf never knew or guessed.
+
+“Trot, trot,” he went, reeling off six miles in the open, two or perhaps
+three in the thickets, but on and on, ever eastward. Hill after hill,
+swamp after swamp, he crossed, lake after lake he skirted round, and,
+when he reached some little stream, he sought a log bridge or prodded
+with a pole till he found a ford and crossed, then ran a mile or two to
+make up loss of time.
+
+Tramp, tramp, tramp, and his steady breath and his steady heart kept
+unremitting rhythm.
+
+
+
+Chapter 73. Rolf Makes a Record
+
+Twelve miles were gone when the foreglow--the first cold dawn-light
+showed, and shining across his path ahead was a mighty rolling stream.
+Guided by the now familiar form of Goodenow Peak he made for this, the
+Hudson's lordly flood. There was his raft securely held, with paddle and
+pole near by, and he pushed off with all the force of his young vigour.
+Jumping and careening with the stream in its freshet flood, the raft and
+its hardy pilot were served with many a whirl and some round spins, but
+the long pole found bottom nearly everywhere, and not ten minutes passed
+before the traveller sprang ashore, tied up his craft, then swung and
+tramped and swung.
+
+Over the hills of Vanderwhacker, under the woods of Boreas. Tramp,
+tramp, splash, tramp, wringing and sopping, but strong and hot, tramp,
+tramp, tramp, tramp. The partridge whirred from his path, the gray deer
+snorted, and the panther sneaked aside. Tramp, tramp, trot, trot, and
+the Washburn Ridge was blue against the sunrise. Trot, trot, over the
+low, level, mile-long slope he went, and when the Day-god burnt the
+upper hill-rim he was by brown Tahawus flood and had covered eighteen
+miles.
+
+By the stream he stopped to drink. A partridge cock, in the pride of
+spring, strutted arrogantly on a log. Rolf drew his pistol, fired, then
+hung the headless body while he made a camper's blaze: an oatcake, the
+partridge, and river water were his meal. His impulse was to go on at
+once. His reason, said “go slow.” So he waited for fifteen minutes. Then
+again, beginning with a slow walk, he ere long added to his pace. In
+half an hour he was striding and in an hour the steady “trot, trot,”
+ that slackened only for the hills or swamps. In an hour more he was
+on the Washburn Ridge, and far away in the east saw Schroon Lake that
+empties in the river Schroon; and as he strode along, exulting in his
+strength, he sang in his heart for joy. Again a gray wolf cantered on
+his trail, and the runner laughed, without a thought of fear. He seemed
+to know the creature better now; knew it as a brother, for it gave
+no hostile sound, but only seemed to trot, trot, for the small joy of
+running with a runner, as a swallow or an antelope will skim along by
+a speeding train. For an hour or more it matched his pace, then left as
+though its pleasant stroll was done, and Rolf kept on and on and on.
+
+The spring sun soared on high, the day grew warm at noon. Schroon River
+just above the lake was in his path, and here he stopped to rest. Here,
+with the last of his oatcake and a little tea, he made his final meal;
+thirty eight miles had he covered since he rose; his clothes were torn,
+his moccasins worn, but his legs were strong, his purpose sure; only
+twenty-two miles now, and his duty would be done; his honours won. What
+should he do, push on at once? No, he meant to rest an hour. He made a
+good fire by a little pool, and using a great mass of caribou moss as a
+sponge, he had a thorough rub-down. He got out his ever-ready needle
+and put his moccasins in good shape; he dried his clothes and lay on his
+back till the hour was nearly gone. Then he girded himself for this the
+final run. He was weary, indeed, but he was far from spent, and the iron
+will that had yearly grown in force was there with its unconquerable
+support.
+
+Slowly at start, soon striding, and at last in the famous jog trot of
+the scout he went. The sky was blackened with clouds at length, and the
+jealous, howling east wind rolled up in rain; the spindrift blurred the
+way; the heavy showers of spring came down and drenched him; but his
+pack was safe and he trotted on and on. Then long, deep swamps of alder
+barred his path, and, guided only by the compass, Rolf pushed in and
+through and ever east. Barely a mile an hour in the thickest part
+he made, but lagged not; drenched and footsore, warm and torn, but
+doggedly, steadily on. At three he had made a scant seven miles; then
+the level, open wood of Thunderbolt was reached and his stride became a
+run; trot, trot, trot, at six-mile gait, for but fifteen miles remained.
+Sustained, inspired, the bringer of good news, he halted not and
+faltered not, but on and on.
+
+Tramp tramp, tramp tramp--endless, tireless, hour by hour. At five he
+was on Thunder Creek, scarce eight miles more to the goal; his limbs
+were sore, his feet were sore; bone tired was he, but his heart was
+filled with joy.
+
+“News of battle, news of victory” he was bringing, and the thought lent
+strength; the five mires passed, the way was plain with good roads now,
+but the runner was so weary. He was striding, his running was done, the
+sun was low in the west, his feet were bleeding, the courier was brain
+worn and leg worn, but he strode and strode. He passed by homes but
+heeded them not.
+
+“Come in and rest,” called one who saw nothing but a weary traveller.
+Rolf shook his head, but gave no word and strode along. A mile--a short
+mile now; he must hold out; if he sat down he feared he could not rise.
+He came at last in sight of the fort; then, gathering all his force, he
+broke into a trot, weak, so weak that had he fallen, he could scarcely
+have got up, and slow, but faster than a walk: and so, as the red sun
+sank, he passed the gate. He had no right to give tidings to any but the
+general, yet they read it in his eyes. The guard broke into a cheer,
+and trotting still, though reeling, Rolf had kept his word, had made his
+run, had brought the news, and had safely reached his goal.
+
+
+
+Chapter 74. Van Trumper's Again
+
+Why should the scout bringing good news be differently received from the
+one that brings the ill? He did not make, the news, he simply did his
+duty; the same in both cases. He is merely the telegraph instrument.
+Yet it is so ever. King Pharaoh slew the bearer of ill-tidings; that was
+human nature. And General Hampton brought in the tall stripling to his
+table, to honour him, to get the fullest details, to glory in every
+item as though it all were due to himself. Rolf's wonderful journey was
+dilated on, and in the reports to Albany he was honourably mentioned for
+exceptionally meritorious service as a bearer of despatches.
+
+For three days Flying Kittering was hero of the post; then other runners
+came with other news and life went on.
+
+Hitherto the scouts had worn no uniform, but the execution of one of
+their number, who was captured by the British and treated as a spy,
+resulted in orders that all be formally enlisted and put in uniform.
+
+Not a few withdrew from the service; some, like Quonab, reluctantly
+consented, but Rolf was developing the fighting spirit, and was proud to
+wear the colours.
+
+The drill was tedious enough, but it was of short duration for him.
+Despatches were to go to Albany. The general, partly to honour Rolf,
+selected him.
+
+“Are you ready for another run, Kittering?”
+
+“Yes, sir.”
+
+“Then prepare to start as soon as possible for Fort George and Albany.
+Do you want a mate?”
+
+“I should like a paddler as far as Fort George.”
+
+“Well, pick your man.”
+
+“Quonab.”
+
+And when they set out, for the first time Rolf was in the stern, the
+post of guidance and command. So once more the two were travelling again
+with Skookum in the bow. It was afternoon when they started and the
+four-mile passage of the creek was slow, but down the long, glorious
+vista of the noble George they went at full canoe-flight, five miles an
+hour, and twenty-five miles of the great fair-way were reeled and past
+when they lighted their nightly fire.
+
+At dawn-cry of the hawk they sped away, and in spite of a rising wind
+they made six miles in two hours.
+
+As they approached the familiar landing of Van Trumper's farm, Skookum
+began to show a most zestful interest that recalled the blackened pages
+of his past. “Quonab, better use that,” and Rolf handed a line with
+which Skookum was secured and thus led to make a new record, for this
+was the first time in his life that he landed at Van Trumper's without
+sacrificing a chicken in honour of the joyful occasion.
+
+They entered the house as the family were sitting down to breakfast.
+
+“Mein Hemel! mein Hemel! It is Rolf and Quonab; and vere is dot tam dog?
+Marta, vere is de chickens? Vy, Rolf, you bin now a giant, yah. Mein
+Gott, it is I am glad! I did tink der cannibals you had eat; is it dem
+Canadian or cannibal? I tink it all one the same, yah!”
+
+Marta was actually crying, the little ones were climbing over Rolf's
+knee, and Annette, tall and sixteen now, stood shyly by, awaiting a
+chance to shake hands. Home is the abiding place of those we love; it
+may be a castle or a cave, a shanty or a chateau, a moving van, a tepee,
+or a canal boat, a fortress or the shady side of a bush, but it is home,
+if there indeed we meet the faces that are ever in the heart, and find
+the hands whose touch conveys the friendly glow. Was there any other
+spot on earth where he could sit by the fire and feel that “hereabout
+are mine own, the people I love?” Rolf knew it now--Van Trumper's was
+his home.
+
+Talks of the war, of disasters by land, and of glorious victories on
+the sea, where England, long the unquestioned mistress of the waves,
+had been humbled again and again by the dauntless seamen of her Western
+blood; talks of big doings by the nation, and, yet more interesting,
+small doings by the travellers, and the breakfast passed all too soon.
+The young scout rose, for he was on-duty, but the long rollers on the
+lake forbade the going forth. Van's was a pleasant place to wait, but
+he chafed at the delay; his pride would have him make a record on every
+journey. But wait he must. Skookum tied safely to his purgatorial post
+whined indignantly--and with head cocked on one side, picked out
+the very hen he would like to utilize--as soon as released from his
+temporary embarrassment. Quonab went out on a rock to bum some tobacco
+and pray for calm, and Rolf, ever active, followed Van to look over
+the stock and buildings, and hear of minor troubles. The chimney was
+unaccountably given to smoking this year. Rolf took an axe and with two
+blows cut down a vigorous growth shrubbery that stood above the chimney
+on the west, and the smoking ceased. Buck ox had a lame foot and would
+allow no one even to examine it. But a skilful ox-handler easily hobbles
+an ox, throws him near some small tree, and then, by binding the lame
+foot to the tree, can have a free hand. It proved a simple matter, a
+deep-sunk, rusty nail. And when the nail was drawn and the place washed
+clean with hot brine, kind nature was left in confidence to do the
+rest. They drifted back to the house now. Tomas met them shouting out a
+mixture of Dutch and English and holding by the cover Annette's book of
+the “Good Girl.” But its rightful owner rescued the precious volume and
+put it on the shelf.
+
+“Have you read it through, Annette?”
+
+“Yes,” was the reply, for she had learned to read before they left
+Schuylerville.
+
+“How do you like it?”
+
+“Didn't like it a bit; I like 'Robinson Crusoe',” was the candid reply.
+
+The noon hour came, still the white rollers were pounding the shore.
+
+“If it does not calm by one o'clock I'll go on afoot.”
+
+So off he went with the packet, leaving Quonab to follow and await his
+return at Fort George. In Schuyler settlement he spent the night and at
+noon next day was in Albany.
+
+How it stirred his soul to see the busy interest, the marching of men,
+the sailing of vessels, and above all to hear of more victories on the
+high seas. What mattered a few frontier defeats in the north, when the
+arrogant foe that had spurned and insulted them before the world had now
+been humbled again and again.
+
+Young Van Cortlandt was away, but the governor's reception of him
+reflected the electric atmosphere--the country's pride in her sons.
+
+Rolf had a matter of his own to settle. At the bookseller's he asked for
+and actually secured a copy of the great book--“Robinson Crusoe.” It was
+with a thrilling feeling of triumph that he wrote Annette's name in it
+and stowed it in his bag.
+
+He left Albany next day in the gray dawn. Thanks to his uniform, he got
+a twenty-five mile lift with a traveller who drove a fast team, and the
+blue water was glinting back the stars when he joined Quonab at Fort
+George, some sixty miles away.
+
+In the calm betwixt star-peep and sun-up they were afloat. It was a
+great temptation to stop at Hendrik's for a spell, but breakfast was
+over, the water was calm, and duty called him. He hallooed, then they
+drew near enough to hand the book ashore. Skookum growled, probably at
+the hens, and the family waved their aprons as he sped on. Thirty miles
+of lake and four miles of Ticonderoga Creek they passed and the packet
+was delivered in four days and three hours since leaving.
+
+The general smiled and his short but amply sufficient praise was merely,
+“You're a good 'un.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 75. Scouting in Canada
+
+“Thar is two things,” said Si Sylvanne to the senate, “that every
+national crisis is bound to show up: first, a lot o' dum fools in
+command; second a lot o great commanders in the ranks. An' fortunately
+before the crisis is over the hull thing is sure set right, and the men
+is where they oughter be.”
+
+How true this was the nation was just beginning to learn. The fools in
+command were already demonstrated, and the summer of 1813 was replete
+with additional evidence. May, June, and July passed with many
+journeyings for Rolf and many times with sad news. The disasters at
+Stony Creek, Beaver Dam, and Niagara were severe blows to the army on
+the western frontier. In June on Lake Champlain the brave but reckless
+Lieutenant Sidney Smith had run his two sloops into a trap. Thus the
+Growler and the Eagle were lost to the Americans, and strengthened by
+that much the British navy on the lake.
+
+Encouraged by these successes, the British north of Lake Champlain made
+raid after raid into American territory, destroying what they could not
+carry off.
+
+Rolf and Quonab were sent to scout in that country and if possible give
+timely notice of raiders in force.
+
+The Americans were averse to employing Indians in warfare; the British
+entertained no such scruples and had many red-skinned allies. Quonab's
+case, however, was unusual, since he was guaranteed by his white
+partner, and now he did good service, for he knew a little French and
+could prowl among the settlers without anyone suspecting him of being an
+American scout.
+
+Thus he went alone and travelled far. He knew the country nearly to
+Montreal and late in July was lurking about Odletown, when he overheard
+scattered words of a conversation that made him eager for more. “Colonel
+Murray--twelve hundred men--four hundred men--”
+
+Meanwhile Rolf was hiding in the woods about La Colle Mill. Company
+after company of soldiers he saw enter, until at least five hundred were
+there. When night came down, he decided to risk a scarer approach. He
+left the woods and walked cautiously across the open lands about.
+
+The hay had been cut and most of it drawn in, but there was in the
+middle of the field a hay-cock. Rolf was near this when he heard sounds
+of soldiers from the mill. Soon large numbers came out, carrying their
+blankets. Evidently there was not room for them in the mill, and they
+were to camp on the field.
+
+The scout began to retreat when sounds behind showed that another
+body of soldiers was approaching from that direction and he was caught
+between the two. There was only one place to hide and that was beneath
+the haycock. He lifted its edge and crawled under, but it was full of
+thistles and brambles; indeed, that was why it was left, and he had the
+benefit of all the spines about him.
+
+His heart beat fast as he heard the clank of arms and the trampling;
+they came nearer, then the voices became more distinct. He heard
+unmistakable evidence too that both bodies were camping for the night,
+and that he was nearly surrounded. Not knowing what move was best he
+kept quiet. The men were talking aloud, then they began preparing their
+beds and he heard some one say, “There's a hay-cock; bring some of
+that.”
+
+A soldier approached to get an armful of the hay, but sputtered out a
+chapter of malediction as his bare hands touched the masses of thistle
+and briers. His companions laughed at his mishap. He went to the fire
+and vowed he'd stick a brand in it and back he came with a burning
+stick.
+
+Rolf was all ready to make a dash for his life as soon as the cover
+should take fire, and he peered up into the soldier's face as the latter
+blew on the brand; but the flame had died, the thistles were not dry,
+and the fire was a failure; so, growling again, the soldier threw down
+the smoking stick and went away. As soon as he was safely afar, Rolf
+gathered a handful of soil and covered the red embers.
+
+It was a critical moment and his waiting alone had saved him.
+
+Two soldiers came with their blankets and spread them near. For a time
+they smoked and talked. One of them was short of tobacco; the other
+said, “Never mind, we'll get plenty in Plattsburg,” and they guffawed.
+
+Then he heard, “As soon as the colonel” and other broken phrases.
+
+It was a most difficult place for Rolf; he was tormented with thistles
+in his face and down his neck; he dared not change his position; and
+how long he must stay was a problem. He would try to escape when all was
+still.
+
+The nearer soldiers settled to rest now. All was very quiet when Rolf
+cautiously peeped forth to see two dreadful things: first, a couple
+of sentries pacing up and down the edges of the camp; second, a broad,
+brilliant, rising moon. How horrible that lovely orb could be Rolf never
+before knew.
+
+Now, what next? He was trapped in the middle of a military camp
+and undoubtedly La Colle Mill was the rendezvous for some important
+expedition.
+
+He had ample time to think it all over. Unless he could get away before
+day he would surely be discovered. His uniform might save his life,
+but soldiers have an awkward, hasty way of dealing summarily with a
+spy--then discovering too late that he was in uniform.
+
+From time to time he peered forth, but the scene was unchanged--the
+sleeping regiment, the pacing sentries, the ever-brightening moon. Then
+the guard was changed, and the sentries relieved selected of all places
+for their beds, the bank beside the hay-cock. Again one of them went to
+help himself to some hay for a couch; and again the comic anger as he
+discovered it to be a bed of thorns. How thankful Rolf was for those
+annoying things that pricked his face and neck.
+
+He was now hemmed in on every side and, not knowing what to do, did
+nothing. For a couple of hours he lay still, then actually fell asleep.
+He was awakened by a faint rustling near his head and peered forth to
+see a couple of field mice playing about.
+
+The moon was very bright now, and the movements of the mice were plain;
+they were feeding on the seeds of plants in the hay-cock, and from time
+to time dashed under--the hay. Then they gambolled farther off and were
+making merry over a pod of wild peas when a light form came skimming
+noiselessly over the field. There was a flash, a hurried rush, a clutch,
+a faint squeak, and one of the mice was borne away in the claws of its
+feathered foe. The survivor scrambled under the hay over Rolf's face and
+somewhere into hiding.
+
+The night passed in many short naps. The bugle sounded at daybreak and
+the soldiers arose to make breakfast. Again one approached to use a
+handful of hay for fire-kindler, and again the friendly thistles did
+their part. More and more now his ear caught suggestive words and
+sounds--“Plattsburg”--“the colonel”--etc.
+
+The breakfast smelt wonderfully captivating--poor Rolf was famished. The
+alluring aroma of coffee permeated the hay-cock. He had his dried meat,
+but his need was water; he was tormented with thirst, and stiff and
+tortured; he was making the hardest fight of his life. It seemed long,
+though doubtless it was less than half an hour before the meal was
+finished, and to Rolf's relief there were sounds of marching and the
+noises were drowned in the distance.
+
+By keeping his head covered with hay and slowly raising it, he was safe
+to take a look around. It was a bright, sunny morning. The hay-cock,
+or thistle-cock, was one of several that had been rejected. It was a
+quarter-mile from cover; the soldiers were at work cutting timber and
+building a stockade around the mill; and, most dreadful to relate, a
+small dog was prowling about, looking for scraps on the scene of the
+soldiers' breakfast. If that dog came near his hiding-place, he knew the
+game was up. At such close quarters, you can fool a man but not a dog.
+
+Fortunately the breakfast tailings proved abundant, and the dog went off
+to assist a friend of his in making sundry interesting smell analyses
+along the gate posts of the stockade.
+
+
+
+Chapter 76. The Duel
+
+This was temporary relief, but left no suggestion of complete escape.
+He lay there till nearly noon suffering more and more from the cramped
+position and thirst, and utterly puzzled as to the next move.
+
+“When ye don't like whar ye air, git up without any fuss, and go whar
+ye want to be,” was what Sylvanne once said to him, and it came to Rolf
+with something like a comic shock. The soldiers were busy in the woods
+and around the forges. In half an hour it would be noon and they might
+come back to eat.
+
+Rolf rose without attempting any further concealment, then stopped, made
+a bundle of the stuff that had sheltered him and, carrying this on his
+shoulder, strode boldly across the field toward the woods.
+
+His scout uniform was inconspicuous; the scouts on duty at the mill saw
+only one of themselves taking a bundle of hay round to the stables.
+
+He reached the woods absolutely unchallenged. After a few yards in its
+friendly shade, he dropped the thorny bundle and strode swiftly toward
+his own camp. He had not gone a hundred yards before a voice of French
+type cried “'Alt,” and he was face to face with a sentry whose musket
+was levelled at him.
+
+A quick glance interchanged, and each gasped out the other's name.
+
+“Francois la Colle!”
+
+“Rolf Kittering! Mon Dieu! I ought to shoot you, Rolf; I cannot, I
+cannot! But run, run! I'll shoot over your head,” and his kindly eyes
+filled with tears.
+
+Rolf needed no second hint; he ran like a deer, and the musket ball
+rattled the branches above his shoulders.
+
+In a few minutes other soldiers came running and from La Colle they
+heard of the hostile spy in camp.
+
+“I shoot; I t'ink maybe I not hit eem; maybe some brood dere? No, dat
+netting.”
+
+There were both runners and trackers in camp. They were like bloodhounds
+and they took up the trail of the fugitive. But Rolf was playing his own
+game now; he was “Flying Kittering.” A crooked trail is hard to follow,
+and, going at the long stride that had made his success, he left many
+a crook and turn. Before two miles I they gave it up and the fugitive
+coming to the river drank a deep and cooling draught, the first he had
+had that day. Five miles through is the dense forest that lies between
+La Colle and the border. He struck a creek affluent of the Richelieu
+River and followed to its forks, which was the place of rendezvous with
+Quonab.
+
+It was evening as he drew near and after long, attentive listening he
+gave the cry of the barred owl:
+
+The answer came: a repetition of the last line, and a minute later the
+two scouts were together.
+
+As they stood, they were startled by a new, sudden answer, an exact
+repetition of the first call. Rolf had recovered his rifle from its
+hiding place and instantly both made ready for some hostile prowler;
+then after a long silence he gave the final wail line “hoooo-aw” and
+that in the woods means, “Who are you?”
+
+Promptly the reply came:
+
+“Wa wah wa wah Wa wah wa hoooo-aw.”
+
+But this was the wrong reply. It should have been only the last half.
+The imitation was perfect, except, perhaps, on the last note, which
+was a trifle too human. But the signal was well done; it was an expert
+calling, either an Indian or some thoroughly seasoned scout; yet Quonab
+was not deceived into thinking it an owl. He touched his cheek and
+his coat, which, in the scout sign language, means “red coat,” i. e.,
+Britisher.
+
+Rolf and his partner got silently out of sight, each with his rlile
+cocked and ready to make a hole in any red uniform or badge that might
+show itself. Then commenced a very peculiar duel, for evidently the
+enemy was as clever as themselves and equally anxious to draw them out
+of cover.
+
+Wa-wah-wa hooo-aw called the stranger, giving the right answer in the
+wrong place. He was barely a hundred yards off, and, as the two strained
+their senses to locate him, they heard a faint click that told of his
+approach.
+
+Rolf turned his head and behind a tree uttered again the Wa-wah-a--hoo
+which muffled by his position would convince the foe that he was
+retreating. The answer came promptly and much nearer:
+
+Wa--wah--wa--hoooo-aw.
+
+Good! the medicine was working. So Rolf softened his voice still more,
+while Quonab got ready to shoot.
+
+The Wa--wa--hooo-aw that came in answer this time was startlingly clear
+and loud and nearly perfect in intonation, but again betrayed by the
+human timbre of the aw. A minute or two more and they would reach a
+climax.
+
+After another wait, Rolf muffled his voice and gave the single hooo-aw,
+and a great broad-winged owl came swooping through the forest, alighted
+on a tree overhead, peered about, then thrilled them with his weird:
+
+Wa--hoo--wa--boo
+
+Wa--hoo--wa--hooooooooo-aw, the last note with the singular human
+quality that had so completely set them astray.
+
+
+
+Chapter 77. Why Plattsburg Was Raided
+
+     The owl's hull reputation for wisdom is built up on lookin'
+     wise and keepin' mum.--Sayings of St Sylvanne
+
+THE owl incident was one of the comedies of their life, now they had
+business on hand. The scraps of news brought by Quonab pieced out with
+those secured by Rolf, spelt clearly this: that Colonel Murray with
+about a thousand men was planning a raid on Plattsburg.
+
+Their duty was to notify General Hampton without delay.
+
+Burlington, forty miles away, was headquarters. Plattsburg, twenty miles
+away, was marked for spoil.
+
+One more item they must add: Was the raid to baby land or water? If the
+latter, then they must know what preparations were being made at the
+British naval station, Isle au Noix. They travelled all night through
+the dark woods, to get there, though it was but seven miles away, and in
+the first full light they saw the gallant array of two warships, three
+gunboats, and about fifty long boats, all ready, undoubtedly waiting
+only for a change in the wind, which at this season blew on Champlain
+almost steadily form the south.
+
+A three-hour, ten-mile tramp through ways now familiar brought Rolf and
+his partner to the north of the Big Chazy where the canoe was hidden,
+and without loss of time they pushed off for Burlington, thirty miles
+away. The wind was head on, and when four hours later they stopped for
+noon, they had made not more than a dozen miles.
+
+All that afternoon they had to fight a heavy sea; this meant they must
+keep near shore in case of an upset, and so lengthened the course; but
+it also meant that the enemy would not move so long as this wind kept
+up.
+
+It was six at night before the scouts ran into Burlington Harbour and
+made for Hampton's headquarters.
+
+His aide received them and, after learning that they had news, went in
+to the general. From the inner room now they heard in unnecessarily loud
+tones the great man's orders to, “Bring them in, sah.”
+
+The bottles on the table, his purple visage, and thick tongued speech
+told how well-founded were the current whispers.
+
+“Raid on Plattsburg? Ha! I hope so. I only hope so. Gentlemen,” and
+he turned to his staff, “all I ask is a chance to get at them--Ha, Ha!
+Here, help yourself, Macomb,” and the general pushed the decanter to a
+grave young officer who was standing by.
+
+“No, thank you, sir,” was the only reply.
+
+The general waved his hand, the scouts went out, puzzled and ashamed.
+Was this the brains of the army? No wonder our men are slaughtered.
+
+Now Macomb ventured to suggest: “Have you any orders, sir? These scouts
+are considered quite reliable. I understand from them that the British
+await only a change of wind. They have between one thousand and two
+thousand men.”
+
+“Plenty of time in the morning, sah. Plattsburg will be the bait of my
+trap, not one of them shall return alive,” and the general dismissed his
+staff that he might fortify himself against a threatened cold.
+
+Another young man, Lieut. Thomas MacDonough, the naval commandant, now
+endeavoured to stir him by a sense of danger. First he announced that
+his long boats, and gunboats were ready and in six hours he could
+transfer three thousand troops from Burlington to Plattsburg. Then he
+ventured to urge the necessity for action.
+
+Champlain is a lake of two winds. It had brown from the south for two
+weeks; now a north wind was likely to begin any day. MacDonough urged
+this point, but all in vain, and, shocked and humiliated, the young man
+obeyed the order “to wait till his advice was asked.”
+
+The next day Hampton ordered a review, not an embarkation, and was not
+well enough to appear in person.
+
+The whole army knew now of the situation of affairs, and the militia in
+particular were not backward in expressing their minds.
+
+Next day, July 30th, the wind changed. Hampton did nothing. On the
+morning of July 31st they heard the booming of guns in the north, and at
+night their scouts came with the news that the raid was on. Plattsburg
+was taken and pillaged by a force less than one third of those held at
+Burlington.
+
+There were bitter, burning words on the lips of the rank and file, and
+perfunctory rebukes on the lips of the young officers when they chanced
+to overhear. The law was surely working out as set forth by Si Sylvanne:
+“The fools in command, the leaders in the ranks.”
+
+And now came news of fresh disasters--the battles of Beaverdam,
+Stony Creek, and Niagara River. It was the same story in nearly every
+case--brave fighting men, ill-drilled, but dead shots, led into traps by
+incompetent commanders.
+
+In September Lieutenant Macomb was appointed to command at Plattsburg.
+This proved as happy an omen as it was a wise move. Immediately after,
+in all this gloom, came the news of Perry's famous victory on Lake Erie,
+marking a new era for the American cause, followed by the destruction of
+Moraviantown and the British army which held it.
+
+Stirred at last to action General Wilkinson sent despatches to Hampton
+to arrange an attack on Montreal. There was no possibility of failure,
+he said, for the sole defence of Montreal was 600 marines. His army
+consisted of 8000 men. Hampton's consisted of 4000. By a union of these
+at the mouth of Chateaugay River, they would form an invincible array.
+
+So it seemed. Rolf had not yet seen any actual fighting and began to
+long for the front. But his powers as a courier kept him ever busy
+bearing despatches. The road to Sackett's Harbour and thence to
+Ogdensburg and Covington, and back to Plattsburg he knew thoroughly, and
+in his canoe he had visited every port on Lakes Champlain and George.
+
+He was absent at Albany in the latter half of October and first of
+November, but the ill news travelled fast. Hampton requested MacDonough
+to “swoop down on Isle au Noix”--an insane request, compliance with
+which would have meant certain destruction to the American fleet.
+MacDonough's general instructions were: “Cooperate with the army, but
+at any price retain supremacy of the lake,” and he declined to receive
+Hampton's order.
+
+Threatening court-martials and vengeance on his return, Hampton now set
+out by land; but at Chateaugay he was met by a much smaller force of
+Canadians who resisted him so successfully that he ordered a retreat and
+his army retired to Plattsburg.
+
+Meanwhile General Wilkinson had done even worse. His army numbered 8000.
+Of these the rear guard were 2500. A body of 800 Canadians harassed
+their line of march. Turning to brush away this annoyance, the Americans
+were wholly defeated at Chrystler's farm and, giving up the attack on
+Montreal, Wilkinson crossed the St. Lawrence and settled for the winter
+at Chateaugay.
+
+In December, America scored an important advance by relieving Hampton of
+his command.
+
+As the spring drew near, it was clearly Wilkinson's first play to
+capture La Colle Mill, which had been turned into a fortress of
+considerable strength and a base for attack on the American border, some
+five miles away.
+
+Of all the scouts Rolf best knew that region, yet he was the one left
+out of consideration and despatched with papers to Plattsburg. The
+attack was bungled from first to last, and when Wilkinson was finally
+repulsed, it was due to Macomb that the retreat was not a rout.
+
+But good came out of this evil, for Wilkinson was recalled and the law
+was nearly fulfilled--the incompetents were gone. General Macomb was in
+command of the land force and MacDonough of the Lake.
+
+
+
+Chapter 78. Rumours and Papers
+
+MacDonough's orders were to hold control of the Lake. How he did it will
+be seen. The British fleet at Isle au Noix was slightly stronger than
+his own, therefore he established a navy yard at Vergennes, in Vermont,
+seven miles up the Otter River, and at the mouth erected earthworks
+and batteries. He sent for Brown (of the firm of Adam and Noah Brown)
+a famous New York shipbuilder. Brown agreed to launch a ship of
+twenty-four guns in sixty days. The trees were standing in the forest on
+March 2d the keel was laid March 7th, and on April 11th the Saratoga was
+launched--forty days after the timbers were green standing trees on the
+hills.
+
+Other vessels were begun and pushed as expeditiously. And now
+MacDonough's wisdom in choice of the navy yard was seen, for a British
+squadron was sent to destroy his infant fleet, or at least sink
+stone-boats across the exit so as to bottle it up.
+
+But their attempts were baffled by the batteries which the far-seeing
+American had placed at the river's mouth.
+
+The American victory at Chippewa was followed by the defeat at Lundy's
+Lane, and on August 25th the city of Washington was captured by the
+British and its public buildings destroyed. These calamities, instead of
+dampening the spirits of the army, roused the whole nation at last to
+a realization of the fact that they were at war. Fresh troops and
+plentiful supplies were voted, the deadwood commanders were retired, and
+the real men revealed by the two campaigns were given place and power.
+
+At the same time, Great Britain, having crushed Napoleon, was in a
+position to greatly reinforce her American army, and troops seasoned in
+Continental campaigns were poured into Canada.
+
+All summer Rolf was busied bearing despatches. During the winter he
+and Quonab had built a birch canoe on special lines for speed; it would
+carry two men but no baggage.
+
+With this he could make fully six miles an hour for a short time, and
+average five on smooth water. In this he had crossed and recrossed
+Champlain, and paddled its length, till he knew every bay and headland.
+The overland way to Sackett's Harbour he had traversed several times;
+the trail from Plattsburg to Covington he knew in all weathers, and had
+repeatedly covered its sixty miles in less than twenty-four hours on
+foot. The route he picked and followed was in later years the line
+selected for the military highway between these two camps.
+
+But the chief scene of his activities was the Canadian wilderness at the
+north end of Lake Champlain. Chazy, Champlain, Odelltown, La Colle
+Mill, Isle au Noix, and Richelieu River he knew intimately and had also
+acquired a good deal of French in learning their country.
+
+It was characteristic of General Wilkinson to ignore the scout who knew
+and equally characteristic of his successors, Izard and Macomb, to seek
+and rely on the best man.
+
+The news that he brought in many different forms was that the British
+were again concentrating an army to strike at Plattsburg and Albany.
+
+Izard on the land at Plattsburg and Champlain, and Macomb at Burlington
+strained all their resources to meet the invader at fair terms. Izard
+had 4000 men assembled, when an extraordinary and devastating order from
+Washington compelled him to abandon the battle front at Champlain and
+lead his troops to Sackett's Harbour where all was peace. He protested
+like a statesman, then obeyed like a soldier, leaving Macomb in command
+of the land forces of Lake Champlain, with, all told, some 3400 men. On
+the day that Izard left Champlain, the British troops, under Brisbane,
+advanced and occupied his camp.
+
+As soon as Rolf had seen them arrive, and had gauged their number, he
+sent Quonab back to report, and later retired by night ten miles up the
+road to Chazy. He was well known to many of the settlers and was
+welcome where ever known, not only because he was a patriot fighting his
+country's battles, but for his own sake, for he was developing into
+a handsome, alert, rather silent youth. It is notorious that in the
+drawing-room, given equal opportunity, the hunter has the advantage over
+the farmer. He has less self-consciousness, more calm poise. He is not
+troubled about what to do with his feet and hands, and is more convinced
+of his native dignity and claims to respect. In the drawin-room Rolf
+was a hunter: the leading inhabitants of the region around received him
+gladly and honoured him. He was guest at Judge Hubbell's in Chazy, in
+September of 1814. Every day he scouted in the neighbourhood and at
+night returned to the hospitable home of the judge.
+
+On the 12th of September, from the top of a tall tree on a distant
+wooded hill, he estimated the force at Champlain to be 10,000 to 15,000
+men. Already their bodyguard was advancing on Chazy.
+
+Judge Hubbell and anxious neighbours hastily assembled now, discussed
+with Rolf the situation and above all, “What shall we do with our
+families?” One man broke into a storm of hate and vituperation against
+the British. “Remember the burning of Washington and the way they
+treated the women at Bladensburg.”
+
+“All of which about the women was utterly disproved, except in one
+case, and in that the criminal was shot by order of his own commander,”
+ retorted Hubbell.
+
+At Plattsburg others maintained that the British had harmed no one.
+Colonel Murray had given strict orders that all private property be
+absolutely respected. Nothing but government property was destroyed and
+only that which could be construed into war stores and buildings. What
+further damage was done was the result of accident or error. Officers
+were indeed quartered on the inhabitants, but they paid for what
+they got, and even a carpet destroyed by accident was replaced months
+afterward by a British officer who had not the means at the time.
+
+So it was agreed that Hubbell with Rolf and the village fathers and
+brothers should join their country's army, leaving wives and children
+behind.
+
+There were wet bearded cheeks among the strong, rugged men as they
+kissed their wives and little ones and prepared to go, then stopped, as
+horrible misgivings rose within. “This was war, and yet again, 'We have
+had proofs that the British harmed no woman or child'.” So they dashed
+away the tears, suppressed the choking in their throats, shouldered
+their guns, and marched away to the front, commending their dear ones to
+the mercy of God and the British invaders.
+
+None had any cause to regret this trust. Under pain of death, Sir George
+Prevost enforced his order that the persons of women and children and
+all private property be held inviolate. As on the previous raid, no
+damage was done to non-combatants, and the only hardships endured were
+by the few who, knowing nothing, feared much, and sought the precarious
+safety of life among the hills.
+
+Sir George Prevost and his staff of ten officers were quartered in Judge
+Hubbell's house. Mrs. Hubbell was hard put to furnish them with meals,
+but they treated her with perfect respect, and every night, not knowing
+how long they might stay, they left on the table the price of their
+board and lodging.
+
+For three days they waited, then all was ready for the advance.
+
+“Now for Plattsburg this week and Albany next, so good-bye, madam” they
+said politely, and turned to ride away, a gay and splendid group.
+
+“Good-bye, sirs, for a very little while, but I know you'll soon be back
+and hanging your heads as you come,” was the retort.
+
+Sir George replied: “If a man had said that, I would call him out; but
+since it is a fair lady that has been our charming hostess, I reply that
+when your prophecy comes true, every officer here shall throw his purse
+on your door step as he passes.”
+
+So they rode away, 13,000 trained men with nothing between them and
+Albany but 2000 troops, double as many raw militia, and--MacDonough of
+the Lake.
+
+Ten times did Rolf cover that highway north of Plattsburg in the week
+that followed, and each day his tidings were the same--the British
+steadily advance.
+
+
+
+Chapter 79. McGlassin's Exploit
+
+There was a wonderful spirit on everything in Plattsburg, and the
+earthly tabernacle in which it dwelt, was the tall, grave young man who
+had protested against Hampton's behaviour at Burlington--Captain, now
+General Macomb. Nothing was neglected, every emergency was planned for,
+every available man was under arms. Personally tireless, he was ever
+alert and seemed to know every man in his command and every man of
+it had implicit confidence in the leader. We have heard of soldiers
+escaping from a besieged fortress by night; but such was the inspiring
+power of this commander that there was a steady leaking in of men from
+the hills, undrilled and raw, but of superb physique and dead shots with
+the ride.
+
+A typical case was that of a sturdy old farmer who was marching through
+the woods that morning to take his place with those who manned the
+breastworks and was overheard to address his visibly trembling legs:
+“Shake, damn you, shake; and if ye knew where I was leading you, you'd
+be ten times worse.”
+
+His mind was more valiant than his body, and his mind kept control--this
+is true courage.
+
+No one had a better comprehension of all this than Macomb. He knew that
+all these men needed was a little training to make of them the best
+soldiers on earth. To supply that training he mixed them with veterans,
+and arranged a series of unimportant skirmishes as coolly and easily as
+though he were laying out a programme for an evening's entertainment.
+
+The first of these was at Culver's Hill. Here a barricade was thrown up
+along the highway, a gun was mounted, and several hundred riflemen were
+posted under leaders skilled in the arts of harrying a foe and giving
+him no chance to strike back.
+
+Among the men appointed for the barricade's defence was Rolf and near
+him Quonab. The latter had been seasoned in the Revolution, but it was
+the former's first experience at the battle front, and he felt as most
+men do when the enemy in brave array comes marching up. As soon as they
+were within long range, his leader gave the order “Fire!” The rifles
+rattled and the return fire came at once. Balls pattered on the
+barricade or whistled above. The man next to him was struck and dropped
+with a groan; another fell back dead. The horror and roar were overmuch.
+Rolf was nervous enough when he entered the fight. Now he was unstrung,
+almost stunned, his hands and knees were shaking, he was nearly
+panic-stricken and could not resist the temptation to duck, as the balls
+hissed murder over his head. He was blazing away, without aiming, when
+an old soldier, noting his white face and shaking form, laid a hand
+on his shoulder and, in kindly tones, said: “Steady, boy, steady;
+yer losing yer head; see, this is how,” and he calmly took aim, then,
+without firing, moved the gun again and put a little stick to raise the
+muzzle and make a better rest, then fired as though at target practice.
+“Now rest for a minute. Look at Quonab there; you can see he's been
+through it before. He is making a hit with every shot.”
+
+Rolf did as he was told, and in a few minutes his colour came back,
+his hand was steady, and thenceforth he began to forget the danger and
+thought only of doing his work.
+
+When at length it was seen that the British were preparing to charge,
+the Americans withdrew quickly and safely to Halsey's Corner, where was
+another barricade and a fresh lot of recruits awaiting to receive their
+baptism of fire. And the scene was repeated. Little damage was done to
+the foe but enormous benefit was gained by the Americans, because it
+took only one or two of these skirmishes to turn a lot of shaky-kneed
+volunteers into a band of steady soldiers--for they had it all inside.
+Thus their powder terror died.
+
+That night the British occupied the part of the town that was north
+of the Saranac, and began a desultory bombardment of the fortification
+opposite. Not a very serious one, for they considered they could take
+the town at any time, but preferred to await the arrival of their fleet
+under Downie.
+
+The fight for the northern half of the town was not serious, merely part
+of Macomb's prearranged training course; but when the Americans retired
+across the Saranac, the planks of the bridges were torn up, loop-holed
+barricades were built along the southern bank, and no effort spared to
+prepare for a desperate resistance.
+
+Every man that could hold up a gun was posted on the lines of
+Plattsburg. The school-boys, even, to the number of five hundred formed
+a brigade, and were assigned to places where their squirrel-hunting
+experiences could be made of service to their country.
+
+Meanwhile the British had established a battery opposite Fort Brown. It
+was in a position to do some material and enormous moral damage. On the
+ninth it was nearly ready for bloody work, and would probably begin next
+morning. That night, however, an extraordinary event took place, and
+showed how far from terror-palsy were the motley troops in Plattsburg. A
+sturdy Vermonter, named Captain McGlassin, got permission of Malcomb to
+attempt a very Spartan sortie.
+
+He called for fifty volunteers to go on a most hazardous enterprise. He
+got one thousand at once. Then he ordered all over twenty-five and under
+eighteen to retire. This reduced the number to three hundred. Then,
+all married men were retired, and thus again they were halved. Next he
+ordered away all who smoked--Ah, deep philosopher that he was!--and from
+the remnant he selected his fifty. Among them was Rolf. Then he divulged
+his plan. It was nothing less than a dash on the new-made fort to spike
+those awful guns--fifty men to dash into a camp of thirteen thousand.
+
+Again he announced, “Any who wish to withdraw now may do so.” Not a man
+stirred.
+
+Twenty of those known to be expert with tools were provided with hammers
+and spikes for the guns, and Rolf was proud to be one of them.
+
+In a night of storm and blackness they crossed the Saranac; dividing in
+two bodies they crawled unseen, one on each side of the battery. Three
+hundred British soldiers were sleeping near, only the sentries peered
+into the storm-sleet.
+
+All was ready when McGlassin's tremendous voice was heard, “Charge
+front and rear!” Yelling, pounding, making all the noise they could, the
+American boys rushed forth. The British were completely surprised, the
+sentries were struck down, and the rest assured that Macomb's army was
+on them recoiled for a few minutes. The sharp click, click, click of the
+hammers was heard. An iron spike was driven into every touch hole;
+the guns were made harmless as logs and quickly wheeling, to avoid the
+return attack, these bold Yankee boys leaped from the muzzled redoubt
+and reached their own camp without losing one of their number.
+
+
+
+Chapter 80. The Bloody Saranac
+
+Sir George Prevost had had no intention of taking Plattsburg, till
+Plattsburg's navy was captured. But the moral effect of McGlassin's
+exploit must be offset at once. He decided to carry the city by storm--a
+matter probably of three hours' work.
+
+He apportioned a regiment to each bridge, another to each ford near the
+town, another to cross the river at Pike's Cantonment, and yet another
+to cross twenty miles above, where they were to harry the fragments of
+the American as it fled.
+
+That morning Plattsburg was wakened by a renewal of the bombardment. The
+heavy firing killed a few men knocked down a few walls and chimneys, but
+did little damage to the earthworks.
+
+It was surprising to all how soon the defenders lost their gun-shyness.
+The very school-boys and their sisters went calmly about their business,
+with cannon and musket balls whistling overhead, striking the walls and
+windows, or, on rare occasions, dropping some rifleman who was over-rash
+as he worked or walked on the ramparts.
+
+There were big things doing in the British camp--regiments marching and
+taking their places--storms of rifle and cannon balls raging fiercely.
+By ten o'clock there was a lull. The Americans, from the grandfathers to
+the school-boys, were posted, each with his rifle and his pouch full of
+balls; there were pale faces among the youngsters, and nervous fingers,
+but there was no giving way. Many a man there was, no doubt, who, under
+the impulse of patriotism, rushed with his gun to join the ranks, and
+when the bloody front was reached, he wished in his heart he was safe at
+home. But they did not go. Something kept them staunch.
+
+Although the lines were complete all along the ramparts, there were four
+places where the men were massed. These were on the embankments opposite
+the bridges and the fords. Here the best shots were placed and among
+them was Rolf, with others of McGlassin's band.
+
+The plank of the bridges had been torn up and used with earth to form
+breastworks; but the stringers of the bridges were there, and a body of
+red-coats approaching, each of them showed plainly what their plan was.
+
+The farthest effective range of rifle fire in those days was reckoned at
+a hundred yards. The Americans were ordered to hold their fire till
+the enemy reached the oaks, a grove one hundred yards from the main
+bridge--on the other bank.
+
+The British came on in perfect review-day style. Now a hush fell on all.
+The British officer in command was heard clearly giving his orders. How
+strange it must have been to the veterans of wars in Spain, France,
+and the Rhine, to advance against a force with whom they needed no
+interpreter.
+
+McGlassin's deep voice now rang along the defences, “Don't fire till I
+give the order.”
+
+The red-coats came on at a trot, they reached the hundred-yard-mark.
+
+“Now, aim low and fire!” from McGlassin, and the rattle of the Yankee
+guns was followed by reeling ranks of red in the oaks.
+
+“Charge!” shouted the British officer and the red-coats charged to the
+bridge, but the fire from the embankment was incessant; the trail of the
+charging men was cluttered with those who fell.
+
+“Forward!” and the gallant British captain leaped on the central
+stringer of the bridge and, waving his sword, led on. Instantly three
+lines of men were formed, one on each stringer.
+
+They were only fifty yards from the barricade, with five hundred rifles,
+all concentrated on these stringers. The first to fall was the captain,
+shot through the heart, and the river bore him away. But on and on came
+the three ranks into the whistling, withering fire of lead. It was like
+slaughtering sheep. Yet on and on they marched steadily for half an
+hour. Not a man held back or turned, though all knew they were marching
+to their certain death. Not one of them ever reached the centre of the
+span, and those who dropped, not dead, were swallowed by the swollen
+stream. How many hundred brave men were sacrificed that day, no one ever
+knew. He who gave the word to charge was dead with his second and third
+in command and before another could come to change the order, the river
+ran red--the bloody Saranac they call it ever since.
+
+The regiment was wrecked, and the assault for the time was over.
+
+Rolf had plied his rifle with the rest, but it sickened him to see the
+horrible waste of human valour. It was such ghastly work that he was
+glad indeed when a messenger came to say he was needed at headquarters.
+And in an hour he was crossing the lake with news and instructions for
+the officer in command at Burlington.
+
+
+
+Chapter 81. The Battle of Plattsburg
+
+In broad daylight he skimmed away in his one man canoe.
+
+For five hours he paddled, and at star-peep he reached the dock at
+Burlington. The howl of a lost dog caught his ear; and when he traced
+the sound, there, on the outmost plank, with his nose to the skies, was
+the familiar form of Skookum, wailing and sadly alone.
+
+What a change he showed when Rolf landed; he barked, leaped, growled,
+tail-wagged, head-wagged, feet-wagged, body-wagged, wig-wagged and
+zigzagged for joy; he raced in circles, looking for a sacrificial hen,
+and finally uttered a long and conversational whine that doubtless was
+full of information for those who could get it out.
+
+Rolf delivered his budget at once. It was good news, but not conclusive.
+Everything depended now on MacDonough. In the morning all available
+troops should hurry to the defence of Plattsburg; not less than fifteen
+hundred men were ready to embark at daylight.
+
+That night Rolf slept with Skookum in the barracks. At daybreak, much
+to the latter's disgust, he was locked up in a cellar, and the troops
+embarked for the front.
+
+It was a brisk north wind they had to face in crossing and passing down
+the lake. There were many sturdy oarsmen at the sweeps, but they could
+not hope to reach their goal in less than five hours.
+
+When they were half way over, they heard the cannon roar; the booming
+became incessant; without question, a great naval battle was on, for
+this north wind was what the British had been awaiting. The rowers bent
+to their task and added to the speed. Their brothers were hard pressed;
+they knew it, they must make haste. The long boats flew. In an hour they
+could see the masts, the sails, the smoke of the battle, but nothing
+gather of the portentous result. Albany and New York, as well as
+Plattsburg, were in the balance, and the oarsmen rowed and rowed and
+rowed.
+
+The cannon roared louder and louder, though less continuously, as
+another hour passed. Now they could see the vessels only four miles
+away. The jets of smoke were intermittent from the guns; masts went
+down. They could see it plainly. The rowers only set their lips and
+rowed and rowed and rowed.
+
+Sir George had reckoned on but one obstacle in his march to Albany, an
+obstruction named MacDonough; but he now found there was another called
+Macomb.
+
+It was obviously a waste of men to take Plattsburg by front assault,
+when he could easily force a passage of the river higher up and take it
+on the rear; and it was equally clear that when his fleet arrived and
+crushed the American fleet, it would be a simple matter for the war
+vessels to blow the town to pieces, without risking a man.
+
+Already a favouring wind had made it possible for Downie to leave Isle
+au Noix and sail down the lake with his gallant crew, under gallant
+canvas clouds.
+
+Tried men and true in control of every ship, outnumbering MacDonough,
+outweighing him, outpointing him in everything but seamanship, they came
+on, sure of success.
+
+Three chief moves were in MacDonough's strategy. He anchored to the
+northward of the bay, so that any fleet coming down the lake would have
+to beat up against the wind to reach him; so close to land that any
+fleet trying to flank him would come within range of the forts; and left
+only one apparent gap that a foe might try to use, a gap in front
+of which was a dangerous sunken reef. This was indeed a baited trap.
+Finally he put out cables, kedges, anchors, and springs, so that with
+the capstan he could turn his vessels and bring either side to bear on
+the foe.
+
+All was ready, that morning of September the 11th as the British fleet,
+ably handled, swung around the Cumberland Head.
+
+The young commander of the Yankee fleet now kneeled bareheaded with his
+crew and prayed to the God of Battles as only those going into battle
+pray. The gallant foe came on, and who that knows him doubts that he,
+too, raised his heart in reverent prayer? The first broadside from the
+British broke open a chicken coop on the Saratoga from which a game-cock
+flew, and, perching on a gun, flapped his wings and crowed; so all the
+seamen cheered at such a happy omen.
+
+Then followed the fighting, with its bravery and its horrors--its
+brutish wickedness broke loose.
+
+Early in the action, the British sloop, Finch, fell into MacDonough's
+trap and grounded on the reef.
+
+The British commander was killed, with many of his officers. Still,
+the heavy fire of the guns would have given them the victory, but for
+MacDonough's foresight in providing for swinging his ships. When one
+broadside was entirely out of action, he used his cables, kedges and
+springs, and brought the other batteries to bear.
+
+It was one of the most desperate naval fights the world has ever seen.
+Of the three hundred men on the British flagship not more than five, we
+are told, escaped uninjured; and at the close there was not left on any
+one of the eight vessels a mast that could carry sail, or a sail that
+could render service. In less than two hours and a half the fight was
+won, and the British fleet destroyed.
+
+To the God of Battles each had committed his cause: and the God of
+Battles had spoken.
+
+Far away to the southward in the boats were the Vermont troops with
+their general and Rolf in the foremost. Every sign of the fight they had
+watched as men whose country's fate is being tried.
+
+It was a quarter after eleven when the thunder died away; and the
+Vermonters were headed on shore, for a hasty landing, if need be, when
+down from the peak of the British flag-ship went the Union Jack, and the
+Stars and Stripes was hauled to take its place.
+
+“Thank God!” a soft, murmuring sigh ran through all the boats and many
+a bronzed and bearded cheek was wet with tears. Each man clasped hands
+with his neighbour; all were deeply moved, and even as an audience
+melted renders no applause, so none felt any wish to vent his deep
+emotion in a cheer.
+
+
+
+Chapter 82. Scouting for Macomb
+
+General Macomb knew that Sir George Prevost was a cautious and
+experienced commander. The loss of his fleet would certainly make a
+radical change in his plans, but what change? Would he make a flank
+move and dash on to Albany, or retreat to Canada, or entrench himself to
+await reinforcements at Plattsburg, or try to retrieve his laurels by an
+overwhelming assault on the town?
+
+Whatever his plan, he would set about it quickly, and Macomb studied
+the enemy's camp with a keen, discerning eye, but nothing suggesting a
+change was visible when the sun sank in the rainy west.
+
+It was vital that he know it at once when an important move was begun,
+and as soon as the night came down, a score of the swiftest scouts were
+called for. All were young men; most of them had been in McGlassin's
+band. Rolf was conspicuous among them for his tall figure, but there
+was a Vermont boy named Seymour, who had the reputation of being the
+swiftest runner of them all.
+
+They had two duties laid before them: first, to find whether Prevost's
+army was really retreating; second, what of the regiment he sent up the
+Saranac to perform the flank movement.
+
+Each was given the country he knew best. Some went westerly, some
+followed up the river. Rolf, Seymour, and Fiske, another Vermonter,
+skimmed out of Plattsburg harbour in the dusk, rounded Cumberland Bend,
+and at nine o'clock landed at Point au Roche, at the north side of
+Treadwell's Bay.
+
+Here they hid the canoe and agreeing to meet again at midnight, set
+off in three different westerly directions to strike the highway at
+different points. Seymour, as the fast racer, was given the northmost
+route; Rolf took the middle. Their signals were arranged--in the woods
+the barred-owl cry, by the water the loon; and they parted.
+
+The woods seemed very solemn to Rolf that historic September night,
+as he strode along at speed, stopping now and again when he thought he
+heard some signal, and opened wide his mouth to relieve his ear-drums of
+the heart-beat or to still the rushing of his breath.
+
+In half an hour he reached the high-road. It was deserted. Then he heard
+a cry of the barred owl:
+
+Wa--wah--wa--wah Wa--wah--wa--hooooo-aw.
+
+He replied with the last line, and the answer came a repeat of the whole
+chant, showing that it might be owl, it might be man; but it was not the
+right man, for the final response should have been the hooooo-aw. Rolf
+never knew whence it came, but gave no further heed.
+
+For a long time he sat in a dark corner, where he could watch the road.
+There were sounds of stir in the direction of Plattsburg. Then later,
+and much nearer, a couple of shots were fired. He learned afterward that
+those shots were meant for one of his friends. At length there was a
+faint tump ta tump ta. He drew his knife, stuck it deep in the ground,
+then held the handle in his teeth. This acted like a magnifier, for now
+he heard it plainly enough--the sound of a horse at full gallop--but so
+far away that it was five minutes before he could clearly hear it while
+standing. As the sound neared, he heard the clank of arms, and when it
+passed, Rolf knew that this was a mounted British officer. But why, and
+whither?
+
+In order to learn the rider's route, Rolf followed at a trot for a mile.
+This brought him to a hilltop, whither in the silent night, that fateful
+north wind carried still the sound
+
+     te--rump te--rump te--rump.
+
+As it was nearly lost, Rolf used his knife again; that brought the rider
+back within a mile it seemed, and again the hoof beat faded, te--rump
+te--rump.
+
+“Bound for Canada all right,” Rolf chuckled to himself. But there was
+nothing to show whether this was a mere despatch rider, or an advance
+scout, or a call for reinforcements.
+
+So again he had a long wait. About half-past ten a new and larger sound
+came from the south. The knife in the ground increased but did not
+explain it. The night was moonless, dark now, and it was safe to sit
+very near the road. In twenty minutes the sound was near at hand in
+five, a dark mass was passing along the road. There is no mistaking the
+language of drivers. There is never any question about such and such a
+voice being that of an English officer. There can be no doubt about
+the clank of heavy wheels--a rich, tangy voice from some one in advance
+said: “Oui. Parbleu, tows ce que je sais, c'est par la.” A body of about
+one hundred Britishers, two or three wagons, guns, and a Frenchman for
+guide. Rolf thought he knew that voice; yes, he was almost sure it was
+the voice of Francios la Colle.
+
+This was important but far from conclusive. It was now eleven. He was
+due at the canoe by midnight. He made for the place as fast as he could
+go, which, on such a night, was slow, but guided by occasional glimpses
+of the stars he reached the lake, and pausing a furlong from the
+landing, he gave the rolling, quivering loon call:
+
+Ho-o-o-o-ooo-o Ho-o-o-o-ooo-o. Hooo-ooo.
+
+After ten seconds the answer came:
+
+Ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o Hoo-ooo.
+
+And again after ten seconds Rolf's reply:
+
+Hoo-ooo.
+
+Both his friends were there; Fiske with a bullet-hole through his arm.
+It seemed their duty to go back at once to headquarters with the meagre
+information and their wounded comrade. But Fiske made light of his
+trouble--it was a mere scratch--and reminded them that their orders were
+to make sure of the enemy's movements. Therefore, it was arranged that
+Seymour take back Fiske and what news they had, while Rolf went on to
+complete his scouting.
+
+By one o'clock he was again on the hill where he had marked the
+horseman's outward flight and the escorted guns. Now, as he waited,
+there were sounds in the north that faded, and in the south were similar
+sounds that grew. Within an hour he was viewing a still larger body
+of troops with drivers and wheels that clanked. There were only two
+explanations possible: Either the British were concentrating on Chazy
+Landing, where, protected from MacDonough by the north wind, they
+could bring enough stores and forces from the north to march overland
+independent of the ships, or else they were in full retreat for Canada.
+There was but one point where this could be made sure, namely, at the
+forks of the road in Chazy village. So he set out at a jog trot for
+Chazy, six miles away.
+
+The troops ahead were going three miles an hour. Rolf could go five.
+In twenty minutes he overtook them and now was embarrassed by their
+slowness. What should he do? It was nearly impossible to make speed
+through the woods in the darkness, so as to pass them. He was forced to
+content himself by marching a few yards in their rear.
+
+Once or twice when a group fell back, he was uncomfortably close and
+heard scraps of their talk.
+
+These left little doubt that the army was in retreat. Still this was the
+mere chatter of the ranks. He curbed his impatience and trudged with
+the troop. Once a man dropped back to light his pipe. He almost touched
+Rolf, and seeing a marching figure, asked in unmistakable accents “Oi
+soi matey, 'ave ye a loight?”
+
+Rolf assumed the low south country English dialect, already familiar
+through talking with prisoners, and replied: “Naow, oi oin't
+a-smowking,” then gradually dropped out of sight.
+
+They were nearly two hours in reaching Chazy where they passed the
+Forks, going straight on north. Without doubt, now, the army was bound
+for Canada! Rolf sat on a fence near by as their footsteps went tramp,
+tramp, tramp--with the wagons, clank, clank, clank, and were lost in the
+northern distance.
+
+He had seen perhaps three hundred men; there were thirteen thousand to
+account for, and he sat and waited. He did not have long to wait; within
+half an hour a much larger body of troops evidently was approaching from
+the south; several lanterns gleamed ahead of them, so Rolf got over the
+fence, but it was low and its pickets offered poor shelter. Farther back
+was Judge Hubbell's familiar abode with dense shrubbery. He hastened
+to it and in a minute was hidden where he could see something of the
+approaching troops. They were much like those that had gone before, but
+much more numerous, at least a regiment, and as they filled the village
+way, an officer cried “Halt!” and gave new orders. Evidently they were
+about to bivouac for the night. A soldier approached the picket fence
+to use it for firewood, but an officer rebuked him. Other fuel, chiefly
+fence rails, was found, and a score or more of fires were lighted on the
+highway and in the adjoining pasture. Rolf found himself in something
+like a trap, for in less than two hours now would be the dawn.
+
+The simplest way out was to go in; he crawled quietly round the house to
+the window of Mrs. Hubbell's room. These were times of nervous tension,
+and three or four taps on the pane were enough to arouse the good lady.
+Her husband had come that way more than once.
+
+“Who is it?” she demanded, through a small opening of the sash.
+
+“Rolf Kittering,” he whispered, “the place is surrounded by soldiers;
+can't you hide me?”
+
+Could she? Imagine an American woman saying “No” at such a time.
+
+He slipped in quietly.
+
+“What news?” she said. “They say that MacDonough has won on the Lake,
+but Plattsburg is taken.”
+
+“No, indeed; Plattsburgh is safe; MacDonough has captured the fleet. I
+am nearly sure that the whole British army is retiring to Canada.”
+
+“Thank God, thank God,” she said fervently, “I knew it must be so; the
+women have met here and prayed together every day, morning and night.
+But hush!” she laid a warning finger on her lips and pointed up toward
+one of the rooms--“British officer.”
+
+She brought two blankets from a press and led up to the garret. At the
+lowest part of the roof was a tiny door to a lumber closet. In this
+Rolf spread his blankets, stretched his weary limbs, and soon was sound
+asleep.
+
+At dawn the bugles blew, the camp was astir. The officer in the house
+arose and took his post on the porch. He was there on guard to protect
+the house. His brother officers joined him. Mrs. Hubbell prepared
+breakfast. It was eaten silently, so far as Rolf could learn. They paid
+for it and, heading their regiment, went away northward, leaving the
+officer still on the porch.
+
+Presently Rolf heard a stealthy step in his garret, the closed door was
+pushed open, and Mrs. Hubbell's calm, handsome face appeared, as, with a
+reassuring nod, she set down a mug of coffee, some bread, and a bowl of
+mush and milk. And only those who have travelled and fasted for twelve
+hours when they were nineteen know how good it tasted.
+
+From a tiny window ventilator Rolf had a view of the road in front.
+A growing din of men prepared him for more troops, but still he was
+surprised to see ten regiments march past with all their stores--a brave
+army, but no one could mistake their looks; they wore the despondent air
+of an army in full retreat.
+
+
+
+Chapter 83. The Last of Sir George Prevost
+
+The battle was over at Plattsburg town, though it had not been fought;
+for the spirit of MacDonough was on land and water, and it was felt
+by the British general, as well as the Yankee riflemen, as soon as the
+Union Jack had been hauled from the mast of the Confiance.
+
+Now Sir George Prevost had to face a momentous decision: He could
+force the passage of the Saranac and march on to Albany, but his
+communications would be cut, and he must rely on a hostile country for
+supplies. Every day drew fresh bands of riflemen from the hills. Before
+he could get to Albany their number might exceed his, and then what?
+Unless Great Britain could send a new army or a fleet to support him, he
+must meet the fate of Burgoyne. Prevost proposed to take no such chances
+and the night of the 11th eight hours after MacDonough's victory, he
+gave the order “Retire to Canada.”
+
+To hide the move as long as possible, no change was made till after
+sundown; no hint was given to the beleaguered town; they must have no
+opportunity to reap the enormous advantages, moral and material, of
+harrying a retreating foe. They must arise in the morning to find the
+enemy safely over the border. The plan was perfect, and would have been
+literally carried out, had not he had to deal with a foe as clever as
+himself.
+
+How eagerly Rolf took in the scene on Chazy Road; how much it meant! how
+he longed to fly at his fastest famous speed with the stirring news. In
+two hours and a half he could surely let his leader know. And he gazed
+with a sort of superior pride at the martial pomp and bravery of the
+invaders driven forth.
+
+Near the last was a gallant array of gentlemen in gorgeous uniforms
+of scarlet and gold; how warlike they looked, how splendid beside the
+ill-clad riflemen of Vermont and the rude hunters of the Adirondacks.
+How much more beautiful is an iron sword with jewels, than a sword of
+plain gray steel.
+
+Dame Hubbell stood in her door as they went by. Each and all saluted
+politely; her guard was ordered to join his regiment. The lady waved
+her sun-bonnet in response to their courteous good-bye, and could not
+refrain from calling out:
+
+“How about my prophecy, Sir George, and those purses?”
+
+Rolf could not see his hostess, but he heard her voice, and he saw the
+astonishing effect:
+
+The British general reined in his horse. “A gentleman's word is his
+bond, madam,” he said. “Let every officer now throw his purse at the
+lady's feet,” and he set the example. A dozen rattling thuds were heard
+and a dozen officers saluting, purseless, rode away.
+
+A round thousand dollars in gold the lady gathered on her porch that
+morning, and to this day her grand-kin tell the tale.
+
+
+
+Chapter 84. Rolf Unmasks the Ambush
+
+Rolf's information was complete now, and all that remained was to report
+at Plattsburg. Ten regiments he had counted from his peep hole. The
+rear guard passed at ten o'clock. At eleven Mrs. Hubbell did a little
+scouting and reported that all was quiet as far as she could see both
+ways, and no enemy in sight anywhere.
+
+With a grateful hand shake he left the house to cover the fourteen miles
+that lay between Chazy and Plattsburg.
+
+Refreshed and fed, young and strong, the representative of a just and
+victorious cause, how he exulted in that run, rejoicing in his youth,
+his country, his strength, his legs, his fame as a runner. Starting at
+a stride he soon was trotting; then, when the noon hour came, he had
+covered a good six miles. Now he heard faint, far shots, and going more
+slowly was soon conscious that a running fight was on between his own
+people and the body of British sent westward to hold the upper Saranac.
+
+True to the instinct of the scout, his first business was to find out
+exactly what and where they were. From a thick tree top he saw the
+red-coats spotting an opening of the distant country. Then they were
+lost sight of in the woods. The desultory firing became volley firing,
+once or twice. Then there was an interval of silence. At length a mass
+of red-coats appeared on the highway within half a mile. They were
+travelling very fast, in full retreat, and were coming his way. On the
+crest of the hill over which the road ran, Rolf saw them suddenly drop
+to the ground and take up position to form a most dangerous ambuscade,
+and half a mile away, straggling through the woods, running or striding,
+were the men in the colours he loved. They had swept the enemy before
+them, so far, but trained troops speedily recover from a panic, if they
+have a leader of nerve, and seeing a noble chance in the angle of this
+deep-sunk road, the British fugitives turned like boars at bay. Not a
+sign of them was visible to the Americans. The latter were suffering
+from too much success. Their usual caution seemed to have deserted them,
+and trotting in a body they came along the narrow road, hemmed in by a
+forest and soon to be hedged with cliffs of clay. They were heading for
+a death-trap. At any price he must warn them. He slid down the tree, and
+keeping cover ran as fast as possible toward the ambush. It was the only
+hill near--Beekman's Rise, they call it. As far as possible from the
+red-coats, but still on the hill that gave a view, he leaped on to a
+high stump and yelled as he never did before: “Go back, go back! A
+trap! A trap!” And lifting high his outspread hands he flung their palms
+toward his friends, the old-time signal for “go back.”
+
+Not twice did they need warning. Like hunted wolves they flashed from
+view in the nearest cover. A harmless volley from the baffled ambush
+rattled amongst them, and leaping from his stump Rolf ran for life.
+
+Furious at their failure, a score of red-coats, reloading as they ran,
+came hot-footed after him. Down into cover of an alder swamp he plunged,
+and confident of his speed, ran on, dashing through thickets and
+mudholes. He knew that the red-coats would not follow far in such a
+place, and his comrades were near. But the alder thicket ended at a
+field. He heard the bushes crashing close at hand, and dashed down a
+little ravine at whose lower edge the friendly forest recommenced. That
+was his fatal mistake. The moment he took to the open there was a rattle
+of rifles from the hill above, and Rolf fell on his face as dead.
+
+It was after noontide when he fell; he must have lain unconscious for
+an hour; when he came to himself he was lying still in that hollow,
+absolutely alone. The red-coats doubtless had continued their flight
+with the Yankee boys behind them. His face was covered with blood. His
+coat was torn and bloody; his trousers showed a ragged rent that was
+reddened and sopping. His head was aching, and in his leg was the pain
+of a cripplement. He knew it as soon as he tried to move; his right leg
+was shattered below the knee. The other shots had grazed his arm and
+head; the latter had stunned him for a time, but did no deeper damage.
+
+He lay still for a long time, in hopes that some of his friends
+might come. He tried to raise his voice, but had no strength. Then he
+remembered the smoke signal that had saved him when he was lost in the
+woods. In spite of his wounded arm, he got out his flint and steel, and
+prepared to make a fire. But all the small wood he could reach was wet
+with recent rains. An old pine stump was on the bank not far away; he
+might cut kindling-wood from that to start his fire, and he reached for
+his knife. Alas! its case was empty. Had Rolf been four years younger,
+he might have broken down and wept at this. It did seem such an
+unnecessary accumulation of disasters. Without gun or knife, how was he
+to call his friends?
+
+He straightened his mangled limb in the position of least pain and lay
+for a while. The September sun fell on his back and warmed him. He was
+parched with thirst, but only thirty yards away was a little rill. With
+a long and fearful crawling on his breast, he dragged himself to the
+stream and drank till he could drink no more, then rested, washed his
+head and hands, 'and tried to crawl again to the warm place. But the sun
+had dropped behind the river bank, the little ravine was in shadow, and
+the chill of the grave was on the young man's pain-racked frame.
+
+Shadows crossed his brain, among them Si Sylvanne with his quaint
+sayings, and one above all was clear:
+
+“Trouble is only sent to make ye do yer best. When ye hev done yer best,
+keep calm and wait. Things is comin' all right.” Yes, that was what he
+said, and the mockery of it hurt him now.
+
+The sunset slowly ended; the night wind blew; the dragging hours brought
+gloom that entered in. This seemed indeed the direst strait of his lot.
+Crippled, dying of cold, helpless, nothing to do but wait and die, and
+from his groaning lips there came the half-forgotten prayer his mother
+taught him long ago, “O God, have mercy on me!” and then he forgot.
+
+When he awoke, the stars were shining; he was numb with cold, but his
+mind was clear.
+
+“This is war,” he thought, “and God knows we never sought it.” And again
+the thought: “When I offered to serve my country, I offered my life. I
+am willing to die, but this is not a way of my choosing,” and a blessed,
+forgetfulness came upon him again.
+
+But his was a stubborn-fibred race; his spark of life was not so quickly
+quenched; its blazing torch might waver, wane, and wax again. In the
+chill, dark hour when the life-lamp flickers most, he wakened to hear
+the sweet, sweet music of a dog's loud bark; in a minute he heard it
+nearer, and yet again at hand, and Skookum, erratic, unruly, faithful
+Skookum, was bounding around and barking madly at the calm, unblinking
+stars.
+
+A human “halloo” rang not far away; then others, and Skookum barked and
+barked.
+
+Now the bushes rustled near, a man came out, kneeled down, laid hand
+on the dying soldier's brow, and his heart. He opened his eyes, the man
+bent over him and softly said, “Nibowaka! it's Quonab.”
+
+That night when the victorious rangers had returned to Plattsburg it
+was a town of glad, thankful hearts, and human love ran strong.
+The thrilling stories of the day were told, the crucial moment, the
+providential way in which at every hopeless pass, some easy, natural
+miracle took place to fight their battle and back their country's cause.
+The harrying of the flying rear-guard, the ambuscade over the hill, the
+appearance of an American scout at the nick of time to warn them--the
+shooting, and his disappearance--all were discussed.
+
+Then rollicking Seymour and silent Fiske told of their scouting on the
+trail of the beaten foe; and all asked, “Where is Kittering?” So talk
+was rife, and there was one who showed a knife he had picked up near the
+ambuscade with R. K. on the shaft.
+
+Now a dark-faced scout rose up, stared at the knife, and quickly left
+the room. In three minutes he stood before General Macomb, his words
+were few, but from his heart:
+
+“It is my boy, Nibowaka; it is Rolf; my heart tells me. Let me go. I
+feel him praying for me to come. Let me go, general. I must go.”
+
+It takes a great man to gauge the heart of a man who seldom speaks. “You
+may go, but how can you find him tonight?”
+
+“Ugh, I find him,” and the Indian pointed to a little, prick-eared,
+yellow cur that sneaked at his heels.
+
+“Success to you; he was one of the best we had,” said the general, as
+the Indian left, then added: “Take a couple of men along, and, here,
+take this,” and he held out a flask.
+
+Thus it was that the dawning saw Rolf on a stretcher carried by his
+three scouting partners, while Skookum trotted ahead, looking this way
+and that--they should surely not be ambushed this time.
+
+And thus the crowning misfortune, the culminating apes of disaster--the
+loss of his knife--the thing of all others that roused in Rolf the
+spirit of rebellion, was the way of life, his dungeon's key, the golden
+chain that haled him from the pit.
+
+
+
+Chapter 85. The Hospital, the Prisoners, and Home
+
+There were wagons and buckboards to be had, but the road was rough,
+so the three changed off as litter-bearers and brought him to the lake
+where the swift and smooth canoe was ready, and two hours later they
+carried him into the hospital at Plattsburg.
+
+The leg was set at once, his wounds were dressed, he was warmed,
+cleaned, and fed; and when the morning sun shone in the room, it was a
+room of calm and peace.
+
+The general came and sat beside him for a time, and the words he spoke
+were ample, joyful compensation for his wounds. MacDonough, too, passed
+through the ward, and the warm vibrations of his presence drove death
+from many a bed whose inmate's force ebbed low, whose soul was walking
+on the brink, was near surrender.
+
+Rolf did not fully realize it then, but long afterward it was clear that
+this was the meaning of the well-worn words, “He filled them with a new
+spirit.”
+
+There was not a man in the town but believed the war was over; there was
+not a man in the town who doubted that his country's cause was won.
+
+Three weeks is a long time to a youth near manhood, but there was much
+of joy to while away the hours. The mothers of the town came and read
+and talked. There was news from the front. There were victories on the
+high seas. His comrades came to sit beside him; Seymour, the sprinter,
+as merry a soul as ever hankered for the stage and the red cups of life;
+Fiske, the silent, and McGlassin, too, with his dry, humorous talk;
+these were the bright and funny hours. There were others. There came a
+bright-checked Vermont mother whose three sons had died in service at
+MacDonough's guns; and she told of it in a calm voice, as one who speaks
+of her proudest honour. Yes, she rejoiced that God had given her three
+such sons, and had taken again His gifts in such a day of glory. Had
+England's rulers only known, that this was the spirit of the land that
+spoke, how well they might have asked: “What boots it if we win a few
+battles, and burn a few towns; it is a little gain and passing; for
+there is one thing that no armies, ships, or laws, or power on earth,
+or hell itself can down or crush--that alone is the thing that counts or
+endures--the thing that permeates these men, that finds its focal centre
+in such souls as that of the Vermont mother, steadfast, proud, and
+rejoicing in her bereavement.”
+
+But these were forms that came and went; there were two that seldom were
+away--the tall and supple one of the dark face and the easy tread, and
+his yellow shadow--the ever unpopular, snappish, prick-eared cur, that
+held by force of arms all territories at floor level contiguous to,
+under, comprised, and bounded by, the four square legs and corners of
+the bed.
+
+Quonab's nightly couch was a blanket not far away, and his daily,
+self-given task to watch the wounded and try by devious ways and plots
+to trick him into eating ever larger meals.
+
+Garrison duty was light now, so Quonab sought the woods where the flocks
+of partridge swarmed, with Skookum as his aid. It was the latter's
+joyful duty to find and tree the birds, and “yap” below, till Quonab
+came up quietly with bow and blunt arrows, to fill his game-bag; and
+thus the best of fare was ever by the invalid's bed.
+
+Rolf's was easily a winning fight from the first, and in a week he was
+eating well, sleeping well, and growing visibly daily stronger.
+
+Then on a fleckless dawn that heralded a sun triumphant, the Indian
+borrowed a drum from the bandsman, and, standing on the highest
+breastwork, he gazed across the dark waters to the whitening hills.
+There on a tiny fire he laid tobacco and kinnikinnik, as Gisiss the
+Shining One burnt the rugged world rim at Vermont, and, tapping softly
+with one stick, he gazed upward, after the sacrificial thread of smoke,
+and sang in his own tongue:
+
+“Father, I burn tobacco, I smoke to Thee. I sing for my heart is
+singing.”
+
+Pleasant chatter of the East was current by Rolf's bedside. Stories
+of homes in the hills he heard, tales of hearths by far away lakes and
+streams, memories of golden haired children waiting for father's or
+brother's return from the wars. Wives came to claim their husbands,
+mothers to bring away their boys, to gain again their strength at home.
+And his own heart went back, and ever back, to the rugged farm on the
+shores of the noble George.
+
+In two weeks he was able to sit up. In three he could hobble, and he
+moved about the town when the days were warm.
+
+And now he made the acquaintance of the prisoners. They were closely
+guarded and numbered over a hundred. It gave him a peculiar sensation
+to see them there. It seemed un-American to hold a human captive; but
+he realized that it was necessary to keep them for use as hostages and
+exchanges.
+
+Some of them he found to be sullen brutes, but many were kind and
+friendly, and proved to be jolly good fellows.
+
+On the occasion of his second visit, a familiar voice saluted him with,
+“Well, Rolf! Comment ca va?” and he had the painful joy of greeting
+Francois la Colle.
+
+“You'll help me get away, Rolf, won't you?” and the little Frenchman
+whispered and winked. “I have seven little ones now on La Riviere, dat
+have no flour, and tinks dere pa is dead.”
+
+“I'll do all I can, Francois,” and the picture of the desolate home,
+brought a husk in his voice and a choke in his throat. He remembered too
+the musket ball that by intent had whistled harmless overhead. “But,” he
+added in a shaky voice, “I cannot help my country's enemy to escape.”
+
+Then Rolf took counsel with McGlassin, told him all about the affair
+at the mill, and McGlassin with a heart worthy of his mighty shoulders,
+entered into the spirit of the situation, went to General Macomb
+presenting such a tale and petition that six hours later Francis bearing
+a passport through the lines was trudging away to Canada, paroled for
+the rest of the war.
+
+There was another face that Rolf recognized--hollow-cheeked,
+flabby-jowled and purplish-gray. The man was one of the oldest of the
+prisoners. He wore a white beard end moustache. He did not recognize
+Rolf, but Rolf knew him, for this was Micky Kittering. How he escaped
+from jail and joined the enemy was an episode of the war's first year.
+Rolf was shocked to see what a miserable wreck his uncle was. He could
+not do him any good. To identify him would have resulted in his being
+treated as a renegade, so on the plea that he was an old man, Rolf saw
+that the prisoner had extra accommodation and out of his own pocket kept
+him abundantly supplied with tobacco. Then in his heart he forgave him,
+and kept away. They never met again.
+
+The bulk of the militia had been disbanded after the great battle. A
+few of the scouts and enough men to garrison the fort and guard the
+prisoners were retained. Each day there were joyful partings--the men
+with homes, going home. And the thought that ever waxed in Rolf came on
+in strength. He hobbled to headquarters. “General, can I get leave--to
+go--he hesitated--home?”
+
+“Why, Kittering, I didn't know you had a home. But, certainly, I'll give
+you a month's leave and pay to date.”
+
+Champlain is the lake of the two winds; the north wind blows for six
+months with a few variations, and the south wind for the other six
+months with trifling.
+
+Next morning a bark canoe was seen skimming southward before as much
+north wind as it could stand, with Rolf reclining in the middle, Quonab
+at the stern, and Skookum in the bow.
+
+In two days they were at Ticonderoga. Here help was easily got at
+the portage and on the evening of the third day, Quonab put a rope on
+Skookum's neck and they landed at Hendrik's farm.
+
+The hickory logs were blazing bright, and the evening pot was reeking as
+they opened the door and found the family gathered for the meal.
+
+“I didn't know you had a home,” the general had said. He should have
+been present now to see the wanderer's welcome. If war breeds such a
+spirit in the land, it is as much a blessing as a curse. The air was
+full of it, and the Van Trumpers, when they saw their hero hobble in,
+were melted. Love, pity, pride, and tenderness were surging in storms
+through every heart that knew. “Their brother, their son come back,
+wounded, but proven and glorious.” Yes, Rolf had a home, and in that
+intoxicating realization he kissed them all, even Annette of the glowing
+cheeks and eyes; though in truth he paid for it, for it conjured up in
+her a shy aloofness that lasted many days.
+
+Old Hendrik sputtered around. “Och, I am smile; dis is goood, yah. Vere
+is that tam dog? Yah! tie him not, he shall dis time von chicken have
+for joy.”
+
+“Marta,” said Rolf, “you told me to come here if I got hurt. Well, I've
+come, and I've brought a boat-load of stuff in case I cannot do my share
+in the fields.”
+
+“Press you, my poy you didn't oughter brung dot stuff; you know we
+loff you here, and effery time it is you coom I get gladsomer, and dot
+Annette she just cried ven you vent to de war.”
+
+“Oh, mother, I did not; it was you and little Hendrick!” and Annette
+turned her scarlet cheeks away.
+
+October, with its trees of flame and gold, was on the hills; purple and
+orange, the oaks and the birches; blue blocked with white was the sky
+above, and the blue, bright lake was limpid.
+
+“Oh, God of my fathers,” Quonab used to pray, “when I reach the Happy
+Hunting, let it be ever the Leaf-falling Moon, for that is the only
+perfect time.” And in that unmarred month of sunny sky and woodlands
+purged of every plague, there is but one menace in the vales. For who
+can bring the glowing coal to the dry-leafed woods without these two
+begetting the dread red fury that devastates the hills?
+
+Who can bring the fire in touch with tow and wonder at the blaze? Who,
+indeed? And would any but a dreamer expect young manhood in its growing
+strength, and girlhood just across the blush-line, to meet in daily
+meals and talk and still keep up the brother and sister play? It needs
+only a Virginia on the sea-girt island to turn the comrade into Paul.
+
+“Marta, I tink dot Rolf an Annette don't quarrel bad, ain't it?”
+
+“Hendrik, you vas von blind old bat-mole,” said Marta, “I fink dat farm
+next ours purty good, but Rolf he say 'No Lake George no good.' Better
+he like all his folk move over on dat Hudson.”
+
+
+Chapter 86. The New Era of Prosperity
+
+As November neared and his leave of absence ended, Rolf was himself
+again; had been, indeed, for two weeks, and, swinging fork or axe, he
+had helped with many an urgent job on the farm.
+
+A fine log stable they had rolled up together, with corners dovetailed
+like cabinet work, and roof of birch bark breadths above the hay.
+
+But there was another building, too, that Rolf had worked at night and
+day. It was no frontier shack, but a tall and towering castle, splendid
+and roomy, filled with loved ones and love. Not by the lake near by,
+not by the river of his choice, but higher up than the tops of the high
+mountains it loomed, and he built and built until the month was nearly
+gone. Then only did he venture to ask for aid, and Annette it was who
+promised to help him finish the building.
+
+Yes, the Lake George shore was a land of hungry farms. It was off the
+line of travel, too. It was neither Champlain nor Hudson; and Hendrik,
+after ten years' toil with barely a living to show, was easily
+convinced. Next summer they must make a new choice of home. But now it
+was back to Plattsburg.
+
+On November 1st Rolf and Quonab reported to General Macomb. There was
+little doing but preparations for the winter. There were no prospects of
+further trouble from their neighbours in the north. Most of the militia
+were already disbanded, and the two returned to Plattsburg, only to
+receive their honourable discharge, to be presented each with the medal
+of war, with an extra clasp on Rolf's for that dauntless dash that
+spiked the British guns.
+
+Wicked war with its wickedness was done at last. “The greatest evil that
+can befall a country,” some call it, and yet out of this end came three
+great goods: The interstate distrust had died away, for now they were
+soldiers who had camped together, who had “drunk from the same canteen”;
+little Canada, until then a thing of shreds and scraps, had been fused
+in the furnace, welded into a young nation, already capable of defending
+her own. England, arrogant with long success at sea, was taught a lesson
+of courtesy and justice, for now the foe whom she had despised and
+insulted had shown himself her equal, a king of the sea-king stock. The
+unnecessary battle of New Orleans, fought two weeks after the war was
+officially closed, showed that the raw riflemen of Tennessee were
+more than a match for the seasoned veterans who had overcome the great
+Napoleon, and thus on land redeemed the Stars and Stripes.
+
+The war brought unmeasured material loss on all concerned, but some
+weighty lasting gains to two at least. On December 24, 1814, the Treaty
+of Ghent was signed and the long rides were hung up on the cabin walls.
+Nothing was said in the treaty about the cause of war--the right of
+search. Why should they speak of it? If a big boy bullies a smaller one
+and gets an unexpected knockdown blow, it is not necessary to have it
+all set forth in terms before they shake hands that “I, John, of the
+first part, to wit, the bully, do hereby agree, promise, and contract to
+refrain in future forevermore from bullying you, Jonathan, of the second
+part, to wit, the bullied.” That point had already been settled by the
+logic of events. The right of search was dead before the peace was born,
+and the very place of its bones is forgotten to-day.
+
+Rolf with Quonab returned to the trapping that winter; and as soon as
+the springtime came and seeding was over, he and Van Trumper made their
+choice of farms. Every dollar they could raise was invested in the
+beautiful sloping lands of the upper Hudson. Rolf urged the largest
+possible purchase now. Hendrick looked somewhat aghast at such a
+bridge-burning move. But a purchaser for his farm was found with
+unexpected promptness, one who was not on farming bent and the way kept
+opening up.
+
+The wedding did not take place till another year, when Annette was
+nineteen and Rolf twenty-one. And the home they moved to was not exactly
+a castle, but much more complete and human.
+
+This was the beginning of a new settlement. Given good land in plenty,
+and all the rest is easy; neighbours came in increasing numbers; every
+claim was taken up; Rolf and Hendrik saw themselves growing rich, and
+at length the latter was thankful for the policy that he once thought so
+rash, of securing all the land he could. Now it was his making, for in
+later years his grown-up sons were thus provided for, and kept at home.
+
+The falls of the river offered, as Rolf had foreseen, a noble chance for
+power. Very early he had started a store and traded for fur. Now, with
+the careful savings, he was able to build his sawmill; and about it grew
+a village with a post-office that had Rolf's name on the signboard.
+
+Quonab had come, of course, with Rolf, but he shunned the house, and the
+more so as it grew in size. In a remote and sheltered place he built a
+wigwam of his own.
+
+Skookum was divided in his allegiance, but he solved the puzzle by
+dividing his time between them. He did not change much, but he did
+rise in a measure to the fundamental zoological fact that hens are not
+partridges; and so acquired a haughty toleration of the cackle-party
+throng that assembled in the morning at Annette's call. Yes, he made
+even another step of progress, for on one occasion he valiantly routed
+the unenlightened dog of a neighbour, a “cur of low degree,” whose ideas
+of ornithology were as crude as his own had been in the beginning.
+
+All of which was greatly to his credit, for he found it hard to learn
+now; he was no longer young, and before he had seen eight springs
+dissolve the snow, he was called to the Land of Happy Hunting, where the
+porcupine is not, but where hens abound on every side, and there is no
+man near to meddle with his joy.
+
+Yet, when he died, he lived. His memory was kept ever green, for Skookum
+Number 2 was there to fill his room, and he gave place to Skookum 3, and
+so they keep their line on to this very day.
+
+
+
+
+Quonab Goes Home
+
+The public has a kind of crawlin' common-sense, that is always right and
+fair in the end, only it's slow--Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+Twenty years went by. Rolf grew and prospered. He was a man of substance
+and of family now; for store and mill were making money fast, and the
+little tow-tops came at regular intervals.
+
+And when the years had added ripeness to his thought, and the kind
+gods of gold had filled his scrip, it was that his ampler life began to
+bloom. His was a mind of the best begetting, born and bred of ancient,
+clean-blooded stock; inflexibly principled, trained by a God-fearing
+mother, nurtured in a cradle of adversity, schooled in a school of
+hardship, developed in the big outdoors, wise in the ways of the woods,
+burnt in the fire of affliction, forced into self-reliance, inspired
+with the lofty inspiration of sacrificial patriotism--the good stuff
+of his make-up shone, as shines the gold in the fervent heat; the hard
+blows that prove or crush, had proved; the metal had rung true; and in
+the great valley, Rolf Kittering was a man of mark.
+
+The country's need of such is ever present and ever seeking. Those in
+power who know and measure men soon sought him out, and their messenger
+was the grisly old Si Sylvanne.
+
+Because he was a busy man, Rolf feared to add to his activities. Because
+he was a very busy man, the party new they needed him. So at length it
+was settled, and in a little while, Rolf stood in the Halls of Albany
+and grasped the hand of the ancient mill-man as a colleague, filling an
+honoured place in the councils of the state.
+
+Each change brought him new activities. Each year he was more of a
+public man, and his life grew larger. From Albany he went to New York,
+in the world of business and men's affairs; and at last in Washington,
+his tall, manly figure was well known, and his good common-sense and
+clean business ways were respected. Yet each year during hunting time he
+managed to spend a few weeks with Quonab in the woods. Tramping on their
+ancient trapping grounds, living over the days of their early hunts;
+and double zest was added when Rolf the second joined them and lived and
+loved it all.
+
+But this was no longer Kittering's life, rather the rare precarious
+interval, and more and more old Quonab realized that they were meeting
+only in the past. When the big house went up on the river-bank, he
+indeed had felt that they were at the parting of the ways. His respect
+for Nibowaka had grown to be almost a worship, and yet he knew that
+their trails had yearly less in common. Rolf had outgrown him; he was
+alone again, as on the day of their meeting. His years had brought a
+certain insight; and this he grasped--that the times were changed, and
+his was the way of a bygone day.
+
+“Mine is the wisdom of the woods,” he said, “but the woods are going
+fast; in a few years there will be no more trees, and my wisdom will
+be foolishness. There is in this land now a big, strong thing called
+'trade,' that will eat up all things and the people themselves. You are
+wise enough, Nibowaka, to paddle with the stream, you have turned so the
+big giant is on your side, and his power is making you great. But this
+is not for me; so only I have enough to eat, and comfort to sleep, I am
+content to watch for the light.”
+
+Across the valley from the big store he dwelt, in a lodge from which he
+could easily see the sunrise. Twenty-five years added to the fifty he
+spent in the land of Mayn Mayano had dimmed his eye, had robbed his foot
+of its spring, and sprinkled his brow with the winter rime; but they had
+not changed his spirit, nor taught him less to love the pine woods
+and the sunrise. Yes, even more than in former days did he take his
+song-drum to the rock of worship, to his idaho--as the western red man
+would have called it. And there, because it was high and the wind blew
+cold, he made a little eastward-facing lodge.
+
+He was old and hunting was too hard for him, but there was a strong
+arm about him now; he dimly thought of it at times--the arm of the
+fifteen-year-old boy that one time he had shielded. There was no lack
+of food or blankets in the wigwam, or of freedom in the woods under the
+sun-up rock. But there was a hunger that not farseeing Nibowaka could
+appease, not even talk about. And Quonab built another medicine lodge
+to watch the sun go down over the hill. Sitting by a little fire to
+tune his song-drum, he often crooned to the blazing skies. “I am of the
+sunset now, I and my people,” he sang, “the night is closing over us.”
+
+One day a stranger came to the hills; his clothes were those of a white
+man, but his head, his feet, and his eyes--his blood, his walk, and his
+soul were those of a red Indian of the West. He came from the unknown
+with a message to those who knew him not: “The Messiah was coming; the
+deliverer that Hiawatha bade them look for. He was coming in power
+to deliver the red race, and his people must sing the song of the
+ghost-dance till the spirit came, and in a vision taught them wisdom and
+his will!”
+
+Not to the white man, but to the lonely Indian in the hill cleft he
+came, and the song that he brought and taught him was of a sorrowing
+people seeking their father.
+
+“Father have pity on us! Our souls are hungry for Thee. There is nothing
+here to satisfy us Father we bow to Thy will.”
+
+By the fire that night they sang, and prayed as the Indian
+prays--“Father have pity and guide us.” So Quonab sang the new song, and
+knew its message was for him.
+
+The stranger went on, for he was a messenger, but Quonab sang again and
+again, and then the vision came, as it must, and the knowledge that he
+sought.
+
+None saw him go, but ten miles southward on the river he met a hunter
+and said: “Tell the wise one that I have heard the new song. Tell him
+I have seen the vision. We are of the sunset, but the new day comes. I
+must see the land of Mayn Mayano, the dawn-land, where the sun rises out
+of the sea.”
+
+They saw no more of him. But a day later, Rolf heard of it, and set out
+in haste next morning for Albany. Skookum the fourth leaped into the
+canoe as he pushed off. Rolf was minded to send him back, but the dog
+begged hard with his eyes and tail. It seemed he ought to go, when it
+was the old man they sought. At Albany they got news. “Yes, the Indian
+went on the steamboat a few days ago.” At New York, Rolf made no attempt
+to track his friend, but took the Stamford boat and hurried to the old
+familiar woods, where he had lived and suffered and wakened as a boy.
+
+There was a house now near the rock that is yet called “Quonab's.” From
+the tenants he learned that in the stillest hours of the night before,
+they had heard the beating of an Indian drum, and the cadence of a chant
+that came not from throat of white man's blood.
+
+In the morning when it was light Rolf hastened to the place, expecting
+to find at least an Indian camp, where once had stood the lodge. There
+was no camp; and as he climbed for a higher view, the Skookum of to-day
+gave bristling proof of fear at some strange object there--a man that
+moved not. His long straight hair was nearly white, and by his side,
+forever still, lay the song-drum of his people.
+
+And those who heard the mournful strains the night before knew now from
+Rolf that it was Ouonab come back to his rest, and the song that he sang
+was the song of the ghost dance.
+
+“Pity me, Wahkonda. My soul is ever hungry. There is nothing here to
+satisfy me, I walk in darkness; Pity me, Wahkondal.”
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Rolf In The Woods, by Ernest Thompson Seton
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rolf In The Woods, by Ernest Thompson Seton
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+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: Rolf In The Woods
+
+Author: Ernest Thompson Seton
+
+Release Date: August 3, 2008 [EBook #1088]
+Last Updated: March 16, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROLF IN THE WOODS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Anonymous Volunteers, Ted Soldan, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      ROLF IN THE WOODS
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Ernest Thompson Seton
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h5>
+      [Chapters 10 and 60 not designated.]
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_PREF"> Preface </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> Chapter 1. The Wigwam Under the Rock </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> Chapter 2. Rolf Kittering and the Soldier Uncle
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> Chapter 3. Rolf Catches a Coon and Finds a
+        Friend </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> Chapter 4. The Coon Hunt Makes Trouble for Rolf
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> Chapter 5. Good-bye to Uncle Mike </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> Chapter 6. Skookum Accepts Rolf at Last </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> Chapter 7. Rolf Works Out with Many Results
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> Chapter 8. The Law of Property Among Our
+        Four-Footed Kin </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> Chapter 9. Where the Bow Is Better Than the Gun
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkchap10"> Chapter 10. Rolf Works Out with Many Results </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> Chapter 11. The Thunder-storm and the Fire
+        Sticks </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> Chapter 12. Hunting the Woodchucks </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> Chapter 13. The Fight with the Demon of the
+        Deep </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> Chapter 14. Selectman Horton Appears at the
+        Rock </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> Chapter 15. Bound for the North Woods </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> Chapter 16. Life with the Dutch Settler </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> Chapter 17. Canoeing on the Upper Hudson </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> Chapter 18. Animal Life Along the River </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> Chapter 19. The Footprint on the Shore </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> Chapter 20. The Trappers' Cabin </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> Chapter 21. Rolf's First Deer </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> Chapter 22. The Line of Traps </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> Chapter 23. The Beaver Pond </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0023"> Chapter 24. The Porcupine </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0024"> Chapter 25. The Otter Slide </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0025"> Chapter 26. Back to the Cabin </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0026"> Chapter 27. Sick Dog Skookum </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0027"> Chapter 28. Alone in the Wilderness </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0028"> Chapter 29. Snowshoes </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0029"> Chapter 30. Catching a Fox </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0030"> Chapter 31. Following the Trap Line </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0031"> Chapter 32. The Antler-bound Bucks </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0032"> Chapter 33. A Song of Praise </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0033"> Chapter 34. The Birch-bark Vessels </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0034"> Chapter 35. Snaring Rabbits </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0035"> Chapter 36. Something Wrong at the Beaver Traps
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0036"> Chapter 37. The Pekan or Fisher </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0037"> Chapter 38. The Silver Fox </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0038"> Chapter 39. The Humiliation of Skookum </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0039"> Chapter 40. The Rarest of Pelts </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0040"> Chapter 41. The Enemy's Fort </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0041"> Chapter 42. Skookum's Panther </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0042"> Chapter 43. Sunday in the Woods </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0043"> Chapter 44. The Lost Bundle of Furs </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0044"> Chapter 45. The Subjugation of Hoag </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0045"> Chapter 46. Nursing Hoag </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0046"> Chapter 47. Hoag's Home-coming </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0047"> Chapter 48. Rolf's Lesson in Trailing </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0048"> Chapter 49. Rolf Gets Lost </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0049"> Chapter 50. Marketing the Fur </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0050"> Chapter 51. Back at Van Trumper's </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0051"> Chapter 52. Annette's New Dress </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0052"> Chapter 53. Travelling to the Great City </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0053"> Chapter 54. Albany </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0054"> Chapter 55. The Rescue of Bill </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0055"> Chapter 56. The Sick Ox </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0056"> Chapter 57. Rolf and Skookum at Albany </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0057"> Chapter 58. Back to Indian Lake </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0058"> Chapter 59. Van Cortlandt's Drugs </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkchap60"> Chapter 60. Van Cortlandt's Adventure </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0059"> Chapter 61. Rolf Learns Something from Van </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0060"> Chapter 62. The Charm of Song </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0061"> Chapter 63. The Redemption of Van </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0062"> Chapter 64. Dinner at the Governor's </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0063"> Chapter 65. The Grebes and the Singing Mouse
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0064"> Chapter 66. A Lesson in Stalking </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0065"> Chapter 67. Rolf Meets a Canuck </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0066"> Chapter 68. War </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0067"> Chapter 69. Ogdensburg </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0068"> Chapter 70. Saving the Despatches </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0069"> Chapter 71. Sackett's Harbour </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0070"> Chapter 72. Scouting Across Country </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0071"> Chapter 73. Rolf Makes a Record </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0072"> Chapter 74. Van Trumper's Again </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0073"> Chapter 75. Scouting in Canada </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0074"> Chapter 76. The Duel </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0075"> Chapter 77. Why Plattsburg Was Raided </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0076"> Chapter 78. Rumours and Papers </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0077"> Chapter 79. McGlassin's Exploit </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0078"> Chapter 80. The Bloody Saranac </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0079"> Chapter 81. The Battle of Plattsburg </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0080"> Chapter 82. Scouting for Macomb </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0081"> Chapter 83. The Last of Sir George Prevost </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0082"> Chapter 84. Rolf Unmasks the Ambush </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0083"> Chapter 85. The Hospital, the Prisoners, and
+        Home </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0084"> Chapter 86. The New Era of Prosperity </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0086"> Quonab Goes Home </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Preface
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In this story I have endeavoured to realize some of the influences that
+      surrounded the youth of America a hundred years ago, and made of them,
+      first, good citizens, and, later, in the day of peril, heroes that won the
+      battles of Lake Erie, Plattsburg, and New Orleans, and the great sea
+      fights of Porter, Bainbridge, Decatur, Lawrence, Perry, and MacDonough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have especially dwelt in detail on the woodland and peace scouting in
+      the hope that I may thus help other boys to follow the hard-climbing trail
+      that leads to the higher uplands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the historical events of 1812-14, I have consulted among books
+      chiefly, Theodore Roosevelt's &ldquo;Naval War of 1812,&rdquo; Peter S. Palmer's
+      &ldquo;History of Lake Champlain,&rdquo; and Walter Hill Crockett's &ldquo;A History of Lake
+      Champlain,&rdquo; 1909. But I found another and more personal mine of
+      information. Through the kindness of my friend, Edmund Seymour, a native
+      of the Champlain region, now a resident of New York, I went over all the
+      historical ground with several unpublished manuscripts for guides, and
+      heard from the children of the sturdy frontiersmen new tales of the war;
+      and in getting more light and vivid personal memories, I was glad, indeed,
+      to realize that not only were there valour and heroism on both sides, but
+      also gentleness and courtesy. Histories written by either party at the
+      time should be laid aside. They breathe the rancourous hate of the writers
+      of the age&mdash;the fighters felt not so&mdash;and the many incidents
+      given here of chivalry and consideration were actual happenings, related
+      to me by the descendants of those who experienced them; and all assure me
+      that these were a true reflex of the feelings of the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am much indebted to Miss Katherine Palmer, of Plattsburg, for kindly
+      allowing me to see the unpublished manuscript memoir of her grandfather,
+      Peter Sailly, who was Collector of the Port of Plattsburg at the time of
+      the war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another purpose in this story was to picture the real Indian with his
+      message for good or for evil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those who know nothing of the race will scoff and say they never heard of
+      such a thing as a singing and religious red man. Those who know him well
+      will say, &ldquo;Yes, but you have given to your eastern Indian songs and
+      ceremonies which belong to the western tribes, and which are of different
+      epochs.&rdquo; To the latter I reply:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that the western Indians sang and prayed in this way. How do you
+      know that the eastern ones did not? We have no records, except those by
+      critics, savagely hostile, and contemptuous of all religious observances
+      but their own. The Ghost Dance Song belonged to a much more recent time,
+      no doubt, but it was purely Indian, and it is generally admitted that the
+      races of continental North America were of one stock, and had no
+      fundamentally different customs or modes of thought.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Sunrise Song was given me by Frederick R. Burton, author of &ldquo;American
+      Primitive Music.&rdquo; It is still in use among the Ojibwa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The songs of the Wabanaki may be read in C. G. Leland's &ldquo;Kuloskap the
+      Master.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Ghost Dance Song was furnished by Alice C. Fletcher, whose &ldquo;Indian
+      Song and Story&rdquo; will prove a revelation to those who wish to follow
+      further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ERNEST THOMPSON SETON. <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 1. The Wigwam Under the Rock
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The early springtime sunrise was near at hand as Quonab, the last of the
+      Myanos Sinawa, stepped from his sheltered wigwam under the cliff that
+      borders the Asamuk easterly, and, mounting to the lofty brow of the great
+      rock that is its highest pinnacle, he stood in silence, awaiting the first
+      ray of the sun over the sea water that stretches between Connecticut and
+      Seawanaky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His silent prayer to the Great Spirit was ended as a golden beam shot from
+      a long, low cloud-bank over the sea, and Quonab sang a weird Indian song
+      for the rising sun, an invocation to the Day God:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;O thou that risest from the low cloud
+     To burn in the all above;
+     I greet thee!  I adore thee!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Again and again he sang to the tumming of a small tom-tom, till the great
+      refulgent one had cleared the cloud, and the red miracle of the sunrise
+      was complete. Back to his wigwam went the red man, down to his home tucked
+      dosed under the sheltering rock, and, after washing his hands in a
+      basswood bowl, began to prepare his simple meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A tin-lined copper pot hanging over the fire was partly filled with water;
+      then, when it was boiling, some samp or powdered corn and some clams were
+      stirred in. While these were cooking, he took his smooth-bore flint-lock,
+      crawled gently over the ridge that screened his wigwam from the northwest
+      wind, and peered with hawk-like eyes across the broad sheet of water that,
+      held by a high beaver-dam, filled the little valley of Asamuk Brook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The winter ice was still on the pond, but in all the warming shallows
+      there was open water, on which were likely to be ducks. None were to be
+      seen, but by the edge of the ice was a round object which, although so far
+      away, he knew at a glance for a muskrat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By crawling around the pond, the Indian could easily have come within
+      shot, but he returned at once to his wigwam, where he exchanged his gun
+      for the weapons of his fathers, a bow and arrows, and a long fish-line. A
+      short, quick stalk, and the muskrat, still eating a flagroot, was within
+      thirty feet. The fish-line was coiled on the ground and then attached to
+      an arrow, the bow bent&mdash;zip&mdash;the arrow picked up the line, coil
+      after coil, and trans-fixed the muskrat. Splash! and the animal was gone
+      under the ice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the cord was in the hands of the hunter; a little gentle pulling and
+      the rat came to view, to be despatched with a stick and secured. Had he
+      shot it with a gun, it had surely been lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned to his camp, ate his frugal breakfast, and fed a small,
+      wolfish-looking yellow dog that was tied in the lodge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He skinned the muskrat carefully, first cutting a slit across the rear and
+      then turning the skin back like a glove, till it was off to the snout; a
+      bent stick thrust into this held it stretched, till in a day, it was dry
+      and ready for market. The body, carefully cleaned, he hung in the shade to
+      furnish another meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he worked, there were sounds of trampling in the woods, and presently a
+      tall, rough-looking man, with a red nose and a curling white moustache,
+      came striding through brush and leaves. He stopped when he saw the Indian,
+      stared contemptuously at the quarry of the morning chase, made a scornful
+      remark about &ldquo;rat-eater,&rdquo; and went on toward the wigwam, probably to peer
+      in, but the Indian's slow, clear, &ldquo;keep away!&rdquo; changed his plan. He
+      grumbled something about &ldquo;copper-coloured tramp,&rdquo; and started away in the
+      direction of the nearest farmhouse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 2. Rolf Kittering and the Soldier Uncle
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     A feller that chatters all the time is bound to talk a
+     certain amount of drivel.&mdash;The Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This was the Crow Moon, the white man's March. The Grass Moon was at hand,
+      and already the arrow bands of black-necked honkers were passing northward
+      from the coast, sending down as they flew the glad tidings that the Hunger
+      Moon was gone, that spring was come, yea, even now was in the land. And
+      the flicker clucked from a high, dry bough, the spotted woodwale drummed
+      on his chosen branch, the partridge drummed in the pine woods, and in the
+      sky the wild ducks, winging, drummed their way. What wonder that the soul
+      of the Indian should seek expression in the drum and the drum song of his
+      race?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently, as though remembering something, he went quietly to the
+      southward under the ridge, just where it breaks to let the brook go by,
+      along the edge of Strickland's Plain, and on that hill of sliding stone he
+      found, as he always had, the blue-eyed liver-leaf smiling, the first sweet
+      flower of spring! He did not gather it, he only sat down and looked at it.
+      He did not smile, or sing, or utter words, or give it a name, but he sat
+      beside it and looked hard at it, and, in the first place, he went there
+      knowingly to find it. Who shall say that its beauty did not reach his
+      soul?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He took out his pipe and tobacco bag, but was reminded of something
+      lacking&mdash;the bag was empty. He returned to his wigwam, and from their
+      safe hanger or swinging shelf overhead, he took the row of stretched
+      skins, ten muskrats and one mink, and set out along a path which led
+      southward through the woods to the broad, open place called Strickland's
+      Plain, across that, and over the next rock ridge to the little town and
+      port of Myanos.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+               SILAS PECK
+               Trading Store
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      was the sign over the door he entered. Men and women were buying and
+      selling, but the Indian stood aside shyly until all were served, and
+      Master Peck cried out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho, Quonab! what have ye got for trade to-day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab produced his furs. The dealer looked at them narrowly and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are too late in the season for primes; I cannot allow you more than
+      seven cents each for the rats and seventy-five cents for the mink, all
+      trade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian gathered up the bundle with an air of &ldquo;that settles it,&rdquo; when
+      Silas called out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come now, I'll make it ten cents for the rats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ten cents for rats, one dollar for mink, all cash, then I buy what I
+      like,&rdquo; was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was very necessary to Silas's peace that no customer of his should
+      cross the street to the sign,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+              SILAS MEAD
+              Trading Store
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      So the bargain, a fair one now, was made, and the Indian went off with a
+      stock of tobacco, tea, and sugar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His way lay up the Myanos River, as he had one or two traps set along the
+      banks for muskrats, although in constant danger of having them robbed or
+      stolen by boys, who considered this an encroachment on their trapping
+      grounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After an hour he came to Dumpling Pond, then set out for his home,
+      straight through the woods, till he reached the Catrock line, and
+      following that came to the farm and ramshackle house of Micky Kittering.
+      He had been told that the man at this farm had a fresh deer hide for sale,
+      and hoping to secure it, Quonab walked up toward the house. Micky was
+      coming from the barn when he saw the Indian. They recognized each other at
+      a glance. That was enough for Quonab; he turned away. The farmer
+      remembered that he had been &ldquo;insulted.&rdquo; He vomited a few oaths, and strode
+      after the Indian, &ldquo;To take it out of his hide&rdquo;; his purpose was very
+      clear. The Indian turned quickly, stood, and looked calmly at Michael.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some men do not know the difference between shyness and cowardice, but
+      they are apt to find it out unexpectedly Something told the white man,
+      &ldquo;Beware! this red man is dangerous.&rdquo; He muttered something about, &ldquo;Get out
+      of that, or I'll send for a constable.&rdquo; The Indian stood gazing coldly,
+      till the farmer backed off out of sight, then he himself turned away to
+      the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kittering was not a lovely character. He claimed to have been a soldier.
+      He certainly looked the part, for his fierce white moustache was curled up
+      like horns on his purple face, at each side of his red nose, in a most
+      milita style. His shoulders were square and his gait was swaggering,
+      beside which, he had an array of swear words that was new and tremendously
+      impressive in Connecticut. He had married late in life a woman who would
+      have made him a good wife, had he allowed her. But, a drunkard himself he
+      set deliberately about bringing his wife to his own ways and with most
+      lamentable success. They had had no children, but some months before a
+      brother's child, fifteen-year-old lad, had become a charge on their hands
+      and, with any measure of good management, would have been a blessing to
+      all. But Micky had gone too far. His original weak good-nature was
+      foundered in rum. Always blustery and frothy, he divided the world in two&mdash;superior
+      officers, before whom he grovelled, and inferiors to whom he was a mouthy,
+      foul-tongued, contemptible bully, in spite of a certain lingering kindness
+      of heart that showed itself at such rare times when he was neither roaring
+      drunk nor crucified by black reaction. His brother's child, fortunately,
+      had inherited little of the paternal family traits, but in both body and
+      brain favoured his mother, the daughter of a learned divine who had spent
+      unusual pains on her book education, but had left her penniless and
+      incapable of changing that condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her purely mental powers and peculiarities were such that, a hundred years
+      before, she might have been burned for a witch, and fifty years later
+      might have been honoured as a prophetess. But she missed the crest of the
+      wave both ways and fell in the trough; her views on religious matters
+      procured neither a witch's grave nor a prophet's crown, but a sort of
+      village contempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bible was her standard&mdash;so far so good&mdash;but she emphasized
+      the wrong parts of it. Instead of magnifying the damnation of those who
+      follow not the truth (as the village understood it), she was content to
+      semi-quote:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those that are not against me are with me,&rdquo; and &ldquo;A kind heart is the mark
+      of His chosen.&rdquo; And then she made a final utterance, an echo really of her
+      father: &ldquo;If any man do anything sincerely, believing that thereby he is
+      worshipping God, he is worshipping God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then her fate was sealed, and all who marked the blazing eyes, the hollow
+      cheeks, the yet more hollow chest and cough, saw in it all the hand of an
+      offended God destroying a blasphemer, and shook their heads knowingly when
+      the end came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Rolf was left alone in life, with a common school education, a thorough
+      knowledge of the Bible and of &ldquo;Robinson Crusoe,&rdquo; a vague tradition of God
+      everywhere, and a deep distrust of those who should have been his own
+      people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day of the little funeral he left the village of Redding to tramp over
+      the unknown road to the unknown south where his almost unknown Uncle
+      Michael had a farm and, possibly, a home for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fifteen miles that day, a night's rest in a barn, twenty-five miles the
+      next day, and Rolf had found his future home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in, lad,&rdquo; was the not unfriendly reception, for his arrival was
+      happily fallen on a brief spell of good humour, and a strong,
+      fifteen-year-old boy is a distinct asset on a farm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 3. Rolf Catches a Coon and Finds a Friend
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Aunt Prue, sharp-eyed and red-nosed, was actually shy at first, but all
+      formality vanished as Rolf was taught the mysteries of pig-feeding,
+      hen-feeding, calf-feeding, cow-milking, and launched by list only in a
+      vast number of duties familiar to him from his babyhood. What a list there
+      was. An outsider might have wondered if Aunt Prue was saving anything for
+      herself, but Rolf was used to toil. He worked without ceasing and did his
+      best, only to learn in time that the best could win no praise, only avert
+      punishment. The spells of good nature arrived more seldom in his uncle's
+      heart. His aunt was a drunken shrew and soon Rolf looked on the days of
+      starving and physical misery with his mother as the days of his happy
+      youth gone by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was usually too tired at night and too sleepy in the morning to say his
+      prayers, and gradually he gave it up as a daily habit. The more he saw of
+      his kinsfolk, the more wickedness came to view; and yet it was with a
+      shock that he one day realized that some fowls his uncle brought home by
+      night were there without the owner's knowledge or consent. Micky made a
+      jest of it, and intimated that Rolf would have to &ldquo;learn to do night work
+      very soon.&rdquo; This was only one of the many things that showed how evil a
+      place was now the orphan's home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first it was not clear to the valiant uncle whether the silent boy was
+      a superior to be feared, or an inferior to be held in fear, but Mick's
+      courage grew with non-resistance, and blows became frequent; although not
+      harder to bear than the perpetual fault-finding and scolding of his aunt,
+      and all the good his mother had implanted was being shrivelled by the
+      fires of his daily life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had no chance to seek for companions at the village store, but an
+      accident brought one to him. Before sunrise one spring morning he went, as
+      usual, to the wood lot pasture for the cow, and was surprised to find a
+      stranger, who beckoned him to come. On going near he saw a tall man with
+      dark skin and straight black hair that was streaked with gray&mdash;undoubtedly
+      an Indian. He held up a bag and said, &ldquo;I got coon in that hole. You hold
+      bag there, I poke him in.&rdquo; Rolf took the sack readily and held it over the
+      hole, while the Indian climbed the tree to a higher opening, then poked in
+      this with a long pole, till all at once there was a scrambling noise and
+      the bag bulged full and heavy. Rolf closed its mouth triumphantly. The
+      Indian laughed lightly, then swung to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, what will you do with him?&rdquo; asked Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Train coon dog,&rdquo; was the answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian pointed toward the Asamuk Pond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you the singing Indian that lives under Ab's Rock?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh! [*] Some call me that. My name is Quonab.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait for an hour and then I will come and help,&rdquo; volunteered Rolf
+      impulsively, for the hunting instinct was strong in him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian nodded. &ldquo;Give three yelps if you no find me;&rdquo; then he
+      shouldered a short stick, from one end of which, at a safe distance from
+      his back, hung the bag with the coon. And Rolf went home with the cow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had acted on hasty impulse in offering to come, but now, in the normal
+      storm state of the household, the difficulties of the course appeared. He
+      cudgelled his brain for some plan to account for his absence, and finally
+      took refuge unwittingly in ancient wisdom: &ldquo;When you don't know a thing to
+      do, don't do a thing.&rdquo; Also, &ldquo;If you can't find the delicate way, go the
+      blunt way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So having fed the horses, cleaned the stable, and milked the cow, fed the
+      pigs, the hens, the calf, harnessed the horses, cut and brought in wood
+      for the woodshed, turned out the sheep, hitched the horses to the wagon,
+      set the milk out in the creaming pans, put more corn to soak for the swill
+      barrel, ground the house knife, helped to clear the breakfast things,
+      replaced the fallen rails of a fence, brought up potatoes from the root
+      cellar, all to the maddening music of a scolding tongue, he set out to
+      take the cow back to the wood lot, sullenly resolved to return when ready.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Ugh (yes) and wah (no) are Indianisms that continue no
+     matter how well the English has been acquired.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 4. The Coon Hunt Makes Trouble for Rolf
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Not one hour, but nearly three, had passed before Rolf sighted the
+      Pipestave Pond, as it was called. He had never been there before, but
+      three short whoops, as arranged, brought answer and guidance. Quonab was
+      standing on the high rock. When Rolf came he led down to the wigwam on its
+      south side. It was like stepping into a new life. Several of the old
+      neighbours at Redding were hunters who knew the wild Indians and had told
+      him tales that glorified at least the wonderful woodcraft of the red man.
+      Once or twice Rolf had seen Indians travelling through, and he had been
+      repelled by their sordid squalour. But here was something of a different
+      kind; not the Champlain ideal, indeed, for the Indian wore clothes like
+      any poor farmer, except on his head and his feet; his head was bare, and
+      his feet were covered with moccasins that sparkled with beads on the arch.
+      The wigwam was of canvas, but it had one or two of the sacred symbols
+      painted on it. The pot hung over the fire was tin-lined copper, of the
+      kind long made in England for Indian trade, but the smaller dishes were of
+      birch bark and basswood. The gun and the hunting knife were of white man's
+      make, but the bow, arrows, snowshoes, tom-tom, and a quill-covered gun
+      case were of Indian art, fashioned of the things that grow in the woods
+      about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian led into the wigwam. The dog, although not fully grown, growled
+      savagely as it smelled the hated white man odour. Quonab gave the puppy a
+      slap on the head, which is Indian for, &ldquo;Be quiet; he's all right;&rdquo; loosed
+      the rope, and led the dog out. &ldquo;Bring that,&rdquo; and the Indian pointed to the
+      bag which hung from a stick between two trees. The dog sniffed
+      suspiciously in the direction of the bag and growled, but he was not
+      allowed to come near it. Rolf tried to make friends with the dog, but
+      without success and Quonab said, &ldquo;Better let Skookum [*] alone. He make
+      friends when he ready&mdash;maybe never.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two hunters now set out for the open plain, two or three hundred yards
+      to the southward. Here the raccoon was dumped out of the sack, and the dog
+      held at a little distance, until the coon had pulled itself together and
+      began to run. Now the dog was released and chivvied on. With a tremendous
+      barking he rushed at the coon, only to get a nip that made him recoil,
+      yelping. The coon ran as hard as it could, the dog and hunters came after
+      it; again it was overtaken, and, turning with a fierce snarl, it taught
+      the dog a second lesson. Thus, running, dodging, and turning to fight, the
+      coon got back to the woods, and there made a final stand under a small,
+      thick tree; and, when the dog was again repulsed, climbed quickly up into
+      the branches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunters did all they could to excite the dog, until he was jumping
+      about, trying to climb the tree, and barking uproariously. This was
+      exactly what they wanted. Skookum's first lesson was learned&mdash;the
+      duty of chasing the big animal of that particular smell, then barking up
+      the tree it had climbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab, armed with a forked stick and a cord noose, now went up the tree.
+      After much trouble he got the noose around the coon's neck, then, with
+      some rather rough handling, the animal was dragged down, maneuvered into
+      the sack, and carried back to camp, where it was chained up to serve in
+      future lessons; the next two or three being to tree the coon, as before;
+      in the next, the coon was to be freed and allowed to get out of sight, so
+      that the dog might find it by trailing, and the last, in which the coon
+      was to be trailed, treed, and shot out of the tree, so that the dog should
+      have the final joy of killing a crippled coon, and the reward of a
+      coon-meat feast. But the last was not to be, for the night before it
+      should have taken place the coon managed to slip its bonds, and nothing
+      but the empty collar and idle chain were found in the captive's place next
+      morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These things were in the future however. Rolf was intensely excited over
+      all he had seen that day. His hunting instincts were aroused. There had
+      been no very obvious or repellant cruelty; the dog alone had suffered, but
+      he seemed happy. The whole affair was so exactly in the line of his tastes
+      that the boy was in a sort of ecstatic uplift, and already anticipating a
+      real coon hunt, when the dog should be properly trained. The episode so
+      contrasted with the sordid life he had left an hour before that he was
+      spellbound. The very animal smell of the coon seemed to make his fibre
+      tingle. His eyes were glowing with a wild light. He was so absorbed that
+      he did not notice a third party attracted by the unusual noise of the
+      chase, but the dog did. A sudden, loud challenge called all attention to a
+      stranger on the ridge behind the camp. There was no mistaking the bloated
+      face and white moustache of Rolf's uncle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So, you young scut! that is how you waste your time. I'll larn ye a
+      lesson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog was tied, the Indian looked harmless, and the boy was cowed, so
+      the uncle's courage mounted high. He had been teaming in the nearby woods,
+      and the blacksnake whip was in his hands. In a minute its thong was
+      lapped, like a tongue of flame, around Rolf's legs. The boy gave a shriek
+      and ran, but the man followed and furiously plied the whip. The Indian,
+      supposing it was Rolf's father, marvelled at his method of showing
+      affection, but said nothing, for the Fifth Commandment is a large one in
+      the wigwam. Rolf dodged some of the cruel blows, but was driven into a
+      corner of the rock. One end of the lash crossed his face like a red-hot
+      wire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I've got you!&rdquo; growled the bully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf was desperate. He seized two heavy stones and hurled the first with
+      deadly intent at his uncle's head. Mick dodged in time, but the second,
+      thrown lower, hit him on the thigh. Mick gave a roar of pain. Rolf hastily
+      seized more stones and shrieked out, &ldquo;You come on one step and I'll kill
+      you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then that purple visage turned a sort of ashen hue. Its owner mouthed in
+      speechless rage. He &ldquo;knew it was the Indian had put Rolf up to it. He'd
+      see to it later,&rdquo; and muttering, blasting, frothing, the hoary-headed
+      sinner went limping off to his loaded wagon.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * &ldquo;Skookum&rdquo; or &ldquo;Skookum Chuck,&rdquo; in Chinook means &ldquo;Troubled
+     waters.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 5. Good-bye to Uncle Mike
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     For counsel comes with the night, and action comes with the
+     day; But the gray half light, neither dark nor bright, is a
+     time to hide away.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had learned one thing at least&mdash;his uncle was a coward. But he
+      also knew that he himself was in the wrong, for he was neglecting his work
+      and he decided to go back at once and face the worst. He made little reply
+      to the storm of scolding that met him. He would have been disappointed if
+      it had not come. He was used to it; it made him feel at home once more. He
+      worked hard and silently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mick did not return till late. He had been drawing wood for Horton that
+      day, which was the reason he happened in Quonab's neighbourhood; but his
+      road lay by the tavern, and when he arrived home he was too helpless to do
+      more than mutter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day there was an air of suspended thunder. Rolf overheard his
+      uncle cursing &ldquo;that ungrateful young scut&mdash;not worth his salt.&rdquo; But
+      nothing further was said or done. His aunt did not strike at him once for
+      two days. The third night Micky disappeared. On the next he returned with
+      another man; they had a crate of fowls, and Rolf was told to keep away
+      from &ldquo;that there little barn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So he did all morning, but he peeped in from the hayloft when a chance
+      came, and saw a beautiful horse. Next day the &ldquo;little barn&rdquo; was open and
+      empty as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night this worthy couple had a jollification with some callers, who
+      were strangers to Rolf. As he lay awake, listening to the carouse, he
+      overheard many disjointed allusions that he did not understand, and some
+      that he could guess at: &ldquo;Night work pays better than day work any time,&rdquo;
+       etc. Then he heard his own name and a voice, &ldquo;Let's go up and settle it
+      with him now.&rdquo; Whatever their plan, it was clear that the drunken crowd,
+      inspired by the old ruffian, were intent on doing him bodily harm. He
+      heard them stumbling and reeling up the steep stairs. He heard, &ldquo;Here,
+      gimme that whip,&rdquo; and knew he was in peril, maybe of his life, for they
+      were whiskey-mad. He rose quickly, locked the door, rolled up an old rag
+      carpet, and put it in his bed. Then he gathered his clothes on his arm,
+      opened the window, and lowered himself till his head only was above the
+      sill, and his foot found a resting place. Thus he awaited. The raucous
+      breathing of the revellers was loud on the stairs; then the door was
+      tried; there was some muttering; then the door was burst open and in
+      rushed two, or perhaps three, figures. Rolf could barely see in the gloom,
+      but he knew that his uncle was one of them. The attack they made with whip
+      and stick on that roll of rags in the bed would have broken his bones and
+      left him shapeless, had he been in its place. The men were laughing and
+      took it all as a joke, but Rolf had seen enough; he slipped to the ground
+      and hurried away, realizing perfectly well now that this was &ldquo;good-bye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Which way? How naturally his steps turned northward toward Redding, the
+      only other place he knew. But he had not gone a mile before he stopped.
+      The yapping of a coon dog came to him from the near woods that lay to the
+      westward along Asamuk. He tramped toward it. To find the dog is one thing,
+      to find the owner another; but they drew near at last. Rolf gave the three
+      yelps and Quonab responded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am done with that crowd,&rdquo; said the boy. &ldquo;They tried to kill me tonight.
+      Have you got room for me in your wigwam for a couple of days?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh, come,&rdquo; said the Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, for the first time, Rolf slept in the outdoor air of a wigwam.
+      He slept late, and knew nothing of the world about him till Quonab called
+      him to breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 6. Skookum Accepts Rolf at Last
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Rolf expected that Micky would soon hear of his hiding place and come
+      within a few days, backed by a constable, to claim his runaway ward. But a
+      week went by and Quonab, passing through Myanos, learned, first, that Rolf
+      had been seen tramping northward on the road to Dumpling Pond, and was now
+      supposed to be back in Redding; second, that Micky Kittering was lodged in
+      jail under charge of horse-stealing and would certainly get a long
+      sentence; third, that his wife had gone back to her own folks at Norwalk,
+      and the house was held by strangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All other doors were closed now, and each day that drifted by made it the
+      more clear that Rolf and Quonab were to continue together. What boy would
+      not exult at the thought of it? Here was freedom from a brutal tyranny
+      that was crushing out his young life; here was a dream of the wild world
+      coming true, with gratification of all the hunter instincts that he had
+      held in his heart for years, and nurtured in that single, ragged volume of
+      &ldquo;Robinson Crusoe.&rdquo; The plunge was not a plunge, except it be one when an
+      eagle, pinion-bound, is freed and springs from a cliff of the mountain to
+      ride the mountain wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The memory of that fateful cooning day was deep and lasting. Never
+      afterward did smell of coon fail to bring it back; in spite of the many
+      evil incidents it was a smell of joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are you going, Quonab?&rdquo; he asked one morning, as he saw the Indian
+      rise at dawn and go forth with his song drum, after warming it at the
+      fire. He pointed up to the rock, and for the first time Rolf heard the
+      chant for the sunrise. Later he heard the Indian's song for &ldquo;Good
+      Hunting,&rdquo; and another for &ldquo;When His Heart Was Bad.&rdquo; They were prayers or
+      praise, all addressed to the Great Spirit, or the Great Father, and it
+      gave Rolf an entirely new idea of the red man, and a startling light on
+      himself. Here was the Indian, whom no one considered anything but a
+      hopeless pagan, praying to God for guidance at each step in life, while he
+      himself, supposed to be a Christian, had not prayed regularly for months&mdash;was
+      in danger of forgetting how.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet there was one religious observance that Rolf never forgot&mdash;that
+      was to keep the Sabbath, and on that day each week he did occasionally say
+      a little prayer his mother had taught him. He avoided being seen at such
+      times and did not speak of kindred doings. Whereas Quonab neither hid nor
+      advertised his religious practices, and it was only after many Sundays had
+      gone that Quonab remarked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does your God come only one day of the week? Does He sneak in after dark?
+      Why is He ashamed that you only whisper to Him? Mine is here all the time.
+      I can always reach Him with my song; all days are my Sunday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The evil memories of his late life were dimming quickly, and the joys of
+      the new one growing. Rolf learned early that, although one may talk of the
+      hardy savage, no Indian seeks for hardship. Everything is done that he
+      knows to make life pleasant, and of nothing is he more careful than the
+      comfort of his couch. On the second day, under guidance of his host, Rolf
+      set about making his own bed. Two logs, each four inches thick and three
+      feet long, were cut. Then two strong poles, each six feet long, were laid
+      into notches at the ends of the short logs. About seventy-five straight
+      sticks of willow were cut and woven with willow bark into a lattice, three
+      feet wide and six feet long. This, laid on the poles, furnished a spring
+      mattress, on which a couple of blankets made a most comfortable couch,
+      dry, warm, and off the ground. In addition to the lodge cover, each bed
+      had a dew cloth which gave perfect protection, no matter how the storm
+      might rage outdoors. There was no hardship in it, only a new-found
+      pleasure, to sleep and breathe the pure night air of the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Grass Moon&mdash;April&mdash;had passed, and the Song Moon was waxing,
+      with its hosts of small birds, and one of Rolf's early discoveries was
+      that many of these love to sing by night. Again and again the familiar
+      voice of the song sparrow came from the dark shore of Asamuk, or the field
+      sparrow trilled from the top of some cedar, occasionally the painted one,
+      Aunakeu, the partridge, drummed in the upper woods, and nightly there was
+      the persistent chant of Muckawis, the whippoorwill, the myriad voices of
+      the little frogs called spring-peepers, and the peculiar, &ldquo;peent, peent,&rdquo;
+       from the sky, followed by a twittering, that Quonab told him was the love
+      song of the swamp bird&mdash;the big snipe, with the fantail and long,
+      soft bill, and eyes like a deer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean the woodcock?&rdquo; &ldquo;Ugh, that's the name; Pah-dash-ka-anja we
+      call it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The waning of the moon brought new songsters, with many a nightingale
+      among them. A low bush near the plain was vocal during the full moon with
+      the sweet but disconnected music of the yellow-breasted chat. The forest
+      rang again and again with a wild, torrential strain of music that seemed
+      to come from the stars. It sent peculiar thrill into Rolf's heart, and
+      gave him a lump his throat as he listened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that, Quonab?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian shook his head. Then, later, when it ended, he said: &ldquo;That is
+      the mystery song of some one I never saw him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a long silence, then the lad began, &ldquo;There's no good hunting
+      here now, Quonab. Why don't you go to the north woods, where deer are
+      plentiful?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian gave a short shake of his head, and then to prevent further
+      talk, &ldquo;Put up your dew cloth; the sea wind blows to-night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He finished; both stood for a moment gazing into the fire. Then Rolf felt
+      something wet and cold thrust into his hand. It was Skookum's nose. At
+      last the little dog had made up his mind to accept the white boy as a
+      friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 7. Rolf Works Out with Many Results
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     He is the dumbest kind of a dumb fool that ain't king in
+     some little corner.&mdash;Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The man who has wronged you will never forgive you, and he who has helped
+      you will be forever grateful. Yes, there is nothing that draws you to a
+      man so much as the knowledge that you have helped him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab helped Rolf, and so was more drawn to him than to many of the
+      neighbours that he had known for years; he was ready to like him. Their
+      coming together was accidental, but it was soon very clear that a
+      friendship was springing up between them. Rolf was too much of a child to
+      think about the remote future; and so was Quonab. Most Indians are merely
+      tall children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there was one thing that Rolf did think of&mdash;he had no right to
+      live in Quonab's lodge without contributing a fair share of the things
+      needful. Quonab got his living partly by hunting, partly by fishing,
+      partly by selling baskets, and partly by doing odd jobs for the
+      neighbours. Rolf's training as a loafer had been wholly neglected, and
+      when he realized that he might be all summer with Quonab he said bluntly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You let me stay here a couple of months. I'll work out odd days, and buy
+      enough stuff to keep myself any way.&rdquo; Quonab said nothing, but their eyes
+      met, and the boy knew it was agreed to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf went that very day to the farm of Obadiah Timpany, and offered to
+      work by the day, hoeing corn and root crops. What farmer is not glad of
+      help in planting time or in harvest? It was only a question of what did he
+      know and how much did he want? The first was soon made clear; two dollars
+      a week was the usual thing for boys in those times, and when he offered to
+      take it half in trade, he was really getting three dollars a week and his
+      board. Food was as low as wages, and at the end of a week, Rolf brought
+      back to camp a sack of oatmeal, a sack of cornmeal, a bushel of potatoes,
+      a lot of apples, and one dollar cash. The dollar went for tea and sugar,
+      and the total product was enough to last them both a month; so Rolf could
+      share the wigwam with a good conscience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, it was impossible to keep the gossipy little town of Myanos
+      from knowing, first, that the Indian had a white boy for partner; and,
+      later, that that boy was Rolf. This gave rise to great diversity of
+      opinion in the neighbourhood. Some thought it should not be allowed, but
+      Horton, who owned the land on which Quonab was camped, could not see any
+      reason for interfering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ketchura Peck, spinster, however, did see many most excellent reasons. She
+      was a maid with a mission, and maintained it to be an outrage that a
+      Christian boy should be brought up by a godless pagan. She worried over it
+      almost as much as she did over the heathen in Central Africa, where there
+      are no Sunday schools, and clothes are as scarce as churches. Failing to
+      move Parson Peck and Elder Knapp in the matter, and despairing of an early
+      answer to her personal prayers, she resolved on a bold move, &ldquo;An' it was
+      only after many a sleepless, prayerful night,&rdquo; namely, to carry the Bible
+      into the heathen's stronghold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it was that one bright morning in June she might have been seen, prim
+      and proper&mdash;almost glorified, she felt, as she set her lips just
+      right in the mirror&mdash;making for the Pipestave Pond, Bible in hand and
+      spectacles clean wiped, ready to read appropriate selections to the
+      unregenerate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was full of the missionary spirit when she left Myanos, and partly
+      full when she reached the Orchard Street Trail; but the spirit was leaking
+      badly, and the woods did appear so wild and lonely that she wondered if
+      women had any right to be missionaries. When she came in sight of the
+      pond, the place seemed unpleasantly different from Myanos and where was
+      the Indian camp? She did not dare to shout; indeed, she began to wish she
+      were home again, but the sense of duty carried her fully fifty yards along
+      the pond, and then she came to an impassable rock, a sheer bank that
+      plainly said, &ldquo;Stop!&rdquo; Now she must go back or up the bank. Her Yankee
+      pertinacity said, &ldquo;Try first up the bank,&rdquo; and she began a long, toilsome
+      ascent, that did not end until she came out on a high, open rock which, on
+      its farther side, had a sheer drop and gave a view of the village and of
+      the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever joy she had on again seeing her home was speedily queued in the
+      fearsome discovery that she was right over the Indian camp, and the two
+      inmates looked so utterly, dreadfully savage that she was thankful they
+      had not seen her. At once she shrank back; but on recovering sufficiently
+      to again peer down, she saw something roasting before the fire&mdash;&ldquo;a
+      tiny arm with a hand that bore five fingers,&rdquo; as she afterward said, and
+      &ldquo;a sickening horror came over her.&rdquo; Yes, she had heard of such things. If
+      she could only get home in safety! Why had she tempted Providence thus?
+      She backed softly and prayed only to escape. What, and never even deliver
+      the Bible? &ldquo;It would be wicked to return with it!&rdquo; In a cleft of the rock
+      she placed it, and then, to prevent the wind blowing off loose leaves, she
+      placed a stone on top, and fled from the dreadful place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, when Quonab and Rolf had finished their meal of corn and
+      roasted coon, the old man climbed the rock to look at the sky. The book
+      caught his eye at once, evidently hidden there carefully, and therefore in
+      cache. A cache is a sacred thing to an Indian. He disturbed it not, but
+      later asked Rolf, &ldquo;That yours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was doubtless the property of some one who meant to return for it, so
+      they left it untouched. It rested there for many months, till the winter
+      storms came down, dismantling the covers, dissolving the pages, but
+      leaving such traces as, in the long afterward, served to identify the book
+      and give the rock the other name, the one it bears to-day&mdash;&ldquo;Bible
+      Rock, where Quonab, the son of Cos Cob, used to live.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 8. The Law of Property Among Our Four-Footed Kin
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Night came down on the Asamuk woods, and the two in the wigwam were eating
+      their supper of pork, beans, and tea, for the Indian did not, by any means
+      object to the white man's luxuries, when a strange &ldquo;yap-yurr&rdquo; was heard
+      out toward the plain. The dog was up at once with a growl. Rolf looked
+      inquiringly, and Quonab said, &ldquo;Fox,&rdquo; then bade the dog be still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yap-yurr, yap-yurr,&rdquo; and then, &ldquo;yurr, yeow,&rdquo; it came again and again.
+      &ldquo;Can we get him?&rdquo; said the eager young hunter. The Indian shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fur no good now. An' that's a she-one, with young ones on the hillside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know?&rdquo; was the amazed inquiry. &ldquo;I know it's a she-one, 'cause
+      she says:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yap-yurr&rdquo; (high pitched)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If it was a he-one he'd say:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yap-yurr&rdquo; (low pitched)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And she has cubs, 'cause all have at this season. And they are on that
+      hillside, because that's the nearest place where any fox den is, and they
+      keep pretty much to their own hunting grounds. If another fox should come
+      hunting on the beat of this pair, he'd have to fight for it. That is the
+      way of the wild animals; each has his own run, and for that he will fight
+      an outsider that he would be afraid of at any other place. One knows he is
+      right&mdash;that braces him up; the other knows he is wrong&mdash;and that
+      weakens him.&rdquo; Those were the Indian's views, expressed much less
+      connectedly than here given, and they led Rolf on to a train of thought.
+      He remembered a case that was much to the point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their little dog Skookum several times had been worsted by the dog on the
+      Horton farm, when, following his master, he had come into the house yard.
+      There was no question that the Horton dog was stronger. But Skookum had
+      buried a bone under some brushes by the plain and next day the hated
+      Horton dog appeared. Skookum watched him with suspicion and fear, until it
+      was no longer doubtful that the enemy had smelled the hidden food and was
+      going for it. Then Skookum, braced up by some instinctive feeling, rushed
+      forward with bristling mane and gleaming teeth, stood over his cache, and
+      said in plainest dog, &ldquo;You can't touch that while I live!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the Horton dog&mdash;accustomed to domineer over the small yellow cur&mdash;growled
+      contemptuously, scratched with his hind feet, smelled around an adjoining
+      bush, and pretending not to see or notice, went off in another direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was it that robbed him of his courage, but the knowledge that he was
+      in the wrong?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Continuing with his host Rolf said, &ldquo;Do you think they have any idea that
+      it is wrong to steal?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, so long as it is one of their own tribe. A fox will take all he can
+      get from a bird or a rabbit or a woodchuck, but he won't go far on the
+      hunting grounds of another fox. He won't go into another fox's den or
+      touch one of its young ones, and if he finds a cache of food with another
+      fox's mark on it, he won't touch it unless he is near dead of hunger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you mean they cache food and how do they mark it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Generally they bury it under the leaves and soft earth, and the only mark
+      is to leave their body scent. But that is strong enough, and every fox
+      knows it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do wolves make food caches?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, wolves, cougars, weasels, squirrels, bluejays, crows, owls, mice,
+      all do, and all have their own way of marking a place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suppose a fox finds a wolf cache, will he steal from it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, always. There is no law between fox and wolf. They are always at war
+      with each other. There is law only between fox and fox, or wolf and wolf.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is like ourselves, ain't it? We say, 'Thou shalt not steal,' and
+      then when we steal the Indian's land or the Frenchman's ships, we say,
+      'Oh, that don't mean not steal from our enemies; they are fair game.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab rose to throw some sticks on the fire, then went out to turn the
+      smoke flap of the wigwam, for the wind was changed and another set was
+      needed to draw the smoke. They heard several times again the high-pitched
+      &ldquo;yap yurr,&rdquo; and once the deeper notes, which told that the dog fox, too,
+      was near the camp, and was doubtless seeking food to carry home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 9. Where the Bow Is Better Than the Gun
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Of all popular errors about the Indians, the hardest to down is the idea
+      that their women do all the work. They do the housework, it is true, but
+      all the heavy labour beyond their strength is done by the men. Examples of
+      this are seen in the frightful toil of hunting, canoeing, and portaging,
+      besides a multitude of kindred small tasks, such as making snowshoes,
+      bows, arrows, and canoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each warrior usually makes his own bow and arrows, and if, as often
+      happens, one of them proves more skilful and turns out better weapons, it
+      is a common thing for others to offer their own specialty in exchange.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The advantages of the bow over the gun are chiefly its noiselessness, its
+      cheapness, and the fact that one can make its ammunition anywhere. As the
+      gun chiefly used in Quonab's time was the old-fashioned, smooth-bore
+      flint-lock, there was not much difference in the accuracy of the two
+      weapons. Quonab had always made a highclass bow, as well as high-class
+      arrows, and was a high-class shot. He could set up ten clam shells at ten
+      paces and break all in ten shots. For at least half of his hunting he
+      preferred the bow; the gun was useful to him chiefly when flocks of wild
+      pigeons or ducks were about, and a single charge of scattering shot might
+      bring down a dozen birds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there is a law in all shooting&mdash;to be expert, you must practise
+      continually&mdash;and when Rolf saw his host shoot nearly every day at
+      some mark, he tried to join in the sport.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It took not many trys to show that the bow was far too strong for him to
+      use, and Quonab was persuaded at length to make an outfit for his visitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the dry store hole under the rock, he produced a piece of common red
+      cedar. Some use hickory; it is less liable to break and will stand more
+      abuse, but it has not the sharp, clean action of cedar. The latter will
+      send the arrow much farther, and so swiftly does it leave the string that
+      it baffles the eye. But the cedar bow must be cared for like a delicate
+      machine; overstring it, and it breaks; twang it without an arrow, and it
+      sunders the cords; scratch it, and it may splinter; wet it, and it is
+      dead; let it lie on the ground, even, and it is weakened. But guard it and
+      it will serve you as a matchless servant, and as can no other timber in
+      these woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just where the red heart and the white sap woods join is the bowman's
+      choice. A piece that reached from Rolf's chin to the ground was shaved
+      down till it was flat on the white side and round on the red side,
+      tapering from the middle, where it was one inch wide and one inch thick to
+      the ends, where it was three fourths of an inch wide and five eighths of
+      an inch thick, the red and white wood equal in all parts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The string was made of sinew from the back of a cow, split from the long,
+      broad sheath that lies on each side the spine, and the bow strung for
+      trial. Now, on drawing it (flat or white side in front), it was found that
+      one arm bent more than the other, so a little more scraping was done on
+      the strong side, till both bent alike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab's arrows would answer, but Rolf needed a supply of his own. Again
+      there was great choice of material. The long, straight shoots ol' the
+      arrowwood (Viburnuin dentatum) supplied the ancient Indians, but Quonab
+      had adopted a better way, since the possession of an axe made it possible.
+      A 25-inch block of straight-grained ash was split and split until it
+      yielded enough pieces. These were shaved down to one fourth of an inch
+      thick, round, smooth, and perfectly straight. Each was notched deeply at
+      one end; three pieces of split goose feather were lashed on the notched
+      end, and three different kinds of arrows were made. All were alike in
+      shaft and in feathering, but differed in the head. First, the target
+      arrows: these were merely sharpened, and the points hardened by roasting
+      to a brown colour. They would have been better with conical points of
+      steel, but none of these were to be had. Second, the ordinary hunting
+      arrows with barbed steel heads, usually bought ready-made, or filed out of
+      a hoop: these were for use in securing such creatures as muskrats, ducks
+      close at hand, or deer. Third, the bird bolts: these were left with a
+      large, round, wooden head. They were intended for quail, partridges,
+      rabbits, and squirrels, but also served very often, and most admirably, in
+      punishing dogs, either the Indian's own when he was not living up to the
+      rules and was too far off for a cuff or kick, or a farmer's dog that was
+      threatening an attack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the outfit was complete, Rolf thought, but one other touch was
+      necessary. Quonab painted the feather part of the shaft bright red, and
+      Rolf learned why. Not for ornament, not as an owner's mark, but as a
+      finding mark. Many a time that brilliant red, with the white feather next
+      it, was the means of saving the arrow from loss. An uncoloured arrow among
+      the sticks and leaves of the woods was usually hidden, but the
+      bright-coloured shaft could catch the eye 100 yards away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was very necessary to keep the bow and arrows from the wet. For this,
+      every hunter provides a case, usually of buckskin, but failing that they
+      made a good quiver of birch bark laced with spruce roots for the arrows,
+      and for the bow itself a long cover of tarpaulin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now came the slow drilling in archery; the arrow held and the bow drawn
+      with three fingers on the cord&mdash;the thumb and little finger doing
+      nothing. The target was a bag of hay set at twenty feet, until the
+      beginner could hit it every time: then by degrees it was moved away until
+      at the standard distance of forty yards he could do fair shooting,
+      although of course he never shot as well as the Indian, who had practised
+      since he was a baby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are three different kinds of archery tests: the first for aim: Can
+      you shoot so truly as to hit a three-inch mark, ten times in succession,
+      at ten paces?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next for speed: Can you shoot so quickly and so far up, as to have five
+      arrows in the air at once? If so, you are good: Can you keep up six? Then
+      you are very good. Seven is wonderful. The record is said to be eight.
+      Last for power: Can you pull so strong a bow and let the arrow go so clean
+      that it will fly for 250 yards or will pass through a deer at ten paces?
+      There is a record of a Sioux who sent an arrow through three antelopes at
+      one shot, and it was not unusual to pierce the huge buffalo through and
+      through; on one occasion a warrior with one shot pierced the buffalo and
+      killed her calf running at the other side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If you excel in these three things, you can down your partridge and
+      squirrel every time; you can get five or six out of each flock of birds;
+      you can kill your deer at twenty-five yards, and so need never starve in
+      the woods where there is game.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, Rolf was keen to go forth and try in the real chase, but it was
+      many a shot he missed and many an arrow lost or broken, before he brought
+      in even a red squirrel, and he got, at least, a higher appreciation of the
+      skill of those who could count on the bow for their food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For those, then, who think themselves hunters and woodmen, let this be a
+      test and standard: Can you go forth alone into the wilderness where there
+      is game, take only a bow and arrows for weapons, and travel afoot 250
+      miles, living on the country as you go?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkchap10" id="linkchap10"></a> <br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 10. Rolf Works Out with Many Results
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      He is the dumbest kind of a dumb fool that ain't king in some little
+      corner.--_Sayings of Si Sylvanne_
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man who has wronged you will never forgive you, and he who has helped
+      you will be forever grateful. Yes, there is nothing that draws you to a
+      man so much as the knowledge that you have helped him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab helped Rolf, and so was more drawn to him than to many of the
+      neighbours that he had known cor years; he was ready to like him. Their
+      coming together ffas accidental, but it was soon very clear that a
+      friendship was springing up between them. Rolf was too much of a child to
+      think about the remote future; and so was Quonab. Most Indians are merely
+      tall children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there was one thing that Rolf did think of--he had no right to live in
+      Quonab's lodge without contributing a fair share of the things needful.
+      Quonab got his living partly by hunting, partly by fishing, partly by
+      selling baskets, and partly by doing odd jobs for the neighbours. Rolf's
+      training as a loafer had been wholly neglected, and when he realized that
+      he might be all summer with Quonab he said bluntly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You let me stay here a couple of months. I'll work out odd days, and buy
+      enough stuff to keep myself any way.&rdquo; Quonab said nothing, but their eyes
+      met, and the boy knew it was agreed to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf went that very day to the farm of Obadiah Timpany, and offered to
+      work by the day, hoeing corn and root crops. What farmer is not glad of
+      help in planting time 01 in harvest? It was only a question of what did he
+      know and how much did he want? The first was soon made clear; two dollars
+      a week was the usual thing for boys in those times, and when he offered to
+      take it half in trade, he was really getting three dollars a week and his
+      board. Food was as low as wages, and at the end of a week, Rolf brought
+      back to camp a sack of oatmeal, a sack of cornmeal, a bushel of potatoes,
+      a lot of apples, and one dollar cash. The dollar went for tea and sugar,
+      and the total product was enough to last them both a month; so Rolf could
+      share the wigwam with a good conscience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, it was impossible to keep the gossipy little town of Myanos
+      from knowing, first, that the Indian had a white boy for partner; and,
+      later, that that boy was Rolf. This gave rise to great diversity of
+      opinion in the neighbourhood. Some thought it should not be allowed, but
+      Horton, who owned the land on which Quonab was camped, could not see any
+      reason for interfering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ketchura Peck, spinster, however, did see many most excellent reasons. She
+      was a maid with a mission, and maintained it to be an outrage that a
+      Christian boy should be brought up by a godless pagan. She worried over it
+      almost as much as she did over the heathen in Central Africa, where there
+      are no Sunday schools, and clothes are as scarce as churches. Failing to
+      move Parson Peck and Elder Knapp in the matter, and despairing of an early
+      answer to her personal prayers, she resolved on a bold move, &ldquo;An' it was
+      only after many a sleepless, prayerful night,&rdquo; namely, to carry the Bible
+      into the heathen's stronghold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it was that one bright morning in June she might have been seen, prim
+      and proper--almost glorified, she felt, as she set her lips just right in
+      the mirror--making for the Pipestave Pond, Bible in hand and spectacles
+      clear wiped, ready to read appropriate selections to the unregenerate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was full of the missionary spirit when she left Myanos, and partly
+      full when she reached the Orchard Street Trail; but the spirit was leaking
+      badly, and the woods did appear so wild and lonely that she wondered if
+      women had any right to be missionaries. When she came in sight of the
+      pond, the place seemed unpleasantly different from Myanos and where was
+      the Indian camp? She did not dare to shout; indeed, she began to wish she
+      were home again, but the sense of duty carried her fully fifty yards along
+      the pond, and then she came to an impassable rock, a sheer bank that
+      plainly said, &ldquo;Stop!&rdquo; Now she must go back or up the bank. Her Yankee
+      pertinacity said, &ldquo;Try first up the bank,&rdquo; and she began a long, toilsome
+      ascent, that did not end until she came out on a high, open rock which, on
+      its farther side, had a sheer drop and gave a view of the village and of
+      the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever joy she had on again seeing her home was speedily quelled in the
+      fearsome discovery that she was right over the Indian camp, and the two
+      inmates looked so utterly, dreadfully savage that she was thankful they
+      had not seen her. At once she shrank back; but on recovering sufficiently
+      to again peer down, she saw something roasting before the fire--&ldquo;a tiny
+      arm with a hand that bore five fingers,&rdquo; as she afterward said, and &ldquo;a
+      sickening horror came over her.&rdquo; Yes, she had heard of such things. If she
+      could only get home in safety! Why had she tempted Providence thus? She
+      backed softly and prayed only to escape. What, and never even deliver the
+      Bible? &ldquo;It would be wicked to return with it!&rdquo; In a cleft of the rock she
+      placed it, and then, to prevent the wind blowing off loose leaves, she
+      placed a stone on top, and fled from the dreadful place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, when Quonab and Rolf had finished theic meal of corn and
+      roasted coon, the old man climbed the rock to look at the sky. The book
+      caught his eye at once, evidently hidden there carefully, and therefore in
+      cache. A cache is a sacred thing to an Indian. He disturbed it not, but
+      later asked Rolf, &ldquo;That yours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was doubtless the property of some one who meant to return for it, so
+      they left it untouched. It rested there for many months, till the winter
+      storms came down, dismantling the covers, dissolving the pages, but
+      leaving such traces as, in the long afterward, served to identify the book
+      and give the rock the other name, the one it bears to-day--&ldquo;Bible Rock,
+      where Quonab, the son of Cos Cob, used to live.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 11. The Thunder-storm and the Fire Sticks
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When first Rolf noticed the wigwam's place, he wondered that Quonab had
+      not set it somewhere facing the lake, but he soon learned that it is best
+      to have the morning sun, the afternoon shade, and shelter from the north
+      and west winds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first two points were illustrated nearly every day; but it was two
+      weeks before the last was made clear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That day the sun came up in a red sky, but soon was lost to view in a
+      heavy cloud-bank. There was no wind, and, as the morning passed, the day
+      grew hotter and closer. Quonab prepared for a storm; but it came with
+      unexpected force, and a gale of wind from the northwest that would indeed
+      have wrecked the lodge, but for the great sheltering rock. Under its lea
+      there was hardy a breeze; but not fifty yards away were two trees that
+      rubbed together, and in the storm they rasped so violently that fine
+      shreds of smoking wood were dropped and, but for the rain, would surely
+      have made a blaze. The thunder was loud and lasted long, and the water
+      poured down in torrents. They were ready for rain, but not for the flood
+      that rushed over the face of the cliff, soaking everything in the lodge
+      except the beds, which, being four inches off the ground, were safe; and
+      lying on them the two campers waited patiently, or impatiently, while the
+      weather raged for two drenching hours. And then the pouring became a
+      pattering; the roaring, a swishing; the storm, a shower which died away,
+      leaving changing patches of blue in the lumpy sky, and all nature calm and
+      pleased, but oh, so wet! Of course the fire was out in the lodge and
+      nearly all the wood was wet. Now Quonab drew from a small cave some dry
+      cedar and got down his tinder-box with flint and steel to light up; but a
+      serious difficulty appeared at once&mdash;the tinder was wet and useless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These were the days before matches were invented. Every one counted on
+      flint and steel for their fire, but the tinder was an essential, and now a
+      fire seemed hopeless; at least Rolf thought so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nana Bojou was dancing that time,&rdquo; said the Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you see him make fire with those two rubbing trees? So he taught our
+      fathers, and so make we fire when the tricks of the white man fail us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab now cut two pieces of dry cedar, one three fourths of an inch thick
+      and eighteen inches long, round, and pointed at both ends; the other five
+      eighths of an inch thick and flat. In the flat one he cut a notch and at
+      the end of the notch a little pit. Next he made a bow of a stiff, curved
+      stick, and a buckskin thong: a small pine knot was selected and a little
+      pit made in it with the point of a knife. These were the fare-making
+      sticks, but it was necessary to prepare the firewood, lay the fire, and
+      make some fibre for tinder. A lot of fine cedar shavings, pounded up with
+      cedar bark and rolled into a two-inch ball, made good tinder, and all was
+      ready. Quonab put the bow thong once around the long stick, then held its
+      point in the pit of the flat stick, and the pine knot on the top to steady
+      it. Now he drew the bow back and forth, slowly, steadily, till the long
+      stick or drill revolving ground smoking black dust out of the notch. Then
+      faster, until the smoke was very strong and the powder filled the notch.
+      Then he lifted the flat stick, fanning the powder with his hands till a
+      glowing coal appeared. Over this he put the cedar tinder and blew gently,
+      till it flamed, and soon the wigwam was aglow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole time taken, from lifting the sticks to the blazing fire, was
+      less than one minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is the ancient way of the Indian; Rolf had often heard of it as a
+      sort of semi-myth; never before had he seen it, and so far as he could
+      learn from the books, it took an hour or two of hard work, not a few deft
+      touches and a few seconds of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He soon learned to do it himself, and in the years which followed, he had
+      the curious experience of showing it to many Indians who had forgotten
+      how, thanks to the greater portability of the white man's flint and steel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they walked in the woods that day, they saw three trees that had been
+      struck by lightning during the recent storm; all three were oaks. Then it
+      occurred to Rolf that he had never seen any but an oak struck by
+      lightning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it so, Quonab?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, there are many others; the lightning strikes the oaks most of all,
+      but it will strike the pine, the ash, the hemlock, the basswood, and many
+      more. Only two trees have I never seen struck, the balsam and the birch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do they escape?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father told me when I was a little boy it was because they sheltered
+      and warmed the Star-girl, who was the sister of the Thunder-bird.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never heard that; tell me about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sometime maybe, not now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 12. Hunting the Woodchucks
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Cornmeal and potatoes, with tea and apples, three times a day, are apt to
+      lose their charm. Even fish did not entirely satisfy the craving for flesh
+      meat. So Quonab and Rolf set out one morning on a regular hunt for food.
+      The days of big game were over on the Asamuk, but there were still many
+      small kinds and none more abundant than the woodchuck, hated of farmers.
+      Not without reason. Each woodchuck hole in the field was a menace to the
+      horses' legs. Tradition, at least, said that horses' legs and riders'
+      necks had been broken by the steed setting foot in one of these dangerous
+      pitfalls: besides which, each chuck den was the hub centre of an area of
+      desolation whenever located, as mostly it was, in the cultivated fields.
+      Undoubtedly the damage was greatly exaggerated, but the farmers generally
+      agreed that the woodchuck was a pest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever resentment the tiller of the soil might feel against the Indian's
+      hunting quail on his land, he always welcomed him as a killer of
+      woodchucks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the Indian looked on this animal as fair game and most excellent
+      eating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf watched eagerly when Quonab, taking his bow and arrows, said they
+      were going out for a meat hunt. Although there were several fields with
+      woodchucks resident, they passed cautiously from one to another, scanning
+      the green expanse for the dark-brown spots that meant woodchucks out
+      foraging. At length they found one, with a large and two small moving
+      brown things among the clover. The large one stood up on its hind legs
+      from time to time, ever alert for danger. It was a broad, open field,
+      without cover; but close to the cleared place in which, doubtless, was the
+      den, there was a ridge that Quonab judged would help him to approach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf was instructed to stay in hiding and make some Indian signs that the
+      hunter could follow when he should lose sight of the prey. First, &ldquo;Come
+      on&rdquo; (beckoning); and, second, &ldquo;Stop,&rdquo; (hand raised, palm forward); &ldquo;All
+      right&rdquo; (hand drawn across level and waist high); forefinger moved forward,
+      level, then curved straight down, meant &ldquo;gone in hole.&rdquo; But Rolf was not
+      to sign anything or move, unless Quonab asked him by making the question
+      sign (that is waving his hand with palm forward and spread fingers).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab went back into the woods, then behind the stone walls to get around
+      to the side next the ridge, and crawling so flat on his breast in the
+      clover that, although it was but a foot high, he was quite invisible to
+      any one not placed much above him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this way he came to the little ridge back of the woodchuck den, quite
+      unknown to its occupants. But now he was in a difficulty. He could not see
+      any of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were certainly beyond range of his bow, and it was difficult to make
+      them seek the den without their rushing into it. But he was equal to the
+      occasion. He raised one hand and made the query sign, and watching Rolf he
+      got answer, &ldquo;All well; they are there.&rdquo; (A level sweep of the flat hand
+      and a finger pointing steadily.) Then he waited a few seconds and made
+      exactly the same sign, getting the same answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He knew that the movement of the distant man would catch the eye of the
+      old woodchuck; she would sit up high to see what it was, and when it came
+      a second time she would, without being exactly alarmed, move toward the
+      den and call the young ones to follow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunter had not long to wait. He heard her shrill, warning whistle,
+      then the big chuck trotted and waddled into sight, stopping occasionally
+      to nibble or look around. Close behind her were the two fat cubs. Arrived
+      near the den their confidence was restored, and again they began to feed,
+      the young ones close to the den. Then Quonab put a blunt bird dart in his
+      bow and laid two others ready. Rising as little as possible, he drew the
+      bow. 'Tsip! the blunt arrow hit the young chuck on the nose and turned him
+      over. The other jumped in surprise and stood up. So did the mother. 'Tsip!
+      another bolt and the second chuck was kicking. But the old one dashed like
+      a flash into the underground safety of her den. Quonab knew that she had
+      seen nothing of him and would likely come forth very soon. He waited for
+      some time; then the gray-brown muzzle of the fat old clover-stealer came
+      partly to view; but it was not enough for a shot, and she seemed to have
+      no idea of coming farther. The Indian waited what seemed like a long time,
+      then played an ancient trick. He began to whistle a soft, low air. Whether
+      the chuck thinks it is another woodchuck calling, or merely a pleasant
+      sound, is not known, but she soon did as her kind always does, came out of
+      the hole slowly and ever higher, till she was half out and sitting up,
+      peering about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was Quonab's chance. He now drew a barbed hunting arrow to the head
+      and aimed it behind her shoulders. 'Tsip! and the chuck was transfixed by
+      a shaft that ended her life a minute later, and immediately prevented that
+      instinctive scramble into the hole, by which so many chucks elude the
+      hunter, even when mortally wounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Quonab stood up without further concealment, and beckoned to Rolf, who
+      came running. Three fat woodchucks meant abundance of the finest fresh
+      meat for a week; and those who have not tried it have no idea what a
+      delicacy is a young, fat, clover-fed woodchuck, pan-roasted, with
+      potatoes, and served at a blazing campfire to a hunter who is young,
+      strong, and exceedingly hungry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 13. The Fight with the Demon of the Deep
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      One morning, as they passed the trail that skirts the pond, Quonab pointed
+      to the near water. There was something afloat like a small, round leaf,
+      with two beads well apart, on it. Then Rolf noticed, two feet away, a
+      larger floating leaf, and now he knew that the first was the head and
+      eyes, the last the back, of a huge snapping turtle. A moment more and it
+      quickly sank from view. Turtles of three different kinds were common, and
+      snappers were well known to Rolf; but never before had he seen such a huge
+      and sinister-looking monster of the deep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is Bosikado. I know him; he knows me,&rdquo; said the red man. &ldquo;There has
+      long been war between us; some day we will settle it. I saw him here first
+      three years ago. I had shot a duck; it floated on the water. Before I
+      could get to it something pulled it under, and that was the last of it.
+      Then a summer duck came with young ones. One by one he took them, and at
+      last got her. He drives all ducks away, so I set many night lines for him.
+      I got some little snappers, eight and ten pounds each. They were good to
+      eat, and three times already I took Bosikado on the hooks, but each time
+      when I pulled him up to the canoe, he broke my biggest line and went down.
+      He was as broad as the canoe; his claws broke through the canoe skin; he
+      made it bulge and tremble. He looked like the devil of the lake. I was
+      afraid!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But my father taught me there is only one thing that can shame a man&mdash;that
+      is to be afraid, and I said I will never let fear be my guide. I will seek
+      a fair fight with Bosikado. He is my enemy. He made me afraid once; I will
+      make him much afraid. For three years we have been watching each other.
+      For three years he has kept all summer ducks away, and robbed my
+      fish-lines, my nets, and my muskrat traps. Not often do I see him&mdash;mostly
+      like today.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Before Skookum I had a little dog, Nindai. He was a good little dog. He
+      could tree a coon, catch a rabbit, or bring out a duck, although he was
+      very small. We were very good friends. One time I shot a duck; it fell
+      into the lake; I called Nindai. He jumped into the water and swam to the
+      duck. Then that duck that I thought dead got up and flew away, so I called
+      Nindai. He came across the water to me. By and by, over that deep place,
+      he howled and splashed. Then he yelled, like he wanted me. I ran for the
+      canoe and paddled quick; I saw my little dog Nindai go down. Then I knew
+      it was that Bosikado again. I worked a long time with a pole, but found
+      nothing; only five days later one of Nindai's paws floated down the
+      stream. Some day I will tear open that Bosikado!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once I saw him on the bank. He rolled down like a big stone to the water.
+      He looked at me before he dived, and as we looked in each other's eyes I
+      knew he was a Manito; but he is evil, and my father said, 'When an evil
+      Manito comes to trouble you, you must kill him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One day, when I swam after a dead duck, he took me by the toe, but I
+      reached shallow water and escaped him; and once I drove my fish-spear in
+      his back, but it was not strong enough to hold him. Once he caught
+      Skookum's tail, but the hair came out; the dog has not since swum across
+      the pond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Twice I have seen him like today and might have killed him with the gun,
+      but I want to meet him fighting. Many a time I have sat on the bank and
+      sung to him the 'Coward's Song,' and dared him to come and fight in the
+      shallow water where we are equals. He hears me. He does not come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know he made me sick last winter; even now he is making trouble with
+      his evil magic. But my magic must prevail, and some day we shall meet. He
+      made me afraid once. I will make him much afraid, and will meet him in the
+      water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Not many days were to pass before the meeting. Rolf had gone for water at
+      the well, which was a hole dug ten feet from the shore of the lake. He had
+      learned the hunter's cautious trick of going silently and peering about,
+      before he left cover. On a mud bank in a shallow bay, some fifty yards
+      off, he described a peculiar gray and greenish form that he slowly made
+      out to be a huge turtle, sunning itself. The more he looked and gauged it
+      with things about, the bigger it seemed. So he slunk back quickly and
+      silently to Quonab. &ldquo;He is out sunning himself&mdash;Bosikado&mdash;on the
+      bank!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian rose quickly, took his tomahawk and a strong line. Rolf reached
+      for the gun, but Quonab shook his head. They went to the lake. Yes! There
+      was the great, goggle-eyed monster, like a mud-coloured log. The bank
+      behind him was without cover. It would be impossible to approach the
+      watchful creature within striking distance before he could dive. Quonab
+      would not use the gun; in this case he felt he must atone by making an
+      equal fight. He quickly formed a plan; he fastened the tomahawk and the
+      coiled rope to his belt, then boldly and silently slipped into the lake,
+      to approach the snapper from the water side&mdash;quite the easiest in
+      this case, not only because the snapper would naturally watch on the land
+      side, but because there was a thick clump of rushes behind which the
+      swimmer could approach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as instructed, Rolf went back into the woods, and came silently to a
+      place whence he could watch the snapper from a distance of twenty yards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy's heart beat fast as he watched the bold swimmer and the savage
+      reptile. There could be little doubt that the creature weighed a hundred
+      pounds. It is the strongest for its size and the fiercest of all reptiles.
+      Its jaws, though toothless, have cutting edges, a sharp beak, and power to
+      the crushing of bones. Its armour makes it invulnerable to birds and
+      beasts of prey. Like a log it lay on the beach, with its long alligator
+      tail stretched up the bank and its serpentine head and tiny wicked eyes
+      vigilantly watching the shore. Its shell, broad and ancient, was fringed
+      with green moss, and its scaly armpits exposed, were decked with leeches,
+      at which a couple of peetweets pecked with eager interest, apparently to
+      the monster's satisfaction. Its huge limbs and claws were in marked
+      contrast to the small, red eyes. But the latter it was that gave the
+      thrill of unnervement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sunk down nearly out of sight, the Indian slowly reached the reeds. Here
+      he found bottom, and pausing, he took the rope in one hand, the tomahawk
+      in the other, and dived, and when he reappeared he was within ten yards of
+      the enemy, and in water but four feet deep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a sudden rush the reptile splashed into the pond and out of sight,
+      avoiding the rope noose. But Quonab clutched deep in the water as it
+      passed, and seized the monster's rugged tail. Then it showed its strength.
+      In a twinkling that mighty tail was swung sidewise, crushing the hand with
+      terrible force against the sharp-edged points of the back armour. It took
+      all the Indian's grit to hold on to that knife-edged war club. He dropped
+      his tomahawk, then with his other hand swung the rope to catch the
+      turtle's head, but it lurched so quickly that the rope missed again,
+      slipped over the shell, and, as they struggled, encircled one huge paw.
+      The Indian jerked it tight, and they were bound together. But now his only
+      weapon was down at the bottom and the water all muddied. He could not see,
+      but plunged to grope for the tomahawk. The snapper gave a great lurch to
+      escape, releasing the injured hand, but jerking the man off his legs.
+      Then, finding itself held by a forepaw, it turned with gaping, hissing
+      jaws, and sprang on the foe that struggled in bottom of the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The snapper has the bulldog habit to seize and hold till the piece tears
+      out. In the muddy water it had to seize in the dark, and fending first the
+      left arm of its foe, fastened on with fierce beak and desperate strength.
+      At this moment Quonab recovered his tomahawk; rising into the air he
+      dragged up the hanging snapper, and swung the weapon with all the force of
+      his free arm. The blow sank through the monster's shell, deep into its
+      back, without any visible effect, except to rob the Indian of his weapon
+      as he could not draw it out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Rolf rushed into the water to help. But Quonab gasped, &ldquo;No, no, go
+      back&mdash;I'm alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The creature's jaws were locked on his arm, but its front claws, tearing
+      downward and outward, were demolishing the coat that had protected it, and
+      long lines of mingled blood were floating on the waves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a desperate plunge toward shallow water, Quonab gave another wrench
+      to the tomahawk&mdash;it moved, loosed; another, and it was free. Then
+      &ldquo;chop, chop, chop,&rdquo; and that long, serpentine neck was severed; the body,
+      waving its great scaly legs and lashing its alligator tail, went swimming
+      downward, but the huge head, blinking its bleary, red eyes and streaming
+      with blood, was clinched on his arm. The Indian made for the bank hauling
+      the rope that held the living body, and fastened it to a tree, then drew
+      his knife to cut the jaw muscles of the head that ground its beak into his
+      flesh. But the muscles were protected by armour plates and bone; he could
+      not deal a stab to end their power. In vain he fumbled and slashed, until
+      in a spasmodic quiver the jaws gaped wide and the bloody head fell to the
+      ground. Again it snapped, but a tree branch bore the brunt; on this the
+      strong jaws clinched, and so remained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For over an hour the headless body crawled, or tried to crawl, always
+      toward the lake. And now they could look at the enemy. Not his size so
+      much as his weight surprised them. Although barely four feet long, he was
+      so heavy that Rolf could not lift him. Quonab's scratches were many but
+      slight; only the deep bill wound made his arm and the bruises of the jaws
+      were at all serious and of these he made light. Headed by Skookum in full
+      'yap,' they carried the victim's body to camp; the head, still dutching
+      the stick, was decorated with three feathers, then set on a pole near the
+      wigwam. And the burden of the red man's song when next he sang was:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bosikado, mine enemy was mighty, But I went into his country And made him
+      afraid!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 14. Selectman Horton Appears at the Rock
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Summer was at its height on the Asamuk. The woodthrush was nearing the end
+      of its song; a vast concourse of young robins in their speckled plumage
+      joined chattering every night in the thickest cedars; and one or two
+      broods of young ducks were seen on the Pipestave Pond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had grown wonderfully well into his wigwam life. He knew now exactly
+      how to set the flap so as to draw out all the smoke, no matter which way
+      the wind blew; he had learned the sunset signs, which tell what change of
+      wind the night might bring. He knew without going to the shore whether the
+      tide was a little ebb, with poor chances, or a mighty outflow that would
+      expose the fattest oyster beds. His practiced fingers told at a touch
+      whether it was a turtle or a big fish on his night line; and by the tone
+      of the tom-tom he knew when a rainstorm was at hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Being trained in industry, he had made many improvements in their camp,
+      not the least of which was to clean up and burn all the rubbish and
+      garbage that attracted hordes of flies. He had fitted into the camp partly
+      by changing it to fit himself, and he no longer felt that his stay there
+      was a temporary shift. When it was to end, he neither knew nor cared. He
+      realized only that he was enjoying life as he never had done before. His
+      canoe had passed a lot of rapids and was now in a steady, unbroken stream&mdash;but
+      it was the swift shoot before the fall. A lull in the clamour does not
+      mean the end of war, but a new onset preparing; and, of course, it came in
+      the way least looked for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Selectman Horton stood well with the community; he was a man of good
+      judgment, good position, and kind heart. He was owner of all the woods
+      along the Asamuk, and thus the Indian's landlord on the Indian's ancestral
+      land. Both Rolf and Quonab had worked for Horton, and so they knew him
+      well, and liked him for his goodness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Wednesday morning, late in July, when Selectman Horton,
+      clean-shaven and large, appeared at the wigwam under the rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good morrow to ye both!&rdquo; Then without wasting time he plunged in.
+      &ldquo;There's been some controversy and much criticism of the selectmen for
+      allowing a white lad, the child of Christian parents, the grandson of a
+      clergyman, to leave all Christian folk and folds, and herd with a pagan,
+      to become, as it were, a mere barbarian. I hold not, indeed, with those
+      that out of hand would condemn as godless a good fellow like Quonab, who,
+      in my certain knowledge and according to his poor light, doth indeed
+      maintain in some kind a daily worship of a sort. Nevertheless, the
+      selectmen, the magistrates, the clergy, the people generally, and above
+      all the Missionary Society, are deeply moved in the matter. It hath even
+      been made a personal charge against myself, and with much bitterness I am
+      held up as unzealous for allowing such a nefarious stronghold of Satan to
+      continue on mine own demesne, and harbour one, escaped, as it were, from
+      grace. Acting, therefore, not according to my heart, but as spokesman of
+      the Town Council, the Synod of Elders, and the Society for the
+      Promulgation of Godliness among the Heathen, I am to state that you, Rolf
+      Kittering, being without kinsfolk and under age, are in verity a ward of
+      the parish, and as such, it hath been arranged that you become a member of
+      the household of the most worthy Elder Ezekiel Peck, a household filled
+      with the spirit of estimable piety and true doctrine; a man, indeed, who,
+      notwithstanding his exterior coldness and severity, is very sound in all
+      matters regarding the Communion of Saints, and, I may even say in a
+      measure a man of fame for some most excellent remarks he hath passed on
+      the shorter catechism, beside which he hath gained much approval for
+      having pointed out two hidden meanings in the 27th verse of the 12th
+      chapter of Hebrews; one whose very presence, therefore, is a guarantee
+      against levity, laxity, and false preachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, now, my good lad, look not so like a colt that feels the whip for
+      the first time. You will have a good home, imbued with the spirit of a
+      most excellent piety that will be ever about you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like a colt feeling the whip,&rdquo; indeed! Rolf reeled like a stricken deer.
+      To go back as a chore-boy drudge was possible, but not alluring; to leave
+      Quonab, just as the wood world was opening to him, was devastating; but to
+      exchange it all for bondage in the pious household of Old Peck, whose cold
+      cruelty had driven off all his own children, was an accumulation of
+      disasters that aroused him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won't go!&rdquo; he blurted out, and gazed defiantly at the broad and
+      benevolent selectman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come now, Rolf, such language is unbecoming. Let not a hasty tongue
+      betray you into sin. This is what your mother would have wished. Be
+      sensible; you will soon find it was all for the best. I have ever liked
+      you, and will ever be a friend you can count on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Acting, not according to my instructions, but according to my heart, I
+      will say further that you need not come now, you need not even give answer
+      now, but think it over. Nevertheless, remember that on or before Monday
+      morning next, you will be expected to appear at Elder Peck's, and I fear
+      that, in case you fail, the messenger next arriving will be one much less
+      friendly than myself. Come now, Rolf, be a good lad, and remember that in
+      your new home you will at least be living for the glory of God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, with a friendly nod, but an expression of sorrow, the large, black
+      messenger turned and tramped away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf slowly, limply, sank down on a rock and stared at the fire. After
+      awhile Quonab got up and began to prepare the mid-day meal. Usually Rolf
+      helped him. Now he did nothing but sullenly glare at the glowing coals. In
+      half an hour the food was ready. He ate little; then went away in the
+      woods by himself. Quonab saw him lying on a flat rock, looking at the
+      pond, and throwing pebbles into it. Later Quonab went to Myanos. On his
+      return he found that Rolf had cut up a great pile of wood, but not a word
+      passed between them. The look of sullen anger and rebellion on Rolf's face
+      was changing to one of stony despair. What was passing in each mind the
+      other could not divine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening meal was eaten in silence; then Quonab smoked for an hour,
+      both staring into the fire. A barred owl hooted and laughed over their
+      heads, causing the dog to jump up and bark at the sound that ordinarily he
+      would have heeded not at all. Then silence was restored, and the red man's
+      hidden train of thought was in a flash revealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rolf, let's go to the North Woods!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was another astounding idea. Rolf had realized more and more how much
+      this valley meant to Quonab, who worshipped the memory of his people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And leave all this?&rdquo; he replied, making a sweep with his hand toward the
+      rock, the Indian trail, the site of bygone Petuquapen, and the graves of
+      the tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For reply their eyes met, and from the Indian's deep chest came the single
+      word, &ldquo;Ugh.&rdquo; One syllable, deep and descending, but what a tale it told of
+      the slowly engendered and strong-grown partiality, of a struggle that had
+      continued since the morning when the selectman came with words of doom,
+      and of friendship's victory won.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf realized this, and it gave him a momentary choking in his throat,
+      and, &ldquo;I'm ready if you really mean it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh I go, but some day come back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a long silence, then Rolf, &ldquo;When shall we start?&rdquo; and the
+      answer, &ldquo;To-morrow night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 15. Bound for the North Woods
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When Quonab left camp in the morning he went heavy laden, and the trail he
+      took led to Myanos. There was nothing surprising in it when he appeared at
+      Silas Peck's counter and offered for sale a pair of snowshoes, a bundle of
+      traps, some dishes of birch bark and basswood, and a tom-tom, receiving in
+      exchange some tea, tobacco, gunpowder, and two dollars in cash. He turned
+      without comment, and soon was back in camp. He now took the kettle into
+      the woods and brought it back filled with bark, fresh chipped from a
+      butternut tree. Water was added, and the whole boiled till it made a deep
+      brown liquid. When this was cooled he poured it into a flat dish, then
+      said to Rolf: &ldquo;Come now, I make you a Sinawa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With a soft rag the colour was laid on. Face, head, neck, and hands were
+      all at first intended, but Rolf said, &ldquo;May as well do the whole thing.&rdquo; So
+      he stripped off; the yellow brown juice on his white skin turned it a rich
+      copper colour, and he was changed into an Indian lad that none would have
+      taken for Rolf Kittering. The stains soon dried, and Rolf, re-clothed,
+      felt that already he had burned a bridge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two portions of the wigwam cover were taken off; and two packs were made
+      of the bedding. The tomahawk, bows, arrows, and gun, with the few precious
+      food pounds in the copper pot, were divided between them and arranged into
+      packs with shoulder straps; then all was ready. But there was one thing
+      more for Quonab; he went up alone to the rock. Rolf knew what he went for,
+      and judged it best not to follow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian lighted his pipe, blew the four smokes to the four winds,
+      beginning with the west, then he sat in silence for a time. Presently the
+      prayer for good hunting came from the rock:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Father lead us!
+     Father, help us!
+     Father, guide us to the good hunting.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      And when that ceased a barred owl hooted in the woods, away to the north.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh! good,&rdquo; was all he said as he rejoined Rolf; and they set out, as the
+      sun went down, on their long journey due northward, Quonab, Rolf, and
+      Skookum. They had not gone a hundred yards before the dog turned back,
+      raced to a place where he had a bone in cache and rejoining there trotted
+      along with his bone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The high road would have been the easier travelling, but it was very
+      necessary to be unobserved, so they took the trail up the brook Asamuk,
+      and after an hour's tramp came out by the Cat-Rock road that runs
+      westerly. Again they were tempted by the easy path, but again Quonab
+      decided on keeping to the woods. Half an hour later they were halted by
+      Skookum treeing a coon. After they had secured the dog, they tramped on
+      through the woods for two hours more, and then, some eight miles from the
+      Pipestave, they halted, Rolf, at least, tired out. It was now midnight.
+      They made a hasty double bed of the canvas cover over a pole above them,
+      and slept till morning, cheered, as they closed their drowsy eyes, by the
+      &ldquo;Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, yah, hoo,&rdquo; of their friend, the barred owl, still to
+      the northward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun was high, and Quonab had breakfast ready before Rolf awoke. He was
+      so stiff with the tramp and the heavy pack that it was with secret joy he
+      learned that they were to rest, concealed in the woods, that day, and
+      travel only by night, until in a different region, where none knew or were
+      likely to stop them. They were now in York State, but that did not by any
+      means imply that they were beyond pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the sun rose high, Rolf went forth with his bow and blunt arrows, and
+      then, thanks largely to Skookum, he succeeded in knocking over a couple of
+      squirrels, which, skinned and roasted, made their dinner that day. At
+      night they set out as before, making about ten miles. The third night they
+      did better, and the next day being Sunday, they kept out of sight. But
+      Monday morning, bright and clear, although it was the first morning when
+      they were sure of being missed, they started to tramp openly along the
+      highway, with a sense of elation that they had not hitherto known on the
+      joumey. Two things impressed Rolf by their novelty: the curious stare of
+      the country folk whose houses and teams they passed, and the violent
+      antagonism of the dogs. Usually the latter could be quelled by shaking a
+      stick at them, or by pretending to pick up a stone, but one huge and
+      savage brindled mastiff kept following and barking just out of stick
+      range, and managed to give Skookum a mauling, until Quonab drew his bow
+      and let fly a blunt arrow that took the brute on the end of the nose, and
+      sent him howling homeward, while Skookum got a few highly satisfactory
+      nips at the enemy's rear. Twenty miles they made that day and twenty-five
+      the next, for now they were on good roads, and their packs were lighter.
+      More than once they found kind farmer folk who gave them a meal. But many
+      times Skookum made trouble for them. The farmers did not like the way he
+      behaved among their hens. Skookum never could be made to grasp the fine
+      zoological distinction between partridges which are large birds and fair
+      game, and hens which are large birds, but not fair game. Such hair
+      splitting was obviously unworthy of study, much less of acceptance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon it was clearly better for Rolf, approaching a house, to go alone,
+      while Quonab held Skookum. The dogs seemed less excited by Rolf's smell,
+      and remembering his own attitude when tramps came to one or another of his
+      ancient homes, he always asked if they would let him work for a meal, and
+      soon remarked that his success was better when he sought first the women
+      of the house, and then, smiling to show his very white teeth, spoke in
+      clear and un-Indian English, which had the more effect coming from an
+      evident Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Since I am to be an Indian, Quonab, you must give me an Indian name,&rdquo; he
+      said after one of these episodes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh! Good! That's easy! You are 'Nibowaka,' the wise one.&rdquo; For the Indian
+      had not missed any of the points, and so he was named.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Twenty or thirty miles a day they went now, avoiding the settlements along
+      the river. Thus they saw nothing of Albany, but on the tenth day they
+      reached Fort Edward, and for the first time viewed the great Hudson. Here
+      they stayed as short a time as might be, pushed on by Glen's Falls, and on
+      the eleventh night of the journey they passed the old, abandoned fort, and
+      sighted the long stretch of Lake George, with its wooded shore, and
+      glimpses of the mountains farther north.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now a new thought possessed them&mdash;&ldquo;If only they had the canoe that
+      they had abandoned on the Pipestave.&rdquo; It came to them both at the sight of
+      the limit less water, and especially when Rolf remembered that Lake George
+      joined with Champlain, which again was the highway to all the wilderness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They camped now as they had fifty times before, and made their meal. The
+      bright blue water dancing near was alluring, inspiring; as they sought the
+      shore Quonab pointed to a track and said, &ldquo;Deer.&rdquo; He did not show much
+      excitement, but Rolf did, and they returned to the camp fire with a new
+      feeling of elation&mdash;they had reached the Promised Land. Now they must
+      prepare for the serious work of finding a hunting ground that was not
+      already claimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab, remembering the ancient law of the woods, that parcels off the
+      valleys, each to the hunter first arriving, or succeeding the one who had,
+      was following his own line of thought. Rolf was puzzling over means to get
+      an outfit, canoe, traps, axes, and provisions. The boy broke silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quonab, we must have money to get an outfit; this is the beginning of
+      harvest; we can easily get work for a month. That will feed us and give us
+      money enough to live on, and a chance to learn something about the
+      country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The reply was simple, &ldquo;You are Nibowaka.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The farms were few and scattered here, but there were one or two along the
+      lake. To the nearest one with standing grain Rolf led the way. But their
+      reception, from the first brush with the dog to the final tilt with the
+      farmer, was unpleasant&mdash;&ldquo;He didn't want any darn red-skins around
+      there. He had had two St. Regis Indians last year, and they were a couple
+      of drunken good-for-nothings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next was the house of a fat Dutchman, who was just wondering how he
+      should meet the compounded accumulated emergencies of late hay, early
+      oats, weedy potatoes, lost cattle, and a prospective increase of his
+      family, when two angels of relief appeared at his door, in copper-coloured
+      skins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cahn yo work putty goood?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I have always lived on a farm,&rdquo; and Rolf showed his hands, broad and
+      heavy for his years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cahn yo mebby find my lost cows, which I haf not find, already yet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Could they! it would be fun to try.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I giff yo two dollars you pring dem putty kvick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Quonab took the trail to the woods, and Rolf started into the potatoes
+      with a hoe, but he was stopped by a sudden outcry of poultry. Alas! It was
+      Skookum on an ill-judged partridge hunt. A minute later he was
+      ignominiously chained to a penitential post, nor left it during the
+      travellers' sojourn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon Quonab returned with the cattle, and as he told Rolf he
+      saw five deer, there was an unmistakable hunter gleam in his eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three cows in milk, and which had not been milked for two days, was a
+      serious matter, needing immediate attention. Rolf had milked five cows
+      twice a day for five years, and a glance showed old Van Trumper that the
+      boy was an expert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good, good! I go now make feed swine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went into the outhouse, but a tow-topped, redcheeked girl ran after
+      him. &ldquo;Father, father, mother says&mdash;&rdquo; and the rest was lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Myn Hemel! Myn Hemel! I thought it not so soon,&rdquo; and the fat Dutchman
+      followed the child. A moment later he reappeared, his jolly face clouded
+      with a look of grave concern. &ldquo;Hi yo big Injun, yo cahn paddle canoe?&rdquo;
+       Quonab nodded. &ldquo;Den coom. Annette, pring Tomas und Hendrik.&rdquo; So the father
+      carried two-year-old Hendrik, while the Indian carried six-year-old Tomas,
+      and twelve-year-old Annette followed in vague, uncomprehended alarm.
+      Arrived at the shore the children were placed in the canoe, and then the
+      difficulties came fully to the father's mind&mdash;he could not leave his
+      wife. He must send the children with the messenger&mdash;In a sort of
+      desperation, &ldquo;Cahn you dem childen take to de house across de lake, and
+      pring back Mrs. Callan? Tell her Marta Van Trumper need her right now
+      mooch very kvick.&rdquo; The Indian nodded. Then the father hesitated, but a
+      glance at the Indian was enough. Something said, &ldquo;He is safe,&rdquo; and in
+      spite of sundry wails from the little ones left with a dark stranger, he
+      pushed off the canoe: &ldquo;Yo take care for my babies,&rdquo; and turned his
+      brimming eyes away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The farmhouse was only two miles off, and the evening calm; no time was
+      lost: what woman will not instantly drop all work and all interests, to
+      come to the help of another in the trial time of motherhood?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Within an hour the neighbour's wife was holding hands with the mother of
+      the banished tow-heads. He who tempers the wind and appoints the season of
+      the wild deer hinds had not forgotten the womanhood beyond the reach of
+      skilful human help, and with the hard and lonesome life had conjoined a
+      sweet and blessed compensation. What would not her sister of the city give
+      for such immunity; and long before that dark, dread hour of night that
+      brings the ebbing life force low, the wonderful miracle was complete;
+      there was another tow-top in the settler's home, and all was well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 16. Life with the Dutch Settler
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Indians slept in the luxuriant barn of logs, with blankets, plenty of
+      hay, and a roof. They were more than content, for now, on the edge of the
+      wilderness, they were very close to wild life. Not a day or a night passed
+      without bringing proof of that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One end of the barn was portioned off for poultry. In this the working
+      staff of a dozen hens were doing their duty, which, on that first night of
+      the &ldquo;brown angels' visit,&rdquo; consisted of silent slumber, when all at once
+      the hens and the new hands were aroused by a clamorous cackling, which
+      speedily stopped. It sounded like a hen falling in a bad dream, then
+      regaining her perch to go to sleep again. But next morning the body of one
+      of these highly esteemed branches of the egg-plant was found in the
+      corner, partly devoured. Quonab examined the headless hen, the dust
+      around, and uttered the word, &ldquo;Mink.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf said, &ldquo;Why not skunk?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Skunk could not climb to the perch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Weasel then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Weasel would only suck the blood, and would kill three or four.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Coon would carry him away, so would fox or wildcat, and a marten would
+      not come into the building by night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no question, first, that it was a mink, and, second, that he was
+      hiding about the barn until the hunger pang should send him again to the
+      hen house. Quonab covered the hen's body with two or three large stones so
+      that there was only one approach. In the way of this approach he buried a
+      &ldquo;number one&rdquo; trap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night they were aroused again; this time by a frightful screeching,
+      and a sympathetic, inquiring cackle from the fowls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arising, quickly they entered with a lantem. Rolf then saw a sight that
+      gave him a prickling in his hair. The mink, a large male, was caught by
+      one front paw. He was writhing and foaming, tearing, sometimes at the
+      trap, sometimes at the dead hen, and sometimes at his own imprisoned foot,
+      pausing now and then to utter the most ear-piercing shrieks, then falling
+      again in crazy animal fury on the trap, splintering his sharp white teeth,
+      grinding the cruel metal with bruised and bloody jaws, frothing, snarling,
+      raving mad. As his foemen entered he turned on them a hideous visage of
+      inexpressible fear and hate, rage and horror. His eyes glanced back green
+      fire in the lantern light; he strained in renewed efforts to escape; the
+      air was rank with his musky smell. The impotent fury of his struggle made
+      a picture that continued in Rolf's mind. Quonab took a stick and with a
+      single blow put an end to the scene, but never did Rolf forget it, and
+      never afterward was he a willing partner when the trapping was done with
+      those relentless jaws of steel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A week later another hen was missing, and the door of the hen house left
+      open. After a careful examination of the dust, inside and out of the
+      building, Quonab said, &ldquo;Coon.&rdquo; It is very unusual for coons to raid a hen
+      house. Usually it is some individual with abnormal tastes, and once he
+      begins, he is sure to come back. The Indian judged that he might be back
+      the next night, so prepared a trap. A rope was passed from the door latch
+      to a tree; on this rope a weight was hung, so that the door was
+      selfshutting, and to make it self-locking he leaned a long pole against it
+      inside. Now he propped it open with a single platform, so set that the
+      coon must walk on it once he was inside, and so release the door. The
+      trappers thought they would hear in the night when the door closed, but
+      they were sleepy; they knew nothing until next morning. Then they found
+      that the self-shutter had shut, and inside, crouched in one of the nesting
+      boxes, was a tough, old fighting coon. Strange to tell, he had not touched
+      a second hen. As soon as he found himself a prisoner he had experienced a
+      change of heart, and presently his skin was nailed on the end of the barn
+      and his meat was hanging in the larder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this a marten,&rdquo; asked little Annette. And when told not, her
+      disappointment elicited the information that old Warren, the storekeeper,
+      had promised her a blue cotton dress for a marten skin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall have the first one I catch,&rdquo; said Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Life in Van Trumper's was not unpleasant. The mother was going about again
+      in a week. Annette took charge of the baby, as well as of the previous
+      arrivals. Hendrik senior was gradually overcoming his difficulties, thanks
+      to the unexpected help, and a kindly spirit made the hard work not so very
+      hard. The shyness that was at first felt toward the Indians wore off,
+      especially in the case of Rolf, he was found so companionable; and the
+      Dutchman, after puzzling over the combination of brown skin and blue eyes,
+      decided that Rolf was a half-breed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August wore on not unpleasantly for the boy, but Quonab was getting
+      decidedly restless. He could work for a week as hard as any white man, but
+      his race had not risen to the dignity of patient, unremitting, life-long
+      toil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much money have we now, Nibowaka?&rdquo; was one of the mid-August
+      indications of restlessness. Rolf reckoned up; half a month for Quonab,
+      $15.00; for himself, $10.00; for finding the cows $2.00&mdash;$27.00 in
+      all. Not enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three days later Quonab reckoned up again. Next day he said: &ldquo;We need two
+      months' open water to find a good country and build a shanty.&rdquo; Then did
+      Rolf do the wise thing; he went to fat Hendrik and told him all about it.
+      They wanted to get a canoe and an outfit, and seek for a trapping or
+      hunting ground that would not encroach on those already possessed, for the
+      trapping law is rigid; even the death penalty is not considered too high
+      in certain cases of trespass, provided the injured party is ready to be
+      judge, jury, and executioner. Van Trumper was able to help them not a
+      little in the matter of location&mdash;there was no use trying on the
+      Vermont side, nor anywhere near Lake Champlain, nor near Lake George;
+      neither was it worth while going to the far North, as the Frenchmen came
+      in there, and they were keen hunters, so that Hamilton County was more
+      promising than any other, but it was almost inaccessible, remote from all
+      the great waterways, and of course without roads; its inaccessibility was
+      the reason why it was little known. So far so good; but happy Hendrik was
+      unpleasantly surprised to learn that the new help were for leaving at
+      once. Finally he made this offer: If they would stay till September first,
+      and so leave all in &ldquo;good shape fer der vinter,&rdquo; he would, besides the
+      wages agreed, give them the canoe, one axe, six mink traps, and a fox trap
+      now hanging in the barn, and carry them in his wagon as far as the
+      Five-mile portage from Lake George to Schroon River, down which they could
+      go to its junction with the upper Hudson, which, followed up through forty
+      miles of rapids and hard portages, would bring them to a swampy river that
+      enters from the southwest, and ten miles up this would bring them to
+      Jesup's Lake, which is two miles wide and twelve miles long. This country
+      abounded with game, but was so hard to enter that after Jesup's death it
+      was deserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was only one possible answer to such an offer&mdash;they stayed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spare moments Quonab brought the canoe up to the barn, stripped off
+      some weighty patches of bark and canvas and some massive timber thwarts,
+      repaired the ribs, and when dry and gummed, its weight was below one
+      hundred pounds; a saving of at least forty pounds on the soggy thing he
+      crossed the lake in that first day on the farm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      September came. Early in the morning Quonab went alone to the lakeside;
+      there on a hill top he sat, looking toward the sunrise, and sang a song of
+      the new dawn, beating, not with a tom-tom&mdash;he had none&mdash;but with
+      one stick on another. And when the sunrise possessed the earth he sang
+      again the hunter's song:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Father, guide our feet, Lead us to the good hunting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he danced to the sound, his face skyward, his eyes closed, his feet
+      barely raised, but rythmically moved. So went he three times round to the
+      chant in three sun circles, dancing a sacred measure, as royal David might
+      have done that day when he danced around the Ark of the Covenant on its
+      homeward joumey. His face was illumined, and no man could have seen him
+      then without knowing that this was a true heart's worship of a true God,
+      who is in all things He has made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 17. Canoeing on the Upper Hudson
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     There is only one kind of a man I can't size up; that's the
+     faller that shets up and says nothing.&mdash;Sayings of Si
+     Sylvanne.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A settler named Hulett had a scow that was borrowed by the neighbours
+      whenever needed to take a team across the lake. On the morning of their
+      journey, the Dutchman's team and wagon, the canoe and the men, were aboard
+      the scow, Skookum took his proper place at the prow, and all was ready for
+      &ldquo;Goodbye.&rdquo; Rolf found it a hard word to say. The good old Dutch mother had
+      won his heart, and the children were like his brothers and sisters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Coom again, lad; coom and see us kvick.&rdquo; She kissed him, he kissed
+      Annette and the three later issues. They boarded the scow to ply the poles
+      till the deep water was reached, then the oars. An east wind springing up
+      gave them a chance to profit by a wagon-cover rigged as a sail, and two
+      hours later the scow was safely landed at West Side, where was a country
+      store, and the head of the wagon road to the Schroon River.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they approached the door, they saw a rough-looking man slouching
+      against the building, his hands in his pockets, his blear eyes taking in
+      the new-comers with a look of contemptuous hostility. As they passed, he
+      spat tobacco juice on the dog and across the feet of the men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Warren who kept the store was not partial to Indians, but he was a
+      good friend of Hendrik and very keen to trade for fur, so the new trappers
+      were well received; and now came the settling of accounts. Flour, oatmeal,
+      pork, potatoes, tea, tobacco, sugar, salt, powder, ball, shot, clothes,
+      lines, an inch-auger, nails, knives, awls, needles, files, another axe,
+      some tin plates, and a frying pan were selected and added to Hendrik's
+      account.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I was you, I'd take a windy-sash; you'll find it mighty convenient in
+      cold weather.&rdquo; The store keeper led them into an outhouse where was a pile
+      of six-lighted window-frames all complete. So the awkward thing was added
+      to their load.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't I sell you a fine rifle?&rdquo; and he took down a new, elegant small
+      bore of the latest pattern. &ldquo;Only twenty-five dollars.&rdquo; Rolf shook his
+      head; &ldquo;part down, and I'll take the rest in fur next spring.&rdquo; Rolf was
+      sorely tempted; however, he had an early instilled horror of debt. He
+      steadfastly said: &ldquo;No.&rdquo; But many times he regretted it afterward! The
+      small balance remaining was settled in cash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they were arranging and selecting, they heard a most hideous yelping
+      outdoors, and a minute later Skookum limped in, crying as if half-killed.
+      Quonab was out in a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you kick my dog?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The brutal loafer changed countenance as he caught the red man's eye.
+      &ldquo;Naw! never touched him; hurted himself on that rake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was obviously a lie, but better to let it pass, and Quonab came in
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the rough stranger appeared at the door and growled: &ldquo;Say, Warren!
+      ain't you going to let me have that rifle? I guess my word's as good as
+      the next man's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Warren; &ldquo;I told you, no!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you can go to blazes, and you'll never see a cent's worth of fur
+      from the stuff I got last year.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't expect to,&rdquo; was the reply; &ldquo;I've learned what your word's worth.&rdquo;
+       And the stranger slouched away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who vas he?&rdquo; asked Hendrik.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only know that his name is Jack Hoag; he's a little bit of a trapper
+      and a big bit of a bum; stuck me last year. He doesn't come out this way;
+      they say he goes out by the west side of the mountains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      New light on their course was secured from Warren, and above all, the
+      important information that the mouth of Jesup's River was marked by an
+      eagle's nest in a dead pine. &ldquo;Up to that point keep the main stream, and
+      don't forget next spring I'm buying fur.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The drive across Five-mile portage was slow. It took over two hours to
+      cover it, but late that day they reached the Schroon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the Dutchman said &ldquo;Good-bye: Coom again some noder time.&rdquo; Skookum
+      saluted the farmer with a final growl, then Rolf and Quonab were left
+      alone in the wilderness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was after sundown, so they set about camping for the night. A wise
+      camper always prepares bed and shelter in daylight, if possible. While
+      Rolf made a fire and hung the kettle, Quonab selected a level, dry place
+      between two trees, and covered it with spruce boughs to make the beds, and
+      last a low tent was made by putting the lodge cover over a pole between
+      the trees. The ends of the covers were held down by loose green logs
+      quickly cut for the purpose, and now they were safe against weather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tea, potatoes, and fried pork, with maple syrup and hard-tack, made their
+      meal of the time, after which there was a long smoke. Quonab took a stick
+      of red willow, picked up-in the daytime, and began shaving it toward one
+      end, leaving the curling shreds still on the stick. When these were
+      bunched in a fuzzy mop, he held them over the fire until they were roasted
+      brown; then, grinding all up in his palm with some tobacco, and filling
+      his pipe he soon was enveloped in that odour of woodsy smoke called the
+      &ldquo;Indian smell,&rdquo; by many who do not know whence or how it comes. Rolf did
+      not smoke. He had promised his mother that he would not until he was a
+      man, and something brought her back home now with overwhelming force; that
+      was the beds they had made of fragrant balsam boughs. &ldquo;Cho-ko-tung or
+      blister tree&rdquo; as Quonab called it. His mother had a little sofa pillow,
+      brought from the North&mdash;a &ldquo;northern pine&rdquo; pillow they called it, for
+      it was stuffed with pine needles of a kind not growing in Connecticut.
+      Many a time had Rolf as a baby pushed his little round nose into that bag
+      to inhale the delicious odour it gave forth, and so it became the hallowed
+      smell of all that was dear in his babyhood, and it never lost its potency.
+      Smell never does. Oh, mighty aura! that, in marching by the nostrils, can
+      reach and move the soul; how wise the church that makes this power its
+      handmaid, and through its incense overwhelms all alien thought when the
+      worshipper, wandering, doubting, comes again to see if it be true, that
+      here doubt dies. Oh, queen of memory that is master of the soul! how
+      fearful should we be of letting evil thought associated grow with some
+      recurrent odour that we love. Happy, indeed, are they that find some ten
+      times pure and consecrated fragrance, like the pine, which entering in is
+      master of their moods, and yet through linking thoughts has all its power,
+      uplifting, full of sweetness and blessed peace. So came to Rolf his
+      medicine tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The balsam fir was his tree of hallowed memory. Its odour never failed,
+      and he slept that night with its influence all about him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Starting in the morning was no easy matter. There was so much to be
+      adjusted that first day. Packs divided in two, new combinations to trim
+      the canoe, or to raise such and such a package above a possible leak. The
+      heavy things, like axes and pans, had to be fastened to the canoe or to
+      packages that would float in case of an upset. The canoe itself had to be
+      gummed in one or two places; but they got away after three hours, and
+      began the voyage down the Schroon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was Rolf's first water journey. He had indeed essayed the canoe on
+      the Pipestave Pond, but that was a mere ferry. This was real travel. He
+      marvelled at the sensitiveness of the frail craft; the delicacy of its
+      balance; its quick response to the paddle; the way it seemed to shrink
+      from the rocks; and the unpleasantly suggestive bend-up of the ribs when
+      the bottom grounded upon a log. It was a new world for him. Quonab taught
+      him never to enter the canoe except when she was afloat; never to rise in
+      her or move along without hold of the gunwale; never to make a sudden
+      move; and he also learned that it was easier to paddle when there were six
+      feet of water underneath than when only six inches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In an hour they had covered the five miles that brought them to the
+      Hudson, and here the real labour began, paddling up stream. Before long
+      they came to a shallow stretch with barely enough water to float the
+      canoe. Here they jumped out and waded in the stream, occasionally lifting
+      a stone to one side, till they reached the upper stretch of deep water and
+      again went merrily paddling. Soon they came to an impassable rapid, and
+      Rolf had his first taste of a real carry or portage. Quonab's eye was
+      watching the bank as soon as the fierce waters appeared; for the first
+      question was, where shall we land? and the next, how far do we carry?
+      There are no rapids on important rivers in temperate America that have not
+      been portaged more or less for ages. No canoe man portages without
+      considering most carefully when, where, and how to land. His selection of
+      the place, then, is the result of careful study. He cannot help leaving
+      some mark at the place, slight though it be, and the next man looks for
+      that mark to save himself time and trouble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh&rdquo; was the only sound that Rolf heard from his companion, and the canoe
+      headed for a flat rock in the pool below the rapids. After landing, they
+      found traces of an old camp fire. It was near noon now, so Rolf prepared
+      the meal while Quonab took a light pack and went on to learn the trail. It
+      was not well marked; had not been used for a year or two, evidently, but
+      there are certain rules that guide one. The trail keeps near the water,
+      unless there is some great natural barrier, and it is usually the easiest
+      way in sight. Quonab kept one eye on the river, for navigable water was
+      the main thing, and in about one hundred yards he was again on the
+      stream's edge, at a good landing above the rapid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the meal was finished and the Indian had smoked, they set to work.
+      In a few loads each, the stuff was portaged across, and the canoe was
+      carried over and moored to the bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cargo replaced, they went on again, but in half an hour after passing
+      more shoal water, saw another rapid, not steep, but too shallow to float
+      the canoe, even with both men wading. Here Quonab made what the Frenchmen
+      call a demi-charge. He carried half the stuff to the bank; then, wading,
+      one at each end, they hauled the canoe up the portage and reloaded her
+      above. Another strip of good going was succeeded by a long stretch of very
+      swift water that was two or three feet deep and between shores that were
+      densely grown with alders. The Indian landed, cut two light, strong poles,
+      and now, one at the bow, the other at the stern, they worked their way
+      foot by foot up the fierce current until safely on the upper level.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet one more style of canoe propulsion was forced on them. They came to a
+      long stretch of smooth, deep, very swift water, almost a rapid-one of the
+      kind that is a joy when you are coming down stream. It differed from the
+      last in having shores that were not alder-hidden, but open gravel banks.
+      Now did Quonab take a long, strong line from his war sack. One end he
+      fastened, not to the bow, but to the forward part of the canoe, the other
+      to a buckskin band which he put across his breast. Then, with Rolf in the
+      stern to steer and the Indian hauling on the bank, the canoe was safely
+      &ldquo;tracked&rdquo; up the &ldquo;strong waters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus they fought their way up the hard river, day after day, making
+      sometimes only five miles after twelve hours' toilsome travel. Rapids,
+      shoals, portages, strong waters, abounded, and before they had covered the
+      fifty miles to the forks of Jesup's River, they knew right well why the
+      region was so little entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It made a hardened canoe man of Rolf, and when, on the evening of the
+      fifth day, they saw a huge eagle's nest in a dead pine tree that stood on
+      the edge of a long swamp, both felt they had reached their own country,
+      and were glad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 18. Animal Life Along the River
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It must not be supposed that, because it has been duly mentioned, they saw
+      no wild life along the river. The silent canoe man has the best of
+      opportunities. There were plenty of deer tracks about the first camp, and
+      that morning, as they turned up the Hudson, Rolf saw his first deer. They
+      had rounded a point in rather swift water when Quonab gave two taps on the
+      gunwale, the usual sign, &ldquo;Look out,&rdquo; and pointed to the shore. There,
+      fifty yards away on bank, gazing at them, was a deer. Stock still he stood
+      like a red statue, for he was yet in the red coat. With three or four
+      strong strokes, Quonab gave a long and mighty forward spurt; then reached
+      for his gun. But the deer's white flag went up. It turned and bounded
+      away, the white flag the last thing to disappear. Rolf sat spellbound. It
+      was so sudden; so easy; it soon melted into the woods again. He trembled
+      after it was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many a time in the evening they saw muskrats in the eddies, and once they
+      glimpsed a black, shiny something like a monstrous leech rolling up and
+      down as it travelled in the stream. Quonab whispered, &ldquo;Otter,&rdquo; and made
+      ready his gun, but it dived and showed itself no more. At one of the camps
+      they were awakened by an extraordinary tattoo in the middle of the night&mdash;a
+      harsh rattle close by their heads; and they got up to find that a
+      porcupine was rattling his teeth on the frying-pan in an effort to
+      increase the amount of salt that he could taste on it. Skookum, tied to a
+      tree, was vainly protesting against the intrusion and volunteered to make
+      a public example of the invader. The campers did not finally get rid of
+      the spiny one till all their kitchen stuff was hung beyond his reach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once they heard the sharp, short bark of a fox, and twice or thrice the
+      soft, sweet, moaning call of the gray wolf out to hunt. Wild fowl
+      abounded, and their diet was varied by the ducks that one or other of the
+      hunters secured at nearly every camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the second day they saw three deer, and on the third morning Quonab
+      loaded his gun with buckshot, to be ready, then sallied forth at dawn.
+      Rolf was following, but the Indian shook his head, then said: &ldquo;Don't make
+      fire for half an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In twenty minutes Rolf heard the gun, then later the Indian returned with
+      a haunch of venison, and when they left that camp they stopped a mile up
+      the river to add the rest of the venison to their cargo. Seven other deer
+      were seen, but no more killed; yet Rolf was burning to try his hand as a
+      hunter. Many other opportunities he had, and improved some of them. On one
+      wood portage he, or rather Skookum, put up a number of ruffed grouse.
+      These perched in the trees above their heads and the travellers stopped.
+      While the dog held their attention Rolf with blunt arrows knocked over
+      five that proved most acceptable as food. But his thoughts were now on
+      deer, and his ambition was to go out alone and return with a load of
+      venison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another and more thrilling experience followed quickly. Rounding a bend in
+      the early dawn they sighted a black bear and two cubs rambling along the
+      gravelly bank and stopping now and then to eat something that turned out
+      to be crayfish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab had not seen a bear since childhood, when he and his father hunted
+      along the hardwood ridges back of Myanos, and now he was excited. He
+      stopped paddling, warned Rolf to do the same, and let the canoe drift
+      backward until out of sight; then made for the land. Quickly tying up the
+      canoe he took his gun and Rolf his hunting arrows, and, holding Skookum in
+      a leash, they dashed into the woods. Then, keeping out of sight, they ran
+      as fast and as silently as possible in the direction of the bears. Of
+      course, the wind was toward the hunters, or they never could have got so
+      near. Now they were opposite the family group and needed only a chance for
+      a fair shot. Sneaking forward with the utmost caution, they were surely
+      within twenty-five yards, but still the bushes screened the crab-eaters.
+      As the hunters sneaked, the old bear stopped and sniffed suspiciously; the
+      wind changed, she got an unmistakable whiff; then gave a loud warning
+      &ldquo;Koff! Koff! Koff! Koff!&rdquo; and ran as fast as she could. The hunters
+      knowing they were discovered rushed out, yelling as loudly as possible, in
+      hopes of making the bears tree. The old bear ran like a horse with Skookum
+      yapping bravely in her rear. The young ones, left behind, lost sight of
+      her, and, utterly bewildered by the noise, made for a tree conveniently
+      near and scrambled up into the branches. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; Rolf thought, judging by
+      certain tales he had heard, &ldquo;that old bear will come back and there will
+      be a fight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is she coming back?&rdquo; he asked nervously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian laughed. &ldquo;No, she is running yet. Black bear always a coward;
+      they never fight when they can run away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little ones up the tree were, of course, at the mercy of the hunters,
+      and in this case it was not a broken straw they depended on, but an ample
+      salvation. &ldquo;We don't need the meat and can't carry it with us; let's leave
+      them,&rdquo; said Rolf, but added, &ldquo;Will they find their mother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, bime-by; they come down and squall all over woods. She will hang
+      round half a mile away and by night all will be together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Their first bear hunt was over. Not a shot fired, not a bear wounded, not
+      a mile travelled, and not an hour lost. And yet it seemed much more full
+      of interesting thrills than did any one of the many stirring bear hunts
+      that Rolf and Quonab shared together in the days that were to come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 19. The Footprint on the Shore
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Jesup's River was a tranquil stream that came from a region of swamps, and
+      would have been easy canoeing but for the fallen trees. Some of these had
+      been cut years ago, showing that the old trapper had used this route. Once
+      they were unpleasantly surprised by seeing a fresh chopping on the bank,
+      but their mourning was changed into joy when they found it was
+      beaver-work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten miles they made that day. In the evening they camped on the shore of
+      Jesup's Lake, proud and happy in the belief that they were the rightful
+      owners of it all. That night they heard again and again the howling of
+      wolves, but it seemed on the far side of the lake. In the morning they
+      went out on foot to explore, and at once had the joy of seeing five deer,
+      while tracks showed on every side. It was evidently a paradise for deer,
+      and there were in less degree the tracks of other animals&mdash;mink in
+      fair abundance, one or two otters, a mountain lion, and a cow moose with
+      her calf. It was thrilling to see such a feast of possibilities. The
+      hunters were led on and on, revelling in the prospect of many joys before
+      them, when all at once they came on something that turned their joy to
+      grief&mdash;the track of a man; the fresh imprint of a cowhide boot. It
+      was maddening. At first blush, it meant some other trapper ahead of them
+      with a prior claim to the valley; a claim that the unwritten law would
+      allow. They followed it a mile. It went striding along the shore at a
+      great pace, sometimes running, and keeping down the west shore. Then they
+      found a place where he had sat down and broken a lot of clam shells, and
+      again had hastened on. But there was no mark of gunstock or other weapon
+      where he sat; and why was he wearing boots? The hunters rarely did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For two miles the Indian followed with Rolf, and sometimes found that the
+      hated stranger had been running hard. Then they turned back, terribly
+      disappointed. At first it seemed a crushing blow. They had three courses
+      open to them&mdash;to seek a location farther north, to assume that one
+      side of the lake was theirs, or to find out exactly who and what the
+      stranger was. They decided on the last. The canoe was launched and loaded,
+      and they set out to look for what they hoped they would not find, a
+      trapper's shanty on the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After skirting the shore for four or five miles and disturbing one or two
+      deer, as well as hosts of ducks, the voyagers landed and there still they
+      found that fateful bootmark steadily tramping southward. By noon they had
+      reached the south end of the west inlet that leads to another lake, and
+      again an examination of the shore showed the footmarks, here leaving the
+      lake and going southerly. Now the travellers retired to the main lake and
+      by noon had reached the south end. At no point had they seen any sign of a
+      cabin, though both sides of the lake were in plain view all day. The
+      travelling stranger was a mystery, but he did not live here and there was
+      no good reason why they should not settle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where? The country seemed equally good at all points, but it is usually
+      best to camp on an outlet. Then when a storm comes up, the big waves do
+      not threaten your canoe, or compel you to stay on land. It is a favourite
+      crossing for animals avoiding the lake, and other trappers coming in are
+      sure to see your cabin before they enter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Which side of the outlet? Quonab settled that&mdash;the west. He wanted to
+      see the sun rise, and, not far back from the water, was a hill with a
+      jutting, rocky pinnade. He pointed to this and uttered the one word,
+      &ldquo;Idaho.&rdquo; Here, then, on the west side, where the lake enters the river,
+      they began to clear the ground for their home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 20. The Trappers' Cabin
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     It's a smart fellow that knows what he can't do.&mdash;Sayings of
+     Si Sylvanne.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I suppose every trapper that ever lived, on first building a cabin, said,
+      &ldquo;Oh, any little thing will do, so long as it has a roof and is big enough
+      to lie down in.&rdquo; And every trapper has realized before spring that he made
+      a sad mistake in not having it big enough to live in and store goods in.
+      Quonab and Rolf were new at the business, and made the usual mistake. They
+      planned their cabin far too small; 10 X 12 ft., instead of 12 X 20 ft.
+      they made it, and 6-ft. walls, instead of 8-ft. walls. Both were expert
+      axemen. Spruce was plentiful and the cabin rose quickly. In one day the
+      walls were up. An important thing was the roof. What should it be?
+      Overlapping basswood troughs, split shingles, also called shakes, or clay?
+      By far the easiest to make, the warmest in winter and coolest in summer,
+      is the clay roof. It has three disadvantages: It leaks in long-continued
+      wet weather; it drops down dust and dirt in dry weather; and is so heavy
+      that it usually ends by crushing in the log rafters and beams, unless they
+      are further supported on posts, which are much in the way. But its
+      advantages were so obvious that the builders did not hesitate. A clay roof
+      it was to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the walls were five feet high, the doorway and window were cut
+      through the logs, but leaving in each case one half of the log at the
+      bottom of the needed opening. The top log was now placed, then rolled over
+      bottom up, while half of its thickness was cut away to fit over the door:
+      a similar cut out was made over the window. Two flat pieces of spruce were
+      prepared for door jambs and two shorter ones for window jambs. Auger holes
+      were put through, so as to allow an oak pin to be driven through the jamb
+      into each log, and the doorway and window opening were done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one corner they planned a small fireplace, built of clay and stone. Not
+      stone from the lake, as Rolf would have had it, but from the hillside; and
+      why? Quonab said that the lake stone was of the water spirits, and would
+      not live near fire, but would burst open; while the hillside stone was of
+      the sun and fire spirit, and in the fire would add its heat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The facts are that lake stone explodes when greatly heated and hill stone
+      does not; and since no one has been able to improve upon Quonab's
+      explanation, it must stand for the present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The plan of the fireplace was simple. Rolf had been present at the
+      building of several, and the main point was to have the chimney large
+      enough, and the narrowest point just above the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eaves logs, end logs, and ridge logs were soon in place; then came the
+      cutting of small poles, spruce and tamarack, long enough to reach from
+      ridge to eaves, and in sufficient number to completely cover the roof. A
+      rank sedge meadow near by afforded plenty of coarse grass with which the
+      poles were covered deeply; and lastly clay dug out with a couple of
+      hand-made, axe-hewn wooden spades was thrown evenly on the grass to a
+      depth of six inches; this, when trampled flat, made a roof that served
+      them well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chinks of the logs when large were filled with split pieces of wood;
+      when small they were plugged with moss. A door was made of hewn planks,
+      and hinged very simply on two pins; one made by letting the plank project
+      as a point, the other by nailing on a pin after the door was placed; both
+      pins fitting, of course, into inch auger holes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A floor was not needed, but bed bunks were, and in making these they began
+      already to realize that the cabin was too small. But now after a week's
+      work it was done. It had a sweet fragrance of wood and moss, and the
+      pleasure it gave to Rolf at least was something he never again could
+      expect to find in equal measure about any other dwelling he might make.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab laid the fire carefully, then lighted his pipe, sang a little
+      crooning song about the &ldquo;home spirits,&rdquo; which we call &ldquo;household gods,&rdquo;
+       walked around the shanty, offering the pipestem to each of the four winds
+      in turn, then entering lighted the fire from his pipe, threw some tobacco
+      and deer hair on the blaze, and the house-warming was ended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, they continued to sleep in the tent they had used all along,
+      for Quonab loved not the indoors, and Rolf was growing daily more of his
+      mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 21. Rolf's First Deer
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Anxious to lose no fine day they had worked steadily on the shanty, not
+      even going after the deer that were seen occasionally over the lake, so
+      that now they were out of fresh meat, and Rolf saw a chance he long had
+      looked for. &ldquo;Quonab, I want to go out alone and get a deer, and I want
+      your gun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh! you shall go. To-night is good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-night&rdquo; meant evening, so Rolf set out alone as soon as the sun was
+      low, for during the heat of the day the deer are commonly lying in some
+      thicket. In general, he knew enough to travel up wind, and to go as
+      silently as possible. The southwest wind was blowing softly, and so he
+      quickened his steps southwesterly which meant along the lake. Tracks and
+      signs abounded; it was impossible to follow any one trail. His plan was to
+      keep on silently, trusting to luck, nor did he have long to wait. Across a
+      little opening of the woods to the west he saw a movement in the bushes,
+      but it ceased, and he was in doubt whether the creature, presumably a
+      deer, was standing there or had gone on. &ldquo;Never quit till you are sure,&rdquo;
+       was one of Quonab's wise adages. Rolf was bound to know what it was that
+      had moved. So he stood still and waited. A minute passed; another; many; a
+      long time; and still he waited, but got no further sign of life from the
+      bush. Then he began to think he was mistaken; yet it was good huntercraft
+      to find out what that was. He tried the wind several times, first by
+      wetting his finger, which test said &ldquo;southwest&rdquo;; second, by tossing up
+      some handfuls of dried grass, which said &ldquo;yes, southwest, but veering
+      southerly in this glade.&rdquo; So he knew he might crawl silently to the north
+      side of that bush. He looked to the priming of his gun and began a slow
+      and stealthy stalk, selecting such openings as might be passed without
+      effort or movement of bushes or likelihood of sound. He worked his way
+      step by step; each time his foot was lifted he set it down again only
+      after trying the footing. At each step he paused to look and listen. It
+      was only one hundred yards to the interesting spot, but Rolf was fifteen
+      minutes in covering the distance, and more than once, he got a great start
+      as a chicadee flew out or a woodpecker tapped. His heart beat louder and
+      louder, so it seemed everything near must hear; but he kept on his careful
+      stalk, and at last had reached the thicket that had given him such thrills
+      and hopes. Here he stood and watched for a full minute. Again he tried the
+      wind, and proceeded to circle slowly to the west of the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a long, tense crawl of twenty yards he came on the track and sign of
+      a big buck, perfectly fresh, and again his heart worked harder; it seemed
+      to be pumping his neck full of blood, so he was choking. He judged it best
+      to follow this hot trail for a time, and holding his gun ready cocked he
+      stepped softly onward. A bluejay cried out, &ldquo;jay, jay!&rdquo; with startling
+      loudness, and seemingly enjoyed his pent-up excitement. A few steps
+      forward at slow, careful stalk, and then behind him he heard a loud
+      whistling hiss. Instantly turning he found himself face to face with a
+      great, splendid buck in the short blue coat. There not thirty yards away
+      he stood, the creature he had been stalking so long, in plain view now,
+      broadside on. They gazed each at the other, perfectly still for a few
+      seconds, then Rolf without undue movement brought the gun to bear, and
+      still the buck stood gazing. The gun was up, but oh, how disgustingly it
+      wabbled and shook! and the steadier Rolf tried to bold it, the more it
+      trembled, until from that wretched gun the palsy spread all over his body;
+      his breath came tremulously, his legs and arms were shaking, and at last,
+      as the deer moved its head to get a better view and raised its tail, the
+      lad, making an effort at selfcontrol, pulled the trigger. Bang! and the
+      buck went lightly bounding out of sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Rolf; how disgusted he felt; positively sick with self-contempt.
+      Thirty yards, standing, broadside on, full daylight, a big buck, a clean
+      miss. Yes, there was the bullet hole in a tree, five feet above the deer's
+      head. &ldquo;I'm no good; I'll never be a hunter,&rdquo; he groaned, then turned and
+      slowly tramped back to camp. Quonab looked inquiringly, for, of course, he
+      heard the shot. He saw a glum and sorry-looking youth, who in response to
+      his inquiring look gave merely a head-shake, and hung up the gun with a
+      vicious bang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab took down the gun, wiped it out, reloaded it, then turning to the
+      boy said: &ldquo;Nibowaka, you feel pretty sick. Ugh! You know why? You got a
+      good chance, but you got buck fever. It is always so, every one the first
+      time. You go again to-morrow and you get your deer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf made no reply. So Quonab ventured, &ldquo;You want me to go?&rdquo; That settled
+      it for Rolf; his pride was touched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; I'll go again in the morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the dew time he was away once more on the hunting trail. There was no
+      wind, but the southwest was the likeliest to spring up. So he went nearly
+      over his last night's track. He found it much easier to go silently now
+      when all the world was dew wet, and travelled quickly. Past the fateful
+      glade he went, noted again the tree torn several feet too high up, and on.
+      Then the cry of a bluejay rang out; this is often a notification of deer
+      at hand. It always is warning of something doing, and no wise hunter
+      ignores it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf stood for a moment listening and peering. He thought he heard a
+      scraping sound; then again the bluejay, but the former ceased and the
+      jay-note died in the distance. He crept cautiously on again for a few
+      minutes; another opening appeared. He studied this from a hiding place;
+      then far across he saw a little flash near the ground. His heart gave a
+      jump; he studied the place, saw again the flash and then made out the head
+      of a deer, a doe that was lying in the long grass. The flash was made by
+      its ear shaking off a fly. Rolf looked to his priming, braced himself, got
+      fully ready, then gave a short, sharp whistle; instantly the doe rose to
+      her feet; then another appeared, a sinal one; then a young buck; all stood
+      gazing his way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Up went the gun, but again its muzzle began to wabble. Rolf lowered it,
+      said grimly and savagely to himself, &ldquo;I will not shake this time.&rdquo; The
+      deer stretched themselves and began slowly walking toward the lake. All
+      had disappeared but the buck. Rolf gave another whistle that turned the
+      antler-bearer to a statue. Controlling himself with a strong &ldquo;I will,&rdquo; he
+      raised the gun, held it steadily, and fired. The buck gave a gathering
+      spasm, a bound, and disappeared. Rolf felt sick again with disgust, but he
+      reloaded, then hastily went forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was the deep imprint showing where the buck had bounded at the shot,
+      but no blood. He followed, and a dozen feet away found the next hoof marks
+      and on them a bright-red stain; on and another splash; and more and
+      shortening bounds, till one hundred yards away&mdash;yes, there it lay;
+      the round, gray form, quite dead, shot through the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf gave a long, rolling war cry and got an answer from a point that was
+      startlingly near, and Quonab stepped from behind a tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I got him,&rdquo; shouted Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian smiled. &ldquo;I knew you would, so I followed; last night I knew you
+      must have your shakes, so let you go it alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Very carefully that deer was skinned, and Rolf learned the reason for many
+      little modes of procedure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the hide was removed from the body (not the hand or legs), Quonab
+      carefully cut out the-broad sheath of tendon that cover the muscles,
+      beginning at the hip bones on the back and extending up to the shoulders;
+      this is the sewing sinew. Then he cut out the two long fillets of meat
+      that lie on each side of the spine outside (the loin) and the two smaller
+      ones inside (the tenderloin).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These, with the four quarters, the heart, and the kidneys, were put into
+      the hide. The entrails, head, neck, legs, feet, he left for the foxes, but
+      the hip bone or sacrum he hung in a tree with three little red yarns from
+      them, so that the Great Spirit would be pleased and send good hunting.
+      Then addressing the head he said: &ldquo;Little brother, forgive us. We are
+      sorry to kill you. Behold! we give you the honour of red streamers.&rdquo; Then
+      bearing the rest they tramped back to camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The meat wrapped in sacks to keep off the flies was hung in the shade, but
+      the hide he buried in the warm mud of a swamp hole, and three days later,
+      when the hair began to slip, he scraped it clean. A broad ash wood hoop he
+      had made ready and when the green rawhide was strained on it again the
+      Indian had an Indian drum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not truly dry for two or three days and as it tightened on its
+      frame it gave forth little sounds of click and shrinkage that told of the
+      strain the tensioned rawhide made. Quonab tried it that night as he sat by
+      the fire softly singing:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho da ho-he da he.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the next day before sunrise he climbed the hill and sitting on the
+      sun-up rock he hailed the Day God with the invocation, as he had not sung
+      it since the day they left the great rock above the Asalnuk, and followed
+      with the song:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Father, we thank thee; We have found the good hunting. There is meat in
+      the wigwam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 22. The Line of Traps
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Now that they had the cabin for winter, and food for the present, they
+      must set about the serious business of trapping and lay a line of
+      deadfalls for use in the coming cold weather. They were a little ahead of
+      time, but it was very desirable to get their lines blazed through the
+      woods in all proposed directions in case of any other trapper coming in.
+      Most fur-bearing animals are to be found along the little valleys of the
+      stream: beaver, otter, mink, muskrat, coon, are examples. Those that do
+      not actually live by the water seek these places because of their
+      sheltered character and because their prey lives there; of this class are
+      the lynx, fox, fisher, and marten that feed on rabbits and mice. Therefore
+      a line of traps is usually along some valley and over the divide and down
+      some other valley back to the point of beginning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, late in September, Rolf and Quonab, with their bedding, a pot, food
+      for four days, and two axes, alternately followed and led by Skookum, set
+      out along a stream that entered the lake near their cabin. A quarter mile
+      up they built their first deadfall for martens. It took them one hour and
+      was left unset. The place was under a huge tree on a neck of land around
+      which the stream made a loop. This tree they blazed on three sides. Two
+      hundred yards up another good spot was found and a deadfall made. At one
+      place across a neck of land was a narrow trail evidently worn by otters.
+      &ldquo;Good place for steel trap, bime-by,&rdquo; was Quonab's remark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From time to time they disturbed deer, and in a muddy place where a deer
+      path crossed the creek, they found, among the numerous small hoof prints,
+      the track of wolves, bears, and a mountain lion, or panther. At these
+      little Skookum sniffed fearsomely, and showed by his bristly mane that he
+      was at least much impressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After five hours' travel and work they came to another stream joining on,
+      and near the angle of the two little valleys they found a small tree that
+      was chewed and scratched in a remarkable manner for three to six feet up.
+      &ldquo;Bear tree,&rdquo; said Quonab, and by degrees Rolf got the facts about it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bears, and indeed most animals, have a way of marking the range that
+      they consider their own. Usually this is done by leaving their personal
+      odour at various points, covering the country claimed, but in some cases
+      visible marks are added. Thus the beaver leaves a little dab of mud, the
+      wolf scratches with his hind feet, and the bear tears the signal tree with
+      tooth and claw. Since this is done from time to time, when the bear
+      happens to be near the tree, it is kept fresh as long as the region is
+      claimed. But it is especially done in midsummer when the bears are
+      pairing, and helps them to find suitable companions, nor all are then
+      roaming the woods seeking mates; all call and leave their mark on the sign
+      post, so the next bear, thanks to his exquisite nose, can tell at once the
+      sex of the bear that called last and by its track tell which way it
+      travelled afterward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this case it was a bear's register, but before long Quonab showed Rolf
+      a place where two long logs joined at an angle by a tree that was rubbed
+      and smelly, and showed a few marten hairs, indicating that this was the
+      sign post of a marten and a good place to make a deadfall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet a third was found in an open, grassy glade, a large, white stone on
+      which were pellets left by foxes. The Indian explained:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every fox that travels near will come and smell the stone to see who of
+      his kind is around, so this is a good place for a fox-trap; a steel trap,
+      of course, for no fox will go into a deadfall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And slowly Rolf learned that these habits are seen in some measure in all
+      animals; yes, down to the mice and shrews. We see little of it because our
+      senses are blunt and our attention untrained; but the naturalist and the
+      hunter always know where to look for the four-footed inhabitants and by
+      them can tell whether or not the land is possessed by such and such a
+      furtive tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 23. The Beaver Pond
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AT THE noon halt they were about ten miles from home and had made fifteen
+      deadfalls for marten, for practice was greatly reducing the time needed
+      for each.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon they went on, but the creek had become a mere rill and
+      they were now high up in a more level stretch of country that was more or
+      less swampy. As they followed the main course of the dwindling stream,
+      looking ever for signs of fur-bearers, they crossed and recrossed the
+      water. At length Quonab stopped, stared, and pointed at the rill, no
+      longer clear but clouded with mud. His eyes shone as he jerked his head up
+      stream and uttered the magic word, &ldquo;Beaver.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They tramped westerly for a hundred yards through a dense swamp of alders,
+      and came at last to an irregular pond that spread out among the willow
+      bushes and was lost in the swampy thickets. Following the stream they soon
+      came to a beaver dam, a long, curving bank of willow branches and mud,
+      tumbling through the top of which were a dozen tiny streams that reunited
+      their waters below to form the rivulet they had been following.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Red-winged blackbirds were sailing in flocks about the pond; a number of
+      ducks were to be seen, and on a dead tree, killed by the backed up water,
+      a great blue heron stood. Many smaller creatures moved or flitted in the
+      lively scene, while far out near the middle rose a dome-like pile of
+      sticks, a beaver lodge, and farther three more were discovered. No beaver
+      were seen, but the fresh cut sticks, the floating branches peeled of all
+      the bark, and the long, strong dam in good repair were enough to tell a
+      practised eye that here was a large colony of beavers in undisturbed
+      possession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In those days beaver was one of the most valued furs. The creature is very
+      easy to trap; so the discovery of the pond was like the finding of a bag
+      of gold. They skirted its uncertain edges and Quonab pointed out the many
+      landing places of the beaver; little docks they seemed, built up with mud
+      and stones with deep water plunge holes alongside. Here and there on the
+      shore was a dome-shaped ant's nest with a pathway to it from the pond,
+      showing, as the Indian said, that here the beaver came on sunny days to
+      lie on the hill and let the swarming ants come forth and pick the vermin
+      from their fur. At one high point projecting into the still water they
+      found a little mud pie with a very strong smell; this, the Indian said,
+      was a &ldquo;castor cache,&rdquo; the sign that, among beavers, answers the same
+      purpose as the bear tree among bears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the pond seemed small they had to tramp a quarter of a mile
+      before reaching the upper end and here they found another dam, with its
+      pond. This was at a slightly higher level and contained a single lodge;
+      after this they found others, a dozen ponds in a dozen successive rises,
+      the first or largest and the second only having lodges, but all were
+      evidently part of the thriving colony, for fresh cut trees were seen on
+      every side. &ldquo;Ugh, good; we get maybe fifty beaver,&rdquo; said the Indian, and
+      they knew they had reached the Promised Land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf would gladly have spent the rest of the day exploring the pond and
+      trying for a beaver, when the eventide should call them to come forth, but
+      Quonab said, &ldquo;Only twenty deadfall; we should have one hundred and fifty.&rdquo;
+       So making for a fine sugar bush on the dry ground west of the ponds they
+      blazed a big tree, left a deadfall there, and sought the easiest way over
+      the rough hills that lay to the east, in hopes of reaching the next stream
+      leading down to their lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 24. The Porcupine
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Skookum was a partly trained little dog; he would stay in camp when told,
+      if it suited him; and would not hesitate to follow or lead his master,
+      when he felt that human wisdom was inferior to the ripe product of canine
+      experience covering more than thirteen moons of recollection. But he was
+      now living a life in which his previous experience must often fail him as
+      a guide. A faint rustling on the leafy ground had sent him ahead at a run,
+      and his sharp, angry bark showed that some hostile creature of the woods
+      had been discovered. Again and again the angry yelping was changed into a
+      sort of yowl, half anger, half distress. The hunters hurried forward to
+      find the little fool charging again and again a huge porcupine that was
+      crouched with its head under a log, its hindquarters exposed but bristling
+      with spines; and its tail lashing about, left a new array of quills in the
+      dog's mouth and face each time he charged. Skookum was a plucky fighter,
+      but plainly he was nearly sick of it. The pain of the quills would, of
+      course, increase every minute and with each movement. Quonab took a stout
+      stick and threw the porcupine out of its retreat, (Rolf supposed to kill
+      it when the head was exposed,) but the spiny one, finding a new and
+      stronger enemy, wasted no time in galloping at its slow lumbering pace to
+      the nearest small spruce tree and up that it scrambled to a safe place in
+      the high branches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the hunters called the dog. He was a sorry-looking object, pawing at
+      his muzzle, first with one foot, then another, trying to unswallow the
+      quills in his tongue, blinking hard, uttering little painful grunts and
+      whines as he rubbed his head upon the ground or on his forelegs. Rolf held
+      him while Quonab, with a sharp jerk, brought out quill after quill. Thirty
+      or forty of the poisonous little daggers were plucked from his trembling
+      legs, head, face, and nostrils, but the dreadful ones were those in his
+      lips and tongue. Already they were deeply sunk in the soft, quivering
+      flesh. One by one those in the lips were with-drawn by the strong fingers
+      of the red man, and Skookum whimpered a little, but he shrieked outright
+      when those in the tongue were removed. Rolf had hard work to hold him, and
+      any one not knowing the case might have thought that the two men were
+      deliberately holding the dog to administer the most cruel torture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But none of the quills had sunk very deep. All were got out at last and
+      the little dog set free.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Rolf thought of vengeance on the quill-pig snugly sitting in the tree
+      near by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ammunition was too precious to waste, but Rolf was getting ready to climb
+      when Quonab said: &ldquo;No, no; you must not. Once I saw white man climb after
+      the Kahk; it waited till he was near, then backed down, lashing its tail.
+      He put up his arm to save his face. It speared his arm in fifty places and
+      he could not save his face, so he tried to get down, but the Kahk came
+      faster, lashing him; then he lost his hold and dropped. His leg was broken
+      and his arm was swelled up for half a year. They are very poisonous. He
+      nearly died.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I can at least chop him down,&rdquo; and Rolf took the axe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wah!&rdquo; Quonab said, &ldquo;no; my father said you must not kill the Kahk, except
+      you make sacrifice and use his quills for household work. It is bad
+      medicine to kill the Kahk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the spiny one was left alone in the place he had so ably fought for.
+      But Skookum, what of him? He was set free at last. To be wiser? Alas, no!
+      before one hour he met with another porcupine and remembering only his
+      hate of the creature repeated the same sad mistake, and again had to have
+      the painful help, without which he must certainly have died. Before night,
+      however, he began to feel his real punishment and next morning no one
+      would have known the pudding-headed thing that sadly followed the hunters,
+      for the bright little dog that a day before had run so joyously through
+      the woods. It was many a long day before he fully recovered and at one
+      time his life was in the balance; and yet to the last of his days he never
+      fully realized the folly of his insensate attacks on the creature that
+      fights with its tail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is ever so,&rdquo; said the Indian. &ldquo;The lynx, the panther, the wolf, the
+      fox, the eagle, all that attack the Kahk must die. Once my father saw a
+      bear that was killed by the quills. He had tried to bite the Kahk; it
+      filled his mouth with quills that he could not spit out. They sunk deeper
+      and his jaws swelled so he could not open or shut his mouth to eat; then
+      he starved. My people found him near a fish pond below a rapid. There were
+      many fish. The bear could kill them with his paw but not eat, so with his
+      mouth wide open and plenty about him he died of starvation in that pool.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is but one creature that can kill the Kahk that is the Ojeeg the
+      big fisher weasel. He is a devil. He makes very strong medicine; the Kahk
+      cannot harm him. He turns it on its back and tears open its smooth belly.
+      It is ever so. We not know, but my father said, that it is because when in
+      the flood Nana Bojou was floating on the log with Kahk and Ojeeg, Kahk was
+      insolent and wanted the highest place, but Ojeeg was respectful to Nana
+      Bojou, he bit the Kahk to teach him a lesson and got lashed with the tail
+      of many stings. But the Manito drew out the quills and said: 'It shall be
+      ever thus; the Ojeeg shall conquer the Kahk and the quills of Kahk shall
+      never do Ojeeg any harm.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 25. The Otter Slide
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was late now and the hunters camped in the high cool woods. Skookum
+      whined in his sleep so loudly as to waken them once or twice. Near dawn
+      they heard the howling of wolves and the curiously similar hooting of a
+      horned owl. There is, indeed, almost no difference between the short
+      opening howl of a she-wolf and the long hoot of the owl. As he listened,
+      half awake, Rolf heard a whirr of wings which stopped overhead, then a
+      familiar chuckle. He sat up and saw Skookum sadly lift his misshapen head
+      to gaze at a row of black-breasted grouse partridge on a branch above, but
+      the poor doggie was feeling too sick to take any active interest. They
+      were not ruffed grouse, but a kindred kind, new to Rolf. As he gazed at
+      the perchers, he saw Quonab rise gently, go to nearest willow and cut a
+      long slender rod at least two feet long; on the top of this he made a
+      short noose of cord. Then he went cautiously under the watching grouse,
+      the spruce partridges, and reaching up slipped the noose over the neck of
+      the first one; a sharp jerk then tightened noose, and brought the grouse
+      tumbling out of the tree while its companions merely clucked their
+      puzzlement, made no effort to escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A short, sharp blow put the captive out of pain. The rod was reached again
+      and a second, the lowest always, was jerked down, and the trick repeated
+      till three grouse were secured. Then only did it dawn on the others that
+      they were in a most perilous neighbourhood, so they took flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf sat up in amazement. Quonab dropped the three birds by the fire and
+      set about preparing breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These are fool hens,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;You can mostly get them this way;
+      sure, if you have a dog to help, but ruffed grouse is no such fool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf dressed the birds and as usual threw the entrails Skookum. Poor
+      little dog! he was, indeed, a sorry sight. He looked sadly out of his
+      bulging eyes, feebly moved swollen jaws, but did not touch the food he
+      once would have pounced on. He did not eat because he could not open his
+      mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At camp the trappers made a log trap and continued the line with blazes
+      and deadfalls, until, after a mile, they came to a broad tamarack swamp,
+      and, skirting its edge, found a small, outflowing stream that brought them
+      to an eastward-facing hollow. Everywhere there were signs game, but they
+      were not prepared for the scene that opened as they cautiously pushed
+      through the thickets into a high, hardwood bush. A deer rose out of the
+      grass and stared curiously at them; then another and another until nearly
+      a dozen were in sight; still farther many others appeared; to the left
+      were more, and movements told of yet others to the right. Then their white
+      flags went up and all loped gently away on the slope that rose to the
+      north. There may have been twenty or thirty deer in sight, but the general
+      effect of all their white tails, bobbing away, was that the woods were
+      full of deer. They seemed to be there by the hundreds and the joy of
+      seeing so many beautiful live things was helped in the hunters by the
+      feeling that this was their own hunting-ground. They had, indeed, reached
+      the land of plenty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stream increased as they marched; many springs and some important
+      rivulets joined on. They found some old beaver signs but none new; and
+      they left their deadfalls every quarter mile or less.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stream began to descend more quickly until it was in a long, narrow
+      valley with steep clay sides and many pools. Here they saw again and again
+      the tracks and signs of otter and coming quietly round a turn that opened
+      a new reach they heard a deep splash, then another and another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunters' first thought was to tie up Skookum, but a glance showed that
+      this was unnecessary. They softly dropped the packs and the sick dog lay
+      meekly down beside them. Then they crept forward with hunter caution,
+      favoured by an easterly breeze. Their first thought was of beaver, but
+      they had seen no recent sign, nor was there anything that looked like a
+      beaver pond. The measured splash, splash, splash&mdash;was not so far
+      ahead. It might be a bear snatching fish, or&mdash;no, that was too
+      unpleasant&mdash;a man baling out a canoe. Still the slow splash, splash,
+      went on at intervals, not quite regular.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now it seemed but thirty yards ahead and in the creek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the utmost care they crawled to the edge of the clay and opposite
+      they saw a sight but rarely glimpsed by man. Here were six otters; two
+      evidently full-grown, and four seeming young of the pair, engaged in a
+      most hilarious and human game of tobogganing down a steep clay hill to
+      plump into a deep part at its foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Plump went the largest, presumably the father; down he went, to reappear
+      at the edge, scramble out and up an easy slope to the top of the
+      twenty-foot bank. Splash, splash, splash, came three of the young ones;
+      splash, splash, the mother and one of the cubs almost together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Scoot&rdquo; went the big male again, and the wet furslopping and rubbing on
+      the long clay chute made it greasier and slipperier every time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Splash, plump, splash&mdash;splash, plump, splash, went the otter family
+      gleefully, running up the bank again, eager each to be first, it seemed,
+      and to do the chute the oftenest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gambolling grace, the obvious good humour, the animal hilarity of it
+      all, was absorbingly amusing. The trappers gazed with pleasure that showed
+      how near akin are naturalist and hunter. Of course, they had some covetous
+      thought connected with those glossy hides, but this was September still,
+      and even otter were not yet prime. Shoot, plump, splash, went the happy
+      crew with apparently unabated joy and hilarity. The slide improved with
+      use and the otters seemed tireless; when all at once a loud but muffled
+      yelp was heard and Skookum, forgetting all caution, came leaping down the
+      bank to take a hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a succession of shrill, birdy chirps the old otters warned their
+      young. Plump, plump, plump, all shot into the pool, but to reappear,
+      swimming with heads out, for they were but slightly alarmed. This was too
+      much for Quonob; he levelled his flintlock; snap, bang, it went, pointed
+      at the old male, but he dived at the snap and escaped. Down the bank now
+      rushed the hunters, joined by Skookum, to attack the otters in the pool,
+      for it was small and shallow; unless a burrow led from it, they were
+      trapped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the otters realized the peril. All six dashed out of the pool, down
+      the open, gravelly stream the old ones uttering loud chirps that rang like
+      screams. Under the fallen logs and brush they glided, dodging beneath
+      roots and over banks, pursued by the hunters, each armed with a club and
+      by Skookum not armed at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The otters seemed to know where they were going and distanced all but the
+      dog. Forgetting his own condition Skookum had almost overtaken one of the
+      otter cubs when the mother wheeled about and, hissing and snarling,
+      charged. Skookum was lucky to get off with a slight nip, for the otter is
+      a dangerous fighter. But the unlucky dog was sent howling back to the two
+      packs that he never should have left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunters now found an open stretch of woods through which Quonab could
+      run ahead and intercept the otters as they bounded on down the stream bed,
+      pursued by Rolf, who vainly tried to deal a blow with his club. In a few
+      seconds the family party was up to Quonab, trapped it seemed, but there is
+      no more desperate assailant than an otter fighting for its young. So far
+      from being cowed the two old ones made a simultaneous, furious rush at the
+      Indian. Wholly taken by surprise, he missed with his club, and sprang
+      aside to escape their jaws. The family dashed around then past him, and,
+      urged by the continuous chirps of the mother, they plunged under a
+      succession of log jams and into a willow swamp that spread out into an
+      ancient beaver lake and were swallowed up in the silent wilderness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 26. Back to the Cabin
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The far end of the long swamp the stream emerged, now much larger, and the
+      trappers kept on with their work. When night fell they had completed fifty
+      traps, all told, and again they camped without shelter overhead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next day Skookum was so much worse that they began to fear for his life.
+      He had eaten nothing since the sad encounter. He could drink a little, so
+      Rolf made a pot of soup, and when it was cool the poor doggie managed to
+      swallow some of the liquid after half an hour's patient endeavour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were now on the home line; from a hill top they got a distant view of
+      their lake, though it was at least five miles away. Down the creek they
+      went, still making their deadfalls at likely places and still seeing game
+      tracks at the muddy spots. The creek came at length to an extensive, open,
+      hardwood bush, and here it was joined by another stream that came from the
+      south, the two making a small river. From then on they seemed in a land of
+      game; trails of deer were seen on the ground everywhere, and every few
+      minutes they started one or two deer. The shady oak wood itself was
+      flanked and varied with dense cedar swamps such as the deer love to winter
+      in, and after they had tramped through two miles of it, the Indian said,
+      &ldquo;Good! now we know where to come in winter when we need meat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At a broad, muddy ford they passed an amazing number of tracks, mostly
+      deer, but a few of panther, lynx, fisher, wolf, otter, and mink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon they reached the lake. The stream, quite a broad one
+      here, emptied in about four miles south of the camp. Leaving a deadfall
+      near its mouth they followed the shore and made a log trap every quarter
+      mile just above the high water mark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they reached the place of Rolf's first deer they turned aside to see
+      it. The gray jays had picked a good deal of the loose meat. No large
+      animal had troubled it, and yet in the neighbourhood they found the tracks
+      of both wolves and foxes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh,&rdquo; said Quonab, &ldquo;they smell it and come near, but they know that a man
+      has been here; they are not very hungry, so keep away. This is good for
+      trap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they made two deadfalls with the carrion half way between them. Then
+      one or two more traps and they reached home, arriving at the camp just as
+      darkness and a heavy rainfall began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good,&rdquo; said Quonab, &ldquo;our deadfalls are ready; we have done all the work
+      our fingers could not do when the weather is very cold, and the ground too
+      hard for stakes to be driven. Now the traps can get weathered before we go
+      round and set them. Yet we need some strong medicine, some trapper charm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Next morning he went forth with fish-line and fish-spear; he soon returned
+      with a pickerel. He filled a bottle with cut-up shreds of this, corked it
+      up, and hung it on the warm, sunny side of the shanty. &ldquo;That will make a
+      charm that every bear will come to,&rdquo; he said, and left it to the action of
+      the sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 27. Sick Dog Skookum
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Getting home is always a joy; but walking about the place in the morning
+      they noticed several little things that were wrong. Quonab's lodge was
+      down, the paddles that stood against the shanty were scattered on the
+      ground, and a bag of venison hung high at the ridge was opened and empty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab studied the tracks and announced &ldquo;a bad old black bear; he has
+      rollicked round for mischief, upsetting things. But the venison he could
+      not reach; that was a marten that ripped open the bag.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then that tells what we should do; build a storehouse at the end of the
+      shanty,&rdquo; said Rolf, adding, &ldquo;it must be tight and it must be cool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe! sometime before winter,&rdquo; said the Indian; &ldquo;but now we should make
+      another line of traps while the weather is fine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; replied the lad, &ldquo;Skookum is not fit to travel now. We can't leave
+      him behind, and we can make a storehouse in three days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The unhappy little dog was worse than ever. He could scarcely breathe,
+      much less eat or drink, and the case was settled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First they bathed the invalid's head in water as hot as he could stand it.
+      This seemed to help him so much that he swallowed eagerly some soup that
+      they poured into his mouth. A bed was made for him in a sunny place and
+      the hunters set about the new building.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In three days the storehouse was done, excepting the chinking. It was
+      October now, and a sharp night frost warned them of the hard white moons
+      to come. Quonab, as he broke the ice in a tin cup and glanced at the
+      low-hung sun, said: &ldquo;The leaves are falling fast; snow comes soon; we need
+      another line of traps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped suddenly; stared across the lake. Rolf looked, and here came
+      three deer, two bucks and a doe, trotting, walking, or lightly clearing
+      obstacles, the doe in advance; the others, rival followers. As they kept
+      along the shore, they came nearer the cabin. Rolf glanced at Quonab, who
+      nodded, then slipped in, got down the gun, and quickly glided unseen to
+      the river where the deer path landed. The bucks did not actually fight,
+      for the season was not yet on, but their horns were clean, their necks
+      were swelling, and they threatened each other as they trotted after the
+      leader. They made for the ford as for some familiar path, and splashed
+      through, almost without swimming. As they landed, Rolf waited a clear
+      view, then gave a short sharp &ldquo;Hist!&rdquo; It was like a word of magic, for it
+      turned the three moving deer to three stony-still statues. Rolf's sights
+      were turned on the smaller buck, and when the great cloud following the
+      bang had deared away, the two were gone and the lesser buck was kicking on
+      the ground some fifty yards away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have found the good hunting; the deer walk into camp,&rdquo; said Quonab;
+      and the product of the chase was quickly stored, the first of the supplies
+      to be hung in the new storehouse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The entrails were piled up and covered with brush and stones. &ldquo;That will
+      keep off ravens and jays; then in winter the foxes will come and we can
+      take their coats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now they must decide for the morning. Skookum was somewhat better, but
+      still very sick, and Rolf suggested: &ldquo;Quonab, you take the gun and axe and
+      lay a new line. I will stay behind and finish up the cabin for the winter
+      and look after the dog.&rdquo; So it was agreed. The Indian left the camp alone
+      this time and crossed to the east shore of the lake; there to follow up
+      another stream as before and to return in three or four days to the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 28. Alone in the Wilderness
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Rolf began the day by giving Skookum a bath as hot as he could stand it,
+      and later his soup. For the first he whined feebly and for the second
+      faintly wagged his tail; but clearly he was on the mend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the chinking and moss-plugging of the new cabin required all
+      attention. That took a day and looked like the biggest job on hand, but
+      Rolf had been thinking hard about the winter. In Connecticut the wiser
+      settlers used to bank their houses for the cold weather; in the
+      Adirondacks he knew it was far, far colder, and he soon decided to bank
+      the two shanties as deeply as possible with earth. A good spade made of
+      white oak, with its edge hardened by roasting it brown, was his first
+      necessity, and after two days of digging he had the cabin with its annex
+      buried up to &ldquo;the eyes&rdquo; in fresh, clean earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A stock of new, dry wood for wet weather helped to show how much too small
+      the cabin was; and now the heavier work was done, and Rolf had plenty of
+      time to think.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Which of us that has been left alone in the wilderness does not remember
+      the sensations of the first day! The feeling of self-dependency, not
+      unmixed with unrestraint; the ending of civilized thought; the total
+      reversion to the primitive; the nearness of the wood-folk; a sense of
+      intimacy; a recurrent feeling of awe at the silent inexorability of all
+      around; and a sweet pervading sense of mastery in the very freedom. These
+      were among the feelings that swept in waves through Rolf, and when the
+      first night came, he found such comfort&mdash;yes, he had to confess it&mdash;in
+      the company of the helpless little dog whose bed was by his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But these were sensations that come not often; in the four days and nights
+      that he was alone they lost all force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunter proverb about &ldquo;strange beasts when you have no gun&rdquo; was amply
+      illustrated now that Quonab had gone with their only firearm. The second
+      night before turning in (he slept in the shanty now), he was taking a last
+      look at the stars, when a large, dark form glided among the tree trunks
+      between him and the shimmering lake; stopped, gazed at him, then silently
+      disappeared along the shore. No wonder that he kept the shanty door closed
+      that night, and next morning when he studied the sandy ridges he read
+      plainly that his night visitor had been not a lynx or a fox, but a
+      prowling cougar or panther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the third morning as he went forth in the still early dawn he heard a
+      snort, and looking toward the spruce woods, was amazed to see towering up,
+      statuesque, almost grotesque, with its mulish ears and antediluvian horns,
+      a large bull moose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf was no coward, but the sight of that monster so close to him set his
+      scalp a-prickling. He felt so helpless without any firearms. He stepped
+      into the cabin, took down his bow and arrows, then gave a contemptuous
+      &ldquo;Humph; all right for partridge and squirrels, but give me a rifle for the
+      woods!&rdquo; He went out again; there was the moose standing as before. The lad
+      rushed toward it a few steps, shouting; it stared unmoved. But Rolf was
+      moved, and he retreated to the cabin. Then remembering the potency of fire
+      he started a blaze on the hearth. The thick smoke curled up on the still
+      air, hung low, made swishes through the grove, until a faint air current
+      took a wreath of it to the moose. The great nostrils drank in a draught
+      that conveyed terror to the creature's soul, and wheeling it started at
+      its best pace to the distant swamp, to be seen no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five times, during these four days, did deer come by and behave as though
+      they knew perfectly well that this young human was harmless, entirely
+      without the power of the far-killing mystery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How intensely Rolf wished for a gun. How vividly came back the scene in
+      the trader's store,&mdash;when last month he had been offered a beautiful
+      rifle for twenty-five dollars, to be paid for in fur next spring, and
+      savagely he blamed himself for not realizing what a chance it was. Then
+      and there he made resolve to be the owner of a gun as soon as another
+      chance came, and to make that chance come right soon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One little victory he had in that time. The creature that had torn open
+      the venison bag was still around the camp; that was plain by the further
+      damage on the bag hung in the storehouse, the walls of which were not
+      chinked. Mindful of Quonab's remark, he set two marten traps, one on the
+      roof, near the hole that had been used as entry; the other on a log along
+      which the creature must climb to reach the meat. The method of setting is
+      simple; a hollow is made, large enough to receive the trap as it lies
+      open; on the pan of the trap some grass is laid smoothly; on each side of
+      the trap a piece of prickly brush is placed, so that in leaping over these
+      the creature will land on the lurking snare. The chain was made fast to a
+      small log.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although so seldom seen there is no doubt that the marten comes out
+      chiefly by day. That night the trap remained unsprung; next morning as
+      Rolf went at silent dawn to bring water from the lake, he noticed a long,
+      dark line that proved to be ducks. As he sat gazing he heard a sound in
+      the tree beyond the cabin. It was like the scratching of a squirrel
+      climbing about. Then he saw the creature, a large, dark squirrel, it
+      seemed. It darted up this tree and down that, over logs and under brush,
+      with the lightning speed of a lightning squirrel, and from time to time it
+      stopped still as a bump while it gazed at some far and suspicious object.
+      Up one trunk it went like a brown flash, and a moment later, out, cackling
+      from its top, flew two partridges. Down to the ground, sinuous, graceful,
+      incessantly active flashed the marten. Along a log it raced in undulating
+      leaps; in the middle it stopped as though frozen, to gaze intently into a
+      bed of sedge; with three billowy bounds its sleek form reached the sedge,
+      flashed in and out again with a mouse in its snarling jaws; a side leap
+      now, and another squeaker was squeakless, and another. The three were
+      slain, then thrown aside, as the brown terror scanned a flight of ducks
+      passing over. Into a thicket of willow it disappeared and out again like
+      an eel going through the mud, then up a tall stub where woodpecker holes
+      were to be seen. Into the largest it went so quickly Rolf could scarcely
+      see how it entered, and out in a few seconds bearing a flying squirrel
+      whose skull it had crushed. Dropping the squirrel it leaped after it, and
+      pounced again on the quivering form with a fearsome growl; then shook it
+      savagely, tore it apart, cast it aside. Over the ground it now undulated,
+      its shining yellow breast like a target of gold. Again it stopped. Now in
+      pose like a pointer, exquisitely graceful, but oh, so wicked! Then the
+      snaky neck swung the cobra head in the breeze and the brown one sniffed
+      and sniffed, advanced a few steps, tried the wind and the ground. Still
+      farther and the concentrated interest showed in its outstretched neck and
+      quivering tail. Bounding into a thicket it went, when out of the other
+      side there leaped a snowshoe rabbit, away and away for dear life. Jump,
+      jump, jump; twelve feet at every stride, and faster than the eye could
+      follow, with the marten close behind. What a race it was, and how they
+      twinkled through the brush! The rabbit is, indeed, faster, but courage
+      counts for much, and his was low; but luck and his good stars urged him
+      round to the deer trail crossing of the stream; once there he could not
+      turn. There was only one course. He sprang into the open river and swam
+      for his life. And the marten&mdash;why should it go in? It hated the
+      water; it was not hungry; it was out for sport, and water sport is not to
+      its liking. It braced its sinewy legs and halted at the very brink, while
+      bunny crossed to the safe woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Back now came Wahpestan, the brown death, over the logs like a winged
+      snake, skimming the ground like a sinister shadow, and heading for the
+      cabin as the cabin's owner watched. Passing the body of the squirrel it
+      paused to rend it again, then diving into the brush came out so far away
+      and so soon that the watcher supposed at first that this was another
+      marten. Up the shanty corner it flashed, hardly appearing to climb, swung
+      that yellow throat and dark-brown muzzle for a second, then made toward
+      the entry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf sat with staring eyes as the beautiful demon, elegantly spurning the
+      roof sods, went at easy, measured bounds toward the open chink&mdash;toward
+      its doom. One, two, three&mdash;clearing the prickly cedar bush, its
+      forefeet fell on the hidden trap; clutch, a savage shriek, a flashing,&mdash;a
+      struggle baffling the eyes to follow, and the master of the squirrels was
+      himself under mastery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf rushed forward now. The little demon in the trap was frothing with
+      rage and hate; it ground the iron with its teeth; it shrieked at the human
+      foeman coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scene must end, the quicker the better, and even as the marten itself
+      had served the flying squirrel and the mice, and as Quonab served the
+      mink, so Rolf served the marten and the woods was still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 29. Snowshoes
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's for Annette,&rdquo; said Rolf, remembering his promise as he hung the
+      stretched marten skin to dry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yi! Yi! Yi!&rdquo; came three yelps, just as he had heard them the day he first
+      met Quonab, and crossing the narrow lake he saw his partner's canoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have found the good hunting,&rdquo; he said, as Rolf steadied the canoe at
+      the landing and Skookum, nearly well again, wagged his entire ulterior
+      person to welcome the wanderer home. The first thing to catch the boy's
+      eye was a great, splendid beaver skin stretched on a willow hoop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho, ho!&rdquo; he exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh; found another pond.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good, good,&rdquo; said Rolf as he stroked the first beaver skin he had ever
+      seen in the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is better,&rdquo; said Quonab, and held up the two barkstones, castors, or
+      smell-glands that are found in every beaver and which for some hid reason
+      have an irresistible attraction for all wild animals. To us the odour is
+      slight, but they have the power of intensifying, perpetuating, and
+      projecting such odorous substances as may be mixed with them. No trapper
+      considers his bait to be perfect without a little of the mysterious
+      castor. So that that most stenchable thing they had already concocted of
+      fish-oil, putrescence, sewer-gas, and sunlight, when commingled and
+      multiplied with the dried-up powder of a castor, was intensified into a
+      rich, rancid, gas-exhaling hell-broth as rapturously bewitching to our
+      furry brothers as it is poisonously nauseating to ourselves&mdash;seductive
+      afar like the sweetest music, inexorable as fate, insidious as
+      laughing-gas, soothing and numbing as absinthe&mdash;this, the lure and
+      caution-luller, is the fellest trick in all the trappers' code. As deadly
+      as inexplicable, not a few of the states have classed it with black magic
+      and declared its use a crime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But no such sentiment prevailed in the high hills of Quonab's time, and
+      their preparations for a successful trapping season were nearly perfect.
+      Thirty deadfalls made by Quonab, with the sixty made on the first trip and
+      a dozen steel traps, were surely promise of a good haul. It was nearly
+      November now; the fur was prime; then why not begin? Because the weather
+      was too fine. You must have frosty weather or the creatures taken in the
+      deadfalls are spoiled before the trapper can get around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Already a good, big pile of wood was cut; both shanty and storeroom were
+      chinked, plugged, and banked for the winter. It was not safe yet to shoot
+      and store a number of deer, but there was something they could do.
+      Snowshoes would soon be a necessary of life; and the more of this finger
+      work they did while the weather was warm, the better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Birch and ash are used for frames; the former is less liable to split, but
+      harder to work. White ash was plentiful on the near flat, and a small
+      ten-foot log was soon cut and split into a lot of long laths. Quonab of
+      course took charge; but Rolf followed in everything. Each took a lath and
+      shaved it down evenly until an inch wide and three quarters of an inch
+      thick. The exact middle was marked, and for ten inches at each side of
+      that it was shaved down to half an inch in thickness. Two flat crossbars,
+      ten and twelve inches long, were needed and holes to receive these made
+      half through the frame. The pot was ready boiling and by using a cord from
+      end to end of each lath they easily bent it in the middle and brought the
+      wood into touch with the boiling water. Before an hour the steam had so
+      softened the wood, and robbed it of spring, that it was easy to make it
+      into any desired shape. Each lath was cautiously bent round; the crossbars
+      slipped into their prepared sockets; a temporary lashing of cord kept all
+      in place; then finally the frames were set on a level place with the fore
+      end raised two inches and a heavy log put on the frame to give the upturn
+      to the toe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here they were left to dry and the Indian set about preparing the
+      necessary thongs. A buckskin rolled in wet, hard wood ashes had been left
+      in the mud hole. Now after a week the hair was easily scraped off and the
+      hide, cleaned and trimmed of all loose ends and tags, was spread out&mdash;soft,
+      white, and supple. Beginning outside, and following round and round the
+      edge, Quonab cut a thong of rawhide as nearly as possible a quarter inch
+      wide. This he carried on till there were many yards of it, and the hide
+      was all used up. The second deer skin was much smaller and thinner. He
+      sharpened his knife and cut it much finer, at least half the width of the
+      other. Now they were ready to lace the shoes, the finer for the fore and
+      back parts, the heavy for the middle on which the wearer treads. An expert
+      squaw would have laughed at the rude snowshoes that were finished that
+      day, but they were strong and serviceable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Naturally the snowshoes suggested a toboggan. That was easily made by
+      splitting four thin boards of ash, each six inches wide and ten feet long.
+      An up-curl was steamed on the prow of each, and rawhide lashings held all
+      to the crossbars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 30. Catching a Fox
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;As to wisdom, a man ain't a spring; he's a tank, an' gives
+     out only what he gathers&rdquo;&mdash;Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Quonab would not quit his nightly couch in the canvas lodge so Rolf and
+      Skookum stayed with him. The dog was himself again, and more than once in
+      the hours of gloom dashed forth in noisy chase of something which morning
+      study of the tracks showed to have been foxes. They were attracted partly
+      by the carrion of the deer, partly by the general suitability of the sandy
+      beach for a gambolling place, and partly by a foxy curiosity concerning
+      the cabin, the hunters, and their dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning after several night arousings and many raids by Skookum, Rolf
+      said: &ldquo;Fox is good now; why shouldn't I add some fox pelts to that?&rdquo; and
+      he pointed with some pride to the marten skin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh, good; go ahead; you will learn,&rdquo; was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So getting out the two fox traps Rolf set to work. Noting where chiefly
+      the foxes ran or played he chose two beaten pathways and hid the traps
+      carefully, exactly as he did for the marten; then selecting a couple of
+      small cedar branches he cut these and laid them across the path, one on
+      each side of the trap, assuming that the foxes following the usual route
+      would leap over the boughs and land in disaster. To make doubly sure he
+      put a piece of meat by each trap and half-way between them set a large
+      piece on a stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he sprinkled fresh earth over the pathways and around each trap and
+      bait so he should have a record of the tracks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foxes came that night, as he learned by the footprints along the beach,
+      but never one went near his traps. He studied the marks; they slowly told
+      him all the main facts. The foxes had come as usual, and frolicked about.
+      They had discovered the bait and the traps at once&mdash;how could such
+      sharp noses miss them&mdash;and as quickly noted that the traps were
+      suspicious-smelling iron things, that manscent, hand, foot, and body, were
+      very evident all about; that the only inducement to go forward was some
+      meat which was coarse and cold, not for a moment to be compared with the
+      hot juicy mouse meat that abounded in every meadow. The foxes were well
+      fed and unhungry. Why should they venture into such evident danger? In a
+      word, walls of stone could not have more completely protected the ground
+      and the meat from the foxes than did the obvious nature of the traps; not
+      a track was near, and many afar showed how quickly they had veered off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh, it is always so,&rdquo; said Quonab. &ldquo;Will you try again?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I will,&rdquo; replied Rolf, remembering now that he had omitted to
+      deodorize his traps and his boots.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He made a fire of cedar and smoked his traps, chains, and all. Then taking
+      a piece of raw venison he rubbed it on his leather gloves and on the soles
+      of his boots, wondering how he had expected to succeed the night before
+      with all these man-scent killers left out. He put fine, soft moss under
+      the pan of each trap, then removed the cedar brush, and gently sprinkled
+      all with fine, dry earth. The set was perfect; no human eye could have
+      told that there was any trap in the place. It seemed a foregone success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fox don't go by eye,&rdquo; was all the Indian said, for he reckoned it best to
+      let the learner work it out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning Rolf was up eager to see the results. There was nothing at
+      all. A fox had indeed, come within ten feet at one place, but behaved then
+      as though positively amused at the childishness of the whole smelly
+      affair. Had a man been there on guard with a club, he could not have kept
+      the spot more wholly clear of foxes. Rolf turned away baffled and utterly
+      puzzled. He had not gone far before he heard a most terrific yelping from
+      Skookum, and turned to see that trouble-seeking pup caught by the leg in
+      the first trap. It was more the horrible surprise than the pain, but he
+      did howl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunters came quickly to the rescue and at once he was freed, none the
+      worse, for the traps have no teeth; they merely hold. It is the long
+      struggle and the starvation chiefly that are cruel, and these every
+      trapper should cut short by going often around his line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Quonab took part. &ldquo;That is a good setting for some things. It would
+      catch a coon, a mink, or a marten,&mdash;or a dog&mdash;but not a fox or a
+      wolf. They are very clever. You shall see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian got out a pair of thick leather gloves, smoked them in cedar,
+      also the traps. Next he rubbed his moccasin soles with raw meat and
+      selecting a little bay in the shore he threw a long pole on the sand, from
+      the line of high, dry shingle across to the water's edge. In his hand he
+      carried a rough stake. Walking carefully on the pole and standing on it,
+      he drove the stake in at about four feet from the shore; then split it,
+      and stuffed some soft moss into the split. On this he poured three or four
+      drops of the &ldquo;smell-charm.&rdquo; Now he put a lump of spruce gum on the pan of
+      the trap, holding a torch under it till the gum was fused, and into this
+      he pressed a small, flat stone. The chain of the trap he fastened to a
+      ten-pound stone of convenient shape, and sank the stone in the water
+      half-way between the stake and the shore. Last he placed the trap on this
+      stone, so that when open everything would be under water except the flat
+      stone on the pan. Now he returned along the pole and dragged it away with
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus there was now no track or scent of human near the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The setting was a perfect one, but even then the foxes did not go near it
+      the following night; they must become used to it. In their code, &ldquo;A
+      strange thing is always dangerous.&rdquo; In the morning Rolf was inclined to
+      scoff. But Quonab said: &ldquo;Wah! No trap goes first night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They did not need to wait for the second morning. In the middle of the
+      night Skookum rushed forth barking, and they followed to see a wild
+      struggle, the fox leaping to escape and fast to his foot was the trap with
+      its anchor stone a-dragging.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then was repeated the scene that ended the struggle of mink and marten.
+      The creature's hind feet were tied together and his body hung from a peg
+      in the shanty. In the morning they gloated over his splendid fur and added
+      his coat to their store of trophies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 31. Following the Trap Line
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      That night the moon changed. Next day came on with a strong north wind. By
+      noon the wild ducks had left the lake. Many long strings of geese passed
+      southeastward, honking as they flew. Colder and colder blew the strong
+      wind, and soon the frost was showing on the smaller ponds. It snowed a
+      little, but this ceased. With the clearing sky the wind fell and the frost
+      grew keener.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At daybreak, when the hunters rose, it was very cold. Everything but the
+      open lake was frozen over, and they knew that winter was come; the time of
+      trapping was at hand. Quonab went at once to the pinnacle on the hill,
+      made a little fire, then chanting the &ldquo;Hunter's Prayer,&rdquo; he cast into the
+      fire the whiskers of the fox and the marten, some of the beaver castor,
+      and some tobacco. Then descended to prepare for the trail&mdash;blankets,
+      beaver traps, weapons, and food for two days, besides the smell-charm and
+      some fish for bait.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quickly the deadfalls were baited and set; last the Indian threw into the
+      trap chamber a piece of moss on which was a drop of the &ldquo;smell,&rdquo; and wiped
+      another drop on each of his moccasins. &ldquo;Phew,&rdquo; said Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That make a trail the marten follow for a month,&rdquo; was the explanation.
+      Skookum seemed to think so too, and if he did not say &ldquo;phew,&rdquo; it was
+      because he did not know how.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Very soon the little dog treed a flock of partridge and Rolf with blunt
+      arrows secured three. The breasts were saved for the hunters' table, but
+      the rest with the offal and feathers made the best of marten baits and
+      served for all the traps, till at noon they reached the beaver pond. It
+      was covered with ice too thin to bear, but the freshly used landing places
+      were easily selected. At each they set a strong, steel beaver-trap,
+      concealing it amid some dry grass, and placing in a split stick a foot
+      away a piece of moss in which were a few drops of the magic lure. The ring
+      on the trap chain was slipped over a long, thin, smooth pole which was
+      driven deep in the mud, the top pointing away from the deep water. The
+      plan was old and proven. The beaver, eager to investigate that
+      semifriendly smell, sets foot in the trap; instinctively when in danger he
+      dives for the deep water; the ring slips along the pole till at the bottom
+      and there it jams so that the beaver cannot rise again and is drowned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In an hour the six traps were set for the beavers; presently the hunters,
+      skirmishing for more partridges, had much trouble to save Skookum from
+      another porcupine disaster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They got some more grouse, baited the traps for a couple of miles, then
+      camped for the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before morning it came on to snow and it was three inches deep when they
+      arose. There is no place on earth where the first snow is more beautiful
+      than in the Adirondacks. In early autumn nature seems to prepare for it.
+      Green leaves are cleared away to expose the berry bunches in red; rushbeds
+      mass their groups, turn golden brown and bow their heads to meet the
+      silver load; the low hills and the lines of various Christmas trees are
+      arrayed for the finest effect: the setting is perfect and the scene, but
+      it lacks the lime light yet. It needs must have the lavish blaze of white.
+      And when it comes like the veil on a bride, the silver mountings on a
+      charger's trappings, or the golden fire in a sunset, the shining crystal
+      robe is the finishing, the crowning glory, without which all the rest must
+      fail, could have no bright completeness. Its beauty stirred the hunters
+      though it found no better expression than Rolf's simple words, &ldquo;Ain't it
+      fine,&rdquo; while the Indian gazed in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no other place in the eastern woods where the snow has such
+      manifold tales to tell, and the hunters that day tramping found themselves
+      dowered over night with the wonderful power of the hound to whom each
+      trail is a plain record of every living creature that has passed within
+      many hours. And though the first day after a storm has less to tell than
+      the second, just as the second has less than the third, there was no lack
+      of story in the snow. Here sped some antlered buck, trotting along while
+      yet the white was flying. There went a fox, sneaking across the line of
+      march, and eying distrustfully that deadfall. This broad trail with many
+      large tracks not far apart was made by one of Skookum's friends, a knight
+      of many spears. That bounding along was a marten. See how he quartered
+      that thicket like a hound, here he struck our odour trail. Mark, how he
+      paused and whiffed it; now away he goes; yes, straight to our trap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's down; hurrah!&rdquo; Rolf shouted, for there, dead under the log, was an
+      exquisite marten, dark, almost black, with a great, broad, shining breast
+      of gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were going back now toward the beaver lake. The next trap was sprung
+      and empty; the next held the body of a red squirrel, a nuisance always and
+      good only to rebait the trap he springs. But the next held a marten, and
+      the next a white weasel. Others were unsprung, but they had two good pelts
+      when they reached the beaver lake. They were in high spirits with their
+      good luck, but not prepared for the marvellous haul that now was theirs.
+      Each of the six traps held a big beaver, dead, drowned, and safe. Each
+      skin was worth five dollars, and the hunters felt rich. The incident had,
+      moreover, this pleasing significance: It showed that these beavers were
+      unsophisticated, so had not been hunted. Fifty pelts might easily be taken
+      from these ponds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The trappers reset the traps; then dividing the load, sought a remote
+      place to camp, for it does not do to light a fire near your beaver pond.
+      One hundred and fifty pounds of beaver, in addition, to their packs, was
+      not a load to be taken miles away; within half a mile on a lower level
+      they selected a warm place, made a fire, and skinned their catch. The
+      bodies they opened and hung in a tree with a view to future use, but the
+      pelts and tails they carried on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They made a long, hard tramp that day, baiting all the traps and reached
+      home late in the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 32. The Antler-bound Bucks
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IN THE man-world, November is the month of gloom, despair, and many
+      suicides. In the wild world, November is the Mad Moon. Many and diverse
+      the madnesses of the time, but none more insane than the rut of the
+      white-tailed deer. Like some disease it appears, first in the swollen
+      necks of the antler-bearers, and then in the feverish habits of all. Long
+      and obstinate combats between the bucks now, characterize the time;
+      neglecting even to eat, they spend their days and nights in rushing about
+      and seeking to kill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their horns, growing steadily since spring, are now of full size, sharp,
+      heavy, and cleaned of the velvet; in perfection. For what? Has Nature made
+      them to pierce, wound, and destroy? Strange as it may seem, these weapons
+      of offence are used for little but defence; less as spears than as
+      bucklers they serve the deer in battles with its kind. And the long, hard
+      combats are little more than wrestling and pushing bouts; almost never do
+      they end fatally. When a mortal thrust is given, it is rarely a gaping
+      wound, but a sudden springing and locking of the antlers, whereby the two
+      deer are bound together, inextricably, hopelessly, and so suffer death by
+      starvation. The records of deer killed by their rivals and left on the
+      duel-ground are few; very few and far between. The records of those killed
+      by interlocking are numbered by the scores.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were hundreds of deer in this country that Rolf and Quonab claimed.
+      Half of them were bucks, and at least half of these engaged in combat some
+      times or many times a day, all through November; that is to say, probably
+      a thousand duels were fought that month within ten miles of the cabin. It
+      was not surprising that Rolf should witness some of them, and hear many
+      more in the distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were living in the cabin now, and during the still, frosty nights,
+      when he took a last look at the stars, before turning in, Rolf formed the
+      habit of listening intently for the voices of the gloom. Sometimes it was
+      the &ldquo;hoo-hoo&rdquo; of the horned-owl, once or twice it was the long, smooth
+      howl of the wolf; but many times it was the rattle of antlers that told of
+      two bucks far up in the hardwoods, trying out the all-important question,
+      &ldquo;Which is the better buck?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning he heard still an occasional rattle at the same place as the
+      night before. He set out alone, after breakfast, and coming cautiously
+      near, peered into a little, open space to see two bucks with heads joined,
+      slowly, feebly pushing this way and that. Their tongues were out; they
+      seemed almost exhausted, and the trampled snow for an acre about plainly
+      showed that they had been fighting for hours; that indeed these were the
+      ones he had heard in the night. Still they were evenly matched, and the
+      green light in their eyes told of the ferocious spirit in each of these
+      gentle-looking deer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had no difficulty in walking quite near. If they saw him, they gave
+      slight heed to the testimony of their eyes, for the unenergetic struggle
+      went on until, again pausing for breath, they separated, raised their
+      heads a little, sniffed, then trotted away from the dreaded enemy so near.
+      Fifty yards off, they turned, shook their horns, seemed in doubt whether
+      to run away, join battle again, or attack the man. Fortunately the first
+      was their choice, and Rolf returned to the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab listened to his account, then said: &ldquo;You might have been killed.
+      Every buck is crazy now. Often they attack man. My father's brother was
+      killed by a Mad Moon buck. They found only his body, torn to rags. He had
+      got a little way up a tree, but the buck had pinned him. There were the
+      marks, and in the snow they could see how he held on to the deer's horns
+      and was dragged about till his strength gave out. He had no gun. The buck
+      went off. That was all they knew. I would rather trust a bear than a
+      deer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian's words were few, but they drew a picture all too realistic.
+      The next time Rolf heard the far sound of a deer fight, it brought back
+      the horror of that hopeless fight in the snow, and gave him a new and
+      different feeling for the antler-bearer of the changing mood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was two weeks after this, when he was coming in from a trip alone on
+      part of the line, when his ear caught some strange sounds in the woods
+      ahead; deep, sonorous, semi-human they were. Strange and weird wood-notes
+      in winter are nearly sure to be those of a raven or a jay; if deep, they
+      are likely to come from a raven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quok, quok, ha, ha, ha-hreww, hrrr, hooop, hooop,&rdquo; the diabolic noises
+      came, and Rolf, coming gently forward, caught a glimpse of sable pinions
+      swooping through the lower pines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho, ho, ho yah&mdash;hew&mdash;w&mdash;w&mdash;w&rdquo; came the demon laughter
+      of the death birds, and Rolf soon glimpsed a dozen of them in the
+      branches, hopping or sometimes flying to the ground. One alighted on a
+      brown bump. Then the bump began to move a little. The raven was pecking
+      away, but again the brown bump heaved and the raven leaped to a near
+      perch. &ldquo;Wah&mdash;wah&mdash;wah&mdash;wo&mdash;hoo&mdash;yow&mdash;wow&mdash;rrrrrr-rrrr-rrrr&rdquo;&mdash;and
+      the other ravens joined in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had no weapons but his bow, his pocket knife, and a hatchet. He took
+      the latter in his hand and walked gently forward; the hollow-voiced ravens
+      &ldquo;haw&mdash;hawed,&rdquo; then flew to safe perches where they chuckled like
+      ghouls over some extra-ghoulish joke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lad, coming closer, witnessed a scene that stirred him with mingled
+      horror and pity. A great, strong buck&mdash;once strong, at least&mdash;was
+      standing, staggering, kneeling there; sometimes on his hind legs,
+      spasmodically heaving and tugging at a long gray form on the ground, the
+      body of another buck, his rival, dead now, with a broken neck, as it
+      proved, but bearing big, strong antlers with which the antlers of the
+      living buck were interlocked as though riveted with iron, bolted with
+      clamps of steel. With all his strength, the living buck could barely move
+      his head, dragging his adversary's body with him. The snow marks showed
+      that at first he had been able to haul the carcass many yards; had nibbled
+      a little at shoots and twigs; but that was when he was stronger, was long
+      before. How long? For days, at least, perhaps a week, that wretched buck
+      was dying hopelessly a death that would not come. His gaunt sides, his
+      parched and lolling tongue, less than a foot from the snow and yet beyond
+      reach, the filmy eye, whose opaque veil of death was illumined again with
+      a faint fire of fighting green as the new foe came. The ravens had picked
+      the eyes out of the dead buck and eaten a hole in its back. They had even
+      begun on the living buck, but he had been able to use one front foot to
+      defend his eyes; still his plight could scarce have been more dreadful. It
+      made the most pitiful spectacle Rolf had ever seen in wild life; yes, in
+      all his life. He was full of compassion for the poor brute. He forgot it
+      as a thing to be hunted for food; thought of it only as a harmless,
+      beautiful creature in dire and horrible straits; a fellow-being in
+      distress; and he at once set about being its helper. With hatchet in hand
+      he came gently in front, and selecting an exposed part at the base of the
+      dead buck's antler he gave a sharp blow with the hatchet. The effect on
+      the living buck was surprising. He was roused to vigorous action that
+      showed him far from death as yet. He plunged, then pulled backward,
+      carrying with him the carcass and the would-be rescuer. Then Rolf
+      remembered the Indian's words: &ldquo;You can make strong medicine with your
+      mouth.&rdquo; He spoke to the deer, gently, softly. Then came nearer, and tapped
+      o'n the horn he wished to cut; softly speaking and tapping he increased
+      his force, until at last he was permitted to chop seriously at that prison
+      bar. It took many blows, for the antler stuff is very thick and strong at
+      this time, but the horn was loose at last. Rolf gave it a twist and the
+      strong buck was free. Free for what?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh, tell it not among the folk who have been the wild deer's friend! Hide
+      it from all who blindly believe that gratitude must always follow
+      good-will! With unexpected energy, with pent-up fury, with hellish
+      purpose, the ingrate sprang on his deliverer, aiming a blow as deadly as
+      was in his power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wholly taken by surprise, Rolf barely had time to seize the murderer's
+      horns and ward them off his vitals. The buck made a furious lunge. Oh!
+      what foul fiend was it gave him then such force?&mdash;and Rolf went down.
+      Clinging for dear life to those wicked, shameful horns, he yelled as he
+      never yelled before: &ldquo;Quonab, Quonabi help me, oh, help me!&rdquo; But he was
+      pinned at once, the fierce brute above him pressing on his chest, striving
+      to bring its horns to bear; his only salvation had been that their wide
+      spread gave his body room between. But the weight on his chest was
+      crushing out his force, his life; he had no breath to call again. How the
+      ravens chuckled, and &ldquo;haw-hawed&rdquo; in the tree!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The buck's eyes gleamed again with the emerald light of murderous hate,
+      and he jerked his strong neck this way and that with the power of madness.
+      It could not last for long. The boy's strength was going fast; the beast
+      was crushing in his chest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, God, help me!&rdquo; he gasped, as the antlered fiend began again
+      struggling for the freedom of those murderous horns. The brute was almost
+      free, when the ravens rose with loud croaks, and out of the woods dashed
+      another to join the fight. A smaller deer? No; what? Rolf knew not, nor
+      how, but in a moment there was a savage growl and Skookum had the murderer
+      by the hind leg. Worrying and tearing he had not the strength to throw the
+      deer, but his teeth were sharp, his heart was in his work, and when he
+      transferred his fierce attack to parts more tender still, the buck,
+      already spent, reared, wheeled, and fell. Before he could recover Skookum
+      pounced upon him by the nose and hung on like a vice. The buck could swing
+      his great neck a little, and drag the dog, but he could not shake him off.
+      Rolf saw the chance, rose to his tottering legs, seized his hatchet,
+      stunned the fierce brute with a blow. Then finding on the snow his missing
+      knife he gave the hunter stroke that spilled the red life-blood and sank
+      on the ground to know no more till Quonab stood beside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 33. A Song of Praise
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ROLF was lying by a fire when he came to, Quonab bending over him with a
+      look of grave concern. When he opened his eyes, the Indian smiled; such a
+      soft, sweet smile, with long, ivory rows in its background.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he brought hot tea, and Rolf revived so he could sit up and tell the
+      story of the morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is an evil Manito,&rdquo; and he looked toward the dead buck; &ldquo;we must not
+      eat him. You surely made medicine to bring Skookum.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I made medicine with my mouth,&rdquo; was the answer, &ldquo;I called, I yelled,
+      when he came at me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a long way from here to the cabin,&rdquo; was Quonab's reply. &ldquo;I could
+      not hear you; Skookum could not hear you; but Cos Cob, my father, told me
+      that when you send out a cry for help, you send medicine, too, that goes
+      farther than the cry. May be so; I do not know: my father was very wise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you see Skookum come, Quonab?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; he was with me hours after you left, but he was restless and
+      whimpered. Then he left me and it was a long time before I heard him bark.
+      It was the 'something-wrong' bark. I went. He brought me here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must have followed my track all 'round the line.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After an hour they set out for the cabin. The ravens &ldquo;Ha-ha-ed&rdquo; and
+      &ldquo;Ho-ho-ed&rdquo; as they went. Quonab took the fateful horn that Rolf had
+      chopped off, and hung it on a sapling with a piece of tobacco and a red
+      yam streamer ', to appease the evil spirit that surely was near. There it
+      hung for years after, until the sapling grew to a tree that swallowed the
+      horn, all but the tip, which rotted away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Skookum took a final sniff at his fallen enemy, gave the body the
+      customary expression of a dog's contempt, then led the procession
+      homeward.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Not that day, not the next, but on the first day of calm, red, sunset
+sky, went Quonab to his hill of worship; and when the little fire that
+he lit sent up its thread of smoke, like a plumb-line from the red cloud
+over him, he burnt a pinch of tobacco, and, with face and arms upraised
+in the red light, he sang a new song:
+
+     &ldquo;The evil one set a trap for my son,
+     But the Manito saved him;
+     In the form of a Skookum he saved him.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0033" id="link2HCH0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 34. The Birch-bark Vessels
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Rolf was sore and stiff for a week afterward; so was Skookum. There were
+      times when Quonab was cold, moody, and silent for days. Then some milder
+      wind would blow in the region of his heart and the bleak ice surface
+      melted into running rills of memory or kindly emanation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just before the buck adventure, there had been an unpleasant time of chill
+      and aloofness. It arose over little. Since the frost had come, sealing the
+      waters outside, Quonab would wash his hands in the vessel that was also
+      the bread pan. Rolf had New England ideas of propriety in cooking matters,
+      and finally he forgot the respect due to age and experience. That was one
+      reason why he went out alone that day. Now, with time to think things
+      over, the obvious safeguard would be to have a wash bowl; but where to get
+      it? In those days, tins were scarce and ex-pensive. It was the custom to
+      look in the woods for nearly all the necessaries of life; and, guided by
+      ancient custom and experience, they seldom looked in vain. Rolf had seen,
+      and indeed made, watering troughs, pig troughs, sap troughs, hen troughs,
+      etc., all his life, and he now set to work with the axe and a block of
+      basswood to hew out a trough for a wash bowl. With adequate tools he might
+      have made a good one; but, working with an axe and a stiff arm, the result
+      was a very heavy, crude affair. It would indeed hold water, but it was
+      almost impossible to dip it into the water hole, so that a dipper was
+      needed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Quonab saw the plan and the result, he said: &ldquo;In my father's lodge we
+      had only birch bark. See; I shall make a bowl.&rdquo; He took from the
+      storehouse a big roll of birch bark, gathered in warm weather (it can
+      scarcely be done in cold), for use in repairing the canoe. Selecting a
+      good part he cut out a square, two feet each way, and put it in the big
+      pot which was full of boiling water. At the same time he soaked with it a
+      bundle of wattap, or long fibrous roots of the white spruce, also gathered
+      before the frost came, with a view to canoe repairs in the spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While these were softening in the hot water, he cut a couple of long
+      splints of birch, as nearly as possible half an inch wide and an eighth of
+      an inch thick, and put them to steep with the bark. Next he made two or
+      three straddle pins or clamps, like clothes pegs, by splitting the ends of
+      some sticks which had a knot at one end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now he took out the spruce roots, soft and pliant, and selecting a lot
+      that were about an eighth of an inch in diameter, scraped off the bark and
+      roughness, until he had a bundle of perhaps ten feet of soft, even, white
+      cords.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bark was laid flat and cut as below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rounding of A and B is necessary, for the holes of the sewing would
+      tear the piece off if all were on the same line of grain. Each corner was
+      now folded and doubled on itself (C), then held so with a straddle pin
+      (D). The rim was trimmed so as to be flat where it crossed the fibre of
+      the bark, and arched where it ran along. The pliant rods of birch were
+      bent around this, and using the large awl to make holes, Quonab sewed the
+      rim rods to the bark with an over-lapping stitch that made a smooth finish
+      to the edge, and the birch-bark wash pan was complete. (E.) Much heavier
+      bark can be used if the plan F G be followed, but it is hard to make it
+      water-tight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So now they had a wash pan and a cause of friction was removed. Rolf found
+      it amusing as well as useful to make other bark vessels of varying sizes
+      for dippers and dunnage. It was work that he could do now while he was
+      resting and recovering and he became expert. After watching a fairly
+      successful attempt at a box to hold fish-hooks and tackle, Quonab said:
+      &ldquo;In my father's lodge these would bear quill work in colours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's so,&rdquo; said Rolf, remembering the birch-bark goods often sold by the
+      Indians. &ldquo;I wish we had a porcupine now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe Skookum could find one,&rdquo; said the Indian, with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you let me kill the next Kahk we find?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if you use the quills and burn its whiskers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why burn its whiskers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father said it must be so. The smoke goes straight to the All-above;
+      then the Manito knows we have killed, but we have remembered to kill only
+      for use and to thank Him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was some days before they found a porcupine, and when they did, it was
+      not necessary for them to kill it. But that belongs to another chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They saved its skin with all its spears and hung it in the storehouse. The
+      quills with the white bodies and ready-made needle at each end are
+      admirable for embroidering, but they are white only.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can we dye them, Quonab?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the summer are many dyes; in winter they are hard to get. We can get
+      some.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So forth he went to a hemlock tree, and cut till he could gather the inner
+      pink bark, which, boiled with the quills, turned them a dull pink;
+      similarly, alder bark furnished rich orange, and butternut bark a brown.
+      Oak chips, with a few bits of iron in the pot, dyed black.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must wait till summer for red and green,&rdquo; said the Indian. &ldquo;Red comes
+      only from berries; the best is the blitum. We call it squaw-berry and
+      mis-caw-wa, yellow comes from the yellow root (Hydrastis).&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But black, white, orange, pink, brown, and a dull red made by a double dip
+      of orange and pink, are a good range of colour. The method in using the
+      quills is simple. An awl to make holes in the bark for each; the rough
+      parts behind are concealed afterward with a lining of bark stitched over
+      them; and before the winter was over, Rolf had made a birch-bark box,
+      decorated lid and all, with porcupine quill work, in which he kept the
+      sable skin that was meant to buy Annette's new dress, the costume she had
+      dreamed of, the ideal and splendid, almost unbelievable vision of her
+      young life, ninety-five cents' worth of cotton print.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was one other point of dangerous friction. Whenever it fell to
+      Quonab to wash the dishes, he simply set them on the ground and let
+      Skookum lick them off. This economical arrangement was satisfactory to
+      Quonab, delightful to Skookum, and apparently justified by the finished
+      product, but Rolf objected. The Indian said: &ldquo;Don't he eat the same food
+      as we do? You cannot tell if you do not see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whenever he could do so, Rolf washed the doubtful dishes over again, yet
+      there were many times when this was impossible, and the situation became
+      very irritating. But he knew that the man who loses his temper has lost
+      the first round of the fight, so, finding the general idea of uncleanness
+      without avail, he sought for some purely Indian argument. As they sat by
+      the evening fire, one day, he led up to talk of his mother&mdash;of her
+      power as a medicine woman, of the many evil medicines that harmed her. &ldquo;It
+      was evil medicine for her if a dog licked her hand or touched her food. A
+      dog licked her hand and the dream dog came to her three days before she
+      died.&rdquo; After a long pause, he added, &ldquo;In some ways I am like my mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days later, Rolf chanced to see his friend behind the shanty give
+      Skookum the pan to clean off after they had been frying deer fat. The
+      Indian had no idea that Rolf was near, nor did he ever learn the truth of
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, after midnight, the lad rose quietly, lighted the pine splints
+      that served them for a torch, rubbed some charcoal around each eye to make
+      dark rings that should supply a horror-stricken look. Then he started in
+      to pound on Quonab's tom-tom, singing:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Evil spirit leave me;
+     Dog-face do not harm me.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Quonab sat up in amazement. Rolf paid no heed, but went on, bawling and
+      drumming and staring upward into vacant space. After a few minutes Skookum
+      scratched and whined at the shanty door. Rolf rose, took his knife, cut a
+      bunch of hair from Skookum's neck and burned it in the torch, then went on
+      singing with horrid solemnity:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Evil spirit leave me;
+     Dog-face do not harm me.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      At last he turned, and seeming to discover that Quonab was looking on,
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The dream dog came to me. I thought I saw him lick deer grease from the
+      frying pan behind the shanty. He laughed, for he knew that he made evil
+      medicine for me. I am trying to drive him away, so he cannot harm me. I do
+      not know. I am like my mother. She was very wise, but she died after it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Quonab arose, cut some more hair from Skookum, added a pinch of
+      tobacco, then, setting it ablaze, he sang in the rank odour of the burning
+      weed and hair, his strongest song to kill ill magic; and Rolf, as he
+      chuckled and sweetly sank to sleep, knew that the fight was won. His
+      friend would never, never more install Skookum in the high and sacred post
+      of pot-licker, dishwasher, or final polisher.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0034" id="link2HCH0034">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 35. Snaring Rabbits
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The deepening snow about the cabin was marked in all the thickets by the
+      multitudinous tracks of the snowshoe rabbits or white hares. Occasionally
+      the hunters saw them, but paid little heed. Why should they look at
+      rabbits when deer were plentiful?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You catch rabbit?&rdquo; asked Quonab one day when Rolf was feeling fit again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can shoot one with my bow,&rdquo; was the answer, &ldquo;but why should I, when we
+      have plenty of deer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My people always hunted rabbits. Sometimes no deer were to be found; then
+      the rabbits were food. Sometimes in the enemy's country it was not safe to
+      hunt, except rabbits, with blunt arrows, and they were food. Sometimes
+      only squaws and children in camp&mdash;nothing to eat; no guns; then the
+      rabbits were food.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, see me get one,&rdquo; and Rolf took his bow and arrow. He found many
+      white bunnies, but always in the thickest woods. Again and again he tried,
+      but the tantalizing twigs and branches muffled the bow and turned the
+      arrow. It was hours before he returned with a fluffy snowshoe rabbit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is not our way.&rdquo; Quonab led to the thicket and selecting a place of
+      many tracks he cut a lot of brush and made a hedge across with half a
+      dozen openings. At each of these openings he made a snare of strong cord
+      tied to a long pole, hung on a crotch, and so arranged that a tug at the
+      snare would free the pole which in turn would hoist the snare and the
+      creature in it high in the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next morning they went around and found that four of the snares had each a
+      snow-white rabbit hanging by the neck. As he was handling these, Quonab
+      felt a lump I on the hind leg of one. He carefully cut it open and turned
+      out a curious-looking object about the size of an acorn, flattened, made
+      of flesh and covered with hair, and nearly the shape of a large bean. He
+      gazed at it, and, turning to Rolf, said with intense meaning:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh! we have found the good hunting. This is the Peeto-wab-oos-once, the
+      little medicine rabbit. Now we have strong medicine in the lodge. You
+      shall see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went out to the two remaining snares and passed the medicine rabbit
+      through each. An hour later, when they returned, they found a rabbit taken
+      in the first snare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is ever so,&rdquo; said the Indian. &ldquo;We can always catch rabbits now. My
+      father had the Peeto-wab-i-ush once, the little medicine deer, and so he
+      never failed in hunting but twice. Then he found that his papoose, Quonab,
+      had stolen his great medicine. He was a very wise papoose. He killed a
+      chipmunk each of those days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark! what is that?&rdquo; A faint sound of rustling branches, and some short
+      animal noises in the woods had caught Rolf's ear, and Skookum's, too, for
+      he was off like one whose life is bound up in a great purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yap, yap, yap,&rdquo; came the angry sound from Skookum. Who can say that
+      animals have no language? His merry &ldquo;yip, yip, yip,&rdquo; for partridge up a
+      tree, or his long, hilarious, &ldquo;Yow, yow, yow,&rdquo; when despite all orders he
+      chased some deer, were totally distinct from the angry &ldquo;Yap, yap,&rdquo; he gave
+      for the bear up the tree, or the &ldquo;Grrryapgrryap,&rdquo; with which he voiced his
+      hatred of the porcupine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But now it was the &ldquo;Yap, yap,&rdquo; as when he had treed the bears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something up a tree,&rdquo; was the Indian's interpretation, as they followed
+      the sound. Something up a tree! A whole menagerie it seemed to Rolf when
+      they got there. Hanging by the neck in the remaining snare, and limp now,
+      was a young lynx, a kit of the year. In the adjoining tree, with Skookum
+      circling and yapping 'round the base, was a savage old lynx. In the crotch
+      above her was another young one, and still higher was a third, all looking
+      their unutterable disgust at the noisy dog below; the mother, indeed,
+      expressing it in occasional hisses, but none of them daring to come down
+      and face him. The lynx is very good fur and very easy prey. The Indian
+      brought the old one down with a shot; then, as fast as he could reload,
+      the others were added to the bag, and, with the one from the snare, they
+      returned laden to the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian's eyes shone with a peculiar light. &ldquo;Ugh! Ugh! My father told
+      me; it is great medicine. You see, now, it does not fail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0035" id="link2HCH0035">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 36. Something Wrong at the Beaver Traps
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Once they had run the trap lines, and their store of furs was increasing
+      finely. They had taken twenty-five beavers and counted on getting two or
+      three each time they went to the ponds. But they got an unpleasant
+      surprise in December, on going to the beaver grounds, to find all the
+      traps empty and unmistakable signs that some man had been there and had
+      gone off with the catch. They followed the dim trail of his snowshoes,
+      half hidden by a recent wind, but night came on with more snow, and all
+      signs were lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thief had not found the line yet, for the haul of marten and mink was
+      good. But this was merely the beginning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The trapper law of the wilderness is much like all primitive laws; first
+      come has first right, provided he is able to hold it. If a strong rival
+      comes in, the first must fight as best he can. The law justifies him in
+      anything he may do, if he succeeds. The law justifies the second in
+      anything he may do, except murder. That is, the defender may shoot to
+      kill; the offender may not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the fact of Quonab's being an Indian and Rolf supposedly one, would
+      turn opinion against them in the Adirondacks, and it was quite likely that
+      the rival considered them trespassers on his grounds, although the fact
+      that he robbed their traps without removing them, and kept out of sight,
+      rather showed the guilty conscience of a self-accused poacher.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came in from the west, obviously; probably the Racquet River country;
+      was a large man, judging by his foot and stride, and understood trapping;
+      but lazy, for he set no traps. His principal object seemed to be to steal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And it was not long before he found their line of marten traps, so his
+      depredations increased. Primitive emotions are near the surface at all
+      times, and under primitive conditions are very ready to appear. Rolf and
+      Quonab felt that now it was war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0036" id="link2HCH0036">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 37. The Pekan or Fisher
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There was one large track in the snow that they saw several times&mdash;it
+      was like that of a marten, but much larger. &ldquo;Pekan,&rdquo; said the Indian, &ldquo;the
+      big marten; the very strong one, that fights without fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When my father was a papoose he shot an arrow at a pekan. He did not know
+      what it was; it seemed only a big black marten. It was wounded, but sprang
+      from the tree on my father's breast. It would have killed him, but for the
+      dog; then it would have killed the dog, but my grandfather was near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He made my father eat the pekan's heart, so his heart might be like it.
+      It sought no fight, but it turned, when struck, and fought without fear.
+      That is the right way; seek peace, but fight without fear. That was my
+      father's heart and mine.&rdquo; Then glancing toward the west he continued in a
+      tone of menace: &ldquo;That trap robber will find it so. We sought no fight, but
+      some day I kill him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The big track went in bounds, to be lost in a low, thick woods. But they
+      met it again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were crossing a hemlock ridge a mile farther on, when they came to
+      another track which was first a long, deep furrow, some fifteen inches
+      wide, and in this were the wide-spread prints of feet as large as those of
+      a fisher.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kahk,&rdquo; said Quonab, and Skookum said &ldquo;Kahk,&rdquo; too, but he did it by
+      growling and raising his back hair, and doubtless also by sadly
+      remembering. His discretion seemed as yet embryonic, so Rolf slipped his
+      sash through the dog's collar, and they followed the track, for the
+      porcupine now stood in Rolf's mind as a sort of embroidery outfit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had not followed far before another track joined on&mdash;the track
+      of the fisher-pekan; and soon after they heard in the woods ahead
+      scratching sounds, as of something climbing, and once or twice a faint,
+      far, fighting snarl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quickly tying the over-valiant Skookum to a tree, they crept forward,
+      ready for anything, and arrived on the scene of a very peculiar action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Action it was, though it was singularly devoid of action. First, there was
+      a creature, like a huge black marten or a short-legged black fox, standing
+      at a safe distance, while, partly hidden under a log, with hind quarters
+      and tail only exposed, was a large porcupine. Both were very still, but
+      soon the fisher snarled and made a forward lunge. The porcupine, hearing
+      the sounds or feeling the snow dash up on that side, struck with its tail;
+      but the fisher kept out of reach. Next a feint was made on the other side,
+      with the same result; then many, as though the fisher were trying to tire
+      out the tail or use up all its quills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sometimes the assailant leaped on the log and teased the quill-pig to
+      strike upward, while many white daggers already sunk in the bark showed
+      that these tactics had been going on for some time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the two spectators saw by the trail that a similar battle had been
+      fought at another log, and that the porcupine trail from that was spotted
+      with blood. How the fisher had forced it out was not then clear, but soon
+      became so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After feinting till the Kahk would not strike, the pekan began a new
+      manceuvre. Starting on the opposite side of the log that protected the
+      spiny one's nose, he burrowed quickly through the snow and leaves. The log
+      was about three inches from the ground, and before the porcupine could
+      realize it, the fisher had a space cleared and seized the spiny one by its
+      soft, unspiny nose. Grunting and squealing it pulled back and lashed its
+      terrible tail. To what effect? Merely to fill the log around with quills.
+      With all its strength the quill-pig pulled and writhed, but the fisher was
+      stronger. His claws enlarged the hole and when the victim ceased from
+      exhaustion, the fisher made a forward dash and changed his hold from the
+      tender nose to the still more tender throat of the porcupine. His hold was
+      not deep enough and square enough to seize the windpipe, but he held on.
+      For a minute or two the struggles of Kahk were of desperate energy and its
+      lashing tail began to be short of spines, but a red stream trickling from
+      the wound was sapping its strength. Protected by the log, the fisher had
+      but to hold on and play a waiting game.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The heaving and backward pulling of Kahk were very feeble at length; the
+      fisher had nearly finished the fight. But he was impatient of further
+      delay and backing out of the hole he mounted the log, displaying a much
+      scratched nose; then reaching down with deft paw, near the quill-pig's
+      shoulder, he gave a sudden jerk that threw the former over on its back,
+      and before it could recover, the fisher's jaws closed on its ribs, and
+      crushed and tore. The nerveless, almost quilless tail could not harm him
+      there. The red blood flowed and the porcupine lay still. Again and again
+      as he uttered chesty growls the pekan ground his teeth into the warm flesh
+      and shook and worried the unconquerable one he had conquered. He was
+      licking his bloody chops for the twentieth time, gloating in gore, when
+      &ldquo;crack&rdquo; went Quonab's gun, and the pekan had an opportunity of resuming
+      the combat with Kahk far away in the Happy Hunting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yap, yap, yap!&rdquo; and in rushed Skookum, dragging the end of Rolf's sash
+      which he had gnawed through in his determination to be in the fight, no
+      matter what it cost; and it was entirely due to the fact that the
+      porcupine was belly up, that Skookum did not have another hospital
+      experience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was Rolf's first sight of a fisher, and he examined it as one does
+      any animal&mdash;or man&mdash;that one has so long heard described in
+      superlative terms that it has become idealized into a semi-myth. This was
+      the desperado of the woods; the weird black cat that feared no living
+      thing. This was the only one that could fight and win against Kahk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They made a fire at once, and while Rolf got the mid-day meal of tea and
+      venison, Quonab skinned the fisher. Then he cut out its heart and liver.
+      When these were cooked he gave the first to Rolf and the second to
+      Skookum, saying to the one, &ldquo;I give you a pekan heart;&rdquo; and to the dog,
+      &ldquo;That will force all of the quills out of you if you play the fool again,
+      as I think you will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the skin of the fisher's neck and tail they found several quills, some
+      of them new, some of them dating evidently from another fight of the same
+      kind, but none of them had done any damage. There was no inflammation or
+      sign of poisoning. &ldquo;It is ever so,&rdquo; said Quonab, &ldquo;the quills cannot hurt
+      him.&rdquo; Then, turning to the porcupine, he remarked, as he prepared to skin
+      it:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho, Kahk! you see now it was a big mistake you did not let Nana Bojou sit
+      on the dry end of that log.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0037" id="link2HCH0037">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 38. The Silver Fox
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      They were returning to the cabin, one day, when Quonab stopped and
+      pointed. Away off on the snow of the far shore was a moving shape to be
+      seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fox, and I think silver fox; he so black. I think he lives there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; &ldquo;I have seen many times a very big fox track, and they do not go
+      where they do not live. Even in winter they keep their own range.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's worth ten martens, they say?&rdquo; queried Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh! fifty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't we get him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can try. But the water set will not work in winter; we must try
+      different.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the plan, the best that Quonab could devise for the snow: Saving
+      the ashes from the fire (dry sand would have answered), he selected six
+      open places in the woods on the south of the lake, and in each made an ash
+      bed on which he scattered three or four drops of the smell-charm. Then,
+      twenty-five yards from each, on the north or west side (the side of the
+      prevailing wind) he hung from some sapling a few feathers, a partridge
+      wing or tail with some red yarns to it. He left the places unvisited for
+      two weeks, then returned to learn the progress of act one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Judging from past experience of fox nature and from the few signs that
+      were offered by the snow, this is what had happened: A fox came along soon
+      after the trappers left, followed the track a little way, came to the
+      first opening, smelled the seductive danger-lure, swung around it, saw the
+      dangling feathers, took alarm, and went off. Another of the places had
+      been visited by a marten. He had actually scratched in the ashes. A wolf
+      had gone around another at a safe distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another had been shunned several times by a fox or by foxes, but they had
+      come again and again and at last yielded to the temptation to investigate
+      the danger-smell; finally had rolled in it, evidently wallowing in an
+      abandon of delight. So far, the plan was working there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next move was to set the six strong fox traps, each thoroughly smoked,
+      and chained to a fifteen-pound block of wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Approaching the place carefully and using his blood-rubbed glove, Quonab
+      set in each ash pile a trap. Under its face he put a wad of white rabbit
+      fur. Next he buried all in the ashes, scattered a few bits of rabbit and a
+      few drops of smell-charm, then dashed snow over the place, renewed the
+      dangling feathers to lure the eye; and finally left the rest to the
+      weather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf was keen to go the next day, but the old man said: &ldquo;Wah! no good! no
+      trap go first night; man smell too strong.&rdquo; The second day there was a
+      snowfall, and the third morning Quonab said, &ldquo;Now seem like good time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The first trap was untouched, but there was clearly the track of a large
+      fox within ten yards of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second was gone. Quonab said, with surprise in his voice, &ldquo;Deer!&rdquo; Yes,
+      truly, there was the record. A deer&mdash;a big one&mdash;had come
+      wandering past; his keen nose soon apprised him of a strong, queer appeal
+      near by. He had gone unsuspiciously toward it, sniffed and pawed the
+      unaccountable and exciting nose medicine; then &ldquo;snap!&rdquo; and he had sprung a
+      dozen feet, with that diabolic smell-thing hanging to his foot. Hop, hop,
+      hop, the terrified deer had gone into a slashing windfall. Then the drag
+      had caught on the logs, and, thanks to the hard and taper hoofs, the trap
+      had slipped off and been left behind, while the deer had sought safer
+      regions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the next trap they found a beautiful marten dead, killed at once by the
+      clutch of steel. The last trap was gone, but the tracks and the marks told
+      a tale that any one could read; a fox had been beguiled and had gone off,
+      dragging the trap and log. Not far did they need to go; held in a thicket
+      they found him, and Rolf prepared the mid-day meal while Quonab gathered
+      the pelt. After removing the skin the Indian cut deep and carefully into
+      the body of the fox and removed the bladder. Its contents sprinkled near
+      each of the traps was good medicine, he said; a view that was evidently
+      shared by Skookum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More than once they saw the track of the big fox of the region, but never
+      very near the snare. He was too clever to be fooled by smell-spells or
+      kidney products, no matter how temptingly arrayed. The trappers did,
+      indeed, capture three red foxes; but it was at cost of great labour. It
+      was a venture that did not pay. The silver fox was there, but he took too
+      good care of his precious hide. The slightest hint of a man being near was
+      enough to treble his already double wariness. They would never have seen
+      him near at hand, but for a stirring episode that told a tale of winter
+      hardship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0038" id="link2HCH0038">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 39. The Humiliation of Skookum
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      If Skookum could have been interviewed by a newspaper man, he would
+      doubtless have said: &ldquo;I am a very remarkable dog. I can tree partridges.
+      I'm death on porcupines. I am pretty good in a dog fight; never was licked
+      in fact: but my really marvellous gift is my speed; I'm a terror to run.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, he was very proud of his legs, and the foxes that came about in the
+      winter nights gave him many opportunities of showing what he could do.
+      Many times over he very nearly caught a fox. Skookum did not know that
+      these wily ones were playing with him; but they were, and enjoyed it
+      immensely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The self-sufficient cur never found this out, and never lost a chance of
+      nearly catching a fox. The men did not see those autumn chases because
+      they were by night; but foxes hunt much by day in winter, perforce, and
+      are often seen; and more than once they witnessed one of these farcical
+      races.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the shining white furnished background for a much more important
+      affair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was near sundown one day when a faint fox bark was heard out on the
+      snow-covered ice of the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's for me,&rdquo; Skookum seemed to think, and jumping up, with a very
+      fierce growl, he trotted forth; the men looked first from the window. Out
+      on the snow, sitting on his haunches, was their friend, the big, black
+      silver fox.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab reached for his gun and Rolf tried to call Skookum, but it was too
+      late. He was out to catch that fox; their business was to look on and
+      applaud. The fox sat on his haunches, grinning apparently, until Skookum
+      dashed through the snow within twenty yards. Then, that shining, black fox
+      loped gently away, his huge tail level out behind him, and Skookum, sure
+      of success, raced up, within six or seven yards. A few more leaps now, and
+      the victory would be won. But somehow he could not close that six or seven
+      yard gap. No matter how he strained and leaped, the great black brush was
+      just so far ahead. At first they had headed for the shore, but the fox
+      wheeled back to the ice and up and down. Skookum felt it was because
+      escape was hopeless, and he redoubled his effort. But all in vain. He was
+      only wearing himself out, panting noisily now. The snow was deep enough to
+      be a great disadvantage, more to dog than to fox, since weight counted as
+      such a handicap. Unconsciously Skookum slowed up. The fox increased his
+      headway; then audaciously turned around and sat down in the snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was too much for the dog. He wasted about a lungful of air in an
+      angry bark, and again went after the enemy. Again the chase was round and
+      round, but very soon the dog was so wearied that he sat down, and now the
+      black fox actually came back and barked at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was maddening. Skookum's pride was touched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was in to win or break. His supreme effort brought him within five feet
+      of that white-tipped brush. Then, strange to tell, the big black fox put
+      forth his large reserve of speed, and making for the woods, left Skookum
+      far behind. Why? The cause was clear. Quonab, after vainly watching for a
+      chance to shoot, that would not endanger the dog, had, under cover, crept
+      around the lake and now was awaiting in a thicket. But the fox's keen nose
+      had warned him. He knew that the funny part was over, so ran for the woods
+      and disappeared as a ball tossed up the snow behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Skookum's tongue was nearly a foot long as he walked meekly ashore.
+      He looked depressed; his tail was depressed; so were his ears; but there
+      was nothing to show whether he would have told that reporter that he
+      &ldquo;wasn't feeling up to his usual, to-day,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Didn't you see me get the
+      best of him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0039" id="link2HCH0039">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 40. The Rarest of Pelts
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      They saw that silver fox three or four times during the winter, and once
+      found that he had had the audacity to jump from a high snowdrift onto the
+      storehouse and thence to the cabin roof, where he had feasted on some
+      white rabbits kept there for deadfall baits. But all attempts to trap or
+      shoot him were vain, and their acquaintance might have ended as it began,
+      but for an accident.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It proved a winter of much snow. Heavy snow is the worst misfortune that
+      can befall the wood folk in fur. It hides their food beyond reach, and it
+      checks their movements so they can neither travel far in search of
+      provender nor run fast to escape their enemies. Deep snow then means
+      fetters, starvation, and death. There are two ways of meeting the problem:
+      stilts and snowshoes. The second is far the better. The caribou, and the
+      moose have stilts; the rabbit, the panther, and the lynx wear snowshoes.
+      When there are three or four feet of soft snow, the lynx is king of all
+      small beasts, and little in fear of the large ones. Man on his snowshoes
+      has most wild four-foots at his mercy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Skookum, without either means of meeting the trouble was left much alone
+      in the shanty. Apparently, it was on one of these occasions that the
+      silver fox had driven him nearly frantic by eating rabbits on the roof
+      above him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The exasperating robbery of their trap line had gone on irregularly all
+      winter, but the thief was clever enough or lucky enough to elude them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were returning to the cabin after a three days' round, when they saw,
+      far out on the white expanse of the lake, two animals, alternately running
+      and fighting. &ldquo;Skookum and the fox,&rdquo; was the first thought that came, but
+      on entering the cabin Skookum greeted them in person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab gazed intently at the two running specks and said: &ldquo;One has no
+      tail. I think it is a peeshoo (lynx) and a fox.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf was making dinner. From time to time he glanced over the lake and saw
+      the two specks, usually running. After dinner was over, he said, &ldquo;Let's
+      sneak 'round and see if we can get a shot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So, putting on their snowshoes and keeping out of sight, they skimmed over
+      the deer crossing and through the woods, till at a point near the
+      fighters, and there they saw something that recalled at once the day of
+      Skookum's humiliation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A hundred yards away on the open snow was a huge lynx and their old
+      friend, the black and shining silver fox, face to face; the fox desperate,
+      showing his rows of beautiful teeth, but sinking belly deep in the snow as
+      he strove to escape. Already he was badly wounded. In any case he was at
+      the mercy of the lynx who, in spite of his greater weight, had such broad
+      and perfect snowshoes that he skimmed on the surface, while the fox's
+      small feet sank deep. The lynx was far from fresh, and still stood in some
+      awe of those rows of teeth that snapped like traps when he came too near.
+      He was minded, of course, to kill his black rival, but not to be hurt in
+      doing so. Again and again there was in some sort a closing fight, the
+      wearied fox plunging breathlessly through the treacherous, relentless
+      snow. If he could only get back to cover, he might find a corner to
+      protect his rear and have some fighting chance for life. But wherever he
+      turned that huge cat faced him, doubly armed, and equipped as a fox can
+      never be for the snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one could watch that plucky fight without feeling his sympathies go out
+      to the beautiful silver fox. Rolf, at least, was for helping him to
+      escape, when the final onset came. In another dash for the woods the fox
+      plunged out of sight in a drift made soft by sedge sticking through, and
+      before he could recover, the lynx's jaws closed on the back of his neck
+      and the relentless claws had pierced his vitals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The justification of killing is self-preservation, and in this case the
+      proof would have been the lynx making a meal of the fox. Did he do so? Not
+      at all. He shook his fur, licked his chest and paws in a
+      self-congratulatory way, then giving a final tug at the body, walked
+      calmly over the snow along the shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab put the back of his hand to his mouth and made a loud squeaking,
+      much like a rabbit caught in a snare. The lynx stopped, wheeled, and came
+      trotting straight toward the promising music. Unsuspectingly he came
+      within twenty yards of the trappers. The flint-lock banged and the lynx
+      was kicking in the snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The beautiful silver fox skin was very little injured and proved of value
+      almost to double their catch so far; while the lynx skin was as good as
+      another marten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They now had opportunity of studying the tracks and learned that the fox
+      had been hunting rabbits in a thicket when he was set on by the lynx. At
+      first he had run around in the bushes and saved himself from serious
+      injury, for the snow was partly packed by the rabbits. After perhaps an
+      hour of this, he had wearied and sought to save himself by abandoning the
+      lynx's territory, so had struck across the open lake. But here the snow
+      was too soft to bear him at all, and the lynx could still skim over. So it
+      proved a fatal error. He was strong and brave. He fought at least another
+      hour here before the much stronger, heavier lynx had done him to death.
+      There was no justification. It was a clear case of tyrannical murder, but
+      in this case vengeance was swift and justice came sooner than its wont.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0040" id="link2HCH0040">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 41. The Enemy's Fort
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     It pays 'bout once in  a hundred times to git mad, but there
+     ain't any  way o' tellin' beforehand which is the time.
+     &mdash;Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It generally took two days to run the west line of traps. At a convenient
+      point they had built a rough shack for a half-way house. On entering this
+      one day, they learned that since their last visit it had been occupied by
+      some one who chewed tobacco. Neither of them had this habit. Quonab's face
+      grew darker each time fresh evidence of the enemy was discovered, and the
+      final wrong was added soon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some trappers mark their traps; some do not bother. Rolf had marked all of
+      theirs with a file, cutting notches on the iron. Two, one, three, was
+      their mark, and it was a wise plan, as it turned out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On going around the west beaver pond they found that all six traps had
+      disappeared. In some, there was no evidence of the thief; in some, the
+      tracks showed clearly that they were taken by the same interloper that had
+      bothered them all along, and on a jagged branch was a short blue yarn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now will I take up his trail and kill him,&rdquo; said the Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had opposed extreme measures, and again he remonstrated. To his
+      surprise, the Indian turned fiercely and said: &ldquo;You know it is white man.
+      If he was Indian would you be patient? No!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is plenty of country south of the lake; maybe he was here first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know he was not. You should eat many pekan hearts. I have sought
+      peace, now I fight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He shouldered his pack, grasped his gun, and his snowshoes went &ldquo;tssape,
+      tssape, tssape,&rdquo; over the snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Skookum was sitting by Rolf. He rose to resume the march, and trotted a
+      few steps on Quonab's trail. Rolf did not move; he was dazed by the sudden
+      and painful situation. Mutiny is always worse than war. Skookum looked
+      back, trotted on, still Rolf sat staring. Quonab's figure was lost in the
+      distance; the dog's was nearly so. Rolf moved not. All the events of the
+      last year were rushing through his mind; the refuge he had found with the
+      Indian; the incident of the buck fight and the tender nurse the red man
+      proved. He wavered. Then he saw Skookum coming back on the trail. The dog
+      trotted up to the boy and dropped a glove, one of Quonab's. Undoubtedly
+      the Indian had lost it; Skookum had found it on the trail and mechanically
+      brought it to the nearest of his masters. Without that glove Quonab's hand
+      would freeze. Rolf rose and sped along the other's trail. Having taken the
+      step, he found it easy to send a long halloo, then another and another,
+      till an answer came. In a few minutes Rolf came up. The Indian was sitting
+      on a log, waiting. The glove was handed over in silence, and received with
+      a grunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a minute or two, Rolf said &ldquo;Let's get on,&rdquo; and started on the dim
+      trail of the robber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For an hour or two they strode in silence. Then their course rose as they
+      reached a rocky range. Among its bare, wind-swept ridges all sign was
+      lost, but the Indian kept on till they were over and on the other side. A
+      far cast in the thick, windless woods revealed the trail again, surely the
+      same, for the snowshoe was two fingers wider on every side, and a
+      hand-breadth longer than Quonab's; besides the right frame had been broken
+      and the binding of rawhide was faintly seen in the snow mark. It was a
+      mark they had seen all winter, and now it was headed as before for the
+      west.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When night came down, they camped in a hollow. They were used to snow
+      camps. In the morning they went on, but wind and snow had hidden their
+      tell-tale guide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was the next move? Rolf did not ask, but wondered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab evidently was puzzled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length Rolf ventured: &ldquo;He surely lives by some river&mdash;that way&mdash;and
+      within a day's journey. This track is gone, but we may strike a fresh one.
+      We'll know it when we see it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The friendly look came back to the Indian's face. &ldquo;You are Nibowaka.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They had not gone half a mile before they found a fresh track&mdash;their
+      old acquaintance. Even Skookum showed his hostile recognition. And in a
+      few minutes it led them to a shanty. They slipped off their snowshoes, and
+      hung them in a tree. Quonab opened the door without knocking. They
+      entered, and in a moment were face to face with a lanky, ill-favoured
+      white man that all three, including Skookum, recognized as Hoag, the man
+      they had met at the trader's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That worthy made a quick reach for his rifle, but Quonab covered him and
+      said in tones that brooked no discussion, &ldquo;Sit down!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hoag did so, sullenly, then growled: &ldquo;All right; my partners will be here
+      in ten minutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf was startled. Quonab and Skookum were not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We settled your partners up in the hills,&rdquo; said the former, knowing that
+      one bluff was as good as another. Skookum growled and sniffed at the
+      enemy's legs. The prisoner made a quick move with his foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You kick that dog again and it's your last kick,&rdquo; said the Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who's kicked yer dog, and what do you mean coming here with yer cutthroat
+      ways? You'll find there's law in this country before yer through,&rdquo; was the
+      answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what we're looking for, you trap robber, you thief. We're here
+      first to find our traps; second to tell you this: the next time you come
+      on our line there'll be meat for the ravens. Do you suppose I don't know
+      them?&rdquo; and the Indian pointed to a large pair of snowshoes with long heels
+      and a repair lashing on the right frame. &ldquo;See that blue yarn,&rdquo; and the
+      Indian matched it with a blue sash hanging to a peg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, them belongs to Bill Hawkins; he'll be 'round in five minutes now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian made a gesture of scorn; then turning to Rolf said: &ldquo;look
+      'round for our traps.&rdquo; Rolf made a thorough search in and about the shanty
+      and the adjoining shed. He found some traps but none with his mark; none
+      of a familiar make even.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better hunt for a squaw and papoose,&rdquo; sneered Hoag, who was utterly
+      puzzled by the fact that now Rolf was obviously a white lad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all the search was vain. Either Hoag had not stolen the traps or had
+      hidden them elsewhere. The only large traps they found were two of the
+      largest size for taking bear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hoag's torrent of bad language had been quickly checked by the threat of
+      turning Skookum loose on his legs, and he looked such a grovelling beast
+      that presently the visitors decided to leave him with a warning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian took the trapper's gun, fired it off out of doors, not in the
+      least perturbed by the possibility of its being heard by Hoag's partners.
+      He knew they were imaginary. Then changing his plan, he said &ldquo;Ugh! You
+      find your gun in half a mile on our trail. But don't come farther and
+      don't let me see the snowshoe trail on the divide again. Them ravens is
+      awful hungry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Skookum, to his disappointment, was called off and, talking the trapper's
+      gun for a time, they left it in a bush and made for their own country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0041" id="link2HCH0041">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 42. Skookum's Panther
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      &ldquo;Why are there so few deer tracks now?&rdquo;
+     </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Deer yarded for winter,&rdquo; replied the Indian; &ldquo;no travel in deep snow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll soon need another,&rdquo; said Rolf, which unfortunately was true. They
+      could have killed many deer in early winter, when the venison was in fine
+      condition, but they had no place to store it. Now they must get it as they
+      could, and of course it was thinner and poorer every week.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were on a high hill some days later. There was a clear view and they
+      noticed several ravens circling and swooping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe dead deer; maybe deer yard,&rdquo; said the Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was over a thick, sheltered, and extensive cedar swamp near the woods
+      where last year they had seen so many deer, and they were not surprised to
+      find deer tracks in numbers, as soon as they got into its dense thicket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A deer yard is commonly supposed to be a place in which the deer have a
+      daily &ldquo;bee&rdquo; at road work all winter long and deliberately keep the snow
+      hammered down so they can run on a hard surface everywhere within its
+      limits. The fact is, the deer gather in a place where there is plenty of
+      food and good shelter. The snow does not drift here, so the deer, by
+      continually moving about, soon make a network of tracks in all directions,
+      extending them as they must to seek more food. They may, of course, leave
+      the yard at any time, but at once they encounter the dreaded obstacle of
+      deep, soft snow in which they are helpless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once they reached the well-worn trails, the hunters took off their
+      snowshoes and went gently on these deer paths. They saw one or two
+      disappearing forms, which taught them the thick cover was hiding many
+      more. They made for the sound of the ravens, and found that the feast of
+      the sable birds was not a deer but the bodies of three, quite recently
+      killed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab made a hasty study of the signs and said, &ldquo;Panther.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, a panther, cougar, or mountain lion also had found the deer yard; and
+      here he was living, like a rat in a grocer shop with nothing to do but
+      help himself whenever he felt like feasting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pleasant for the panther, but hard on the deer; for the killer is wasteful
+      and will often kill for the joy of murder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a quarter of the carcasses lying here did he eat; he was feeding at
+      least a score of ravens, and maybe foxes, martens, and lynxes as well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before killing a deer, Quonab thought it well to take a quiet prowl around
+      in hopes of seeing the panther. Skookum was turned loose and encouraged to
+      display his talents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Proud as a general with an ample and obedient following, he dashed ahead,
+      carrying fresh dismay among the deer, if one might judge from the noise.
+      Then he found some new smell of excitement, and voiced the new thrill in a
+      new sound, one not unmixed with fear. At length his barking was far away
+      to the west in a rocky part of the woods. Whatever the prey, it was treed,
+      for the voice kept one place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunters followed quickly and found the dog yapping furiously under a
+      thick cedar. The first thought was of porcupine; but a nearer view showed
+      the game to be a huge panther on the ground, not greatly excited,
+      disdaining to climb, and taking little notice of the dog, except to curl
+      his nose and utter a hissing kind of snarl when the latter came too near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the arrival of the hunters gave a new colour to the picture. The
+      panther raised his head, then sprang up a large tree and ensconced himself
+      on a fork, while the valorous Skookum reared against the trunk,
+      threatening loudly to come up and tear him to pieces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a rare find and a noble chance to conserve their stock of deer,
+      so the hunters went around the tree seeking for a fair shot. But every
+      point of view had some serious obstacle. It seemed as though the branches
+      had been told off to guard the panther's vitals, for a big one always
+      stood in the bullet's way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After vainly going around, Quonab said to Rolf: &ldquo;Hit him with something,
+      so he'll move.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf always was a good shot with stones, but he found none to throw. Near
+      where they stood, however, was an unfreezing spring, and the soggy snow on
+      it was easily packed into a hard, heavy snowball. Rolf threw it straight,
+      swift, and by good luck it hit the panther square on the nose and startled
+      him so that he sprang right out of the tree and flopped into the snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Skookum was on him at once, but got a slap on the ear that changed his
+      music, and the panther bounded away out of sight with the valiant Skookum
+      ten feet behind, whooping and yelling like mad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was annoyance rather than fear that made that panther take to a low
+      tree while Skookum boxed the compass, and made a beaten dog path all
+      around him. The hunters approached very carefully now, making little sound
+      and keeping out of sight. The panther was wholly engrossed with observing
+      the astonishing impudence of that dog, when Quonab came quietly up, leaned
+      his rifle against a tree and fired. The smoke cleared to show the panther
+      on his back, his legs convulsively waving in the air, and Skookum tugging
+      valiantly at his tail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My panther,&rdquo; he seemed to say; &ldquo;whatever would you do without me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A panther in a deer yard is much like a wolf shut up in a sheepfold. He
+      would probably have killed all the deer that winter, though there were ten
+      times as many as he needed for food; and getting rid of him was a piece of
+      good luck for hunters and deer, while his superb hide made a noble trophy
+      that in years to come had unexpected places of honour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0042" id="link2HCH0042">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 43. Sunday in the Woods
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Rolf still kept to the tradition of Sunday, and Quonab had in a manner
+      accepted it. It was a curious fact that the red man had far more
+      toleration for the white man's religious ideas than the white man had for
+      the red's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab's songs to the sun and the spirit, or his burning of a tobacco
+      pinch, or an animal's whiskers were to Rolf but harmless nonsense. Had he
+      given them other names, calling them hymns and incense, he would have been
+      much nearer respecting them. He had forgotten his mother's teaching: &ldquo;If
+      any man do anything sincerely, believing that thereby he is worshipping
+      God, he is worshipping God.&rdquo; He disliked seeing Quonab use an axe or a gun
+      on Sunday, and the Indian, realizing that such action made &ldquo;evil medicine&rdquo;
+       for Rolf, practically abstained. But Rolf had not yet learned to respect
+      the red yarns the Indian hung from a deer's skull, though he did come to
+      understand that he must let them alone or produce bad feeling in camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sunday had become a day of rest and Quonab made it also a day of song and
+      remembrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were sitting one Sunday night by the fire in the cabin, enjoying the
+      blaze, while a storm rattled on the window and door. A white-footed mouse,
+      one of a family that lived in the shanty, was trying how close he could
+      come to Skookum's nose without being caught, while Rolf looked on. Quonab
+      was lying back on a pile of deer skins, with his pipe in his mouth, his
+      head on the bunk, and his hands clasped back of his neck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an atmosphere of content and brotherly feeling; the evening was
+      young, when Rolf broke silence:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Were you ever married, Quonab?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh,&rdquo; was the Indian's affirmative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Myanos.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf did not venture more questions, but left the influence of the hour to
+      work. It was a moment of delicate poise, and Rolf knew a touch would open
+      the door or double bar it. He wondered how he might give that touch as he
+      wished it. Skookum still slept. Both men watched the mouse, as, with quick
+      movements it crept about. Presently it approached a long birch stick that
+      stood up against the wall. High hanging was the song-drum. Rolf wished
+      Quonab would take it and let it open his heart, but he dared not offer it;
+      that might have the exact wrong effect. Now the mouse was behind the birch
+      stick. Then Rolf noticed that the stick if it were to fall would strike a
+      drying line, one end of which was on the song-drum peg. So he made a dash
+      at the mouse and displaced the stick; the jerk it gave the line sent the
+      song-drum with hollow bumping to the ground. The boy stooped to replace
+      it; as he did, Quonab grunted and Rolf turned to see his hand stretched
+      for the drum. Had Rolf officiously offered it, it would have been refused;
+      now the Indian took it, tapped and warmed it at the fire, and sang a song
+      of the Wabanaki. It was softly done, and very low, but Rolf was close, for
+      almost the first time in any long rendition, and he got an entirely new
+      notion of the red music. The singer's face brightened as he tummed and
+      sang with peculiar grace notes and throat warbles of &ldquo;Kaluscap's war with
+      the magi,&rdquo; and the spirit of his people, rising to the sweet magic of
+      melody, came shining in his eyes. He sang the lovers' song, &ldquo;The Bark
+      Canoe.&rdquo; (See F. R. Burton's &ldquo;American Primitive Music.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;While the stars shine and falls the dew, I seek my love in bark canoe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then the cradle song,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The Naked Bear Shall Never Catch Thee.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      When he stopped, he stared at the fire; and after a long pause Rolf
+      ventured, &ldquo;My mother would have loved your songs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether he heard or not, the warm emanation surely reached the Indian, and
+      he began to answer the question of an hour before:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her name was Gamowini, for she sang like the sweet night bird at Asamuk.
+      I brought her from her father's house at Saugatuck. We lived at Myanos.
+      She made beautiful baskets and moccasins. I fished and trapped; we had
+      enough. Then the baby came. He had big round eyes, so we called him
+      Wee-wees, 'our little owl,' and we were very happy. When Gamowini sang to
+      her baby, the world seemed full of sun. One day when Wee-wees could walk
+      she left him with me and she went to Stamford with some baskets to sell. A
+      big ship was in the harbour. A man from the ship told her that his sailors
+      would buy all her baskets. She had no fear. On the ship they seized her
+      for a runaway slave, and hid her till they sailed away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When she did not come back I took Wee-wees on my shoulder and went
+      quickly to Stamford. I soon found out a little, but the people did not
+      know the ship, or whence she came, or where she went, they said. They did
+      not seem to care. My heart grew hotter and wilder. I wanted to fight. I
+      would have killed the men on the dock, but they were many. They bound me
+      and put me in jail for three months. 'When I came out Wee-wees was dead.
+      They did not care. I have heard nothing since. Then I went to live under
+      the rock, so I should not see our first home. I do not know; she may be
+      alive. But I think it killed her to lose her baby.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian stopped; then rose quickly. His face was hard set. He stepped
+      out into the snowstorm and the night. Rolf was left alone with Skookum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sad, sad, everything seemed sad in his friend's life, and Rolf, brooding
+      over it with wisdom beyond his years, could not help asking: &ldquo;Had Quonab
+      and Gamowini been white folk, would it have happened so? Would his agony
+      have been received with scornful indifference?&rdquo; Alas! he knew it would
+      not. He realized it would have been a very different tale, and the sequent
+      questions that would not down, were, &ldquo;Will this bread cast on the waters
+      return after many days?&rdquo; &ldquo;Is there a God of justice and retribution?&rdquo; &ldquo;On
+      whom will the flail of vengeance fall for all these abominations?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Two hours later the Indian returned. No word was spoken as he entered. He
+      was not cold. He must have walked far. Rolf prepared for bed. The Indian
+      stooped, picked up a needle from the dusty ground, one that had been lost
+      the day before, silently handed it to his companion, who gave only a
+      recognizant &ldquo;Hm,&rdquo; and dropped it into the birch-bark box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0043" id="link2HCH0043">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 44. The Lost Bundle of Furs
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There had been a significant cessation of robbery on their trap line after
+      the inconclusive visit to the enemy's camp. But a new and extreme
+      exasperation arose in the month of March, when the alternation of thaw and
+      frost had covered the snow with a hard crust that rendered snowshoes
+      unnecessary and made it easy to run anywhere and leave no track.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had gathered up a fisher and some martens before they reached the
+      beaver pond. They had no beaver traps now, but it was interesting to call
+      and see how many of the beavers were left, and what they were doing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bubbling springs on the bank of the pond had made open water at several
+      places, now that the winter frost was weakening. Out of these the beavers
+      often came, as was plainly seen in the tracks, so the trappers approached
+      them carefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were scrutinizing one of them from behind a log, Quonab with ready
+      gun, Rolf holding the unwilling Skookum, when the familiar broad, flat
+      head appeared. A large beaver swam around the hole, sniffed and looked,
+      then silently climbed the bank, evidently making for a certain aspen tree
+      that he had already been cutting. He was in easy range, and the gunner was
+      about to fire when Rolf pressed his arm and pointed. Here, wandering
+      through the wood, came a large lynx. It had not seen or smelt any of the
+      living creatures ahead, as yet, but speedily sighted the beaver now
+      working away to cut down his tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a pelt, the beaver was worth more than the lynx, but the naturalist is
+      strong in most hunters, and they watched to see what would happen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lynx seemed to sink into the ground, and was lost to sight as soon as
+      he knew of a possible prey ahead. And now he began his stalk. The hunters
+      sighted him once as he crossed a level opening in the snow. He seemed less
+      than four inches high as he crawled. Logs, ridges, trees, or twigs,
+      afforded ample concealment, till his whiskers appeared in a thicket within
+      fifteen feet of the beaver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this was painfully exciting to Skookum, who, though he could not see,
+      could get some thrilling whiffs, and he strained forward to improve his
+      opportunities. The sound of this slight struggle caught the beaver's ear.
+      It stopped work, wheeled, and made for the water hole. The lynx sprang
+      from his ambush, seized the beaver by the back, and held on; but the
+      beaver was double the lynx's weight, the bank was steep and slippery, the
+      struggling animals kept rolling down hill, nearer and nearer the hole.
+      Then, on the very edge, the beaver gave a great plunge, and splashed into
+      the water with the lynx clinging to its back. At once they disappeared,
+      and the hunters rushed to the place, expecting them to float up and be an
+      easy prey; but they did not float. At length it was clear that the pair
+      had gone under the ice, for in water the beaver was master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After five minutes it was certain that the lynx must be dead. Quonab cut a
+      sapling and made a grappler. He poked this way and that way under the ice,
+      until at length he felt something soft. With the hatchet they cut a hole
+      over the place and then dragged out the body of the lynx. The beaver, of
+      course, escaped and was probably little the worse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Quonab skinned the catch, Rolf prowled around the pond and soon came
+      running back to tell of a remarkable happening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At another open hole a beaver had come out, wandered twenty yards to a
+      mound which he had castorized, then passed several hard wood trees to find
+      a large poplar or aspen, the favourite food tree. This he had begun to
+      fell with considerable skill, but for some strange reason, perhaps because
+      alone, he had made a miscalculation, and when the tree came crashing down,
+      it had fallen across his back, killed him, and pinned him to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an easy matter for the hunters to remove the log and secure his
+      pelt, so they left the beaver pond, richer than they had expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next night, when they reached their half-way shanty, they had the best
+      haul they had taken on this line since the memorable day when they got six
+      beavers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The morning dawned clear and bright. As they breakfasted, they noticed an
+      extraordinary gathering of ravens far away to the north, beyond any
+      country they had visited. At least twenty or thirty of the birds were
+      sailing in great circles high above a certain place, uttering a deep,
+      sonorous croak, from time to time. Occasionally one of the ravens would
+      dive down out of sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do they fly above that way?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is to let other ravens know there is food here. Their eyes are very
+      good. They can see the signal ten miles away, so all come to the place. My
+      father told me that you can gather all the ravens for twenty miles by
+      leaving a carcass so they can see it and signal each other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seems as if we should look into that. Maybe another panther,&rdquo; was Rolf's
+      remark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian nodded; so leaving the bundle of furs in a safe place with the
+      snowshoes, that they carried on a chance, they set out over the hard
+      crust. It was two or three miles to the ravens' gathering, and, as before,
+      it proved to be over a cedar brake where was a deer yard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Skookum knew all about it. He rushed into the woods, filled with the joy
+      of martial glory. But speedily came running out again as hard as he could,
+      yelling &ldquo;yow, yow, yowl&rdquo; for help, while swiftly following, behind him
+      were a couple of gray wolves. Quonab waited till they were within forty
+      yards; then, seeing the men, the wolves slowed up and veered; Quonab
+      fired; one of the wolves gave a little, doglike yelp. Then they leaped
+      into the bushes and were lost to view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A careful study of the snow showed one or two trifling traces of blood. In
+      the deer yard they found at least a dozen carcasses of deer killed by the
+      wolves, but none very recent. They saw but few deer and nothing more of
+      the wolves, for the crust had made all the country easy, and both kinds
+      fled before the hunters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Exploring a lower level of willow country in hopes of finding beaver
+      delayed them, and it was afternoon when they returned to the half-way
+      shanty, to find everything as they left it, except that their Pack of furs
+      had totally disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, the hard crust gave no sign of track. Their first thought was
+      of the old enemy, but, seeking far and near for evidence, they found
+      pieces of an ermine skin, and a quarter mile farther, the rest of it,
+      then, at another place, fragments of a muskrat's skin. Those made it look
+      like the work of the trapper's enemy, the wolverine, which, though rare,
+      was surely found in these hills. Yes! there was a wolverine scratch mark,
+      and here another piece of the rat skin. It was very clear who was the
+      thief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He tore up the cheapest ones of the lot anyway,&rdquo; said Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the trappers stared at each other significantly&mdash;only the cheap
+      ones destroyed; why should a wolverine show such discrimination? There was
+      no positive sign of wolverine; in fact, the icy snow gave no sign of
+      anything. There was little doubt that the tom furs and the scratch marks
+      were there to mislead; that this was the work of a human robber, almost
+      certainly Hoag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had doubtless seen them leave in the morning, and it was equally sure,
+      since he had had hours of start, he would now be far away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh! Give him few days to think he safe, then I follow and settle all,&rdquo;
+       and this time the Indian clearly meant to end the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0044" id="link2HCH0044">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 45. The Subjugation of Hoag
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     A feller as weeps for pity and never does a finger-tap to
+     help is 'bout as much use as an overcoat on a drowning man.
+     &mdash;Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      SOME remarkable changes of weather made some remarkable changes in their
+      plan and saved their enemy from immediate molestation. For two weeks it
+      was a succession of thaws and there was much rain. The lake was covered
+      with six inches of water; the river had a current above the ice, that was
+      rapidly eating, the latter away. Everywhere there were slush and wet snow
+      that put an end to travel and brought on the spring with a rush.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each night there was, indeed, a trifling frost, but each day's sun seemed
+      stronger, and broad, bare patches of ground appeared on all sunny slopes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the first crisp day the trappers set out to go the rounds, knowing full
+      well that this was the end of the season. Henceforth for six months
+      deadfall and snare would lie idle and unset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went their accustomed line, carrying their snowshoes, but rarely
+      needing them. Then they crossed a large track to which Quonab pointed, and
+      grunted affirmatively as Rolf said &ldquo;Bear?&rdquo; Yes! the bears were about once
+      more; their winter sleep was over. Now they were fat and the fur was yet
+      prime; in a month they would be thin and shedding. Now is the time for
+      bear hunting with either trap or dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doubtless Skookum thought the party most fortunately equipped in the
+      latter respect, but no single dog is enough to bay a bear. There must be
+      three or four to bother him behind, to make him face about and fight; one
+      dog merely makes him run faster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had no traps, and knowing that a spring bear is a far traveller, they
+      made no attempt to follow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The deadfalls yielded two martens, but one of them was spoiled by the warm
+      weather. They learned at last that the enemy had a trap-line, for part of
+      which he used their deadfalls. He had been the rounds lately and had
+      profited at least a little by their labours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The track, though two days old, was not hard to follow, either on snow or
+      ground. Quonab looked to the lock of his gun; his lower lip tightened and
+      he strode along.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do, Quonab? Not shoot?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I get near enough,&rdquo; and the dangerous look in the red man's eye told
+      Rolf to be quiet and follow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In three miles they passed but three of his marten traps&mdash;very lazy
+      trapping&mdash;and then found a great triangle of logs by a tree with a
+      bait and signs enough to tell the experienced eye that, in that corner,
+      was hidden a huge steel trap for bear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were almost too late in restraining the knowledge-hunger of Skookum.
+      They went on a mile or two and realized in so doing that, however poor a
+      trapper the enemy might be, he was a good tramper and knew the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At sundown they came to their half-way shelter and put up there for the
+      night. Once when Rolf went out to glimpse the skies before turning in, he
+      heard a far tree creaking and wondered, for it was dead calm. Even Skookum
+      noticed it. But it was not repeated. Next morning they went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are many quaint sounds in the woods at all times, the rasping of
+      trees, at least a dozen different calls by jays, twice as many by ravens,
+      and occasional notes from chicadees, grouse, and owls. The quadrupeds in
+      general are more silent, but the red squirrel is ever about and noisy, as
+      well as busy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Far-reaching sounds are these echoes of the woods&mdash;some of them very
+      far. Probably there were not five minutes of the day or night when some
+      weird, woodland chatter, scrape, crack, screech, or whistle did not reach
+      the keen ears of that ever-alert dog. That is, three hundred times a day
+      his outer ear submitted to his inner ear some report of things a-doing,
+      which same report was as often for many days disregarded as of no interest
+      or value. But this did not mean that he missed anything; the steady tramp,
+      tramp of their feet, while it dulled all sounds for the hunter, seemed to
+      have no effect on Skookum. Again the raspy squeal of some far tree reached
+      his inmost brain, and his hair rose as he stopped and gave a low &ldquo;woof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunters held still; the wise ones always do, when a dog says &ldquo;Stop!&rdquo;
+       They waited. After a few minutes it came again&mdash;merely the long-drawn
+      creak of a tree bough, wind-rubbed on its neighbour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet, &ldquo;Woof, woof, woof,&rdquo; said Skookum, and ran ahead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come back, you little fool!&rdquo; cried Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Skookum had a mind of his own. He trotted ahead, then stopped, paused,
+      and sniffed at something in the snow. The Indian picked it up. It was the
+      pocket jackscrew that every bear trapper carries to set the powerful trap,
+      and without which, indeed, one man cannot manage the springs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He held it up with &ldquo;Ugh! Hoag in trouble now.&rdquo; Clearly the rival trapper
+      had lost this necessary tool.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the finding was an accident. Skookum pushed on. They came along a draw
+      to a little hollow. The dog, far forward, began barking and angrily baying
+      at something. The men hurried to the scene to find on the snow, fast held
+      in one of those devilish engines called a bear trap&mdash;the body of
+      their enemy&mdash;Hoag, the trapper, held by a leg, and a hand in the gin
+      he himself had been setting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fierce light played on the Indian's face. Rolf was stricken with horror.
+      But even while they contemplated the body, the faint cry was heard again
+      coming from it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's alive; hurry!&rdquo; cried Rolf. The Indian did not hurry, but he came. He
+      had vowed vengeance at sight; why should he haste to help?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The implacable iron jaws had clutched the trapper by one knee and the
+      right hand. The first thing was to free him. How? No man has power enough
+      to force that spring. But the jackscrew!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quonab, help him! For God's sake, come!&rdquo; cried Rolf in agony, forgetting
+      their feud and seeing only tortured, dying man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian gazed a moment, then rose quickly, and put on the jackscrew.
+      Under his deft fingers the first spring went down, but what about the
+      other? They had no other screw. The long buckskin line they always carried
+      was quickly lashed round and round the down spring to hold it. Then the
+      screw was removed and put on the other spring; it bent, and the jaws hung
+      loose. The Indian forced them wide open, drew out the mangled limbs, a the
+      trapper was free, but so near death, it seemed they were too late.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf spread his coat. The Indian made a fire. In fifteen minutes they were
+      pouring hot tea between victim's lips. Even as they did, his feeble throat
+      gave out again the long, low moan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The weather was mild now. The prisoner was not actually frozen, but numbed
+      and racked. Heat, hot tea, kindly rubbing, and he revived a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first they thought him dying, but in an hour recovered enough to talk.
+      In feeble accents and broken phrases they learned the tale:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yest&mdash;m-m-m. Yesterday&mdash;no; two or three days back&mdash;m-m-m-m-m&mdash;I
+      dunno; I was a goin'&mdash;roun' me traps&mdash;me bear traps. Didn't have
+      no luck m-m-m (yes, I'd like another sip; ye ain't got no whiskey no?)
+      m-m-m. Nothing in any trap, and when I come to this un&mdash;oh-h&mdash;m-m;
+      I seen&mdash;the bait was stole by birds, an' the pan&mdash;m-m-m; an' the
+      pan, m-m-m&mdash;(yes, that's better)&mdash;an' the pan laid bare. So I
+      starts to cover it with&mdash;ce-ce-dar; the ony thing I c'd get&mdash;m-m-m-w&mdash;-wuz
+      leanin' over&mdash;to fix tother side&mdash;me foot slipped on&mdash;the&mdash;ice&mdash;ev'rything
+      was icy&mdash;an'&mdash;m-m-m-m&mdash;I lost&mdash;me balance&mdash;me
+      knee the pan&mdash;O Lord&mdash;how I suffer!&mdash;m-m-m it grabbed me&mdash;knee
+      an'&mdash;h-h-hand&mdash;&rdquo; His voice died to a whisper and ceased; he
+      seemed sinking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab got up to hold him. Then, looking at Rolf, Indian shook his head as
+      though to say all was over; the poor wretch had a woodman's constitution,
+      and in spite of a mangled, dying body, he revived again. They gave him
+      more hot tea, and again he began in a whisper:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hed one arm free an'&mdash;an'&mdash;an'&mdash;I might&mdash;a&mdash;got
+      out&mdash;m-m&mdash;but I hed no wrench&mdash;I lost it some place&mdash;m-m-m-m.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then&mdash;I yelled&mdash;I dun&mdash;no&mdash;maybe some un might hear&mdash;it
+      kin-kin-kinder eased me&mdash;to yell m-m-m.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say&mdash;make that yer dog keep&mdash;away&mdash;will yer I dunno&mdash;it
+      seems like a week&mdash;must a fainted some M-m-m&mdash;I yelled&mdash;when
+      I could.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a long pause. Rolf said, &ldquo;Seems to me I heard you last night,
+      when we were up there. And dog heard you, too. Do you want me to move that
+      leg around?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;M-m-m&mdash;yeh&mdash;that's better&mdash;say, you air white&mdash;ain't
+      ye? Ye won't leave me&mdash;cos&mdash;I done some mean things&mdash;m-m-m.
+      Ye won't, will ye?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, you needn't worry&mdash;we'll stay by ye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he muttered, they could not tell what. He closed his eyes. After long
+      silence he looked around wildly and began again:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say&mdash;I done you dirt&mdash;but don't leave me&mdash;don't leave me.&rdquo;
+       Tears ran down his face and he moaned piteously. &ldquo;I'll&mdash;make it&mdash;right&mdash;you're
+      white, ain't ye?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab rose and went for more firewood. The trapper whispered, &ldquo;I'm scared
+      o' him&mdash;now&mdash;he'll do me&mdash;say, I'm jest a poor ole man. If
+      I do live&mdash;through&mdash;this&mdash;m-m-m-m&mdash;I'll never walk
+      again. I'm crippled sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was long before he resumed. Then he began: &ldquo;Say, what day is it&mdash;Friday!&mdash;I
+      must&mdash;been two days in there&mdash;m-m-m&mdash;I reckoned it was a
+      week. When&mdash;the&mdash;dog came I thought it was wolves. Oh&mdash;ah,
+      didn't care much&mdash;m-m-m. Say, ye won't leave me&mdash;coz&mdash;coz&mdash;I
+      treated&mdash;ye mean. I&mdash;ain't had no l-l-luck.&rdquo; He went off into a
+      stupor, but presently let out a long, startling cry, the same as that they
+      had heard in the night. The dog growled; the men stared. The wretch's eyes
+      were rolling again. He seemed delirious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab pointed to the east, made the sun-up sign, and shook his head at
+      the victim. And Rolf understood it to mean that he would never see the
+      sunrise. But they were wrong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The long night passed in a struggle between heath and the tough make-up of
+      a mountaineer. The waiting light of dawn saw death defeated, retiring from
+      the scene. As the sun rose high, the victim seemed to gain considerably in
+      strength. There was no immediate danger of an end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf said to Quonab: &ldquo;Where shall we take him? Guess you better go home
+      for the toboggan, and we'll fetch him to the shanty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the invalid was able to take part in the conversation. &ldquo;Say, don't
+      take me there. Ah&mdash;want to go home. 'Pears like&mdash;I'd be better
+      at home. My folks is out Moose River way. I'd never get out if I went in
+      there,&rdquo; and by &ldquo;there&rdquo; he seemed to mean the Indian's lake, and glanced
+      furtively at the unchanging countenance of the red man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you a toboggan at your shanty?&rdquo; asked Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;good enough&mdash;it's on the roof&mdash;say,&rdquo; and he beckoned
+      feebly to Rolf, &ldquo;let him go after it&mdash;don't leave me&mdash;he'll kill
+      me,&rdquo; and he wept feebly in his self pity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Quonab started down the mountain&mdash;a sinewy man&mdash;a striding
+      form, a speck in the melting distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0045" id="link2HCH0045">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 46. Nursing Hoag
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In two hours the red man reached the trapper's shanty, and at once,
+      without hesitation or delicacy, set about a thorough examination of its
+      contents. Of course there was the toboggan on the roof, and in fairly good
+      condition for such a shiftless owner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were bunches of furs hanging from the rafters, but not many, for fur
+      taking is hard work; and Quonab, looking suspiciously over them, was 'not
+      surprised to see the lynx skin he had lost, easily known by the absence of
+      wound and the fur still in points as it had dried from the wetting. In
+      another bundle, he discovered the beaver that had killed itself, for there
+      was the dark band across its back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The martens he could not be sure of, but he had a strong suspicion that
+      most of this fur came out of his own traps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He tied Hoag's blankets on the toboggan, and hastened back to where he
+      left the two on the mountain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Skookum met him long before he was near. Skookum did not enjoy Hoag's
+      company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cripple had been talking freely to Rolf, but the arrival of the Indian
+      seemed to suppress him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the wounded man on the toboggan, they set out, The ground was bare in
+      many places, so that the going was hard; but, fortunately, it was all down
+      hill, and four hours' toil brought them to the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They put the sick man in his bunk, then Rolf set about preparing a meal,
+      while Quonab cut wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the usual tea, bacon, and flour cakes, all were feeling refreshed.
+      Hoag seemed much more like himself. He talked freely, almost cheerfully,
+      while Quonab, with Skookum at his feet, sat silently smoking and staring
+      into the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a long silence, the Indian turned, looked straight at the trapper,
+      and, pointing with his pipestem to the furs, said, &ldquo;How many is ours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hoag looked scared, then sulky, and said; &ldquo;I dunno what ye mean. I'm a
+      awful sick man. You get me out to Lyons Falls all right, and ye can have
+      the hull lot,&rdquo; and he wept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf shook his head at Quonab, then turned to the sufferer and said:
+      &ldquo;Don't you worry; we'll get you out all right. Have you a good canoe?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty fair; needs a little fixing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The night passed with one or two breaks, when the invalid asked for a
+      drink of water. In the morning he was evidently recovering, and they began
+      to plan for the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He took the first chance of wispering to Rolf, &ldquo;Can't you send him away?
+      I'll be all right with you.&rdquo; Rolf said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;say, young feller, what's yer name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rolf Kittering.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, Rolf, you wait a week or ten days, and the ice 'll be out; then I'll
+      be fit to travel. There ain't on'y a few carries between here an' Lyons
+      Falls.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After a long pause, due to Quonab's entry, he continued again: &ldquo;Moose
+      River's good canoeing; ye can get me out in five days; me folks is at
+      Lyons Falls.&rdquo; He did not say that his folks consisted of a wife and boy
+      that he neglected, but whom he counted on to nurse him now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf was puzzled by the situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say! I'll give ye all them furs if ye git me out.&rdquo; Rolf gave him a
+      curious look&mdash;as much as to say, &ldquo;Ye mean our furs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the conversation was ended by the entry of Quonab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf stepped out, taking the Indian with him. They had a long talk, then,
+      as Rolf reentered, the sick man began:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You stay by me, and git me out. I'll give ye my rifle&rdquo;&mdash;then, after
+      a short silence&mdash;&ldquo;an' I'll throw in all the traps an' the canoe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll stay by you,&rdquo; said Rolf, &ldquo;and in about two weeks we'll take you down
+      to Lyons Falls. I guess you can guide us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye can have all them pelts,&rdquo; and again the trapper presented the spoils
+      he had stolen, &ldquo;an' you bet it's your rifle when ye get me out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So it was arranged. But it was necessary for Quonab to go back to their
+      own cabin. Now what should he do? Carry the new lot of fur there, or bring
+      the old lot here to dispose of all at Lyons Falls?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had been thinking hard. He had seen the evil side of many men,
+      including Hoag. To go among Hoag's people with a lot of stuff that Hoag
+      might claim was running risks, so he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quonab, you come back in not more than ten days. We'll take a few furs to
+      Lyons Falls so we can get supplies. Leave the rest of them in good shape,
+      so we can go out later to Warren's. We'll get a square deal there, and we
+      don't know what at Lyon's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they picked out the lynx, the beaver, and a dozen martens to leave, and
+      making the rest into a pack, Quonab shouldered them, and followed by
+      Skookum, trudged up the mountain and was lost to view in the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ten days went by very slowly. Hoag was alternately querulous, weeping,
+      complaining, unpleasantly fawning, or trying to insure good attention by
+      presenting again and again the furs, the gun, and the canoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf found it pleasant to get away from the cabin when the weather was
+      fine. One day, taking Hoag's gun, he travelled up the nearest stream for a
+      mile, and came on a big beaver pond. Round this he scouted and soon
+      discovered a drowned beaver, held in a trap which he recognized at once,
+      for it had the (&rdquo; ' &ldquo;') mark on the frame. Then he found an empty trap
+      with a beaver leg in it, and another, till six traps were found. Then he
+      gathered up the six and the beaver, and returned to the cabin to be
+      greeted with a string of complaints:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye didn't ought to leave me like this. I'm paying ye well enough. I don't
+      ax no favours,&rdquo; etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See what I got,&rdquo; and Rolf showed the beaver. &ldquo;An' see what I found;&rdquo; then
+      he showed the traps. &ldquo;Queer, ain't it,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;we had six traps just
+      like them, and I marked the face just like these, and they all
+      disappeared, and there was a snowshoe trail pointing this way. You haven't
+      got any crooked neighbours about here, have you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The trapper looked sulky and puzzled, and grumbled, &ldquo;I bet it was Bill
+      Hawkins done it&rdquo;; then relapsed into silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0046" id="link2HCH0046">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 47. Hoag's Home-coming
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     When it comes to personal feelin's better let yer friends
+     do the talkin' and jedgin'.  A man can't handle his own
+     case any more than a delirious doctor kin give hisself the
+     right physic&mdash;Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The coming of springtime in the woods is one of the gentlest, sweetest
+      advents in the world. Sometimes there are heavy rains which fill all the
+      little rivers with an overflood that quickly eats away the ice and snow,
+      but usually the woodland streams open, slowly and gradually. Very rarely
+      is there a spate, an upheaval, and a cataclysmal sweep that bursts the ice
+      and ends its reign in an hour or two. That is the way of the large rivers,
+      whose ice is free and floating. The snow in the forest melts slowly, and
+      when the ice is attacked, it goes gradually, gently, without uproar. The
+      spring comes in the woods with swelling of buds and a lengthening of
+      drooping catkins, with honking of wild geese, and cawing of crows coming
+      up from the lower countries to divide with their larger cousins, the
+      ravens, the spoils of winter's killing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The small birds from the South appear with a few short notes of spring,
+      and the pert chicadees that have braved it all winter, now lead the
+      singing with their cheery &ldquo;I told you so&rdquo; notes, till robins and
+      blackbirds join in, and with their more ambitious singing make all the
+      lesser roundelays forgot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once the winter had taken a backward step&mdash;spring found it easy to
+      turn retreat into panic and rout; and the ten days Quonab stayed away were
+      days of revolutionary change. For in them semi-winter gave place to
+      smiling spring, with all the snow-drifts gone, except perhaps in the
+      shadiest hollows of the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a bright morning, and a happy one for Rolf, when he heard the
+      Indian's short &ldquo;Ho,&rdquo; outside, and a minute later had Skookum dancing and
+      leaping about him. On Hoag the effect was quite different. He was well
+      enough to be up, to hobble about painfully on a stick; to be exceedingly
+      fault-finding, and to eat three hearty meals a day; but the moment the
+      Indian appeared, he withdrew into himself, and became silent and uneasy.
+      Before an hour passed, he again presented the furs, the gun, the canoe,
+      and the traps to Rolf, on condition that he should get him out to his
+      folks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All three were glad to set out that very day on the outward trip to Lyons
+      Falls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Down Little Moose River to Little Moose Lake and on to South Branch of
+      Moose, then by the Main Moose, was their way. The streams were flush;
+      there was plenty of water, and this fortunately reduced the number of
+      carries; for Hoag could not walk and would not hobble. They sweat and
+      laboured to carry him over every portage; but they covered the fifty miles
+      in three days, and on the evening of the third, arrived at the little
+      backwoods village of Lyons Falls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The change that took place in Hoag now was marked and unpleasant. He gave
+      a number of orders, where, the day before, he would have made whining
+      petitions. He told them to &ldquo;land easy, and don't bump my canoe.&rdquo; He hailed
+      the loungers about the mill with an effusiveness that they did not respond
+      to. Their cool, &ldquo;Hello, Jack, are you back?&rdquo; was little but a passing
+      recognition. One of them was persuaded to take Rolf's place in carrying
+      Hoag to his cabin. Yes, his folks were there, but they did not seem
+      overjoyed at his arrival. He whispered to the boy, who sullenly went out
+      to the river and returned with the rifle, Rolf's rifle now, the latter
+      supposed, and would have taken the bundle of furs had not Skookum sprung
+      on the robber and driven him away from the canoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now Hoag showed his true character. &ldquo;Them's my furs and my canoe,&rdquo; he
+      said to one of the mill hands, and turning to the two who had saved him,
+      he said: &ldquo;An' you two dirty, cutthroat, redskin thieves, you can get out
+      of town as fast as ye know how, or I'll have ye jugged,&rdquo; and all the
+      pent-up hate of his hateful nature frothed out in words insulting and
+      unprintable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Talks like a white man,&rdquo; said Quonab coldly. Rolf was speechless. To toil
+      so devotedly, and to have such filthy, humiliating words for thanks! He
+      wondered if even his Uncle Mike would have shown so vile a spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hoag gave free rein to his tongue, and found in his pal, Bill Hawkins, one
+      with ready ears to hear his tale of woe. The wretch began to feel himself
+      frightfully ill-used. So, fired at last by the evermore lurid story of his
+      wrongs, the &ldquo;partner&rdquo; brought the magistrate, so they could swear out a
+      warrant, arrest the two &ldquo;outlaws,&rdquo; and especially secure the bundle of
+      &ldquo;Hoag's furs&rdquo; in the canoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Silas Sylvanne, the mill-owner and pioneer of the place, was also its
+      magistrate. He was tall, thin, blacklooking, a sort of Abe Lincoln in
+      type, physically, and in some sort, mentally. He heard the harrowing tale
+      of terrible crime, robbery, and torture, inflicted on poor harmless Hoag
+      by these two ghouls in human shape; he listened, at first shocked, but
+      little by little amused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't get no warrant till I hear from the other side,&rdquo; he said. Roff
+      and Quonab came at call. The old pioneer sized up the two, as they stood,
+      then, addressing Rolf, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Air you an Injun?&rdquo; &ldquo;No, sir.&rdquo; &ldquo;Air you half-breed?&rdquo; &ldquo;No, sir.&rdquo; &ldquo;Well,
+      let's hear about this business,&rdquo; and he turned his piercing eyes full on
+      the lad's face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf told the simple, straight story of their acquaintance with Hoag, from
+      the first day at Warren's to their arrival at the Falls. There is never
+      any doubt about the truth of a true story, if it be long enough, and this
+      true story, presented in its nakedness to the shrewd and kindly old
+      hunter, trader, mill-owner and magistrate, could have only one effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sonny,&rdquo; he said, slowly and kindly, &ldquo;I know that ye have told me the
+      truth. I believe every word of it. We all know that Hoag is the meanest
+      cuss and biggest liar on the river. He's a nuisance, and always was. He
+      only promised to give ye the canoe and the rifle, and since he don't want
+      to, we can't help it. About the trouble in the woods, you got two
+      witnesses to his one, and ye got the furs and the traps; it's just as well
+      ye left the other furs behind, or ye might have had to divide 'em; so keep
+      them and call the hull thing square. We'll find ye a canoe to get out of
+      this gay metropolis, and as to Hoag, ye needn't a-worry; his travelling
+      days is done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A man with a bundle of high-class furs is a man of means in any frontier
+      town. The magistrate was trader, too, so they set about disposing of their
+      furs and buying the supplies they needed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day was nearly done before their new canoe was gummed and ready with
+      the new supplies. When dealing, old Sylvanne had a mild, quiet manner, and
+      a peculiar way of making funny remarks that led some to imagine he was
+      &ldquo;easy&rdquo; in business; but it was usual to find at the end that he had lost
+      nothing by his manners, and rival traders shunned an encounter with Long
+      Sylvanne of the unruffled brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When business was done&mdash;keen and complete&mdash;he said: &ldquo;Now, I'm a
+      goin' to give each of ye a present,&rdquo; and handed out two double-bladed
+      jackknives, new things in those days, wonderful things, precious treasures
+      in their eyes, sources of endless joy; and even had they known that one
+      marten skin would buy a quart of them, their pleasant surprise and
+      childish joy would not have been in any way tempered or alloyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye better eat with me, boys, an' start in the morning.&rdquo; So they joined
+      the miller's long, continuous family, and shared his evening meal.
+      Afterward as they sat for three hours and smoked on the broad porch that
+      looked out on the river, old Sylvanne, who had evidently taken a fancy to
+      Rolf, regaled them with a long, rambling talk on &ldquo;fellers and things,&rdquo;
+       that was one of the most interesting Rolf had ever listened to. At the
+      time it was simply amusing; it was not till years after that the lad
+      realized by its effect on himself, its insight, and its hold on his
+      memory, that Si Sylvanne's talk was real wisdom. Parts of it would not
+      look well in print; but the rugged words, the uncouth Saxonism, the
+      obscene phrase, were the mere oaken bucket in which the pure and precious
+      waters were hauled to the surface.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Looked like he had ye pinched when that shyster got ye in to Lyons Falls.
+      Wall, there's two bad places for Jack Hoag; one is where they don't know
+      him at all, an' take him on his looks; an' t'other is where they know him
+      through and through for twenty years, like we hev. A smart rogue kin put
+      up a false front fer a year or maybe two, but given twenty year to try
+      him, for and bye, summer an' winter, an' I reckon a man's make is pretty
+      well showed up, without no dark corners left unexplored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that I want to jedge him harsh, coz I don't know what kind o' maggots
+      is eatin' his innards to make him so ornery. I'm bound to suppose he has
+      'em, or he wouldn't act so dum like it. So I says, go slow and gentle
+      before puttin' a black brand on any feller; as my mother used to say,
+      never say a bad thing till ye ask, 'Is it true, is it kind, is it
+      necessary?' An' I tell you, the older I git, the slower I jedge; when I
+      wuz your age, I wuz a steel trap on a hair trigger, an' cocksure. I tell
+      you, there ain't anythin' wiser nor a sixteen-year-old boy, 'cept maybe a
+      fifteen-year-old girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye'll genilly find, lad, jest when things looks about as black as they
+      kin look, that's the sign of luck a-comin' your way, pervidin' ye hold
+      steady, keep cool and kind; something happens every time to make it all
+      easy. There's always a way, an' the stout heart will find it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye may be very sure o' this, boy, yer never licked till ye think ye air
+      an' if ye won't think it, ye can't be licked. It's just the same as being
+      sick. I seen a lot o' doctorin' in my day, and I'm forced to believe there
+      ain't any sick folks 'cept them that thinks they air sick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The older I git, the more I'm bound to consider that most things is
+      inside, anyhow, and what's outside don't count for much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it stands to reason when ye play the game for what's inside, ye win
+      over all the outside players. When ye done kindness to Hoag, ye mightn't a
+      meant it, but ye was bracin' up the goodness in yerself, or bankin' it up
+      somewher' on the trail ahead, where it was needed. And he was simply
+      chawin' his own leg off, when he done ye dirt. I ain't much o' a prattlin'
+      Christian, but I reckon as a cold-blooded, business proposition it pays to
+      lend the neighbour a hand; not that I go much on gratitude. It's scarcer'n
+      snowballs in hell&mdash;which ain't the point; but I take notice there
+      ain't any man'll hate ye more'n the feller that knows he's acted mean to
+      ye. An' there ain't any feller more ready to fight yer battles than the
+      chap that by some dum accident has hed the luck to help ye, even if he
+      only done it to spite some one else&mdash;which 'minds me o' McCarthy's
+      bull pup that saved the drowning kittens by mistake, and ever after was a
+      fightin' cat protector, whereby he lost the chief joy o' his life, which
+      had been cat-killin'. An' the way they cured the cat o' eatin' squirrels
+      was givin' her a litter o' squirrels to raise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell ye there's a lot o' common-sense an' kindness in the country, only
+      it's so dum slow to git around; while the cussedness and meanness always
+      acts like they felt the hell fire sizzlin' their hind-end whiskers, an'
+      knowed they had jest so many minutes to live an' make a record. There's
+      where a man's smart that fixes things so he kin hold out a long time, fer
+      the good stuff in men's minds is what lasts; and the feller what can stay
+      with it hez proved hisself by stayin'. How'd ye happen to tie up with the
+      Injun, Rolf?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do ye want me to tell it long or short?&rdquo; was the reply. &ldquo;Wall, short, fer
+      a start,&rdquo; and Silas Sylvanne chuckled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Rolf gave a very brief account of his early life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty good,&rdquo; said the miller; &ldquo;now let's hear it long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And when he had finished, the miller said: &ldquo;I've seen yer tried fer most
+      everything that goes to make a man, Rolf, an' I hev my own notion of the
+      results. You ain't goin' to live ferever in them hills. When ye've hed yer
+      fling an' want a change, let me know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Early next day the two hunters paddled up the Moose River with a good
+      canoe, an outfit of groceries, and a small supply of ready cash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-bye, lad, good-bye! Come back again and ye'll find we improve on
+      acquaintance; an' don't forget I'm buying fur,&rdquo; was Si Sylvanne's last
+      word. And as they rounded the point, on the home way, Rolf turned in the
+      canoe, faced Quonab, and said: &ldquo;Ye see there are some good white men
+      left;&rdquo; but the Indian neither blinked, nor moved, nor made a sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0047" id="link2HCH0047">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 48. Rolf's Lesson in Trailing
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The return journey was hard paddling against strong waters, but otherwise
+      uneventful. Once over any trail is enough to fix it in the memory of a
+      woodman. They made no mistakes and their loads were light, so the portages
+      were scarcely any loss of time, and in two days they were back at Hoag's
+      cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of this they took possession. First, they gathered all things of value,
+      and that was little since the furs and bedding were gone, but there were a
+      few traps and some dishes. The stuff was made in two packs; now it was an
+      overland journey, so the canoe was hidden in a cedar thicket, a quarter of
+      a mile inland. The two were about to shoulder the packs, Quonab was
+      lighting his pipe for a start, when Rolf said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, Quonab! that fellow we saw at the Falls claimed to be Hoag's
+      partner. He may come on here and make trouble if we don't head him off.
+      Let's burn her,&rdquo; and he nodded toward the shanty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh!&rdquo; was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They gathered some dry brush and a lot of birch bark, piled them up
+      against the wall inside, and threw plenty of firewood on this. With flint
+      and steel Quonab made the vital spark, the birch bark sputtered, the dry,
+      resinous logs were easily set ablaze, and soon great volumes of smoke
+      rolled from the door, the window, and the chimney; and Skookum, standing
+      afar, barked pleasantly aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunters shouldered their packs and began the long, upward slope. In an
+      hour they had reached a high, rocky ridge. Here they stopped to rest, and,
+      far below them, marked with grim joy a twisted, leaning column of thick
+      black smoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night they camped in the woods and next day rejoiced to be back again
+      at their own cabin, their own lake, their home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several times during the march they had seen fresh deer tracks, and now
+      that the need of meat was felt, Rolf proposed a deer hunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many deer die every winter; some are winter-killed; many are devoured by
+      beasts of prey, or killed by hunters; their numbers are at low ebb in
+      April, so that now one could not count on finding a deer by roaming at
+      random. It was a case for trailing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Any one can track a deer in the snow. It is not very hard to follow a deer
+      in soft ground, when there are no other deer about. But it is very hard to
+      take one deer trail and follow it over rocky ground and dead leaves, never
+      losing it or changing off, when there are hundreds of deer tracks running
+      in all directions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf's eyes were better than Quonab's, but experience counts for as much
+      as eyes, and Quonab was leading. They picked out a big buck track that was
+      fresh&mdash;no good hunter kills a doe at this season. They knew it for a
+      buck, because of its size and the roundness of the toes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before long, Rolf said: &ldquo;See, Quonab, I want to learn this business; let
+      me do the trailing, and you set me right if I get off the line.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Within a hundred yards, Quonab gave a grunt and shook his head. Rolf
+      looked surprised, for he was on a good, fresh track.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab said but one word, &ldquo;Doe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, a closer view showed the tracks to be a little narrower, a little
+      closer together, and a little sharper than those he began with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Back went Rolf to the last marks that he was sure of, and plainly read
+      where the buck had turned aside. For a time, things went along smoothly,
+      Quonab and Skookum following Rolf. The last was getting very familiar with
+      that stub hoof on the left foot. At length they came to the &ldquo;fumet&rdquo; or
+      &ldquo;sign&rdquo;; it was all in one pile. That meant the deer had stood, so was
+      unalarmed; and warm; that meant but a few minutes ahead. Now, they must
+      use every precaution for this was the crux of the hunt. Of this much only
+      they were sure&mdash;the deer was within range now, and to get him they
+      must see him before he saw them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Skookum was leashed. Rolf was allowed to get well ahead, and crawling
+      cautiously, a step at a time, he went, setting down his moccasined foot
+      only after he had tried and selected a place. Once or twice he threw into
+      the air a tuft of dry grass to make sure that the wind was right, and by
+      slow degrees he reached the edge of a little opening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Across this he peered long, without entering it. Then he made a sweep with
+      his hand and pointed, to let Quonab know the buck had gone across and he
+      himself must go around. But he lingered still and with his eyes swept the
+      near woods. Then, dim gray among the gray twigs, he saw a slight movement,
+      so slight it might have been made by the tail of a tomtit. But it fixed
+      his attention, and out of this gray haze he slowly made out the outline of
+      a deer's head, antlers, and neck. A hundred yards away, but &ldquo;take a chance
+      when it comes&rdquo; is hunter wisdom. Rolf glanced at the sight, took steady
+      aim, fired, and down went the buck behind a log. Skookum whined and leaped
+      high in his eagerness to see. Rolf restrained his impatience to rush
+      forward, at once reloaded, then all three went quickly to the place.
+      Before they were within fifty yards, the deer leaped up and bounded off.
+      At seventy-five yards, it stood for a moment to gaze. Rolf fired again;
+      again the buck fell down, but jumped to its feet and bounded away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went to the two places, but found no blood. Utterly puzzled, they
+      gave it up for the day, as already the shades of night were on the woods,
+      and in spite of Skookum's voluble offer to solve and settle everything,
+      they returned to the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you make of it, Quonab?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian shook his head, then: &ldquo;Maybe touched his head and stunned him,
+      first shot; second, wah! I not know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know this,&rdquo; said Rolf. &ldquo;I touched him and I mean to get him in the
+      morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      True to this resolve, he was there again at dawn, but examined the place
+      in vain for a sign of blood. The red rarely shows up much on leaves,
+      grass, or dust; but there are two kinds of places that the hunter can rely
+      on as telltales&mdash;stones and logs. Rolf followed the deer track, now
+      very dim, till at a bare place he found a speck of blood on a pebble. Here
+      the trail joined onto a deer path, with so many tracks that it was hard to
+      say which was the right one. But Rolf passed quickly along to a log that
+      crossed the runway, and on that log he found a drop of dried-up blood that
+      told him what he wished to know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now he had a straight run of a quarter of a mile, and from time to time he
+      saw a peculiar scratching mark that puzzled him. Once he found a speck of
+      blood at one of these scratches but no other evidence that the buck was
+      touched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A wounded deer is pretty sure to work down hill, and Quonab, leaving
+      Skookum with Rolf, climbed a lookout that might show whither the deer was
+      heading.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After another half mile, the deer path forked; there were buck trails on
+      both, and Rolf could not pick out the one he wanted. He went a few yards
+      along each, studying the many marks, but was unable to tell which was that
+      of the wounded buck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Skookum took a share in it. He had always been forbidden to run deer
+      and knew it was a contraband amusement, but he put his nose to that branch
+      of the trail that ran down hill, followed it for a few yards, then looked
+      at Rolf, as much as to say: &ldquo;You poor nose-blind creature; don't you know
+      a fresh deer track when you smell it? Here it is; this is where he went.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf stared, then said, &ldquo;I believe he means it&rdquo;; and followed the lower
+      trail. Very soon he came to another scrape, and, just beyond it, found the
+      new, velvet-covered antler of a buck, raw and bloody, and splintered at
+      the base.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this on, the task was easier, as there were no other tracks, and this
+      was pointing steadily down hill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon Quonab came striding along. He had not seen the buck, but a couple of
+      jays and a raven were gathered in a thicket far down by the stream. The
+      hunters quit the trail and made for that place. As they drew near, they
+      found the track again, and again saw those curious scrapes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every hunter knows that the bluejay dashing about a thicket means that
+      hidden there is game of some kind, probably deer. Very, very slowly and
+      silently they entered that copse. But nothing appeared until there was a
+      rush in the thickest part and up leaped the buck. This was too much for
+      Skookum. He shot forward like a wolf, fastened on one hind leg, and the
+      buck went crashing head over heels. Before it could rise, another shot
+      ended its troubles. And now a careful study shed the light desired. Rolf's
+      first shot had hit the antler near the base, breaking it, except for the
+      skin on one side, and had stunned the buck. The second shot had broken a
+      hind leg. The scratching places he had made were efforts to regain the use
+      of this limb, and at one of them the deer had fallen and parted the rag of
+      skin by which the antler hung.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Rolf's first important trailing on the ground; it showed how
+      possible it was, and how quickly he was learning the hardest of all the
+      feats of woodcraft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0048" id="link2HCH0048">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 49. Rolf Gets Lost
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Every one who lives in the big woods gets lost at some time. Yes, even
+      Daniel Boone did sometimes go astray. And whether it is to end as a joke
+      or a horrible tragedy depends entirely on the way in which the person
+      takes it. This is, indeed, the grand test of a hunter and scout, the trial
+      of his knowledge, his muscle, and, above everything, his courage; and,
+      like all supreme trials, it comes without warning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wonderful flocks of wild pigeons had arrived. For a few days in May
+      they were there in millions, swarming over the ground in long-reaching
+      hordes, walking along, pecking and feeding, the rearmost flying on ahead,
+      ever to the front. The food they sought so eagerly now was chiefly the
+      seeds of the slippery elm, tiny nuts showered down on wings like
+      broad-brimmed hats. And when the flock arose at some alarm, the sound was
+      like that of the sea beach in a storm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There seemed to be most pigeons in the low country southeast of the lake,
+      of course, because, being low, it had most elms. So Rolf took his bow and
+      arrows, crossed in the canoe, and confidently set about gathering in a
+      dozen or two for broilers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is amazing how well the game seems to gauge the range of your weapon
+      and keep the exact safe distance. It is marvellous how many times you may
+      shoot an arrow into a flock of pigeons and never kill one. Rolf went on
+      and on, always in sight of the long, straggling flocks on the ground or in
+      the air, but rarely within range of them. Again and again he fired a
+      random shot into the distant mass, without success for two hours. Finally
+      a pigeon was touched and dropped, but it rose as he ran forward, and flew
+      ten yards, to drop once more. Again he rushed at it, but it fluttered out
+      of reach and so led him on and on for about half an hour's breathless
+      race, until at last he stopped, took deliberate aim, and killed it with an
+      arrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now a peculiar wailing and squealing from the woods far ahead attracted
+      him. He stalked and crawled for many minutes before he found out, as he
+      should have known, that it was caused by a mischievous bluejay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length he came to a spring in a low hollow, and leaving his bow and
+      arrows on a dry log, he went down to get a drink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he arose, he found himself face to face with a doe and a fat, little
+      yearling buck, only twenty yards away. They stared at him, quite
+      unalarmed, and, determining to add the yearling to his bag, Rolf went back
+      quietly to his bow and arrows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The deer were just out of range now, but inclined to take a curious
+      interest in the hunter. Once when he stood still for a long time, they
+      walked forward two or three steps; but whenever he advanced, they trotted
+      farther away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To kill a deer with an arrow is quite a feat of woodcraft, and Rolf was
+      keen to show his prowess; so he kept on with varying devices, and was
+      continually within sight of the success that did not actually arrive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the deer grew wilder and loped away, as he entered another valley
+      that was alive with pigeons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was feeling hungry now, so he plucked the pigeon he had secured, made a
+      fire with the flint and steel he always carried, then roasted the bird
+      carefully on a stick, and having eaten it, felt ready for more travel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day was cloudy, so he could not see the sun; but he knew it was late,
+      and he made for camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The country he found himself in was entirely strange to him, and the sun's
+      whereabouts doubtful; but he knew the general line of travel and strode
+      along rapidly toward the place where he had left the canoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After two hours' tramping, he was surprised at not seeing the lake through
+      the trees, and he added to his pace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three hours passed and still no sign of the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He began to think he had struck too far to the north; so corrected his
+      course and strode along with occasional spells of trotting. But another
+      hour wore away and no lake appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Rolf knew he was off his bearings. He climbed a tree and got a
+      partial view of the country. To the right was a small hill. He made for
+      that. The course led him through a hollow. In this he recognized two huge
+      basswood trees, that gave him a reassuring sense. A little farther he came
+      on a spring, strangely like the one he had left some hours ago. As he
+      stooped to drink, he saw deer tracks, then a human track. He studied it.
+      Assuredly it was his own track, though now it seemed on the south side
+      instead of the north. He stared at the dead gray sky, hoping for sign of
+      sun, but it gave no hint. He tramped off hastily toward the hill that
+      promised a lookout. He went faster and faster. In half an hour the woods
+      opened a little, then dipped. He hastened down, and at the bottom found
+      himself standing by the same old spring, though again it had changed its
+      north bearing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was stunned by this succession of blows. He knew now he was lost in the
+      woods; had been tramping in a circle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spring whirled around him; it seemed now north and now south. His
+      first impulse was to rush madly northwesterly, as he understood it. He
+      looked at all the trees for guidance. Most moss should be on the north
+      side. It would be so, if all trees were perfectly straight and evenly
+      exposed, but alas! none are so. All lean one way or another, and by the
+      moss he could prove any given side to be north. He looked for the hemlock
+      top twigs. Tradition says they always point easterly; but now they
+      differed among themselves as to which was east.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf got more and more worried. He was a brave boy, but grim fear came
+      into his mind as he realized that he was too far from camp to be heard;
+      the ground was too leafy for trailing him; without help he could not get
+      away from that awful spring. His head began to swim, when all at once he
+      remembered a bit of advice his guide had given him long ago: &ldquo;Don't get
+      scared when you're lost. Hunger don't kill the lost man, and it ain't cold
+      that does it; it's being afraid. Don't be afraid, and everything will come
+      out all right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So, instead of running, Rolf sat down to think it over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I went due southeast all day from the canoe.&rdquo; Then he
+      stopped; like a shock it came to him that he had not seen the sun all day.
+      Had he really gone southeast? It was a devastating thought, enough to
+      unhinge some men; but again Rolf said to himself &ldquo;Never mind, now; don't
+      get scared, and it'll be all right. In the morning the sky will be clear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he sat pondering, a red squirrel chippered and scolded from a near
+      tree; closer and closer the impudent creature came to sputter at the
+      intruder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf drew his bow, and when the blunt arrow dropped to the ground, there
+      also dropped the red squirrel, turned into acceptable meat. Rolf put this
+      small game into his pocket, realizing that this was his supper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would soon be dark now, so he prepared to spend the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While yet he could see, he gathered a pile of dry wood into a sheltered
+      hollow. Then he made a wind-break and a bed of balsam boughs. Flint,
+      steel, tinder, and birch bark soon created a cheerful fire, and there is
+      no better comforter that the lone lost man can command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The squirrel roasted in its hide proved a passable supper, and Rolf curled
+      up to sleep. The night would have been pleasant and uneventful, but that
+      it turned chilly, and when the fire burnt low, the cold awakened him, so
+      he had a succession of naps and fire-buildings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after dawn, he heard a tremendous roaring, and in a few minutes the
+      wood was filled again with pigeons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf was living on the country now, so he sallied forth with his bow. Luck
+      was with him; at the first shot he downed a big, fat cock. At the second
+      he winged another, and as it scrambled through the brush, he rushed
+      headlong in pursuit. It fluttered away beyond reach, half-flying,
+      half-running, and Rolf, in reckless pursuit, went sliding and tumbling
+      down a bank to land at the bottom with a horrid jar. One leg was twisted
+      under him; he thought it was broken, for there was a fearful pain in the
+      lower part. But when he pulled himself together he found no broken bones,
+      indeed, but an ankle badly sprained. Now his situation was truly grave,
+      for he was crippled and incapable of travelling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had secured the second bird, and crawling painfully and slowly back to
+      the fire, he could not but feel more and more despondent and gloomy as the
+      measure of his misfortune was realized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is only one thing that can shame a man, that is to be afraid.&rdquo; And
+      again, &ldquo;There's always a way out.&rdquo; These were the sayings that came
+      ringing through his head to his heart; one was from Quonab, the other from
+      old Sylvanne. Yes, there's always a way, and the stout heart can always
+      find it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf prepared and cooked the two birds, made a breakfast of one and put
+      the other in his pocket for lunch, not realizing at the time that his
+      lunch would be eaten on this same spot. More than once, as he sat, small
+      flocks of ducks flew over the trees due northward. At length the sky, now
+      clear, was ablaze with the rising sun, and when it came, it was in Rolf's
+      western sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now he comprehended the duck flight. They were really heading southeast
+      for their feeding grounds on the Indian Lake, and Rolf, had he been able
+      to tramp, could have followed, but his foot was growing worse. It was
+      badly swollen, and not likely to be of service for many a day&mdash;perhaps
+      weeks&mdash;and it took all of his fortitude not to lie down and weep over
+      this last misfortune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again came the figure of that grim, kindly, strong old pioneer, with the
+      gray-blue eyes and his voice was saying: &ldquo;Jest when things looks about as
+      black as they can look, if ye hold steady, keep cool and kind, something
+      sure happens to make it all easy. There's always a way and the stout heart
+      will find it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      What way was there for him? He would die of hunger and cold before Quonab
+      could find him, and again came the spectre of fear. If only he could
+      devise some way of letting his comrade know. He shouted once or twice, in
+      the faint hope that the still air might carry the sound, but the silent
+      wood was silent when he ceased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then one of his talks with Quonab came to mind. He remembered how the
+      Indian, as a little papoose, had been lost for three days. Though, then
+      but ten years old, he had built a smoke fire that brought him help. Yes,
+      that was the Indian way; two smokes means &ldquo;I am lost&rdquo;; &ldquo;double for
+      trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fired by this new hope, Rolf crawled a little apart from his camp and
+      built a bright fire, then smothered it with rotten wood and green leaves.
+      The column of smoke it sent up was densely white and towered above the
+      trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then painfully he hobbled and crawled to a place one hundred yards away,
+      and made another smoke. Now all he could do was wait.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fat pigeon, strayed from its dock, sat on a bough above his camp, in a
+      way to tempt Providence. Rolf drew a blunt arrow to the head and speedily
+      had the pigeon in hand for some future meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he prepared it, he noticed that its crop was crammed with the winged
+      seed of the slippery elm, so he put them all back again into the body when
+      it was cleaned, knowing well that they are a delicious food and in this
+      case would furnish a welcome variant to the bird itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour crawled by. Rolf had to go out to the far fire, for it was nearly
+      dead. Instinctively he sought a stout stick to help him; then remembered
+      how Hoag had managed with one leg and two crutches. &ldquo;Ho!&rdquo; he exclaimed.
+      &ldquo;That is the answer&mdash;this is the 'way.&rdquo;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now his attention was fixed on all the possible crutches. The trees seemed
+      full of them, but all at impossible heights. It was long before he found
+      one that he could cut with his knife. Certainly he was an hour working at
+      it; then he heard a sound that made his blood jump.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From far away in the north it came, faint but reaching;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye-hoo-o.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf dropped his knife and listened with the instinctively open mouth that
+      takes all pressure from the eardrums and makes them keen. It came again:
+      &ldquo;Ye-hoo-o.&rdquo; No mistake now, and Rolf sent the ringing answer back:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye-hoo-o, ye-hoo-o.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In ten minutes there was a sharp &ldquo;yap, yap,&rdquo; and Skookum bounded out of
+      the woods to leap and bark around Rolf, as though he knew all about it;
+      while a few minutes later, came Quonab striding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho, boy,&rdquo; he said, with a quiet smile, and took Rolf's hand. &ldquo;Ugh! That
+      was good,&rdquo; and he nodded to the smoke fire. &ldquo;I knew you were in trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; and Rolf pointed to the swollen ankle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian picked up the lad in his arms and carried him back to the
+      little camp. Then, from his light pack, he took bread and tea and made a
+      meal for both. And, as they ate, each heard the other's tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was troubled when you did not come back last night, for you had no food
+      or blanket. I did not sleep. At dawn I went to the hill, where I pray, and
+      looked away southeast where you went in the canoe. I saw nothing. Then I
+      went to a higher hill, where I could see the northeast, and even while I
+      watched, I saw the two smokes, so I knew my son was alive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean to tell me I am northeast of camp?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About four miles. I did not come very quickly, because I had to go for
+      the canoe and travel here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you mean by canoe?&rdquo; said Rolf, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are only half a mile from Jesup River,&rdquo; was the reply. &ldquo;I soon bring
+      you home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was incredible at first, but easy of proof. With the hatchet they made
+      a couple of serviceable crutches and set out together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In twenty minutes they were afloat in the canoe; in an hour they were
+      safely home again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Rolf pondered it not a little. At the very moment of blackest despair,
+      the way had opened, and it had been so simple, so natural, so effectual.
+      Surely, as long as he lived, he would remember it. &ldquo;There is always a way,
+      and the stout heart will find it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0049" id="link2HCH0049">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 50. Marketing the Fur
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      If Rolf had been at home with his mother, she would have rubbed his black
+      and swollen ankle with goose grease. The medical man at Stamford would
+      have rubbed it with a carefully prepared and secret ointment. His Indian
+      friend sang a little crooning song and rubbed it with deer's fat. All
+      different, and all good, because each did something to reassure the
+      patient, to prove that big things were doing on his behalf, and each
+      helped the process of nature by frequent massage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three times a day, Quonab rubbed that blackened ankle. The grease saved
+      the skin from injury, and in a week Rolf had thrown his crutches away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The month of May was nearly gone; June was at hand; that is, the spring
+      was over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In all ages, man has had the impulse, if not the habit, of spring
+      migration. Yielding to it he either migrated or made some radical change
+      in his life. Most of the Adirondack men who trapped in the winter sought
+      work on the log drives in spring; some who had families and a permanent
+      home set about planting potatoes and plying the fish nets. Rolf and Quonab
+      having neither way open, yet feeling the impulse, decided to go out to
+      Warren's with the fur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab wanted tobacco&mdash;and a change.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf wanted a rifle, and to see the Van Trumpers&mdash;and a change.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So June 1st saw them all aboard, with Quonab steering at the stern, and
+      Skookum bow-wowing at the bow, bound for the great centre of Warren's
+      settlement&mdash;one store and three houses, very wide apart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a noble flush of water in the streams, and, thanks to their axe
+      work in September, they passed down Jesup's River without a pause, and
+      camped on the Hudson that night, fully twenty-five miles from home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Long, stringing flocks of pigeons going north were the most numerous forms
+      of life. But a porcupine on the bank and a bear in the water aroused
+      Skookum to a pitch of frightful enthusiasm and vaulting ambition that he
+      was forced to restrain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the evening of the third day they landed at Warren's and found a hearty
+      welcome from the trader, who left a group of loafers and came forward:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good day to ye, boy. My, how ye have growed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So he had. Neither Rolf nor Quonab had remarked it, but now they were much
+      of the same height. &ldquo;Wall, an' how'd ye make out with yer hunt?&mdash;Ah,
+      that's fine!&rdquo; as each of them dropped a fur pack on the counter. &ldquo;Wall,
+      this is fine; we must have a drink on the head of it,&rdquo; and the trader was
+      somewhat nonplussed when both the trappers refused. He was disappointed,
+      too, for that refusal meant that they would get much better prices for
+      their fun But he concealed his chagrin and rattled on: &ldquo;I reckon I'll sell
+      you the finest rifle in the country this time,&rdquo; and he knew by Rolf's face
+      that there was business to do in that line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now came the listing of the fur, and naturally the bargaining was between
+      the shrewd Yankee boy and the trader. The Indian stood shyly aside, but he
+      did not fail to help with significant grunts and glances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, now,&rdquo; said Warren, as the row of martens were laid out side by
+      side, &ldquo;thirty martens&mdash;a leetle pale&mdash;worth three dollars and
+      fifty cents each, or, to be generous, we'll say four dollars.&rdquo; Rolf
+      glanced at Quonab, who, unseen by the trader shook his head, held his
+      right hand out, open hollow up, then raised it with a jerk for two inches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quickly Rolf caught the idea and said; &ldquo;No, I don't reckon them pale. I
+      call them prime dark, every one of them.&rdquo; Quonab spread his hand with all
+      five fingers pointed up, and Rolf continued, &ldquo;They are worth five dollars
+      each, if they're worth a copper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Phew!&rdquo; said the trader. &ldquo;you forget fur is an awful risky thing; what
+      with mildew, moth, mice, and markets, we have a lot of risk. But I want to
+      please you, so let her go; five each. There's a fine black fox; that's
+      worth forty dollars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think it is,&rdquo; said Rolf, as Quonab, by throwing to his right an
+      imaginary pinch of sand, made the sign &ldquo;refuse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They had talked over the value of that fox skin and Rolf said, &ldquo;Why, I
+      know of a black fox that sold for two hundred dollars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, down at Stamford.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, that's near New York.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course; don't you send your fur to New York?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but it costs a lot to get it there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said Warren, &ldquo;if you'll take it in trade, I'll meet you half-way
+      and call it one hundred dollars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Make it one hundred and twenty-five dollars and I'll take a rifle,
+      anyway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Phew!&rdquo; whistled the trader. &ldquo;Where do ye get such notions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing wrong about the notion; old Si Sylvanne offered me pretty near
+      that, if I'd come out his way with the stuff.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This had the desired effect of showing that there were other traders. At
+      last the deal was closed. Besides the fox skin, they had three hundred
+      dollars' worth of fur. The exchange for the fox skin was enough to buy all
+      the groceries and dry goods they needed. But Rolf had something else in
+      mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had picked out some packages of candies, some calico prints and certain
+      bright ribbons, when the trader grasped the idea. &ldquo;I see; yer goin'
+      visitin'. Who is it? Must be the Van Trumpers!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf nodded and now he got some very intelligent guidance. He did not buy
+      Annette's dress, because part of her joy was to be the expedition in
+      person to pick it out; but he stocked up with some gorgeous pieces of
+      jewellery that were ten cents each, and ribbons whose colours were as far
+      beyond expression as were the joys they could create in the backwoods
+      female heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Proudly clutching his new rlile, and carrying in his wallet a memorandum
+      of three hundred dollars for their joint credit, Rolf felt himself a
+      person of no little importance. As he was stepping out of the store, the
+      trader said, &ldquo;Ye didn't run across Jack Hoag agin, did ye?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did we? Hmph!&rdquo; and Rolf told briefly of their experience with that
+      creature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just like him, just like him; served him right; he was a dirty cuss. But,
+      say; don't you be led into taking your fur out Lyons Falls way. They're a
+      mean lot in there, and it stands to reason I can give you better prices,
+      being a hundred miles nearer New York.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And that lesson was not forgotten. The nearer New York the better the
+      price; seventy-five dollars at Lyons Falls; one hundred and twenty-five
+      dollars at Warren's; two hundred dollars at New York. Rolf pondered long
+      and the idea was one which grew and bore fruit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0050" id="link2HCH0050">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 51. Back at Van Trumper's
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nibowaka&rdquo;&mdash;Quonab always said &ldquo;Nibowaka&rdquo; when he was impressed with
+      Rolf's astuteness&mdash;&ldquo;What about the canoe and stuff?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think we better leave all here. Callan will lend us a canoe.&rdquo; So they
+      shouldered the guns, Rolf clung to his, and tramped across the portage,
+      reaching Callan's in less than two hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, certainly you can have the canoe, but come in and eat first,&rdquo; was
+      the kindly backwoods greeting. However, Rolf was keen to push on; they
+      launched the canoe at once and speedily were flashing their paddles on the
+      lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The place looked sweetly familiar as they drew near. The crops in the
+      fields were fair; the crop of chickens at the barn was good; and the crop
+      of children about the door was excellent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mein Hemel! mein Hemel!&rdquo; shouted fat old Hendrik, as they walked up to
+      the stable door. In a minute he was wringing their hands and smiling into
+      great red, white, and blue smiles. &ldquo;Coom in, coom in, lad. Hi, Marta, here
+      be Rolf and Quonab. Mein Hemel! mein Hemel! what am I now so happy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where's Annette?&rdquo; asked Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ach, poor Annette, she fever have a little; not mooch, some,&rdquo; and he led
+      over to a corner where on a low cot lay Annette, thin, pale, and listless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She smiled faintly, in response, when Rolf stooped and kissed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Annette, I came back to see you. I want to take you over to Warren's
+      store, so you can pick out that dress. See, I brought you my first marten
+      and I made this box for you; you must thank Skookum for the quills on it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor chile; she bin sick all spring,&rdquo; and Marta used a bunch of sedge to
+      drive away the flies and mosquitoes that, bass and treble, hovered around
+      the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What ails her?&rdquo; asked Rolf anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dot ve do not know,&rdquo; was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe there's some one here can tell,&rdquo; and Roll glanced at the Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ach, sure! Have I you that not always told all-vays&mdash;eet is so.
+      All-vays, I want sumpin bad mooch. I prays de good Lord and all-vays,
+      all-vays, two times now, He it send by next boat. Ach, how I am spoil,&rdquo;
+       and the good Dutchman's eyes filled with tears of thankfulness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab knelt by the sufferer. He felt her hot, dry hand; he noticed her
+      short, quick breathing, her bright eyes, and the untouched bowl of mush by
+      her bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Swamp fever,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I bring good medicine.&rdquo; He passed quietly out
+      into the woods. When he returned, he carried a bundle of snake-root which
+      he made into tea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Annette did not wish to touch it, but her mother persuaded her to take a
+      few sips from a cup held by Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wah! this not good,&rdquo; and Quonab glanced about the close, fly-infested
+      room. &ldquo;I must make lodge.&rdquo; He turned up the cover of the bedding; three or
+      four large, fiat brown things moved slowly out of the light. &ldquo;Yes, I make
+      lodge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was night now, and all retired; the newcomers to the barn. They had
+      scarcely entered, when a screaming of poultry gave a familiar turn to
+      affairs. On running to the spot, it proved not a mink or coon, but
+      Skookum, up to his old tricks. On the appearance of his masters, he fled
+      with guilty haste, crouched beneath the post that he used to be, and soon
+      again was, chained to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning Quonab set about his lodge, and Rolf said: &ldquo;I've got to go
+      to Warren's for sugar.&rdquo; The sugar was part truth and part blind. As soon
+      as he heard the name swamp fever, Rolf remembered that, in Redding,
+      Jesuit's bark (known later as quinine) was the sovereign remedy. He had
+      seen his mother administer it many times, and, so far as he knew, with
+      uniform success. Every frontier (or backwoods, it's the same) trader
+      carries a stock of medicine, and in two hours Rolf left Warren's counter
+      with twenty-five pounds of maple sugar and a bottle of quinine extract in
+      his pack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say she's bothered with the flies; why don't you take some of this
+      new stuff for a curtain?&rdquo; and the trader held up a web of mosquito gauze,
+      the first Rolf had seen. That surely was a good idea, and ten yards
+      snipped off was a most interesting addition to his pack. The amount was
+      charged against him, and in two hours more he was back at Van Trumper's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the cool side of the house, Quonab had built a little lodge, using a
+      sheet for cover. On a low bed of pine boughs lay the child. Near the door
+      was a smouldering fire of cedar, whose aromatic fumes on the lazy wind
+      reached every cranny of the lodge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sitting by the bed head, with a chicken wing to keep off the few
+      mosquitoes, was the Indian. The child's eyes were closed; she was sleeping
+      peacefully. Rolf crept gently forward, laid his hand on hers, it was cool
+      and moist. He went into the house with his purchases; the mother greeted
+      him with a happy look: Yes, Annette was a little better; she had slept
+      quietly ever since she was taken outdoors. The mother could not
+      understand. Why should the Indian want to have her surrounded by pine
+      boughs? why cedar-smoke? and why that queer song? Yes, there it was again.
+      Rolf went out to see and hear. Softly summing on a tin pan, with a mudded
+      stick, the Indian sang a song. The words which Rolf learned in the
+      after-time were:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Kaluskap, drive the witches; Those who came to harm the dear one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Annette moved not, but softly breathed, as she slept a sweet, restful
+      slumber, the first for many days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vouldn't she be better in de house?&rdquo; whispered the anxious mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, let Quonab do his own way,&rdquo; and Rolf wondered if any white man had
+      sat by little Wee-wees to brush away the flies from his last bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0051" id="link2HCH0051">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 52. Annette's New Dress
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Deep feelin's ain't any count by themselves; work 'em off,
+     an' ye're somebody; weep 'em off an' you'd be more use with
+     a heart o' stone&mdash;Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quonab, I am going out to get her a partridge.&rdquo; &ldquo;Ugh, good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Rolf went off. For a moment he was inclined to grant Skookom's prayer
+      for leave to, follow, but another and better plan came in mind. Skookum
+      would most likely find a mother partridge, which none should kill in June,
+      and there was a simple way to find a cock; that was, listen. It was now
+      the evening calm, and before Rolf had gone half a mile he heard the
+      distant &ldquo;Thump, thump, thump, thump&mdash;rrrrrrr&rdquo; of a partridge,
+      drumming. He went quickly and cautiously toward the place, then waited for
+      the next drumming. It was slow in coming, so he knelt down by a mossy,
+      rotten log, and struck it with his hands to imitate the thump and roll of
+      the partridge. At once this challenge procured response.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thump&mdash;thump&mdash;thump,, thump rrrrrrrrrrrr&rdquo; it came, with martial
+      swing and fervour, and crawling nearer, Rolf spied the drummer, pompously
+      strutting up and down a log some forty yards away. He took steady aim, not
+      for the head&mdash;a strange gun, at forty yards&mdash;for the body. At
+      the crack, the bird fell dead, and in Rolf's heart there swelled up a
+      little gush of joy, which he believed was all for the sake of the invalid,
+      but which a finer analysis might have proved to be due quite as much to
+      pride in himself and his newly bought gun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Night was coming on when he got back, and he found the Dutch parents in
+      some excitement. &ldquo;Dot Indian he gay no bring Annette indoors for de night.
+      How she sleep outdoors&mdash;like dog&mdash;like Bigger&mdash;like tramp?
+      Yah it is bad, ain't it?&rdquo; and poor old Hendrik looked sadly upset and
+      mystified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hendrik, do you suppose God turns out worse air in the night than in the
+      day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ach, dunno.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you see Quonab knows what he's doing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yah.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, let him do it. He or I'll sleep alongside the child she'll be all
+      right,&rdquo; and Rolf thought of those horrible brown crawlers under the
+      bedding indoors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had much confidence in the Indian as a doctor, but he had more in his
+      own mother. He was determined to give Annette the quinine, yet he
+      hesitated to interfere. At length, he said: &ldquo;It is cool enough now; I will
+      put these thin curtains round her bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh, good!&rdquo; but the red man sat there while it was being done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not stay now; I'll watch her, Quonab.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Soon, give more medicine,&rdquo; was the reply that Rolf did not want. So he
+      changed his ruse. &ldquo;I wish you'd take that partridge and make soup of it.
+      I've had my hands in poison ivy, so I dare not touch it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ach, dot shall I do. Dot kin myself do,&rdquo; and the fat mother, laying the
+      recent baby in its cradle, made cumbrous haste to cook the bird.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Foiled again,&rdquo; was Rolf's thought, but his Yankee wit was with him. He
+      laid one hand on the bowl of snake-root tea. It was lukewarm. &ldquo;Do you give
+      it hot or cold, Quonab?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll take it in and heat it.&rdquo; He carried it off, thinking, &ldquo;If Quonab
+      won't let me give the bark extract, I'll make him give it.&rdquo; In the gloom
+      of the kitchen he had no difficulty in adding to the tea, quite unseen, a
+      quarter of the extract; when heated, he brought it again, and the Indian
+      himself gave the dose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As bedtime drew near, and she heard the red man say he would sleep there,
+      the little one said feebly, &ldquo;Mother, mother,&rdquo; then whispered in her
+      mother's ear, &ldquo;I want Rolf.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf spread his blanket by the cot and slept lightly. Once or twice he
+      rose to look at Annette. She was moving in her sleep, but did not awake.
+      He saw to it that the mosquito bar was in place, and slept till morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no question that the child was better. The renewed interest in
+      food was the first good symptom, and the partridge served the end of its
+      creation. The snakeroot and the quinine did noble work, and thenceforth
+      her recovery was rapid. It was natural for her mother to wish the child
+      back indoors. It was a matter of course that she should go. It was
+      accepted as an unavoidable evil that they should always have those brown
+      crawlers about the bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Rolf felt differently. He knew what his mother would have thought and
+      done. It meant another visit to Warren's, and the remedy he brought was a
+      strong-smelling oil, called in those days &ldquo;rock oil&rdquo;&mdash;a crude
+      petroleum. When all cracks in the bed and near wall were treated with
+      this, it greatly mitigated, if it did not quite end, the nuisance of the
+      &ldquo;plague that walks in the dark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, Quonab had made good his welcome by working on the farm. But
+      when a week had flown, he showed signs of restlessness. &ldquo;We have enough
+      money, Nibowaka, why do we stay?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf was hauling a bucket of water from the well at the time. He stopped
+      with his burden on the well-sweep, gazed into the well, and said slowly:
+      &ldquo;I don't know.&rdquo; If the truth were set forth, it would be that this was the
+      only home circle he knew. It was the clan feeling that held him, and soon
+      it was clearly the same reason that was driving Quonab to roam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard,&rdquo; said the Indian, &ldquo;that my people still dwell in Canada,
+      beyond Rouse's Point. I would see them. I will come again in the Red Moon
+      (August).&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they hired a small canoe, and one bright morning, with Skookum in the
+      bow, Quonab paddled away on his voyage of 120 miles on the plead waters of
+      Lakes George and Champlain. His canoe became a dark spot on the water;
+      slowly it faded till only the flashing paddle was seen, and that was lost
+      around a headland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day Rolf was sorry he let Quonab go alone, for it was evident
+      that Van Trumper needed no help for a month yet; that is, he could not
+      afford to hire, and while it was well enough for Rolf to stay a few days
+      and work to equalize his board, the arrangement would not long continue
+      satisfactory to both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet there was one thing he must do before leaving, take Annette to pick
+      out her dress. She was well again now, and they set off one morning in the
+      canoe, she and Rolf. Neither father nor mother could leave the house. They
+      had their misgivings, but what could they do? She was bright and happy,
+      full of the childish joy that belongs to that age, and engaged on such an
+      important errand for the first time in her life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something more than childish joy showing in her face, an older
+      person would have seen that, but it was largely lost on Rolf. There was a
+      tendency to blush when she laughed, a disposition to tease her &ldquo;big
+      brother,&rdquo; to tyrannize over him in little things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, you tell me some more about 'Robinson Crusoe,'&rdquo; she began, as soon
+      as they were in the canoe, and Rolf resumed the ancient, inspiring tale to
+      have it listened to eagerly, but criticized from the standpoint of a Lake
+      George farm. &ldquo;Where was his wife?&rdquo; &ldquo;How could he have a farm without
+      hens?&rdquo; &ldquo;Dried grapes must be nice, but I'd rather have pork than goat,&rdquo;
+       etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf, of course, took the part of Robinson Crusoe, and it gave him a
+      little shock to hear Quonab called his man Friday.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the west side they were to invite Mrs. Callan to join their shopping
+      trip, but in any case they were to borrow a horse and buckboard. Neither
+      Mrs. Callan nor the buckboard was available, but they were welcome to the
+      horse. So Annette was made comfortable on a bundle of blankets, and
+      chattered incessantly while Rolf walked alongside with the grave interest
+      and superiority of a much older brother. So they crossed the five-mile
+      portage and came to Warren's store. Nervous and excited, with sparkling
+      eyes, Annette laid down her marten skin, received five dollars, and set
+      about the tremendous task of selecting her first dress of really, truly
+      calico print; and Rolf realized that the joy he had found in his new rifle
+      was a very small affair, compared with the epoch-making, soul-filling,
+      life-absorbing, unspeakable, and cataclysmal bliss that a small girl can
+      have in her first chance of unfettered action in choice of a cotton print.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beautiful?&rdquo; How can mere words do justice to masses of yellow corn, mixed
+      recklessly with green and scarlet poppies on a bright blue ground. No, you
+      should have seen Annette's dress, or you cannot expect to get the adequate
+      thrill. And when they found that there was enough cash left over to add a
+      red cotton parasol to the glorious spoils, every one there beamed in a
+      sort of friendly joy, and the trader, carried away by the emotions of the
+      hour, contributed a set of buttons of shining brass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Warren kept a &ldquo;meal house,&rdquo; which phrase was a ruse that saved him from a
+      burdensome hospitality. Determined to do it all in the best style, Rolf
+      took Annette to the meal-house table. She was deeply awed by the grandeur
+      of a tablecloth and white plates, but every one was kind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Warren, talking to a stranger opposite, and evidently resuming a subject
+      they had discussed, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I'd like to send the hull lot down to Albany this week, if I could
+      get another man for the canoe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf was interested at once and said: &ldquo;What wages are you offering?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Twenty-five dollars and board.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How will I do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Warren, as though thinking it over: &ldquo;I dunno but ye would.
+      Could ye go to-morrow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, indeed, for one month.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, it's a bargain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so Rolf took the plunge that influenced his whole life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Annette whispered gleefully and excitedly, &ldquo;May I have some of that,
+      and that?&rdquo; pointing to every strange food she could see, and got them all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After noon they set out on their return journey, Annette clutching her
+      prizes, and prattling incessantly, while Rolf walked alongside, thinking
+      deeply, replying to her chatter, but depressed by the thought of good-bye
+      tomorrow. He was aroused at length by a scraping sound overhead and a
+      sharp reprimand, &ldquo;Rolf, you'll tear my new parasol, if you don't lead the
+      horse better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By two o'clock they were at Callan's. Another hour and they had crossed
+      the lake, and Annette, shrill with joy, was displaying her treasures to
+      the wonder and envy of her kin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Making a dress was a simple matter in those and Marta promised: &ldquo;Yah, soom
+      day ven I one have, shall I it sew.&rdquo; Meanwhile, Annette was quaffing deep,
+      soul-satisfying draughts in the mere contempt of the yellow, red, green,
+      and blue glories in which was soon to appear in public. And when the bed
+      came, she fell asleep holding the dress-goods stuff in arms, and with the
+      red parasol spread above her head, tired out, but inexpressibly happy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0052" id="link2HCH0052">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 53. Travelling to the Great City
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     He's a bad failure that ain't king in some little corner.
+     &mdash;Sayings of Sylvanne Sylvanne
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The children were not astir when Rolf was off in the morning. He caught a
+      glimpse of Annette, still asleep under the red parasol, but the dress
+      goods and the brass buttons had fallen to the floor. He stepped into the
+      canoe. The dead calm of early morning was on the water, and the little
+      craft went skimming and wimpling across. In half an hour it was beached at
+      Callan's. In a little more than an hour's jog and stride he was at
+      Warren's, ready for work. As he marched in, strong and brisk, his colour
+      up, his blue eyes kindled with the thought of seeing Albany, the trader
+      could not help being struck by him, especially when he remembered each of
+      their meetings&mdash;meetings in which he discerned a keen, young mind of
+      good judgment, one that could decide quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gazing at the lithe, red-checked lad, he said: &ldquo;Say, Rolf, air ye an
+      Injun??&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Air ye a half-breed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I'm a Yank; my name is Kittering; born and bred in Redding,
+      Connecticut.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I swan, ye look it. At fust I took ye fur an Injun; ye did look
+      dark (and Rolf laughed inside, as he thought of that butternut dye), but
+      I'm bound to say we're glad yer white.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, Bill, this is Rolf, Rolf Kittering, he'll go with ye to Albany.&rdquo;
+       Bill, a loose-jointed, middle-aged, flat-footed, large-handed,
+      semi-loafer, with keen gray eyes, looked up from a bundle he was roping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Warren took Rolf aside and explained: &ldquo;I'm sending down all my fur
+      this trip. There's ten bales of sixty pounds each, pretty near my hull
+      fortune. I want it took straight to Vandam's, and, night or day, don't
+      leave it till ye git it there. He's close to the dock. I'm telling ye this
+      for two reasons: The river's swarming with pirates and sneaks. They'd like
+      nothing better than to get away with a five-hundred-dollar bundle of fur;
+      and, next, while Bill is A1 on the river and true as steel, he's awful
+      weak on the liquor; goes crazy, once it's in him. And I notice you've
+      always refused it here. So don't stop at Troy, an' when ye get to Albany
+      go straight past there to Vandam's. You'll have a letter that'll explain,
+      and he'll supply the goods yer to bring back. He's a sort of a partner,
+      and orders from him is same as from me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose I ought to go myself, but this is the time all the fur is
+      coming in here, an' I must be on hand to do the dickering, and there's too
+      much much to risk it any longer in the storehouse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suppose,&rdquo; said Rolf, &ldquo;Bill wants to stop at Troy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He won't. He's all right, given he's sober. I've give him the letter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Couldn't you give me the letter, in case?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Law, Bill'd get mad and quit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He'll never know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's so; I will.&rdquo; So when they paddled away, Bill had an important
+      letter of instructions ostentatiously tucked in his outer pocket. Rolf,
+      unknown to any one else but Warren, had a duplicate, wrapped in
+      waterproof, hidden in an inside pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bill was A1 on the river; a kind and gentle old woodman, much stronger
+      than he looked. He knew the value of fur and the danger of wetting it, so
+      he took no chances in doubtful rapids. This meant many portages and much
+      hard labour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wonder if the world realizes the hard labour of the portage or carry?
+      Let any man who seeks for light, take a fifty-pound sack of flour on his
+      shoulders and walk a quarter of a mile on level ground in cool weather.
+      Unless he is in training, he will find it a heavy burden long before he is
+      half-way. Suppose, instead of a flour sack, the burden has sharp angles;
+      the bearer is soon in torture. Suppose the weight carried be double; then
+      the strain is far more than doubled. Suppose, finally, the road be not a
+      quarter mile but a mile, and not on level but through swamps, over rocks,
+      logs, and roots, and the weather not cool, but suffocating summer weather
+      in the woods, with mosquitoes boring into every exposed part, while both
+      hands are occupied, steadying the burden or holding on to branches for
+      help up steep places&mdash;and then he will have some idea of the horror
+      of the portage; and there were many of these, each one calling for six
+      loaded and five light trips for each canoe-man. What wonder that men will
+      often take chances in some fierce rapid, rather than to make a long carry
+      through the fly-infested woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was weighty evidence of Bill's fidelity that again and again they made
+      a portage around rapids he had often run, because in the present case he
+      was in sacred trust of that much prized commodity&mdash;fur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eighty miles they called it from Warren's to Albany, but there were many
+      halts and carries which meant long delay, and a whole week was covered
+      before Bill and Rolf had passed the settlements of Glens Falls, Fort
+      Edward, and Schuylerville, and guided their heavily laden canoe on the
+      tranquil river, past the little town of Troy. Loafers hailed them from the
+      bank, but Bill turned a deaf ear to all temptation; and they pushed on
+      happy in the thought that now their troubles were over; the last rapid was
+      past; the broad, smooth waters extended to their port.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0053" id="link2HCH0053">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 54. Albany
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Only a man who in his youth has come at last in sight of some great city
+      he had dreamed of all his life and longed to see, can enter into Rolf's
+      feelings as they swept around the big bend, and Albany&mdash;Albany, hove
+      in view. Albany, the first chartered city of the United States; Albany,
+      the capital of all the Empire State; Albany, the thriving metropolis with
+      nearly six thousand living human souls; Albany with its State House,
+      beautiful and dignified, looking down the mighty Hudson highway that led
+      to the open sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf knew his Bible, and now he somewhat realized the feelings of St. Paul
+      on that historic day when his life-long dream came true, when first he
+      neared the Eternal City&mdash;when at last he glimpsed the towers of
+      imperial, splendid Rome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The long-strung docks were massed and webbed with ship rigging; the water
+      was livened with boats and canoes; the wooden warehouses back of the docks
+      were overtopped by wooden houses in tiers, until high above them all the
+      Capitol itself was the fitting climax.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf knew something of shipping, and amid all the massed boats his eyes
+      fell on a strange, square-looking craft with a huge water-wheel on each
+      side. Then, swinging into better view, he read her name, the Clermont, and
+      knew that this was the famous Fulton steamer, the first of the steamboat
+      age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Bill was swamped by no such emotion. Albany, Hudson, Clermont, and
+      all, were familiar stories to him and he stolidly headed the canoe for the
+      dock he knew of old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Loafers roosting on the snubbing posts hailed him, at first with raillery;
+      but, coming nearer, he was recognized. &ldquo;Hello, Bill; back again? Glad to
+      see you,&rdquo; and there was superabundant help to land the canoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wall, wall, wall, so it's really you,&rdquo; said the touter of a fur house, in
+      extremely friendly voice; &ldquo;come in now and we'll hev a drink.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir-ree,&rdquo; said Bill decisively, &ldquo;I don't drink till business is
+      done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wall, now, Bill, here's Van Roost's not ten steps away an' he hez tapped
+      the finest bar'l in years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I tell ye, I'm not drinking&mdash;now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wall, all right, ye know yer own business. I thought maybe ye'd be glad
+      to see us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, ain't I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, Bill,&rdquo; and Bill's fat brother-in-law came up. &ldquo;Thus does me good,
+      an' yer sister is spilin' to see ye. We'll hev one on this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Sam, I ain't drinkin'; I've got biz to tend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wall, hev just one to clear yer head. Then settle yer business and come
+      back to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Bill went to have one to clear his head. &ldquo;I'll be back in two minutes,
+      Rolf,&rdquo; but Rolf saw him no more for many days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You better come along, cub,&rdquo; called out a red-nosed member of the group.
+      But Rolf shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, I'll help you git them ashore,&rdquo; volunteered an effusive stranger,
+      with one eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want help.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How are ye gain' to handle 'em alone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there's one thing I'd be glad to have ye do; that is, go up there
+      and bring Peter Vandam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll watch yer stuff while you go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I can't leave.&rdquo; &ldquo;Then go to blazes; d'yte take me for yer errand
+      boy?&rdquo; And Rolf was left alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was green at the business, but already he was realizing the power of
+      that word fur and the importance of the peltry trade. Fur was the one
+      valued product of the wilderness that only the hunter could bring. The
+      merchants of the world were as greedy for fur as for gold, and far more so
+      than for precious stones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a commodity so light that, even in those days, a hundred weight of
+      fur might range in value from one hundred to five thousand dollars, so
+      that a man with a pack of fine furs was a capitalist. The profits of the
+      business were good for trapper, very large for the trader, who doubled his
+      first gain by paying in trade; but they were huge for the Albany
+      middleman, and colossal for the New Yorker who shipped to London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With such allurements, it was small wonder that more country was explored
+      and opened for fur than for settlement or even for gold; and there were
+      more serious crimes and high-handed robberies over the right to trade a
+      few furs than over any other legitimate business. These things were new to
+      Rolf within the year, but he was learning the lesson, and Warren's remarks
+      about fur stuck in his memory with growing value. Every incident since the
+      trip began had given them new points.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The morning passed without sign of Bill; so, when in the afternoon, some
+      bare-legged boys came along, Rolf said to them: &ldquo;Do any of ye know where
+      Peter Vandam's house is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yeh, that's it right there,&rdquo; and they pointed to a large log house less
+      than a hundred yards away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do ye know him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yeh, he's my paw,&rdquo; said a sun-bleached freckle-face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you bring him here right away, I'll give you a dime. Tell him I'm from
+      Warren's with a cargo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dusty stampede that followed was like that of a mustang herd, for a
+      dime was a dime in those days. And very soon, a tall, ruddy man appeared
+      at the dock. He was a Dutchman in name only. At first sight he was much
+      like the other loafers, but was bigger, and had a more business-like air
+      when observed near at hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you from Warren's?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir. I came with Bill Bymus. But he went off early this morning; I
+      haven't seen him since. I'm afraid he's in trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where'd he go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In there with some friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha, just like him; he's in trouble all right. He'll be no good for a
+      week. Last time he came near losing all our stuff. Now let's see what
+      ye've got.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you Mr. Peter Vandam?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Still Rolf looked doubtful. There was a small group around, and Rolf heard
+      several voices, &ldquo;Yes, this is Peter; ye needn't a-worry.&rdquo; But Rolf knew
+      none of the speakers. His look of puzzlement at first annoyed then tickled
+      the Dutchman, who exploded into a hearty guffaw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wall, wall, you sure think ill of us. Here, now look at that,&rdquo; and he
+      drew out a bundle of letters addressed to Master Peter Vandam. Then he
+      displayed a gold watch inscribed on the back &ldquo;Peter Vandam&rdquo;; next he
+      showed a fob seal with a scroll and an inscription, &ldquo;Petrus Vandamus&rdquo;;
+      then he turned to a youngster and said, &ldquo;Run, there is the Reverend Dr.
+      Powellus, he may help us&rdquo;; so the black-garbed, knee-breached,
+      shovel-hatted clergyman came and pompously said: &ldquo;Yes, my young friend,
+      without doubt you may rest assured that this is our very estimable
+      parishioner, Master Peter Vandam; a man well accounted in the world of
+      trade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now,&rdquo; said Peter, &ldquo;with the help of my birth-register and
+      marriage-certificate, which will be placed at your service with all
+      possible haste, I hope I may win your recognition.&rdquo; The situation, at
+      first tense, had become more and more funny, and the bystanders laughed
+      aloud. Rolf rose to it, and smiling said slowly, &ldquo;I am inclined to think
+      that you must be Master Peter Vandam, of Albany. If that's so, this letter
+      is for you, also this cargo.&rdquo; And so the delivery was made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bill Bymus has not delivered the other letter to this day. Presumably he
+      went to stay with his sister, but she saw little of him, for his stay at
+      Albany was, as usual, one long spree. It was clear that, but for Rolf,
+      there might have been serious loss of fur, and Vandam showed his
+      appreciation by taking the lad to his own home, where the story of the
+      difficult identification furnished ground for gusty laughter and primitive
+      jest on many an after day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The return cargo for Warren consisted of stores that the Vandam warehouse
+      had in stock, and some stuff that took a day or more to collect in town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Rolf was sorting and packing next day, a tall, thin, well-dressed young
+      man walked in with the air of one much at home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good morrow, Peter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good day to ye, sir,&rdquo; and they talked of crops and politics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Vandam said, &ldquo;Rolf, come over here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He came and was presented to the tall man, who was indeed very thin, and
+      looked little better than an invalid. &ldquo;This,&rdquo; said Peter, &ldquo;is Master Henry
+      van Cortlandt the son of his honour, the governor, and a very learned
+      barrister. He wants to go on a long hunting trip for his health. I tell
+      him that likely you are the man he needs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was so unexpected that Rolf turned red and gazed on the ground. Van
+      Cortlandt at once began to clear things by interjecting: &ldquo;You see, I'm not
+      strong. I want to live outdoors for three months, where I can have some
+      hunting and be beyond reach of business. I'll pay you a hundred dollars
+      for the three months, to cover board and guidance. And providing I'm well
+      pleased and have good hunting, I'll give you fifty dollars more when I get
+      back to Albany.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd like much to be your guide,&rdquo; said Rolf, &ldquo;but I have a partner. I must
+      find out if he's willing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye don't mean-that drunken Bill Bymus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No! my hunting partner; he's an Indian.&rdquo; Then, after a pause, he added,
+      &ldquo;You wouldn't go in fly-time, would you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I want to be in peace. But any time after the first of August.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am bound to help Van Trumper with his harvest; that will take most of
+      August.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he talked, the young lawyer sized him up and said to himself, &ldquo;This is
+      my man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And before they parted it was agreed that Rolf should come to Albany with
+      Quonab as soon as he could return in August, to form the camping party for
+      the governor's son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0054" id="link2HCH0054">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 55. The Rescue of Bill
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Bales were ready and the canoe newly gummed three days after their
+      arrival, but still no sign of Bill. A messengers sent to the
+      brother-in-law's home reported that he had not been seen for two days. In
+      spite of the fact that Albany numbered nearly &ldquo;six thousand living human
+      souls,&rdquo; a brief search by the docksharps soon revealed the sinner's
+      retreat. His worst enemy would have pitied him; a red-eyed wreck; a
+      starved, sick and trembling weakling; conscience-stricken, for the letter
+      intrusted to him was lost; the cargo stolen&mdash;so his comforters had
+      said&mdash;and the raw country lad murdered and thrown out into the river.
+      What wonder that he should shun the light of day! And when big Peter with
+      Rolf in the living flesh, instead of the sheriff, stood before him and
+      told him to come out of that and get into the canoe, he wept bitter tears
+      of repentance and vowed that never, never, never, as long as he lived
+      would he ever again let liquor touch his lips. A frame of mind which
+      lasted in strength for nearly one day and a half, and did not entirely
+      varnish for three.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed Troy without desiring to stop, and began their fight with the
+      river. It was harder than when coming, for their course was against stream
+      when paddling, up hill when portaging, the water was lower, the cargo was
+      heavier, and Bill not so able. Ten days it took them to cover those eighty
+      miles. But they came out safely, cargo and all, and landed at Warren's
+      alive and well on the twenty-first day since leaving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bill had recovered his usual form. Gravely and with pride he marched up to
+      Warren and handed out a large letter which read outside, &ldquo;Bill of Lading,&rdquo;
+       and when opened, read: &ldquo;The bearer of this, Bill Bymus, is no good. Don't
+      trust him to Albany any more. (Signed) Peter Vandam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Warren's eyes twinkled, but he said nothing. He took
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf aside and said, &ldquo;Let's have it.&rdquo; Rolf gave him the real letter that,
+      unknown to Bill, he had carried, and Warren learned some things that he
+      knew before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf's contract was for a month; it had ten days to run, and those ten
+      days were put in weighing sugar, checking accounts, milking cows, and
+      watching the buying of fur. Warren didn't want him to see too much of the
+      fur business, but Rolf gathered quickly that these were the main
+      principles: Fill the seller with liquor, if possible; &ldquo;fire water for fur&rdquo;
+       was the idea; next, grade all fur as medium or second-class, when cash was
+      demanded, but be easy as long as payment was to be in trade. That afforded
+      many loopholes between weighing, grading, charging, and shrinkage, and
+      finally he noticed that Albany prices were 30 to 50 per cent. higher than
+      Warren prices. Yet Warren was reckoned a first-class fellow, a good
+      neighbour, and a member of the church. But it was understood everywhere
+      that fur, like horseflesh, was a business with moral standards of its own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days before their contract was up, Warren said: &ldquo;How'd ye like to
+      renew for a month?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't; I promised to help Van Trumper with his harvest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does he pay ye?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seventy-five cents a day and board.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll make it a dollar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've given my word,&rdquo; said Rolf, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hey ye signed papers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They're not needed. The only use of signed papers is to show ye have
+      given your word,&rdquo; said Rolf, quoting his mother, with rising indignation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The trader sniffed a little contemptuously and said nothing. But he
+      realized the value of a lad who was a steady, intelligent worker, wouldn't
+      drink, and was absolutely bound by a promise; so, after awhile, he said:
+      &ldquo;Wall, if Van don't want ye now, come back for a couple of weeks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Early in the morning Rolf gathered the trifles he had secured for the
+      little children and the book he had bought for Annette, a sweet story of a
+      perfect girl who died and went to heaven, the front embellished with a
+      thrilling wood-cut. Then he crossed the familiar five-mile portage at a
+      pace that in an hour brought him to the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The greeting at Van's was that of a brother come home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vell, Rolf, it's goood to see ye back. It's choost vat I vented. Hi,
+      Marta, I told it you, yah. I say, now I hope ze good Gott send Rolf. Ach,
+      how I am shpoil!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, indeed. The hay was ready; the barley was changing. So Rolf took up
+      his life on the farm, doing work that a year before was beyond his
+      strength, for the spirit of the hills was on him, with its impulse of
+      growth, its joy in effort, its glory in strength. And all who saw the
+      longlegged, long-armed, flat-backed youth plying fork or axe or hoe, in
+      some sort ventured a guess: &ldquo;He'll be a good 'un some day; the kind o'
+      chap to keep friendly with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0055" id="link2HCH0055">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 56. The Sick Ox
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Thunder Moon passed quickly by; the hay was in; the barley partly so.
+      Day by day the whitefaced oxen toiled at the creaking yoke, as the loads
+      of hay and grain were jounced cumbrously over roots and stumps of the
+      virgin fields. Everything was promising well, when, as usual, there came a
+      thunderbolt out of the clear sky. Buck, the off ox, fell sick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those who know little about cattle have written much of the meek and
+      patient ox. Those who know them well tell us that the ox is the &ldquo;most
+      cussedest of all cussed&rdquo; animals; a sneak, a bully, a coward, a thief, a
+      shirk, a schemer; and when he is not in mischief he is thinking about it.
+      The wickedest pack mule that ever bucked his burden is a pinfeathered
+      turtle-dove compared with an average ox. There are some gentle oxen, but
+      they are rare; most are treacherous, some are dangerous, and these are
+      best got rid of, as they mislead their yoke mates and mislay their
+      drivers. Van's two oxen, Buck and Bright, manifested the usual variety and
+      contrariety of disposition. They were all right when well handled, and
+      this Rolf could do better than Van, for he was &ldquo;raised on oxen,&rdquo; and Van's
+      over voluble, sputtering, Dutch-English seemed ill comprehended of the
+      massive yoke beasts. The simpler whip-waving and fewer orders of the
+      Yankee were so obviously successful that Van had resigned the whip of
+      authority and Rolf was driver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ordinarily, an ox driver walks on the hew (nigh or left) side, near the
+      head of his team, shouting &ldquo;gee&rdquo; (right), &ldquo;haw&rdquo; (left), &ldquo;get up,&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;steady,&rdquo; or &ldquo;whoa&rdquo; (stop), accompanying the order with a waving of the
+      whip. Foolish drivers lash the oxen on the haw side when they wish them to
+      gee&mdash;and vice versa; but it is notorious that all good drivers do
+      little lashing. Spare the lash or spoil your team. So it was not long
+      before Rolf could guide them from the top of the load, as they travelled
+      from shook to shook in the field. This voice of command saved his life, or
+      at least his limb, one morning, for he made a misstep that tumbled him
+      down between the oxen and the wagon. At once the team started, but his
+      ringing &ldquo;Whoa!&rdquo; brought them to a dead stop, and saved him; whereas, had
+      it been Van's &ldquo;Whoa!&rdquo; it would have set them off at a run, for every shout
+      from him meant a whip lick to follow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus Rolf won the respect, if not the love, of the huge beasts; more and
+      more they were his charge, and when, on that sad morning, in the last of
+      the barley, Van came in, &ldquo;Ach, vot shall I do! Vot shall I do! Dot Buck ox
+      be nigh dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alas! there he lay on the ground, his head sometimes raised, sometimes
+      stretched out flat, while the huge creature uttered short moans at times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only four years before, Rolf had seen that same thing at Redding. The
+      rolling eye, the working of the belly muscles, the straining and moaning.
+      &ldquo;It's colic; have you any ginger?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I hat only dot soft soap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      What soft soap had to do with ginger was not clear, and Rolf wondered if
+      it had some rare occult medical power that had escaped his mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know where there's any slippery elm?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yah.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then bring a big boiling of the bark, while I get some peppermint.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The elm bark was boiled till it made a kettleful of brown slime. The
+      peppermint was dried above the stove till it could be powdered, and mixed
+      with the slippery slush. Some sulphur and some soda were discovered and
+      stirred in, on general principles, and they hastened to the huge, helpless
+      creature in the field.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Buck seemed worse than ever. He was flat on his side, with his spine
+      humped up, moaning and straining at intervals. But now relief was in sight&mdash;so
+      thought the men. With a tin dipper they tried to pour some relief into the
+      open mouth of the sufferer, who had so little appreciation that he simply
+      taxed his remaining strength to blow it out in their faces. Several
+      attempts ended the same way. Then the brute, in what looked like temper,
+      swung his muzzle and dashed the whole dipper away. Next they tried the
+      usual method, mixing it with a bran mash, considered a delicacy in the
+      bovine world, but Buck again took notice, under pressure only, to dash it
+      away and waste it all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It occurred to them they might force it down his throat if they could
+      raise his head. So they used a hand lever and a prop to elevate the
+      muzzle, and were about to try another inpour, when Buck leaped to his
+      feet, and behaving like one who has been shamming, made at full gallop for
+      the stable, nor stopped till safely in his stall, where at once he dropped
+      in all the evident agony of a new spasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a common thing for oxen to sham sick, but this was the real thing,
+      and it seemed they were going to lose the ox, which meant also lose a
+      large part of the harvest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the stable, now, they had a better chance; they tied him, then raised
+      his head with a lever till his snout was high above his shoulders. Now it
+      seemed easy to pour the medicine down that long, sloping passage. But his
+      mouth was tightly closed, any that entered his nostrils was blown afar,
+      and the suffering beast strained at the rope till he seemed likely to
+      strangle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both men and ox were worn out with the struggle; the brute was no better,
+      but rather worse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wall,&rdquo; said Rolf, &ldquo;I've seen a good many ornery steers, but that's the
+      orneriest I ever did handle, an' I reckon we'll lose him if he don't get
+      that poison into him pretty soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Oxen never were studied as much as horses, for they were considered a
+      temporary shift, and every farmer looked forward to replacing them with
+      the latter. Oxen were enormously strong, and they could flourish without
+      grain when the grass was good; they never lost their head in a swamp hole,
+      and ploughed steadily among all kinds of roots and stumps; but they were
+      exasperatingly slow and eternally tricky. Bright, being the trickier of
+      the two, was made the nigh ox, to be more under control. Ordinarily Rolf
+      could manage Buck easily, but the present situation seemed hopeless. In
+      his memory he harked back to Redding days, and he recalled old Eli Gooch,
+      the ox expert, and wondered what he would have done. Then, as he sat, he
+      caught sight of the sick ox reaching out its head and deftly licking up a
+      few drops of bran mash that had fallen from his yoke fellow's portion. A
+      smile spread over Rolf's face. &ldquo;Just like you; you think nothing's good
+      except it's stolen. All right; we'll see.&rdquo; He mixed a big dose of
+      medicine, with bran, as before. Then he tied Bright's head so that he
+      could not reach the ground, and set the bucket of mash half way between
+      the two oxen. &ldquo;Here ye are, Bright,&rdquo; he said, as a matter of form, and
+      walked out of the stable; but, from a crack, he watched. Buck saw a chance
+      to steal Bright's bran; he looked around; Oh, joy! his driver was away. He
+      reached out cautiously; sniffed; his long tongue shot forth for a first
+      taste, when Rolf gave a shout and ran in. &ldquo;Hi, you old robber! Let that
+      alone; that's for Bright.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sick ox was very much in his own stall now, and stayed there for some
+      time after Rolf went to resume his place at the peephole. But encouraged
+      by a few minutes of silence, he again reached out, and hastily gulped down
+      a mouthful of the mixture before Rolf shouted and rushed in armed with a
+      switch to punish the thief. Poor Bright, by his efforts to reach the
+      tempting mash, was unwittingly playing the game, for this was proof
+      positive of its desirableness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After giving Buck a few cuts with the switch, Rolf retired, as before.
+      Again the sick ox waited for silence, and reaching out with greedy haste,
+      he gulped down the rest and emptied the bucket; seeing which, Rolf ran in
+      and gave the rogue a final trouncing for the sake of consistency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Any one who knows what slippery elm, peppermint, soda, sulphur, colic, and
+      ox do when thoroughly interincorporated will not be surprised to learn
+      that in the morning the stable needed special treatment, and of all the
+      mixture the ox was the only ingredient left on the active list. He was all
+      right again, very thirsty, and not quite up to his usual standard, but, as
+      Van said, after a careful look, &ldquo;Ah, tell you vot, dot you vas a veil ox
+      again, an' I t'ink I know not vot if you all tricky vas like Bright.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0056" id="link2HCH0056">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 57. Rolf and Skookum at Albany
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Red Moon (August) follows the Thunder Moon, and in the early part of
+      its second week Rolf and Van, hauling in the barley and discussing the
+      fitness of the oats, were startled by a most outrageous clatter among the
+      hens. Horrid murder evidently was stalking abroad, and, hastening to the
+      rescue, Rolf heard loud, angry barks; then a savage beast with a defunct
+      &ldquo;cackle party&rdquo; appeared, but dropped the victim to bark and bound upon the
+      &ldquo;relief party&rdquo; with ecstatic expressions of joy, in spite of Rolf's&mdash;&ldquo;Skookum!
+      you little brute!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes! Quonab was back; that is, he was at the lake shore, and Skookum had
+      made haste to plunge into the joys and gayeties of this social centre,
+      without awaiting the formalities of greeting or even of dry-shod landing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next scene was&mdash;a big, high post, a long, strong chain and a
+      small, sad dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho, Quonab, you found your people? You had a good time?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh,&rdquo; was the answer, the whole of it, and all the light Rolf got for
+      many a day on the old man's trip to the North. The prospect of going to
+      Albany for Van Cortlandt was much more attractive to Quonab than that of
+      the harvest field, so a compromise was agreed on. Callan's barley was in
+      the stock; if all three helped Callan for three days, Callan would owe
+      them for nine, and so it was arranged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again &ldquo;good-bye,&rdquo; and Rolf, Quonab, and little dog Skookum went sailing
+      down the Schroon toward the junction, where they left a cache of their
+      supplies, and down the broadening Hudson toward Albany.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had been over the road twice; Quonab never before, yet his nose for
+      water was so good and the sense of rapid and portage was so strong in the
+      red man, that many times he was the pilot. &ldquo;This is the way, because it
+      must be&rdquo;; &ldquo;there it is deep because so narrow&rdquo;; &ldquo;that rapid is dangerous,
+      because there is such a well-beaten portage trail&rdquo;; &ldquo;that we can run,
+      because I see it,&rdquo; or, &ldquo;because there is no portage trail,&rdquo; etc. The
+      eighty miles were covered in three sleeps, and in the mid-moon days of the
+      Red Moon they landed at the dock in front of Peter Vandam's. If Quonab had
+      any especial emotions for the occasion, he cloaked them perfectly under a
+      calm and copper-coloured exterior of absolute immobility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their Albany experiences included a meeting with the governor and an
+      encounter with a broad and burly river pirate, who, seeing a lone and
+      peaceable-looking red man, went out of his way to insult him; and when
+      Quonab's knife flashed out at last, it was only his recently established
+      relations with the governor's son that saved him from some very sad
+      results, for there were many loafers about. But burly Vandam appeared in
+      the nick of time to halt the small mob with the warning: &ldquo;Don't you know
+      that's Mr. Van Cortlandt's guide?&rdquo; With the governor and Vandam to back
+      him, Quonab soon had the mob on his side, and the dock loafer's own
+      friends pelted him with mud as he escaped. But not a little credit is due
+      to Skookum, for at the critical moment he had sprung on the ruffian's bare
+      and abundant leg with such toothsome effect that the owner fell promptly
+      backward and the knife thrust missed. It was quickly over and Quonab
+      replaced his knife, contemptuous of the whole crowd before, during and
+      after the incident. Not at the time, but days later, he said of his foe:
+      &ldquo;He was a talker; he was full of fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With the backwoods only thirty miles away, and the unbroken wilderness one
+      hundred, it was hard to believe how little Henry van Cortlandt knew of the
+      woods and its life. He belonged to the ultra-fashionable set, and it was
+      rather their pose to affect ignorance of the savage world and its ways.
+      But he had plenty of common-sense to fan back on, and the inspiring
+      example of Washington, equally at home in the nation's Parliament, the
+      army intrenchment, the glittering ball room, or the hunting lodge of the
+      Indian, was a constant reminder that the perfect man is a harmonious
+      development of mind, morals, and physique.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His training had been somewhat warped by the ultraclassic fashion of the
+      times, so he persisted in seeing in Quonab a sort of discoloured, barbaric
+      clansman of Alaric or a camp follower of Xenophon's host, rather than an
+      actual living, interesting, native American, exemplifying in the highest
+      degree the sinewy, alert woodman, and the saturated mystic and pantheist
+      of an age bygone and out of date, combined with a middle-measure
+      intelligence. And Rolf, tall, blue-eyed with brown, curling hair, was made
+      to pose as the youthful Achilles, rather than as a type of America's best
+      young manhood, cleaner, saner, and of far higher ideals and traditions
+      than ever were ascribed to Achilles by his most blinded worshippers. It
+      recalled the case of Wordsworth and Southey living side by side in
+      England; Southey, the famous, must needs seek in ancient India for
+      material to write his twelve-volume romance that no one ever looks at;
+      Wordsworth, the unknown, wrote of the things of his own time, about his
+      own door? and produced immortal verse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What should we think of Homer, had he sung his impressions of the ancient
+      Egyptians? or of Thackeray, had he novelized the life of the Babylonians?
+      It is an ancient blindness, with an ancient wall to bruise one's head. It
+      is only those who seek ointment of the consecrated clay that gives back
+      sight, who see the shining way at their feet, who beat their face against
+      no wall, who safely climb the heights. Henry van Cortlandt was a man of
+      rare parts, of every advantage, but still he had been taught steadfastly
+      to live in the past. His eyes were yet to be opened. The living present
+      was not his&mdash;but yet to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young lawyer had been assembling his outfit at Vandam's warehouse,
+      for, in spite of scoffing friends, he knew that Rolf was coming back to
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Rolf saw the pile of stuff that was gathered for that outfit, he
+      stared at it aghast, then looked at Vandam, and together they roared.
+      There was everything for light housekeeping and heavy doctoring, even
+      chairs, a wash stand, a mirror, a mortar, and a pestle. Six canoes could
+      scarcely have carried the lot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tain't so much the young man as his mother,&rdquo; explained Big Pete; &ldquo;at
+      first I tried to make 'em understand, but it was no use; so I says, 'All
+      right, go ahead, as long as there's room in the warehouse.' I reckon I'll
+      set on the fence and have some fun seein' Rolf ontangle the affair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Phew, pheeeww&mdash;ph-e-e-e-e-w,&rdquo; was all Rolf could say in answer. But
+      at last, &ldquo;Wall, there's always a way. I sized him up as pretty level
+      headed. We'll see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a way and it was easy, for, in a secret session, Rolf, Pete, and
+      Van Cortlandt together sorted out the things needed. A small tent,
+      blankets, extra clothes, guns, ammunition, delicate food for three months,
+      a few medicines and toilet articles&mdash;a pretty good load for one
+      canoe, but a trifle compared with the mountain of stuff piled up on the
+      floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Mr. van Cortlandt,&rdquo; said Rolf, &ldquo;will you explain to your mother that
+      we are going on with this so as to travel quickly, and will send back for
+      the rest as we need it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A quiet chuckle was now heard from Big Pete. &ldquo;Good! I wondered how he'd
+      settle it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The governor and his lady saw them off; therefore, there was a crowd. The
+      mother never before had noted what a frail and dangerous thing a canoe is.
+      She cautioned her son never to venture out alone, and to be sure that he
+      rubbed his chest with the pectoral balm she had made from such and such a
+      famous receipt, the one that saved the life but not the limb of old
+      Governor Stuyvesant, and come right home if you catch a cold; and wait at
+      the first camp till the other things come, and (in a whisper) keep away
+      from that horrid red Indian with the knife, and never fail to let every
+      one know who you are, and write regularly, and don't forget to take your
+      calomel Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, alternating with Peruvian bark
+      Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and squills on Sunday, except every other
+      week, when he should devote Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays to rhubarb and
+      catnip tea, except in the full moon, when the catnip was to be replaced
+      with graveyard bergamot and the squills with opodeldoc in which an iron
+      nail had been left for a week.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Henry was embraced, Rolf was hand-shaken, Quonab was nodded at, Skookum
+      was wisely let alone, and the trim canoe swung from the dock. Amid hearty
+      cheers, farewells, and &ldquo;God speed ye's&rdquo; it breasted the flood for the
+      North.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And on the dock, with kerchief to her eyes, stood the mother, weeping to
+      think that her boy was going far, far away from his home and friends in
+      dear, cultured, refined Albany, away, away, to that remote and barbarous
+      inaccessible region almost to the shore land of Lake Champlain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0057" id="link2HCH0057">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 58. Back to Indian Lake
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Young Van Cortlandt, six feet two in his socks and thirty-four inches
+      around the chest, was, as Rolf long afterward said, &ldquo;awful good raw
+      material, but awful raw.&rdquo; Two years out of college, half of which had been
+      spent at the law, had done little but launch him as a physical weakling
+      and a social star. But his mental make-up was more than good; it was of
+      large promise. He lacked neither courage nor sense, and the course he now
+      followed was surely the best for man-making.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf never realized how much a farmer-woodman-canoeman-hunter-camper had
+      to know, until now he met a man who did not know anything, nor dreamed how
+      many wrong ways there were of doing a job, till he saw his new companion
+      try it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no single simple thing that is a more complete measure of one's
+      woodcraft than the lighting of a fire. There are a dozen good ways and a
+      thousand wrong ones. A man who can light thirty fires on thirty successive
+      days with thirty matches or thirty sparks from flint and steel is a
+      graduated woodman, for the feat presupposes experience of many years and
+      the skill that belongs to a winner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Quonab and Rolf came back from taking each a load over the first
+      little portage, they found Van Cortlandt getting ready for a fire with a
+      great, solid pile of small logs, most of them wet and green. He knew how
+      to use flint and steel, because that was the established household way of
+      the times. Since childhood had he lighted the candle at home by this
+      primitive means. When his pile of soggy logs was ready, he struck his
+      flint, caught a spark on the tinder that is always kept on hand, blew it
+      to a flame, thrust in between two of the wet logs, waited for all to blaze
+      up, and wondered why the tiny blaze went out at once, no matter how often
+      he tried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the others came back, Van Cortlandt remarked: &ldquo;It doesn't seem to
+      burn.&rdquo; The Indian turned away in silent contempt. Rolf had hard work to
+      keep the forms of respect, until the thought came: &ldquo;I suppose I looked
+      just as big a fool in his world at Albany.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;green wood and wet wood won't do, but yonder is some
+      birch bark and there's a pine root.&rdquo; He took his axe and cut a few sticks
+      from the root, then used his knife to make a sliver-fuzz of each; one
+      piece, so resinous that it would not whittle, he smashed with the back of
+      the axe into a lot of matchwood. With a handful of finely shredded birch
+      bark he was now quite ready. A crack of the flint a blowing of the spark
+      caught on the tinder from the box, a little flame that at once was
+      magnified by the birch bark, and in a minute the pine splinters made a
+      sputtering fire. Quonab did not even pay Van Cortlandt the compliment of
+      using one of his logs. He cut a growing poplar, built a fireplace of the
+      green logs around the blaze that Rolf had made, and the meal was ready in
+      a few minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Van Cortlandt was not a fool; merely it was all new to him. But his
+      attention was directed to fire-making now, and long before they reached
+      their cabin he had learned this, the first of the woodman's arts&mdash;he
+      could lay and light a fire. And when, weeks later, he not only made the
+      flint fire, but learned in emergency to make the rubbing stick spark, his
+      cup of joy was full. He felt he was learning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Determined to be in everything, now he paddled all day; at first with
+      vigour, then mechanically, at last feebly and painfully. Late in the
+      afternoon they made the first long portage; it was a quarter mile. Rolf
+      took a hundred pounds, Quonab half as much more, Van Cortlandt tottered
+      slowly behind with his pill-kit and his paddle. That night, on his ample
+      mattress, he slept the sleep of utter exhaustion. Next day he did little
+      and said nothing. It came on to rain; he raised a huge umbrella and
+      crouched under it till the storm was over. But the third day he began to
+      show signs of new life, and before they reached the Schroon's mouth, on
+      the fifth day, his young frame was already responding to the elixir of the
+      hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was very clear that they could not take half of the stuff that they had
+      cached at the Schroon's mouth, so that a new adjustment was needed and
+      still a cache to await another trip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night as they sat by their sixth camp fire, Van Cortlandt pondered
+      over the recent days, and they seemed many since he had left home. He felt
+      much older and stronger. He felt not only less strange, but positively
+      intimate with the life, the river, the canoe, and his comrades; and,
+      pleased with his winnings, he laid his hand on Skookum, slumbering near,
+      only to arouse in response a savage growl, as that important animal arose
+      and moved to the other side of the fire. Never did small dog give tall man
+      a more deliberate snub. &ldquo;You can't do that with Skookum; you must wait
+      till he's ready,&rdquo; said Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The journey up the Hudson with its &ldquo;mean&rdquo; waters and its &ldquo;carries&rdquo; was
+      much as before. Then they came to the eagle's nest and the easy waters of
+      Jesup's River, and without important incident they landed at the cabin.
+      The feeling of &ldquo;home again&rdquo; spread over the camp and every one was gay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0058" id="link2HCH0058">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 59. Van Cortlandt's Drugs
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;AIN'T ye feelin' all right?&rdquo; said Rolf, one bright, calomel morning, as
+      he saw Van Cortlandt preparing his daily physic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes; I'm feeling fine; I'm better every day,&rdquo; was the jovial reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Course I don't know, but my mother used to say: 'Med'cine's the stuff
+      makes a sick man well, an' a well man sick.&rdquo;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My mother and your mother would have fought at sight, as you may judge.
+      B-u-t,&rdquo; he added with reflective slowness, and a merry twinkle in his eye,
+      &ldquo;if things were to be judged by their product, I am afraid your mother
+      would win easily,&rdquo; and he laid his long, thin, scrawny hand beside the
+      broad, strong hand of the growing youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old Sylvanne wasn't far astray when he said: 'There aren't any sick,
+      'cept them as thinks they are,&rdquo;' said Rolf. &ldquo;I suppose I ought to begin to
+      taper off,&rdquo; was the reply. But the tapering was very sudden. Before a week
+      went by, it seemed desirable to go back for the stuff left in cache on the
+      Schroon, where, of course, it was subject to several risks. There seemed
+      no object in taking Van Cortlandt back, but they could not well leave him
+      alone. He went. He had kept time with fair regularity&mdash;calomel,
+      rhubarb; calomel, rhubarb; calomel, rhubarb, squills&mdash;but Rolf's
+      remarks had sunk into his intelligence, as a red-hot shot will sink
+      through shingles, letting in light and creating revolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a rhubarb morning. He drank his potion, then, carefully
+      stoppering the bottle, he placed it with its companions in a box and
+      stowed that near the middle of the canoe. &ldquo;I'll be glad when it's
+      finished,&rdquo; he said reflectively; &ldquo;I don't believe I need it now. I wish
+      sometimes I could run short of it all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That was what Rolf had been hoping for. Without such a remark, he would
+      not have dared do as he did. He threw the tent cover over the canoe
+      amidships, causing the unstable craft to cant: &ldquo;That won't do,&rdquo; he
+      remarked, and took out several articles, including the medicine chest, put
+      them ashore under the bushes, and, when he replaced them, contrived that
+      the medicine should be forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next morning Van Cortlandt, rising to prepare his calomel, got a shock to
+      find it not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It strikes me,&rdquo; says Rolf, &ldquo;the last time I saw that, it was on the bank
+      when we trimmed the canoe.&rdquo; Yes, there could be no doubt of it. Van must
+      live his life in utter druglessness for a time. It gave him somewhat of a
+      scare, much like that a young swimmer gets when he finds he has drifted
+      away from his floats; and, like that same beginner, it braced him to help
+      himself. So Van found that he could swim without corks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They made a rapid journey down, and in a week they were back with the
+      load.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was the potion chest where they had left it. Van Cortlandt picked it
+      up with a sheepish smile, and they sat down for evening meal. Presently
+      Rolf said: &ldquo;I mind once I seen three little hawks in a nest together. The
+      mother was teaching them to fly. Two of them started off all right, and
+      pretty soon were scooting among the treetops. The other was scared. He
+      says: 'No, mother, I never did fly, and I'm scared I'd get killed if I
+      tried.' At last the mother got mad and shoved him over. As soon as he felt
+      he was gone, he spread out his wings to save himself. The wings were all
+      right enough, and long before he struck the ground, he was flying.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /> <a name="linkchap60" id="linkchap60">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 60. Van Cortlandt's Adventure
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The coming of Van had compelled the trappers to build a new and much
+      larger cabin. When they were planning it, the lawyer said: &ldquo;If I were,
+      you, I'd make it twenty by thirty, with a big stone fireplace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I might want to come back some day and bring a friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf looked at him keenly. Here was an important possibility, but it was
+      too difficult to handle such large logs without a team; so the new cabin
+      was made fifteen by twenty, and the twenty-foot logs were very slim
+      indeed. Van Cortlandt took much trouble to fix it up inside with two white
+      birch bedsteads, balsam beds, and basswood mats on the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the first depression, he had recovered quickly since abandoning his
+      apothecary diet, and now he was more and more in their life, one of
+      themselves. But Quonab never liked him. The incident of the fire-making
+      was one of many which reduced him far below zero in the red man's esteem.
+      When he succeeded with the rubbing-stick fire, he rose a few points; since
+      then he had fallen a little, nearly every day, and now an incident took
+      place which reduced him even below his original low level.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of his admirable perseverance, Van Cortlandt failed in his
+      attempts to get a deer. This was depressing and unfortunate because of the
+      Indian's evident contempt, shown, not in any act, but rather in his
+      avoiding Van and never noticing him; while Van, on his part, discovered
+      that, but for this, that, and the other negligence on Quonab's part, he
+      himself might have done thus and so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To relieve the situation, Rolf said privately to the Indian, &ldquo;Can't we
+      find some way of giving him a deer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph,&rdquo; was the voluble reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've heard of that jack-light trick. Can ye work it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So it was arranged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab prepared a box which he filled with sand. On three sides of it he
+      put a screen of bark, eighteen inches high, and in the middle he made a
+      good torch of pine knots with a finely frizzled lighter of birch bark.
+      Ordinarily this is placed on the bow of the canoe, and, at the right
+      moment, is lighted by the sportsman. But Quonab distrusted Van as a
+      lighter, so placed this ancient search-light on the after thwart in front
+      of himself and pointing forward, but quartering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scheme is to go along the lake shore about dark, as the deer come to
+      the water to drink or eat lily pads. As soon as a deer is located by the
+      sound, the canoe is silently brought to the place, the torch is lighted,
+      the deer stops to gaze at this strange sunrise; its body is not usually
+      visible in the dim light, but the eyes reflect the glare like two lamps;
+      and now the gunner, with a volley of buckshot, plays his part. It is the
+      easiest and most unsportsmanlike of all methods. It has long been declared
+      illegal; and was especially bad, because it victimized chiefly the does
+      and fawns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But now it seemed the proper way to &ldquo;save Van Cortlandt's face.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So forth they went; Van armed with his double-barrelled shotgun and
+      carrying in his belt a huge and ornamental hunting knife, the badge of
+      woodcraft or of idiocy, according as yon took Van's view or Quonab's. Rolf
+      stayed in camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At dusk they set out, a slight easterly breeze compelling them to take the
+      eastern shore, for the deer must not smell them. As they silently crossed
+      the lake, the guide's quick eye caught sight of a long wimple on the
+      surface, across the tiny ripples of the breeze--surely the wake of some
+      large animal, most likely a deer. Good luck. Putting on all speed, he sent
+      the canoe flying after it, and in three or four minutes they sighted a
+      large, dark creature moving fast to escape, but it was low on the water,
+      and had no horns. They could not make out what it was. Van sat tensely
+      gazing, with gun in hand, but the canoe overran the swimmer; it
+      disappeared under the prow, and a moment later there scrambled over the
+      gunwale a huge black fisher.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Knife,&rdquo; cried Quonab, in mortal fear that Van would shoot and blow a hole
+      throught the canoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fisher went straight at the lawyer hissing and snarling with voice
+      like a bear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Van grasped his knife, and then and there began A most extraordinary
+      fight; holding his assailant off as best he could, he stabbed again and
+      again with that long blade. But the fisher seemed cased in iron. The knife
+      glanced off or was solidly stopped again and again, while the fierce,
+      active creature, squirming, struggling, clawing, and tearing had wounded
+      the lawyer in a dozen places. Jab, jab went the knife in vain. The fisher
+      seemed to gain in strength and fury. It fastened on Van's leg just below
+      the knee, and grow/ed and tore like a bulldog. Van seized its throat in
+      both hands and choked with all his strength. The brute at length let go
+      and sprang back to attack again, when Quonab saw his chance and felled it
+      with a blow of the paddle across the nose. It tumbled forward; Van lunged
+      to avoid what seemed a new attack, and in a moment the canoe upset, and
+      all were swimming for their lives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As luck would have it, they had drifted to the west side and the water was
+      barely six feet deep. So Quonab swam ashore holding onto a paddle, and
+      hauling the canoe, while Van waded ashore, hauling the dead fisher by the
+      tail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab seized a drift pole and stuck it in the mud as near the place as
+      possible, so they could come again in daylight to get the guns; then
+      silently paddled back to camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next day, thanks to the pole, they found the place and recovered first
+      Van's gun, second, that mighty hunting knife; and learned to the amazement
+      and disgust of all that it had not been out of its sheath: during all that
+      stabbing and slashing, the keen edge was hidden and the knife was wearing
+      its thick, round scabbard of leather and studs of brass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0059" id="link2HCH0059">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 61. Rolf Learns Something from Van
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     A man can't handle his own case, any more than a delirious
+     doctor kin give himself the right physic.&mdash;Saying of Si
+     Sylvanne.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      However superior Rolf might feel in the canoe or the woods, there was one
+      place where Van Cortlandt took the lead, and that was in the long talks
+      they had by the campfire or in Van's own shanty which Quonab rarely
+      entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most interesting subjects treated in these were ancient Greece and
+      modern Albany. Van Cortlandt was a good Greek scholar, and, finding an
+      intelligent listener, he told the stirring tales of royal Ilion, Athens,
+      and Pergamos, with the loving enthusiasm of one whom the teachers found it
+      easy to instruct in classic lore. And when he recited or intoned the
+      rolling Greek heroics of the siege of Troy, Rolf listened with an interest
+      that was strange, considering that he knew not a word of it. But he said,
+      &ldquo;It sounded like real talk, and the tramp of men that were all astir with
+      something big a-doing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Albany and politics, too, were vital strains, and life at the Government
+      House, with the struggling rings and cabals, social and political. These
+      were extraordinarily funny and whimsical to Rolf. No doubt because Van
+      Cortlandt presented them that way. And he more than once wondered how
+      rational humans could waste their time in such tomfoolery and childish
+      things as all conventionalities seemed to be. Van Cortlandt smiled at his
+      remarks, but made no answer for long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day, the first after the completion of Van Cortlandt's cabin, as the
+      two approached, the owner opened the door and stood aside for Rolf to
+      enter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go ahead,&rdquo; said Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After you,&rdquo; was the polite reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, go on,&rdquo; rejoined the lad, in mixed amusement and impatience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Van Cortlandt touched his hat and went in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Inside, Rolf turned squarely and said: &ldquo;The other day you said there was a
+      reason for all kinds o' social tricks; now will you tell me what the
+      dickens is the why of all these funny-do's? It 'pears to me a free-born
+      American didn't ought to take off his hat to any one but God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Van Cortlandt chuckled softly and said: &ldquo;You may be very sure that
+      everything that is done in the way of social usage is the result of
+      common-sense, with the exception of one or two things that have continued
+      after the reason for them has passed, like the buttons you have behind on
+      your coat; they were put there originally to button the tails out of the
+      way of your sword. Sword wearing and using have passed away, but still you
+      see the buttons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As to taking off your hat to no man: it depends entirely on what you mean
+      by it; and, being a social custom, you must accept its social meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the days of knight errantry, every one meeting a stranger had to
+      suppose him an enemy; ten to one he was. And the sign and proof of
+      friendly intention was raising the right hand without a weapon in it. The
+      hand was raised high, to be seen as far as they could shoot with a bow,
+      and a further proof was added when they raised the vizor and exposed the
+      face. The danger of the highway continued long after knights ceased to
+      wear armour; so, with the same meaning, the same gesture was used, but
+      with a lifting of the hat. If a man did not do it, he was either showing
+      contempt, or hostility for the other, or proving himself an ignorant
+      brute. So, in all civilized countries, lifting the hat is a sign of mutual
+      confidence and respect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well! that makes it all look different. But why should you touch your hat
+      when you went ahead of me just now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because this is my house; you are my guest. I am supposed to serve you in
+      reasonable ways and give you precedence. Had I let you open my door for
+      me, it would have been putting you in the place of my servant; to balance
+      that, I give you the sign of equality and respect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;H'm,&rdquo; said Rolf, &ldquo;'it just shows,' as old Sylvanne sez, 'this yer
+      steel-trap, hair-trigger, cocksure jedgment don't do. An' the more a man
+      learns, the less sure he gits. An' things as hez lasted a long time ain't
+      liable to be on a rotten foundation.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0060" id="link2HCH0060">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 62. The Charm of Song
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      With a regular tum ta tum ta, came a weird sound from the sunrise rock one
+      morning, as Van slipped out of his cabin.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Ag-aj-way-o-say
+     Pem-o-say
+     Gezhik-om era-bid ah-keen
+     Ena-bid ah-keen&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's he doing, Rolf?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's his sunrise prayer,&rdquo; was the answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know what it means?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it ain't much; jest 'Oh, thou that walkest in the sky in the
+      morning, I greet thee.&rdquo;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I didn't know Indians had such performances; that's exactly like the
+      priests of Osiris. Did any one teach him? I mean any white folk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it's always been the Indian way. They have a song or a prayer for
+      most every big event, sunrise, sunset, moonrise, good hunting, and another
+      for when they're sick, or when they're going on a journey, or when their
+      heart is bad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You astonish me. I had no idea they were so human. It carries me back to
+      the temple of Delphi. It is worthy of Cassandra of Ilion. I supposed all
+      Indians were just savage Indians that hunted till their bellies were full,
+      and slept till they were empty again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;H'm,&rdquo; rejoined Rolf, with a gentle laugh. &ldquo;I see you also have been doing
+      some 'hair-trigger, steel-trap, cocksure jedgin'.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder if he'd like to hear some of my songs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's worth trying; anyway, I would,&rdquo; said Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, by the fire, Van sang the &ldquo;Gay Cavalier,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Hunting of John
+      Peel,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Bonnie Dundee.&rdquo; He had a fine baritone voice. He was most
+      acceptable in the musical circles of Albany. Rolf was delighted, Skookum
+      moaned sympathetically, and Quonab sat nor moved till the music was over.
+      He said nothing, but Rolf felt that it was a point gained, and, trying to
+      follow it up, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here's your drum, Quonab; won't you sing 'The Song of the Wabanaki?'&rdquo; But
+      it was not well timed, and the Indian shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, Van,&rdquo; said Rolf, (Van Cortlandt had suggested this abbreviation)
+      &ldquo;you'll never stand right with Quonab till you kill a deer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've done some trying.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, now, we'll go out to-morrow evening and try once more. What do you
+      think of the weather, Quonab?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Storm begin noon and last three days,&rdquo; was the brief answer, as the red
+      man walked away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That settles it,&rdquo; said Rolf; &ldquo;we wait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Van was surprised, and all the more so when in an hour the sky grew black
+      and heavy rain set in, with squalls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How in the name of Belshazzar's weather bugler does he tell?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess you better not ask him, if you want to know. I'll find out and
+      tell you later.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf learned, not easily or at single talk:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yesterday the chipmunks worked hard; to-day there are none to be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yesterday the loons were wailing; now they are still, and no small birds
+      are about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yesterday it was a yellow sunrise; to-day a rosy dawn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last night the moon changed and had a thick little ring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has not rained for ten days, and this is the third day of easterly
+      winds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was no dew last night. I saw Tongue Mountain at daybreak; my
+      tom-tom will not sing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The smoke went three ways at dawn, and Skookum's nose was hot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they rested, not knowing, but forced to believe, and it was not till
+      the third day that the sky broke; the west wind began to pay back its
+      borrowings from the east, and the saying was proved that &ldquo;three days' rain
+      will empty any sky.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening, after their meal, Rolf and Van launched the canoe and
+      paddled down the lake. A mile from camp they landed, for this was a
+      favourite deer run. Very soon Rolf pointed to the ground. He had found a
+      perfectly fresh track, but Van seemed not to comprehend. They went along
+      it, Rolf softly and silently, Van with his long feet and legs making a
+      dangerous amount of clatter. Rolf turned and whispered, &ldquo;That won't do.
+      You must not stand on dry sticks.&rdquo; Van endeavoured to move more cautiously
+      and thought he was doing well, but Rolf found it very trying to his
+      patience and began to understand how Quonab had felt about himself a year
+      ago. &ldquo;See,&rdquo; said Rolf, &ldquo;lift your legs so; don't turn your feet out that
+      way. Look at the place before you put it down again; feel with your toe to
+      make sure there is no dead stick, then wriggle it down to the solid
+      ground. Of course, you'd do better in moccasins. Never brush past any
+      branches; lift them aside and don't let them scratch; ease them back to
+      the place; never try to bend a dry branch; go around it,&rdquo; etc. Van had not
+      thought of these things, but now he grasped them quickly, and they made a
+      wonderful improvement in his way of going.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came again to the water's edge; across a little bay Rolf sighted at
+      once the form of a buck, perfectly still, gazing their way, wondering, no
+      doubt, what made those noises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here's your chance,&rdquo; he whispered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo; was the eager query.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There; see that gray and white thing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't see him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For five minutes Rolf tried in vain to make his friend see that statuesque
+      form; for five minutes it never moved. Then, sensing danger, the buck gave
+      a bound and was lost to view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was disheartening. Rolf sat down, nearly disgusted; then one of
+      Sylvanne's remarks came to him: &ldquo;It don't prove any one a fool, coz he
+      can't play your game.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Rolf said, &ldquo;Van, hev ye a book with ye?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I have my Virgil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Read me the first page.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Van read it, holding the book six inches from his nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let's see ye read this page there,&rdquo; and Rolf held it up four feet away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't; it's nothing but a dim white spot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, can ye see that loon out there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean that long, dark thing in the bay?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that's a pine log close to,&rdquo; said Rolf, with a laugh, &ldquo;away out half
+      a mile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I can't see anything but shimmers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought so. It's no use your trying to shoot deer till ye get a pair of
+      specs to fit yer eyes. You have brains enough, but you haven't got the
+      eyesight of a hunter. You stay here till I go see if I have any luck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf melted into the woods. In twenty minutes Van heard a shot and very
+      soon Rolf reappeared, carrying a two-year-old buck, and they returned to
+      their camp by nightfall. Quonab glanced at their faces as they passed
+      carrying the little buck. They tried to look inscrutable. But the Indian
+      was not deceived. He gave out nothing but a sizzling &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0061" id="link2HCH0061">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 63. The Redemption of Van
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;WHEN things is looking black as black can be, it's a sure sign of luck
+      coming your way.&rdquo; so said Si Sylvanne, and so it proved to Van Cortlandt
+      The Moon of the Falling Leaves was waning, October was nearly over, the
+      day of his return to Albany was near, as he was to go out in time for the
+      hunters to return in open water. He was wonderfully improved in strength
+      and looks. His face was brown and ruddy. He had abandoned all drugs, and
+      had gained fully twenty pounds in weight. He had learned to make a fire,
+      paddle a canoe, and go through the woods in semi-silence. His scholarly
+      talk had given him large place in Rolf's esteem, and his sweet singing had
+      furnished a tiny little shelf for a modicum of Quonab's respect. But his
+      attempts to get a deer were failures. &ldquo;You come back next year with
+      proper, farsight glasses and you'll all right,&rdquo; said Rolf; and that seemed
+      the one ray of hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three days' storm had thrown so many trees that the hunters decided it
+      would be worth while making a fast trip down to Eagle's Nest, to cut such
+      timber as might have fallen across the stream, and so make an easy way for
+      when they should have less time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The surmise was quite right. Much new-fallen timber was now across the
+      channel. They chopped over twenty-five trunks before they reached Eagle's
+      Nest at noon, and, leaving the river in better shape than ever it was,
+      they turned, for the swift, straight, silent run of ten miles home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they rounded the last point, a huge black form in the water loomed to
+      view. Skookum's bristles rose. Quonab whispered, &ldquo;Moose! Shoot quick!&rdquo; Van
+      was the only one with a gun. The great black beast stood for a moment,
+      gazing at them with wide-open eyes, ears, and nostrils, then shook his
+      broad horns, wheeled, and dashed for the shore. Van fired and the bull
+      went down with a mighty splash among the lilies. Rolf and Skookum let off
+      a succession of most unhunterlike yells of triumph. But the giant sprang
+      up again and reached the shore, only to fall to Van Cortlandt's second
+      barrel. Yet the stop was momentary; he rose and dashed into the cover.
+      Quonab turned the canoe at once and made for the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great sob came from the bushes, then others at intervals. Quonab showed
+      his teeth and pointed. Rolf seized his rifle, Skookum sprang from the
+      boat, and a little later was heard letting off his war-cry in the bushes
+      not far away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The men rushed forward, guns in hand, but Quonab called, &ldquo;Look out! Maybe
+      he waiting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he is, he'll likely get one of us.&rdquo; said Rolf, with a light laugh, for
+      he had some hearsay knowledge of moose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Covered each by a tree, they waited till Van had reloaded his
+      double-barrelled, then cautiously approached. The great frothing sobs had
+      resounded from time to time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Skookum's voice also was heard in the thicket, and when they neared and
+      glimpsed the place, it was to see the monster on the ground, lying at full
+      length, dinging up his head at times when he uttered that horrid sound of
+      pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian sent a bullet through the moose's brain; then all was still,
+      the tragedy was over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But now their attention was turned to Van Cortlandt. He reeled, staggered,
+      his knees trembled, his face turned white, and, to save himself from
+      falling, he sank onto a log. Here he covered his face with his hands, his
+      feet beat the ground, and his shoulders heaved up and down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The others said nothing. They knew by the signs and the sounds that it was
+      only through a mighty effort that young Van Cortlandt, grown man as he
+      was, could keep himself from hysterical sobs and tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not then, but the next day it was that Quonab said: &ldquo;It comes to some
+      after they kill, to some before, as it came to you, Rolf; to me it came
+      the day I killed my first chipmunk, that time when I stole my father's
+      medicine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They had ample work for several hours now, to skin the game and save the
+      meat. It was fortunate they were so near home. A marvellous change there
+      was in the atmosphere of the camp. Twice Quonab spoke to Van Cortlandt, as
+      the latter laboured with them to save and store the meat of his moose. He
+      was rubbed, doped, soiled, and anointed with its flesh, hair, and blood,
+      and that night, as they sat by their camp fire, Skookum arose, stretched,
+      yawned, walked around deliberately, put his nose in the lawyer's hand,
+      gave it a lick, then lay down by his feet. Van Cortlandt glanced at Rolf,
+      a merry twinkle was in the eyes of both. &ldquo;It's all right. You can pat
+      Skookum now, without risk of being crippled. He's sized you up. You are
+      one of us at last;&rdquo; and Quonab looked on with two long ivory rows
+      a-gleaming in his smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0062" id="link2HCH0062">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 64. Dinner at the Governor's
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Was ever there a brighter blazing sunrise after such a night of gloom? Not
+      only a deer, but the biggest of all deer, and Van himself the only one of
+      the party that had ever killed a moose. The skin was removed and afterward
+      made into a hunting coat for the victor. The head and horns were carefully
+      preserved to be carried back to Albany, where they were mounted and still
+      hang in the hall of a later generation of the name. The final days at the
+      camp were days of happy feeling; they passed too soon, and the long-legged
+      lawyer, bronzed and healthy looking, took his place in their canoe for the
+      flying trip to Albany. With an empty canoe and three paddles (two and one
+      half, Van said), they flew down the open stretch of Jesup's River in
+      something over two hours and camped that night fully thirty-five miles
+      from their cabin. The next day they nearly reached the Schroon and in a
+      week they rounded the great bend, and Albany hove in view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How Van's heart did beat! How he did exult to come in triumph home,
+      reestablished in health and strengthened in every way. They were sighted
+      and recognized. Messengers were seen running; a heavy gun was fired, the
+      flag run up on the Capitol, bells set a-ringing, many people came running,
+      and more flags ran up on vessels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great crowd gathered by the dock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's father, and mother too!&rdquo; shouted Van, waving his hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hurrah,&rdquo; and the crowd took it up, while the bells went jingle, jangle,
+      and Skookum in the bow sent back his best in answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The canoe was dragged ashore. Van seized his mother in his arms, as she
+      cried: &ldquo;My boy, my boy, my darling boy! how well you look. Oh, why didn't
+      you write? But, thank God, you are back again, and looking so healthy and
+      strong. I know you took your squills and opodeldoc. Thank God for that!
+      Oh, I'm so happy! my boy, my boy! There's nothing like squills and God's
+      blessing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf and Quonab were made to feel that they had a part in it all. The
+      governor shook them warmly by the hand, and then a friendly voice was
+      heard: &ldquo;Wall, boy, here ye air agin; growed a little, settin' up and
+      sassin' back, same as ever.&rdquo; Rolf turned to see the gigantic, angular form
+      and kindly face of grizzly old Si Sylvanne and was still more surprised to
+      hear him addressed &ldquo;senator.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the senator, &ldquo;one o' them freak elections that sometimes hits
+      right; great luck for Albany, wa'nt it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho,&rdquo; said Quonab, shaking the senator's hand, while Skookum looked
+      puzzled and depressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, remember,&rdquo; said the governor, addressing the Indian, the lad, and
+      the senator, &ldquo;we expect you to dine tonight at the mansion; seven
+      o'clock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the terror of the dragon conventionality, that guards the gate and
+      hovers over the feast, loomed up in Rolf's imagination. He sought a
+      private word with Van. &ldquo;I'm afraid I have no fit clothes; I shan't know
+      how to behave,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I'll show you. The first thing is to be perfectly clean and get a
+      shave; put on the best clothes you have, and be sure they're clean; then
+      you come at exactly seven o'clock, knowing that every one is going to be
+      kind to you and you're bound to have a good time. As to any other
+      'funny-do' you watch me, and you'll have no trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So when the seven o'clock assemblage came, and guests were ascending the
+      steps of the governor's mansion, there also mounted a tall, slim youth, an
+      easy-pacing Indian, and a prick-eared, yellow dog. Young Van Cortlandt was
+      near the door, on watch to save them any embarrassment. But what a swell
+      he looked, cleanshaven, ruddy, tall, and handsome in the uniform of an
+      American captain, surrounded by friends and immensely popular. How
+      different it all was from that lonely cabin by the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A butler who tried to remove Skookum was saved from mutilation by the
+      intervention first of Quonab and next of Van; and when they sat down, this
+      uncompromising four-legged child of the forest ensconced himself under
+      Quonab's chair and growled whenever the silk stockings of the footman
+      seemed to approach beyond the line of true respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Young Van Cortlandt was chief talker at the dinner, but a pompous military
+      man was prominent in the company. Once or twice Rolf was addressed by the
+      governor or Lady Van Cortlandt, and had to speak to the whole table; his
+      cheeks were crimson, but he knew what he wanted to say and stopped when it
+      was said, so suffered no real embarrassment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After what seemed an interminable feast of countless dishes and hours'
+      duration, an extraordinary change set in. Led by the hostess, all stood
+      up, the chairs were lifted out of their way, and the ladies trooped into
+      another room; the doors were closed, and the men sat down again at the end
+      next the governor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Van stayed by Rolf and explained: &ldquo;This is another social custom that
+      began with a different meaning. One hundred years ago, every man got drunk
+      at every formal dinner, and carried on in a way that the ladies did not
+      care to see, so to save their own feelings and give the men a free rein,
+      the ladies withdrew. Nowadays, men are not supposed to indulge in any such
+      orgy, but the custom continues, because it gives the men a chance to
+      smoke, and the ladies a chance to discuss matters that do not interest the
+      men. So again you see it is backed by common sense.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This proved the best part of the dinner to Rolf. There was a peculiar
+      sense of over-politeness, of insincerity, almost, while the ladies were
+      present; the most of the talking had been done by young Van Cortlandt and
+      certain young ladies, assisted by some very gay young men and the general.
+      Their chatter was funny, but nothing more. Now a different air was on the
+      group; different subjects were discussed, and by different men, in a
+      totally different manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We've stood just about all we can stand,&rdquo; said the governor, alluding to
+      an incident newly told, of a British frigate boarding an American merchant
+      vessel by force and carrying off half her crew, under presence that they
+      were British seamen in disguise. &ldquo;That's been going on for three years
+      now. It's either piracy or war, and, in either case, it's our duty to
+      fight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jersey's dead against war,&rdquo; said a legislator from down the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jersey always was dead against everything that was for the national good,
+      sir,&rdquo; said a red-faced, puffy, military man, with a husky voice, a rolling
+      eye, and a way of ending every sentence in &ldquo;sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So is Connecticut,&rdquo; said another; &ldquo;they say, 'Look at all our defenceless
+      coasts and harbour towns.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They're not risking as much as New York,&rdquo; answered the governor, &ldquo;with
+      her harbours all the way up the Hudson and her back door open to invasion
+      from Canada.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fortunately, sir, Pennyslvania, Maryland, and the West have not forgotten
+      the glories of the past. All I ask&mdash;is a chance to show what we can
+      do, sir. I long for the smell of powder once more, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand that President Madison has sent several protests, and, in
+      spite of Connecticut and New Jersey, will send an ultimatum within three
+      months. He believes that Britain has all she can manage, with Napoleon and
+      his allies battering at her doors, and will not risk a war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's my opinion,&rdquo; said Sylvanne; &ldquo;that these English men is too
+      pig-headed an' ornery to care a whoop in hell whether we get mad or not.
+      They've a notion Paul Jones is dead, but I reckon we've got plenty of the
+      breed only waitin' a chance. Mor'n twenty-five of our merchantmen wrecked
+      each year through being stripped of their crews by a 'friendly power.'
+      'Pears to me we couldn't be worse off going to war, an' might be a dum
+      sight better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your home an' holdings are three hundred safe miles from the seacoast,&rdquo;
+       objected the man from Manhattan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and right next Canada,&rdquo; was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The continued insults to our flag, sir, and the personal indignities
+      offered to our people are even worse than the actual loss in ships and
+      goods. It makes my blood fairly boil,&rdquo; and the worthy general looked the
+      part as his purple jowl quivered over his white cravat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gosh all hemlock! the one pricks, but t'other festers, it's tarnal sure
+      you steal a man's dinner and tell him he's one o' nature's noblemen, he's
+      more apt to love you than if you give him five dollars to keep out o' your
+      sight,&rdquo; said Sylvanne, with slow emphasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's something to be said on the other side,&rdquo; said the timid one. &ldquo;You
+      surely allow that the British government is trying to do right, and after
+      all we must admit that that Jilson affair resected very little credit on
+      our own administration.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man ken make one awful big mistake an' still be all right, but he can't
+      go on making a little mistake every day right along an' be fit company for
+      a clean crowd,&rdquo; retorted the new senator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the governor rose and led the way to the drawing-room, where
+      they rejoined the ladies and the conversation took on a different colour
+      and weight, by which it lost all value for those who knew not the art of
+      twittering persiflage and found less joy in a handkerchief flirtation than
+      in the nation's onward march. Rolf and Quonab enjoyed it now about as much
+      as Skookum had done all the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0063" id="link2HCH0063">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 65. The Grebes and the Singing Mouse
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Quonab puzzled long over the amazing fact that young Van Cortlandt had
+      evident high standing &ldquo;in his own tribe.&rdquo; &ldquo;He must be a wise counsellor,
+      for I know he cannot fight and is a fool at hunting,&rdquo; was the ultimate
+      decision.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had a final interview with the governor and his son before they left.
+      Rolf received for himself and his partner the promised one hundred and
+      fifty dollars, and the hearty thanks of all in the governor's home. Next,
+      each was presented with a handsome hunting knife, not unlike the one young
+      Van had carried, but smaller. Quonab received his with &ldquo;Ho&mdash;&rdquo; then,
+      after a pause, &ldquo;He pull out, maybe, when I need him.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Ho! good!&rdquo; he
+      exclaimed, as the keen blade appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Rolf,&rdquo; said the lawyer, &ldquo;I want to come back next year and bring
+      three companions, and we will pay you at the same rate per month for each.
+      What do you say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad to have you again,&rdquo; said Rolf: &ldquo;we'll come for you on August
+      fifteenth; but remember you should bring your guitar and your spectacles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One word,&rdquo; said the governor, &ldquo;do you know the canoe route through
+      Champlain to Canada?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quonab does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could you undertake to render scout service in that region?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In case of war, we may need you both, so keep your ears open.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And once more the canoe made for the north, with Quonab in the stern and
+      Skookum in the bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In less than a week they were home, and none too soon; for already the
+      trees were bare, and they had to break the ice on the river before they
+      ended their trip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had gathered many ideas the last two-months. He did not propose to
+      continue all his life as a trapper. He wanted to see New York. He wanted
+      to plan for the future. He needed money for his plans. He and Quonab had
+      been running a hundred miles of traps, but some men run more than that
+      single handed. They must get out two new lines at once, before the frost
+      came. One of these they laid up the Hudson, above Eagle's Nest; the other
+      northerly on Blue Mountain, toward Racquet River. Doing this was hard
+      work, and when they came again to their cabin the robins had gone from the
+      bleak and leafless woods; the grouse were making long night flights; the
+      hollows had tracks of racing deer; there was a sense of omen, a length of
+      gloom, for the Mad Moon was afloat in the shimmering sky; its wan light
+      ghasted all the hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next day the lake was covered with thin, glare ice; on the glassy surface
+      near the shore were two ducks floundering. The men went as near as they
+      could, and Quonab said, &ldquo;No, not duck, but Shingebis, divers. They cannot
+      rise except from water. In the night the new ice looks like water; they
+      come down and cannot rise. I have often seen it.&rdquo; Two days after, a harder
+      frost came on. The ice was safe for a dog; the divers or grebes were still
+      on its surface. So they sent Skookum. He soon returned with two beautiful
+      grebes, whose shining, white breast feathers are as much prized as some
+      furs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab grunted as he held them up. &ldquo;Ugh, it is often so in this Mad Moon.
+      My father said it is because of Kaluskap's dancing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't remember that one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, long ago. Kaluskap felt lazy. He wanted to eat, but did not wish to
+      hunt, so he called the bluejay and said: 'Tell all the woods that
+      to-morrow night Kaluskap gives a new dance and teaches a new song,' and he
+      told the hoot owl to do the same, so one kept it up all day&mdash;'Kaluskap
+      teaches a new dance to-morrow night,' and the other kept it up all night:
+      'Kaluskap teaches a new song at next council.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thus it came about that all the woods and waters sent their folk to the
+      dance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then Kaluskap took his song-drum and said: 'When I drum and sing you must
+      dance in a circle the same way as the sun, close your eyes tightly, and
+      each one shout his war whoop, as I cry &ldquo;new songs&rdquo;!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So all began, with Kaluskap drumming in the middle, singing:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'New songs from the south, brothers, Close your eyes tightly, brothers,
+      Dance and learn a new song.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As they danced around, he picked out the fattest, and, reaching out one
+      hand, seized them and twisted their necks, shouting out, 'More war-cries,
+      more poise! that's it; now you are learning!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At length Shingebis the diver began to have his doubts and he cautiously
+      opened one eye, saw the trick, and shouted: 'Fly, brothers, fly! Kaluskap
+      is killing us!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then all was confusion. Every one tried to escape, and Kaluskap, in
+      revenge, tried to kill the Shingebis. But the diver ran for the water and,
+      just as he reached the edge, Kaluskap gave him a kick behind that sent him
+      half a mile, but it knocked off all his tail feathers and twisted his
+      shape so that ever since his legs have stuck out where his tail was, and
+      he cannot rise from the land or the ice. I know it is so, for my father,
+      Cos Cob, told me it was true, and we ourselves have seen it. It is ever
+      so. To go against Kaluskap brings much evil to brood over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A few nights later, as they sat by their fire in the cabin, a curious
+      squeaking was heard behind the logs. They had often heard it before, but
+      never so much as now. Skookum turned his head on one side, set his ears at
+      forward cock. Presently, from a hole 'twixt logs and chimney, there
+      appeared a small, white breasted mouse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Its nose and ears shivered a little; its black eyes danced in the
+      firelight. It climbed up to a higher log, scratched its ribs, then rising
+      on its hind legs, uttered one or two squeaks like those they had heard so
+      often, but soon they became louder and continuous:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peg, peo, peo, peo, peo, peo, peo, oo. Tree, tree, tree, tree, trrrrrrr,
+      Turr, turr, turr, tur, tur, Wee, wee, wee, we&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little creature was sitting up high on its hind legs, its belly
+      muscles were working, its mouth was gaping as it poured out its music. For
+      fully half a minute this went on, when Skookum made a dash; but the mouse
+      was quick and it flashed into the safety of its cranny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf gazed at Quonab inquiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is Mish-a-boh-quas, the singing mouse. He always comes to tell of
+      war. In a little while there will be fighting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0064" id="link2HCH0064">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 66. A Lesson in Stalking
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      &ldquo;Did you ever see any fighting, Quonab?&rdquo;
+     </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh! In Revolution, scouted for General Gates.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Judging by the talk, we're liable to be called on before a year. What
+      will you do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As soldier?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No! scout.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They may not want us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Always want scouts,&rdquo; replied the Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems to me I ought to start training now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been training.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A scout is everything that an army is, but it's all in one man. An' he
+      don't have to keep step.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see, I see,&rdquo; replied Rolf, and he realized that a scout is merely a
+      trained hunter who is compelled by war to hunt his country's foes instead
+      of the beasts of the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See that?&rdquo; said the Indian, and he pointed to a buck that was nosing for
+      cranberries in the open expanse across the river where it left the lake.
+      &ldquo;Now, I show you scouting.&rdquo; He glanced at the smoke from the fire, found
+      it right for his plan, and said: &ldquo;See! I take my bow. No cover, yet I will
+      come close and kill that deer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then began a performance that was new to Rolf, and showed that the Indian
+      had indeed reached the highest pitch of woodcraft. He took his bow and
+      three good arrows, tied a band around his head, and into this stuck a lot
+      of twigs and vines, so that his head looked like a tussock of herbage.
+      Then he left the shanty door, and, concealed by the last bushes on the
+      edge, he reached the open plain. Two hundred yards off was the buck,
+      nosing among the herbage, and, from time to time, raising its superb head
+      and columnar neck to look around. There was no cover but creeping herbage.
+      Rolf suspected that the Indian would decoy the buck by some whistle or
+      challenge, for the thickness of its neck showed the deer to be in fighting
+      humour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flat on his breast the Indian lay. His knees and elbow seemed to develop
+      centipedic power; his head was a mere clump of growing stuff. He snaked
+      his way quietly for twenty-five yards, then came to the open, sloping
+      shore, with the river forty yards wide of level shining ice, all in plain
+      view of the deer; how was this to be covered?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is a well-known peculiarity of the white tail that the Indian was
+      counting on; when its head is down grazing, even though not hidden, the
+      deer does not see distant objects; before the head is raised, its tail is
+      raised or shaken. Quonab knew that if he could keep the tail in view, he
+      could avoid being viewed by the head. In a word, only an ill-timed
+      movement or a whiff could betray him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The open ice was, of course, a hard test, and the hunter might have
+      failed, but that his long form looked like one of the logs that were lying
+      about half stranded or frozen in the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Watching ever the alert head and tail, he timed his approach, working hard
+      and moving East when the head was down; but when warned by a tail-jerk he
+      turned to a log nor moved a muscle. Once the ice was crossed, the danger
+      of being seen was less, but of being smelt was greater, for the deer was
+      moving about, and Quonab watched the smoke from the cabin for knowledge of
+      the wind. So he came within fifty yards, and the buck, still sniffing
+      along and eagerly champing the few red cranberries it found above the
+      frozen moss, was working toward a somewhat higher cover. The herbage was
+      now fully eighteen inches high, and Quonab moved a little faster. The buck
+      found a large patch of berries under a tussock and dropped on its knees to
+      pick them out, while Quonab saw the chance and gained ten yards before the
+      tail gave warning. After so long a feeding-spell, the buck took an extra
+      long lookout, and then walked toward the timber, whereby the Indian lost
+      all he had gained. But the browser's eye was drawn by a shining bunch of
+      red, then another; and now the buck swung until there was danger of
+      betrayal by the wind; then down went its head and Quonab retreated ten
+      yards to keep the windward. Once the buck raised its muzzle and sniffed
+      with flaring nostrils, as though its ancient friend had brought a warning.
+      But soon he seemed reassured, for the landscape showed no foe, and nosed
+      back and forth, while Quonab regained the yards he had lost. The buck
+      worked now to the taller cover, and again a tempting bunch of berries
+      under a low, dense bush caused it to kneel for farther under-reaching.
+      Quonab glided swiftly forward, reached the twenty-five-yard limit, rose to
+      one knee, bent the stark cedar bow. Rolf saw the buck bound in air, then
+      make for the wood with great, high leaps; the dash of disappointment was
+      on him, but Quonab stood erect, with right hand raised, and shouted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho&mdash;ho.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He knew that those bounds were unnecessarily high, and before the woods
+      had swallowed up the buck, it fell&mdash;rose&mdash;and fell again, to
+      rise not. The arrow had pierced its heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Rolf rushed up with kindled eye and exultant pride to slap his friend
+      on the back, and exclaim:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never thought it possible; the greatest feat in hunting I ever saw; you
+      are a wonder!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To which the Indian softly replied, as he smiled:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho! it was so I got eleven British sentries in the war. They gave me a
+      medal with Washington's head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They did! how is it I never heard of it? Where is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian's face darkened. &ldquo;I threw it after the ship that stole my
+      Gamowini.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0065" id="link2HCH0065">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 67. Rolf Meets a Canuck
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The winter might have been considered eventful, had not so many of the
+      events been repetitions of former experience. But there were several that
+      by their newness deserve a place on these pages, as they did in Rolf's
+      memory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of them happened soon after the first sharp frost. It had been an
+      autumn of little rain, so that many ponds had dried up, with the result
+      that hundreds of muskrats were forced out to seek more habitable quarters.
+      The first time Rolf saw one of these stranded mariners on its overland
+      journey, he gave heedless chase. At first it made awkward haste to escape;
+      then a second muskrat was discovered just ahead, and a third. This added
+      to Rolf's interest. In a few bounds he was among them, but it was to get a
+      surprise. Finding themselves overtaken, the muskrats turned in desperation
+      and attacked the common enemy with courage and fury. Rolf leaped over the
+      first, but the second sprang, caught him by the slack of the trouser leg,
+      and hung on. The third flung itself on his foot and drove its sharp teeth
+      through the moccasin. Quickly the first rallied and sprang on his other
+      leg with all the force of its puny paws, and powerful jaws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Quonab was laughing aloud and holding back Skookum, who,
+      breathing fire and slaughter, was mad to be in the fight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho! a good fight! good musquas! Ho, Skookum, you must not always take
+      care of him, or he will not learn to go alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh, good!&rdquo; as the third muskrat gripped Rolf by the calf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There could be but one finish, and that not long delayed. A well-placed
+      kick on one, the second swung by the tail, the third crushed under his
+      heel, and the affair ended. Rolf had three muskrats and five cuts. Quonab
+      had much joy and Skookum a sense of lost opportunity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This we should paint on the wigwam,&rdquo; said Quonab. &ldquo;Three great warriors
+      attacked one Sagamore. They were very brave, but he was Nibowaka and very
+      strong; he struck them down as the Thunderbird, Hurakan, strikes the dead
+      pines the fire has left on the hilltop against the sky. Now shall you eat
+      their hearts, for they were brave. My father told me a fighting muskrat's
+      heart is great medicine; for he seeks peace while it is possible, then he
+      turns and fights without fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days later, they sighted a fox. In order to have a joke on Skookum,
+      they put him on its track, and away he went, letting off his joy-whoops at
+      every jump. The men sat down to wait, knowing full well that after an hour
+      Skookum would come back with a long tongue and an air of depression. But
+      they were favoured with an unexpected view of the chase. It showed a fox
+      bounding over the snow, and not twenty yards behind was their energetic
+      four-legged colleague.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And, still more unexpected, the fox was overtaken in the next thicket,
+      shaken to limpness, and dragged to be dropped at Quonab's feet. This
+      glorious victory by Skookum was less surprising, when a closer examination
+      showed that the fox had been in a bad way. Through some sad, sudden
+      indiscretion, he had tackled a porcupine and paid the penalty. His mouth,
+      jaws and face, neck and legs, were bristling with quills. He was sick and
+      emaciated. He could not have lasted many days longer, and Skookum's
+      summary lynching was a blessing in disguise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The trappers' usual routine was varied by a more important happening. One
+      day of deep snow in January, when they were running the northern line on
+      Racquet River, they camped for the night at their shelter cabin, and were
+      somewhat surprised at dusk to hear a loud challenge from Skookum replied
+      to by a human voice, and a short man with black whiskers appeared. He
+      raised one hand in token of friendliness and was invited to come in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was a French Canadian from La Colle Mills. He had trapped here for some
+      years. The almost certainty of war between Canada and the States had kept
+      his usual companions away. So he had trapped alone, always a dangerous
+      business, and had gathered a lot of good fur, but had fallen on the ice
+      and hurt himself inwardly, so that he had no strength. He could tramp out
+      on snowshoes, but could not carry his pack of furs. He had long known that
+      he had neighbours on the south; the camp fire smoke proved that, and he
+      had come now to offer all his furs for sale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab shook his head, but Rolf said, &ldquo;We'll come over and see them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A two-hours' tramp in the morning brought them to the Frenchman's cabin.
+      He opened out his furs; several otter, many sable, some lynx, over thirty
+      beaver&mdash;the whole lot for two hundred dollars. At Lyons Falls they
+      were worth double that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf saw a chance for a bargain. He whispered, &ldquo;We can double our money on
+      it, Quonab. What do ye say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The reply was simply, &ldquo;Ugh! you are Nibowaka.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll take your offer, if we can fix it up about payment, for I have no
+      money with me and barely two hundred dollars at the cabin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You half tabac and grosairs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, plenty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can go 'get 'em? Si?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf paused, looked down, then straight at the Frenchman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you trust me to take half the fur now; when I come back with the pay
+      I can get the rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Frenchman looked puzzled, then, &ldquo;By Gar you look de good look. I let
+      um go. I tink you pretty good fellow, parbleu!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Rolf marched away with half the furs and four days later he was back
+      and paid the pale-faced but happy Frenchman the one hundred and fifty
+      dollars he had received from Van Cortlandt, with other bills making one
+      hundred and ninety-five dollars and with groceries and tobacco enough to
+      satisfy the trapper. The Frenchman proved a most amiable character. He and
+      Rolf took to each other greatly, and when they shook hands at parting, it
+      was in the hope of an early and happier meeting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Francois la Colle turned bravely for the ninety-mile tramp over the snow
+      to his home, while Rolf went south with the furs that were to prove a most
+      profitable investment, shaping his life in several ways, and indirectly
+      indeed of saving it on one occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0066" id="link2HCH0066">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 68. War
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Eighteen hundred and twelve had passed away. President Madison, driven by
+      wrongs to his countrymen and indignities that no nation should meekly
+      accept, had in the midsummer declared war on Great Britain. Unfitted to
+      cope with the situation and surrounded by unfit counsellors, his little
+      army of heroic men led by unfit commanders had suffered one reverse after
+      another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The loss of Fort Mackinaw, Chicago, Detroit, Brownstown, and the total
+      destruction of the American army that attacked Queenstown were but poorly
+      offset by the victory at Niagara and the successful defence of Ogdensburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf and Quonab had repaired to Albany as arranged, but they left it as
+      United States scouts, not as guides to the four young sportsmen who wished
+      to hark back to the primitive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their first commission had been the bearing of despatches to Plattsburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a selected light canoe and a minimum of baggage they reached
+      Ticonderoga in two days, and there renewed their acquaintance with General
+      Hampton, who was fussing about, and digging useless entrenchments as
+      though he expected a mighty siege. Rolf was called before him to receive
+      other despatches for Colonel Pike at Plattsburg. He got the papers and
+      learned their destination, then immediately made a sad mistake. &ldquo;Excuse
+      me, sir,&rdquo; he began, &ldquo;if I meet with&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Young man,&rdquo; said the general, severely, &ldquo;I don't want any of your 'ifs'
+      or 'buts'; your orders are 'go.' 'How' and 'if' are matters for you to
+      find out; that's what you are paid for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf bowed; his cheeks were tingling. He was very angry at what he thought
+      a most uncalled for rebuke, but he got over it, and he never forgot the
+      lesson. It was Si Sylvanne that put it into rememberable form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A fool horse kin follow a turnpike, but it takes a man with wits to
+      climb, swim, boat, skate, run, hide, go it blind, pick a lock, take the
+      long way, round, when it's the short way across, run away at the right
+      time, or fight when it's wise&mdash;all in one afternoon.&rdquo; Rolf set out
+      for the north carrying a bombastic (meant to be reassuring) message from
+      Hampton that he would annihilate any enemy who dared to desecrate the
+      waters of the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on this trip that Rolf learned from Quonab the details of the
+      latter's visit to his people on the St. Regis. Apparently the joy of
+      meeting a few of his own kin, with whom he could talk his own language,
+      was offset by meeting with a large number of his ancient enemies the
+      Mohawks. There had been much discussion of the possible war between the
+      British and the Yankees. The Mohawks announced their intention to fight
+      for the British, which was a sufficient reason for Quonab as a Sinawa
+      remaining with the Americans; and when he left the St. Regis reserve the
+      Indian was without any desire to reenter it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Plattsburg Rolf and Quonab met with another Albany acquaintance in
+      General Wilkinson, and from him received despatches which they brought
+      back to Albany, having covered the whole distance in eight days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When 1812 was gone Rolf had done little but carry despatches up and down
+      Lake Champlain. Next season found the Americans still under command of
+      Generals Wilkinson and Hampton, whose utter incompetence was becoming
+      daily more evident.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The year 1813 saw Rolf, eighteen years old and six feet one in his socks,
+      a trained scout and despatch bearer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By a flying trip on snowshoes in January he took letters, from General
+      Hampton at Ticonderoga to Sackett's Harbour and back in eight days, nearly
+      three hundred miles. It made him famous as a runner, but the tidings that
+      he brought were sad. Through him they learned in detail of the total
+      defeat and capture of the American army at Frenchtown. After a brief rest
+      he was sent across country on snowshoes to bear a reassuring message to
+      Ogdensburg. The weather was much colder now, and the single blanket bed
+      was dangerously slight; so &ldquo;Flying Kittering,&rdquo; as they named him, took a
+      toboggan and secured Quonab as his running mate. Skookum was given into
+      safe keeping. Blankets, pots, cups, food, guns, and despatches were
+      strapped on the toboggan, and they sped away at dawn from Ticonderoga on
+      the 18th of February 1813, headed northwestward, guided by little but the
+      compass. Thirty miles that day they made in spite of piercing blasts and
+      driving snow. But with the night there began a terrible storm with winds
+      of zero chill. The air was filled with stinging, cutting snow. When they
+      rose at daylight they were nearly buried in drifts, although their camp
+      was in a dense, sheltered thicket. Guided wholly by the compass they
+      travelled again, but blinded by the whirling white they stumbled and
+      blundered into endless difficulties and made but poor headway. After
+      dragging the toboggan for three hours, taking turns at breaking the way,
+      they were changing places when Rolf noticed a large gray patch on Quonab's
+      cheek and nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quonab, your face is frozen,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So is yours,&rdquo; was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now they turned aside, followed a hollow until they reached a spruce
+      grove, where they camped and took an observation, to learn that the
+      compass and they held widely different views about the direction of
+      travel. It was obviously useless to face the storm. They rubbed out their
+      frozen features with dry snow and rested by the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No good scout seeks for hardship; he avoids the unnecessary trial of
+      strength and saves himself for the unavoidable. With zero weather about
+      them and twenty-four hours to wait in the storm, the scouts set about
+      making themselves thoroughly comfortable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With their snowshoes they dug away the snow in a circle a dozen feet
+      across, piling it up on the outside so as to make that as high as
+      possible. When they were down to the ground, the wall of snow around them
+      was five feet high. Now they went forth with the hatchets, cut many small
+      spruces, and piled them against the living spruces about the camp till
+      there was a dense mass of evergreen foliage ten feet high around them,
+      open only at the top, where was a space five feet across. With abundance
+      of dry spruce wood, a thick bed of balsam boughs, and plenty of blankets
+      they were in what most woodmen consider comfort complete.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had nothing to do now but wait. Quonab sat placidly smoking, Rolf was
+      sewing a rent in his coat, the storm hissed, and the wind-driven ice
+      needles rattled through the trees to vary the crackle of the fire with a
+      &ldquo;siss&rdquo; as they fell on the embers. The low monotony of sound was lulling
+      in its evenness, when a faint crunch of a foot on the snow was heard. Rolf
+      reached for his gun, the fir tree screen was shaken a little, and a minute
+      later there bounded in upon them the snow covered form of little dog
+      Skookum, expressing his good-will by excessive sign talk in which every
+      limb and member had a part. They had left him behind, indeed, but not with
+      his consent, so the bargain was incomplete.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no need to ask now, What shall we do with him? Skookum had
+      settled that, and why or how he never attempted to explain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was wise who made it law that &ldquo;as was his share who went forth to
+      battle, so shall his be that abode with the stuff,&rdquo; for the hardest of all
+      is the waiting. In the morning there was less doing in the elemental
+      strife. There were even occasional periods of calm and at length it grew
+      so light that surely the veil was breaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab returned from a brief reconnoitre to say, &ldquo;Ugh!&mdash;good going.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The clouds were broken and flying, the sun came out at times, but the wind
+      was high, the cold intense, and the snow still drifting. Poor Skookum had
+      it harder than the men, for they wore snowshoes; but he kept his troubles
+      to himself and bravely trudged along behind. Had he been capable of such
+      reflection he might have said, &ldquo;What delightful weather, it keeps the
+      fleas so quiet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That day there was little to note but the intense cold, and again both men
+      had their cheeks frost-bitten on the north side. A nook under an
+      overhanging rock gave a good camp that night. Next day the bad weather
+      resumed, but, anxious to push on they faced it, guided chiefly by the
+      wind. It was northwest, and as long as they felt this fierce, burning cold
+      mercilessly gnawing on their hapless tender right cheek bones, they knew
+      they were keeping their proper main course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were glad indeed to rest at dusk and thaw their frozen faces. Next
+      day at dawn they were off; at first it was calm, but the surging of the
+      snow waves soon began again, and the air was filled with the spray of
+      their lashing till it was hard to see fifty yards in any direction. They
+      were making very bad time. The fourth day should have brought them to
+      Ogdensburg, but they were still far off; how far they could only guess,
+      for they had not come across a house or a settler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0067" id="link2HCH0067">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 69. Ogdensburg
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The same blizzard was raging on the next day when Skookum gave unequivocal
+      sign talk that he smelled something.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is always well to find out what stirs your dog. Quonab looked hard at
+      Skookum. That sagacious mongrel was sniffing vigorously, up in the air,
+      not on the ground; his mane was not bristling, and the patch of dark hair
+      that every gray or yellow dog has at the base of his tail, was not lifted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He smells smoke,&rdquo; was the Indian's quick diagnosis. Rolf pointed Up the
+      wind and made the sign-talk query. Quonab nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was their obvious duty to find out who was their smoky neighbour. They
+      were now not so far from the St. Lawrence; there was a small chance of the
+      smoke being from a party of the enemy; there was a large chance of it
+      being from friends; and the largest chance was that it came from some
+      settler's cabin where they could get necessary guidance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They turned aside. The wind now, instead of on the right cheek, was square
+      in their faces. Rolf went forward increasing his pace till he was as far
+      ahead as was possible without being out of sight. After a mile their way
+      led downward, the timber was thicker, the wind less, and the air no more
+      befogged with flying snow. Rolf came to a long, deep trench that wound
+      among the trees; the snow at the bottom of it was very hard. This was what
+      he expected; the trail muffled under new, soft snow, but still a fresh
+      trail and leading to the camp that Skookum had winded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned and made the sign for them to halt and wait. Then strode
+      cautiously along the winding guide line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In twenty minutes the indications of a settlement increased, and the scout
+      at length was peering from the woods across the open down to a broad
+      stream on whose bank was a saw mill, with the usual wilderness of
+      ramshackle shanties, sheds, and lumber piles about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no work going on, which was a puzzle till Rolf remembered it was
+      Sunday. He went boldly up and asked for the boss. His whole appearance was
+      that of a hunter and as such the boss received him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was coming through from the other side and had missed his way in the
+      storm, he explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are ye by trade?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A trapper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are ye bound now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'll head for the nearest big settlement, whatever that is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's just above an even thing between Alexandria Bay and Ogdensburg.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Rolf inquired fully about the trail to Alexandria Bay that he did not
+      want to go to. Why should he be so careful? The mill owner was clearly a
+      good American, but the scout had no right to let any outsider know his
+      business. This mill owner might be safe, but he might be unwise and blab
+      to some one who was not all right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then in a casual way he learned that this was the Oswegatchie River and
+      thirty miles down he would find the town of Ogdensburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No great recent events did he hear of, but evidently the British troops
+      across the river were only awaiting the springtime before taking offensive
+      measures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the looks of it, Rolf bought some tea and pork, but the hospitable
+      mill man refused to take payment and, leaving in the direction of
+      Alexandria Bay, Rolf presently circled back and rejoined his friends in
+      the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long detour took them past the mill. It was too cold for outdoor idling.
+      Every window was curtained with frost, and not a soul saw them as they
+      tramped along past the place and down to continue on the ice of the
+      Oswegatchie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pounded by the ceaseless wind, the snow on the ice was harder, travel was
+      easier, and the same tireless blizzard wiped out the trail as soon as it
+      was behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crooked is the river trail, but good the footing, and good time was made.
+      When there was a north reach, the snow was extra hard or the ice clear and
+      the scouts slipped off their snow shoes, and trotted at a good six-mile
+      gait. Three times they halted for tea and rest, but the fact that they
+      were the bearers of precious despatches, the bringers of inspiring good
+      news, and their goal ever nearer, spurred them on and on. It was ten
+      o'clock that morning when they left the mill, some thirty miles from
+      Ogdensburg. It was now near sundown, but still they figured that by an
+      effort they could reach the goal that night. It was their best day's
+      travel, but they were nerved to it by the sense of triumph as they
+      trotted; and the prospective joy of marching up to the commandant and
+      handing over the eagerly looked for, reassuring documents, gave them new
+      strength and ambition. Yes! they must push on at any price that night. Day
+      was over now; Rolf was leading at a steady trot. In his hand he held the
+      long trace of his toboggan, ten feet behind was Quonab with the short
+      trace, while Skookum trotted before, beside, or behind, as was dictated by
+      his general sense of responsibility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was quite dark now. There was no moon, the wooded shore was black.
+      Their only guide was the broad, wide reach of the river, sometimes swept
+      bare of snow by the wind, but good travelling at all times. They were
+      trotting and walking in spells, going five miles an hour; Quonab was
+      suffering, but Rolf was young and eager to finish. They rounded another
+      reach, they were now on the last big bend, they were reeling off the
+      miles; only ten more, and Rolf was so stirred that, instead of dropping to
+      the usual walk on signal at the next one hundred yards spell, he added to
+      his trot. Quonab, taken unawares, slipped and lost his hold of the trace.
+      Rolf shot ahead and a moment later there was the crash of a breaking
+      air-hole, and Rolf went through the ice, clutched at the broken edge and
+      disappeared, while the toboggan was dragged to the hole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab sprung to his feet, and then to the lower side of the hole. The
+      toboggan had swung to the same place and the long trace was tight; without
+      a moment's delay the Indian hauled at it steadily, heavily, and in a few
+      seconds the head of his companion reappeared; still clutching that long
+      trace he was safely dragged from the ice-cold flood, blowing and gasping,
+      shivering and sopping, but otherwise unhurt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now here a new danger presented itself. The zero wind would soon turn his
+      clothes to boards. They stiffened in a few minutes, and the Indian knew
+      that frozen hands and feet were all too easy in frozen clothes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He made at once for the shore, and, seeking the heart of a spruce thicket,
+      lost no time in building two roaring fires between which Rolf stood while
+      the Indian made the bed, in which, as soon as he could be stripped, the
+      lad was glad to hide. Warm tea and warm blankets made him warm, but it
+      would take an hour or two to dry his clothes. There is nothing more
+      damaging than drying them too quickly. Quonab made racks of poles and
+      spent the next two hours in regulating the fire, watching the clothes, and
+      working the moccasins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was midnight when they were ready and any question of going on at once
+      was settled by Quonab. &ldquo;Ogdensburg is under arms,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It is not
+      wise to approach by night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At six in the morning they were once more going, stiff with travel,
+      sore-footed, face-frozen, and chafed by delay; but, swift and keen,
+      trotting and walking, they went. They passed several settlements, but
+      avoided them. At seven-thirty they had a distant glimpse of Ogdensburg and
+      heard the inspiring roll of drums, and a few minutes later from the top of
+      a hill they had a complete view of the heroic little town to see&mdash;yes!
+      plainly enough&mdash;that the British flag was flying from the flag pole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0068" id="link2HCH0068">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 70. Saving the Despatches
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Oh, the sickening shock of it! Rolf did not know till now how tired he
+      was, how eager to deliver the heartening message, and to relax a little
+      from the strain. He felt weak through and through. There could be no doubt
+      that a disaster had befallen his country's arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His first care was to get out of sight with his sled and those precious
+      despatches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now what should he do? Nothing till he had fuller information. He sent
+      Quonab back with the sled, instructing him to go to a certain place two
+      miles off, there camp out of sight and wait.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he went in alone. Again and again he was stung by the thought, &ldquo;If I
+      had come sooner they might have held out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A number of teams gathered at the largest of a group of houses on the bank
+      suggested a tavern. He went in and found many men sitting down to
+      breakfast. He had no need to ask questions. It was the talk of the table.
+      Ogdensburg had been captured the day before. The story is well known.
+      Colonel MacDonnell with his Glengarry Highlanders at Prescott went to
+      drill daily on the ice of the St. Lawrence opposite Ogdensburg. Sometimes
+      they marched past just out of range, sometimes they charged and wheeled
+      before coming too near. The few Americans that held the place watched
+      these harmless exercises and often cheered some clever manceuvre. They
+      felt quite safe behind their fortification. By an unwritten agreement both
+      parties refrained from firing random shots at each other. There was little
+      to suggest enemies entrenched; indeed, many men in each party had friends
+      in the other, and the British had several times trotted past within easy
+      range, without provoking a shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On February 22d, the day when Rolf and Quonab struck the Oswegatchie, the
+      British colonel directed his men as usual, swinging them ever nearer the
+      American fort, and then, at the nearest point, executed a very pretty
+      charge. The Americans watched it as it neared, but instead of wheeling at
+      the brink the little army scrambled up with merry shouts, and before the
+      garrison could realize that this was war, they were overpowered and
+      Ogdensburg was taken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The American commander was captured. Captain Forsyth, the second in
+      command, had been off on a snowshoe trip, so had escaped. All the rest
+      were prisoners, and what to do with the despatches or how to get official
+      instructions was now a deep problem. &ldquo;When you don't know a thing to do,
+      don't do a thing,&rdquo; was one of Si Sylvanne's axioms; also, &ldquo;In case of
+      doubt lay low and say nothing.&rdquo; Rolf hung around the town all day waiting
+      for light. About noon a tall, straight, alert man in a buffalo coat drove
+      up with a cutter. He had a hasty meal in an inside room. Rolf sized him up
+      for an American officer, but there was a possibility of his being a
+      Canadian. Rolf tried in vain to get light on him but the inner door was
+      kept closed; the landlord was evidently in the secret. When he came out he
+      was again swaddled in the buffalo coat. Rolf brushed past him&mdash;here
+      was something hard and long in the right pocket of the big coat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The landlord, the guest, and the driver had a whispered conference. Rolf
+      went as near as he dared, but got only a searching look. The driver spoke
+      to another driver and Rolf heard the words &ldquo;Black Lake.&rdquo; Yes, that was
+      what he suspected. Black Lake was on the inland sleigh route to Alexandria
+      Bay and Sackett's Harbour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The driver, a fresh young fellow, was evidently interested in the
+      landlord's daughter; the stranger was talking with the landlord. As soon
+      as they had parted, Rolf went to the latter and remarked quietly: &ldquo;The
+      captain is in a hurry.&rdquo; The only reply was a cold look and: &ldquo;Guess that's
+      his business.&rdquo; So it was the captain. The driver's mitts were on the line
+      back of the stove. Rolf shook them so that they fell in a dark corner. The
+      driver missed his mitts, and glad of a chance went back in, leaving the
+      officer alone. &ldquo;Captain Forsyth,&rdquo; whispered Rolf, &ldquo;don't go till I have
+      talked with you. I'll meet you a mile down the road.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are you and what do you want?&rdquo; was the curt and hostile reply,
+      evidently admitting the identification correct however.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf opened his coat and showed his scout badge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not talk now if you have any news&mdash;come in side.&rdquo; So the two
+      went to the inner room. &ldquo;Who is this?&rdquo; asked Rolf cautiously as the
+      landlord came in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's all right. This is Titus Flack, the landlord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How am I to know that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven't you heard him called by name all day?&rdquo; said the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flack smiled, went out and returned with his license to sell liquor, and
+      his commission as a magistrate of New York State. The latter bore his own
+      signature. He took a pen and reproduced it. Now the captain threw back his
+      overcoat and stood in the full uniform of an army officer. He opened his
+      satchel and took out a paper, but Rolf caught sight of another packet
+      addressed to General Hampton. The small one was merely a map. &ldquo;I think
+      that packet in there is meant for me,&rdquo; remarked Rolf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We haven't seen your credentials yet,&rdquo; said the officer. &ldquo;I have them two
+      miles back there,&rdquo; and Rolf pointed to the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let's go,&rdquo; said the captain and they arose. Kittering had a way of
+      inspiring confidence, but in the short, silent ride of two miles the
+      captain began to have his doubts. The scout badge might have been stolen;
+      Canadians often pass for Americans, etc. At length they stopped the
+      sleigh, and Rolf led into the woods. Before a hundred yards the officer
+      said, &ldquo;Stop,&rdquo; and Rolf stopped to find a pistol pointed at his head. &ldquo;Now,
+      young fellow, you've played it pretty slick, and I don't know yet what to
+      make of it. But I know this; at the very first sign of treachery I'll blow
+      your brains out anyway.&rdquo; It gave Rolf a jolt. This was the first time he
+      had looked down a pistol barrel levelled at him. He used to think a pistol
+      a little thing, an inch through and a foot long, but he found now it
+      seemed as big as a flour barrel and long enough to reach eternity. He
+      changed colour but quickly recovered, smiled, and said: &ldquo;Don't worry; in
+      five minutes you will know it's all right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Very soon a sharp bark was heard in challenge, and the two stepped into
+      camp to meet Quonab and little dog Skookum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doesn't look much like a trap,&rdquo; thought the captain after he had cast his
+      eyes about and made sure that no other person was in the camp; then aloud,
+      &ldquo;Now what have you to show me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excuse me, captain, but how am I to know you are Captain Forsyth? It is
+      possible for a couple of spies to give all the proof you two gave me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain opened his bag and showed first his instructions given before
+      he left Ogdensburg four days ago; he bared his arm and showed a tattooed
+      U. S. A., a relic of Academy days, then his linen marked J. F., and a
+      signet ring with similar initials, and last the great packet of papers
+      addressed to General Hampton. Then he said: &ldquo;When you hand over your
+      despatches to me I will give mine to you and we shall have good guarantee
+      each of the other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf rose, produced his bundle of papers, and exchanged them for those
+      held by Forsyth; each felt that the other was safe. They soon grew
+      friendly, and Rolf heard of some stirring doings on the lake and
+      preparations for a great campaign in the spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After half an hour the tall, handsome captain left them and strode away, a
+      picture of manly vigour. Three hours later they were preparing their
+      evening meal when Skookum gave notice of a stranger approaching. This was
+      time of war; Rolf held his rifle ready, and a moment later in burst the
+      young man who had been Captain Forsyth's driver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His face was white; blood dripped from his left arm, and in his other hand
+      was the despatch bag. He glanced keenly at Rolf. &ldquo;Are you General
+      Hampton's scout?&rdquo; Rolf nodded and showed the badge on his breast. &ldquo;Captain
+      Forsyth sent this back,&rdquo; he gasped. &ldquo;His last words were, 'Burn the
+      despatches rather than let the British get them.' They got him&mdash;a
+      foraging party&mdash;there was a spy at the hotel. I got away, but my
+      tracks are easy to follow unless it drifts. Don't wait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor boy, his arm was broken, but he carried out the dead officer's
+      command, then left them to seek for relief in the settlement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Night was near, but Rolf broke camp at once and started eastward with the
+      double packet. He did not know it then, but learned afterward that these
+      despatches made clear the weakness of Oswego, Rochester, and Sackett's
+      Harbour, their urgent need of help, and gave the whole plan for an
+      American counter attack on Montreal. But he knew they were valuable, and
+      they must at once be taken to General Hampton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was rough, hard going in the thick woods and swamps away from the
+      river, for he did not dare take the ice route now, but they pushed on for
+      three hours, then, in the gloom, made a miserable camp in a cedar swamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At dawn they were off again. To their disgust the weather now was dead
+      calm; there was no drift to hide their tracks; the trail was as plain as a
+      highway wherever they went. They came to a beaten road, followed that for
+      half a mile, then struck off on the true line. But they had no idea that
+      they were followed until, after an hour of travel, the sun came up and on
+      a far distant slope, full two miles away, they saw a thin black line of
+      many spots, at least a dozen British soldiers in pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The enemy was on snowshoes, and without baggage evidently, for they
+      travelled fast. Rolf and Quonab burdened with the sled were making a
+      losing race. But they pushed on as fast as possible&mdash;toiling and
+      sweating at that precious load. Rolf was pondering whether the time had
+      not yet come to stop and burn the packet, when, glancing back from a high
+      ridge that gave an outlook, he glimpsed a row of heads that dropped behind
+      some rocks half a mile away, and a scheme came into his mind. He marched
+      boldly across the twenty feet opening that was in the enemy's view,
+      dropped behind the spruce thickets, called Quonab to follow, ran around
+      the thicket, and again crossed the open view. So he and Quonab continued
+      for five minutes, as fast as they could go, knowing perfectly well that
+      they were watched. Round and round that bush they went, sometimes close
+      together, carrying the guns, sometimes dragging the sled, sometimes with
+      blankets on their shoulders, sometimes with a short bag or even a large
+      cake of snow on their backs. They did everything they could to vary the
+      scene, and before five minutes the British officer in charge had counted
+      fifty-six armed Americans marching in single file up the bank with ample
+      stores, accompanied by five yellow dogs. Had Skookum been allowed to carry
+      out his ideas, there would have been fifty or sixty yellow dogs, so
+      thoroughly did he enter into the spirit of the game.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The track gave no hint of such a troop, but of course not, how could it?
+      since the toboggan left all smooth after they had passed, or maybe this
+      was a reinforcement arriving. What could he do with his ten men against
+      fifty of the enemy? He thanked his stars that he had so cleverly evaded
+      the trap, and without further attempt to gauge the enemy's strength, he
+      turned and made all possible haste back to the shelter of Ogdensburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0069" id="link2HCH0069">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 71. Sackett's Harbour
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was hours before Rolf was sure that he had stopped the pursuit, and the
+      thing that finally set his mind at rest was the rising wind that soon was
+      a raging and drifting snow storm. &ldquo;Oh, blessed storm!&rdquo; he said in his
+      heart, as he marked all trail disappear within a few seconds of its being
+      made. And he thought: &ldquo;How I cursed the wind that held me back&mdash;really
+      from being made prisoner. How vexed I was at that ducking in the river,
+      that really saved my despatches from the enemy. How thankful I am now for
+      the storm that a little while back seemed so bitterly cruel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That forenoon they struck the big bend of the river and now did not
+      hesitate to use the easy travel on the ice as far as Rensselaer Falls,
+      where, having got their bearings from a settler, they struck across the
+      country through the storm, and at night were encamped some forty miles
+      from Ogdensburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marvellously few signs of game had they seen in this hard trip; everything
+      that could hide away was avoiding the weather. But in a cedar bottom land
+      near Cranberry Lake they found a &ldquo;yard&rdquo; that seemed to be the winter home
+      of hundreds of deer. It extended two or three miles one way a half a mile
+      the other; in spite of the deep snow this was nearly all in beaten paths.
+      The scouts saw at least fifty deer in going through, so, of course, had no
+      difficulty in selecting a young buck for table use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The going from there on was of little interest. It was the same old daily
+      battle with the frost, but less rigorous than before, for now the cold
+      winds were behind, and on the 27th of February, nine days after leaving,
+      they trotted into Ticonderoga and reported at the commandant's
+      headquarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The general was still digging entrenchments and threatening to annihilate
+      all Canada. But the contents of the despatches gave him new topics for
+      thought and speech. The part he must play in the proposed descent on
+      Montreal was flattering, but it made the Ticonderoga entrenchments
+      ridiculous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For three days Rolf was kept cutting wood, then he went with despatches to
+      Albany.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many minor labours, from hog-killing to stable-cleaning and trenching,
+      varied the month of March. Then came the uncertain time of April when it
+      was neither canoeing nor snow-shoeing and all communication from the north
+      was cut off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But May, great, glorious May came on, with its inspiring airs and livening
+      influence. Canoes were afloat, the woods were brown beneath and gold
+      above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf felt like a young stag in his strength. He was spoiling for a run and
+      volunteered eagerly to carry despatches to Sackett's Harbour. He would go
+      alone, for now one blanket was sufficient bed, and a couple of pounds of
+      dry meat was enough food for each day. A small hatchet would be useful,
+      but his rifle seemed too heavy to carry; as he halted in doubt, a junior
+      officer offered him a pistol instead, and he gladly stuck it in his belt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Taller than ever, considerably over six feet now, somewhat lanky, but
+      supple of joint and square of shoulder, he strode with the easy stride of
+      a strong traveller. His colour was up, his blue-gray eyes ablaze as he
+      took the long trail in a crow line across country for Sackett's Harbour.
+      The sentry saluted, and the officer of the day, struck by his figure and
+      his glowing face as much as by the nature of his errand, stopped to shake
+      hands and say, &ldquo;Well, good luck, Kittering, and may you bring us better
+      news than the last two times.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf knew how to travel now; he began softly. At a long, easy stride he
+      went for half an hour, then at a swinging trot for a mile or two. Five
+      miles an hour he could make, but there was one great obstacle to speed at
+      this season&mdash;every stream was at flood, all were difficult to cross.
+      The brooks he could wade or sometimes could fell a tree across them, but
+      the rivers were too wide to bridge, too cold and dangerous to swim. In
+      nearly every case he had to make a raft. A good scout takes no chances. A
+      slight raft means a risky passage; a good one, a safe crossing but loss of
+      time in preparations. Fifteen good rafts did Rolf make in that
+      cross-country journey of three days: dry spruce logs he found each time
+      and bound them together with leather-wood and withes of willow. It meant a
+      delay of at least an hour each time; that is five hours each day. But the
+      time was wisely spent. The days were lengthening; he could travel much at
+      dusk. Soon he was among settlements. Rumours he got at a settler's cabin
+      of Sir George Prevost's attack on Sackett's Harbour and the gallant
+      repulse and at morning of the fourth day he came on the hill above
+      Sackett's Harbour&mdash;the same hill where he had stood three months
+      before. It was with something like a clutching of his breath that he
+      gazed; his past experiences suggested dreadful thoughts but no&mdash;thank
+      God, &ldquo;Old Glory&rdquo; floated from the pole. He identified himself to the
+      sentinels and the guard, entered the fort at a trot, and reported at
+      headquarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was joy on every side. At last the tide had turned. Commodore
+      Chauncey, after sweeping Lake Ontario, had made a sudden descent on York
+      (Toronto now) the capital of Upper Canada, had seized and destroyed it.
+      Sir George Prevost, taking advantage of Chauncey's being away, had
+      attacked Sackett's Harbour, but, in spite of the absence of the fleet, the
+      resistance had been so vigorous that in a few days the siege was
+      abandoned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were shot holes in walls and roofs, there were a few wounded in the
+      hospital, the green embankments were torn, and the flag-pole splintered;
+      but the enemy was gone, the starry flag was floating on the wind, and the
+      sturdy little garrison filled with a spirit that grows only in heroes
+      fighting for their homes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How joyfully different from Ogdensburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0070" id="link2HCH0070">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 72. Scouting Across Country
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      That very night, Rolf turned again with the latest news and the
+      commandant's reports.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was learning the country well now, and, with the wonderful place-memory
+      of a woodman, he was able to follow his exact back trail. It might not
+      have been the best way, but it gave him this advantage&mdash;in nearly
+      every case he was able to use again the raft he had made in coming, and
+      thereby saved many hours of precious time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the way out he had seen a good many deer and one bear, and had heard
+      the howling of wolves every night; but always at a distance. On the second
+      night, in the very heart of the wilderness, the wolves were noisy and
+      seemed very near. Rolf was camping in the darkness. He made a small fire
+      with such stuff as he could find by groping, then, when the fire blazed,
+      he discovered by its light a dead spruce some twenty yards away. Taking
+      his hatchet he went toward this, and, as he did so, a wolf rose up, with
+      its forefeet on a log, only five yards beyond the tree and gazed curiously
+      at him. Others were heard calling; presently this wolf raised its muzzle
+      and uttered a long smooth howl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had left his pistol back at the fire; he dared not throw his hatchet,
+      as that would have left him unarmed. He stooped, picked up a stick, and
+      threw that; the wolf ducked so that it passed over, then, stepping back
+      from the log, stood gazing without obvious fear or menace. The others were
+      howling; Rolf felt afraid. He backed cautiously to the fire, got his
+      pistol and came again to the place, but nothing more did he see of the
+      wolf, though he heard them all night and kept up two great fires for a
+      protection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning he started as usual, and before half an hour he was aware
+      of a wolf, and later of two, trotting along his trail, a few hundred yards
+      behind. They did not try to overtake him; indeed, when he stopped, they
+      did the same; and when he trotted, they, true to their dog-like nature,
+      ran more rapidly in pursuit. How Rolf did wish for his long rifle; but
+      they gave no opportunity for a shot with the pistol. They acted, indeed,
+      as though they knew their safe distance and the exact range of the junior
+      gun. The scout made a trap for them by stealing back after he had crossed
+      a ridge, and hiding near his own trail. But the wind conveyed a warning,
+      and the wolves merely sat down and waited till he came out and went on.
+      All day long these two strange ban dogs followed him and gave no sign of
+      hunger or malice; then, after he crossed a river, at three in the
+      afternoon, he saw no more of them. Years after, when Rolf knew them
+      better, he believed they followed him out of mild curiosity, or possibly
+      in the hope that he would kill a deer in which they might share. And when
+      they left him, it was because they were near the edge of their own home
+      region; they had seen him off their hunting grounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night he camped sixty miles from Ticonderoga, but he was resolved to
+      cover the distance in one day. Had he not promised to be back in a week?
+      The older hands had shaken their heads incredulously, and he, in the pride
+      of his legs, was determined to be as good as his promise. He scarcely
+      dared sleep lest he should oversleep. At ten he lay down. At eleven the
+      moon was due to rise; as soon as that was three hours high there would be
+      light enough, and he proposed to go on. At least half a dozen times he
+      woke with a start, fearing he had overslept, but reassured by a glance at
+      the low-hung moon, he had slumbered again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the moon was four hours high, and the woods were plain in the soft
+      light. A horned owl &ldquo;hoo-hoo-ed,&rdquo; and a far-off wolf uttered a drawn-out,
+      soft, melancholy cry, as Rolf finished his dried meat, tightened his belt,
+      and set out on a long, hard run that, in the days of Greece, would have
+      furnished the theme of many a noble epic poem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No need to consult his compass. The blazing lamp of the dark sky was his
+      guide, straight east his course, varied a little by hills and lakes, but
+      nearly the crow-flight line. At first his pace was a steady, swinging
+      stride; then after a mile he came to an open lake shore down which he went
+      at a six-mile trot; and then an alder thicket through which his progress
+      was very slow; but that soon passed, and for half a mile he splashed
+      through swamps with water a foot deep: nor was he surprised at length to
+      see it open into a little lake with a dozen beaver huts in view. &ldquo;Splash,
+      prong&rdquo; their builders went at his approach, but he made for the hillside;
+      the woods were open, the moonlight brilliant now, and here he trotted at
+      full swing as long as the way was level or down, but always walked on the
+      uphill. A sudden noise ahead was followed by a tremendous crashing and
+      crackling of the brush. For a moment it continued, and what it meant, Rolf
+      never knew or guessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trot, trot,&rdquo; he went, reeling off six miles in the open, two or perhaps
+      three in the thickets, but on and on, ever eastward. Hill after hill,
+      swamp after swamp, he crossed, lake after lake he skirted round, and, when
+      he reached some little stream, he sought a log bridge or prodded with a
+      pole till he found a ford and crossed, then ran a mile or two to make up
+      loss of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tramp, tramp, tramp, and his steady breath and his steady heart kept
+      unremitting rhythm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0071" id="link2HCH0071">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 73. Rolf Makes a Record
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Twelve miles were gone when the foreglow&mdash;the first cold dawn-light
+      showed, and shining across his path ahead was a mighty rolling stream.
+      Guided by the now familiar form of Goodenow Peak he made for this, the
+      Hudson's lordly flood. There was his raft securely held, with paddle and
+      pole near by, and he pushed off with all the force of his young vigour.
+      Jumping and careening with the stream in its freshet flood, the raft and
+      its hardy pilot were served with many a whirl and some round spins, but
+      the long pole found bottom nearly everywhere, and not ten minutes passed
+      before the traveller sprang ashore, tied up his craft, then swung and
+      tramped and swung.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Over the hills of Vanderwhacker, under the woods of Boreas. Tramp, tramp,
+      splash, tramp, wringing and sopping, but strong and hot, tramp, tramp,
+      tramp, tramp. The partridge whirred from his path, the gray deer snorted,
+      and the panther sneaked aside. Tramp, tramp, trot, trot, and the Washburn
+      Ridge was blue against the sunrise. Trot, trot, over the low, level,
+      mile-long slope he went, and when the Day-god burnt the upper hill-rim he
+      was by brown Tahawus flood and had covered eighteen miles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the stream he stopped to drink. A partridge cock, in the pride of
+      spring, strutted arrogantly on a log. Rolf drew his pistol, fired, then
+      hung the headless body while he made a camper's blaze: an oatcake, the
+      partridge, and river water were his meal. His impulse was to go on at
+      once. His reason, said &ldquo;go slow.&rdquo; So he waited for fifteen minutes. Then
+      again, beginning with a slow walk, he ere long added to his pace. In half
+      an hour he was striding and in an hour the steady &ldquo;trot, trot,&rdquo; that
+      slackened only for the hills or swamps. In an hour more he was on the
+      Washburn Ridge, and far away in the east saw Schroon Lake that empties in
+      the river Schroon; and as he strode along, exulting in his strength, he
+      sang in his heart for joy. Again a gray wolf cantered on his trail, and
+      the runner laughed, without a thought of fear. He seemed to know the
+      creature better now; knew it as a brother, for it gave no hostile sound,
+      but only seemed to trot, trot, for the small joy of running with a runner,
+      as a swallow or an antelope will skim along by a speeding train. For an
+      hour or more it matched his pace, then left as though its pleasant stroll
+      was done, and Rolf kept on and on and on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spring sun soared on high, the day grew warm at noon. Schroon River
+      just above the lake was in his path, and here he stopped to rest. Here,
+      with the last of his oatcake and a little tea, he made his final meal;
+      thirty eight miles had he covered since he rose; his clothes were torn,
+      his moccasins worn, but his legs were strong, his purpose sure; only
+      twenty-two miles now, and his duty would be done; his honours won. What
+      should he do, push on at once? No, he meant to rest an hour. He made a
+      good fire by a little pool, and using a great mass of caribou moss as a
+      sponge, he had a thorough rub-down. He got out his ever-ready needle and
+      put his moccasins in good shape; he dried his clothes and lay on his back
+      till the hour was nearly gone. Then he girded himself for this the final
+      run. He was weary, indeed, but he was far from spent, and the iron will
+      that had yearly grown in force was there with its unconquerable support.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Slowly at start, soon striding, and at last in the famous jog trot of the
+      scout he went. The sky was blackened with clouds at length, and the
+      jealous, howling east wind rolled up in rain; the spindrift blurred the
+      way; the heavy showers of spring came down and drenched him; but his pack
+      was safe and he trotted on and on. Then long, deep swamps of alder barred
+      his path, and, guided only by the compass, Rolf pushed in and through and
+      ever east. Barely a mile an hour in the thickest part he made, but lagged
+      not; drenched and footsore, warm and torn, but doggedly, steadily on. At
+      three he had made a scant seven miles; then the level, open wood of
+      Thunderbolt was reached and his stride became a run; trot, trot, trot, at
+      six-mile gait, for but fifteen miles remained. Sustained, inspired, the
+      bringer of good news, he halted not and faltered not, but on and on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tramp tramp, tramp tramp&mdash;endless, tireless, hour by hour. At five he
+      was on Thunder Creek, scarce eight miles more to the goal; his limbs were
+      sore, his feet were sore; bone tired was he, but his heart was filled with
+      joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;News of battle, news of victory&rdquo; he was bringing, and the thought lent
+      strength; the five mires passed, the way was plain with good roads now,
+      but the runner was so weary. He was striding, his running was done, the
+      sun was low in the west, his feet were bleeding, the courier was brain
+      worn and leg worn, but he strode and strode. He passed by homes but heeded
+      them not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in and rest,&rdquo; called one who saw nothing but a weary traveller. Rolf
+      shook his head, but gave no word and strode along. A mile&mdash;a short
+      mile now; he must hold out; if he sat down he feared he could not rise. He
+      came at last in sight of the fort; then, gathering all his force, he broke
+      into a trot, weak, so weak that had he fallen, he could scarcely have got
+      up, and slow, but faster than a walk: and so, as the red sun sank, he
+      passed the gate. He had no right to give tidings to any but the general,
+      yet they read it in his eyes. The guard broke into a cheer, and trotting
+      still, though reeling, Rolf had kept his word, had made his run, had
+      brought the news, and had safely reached his goal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0072" id="link2HCH0072">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 74. Van Trumper's Again
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Why should the scout bringing good news be differently received from the
+      one that brings the ill? He did not make, the news, he simply did his
+      duty; the same in both cases. He is merely the telegraph instrument. Yet
+      it is so ever. King Pharaoh slew the bearer of ill-tidings; that was human
+      nature. And General Hampton brought in the tall stripling to his table, to
+      honour him, to get the fullest details, to glory in every item as though
+      it all were due to himself. Rolf's wonderful journey was dilated on, and
+      in the reports to Albany he was honourably mentioned for exceptionally
+      meritorious service as a bearer of despatches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For three days Flying Kittering was hero of the post; then other runners
+      came with other news and life went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hitherto the scouts had worn no uniform, but the execution of one of their
+      number, who was captured by the British and treated as a spy, resulted in
+      orders that all be formally enlisted and put in uniform.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a few withdrew from the service; some, like Quonab, reluctantly
+      consented, but Rolf was developing the fighting spirit, and was proud to
+      wear the colours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The drill was tedious enough, but it was of short duration for him.
+      Despatches were to go to Albany. The general, partly to honour Rolf,
+      selected him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you ready for another run, Kittering?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then prepare to start as soon as possible for Fort George and Albany. Do
+      you want a mate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like a paddler as far as Fort George.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, pick your man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quonab.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And when they set out, for the first time Rolf was in the stern, the post
+      of guidance and command. So once more the two were travelling again with
+      Skookum in the bow. It was afternoon when they started and the four-mile
+      passage of the creek was slow, but down the long, glorious vista of the
+      noble George they went at full canoe-flight, five miles an hour, and
+      twenty-five miles of the great fair-way were reeled and past when they
+      lighted their nightly fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At dawn-cry of the hawk they sped away, and in spite of a rising wind they
+      made six miles in two hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they approached the familiar landing of Van Trumper's farm, Skookum
+      began to show a most zestful interest that recalled the blackened pages of
+      his past. &ldquo;Quonab, better use that,&rdquo; and Rolf handed a line with which
+      Skookum was secured and thus led to make a new record, for this was the
+      first time in his life that he landed at Van Trumper's without sacrificing
+      a chicken in honour of the joyful occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered the house as the family were sitting down to breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mein Hemel! mein Hemel! It is Rolf and Quonab; and vere is dot tam dog?
+      Marta, vere is de chickens? Vy, Rolf, you bin now a giant, yah. Mein Gott,
+      it is I am glad! I did tink der cannibals you had eat; is it dem Canadian
+      or cannibal? I tink it all one the same, yah!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marta was actually crying, the little ones were climbing over Rolf's knee,
+      and Annette, tall and sixteen now, stood shyly by, awaiting a chance to
+      shake hands. Home is the abiding place of those we love; it may be a
+      castle or a cave, a shanty or a chateau, a moving van, a tepee, or a canal
+      boat, a fortress or the shady side of a bush, but it is home, if there
+      indeed we meet the faces that are ever in the heart, and find the hands
+      whose touch conveys the friendly glow. Was there any other spot on earth
+      where he could sit by the fire and feel that &ldquo;hereabout are mine own, the
+      people I love?&rdquo; Rolf knew it now&mdash;Van Trumper's was his home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Talks of the war, of disasters by land, and of glorious victories on the
+      sea, where England, long the unquestioned mistress of the waves, had been
+      humbled again and again by the dauntless seamen of her Western blood;
+      talks of big doings by the nation, and, yet more interesting, small doings
+      by the travellers, and the breakfast passed all too soon. The young scout
+      rose, for he was on-duty, but the long rollers on the lake forbade the
+      going forth. Van's was a pleasant place to wait, but he chafed at the
+      delay; his pride would have him make a record on every journey. But wait
+      he must. Skookum tied safely to his purgatorial post whined indignantly&mdash;and
+      with head cocked on one side, picked out the very hen he would like to
+      utilize&mdash;as soon as released from his temporary embarrassment. Quonab
+      went out on a rock to bum some tobacco and pray for calm, and Rolf, ever
+      active, followed Van to look over the stock and buildings, and hear of
+      minor troubles. The chimney was unaccountably given to smoking this year.
+      Rolf took an axe and with two blows cut down a vigorous growth shrubbery
+      that stood above the chimney on the west, and the smoking ceased. Buck ox
+      had a lame foot and would allow no one even to examine it. But a skilful
+      ox-handler easily hobbles an ox, throws him near some small tree, and
+      then, by binding the lame foot to the tree, can have a free hand. It
+      proved a simple matter, a deep-sunk, rusty nail. And when the nail was
+      drawn and the place washed clean with hot brine, kind nature was left in
+      confidence to do the rest. They drifted back to the house now. Tomas met
+      them shouting out a mixture of Dutch and English and holding by the cover
+      Annette's book of the &ldquo;Good Girl.&rdquo; But its rightful owner rescued the
+      precious volume and put it on the shelf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you read it through, Annette?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; was the reply, for she had learned to read before they left
+      Schuylerville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you like it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Didn't like it a bit; I like 'Robinson Crusoe',&rdquo; was the candid reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The noon hour came, still the white rollers were pounding the shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it does not calm by one o'clock I'll go on afoot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So off he went with the packet, leaving Quonab to follow and await his
+      return at Fort George. In Schuyler settlement he spent the night and at
+      noon next day was in Albany.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How it stirred his soul to see the busy interest, the marching of men, the
+      sailing of vessels, and above all to hear of more victories on the high
+      seas. What mattered a few frontier defeats in the north, when the arrogant
+      foe that had spurned and insulted them before the world had now been
+      humbled again and again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Young Van Cortlandt was away, but the governor's reception of him
+      reflected the electric atmosphere&mdash;the country's pride in her sons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had a matter of his own to settle. At the bookseller's he asked for
+      and actually secured a copy of the great book&mdash;&ldquo;Robinson Crusoe.&rdquo; It
+      was with a thrilling feeling of triumph that he wrote Annette's name in it
+      and stowed it in his bag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He left Albany next day in the gray dawn. Thanks to his uniform, he got a
+      twenty-five mile lift with a traveller who drove a fast team, and the blue
+      water was glinting back the stars when he joined Quonab at Fort George,
+      some sixty miles away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the calm betwixt star-peep and sun-up they were afloat. It was a great
+      temptation to stop at Hendrik's for a spell, but breakfast was over, the
+      water was calm, and duty called him. He hallooed, then they drew near
+      enough to hand the book ashore. Skookum growled, probably at the hens, and
+      the family waved their aprons as he sped on. Thirty miles of lake and four
+      miles of Ticonderoga Creek they passed and the packet was delivered in
+      four days and three hours since leaving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The general smiled and his short but amply sufficient praise was merely,
+      &ldquo;You're a good 'un.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0073" id="link2HCH0073">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 75. Scouting in Canada
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thar is two things,&rdquo; said Si Sylvanne to the senate, &ldquo;that every national
+      crisis is bound to show up: first, a lot o' dum fools in command; second a
+      lot o great commanders in the ranks. An' fortunately before the crisis is
+      over the hull thing is sure set right, and the men is where they oughter
+      be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      How true this was the nation was just beginning to learn. The fools in
+      command were already demonstrated, and the summer of 1813 was replete with
+      additional evidence. May, June, and July passed with many journeyings for
+      Rolf and many times with sad news. The disasters at Stony Creek, Beaver
+      Dam, and Niagara were severe blows to the army on the western frontier. In
+      June on Lake Champlain the brave but reckless Lieutenant Sidney Smith had
+      run his two sloops into a trap. Thus the Growler and the Eagle were lost
+      to the Americans, and strengthened by that much the British navy on the
+      lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Encouraged by these successes, the British north of Lake Champlain made
+      raid after raid into American territory, destroying what they could not
+      carry off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf and Quonab were sent to scout in that country and if possible give
+      timely notice of raiders in force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Americans were averse to employing Indians in warfare; the British
+      entertained no such scruples and had many red-skinned allies. Quonab's
+      case, however, was unusual, since he was guaranteed by his white partner,
+      and now he did good service, for he knew a little French and could prowl
+      among the settlers without anyone suspecting him of being an American
+      scout.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus he went alone and travelled far. He knew the country nearly to
+      Montreal and late in July was lurking about Odletown, when he overheard
+      scattered words of a conversation that made him eager for more. &ldquo;Colonel
+      Murray&mdash;twelve hundred men&mdash;four hundred men&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Rolf was hiding in the woods about La Colle Mill. Company after
+      company of soldiers he saw enter, until at least five hundred were there.
+      When night came down, he decided to risk a scarer approach. He left the
+      woods and walked cautiously across the open lands about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hay had been cut and most of it drawn in, but there was in the middle
+      of the field a hay-cock. Rolf was near this when he heard sounds of
+      soldiers from the mill. Soon large numbers came out, carrying their
+      blankets. Evidently there was not room for them in the mill, and they were
+      to camp on the field.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scout began to retreat when sounds behind showed that another body of
+      soldiers was approaching from that direction and he was caught between the
+      two. There was only one place to hide and that was beneath the haycock. He
+      lifted its edge and crawled under, but it was full of thistles and
+      brambles; indeed, that was why it was left, and he had the benefit of all
+      the spines about him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His heart beat fast as he heard the clank of arms and the trampling; they
+      came nearer, then the voices became more distinct. He heard unmistakable
+      evidence too that both bodies were camping for the night, and that he was
+      nearly surrounded. Not knowing what move was best he kept quiet. The men
+      were talking aloud, then they began preparing their beds and he heard some
+      one say, &ldquo;There's a hay-cock; bring some of that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A soldier approached to get an armful of the hay, but sputtered out a
+      chapter of malediction as his bare hands touched the masses of thistle and
+      briers. His companions laughed at his mishap. He went to the fire and
+      vowed he'd stick a brand in it and back he came with a burning stick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf was all ready to make a dash for his life as soon as the cover should
+      take fire, and he peered up into the soldier's face as the latter blew on
+      the brand; but the flame had died, the thistles were not dry, and the fire
+      was a failure; so, growling again, the soldier threw down the smoking
+      stick and went away. As soon as he was safely afar, Rolf gathered a
+      handful of soil and covered the red embers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a critical moment and his waiting alone had saved him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two soldiers came with their blankets and spread them near. For a time
+      they smoked and talked. One of them was short of tobacco; the other said,
+      &ldquo;Never mind, we'll get plenty in Plattsburg,&rdquo; and they guffawed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he heard, &ldquo;As soon as the colonel&rdquo; and other broken phrases.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a most difficult place for Rolf; he was tormented with thistles in
+      his face and down his neck; he dared not change his position; and how long
+      he must stay was a problem. He would try to escape when all was still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nearer soldiers settled to rest now. All was very quiet when Rolf
+      cautiously peeped forth to see two dreadful things: first, a couple of
+      sentries pacing up and down the edges of the camp; second, a broad,
+      brilliant, rising moon. How horrible that lovely orb could be Rolf never
+      before knew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, what next? He was trapped in the middle of a military camp and
+      undoubtedly La Colle Mill was the rendezvous for some important
+      expedition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had ample time to think it all over. Unless he could get away before
+      day he would surely be discovered. His uniform might save his life, but
+      soldiers have an awkward, hasty way of dealing summarily with a spy&mdash;then
+      discovering too late that he was in uniform.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From time to time he peered forth, but the scene was unchanged&mdash;the
+      sleeping regiment, the pacing sentries, the ever-brightening moon. Then
+      the guard was changed, and the sentries relieved selected of all places
+      for their beds, the bank beside the hay-cock. Again one of them went to
+      help himself to some hay for a couch; and again the comic anger as he
+      discovered it to be a bed of thorns. How thankful Rolf was for those
+      annoying things that pricked his face and neck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was now hemmed in on every side and, not knowing what to do, did
+      nothing. For a couple of hours he lay still, then actually fell asleep. He
+      was awakened by a faint rustling near his head and peered forth to see a
+      couple of field mice playing about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon was very bright now, and the movements of the mice were plain;
+      they were feeding on the seeds of plants in the hay-cock, and from time to
+      time dashed under&mdash;the hay. Then they gambolled farther off and were
+      making merry over a pod of wild peas when a light form came skimming
+      noiselessly over the field. There was a flash, a hurried rush, a clutch, a
+      faint squeak, and one of the mice was borne away in the claws of its
+      feathered foe. The survivor scrambled under the hay over Rolf's face and
+      somewhere into hiding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night passed in many short naps. The bugle sounded at daybreak and the
+      soldiers arose to make breakfast. Again one approached to use a handful of
+      hay for fire-kindler, and again the friendly thistles did their part. More
+      and more now his ear caught suggestive words and sounds&mdash;&ldquo;Plattsburg&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;the
+      colonel&rdquo;&mdash;etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The breakfast smelt wonderfully captivating&mdash;poor Rolf was famished.
+      The alluring aroma of coffee permeated the hay-cock. He had his dried
+      meat, but his need was water; he was tormented with thirst, and stiff and
+      tortured; he was making the hardest fight of his life. It seemed long,
+      though doubtless it was less than half an hour before the meal was
+      finished, and to Rolf's relief there were sounds of marching and the
+      noises were drowned in the distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By keeping his head covered with hay and slowly raising it, he was safe to
+      take a look around. It was a bright, sunny morning. The hay-cock, or
+      thistle-cock, was one of several that had been rejected. It was a
+      quarter-mile from cover; the soldiers were at work cutting timber and
+      building a stockade around the mill; and, most dreadful to relate, a small
+      dog was prowling about, looking for scraps on the scene of the soldiers'
+      breakfast. If that dog came near his hiding-place, he knew the game was
+      up. At such close quarters, you can fool a man but not a dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fortunately the breakfast tailings proved abundant, and the dog went off
+      to assist a friend of his in making sundry interesting smell analyses
+      along the gate posts of the stockade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0074" id="link2HCH0074">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 76. The Duel
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      This was temporary relief, but left no suggestion of complete escape. He
+      lay there till nearly noon suffering more and more from the cramped
+      position and thirst, and utterly puzzled as to the next move.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When ye don't like whar ye air, git up without any fuss, and go whar ye
+      want to be,&rdquo; was what Sylvanne once said to him, and it came to Rolf with
+      something like a comic shock. The soldiers were busy in the woods and
+      around the forges. In half an hour it would be noon and they might come
+      back to eat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf rose without attempting any further concealment, then stopped, made a
+      bundle of the stuff that had sheltered him and, carrying this on his
+      shoulder, strode boldly across the field toward the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His scout uniform was inconspicuous; the scouts on duty at the mill saw
+      only one of themselves taking a bundle of hay round to the stables.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He reached the woods absolutely unchallenged. After a few yards in its
+      friendly shade, he dropped the thorny bundle and strode swiftly toward his
+      own camp. He had not gone a hundred yards before a voice of French type
+      cried &ldquo;'Alt,&rdquo; and he was face to face with a sentry whose musket was
+      levelled at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A quick glance interchanged, and each gasped out the other's name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Francois la Colle!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rolf Kittering! Mon Dieu! I ought to shoot you, Rolf; I cannot, I cannot!
+      But run, run! I'll shoot over your head,&rdquo; and his kindly eyes filled with
+      tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf needed no second hint; he ran like a deer, and the musket ball
+      rattled the branches above his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes other soldiers came running and from La Colle they heard
+      of the hostile spy in camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shoot; I t'ink maybe I not hit eem; maybe some brood dere? No, dat
+      netting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There were both runners and trackers in camp. They were like bloodhounds
+      and they took up the trail of the fugitive. But Rolf was playing his own
+      game now; he was &ldquo;Flying Kittering.&rdquo; A crooked trail is hard to follow,
+      and, going at the long stride that had made his success, he left many a
+      crook and turn. Before two miles I they gave it up and the fugitive coming
+      to the river drank a deep and cooling draught, the first he had had that
+      day. Five miles through is the dense forest that lies between La Colle and
+      the border. He struck a creek affluent of the Richelieu River and followed
+      to its forks, which was the place of rendezvous with Quonab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was evening as he drew near and after long, attentive listening he gave
+      the cry of the barred owl:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The answer came: a repetition of the last line, and a minute later the two
+      scouts were together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they stood, they were startled by a new, sudden answer, an exact
+      repetition of the first call. Rolf had recovered his rifle from its hiding
+      place and instantly both made ready for some hostile prowler; then after a
+      long silence he gave the final wail line &ldquo;hoooo-aw&rdquo; and that in the woods
+      means, &ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Promptly the reply came:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wa wah wa wah Wa wah wa hoooo-aw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But this was the wrong reply. It should have been only the last half. The
+      imitation was perfect, except, perhaps, on the last note, which was a
+      trifle too human. But the signal was well done; it was an expert calling,
+      either an Indian or some thoroughly seasoned scout; yet Quonab was not
+      deceived into thinking it an owl. He touched his cheek and his coat,
+      which, in the scout sign language, means &ldquo;red coat,&rdquo; i. e., Britisher.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf and his partner got silently out of sight, each with his rlile cocked
+      and ready to make a hole in any red uniform or badge that might show
+      itself. Then commenced a very peculiar duel, for evidently the enemy was
+      as clever as themselves and equally anxious to draw them out of cover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wa-wah-wa hooo-aw called the stranger, giving the right answer in the
+      wrong place. He was barely a hundred yards off, and, as the two strained
+      their senses to locate him, they heard a faint click that told of his
+      approach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf turned his head and behind a tree uttered again the Wa-wah-a&mdash;hoo
+      which muffled by his position would convince the foe that he was
+      retreating. The answer came promptly and much nearer:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wa&mdash;wah&mdash;wa&mdash;hoooo-aw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Good! the medicine was working. So Rolf softened his voice still more,
+      while Quonab got ready to shoot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Wa&mdash;wa&mdash;hooo-aw that came in answer this time was
+      startlingly clear and loud and nearly perfect in intonation, but again
+      betrayed by the human timbre of the aw. A minute or two more and they
+      would reach a climax.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After another wait, Rolf muffled his voice and gave the single hooo-aw,
+      and a great broad-winged owl came swooping through the forest, alighted on
+      a tree overhead, peered about, then thrilled them with his weird:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wa&mdash;hoo&mdash;wa&mdash;boo
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wa&mdash;hoo&mdash;wa&mdash;hooooooooo-aw, the last note with the singular
+      human quality that had so completely set them astray.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0075" id="link2HCH0075">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 77. Why Plattsburg Was Raided
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The owl's hull reputation for wisdom is built up on lookin'
+     wise and keepin' mum.&mdash;Sayings of St Sylvanne
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE owl incident was one of the comedies of their life, now they had
+      business on hand. The scraps of news brought by Quonab pieced out with
+      those secured by Rolf, spelt clearly this: that Colonel Murray with about
+      a thousand men was planning a raid on Plattsburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their duty was to notify General Hampton without delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Burlington, forty miles away, was headquarters. Plattsburg, twenty miles
+      away, was marked for spoil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One more item they must add: Was the raid to baby land or water? If the
+      latter, then they must know what preparations were being made at the
+      British naval station, Isle au Noix. They travelled all night through the
+      dark woods, to get there, though it was but seven miles away, and in the
+      first full light they saw the gallant array of two warships, three
+      gunboats, and about fifty long boats, all ready, undoubtedly waiting only
+      for a change in the wind, which at this season blew on Champlain almost
+      steadily form the south.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A three-hour, ten-mile tramp through ways now familiar brought Rolf and
+      his partner to the north of the Big Chazy where the canoe was hidden, and
+      without loss of time they pushed off for Burlington, thirty miles away.
+      The wind was head on, and when four hours later they stopped for noon,
+      they had made not more than a dozen miles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All that afternoon they had to fight a heavy sea; this meant they must
+      keep near shore in case of an upset, and so lengthened the course; but it
+      also meant that the enemy would not move so long as this wind kept up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was six at night before the scouts ran into Burlington Harbour and made
+      for Hampton's headquarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His aide received them and, after learning that they had news, went in to
+      the general. From the inner room now they heard in unnecessarily loud
+      tones the great man's orders to, &ldquo;Bring them in, sah.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bottles on the table, his purple visage, and thick tongued speech told
+      how well-founded were the current whispers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Raid on Plattsburg? Ha! I hope so. I only hope so. Gentlemen,&rdquo; and he
+      turned to his staff, &ldquo;all I ask is a chance to get at them&mdash;Ha, Ha!
+      Here, help yourself, Macomb,&rdquo; and the general pushed the decanter to a
+      grave young officer who was standing by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, thank you, sir,&rdquo; was the only reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The general waved his hand, the scouts went out, puzzled and ashamed. Was
+      this the brains of the army? No wonder our men are slaughtered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Macomb ventured to suggest: &ldquo;Have you any orders, sir? These scouts
+      are considered quite reliable. I understand from them that the British
+      await only a change of wind. They have between one thousand and two
+      thousand men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Plenty of time in the morning, sah. Plattsburg will be the bait of my
+      trap, not one of them shall return alive,&rdquo; and the general dismissed his
+      staff that he might fortify himself against a threatened cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another young man, Lieut. Thomas MacDonough, the naval commandant, now
+      endeavoured to stir him by a sense of danger. First he announced that his
+      long boats, and gunboats were ready and in six hours he could transfer
+      three thousand troops from Burlington to Plattsburg. Then he ventured to
+      urge the necessity for action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Champlain is a lake of two winds. It had brown from the south for two
+      weeks; now a north wind was likely to begin any day. MacDonough urged this
+      point, but all in vain, and, shocked and humiliated, the young man obeyed
+      the order &ldquo;to wait till his advice was asked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day Hampton ordered a review, not an embarkation, and was not
+      well enough to appear in person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole army knew now of the situation of affairs, and the militia in
+      particular were not backward in expressing their minds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next day, July 30th, the wind changed. Hampton did nothing. On the morning
+      of July 31st they heard the booming of guns in the north, and at night
+      their scouts came with the news that the raid was on. Plattsburg was taken
+      and pillaged by a force less than one third of those held at Burlington.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were bitter, burning words on the lips of the rank and file, and
+      perfunctory rebukes on the lips of the young officers when they chanced to
+      overhear. The law was surely working out as set forth by Si Sylvanne: &ldquo;The
+      fools in command, the leaders in the ranks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And now came news of fresh disasters&mdash;the battles of Beaverdam, Stony
+      Creek, and Niagara River. It was the same story in nearly every case&mdash;brave
+      fighting men, ill-drilled, but dead shots, led into traps by incompetent
+      commanders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In September Lieutenant Macomb was appointed to command at Plattsburg.
+      This proved as happy an omen as it was a wise move. Immediately after, in
+      all this gloom, came the news of Perry's famous victory on Lake Erie,
+      marking a new era for the American cause, followed by the destruction of
+      Moraviantown and the British army which held it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stirred at last to action General Wilkinson sent despatches to Hampton to
+      arrange an attack on Montreal. There was no possibility of failure, he
+      said, for the sole defence of Montreal was 600 marines. His army consisted
+      of 8000 men. Hampton's consisted of 4000. By a union of these at the mouth
+      of Chateaugay River, they would form an invincible array.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So it seemed. Rolf had not yet seen any actual fighting and began to long
+      for the front. But his powers as a courier kept him ever busy bearing
+      despatches. The road to Sackett's Harbour and thence to Ogdensburg and
+      Covington, and back to Plattsburg he knew thoroughly, and in his canoe he
+      had visited every port on Lakes Champlain and George.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was absent at Albany in the latter half of October and first of
+      November, but the ill news travelled fast. Hampton requested MacDonough to
+      &ldquo;swoop down on Isle au Noix&rdquo;&mdash;an insane request, compliance with
+      which would have meant certain destruction to the American fleet.
+      MacDonough's general instructions were: &ldquo;Cooperate with the army, but at
+      any price retain supremacy of the lake,&rdquo; and he declined to receive
+      Hampton's order.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Threatening court-martials and vengeance on his return, Hampton now set
+      out by land; but at Chateaugay he was met by a much smaller force of
+      Canadians who resisted him so successfully that he ordered a retreat and
+      his army retired to Plattsburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile General Wilkinson had done even worse. His army numbered 8000.
+      Of these the rear guard were 2500. A body of 800 Canadians harassed their
+      line of march. Turning to brush away this annoyance, the Americans were
+      wholly defeated at Chrystler's farm and, giving up the attack on Montreal,
+      Wilkinson crossed the St. Lawrence and settled for the winter at
+      Chateaugay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In December, America scored an important advance by relieving Hampton of
+      his command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the spring drew near, it was clearly Wilkinson's first play to capture
+      La Colle Mill, which had been turned into a fortress of considerable
+      strength and a base for attack on the American border, some five miles
+      away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all the scouts Rolf best knew that region, yet he was the one left out
+      of consideration and despatched with papers to Plattsburg. The attack was
+      bungled from first to last, and when Wilkinson was finally repulsed, it
+      was due to Macomb that the retreat was not a rout.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But good came out of this evil, for Wilkinson was recalled and the law was
+      nearly fulfilled&mdash;the incompetents were gone. General Macomb was in
+      command of the land force and MacDonough of the Lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0076" id="link2HCH0076">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 78. Rumours and Papers
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      MacDonough's orders were to hold control of the Lake. How he did it will
+      be seen. The British fleet at Isle au Noix was slightly stronger than his
+      own, therefore he established a navy yard at Vergennes, in Vermont, seven
+      miles up the Otter River, and at the mouth erected earthworks and
+      batteries. He sent for Brown (of the firm of Adam and Noah Brown) a famous
+      New York shipbuilder. Brown agreed to launch a ship of twenty-four guns in
+      sixty days. The trees were standing in the forest on March 2d the keel was
+      laid March 7th, and on April 11th the Saratoga was launched&mdash;forty
+      days after the timbers were green standing trees on the hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other vessels were begun and pushed as expeditiously. And now MacDonough's
+      wisdom in choice of the navy yard was seen, for a British squadron was
+      sent to destroy his infant fleet, or at least sink stone-boats across the
+      exit so as to bottle it up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But their attempts were baffled by the batteries which the far-seeing
+      American had placed at the river's mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The American victory at Chippewa was followed by the defeat at Lundy's
+      Lane, and on August 25th the city of Washington was captured by the
+      British and its public buildings destroyed. These calamities, instead of
+      dampening the spirits of the army, roused the whole nation at last to a
+      realization of the fact that they were at war. Fresh troops and plentiful
+      supplies were voted, the deadwood commanders were retired, and the real
+      men revealed by the two campaigns were given place and power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time, Great Britain, having crushed Napoleon, was in a
+      position to greatly reinforce her American army, and troops seasoned in
+      Continental campaigns were poured into Canada.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All summer Rolf was busied bearing despatches. During the winter he and
+      Quonab had built a birch canoe on special lines for speed; it would carry
+      two men but no baggage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this he could make fully six miles an hour for a short time, and
+      average five on smooth water. In this he had crossed and recrossed
+      Champlain, and paddled its length, till he knew every bay and headland.
+      The overland way to Sackett's Harbour he had traversed several times; the
+      trail from Plattsburg to Covington he knew in all weathers, and had
+      repeatedly covered its sixty miles in less than twenty-four hours on foot.
+      The route he picked and followed was in later years the line selected for
+      the military highway between these two camps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the chief scene of his activities was the Canadian wilderness at the
+      north end of Lake Champlain. Chazy, Champlain, Odelltown, La Colle Mill,
+      Isle au Noix, and Richelieu River he knew intimately and had also acquired
+      a good deal of French in learning their country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was characteristic of General Wilkinson to ignore the scout who knew
+      and equally characteristic of his successors, Izard and Macomb, to seek
+      and rely on the best man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The news that he brought in many different forms was that the British were
+      again concentrating an army to strike at Plattsburg and Albany.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Izard on the land at Plattsburg and Champlain, and Macomb at Burlington
+      strained all their resources to meet the invader at fair terms. Izard had
+      4000 men assembled, when an extraordinary and devastating order from
+      Washington compelled him to abandon the battle front at Champlain and lead
+      his troops to Sackett's Harbour where all was peace. He protested like a
+      statesman, then obeyed like a soldier, leaving Macomb in command of the
+      land forces of Lake Champlain, with, all told, some 3400 men. On the day
+      that Izard left Champlain, the British troops, under Brisbane, advanced
+      and occupied his camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as Rolf had seen them arrive, and had gauged their number, he sent
+      Quonab back to report, and later retired by night ten miles up the road to
+      Chazy. He was well known to many of the settlers and was welcome where
+      ever known, not only because he was a patriot fighting his country's
+      battles, but for his own sake, for he was developing into a handsome,
+      alert, rather silent youth. It is notorious that in the drawing-room,
+      given equal opportunity, the hunter has the advantage over the farmer. He
+      has less self-consciousness, more calm poise. He is not troubled about
+      what to do with his feet and hands, and is more convinced of his native
+      dignity and claims to respect. In the drawin-room Rolf was a hunter: the
+      leading inhabitants of the region around received him gladly and honoured
+      him. He was guest at Judge Hubbell's in Chazy, in September of 1814. Every
+      day he scouted in the neighbourhood and at night returned to the
+      hospitable home of the judge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 12th of September, from the top of a tall tree on a distant wooded
+      hill, he estimated the force at Champlain to be 10,000 to 15,000 men.
+      Already their bodyguard was advancing on Chazy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Judge Hubbell and anxious neighbours hastily assembled now, discussed with
+      Rolf the situation and above all, &ldquo;What shall we do with our families?&rdquo;
+       One man broke into a storm of hate and vituperation against the British.
+      &ldquo;Remember the burning of Washington and the way they treated the women at
+      Bladensburg.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All of which about the women was utterly disproved, except in one case,
+      and in that the criminal was shot by order of his own commander,&rdquo; retorted
+      Hubbell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Plattsburg others maintained that the British had harmed no one.
+      Colonel Murray had given strict orders that all private property be
+      absolutely respected. Nothing but government property was destroyed and
+      only that which could be construed into war stores and buildings. What
+      further damage was done was the result of accident or error. Officers were
+      indeed quartered on the inhabitants, but they paid for what they got, and
+      even a carpet destroyed by accident was replaced months afterward by a
+      British officer who had not the means at the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So it was agreed that Hubbell with Rolf and the village fathers and
+      brothers should join their country's army, leaving wives and children
+      behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were wet bearded cheeks among the strong, rugged men as they kissed
+      their wives and little ones and prepared to go, then stopped, as horrible
+      misgivings rose within. &ldquo;This was war, and yet again, 'We have had proofs
+      that the British harmed no woman or child'.&rdquo; So they dashed away the
+      tears, suppressed the choking in their throats, shouldered their guns, and
+      marched away to the front, commending their dear ones to the mercy of God
+      and the British invaders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None had any cause to regret this trust. Under pain of death, Sir George
+      Prevost enforced his order that the persons of women and children and all
+      private property be held inviolate. As on the previous raid, no damage was
+      done to non-combatants, and the only hardships endured were by the few
+      who, knowing nothing, feared much, and sought the precarious safety of
+      life among the hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir George Prevost and his staff of ten officers were quartered in Judge
+      Hubbell's house. Mrs. Hubbell was hard put to furnish them with meals, but
+      they treated her with perfect respect, and every night, not knowing how
+      long they might stay, they left on the table the price of their board and
+      lodging.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For three days they waited, then all was ready for the advance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now for Plattsburg this week and Albany next, so good-bye, madam&rdquo; they
+      said politely, and turned to ride away, a gay and splendid group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-bye, sirs, for a very little while, but I know you'll soon be back
+      and hanging your heads as you come,&rdquo; was the retort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir George replied: &ldquo;If a man had said that, I would call him out; but
+      since it is a fair lady that has been our charming hostess, I reply that
+      when your prophecy comes true, every officer here shall throw his purse on
+      your door step as he passes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they rode away, 13,000 trained men with nothing between them and Albany
+      but 2000 troops, double as many raw militia, and&mdash;MacDonough of the
+      Lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten times did Rolf cover that highway north of Plattsburg in the week that
+      followed, and each day his tidings were the same&mdash;the British
+      steadily advance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0077" id="link2HCH0077">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 79. McGlassin's Exploit
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There was a wonderful spirit on everything in Plattsburg, and the earthly
+      tabernacle in which it dwelt, was the tall, grave young man who had
+      protested against Hampton's behaviour at Burlington&mdash;Captain, now
+      General Macomb. Nothing was neglected, every emergency was planned for,
+      every available man was under arms. Personally tireless, he was ever alert
+      and seemed to know every man in his command and every man of it had
+      implicit confidence in the leader. We have heard of soldiers escaping from
+      a besieged fortress by night; but such was the inspiring power of this
+      commander that there was a steady leaking in of men from the hills,
+      undrilled and raw, but of superb physique and dead shots with the ride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A typical case was that of a sturdy old farmer who was marching through
+      the woods that morning to take his place with those who manned the
+      breastworks and was overheard to address his visibly trembling legs:
+      &ldquo;Shake, damn you, shake; and if ye knew where I was leading you, you'd be
+      ten times worse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His mind was more valiant than his body, and his mind kept control&mdash;this
+      is true courage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one had a better comprehension of all this than Macomb. He knew that
+      all these men needed was a little training to make of them the best
+      soldiers on earth. To supply that training he mixed them with veterans,
+      and arranged a series of unimportant skirmishes as coolly and easily as
+      though he were laying out a programme for an evening's entertainment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first of these was at Culver's Hill. Here a barricade was thrown up
+      along the highway, a gun was mounted, and several hundred riflemen were
+      posted under leaders skilled in the arts of harrying a foe and giving him
+      no chance to strike back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the men appointed for the barricade's defence was Rolf and near him
+      Quonab. The latter had been seasoned in the Revolution, but it was the
+      former's first experience at the battle front, and he felt as most men do
+      when the enemy in brave array comes marching up. As soon as they were
+      within long range, his leader gave the order &ldquo;Fire!&rdquo; The rifles rattled
+      and the return fire came at once. Balls pattered on the barricade or
+      whistled above. The man next to him was struck and dropped with a groan;
+      another fell back dead. The horror and roar were overmuch. Rolf was
+      nervous enough when he entered the fight. Now he was unstrung, almost
+      stunned, his hands and knees were shaking, he was nearly panic-stricken
+      and could not resist the temptation to duck, as the balls hissed murder
+      over his head. He was blazing away, without aiming, when an old soldier,
+      noting his white face and shaking form, laid a hand on his shoulder and,
+      in kindly tones, said: &ldquo;Steady, boy, steady; yer losing yer head; see,
+      this is how,&rdquo; and he calmly took aim, then, without firing, moved the gun
+      again and put a little stick to raise the muzzle and make a better rest,
+      then fired as though at target practice. &ldquo;Now rest for a minute. Look at
+      Quonab there; you can see he's been through it before. He is making a hit
+      with every shot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf did as he was told, and in a few minutes his colour came back, his
+      hand was steady, and thenceforth he began to forget the danger and thought
+      only of doing his work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When at length it was seen that the British were preparing to charge, the
+      Americans withdrew quickly and safely to Halsey's Corner, where was
+      another barricade and a fresh lot of recruits awaiting to receive their
+      baptism of fire. And the scene was repeated. Little damage was done to the
+      foe but enormous benefit was gained by the Americans, because it took only
+      one or two of these skirmishes to turn a lot of shaky-kneed volunteers
+      into a band of steady soldiers&mdash;for they had it all inside. Thus
+      their powder terror died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night the British occupied the part of the town that was north of the
+      Saranac, and began a desultory bombardment of the fortification opposite.
+      Not a very serious one, for they considered they could take the town at
+      any time, but preferred to await the arrival of their fleet under Downie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fight for the northern half of the town was not serious, merely part
+      of Macomb's prearranged training course; but when the Americans retired
+      across the Saranac, the planks of the bridges were torn up, loop-holed
+      barricades were built along the southern bank, and no effort spared to
+      prepare for a desperate resistance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every man that could hold up a gun was posted on the lines of Plattsburg.
+      The school-boys, even, to the number of five hundred formed a brigade, and
+      were assigned to places where their squirrel-hunting experiences could be
+      made of service to their country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the British had established a battery opposite Fort Brown. It
+      was in a position to do some material and enormous moral damage. On the
+      ninth it was nearly ready for bloody work, and would probably begin next
+      morning. That night, however, an extraordinary event took place, and
+      showed how far from terror-palsy were the motley troops in Plattsburg. A
+      sturdy Vermonter, named Captain McGlassin, got permission of Malcomb to
+      attempt a very Spartan sortie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He called for fifty volunteers to go on a most hazardous enterprise. He
+      got one thousand at once. Then he ordered all over twenty-five and under
+      eighteen to retire. This reduced the number to three hundred. Then, all
+      married men were retired, and thus again they were halved. Next he ordered
+      away all who smoked&mdash;Ah, deep philosopher that he was!&mdash;and from
+      the remnant he selected his fifty. Among them was Rolf. Then he divulged
+      his plan. It was nothing less than a dash on the new-made fort to spike
+      those awful guns&mdash;fifty men to dash into a camp of thirteen thousand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again he announced, &ldquo;Any who wish to withdraw now may do so.&rdquo; Not a man
+      stirred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Twenty of those known to be expert with tools were provided with hammers
+      and spikes for the guns, and Rolf was proud to be one of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a night of storm and blackness they crossed the Saranac; dividing in
+      two bodies they crawled unseen, one on each side of the battery. Three
+      hundred British soldiers were sleeping near, only the sentries peered into
+      the storm-sleet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All was ready when McGlassin's tremendous voice was heard, &ldquo;Charge front
+      and rear!&rdquo; Yelling, pounding, making all the noise they could, the
+      American boys rushed forth. The British were completely surprised, the
+      sentries were struck down, and the rest assured that Macomb's army was on
+      them recoiled for a few minutes. The sharp click, click, click of the
+      hammers was heard. An iron spike was driven into every touch hole; the
+      guns were made harmless as logs and quickly wheeling, to avoid the return
+      attack, these bold Yankee boys leaped from the muzzled redoubt and reached
+      their own camp without losing one of their number.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0078" id="link2HCH0078">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 80. The Bloody Saranac
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Sir George Prevost had had no intention of taking Plattsburg, till
+      Plattsburg's navy was captured. But the moral effect of McGlassin's
+      exploit must be offset at once. He decided to carry the city by storm&mdash;a
+      matter probably of three hours' work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He apportioned a regiment to each bridge, another to each ford near the
+      town, another to cross the river at Pike's Cantonment, and yet another to
+      cross twenty miles above, where they were to harry the fragments of the
+      American as it fled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That morning Plattsburg was wakened by a renewal of the bombardment. The
+      heavy firing killed a few men knocked down a few walls and chimneys, but
+      did little damage to the earthworks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was surprising to all how soon the defenders lost their gun-shyness.
+      The very school-boys and their sisters went calmly about their business,
+      with cannon and musket balls whistling overhead, striking the walls and
+      windows, or, on rare occasions, dropping some rifleman who was over-rash
+      as he worked or walked on the ramparts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were big things doing in the British camp&mdash;regiments marching
+      and taking their places&mdash;storms of rifle and cannon balls raging
+      fiercely. By ten o'clock there was a lull. The Americans, from the
+      grandfathers to the school-boys, were posted, each with his rifle and his
+      pouch full of balls; there were pale faces among the youngsters, and
+      nervous fingers, but there was no giving way. Many a man there was, no
+      doubt, who, under the impulse of patriotism, rushed with his gun to join
+      the ranks, and when the bloody front was reached, he wished in his heart
+      he was safe at home. But they did not go. Something kept them staunch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the lines were complete all along the ramparts, there were four
+      places where the men were massed. These were on the embankments opposite
+      the bridges and the fords. Here the best shots were placed and among them
+      was Rolf, with others of McGlassin's band.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The plank of the bridges had been torn up and used with earth to form
+      breastworks; but the stringers of the bridges were there, and a body of
+      red-coats approaching, each of them showed plainly what their plan was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The farthest effective range of rifle fire in those days was reckoned at a
+      hundred yards. The Americans were ordered to hold their fire till the
+      enemy reached the oaks, a grove one hundred yards from the main bridge&mdash;on
+      the other bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The British came on in perfect review-day style. Now a hush fell on all.
+      The British officer in command was heard clearly giving his orders. How
+      strange it must have been to the veterans of wars in Spain, France, and
+      the Rhine, to advance against a force with whom they needed no
+      interpreter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      McGlassin's deep voice now rang along the defences, &ldquo;Don't fire till I
+      give the order.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The red-coats came on at a trot, they reached the hundred-yard-mark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, aim low and fire!&rdquo; from McGlassin, and the rattle of the Yankee guns
+      was followed by reeling ranks of red in the oaks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Charge!&rdquo; shouted the British officer and the red-coats charged to the
+      bridge, but the fire from the embankment was incessant; the trail of the
+      charging men was cluttered with those who fell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forward!&rdquo; and the gallant British captain leaped on the central stringer
+      of the bridge and, waving his sword, led on. Instantly three lines of men
+      were formed, one on each stringer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were only fifty yards from the barricade, with five hundred rifles,
+      all concentrated on these stringers. The first to fall was the captain,
+      shot through the heart, and the river bore him away. But on and on came
+      the three ranks into the whistling, withering fire of lead. It was like
+      slaughtering sheep. Yet on and on they marched steadily for half an hour.
+      Not a man held back or turned, though all knew they were marching to their
+      certain death. Not one of them ever reached the centre of the span, and
+      those who dropped, not dead, were swallowed by the swollen stream. How
+      many hundred brave men were sacrificed that day, no one ever knew. He who
+      gave the word to charge was dead with his second and third in command and
+      before another could come to change the order, the river ran red&mdash;the
+      bloody Saranac they call it ever since.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The regiment was wrecked, and the assault for the time was over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf had plied his rifle with the rest, but it sickened him to see the
+      horrible waste of human valour. It was such ghastly work that he was glad
+      indeed when a messenger came to say he was needed at headquarters. And in
+      an hour he was crossing the lake with news and instructions for the
+      officer in command at Burlington.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0079" id="link2HCH0079">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 81. The Battle of Plattsburg
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      In broad daylight he skimmed away in his one man canoe.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      For five hours he paddled, and at star-peep he reached the dock at
+      Burlington. The howl of a lost dog caught his ear; and when he traced the
+      sound, there, on the outmost plank, with his nose to the skies, was the
+      familiar form of Skookum, wailing and sadly alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a change he showed when Rolf landed; he barked, leaped, growled,
+      tail-wagged, head-wagged, feet-wagged, body-wagged, wig-wagged and
+      zigzagged for joy; he raced in circles, looking for a sacrificial hen, and
+      finally uttered a long and conversational whine that doubtless was full of
+      information for those who could get it out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf delivered his budget at once. It was good news, but not conclusive.
+      Everything depended now on MacDonough. In the morning all available troops
+      should hurry to the defence of Plattsburg; not less than fifteen hundred
+      men were ready to embark at daylight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night Rolf slept with Skookum in the barracks. At daybreak, much to
+      the latter's disgust, he was locked up in a cellar, and the troops
+      embarked for the front.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a brisk north wind they had to face in crossing and passing down
+      the lake. There were many sturdy oarsmen at the sweeps, but they could not
+      hope to reach their goal in less than five hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were half way over, they heard the cannon roar; the booming
+      became incessant; without question, a great naval battle was on, for this
+      north wind was what the British had been awaiting. The rowers bent to
+      their task and added to the speed. Their brothers were hard pressed; they
+      knew it, they must make haste. The long boats flew. In an hour they could
+      see the masts, the sails, the smoke of the battle, but nothing gather of
+      the portentous result. Albany and New York, as well as Plattsburg, were in
+      the balance, and the oarsmen rowed and rowed and rowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cannon roared louder and louder, though less continuously, as another
+      hour passed. Now they could see the vessels only four miles away. The jets
+      of smoke were intermittent from the guns; masts went down. They could see
+      it plainly. The rowers only set their lips and rowed and rowed and rowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir George had reckoned on but one obstacle in his march to Albany, an
+      obstruction named MacDonough; but he now found there was another called
+      Macomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was obviously a waste of men to take Plattsburg by front assault, when
+      he could easily force a passage of the river higher up and take it on the
+      rear; and it was equally clear that when his fleet arrived and crushed the
+      American fleet, it would be a simple matter for the war vessels to blow
+      the town to pieces, without risking a man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Already a favouring wind had made it possible for Downie to leave Isle au
+      Noix and sail down the lake with his gallant crew, under gallant canvas
+      clouds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tried men and true in control of every ship, outnumbering MacDonough,
+      outweighing him, outpointing him in everything but seamanship, they came
+      on, sure of success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three chief moves were in MacDonough's strategy. He anchored to the
+      northward of the bay, so that any fleet coming down the lake would have to
+      beat up against the wind to reach him; so close to land that any fleet
+      trying to flank him would come within range of the forts; and left only
+      one apparent gap that a foe might try to use, a gap in front of which was
+      a dangerous sunken reef. This was indeed a baited trap. Finally he put out
+      cables, kedges, anchors, and springs, so that with the capstan he could
+      turn his vessels and bring either side to bear on the foe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All was ready, that morning of September the 11th as the British fleet,
+      ably handled, swung around the Cumberland Head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young commander of the Yankee fleet now kneeled bareheaded with his
+      crew and prayed to the God of Battles as only those going into battle
+      pray. The gallant foe came on, and who that knows him doubts that he, too,
+      raised his heart in reverent prayer? The first broadside from the British
+      broke open a chicken coop on the Saratoga from which a game-cock flew,
+      and, perching on a gun, flapped his wings and crowed; so all the seamen
+      cheered at such a happy omen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then followed the fighting, with its bravery and its horrors&mdash;its
+      brutish wickedness broke loose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early in the action, the British sloop, Finch, fell into MacDonough's trap
+      and grounded on the reef.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The British commander was killed, with many of his officers. Still, the
+      heavy fire of the guns would have given them the victory, but for
+      MacDonough's foresight in providing for swinging his ships. When one
+      broadside was entirely out of action, he used his cables, kedges and
+      springs, and brought the other batteries to bear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was one of the most desperate naval fights the world has ever seen. Of
+      the three hundred men on the British flagship not more than five, we are
+      told, escaped uninjured; and at the close there was not left on any one of
+      the eight vessels a mast that could carry sail, or a sail that could
+      render service. In less than two hours and a half the fight was won, and
+      the British fleet destroyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the God of Battles each had committed his cause: and the God of Battles
+      had spoken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Far away to the southward in the boats were the Vermont troops with their
+      general and Rolf in the foremost. Every sign of the fight they had watched
+      as men whose country's fate is being tried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a quarter after eleven when the thunder died away; and the
+      Vermonters were headed on shore, for a hasty landing, if need be, when
+      down from the peak of the British flag-ship went the Union Jack, and the
+      Stars and Stripes was hauled to take its place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God!&rdquo; a soft, murmuring sigh ran through all the boats and many a
+      bronzed and bearded cheek was wet with tears. Each man clasped hands with
+      his neighbour; all were deeply moved, and even as an audience melted
+      renders no applause, so none felt any wish to vent his deep emotion in a
+      cheer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0080" id="link2HCH0080">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 82. Scouting for Macomb
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      General Macomb knew that Sir George Prevost was a cautious and experienced
+      commander. The loss of his fleet would certainly make a radical change in
+      his plans, but what change? Would he make a flank move and dash on to
+      Albany, or retreat to Canada, or entrench himself to await reinforcements
+      at Plattsburg, or try to retrieve his laurels by an overwhelming assault
+      on the town?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever his plan, he would set about it quickly, and Macomb studied the
+      enemy's camp with a keen, discerning eye, but nothing suggesting a change
+      was visible when the sun sank in the rainy west.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was vital that he know it at once when an important move was begun, and
+      as soon as the night came down, a score of the swiftest scouts were called
+      for. All were young men; most of them had been in McGlassin's band. Rolf
+      was conspicuous among them for his tall figure, but there was a Vermont
+      boy named Seymour, who had the reputation of being the swiftest runner of
+      them all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had two duties laid before them: first, to find whether Prevost's
+      army was really retreating; second, what of the regiment he sent up the
+      Saranac to perform the flank movement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each was given the country he knew best. Some went westerly, some followed
+      up the river. Rolf, Seymour, and Fiske, another Vermonter, skimmed out of
+      Plattsburg harbour in the dusk, rounded Cumberland Bend, and at nine
+      o'clock landed at Point au Roche, at the north side of Treadwell's Bay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here they hid the canoe and agreeing to meet again at midnight, set off in
+      three different westerly directions to strike the highway at different
+      points. Seymour, as the fast racer, was given the northmost route; Rolf
+      took the middle. Their signals were arranged&mdash;in the woods the
+      barred-owl cry, by the water the loon; and they parted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woods seemed very solemn to Rolf that historic September night, as he
+      strode along at speed, stopping now and again when he thought he heard
+      some signal, and opened wide his mouth to relieve his ear-drums of the
+      heart-beat or to still the rushing of his breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In half an hour he reached the high-road. It was deserted. Then he heard a
+      cry of the barred owl:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wa&mdash;wah&mdash;wa&mdash;wah Wa&mdash;wah&mdash;wa&mdash;hooooo-aw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He replied with the last line, and the answer came a repeat of the whole
+      chant, showing that it might be owl, it might be man; but it was not the
+      right man, for the final response should have been the hooooo-aw. Rolf
+      never knew whence it came, but gave no further heed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a long time he sat in a dark corner, where he could watch the road.
+      There were sounds of stir in the direction of Plattsburg. Then later, and
+      much nearer, a couple of shots were fired. He learned afterward that those
+      shots were meant for one of his friends. At length there was a faint tump
+      ta tump ta. He drew his knife, stuck it deep in the ground, then held the
+      handle in his teeth. This acted like a magnifier, for now he heard it
+      plainly enough&mdash;the sound of a horse at full gallop&mdash;but so far
+      away that it was five minutes before he could clearly hear it while
+      standing. As the sound neared, he heard the clank of arms, and when it
+      passed, Rolf knew that this was a mounted British officer. But why, and
+      whither?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In order to learn the rider's route, Rolf followed at a trot for a mile.
+      This brought him to a hilltop, whither in the silent night, that fateful
+      north wind carried still the sound
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     te&mdash;rump te&mdash;rump te&mdash;rump.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As it was nearly lost, Rolf used his knife again; that brought the rider
+      back within a mile it seemed, and again the hoof beat faded, te&mdash;rump
+      te&mdash;rump.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bound for Canada all right,&rdquo; Rolf chuckled to himself. But there was
+      nothing to show whether this was a mere despatch rider, or an advance
+      scout, or a call for reinforcements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So again he had a long wait. About half-past ten a new and larger sound
+      came from the south. The knife in the ground increased but did not explain
+      it. The night was moonless, dark now, and it was safe to sit very near the
+      road. In twenty minutes the sound was near at hand in five, a dark mass
+      was passing along the road. There is no mistaking the language of drivers.
+      There is never any question about such and such a voice being that of an
+      English officer. There can be no doubt about the clank of heavy wheels&mdash;a
+      rich, tangy voice from some one in advance said: &ldquo;Oui. Parbleu, tows ce
+      que je sais, c'est par la.&rdquo; A body of about one hundred Britishers, two or
+      three wagons, guns, and a Frenchman for guide. Rolf thought he knew that
+      voice; yes, he was almost sure it was the voice of Francios la Colle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was important but far from conclusive. It was now eleven. He was due
+      at the canoe by midnight. He made for the place as fast as he could go,
+      which, on such a night, was slow, but guided by occasional glimpses of the
+      stars he reached the lake, and pausing a furlong from the landing, he gave
+      the rolling, quivering loon call:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ho-o-o-o-ooo-o Ho-o-o-o-ooo-o. Hooo-ooo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After ten seconds the answer came:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o Hoo-ooo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And again after ten seconds Rolf's reply:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hoo-ooo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both his friends were there; Fiske with a bullet-hole through his arm. It
+      seemed their duty to go back at once to headquarters with the meagre
+      information and their wounded comrade. But Fiske made light of his trouble&mdash;it
+      was a mere scratch&mdash;and reminded them that their orders were to make
+      sure of the enemy's movements. Therefore, it was arranged that Seymour
+      take back Fiske and what news they had, while Rolf went on to complete his
+      scouting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By one o'clock he was again on the hill where he had marked the horseman's
+      outward flight and the escorted guns. Now, as he waited, there were sounds
+      in the north that faded, and in the south were similar sounds that grew.
+      Within an hour he was viewing a still larger body of troops with drivers
+      and wheels that clanked. There were only two explanations possible: Either
+      the British were concentrating on Chazy Landing, where, protected from
+      MacDonough by the north wind, they could bring enough stores and forces
+      from the north to march overland independent of the ships, or else they
+      were in full retreat for Canada. There was but one point where this could
+      be made sure, namely, at the forks of the road in Chazy village. So he set
+      out at a jog trot for Chazy, six miles away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The troops ahead were going three miles an hour. Rolf could go five. In
+      twenty minutes he overtook them and now was embarrassed by their slowness.
+      What should he do? It was nearly impossible to make speed through the
+      woods in the darkness, so as to pass them. He was forced to content
+      himself by marching a few yards in their rear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once or twice when a group fell back, he was uncomfortably close and heard
+      scraps of their talk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These left little doubt that the army was in retreat. Still this was the
+      mere chatter of the ranks. He curbed his impatience and trudged with the
+      troop. Once a man dropped back to light his pipe. He almost touched Rolf,
+      and seeing a marching figure, asked in unmistakable accents &ldquo;Oi soi matey,
+      'ave ye a loight?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf assumed the low south country English dialect, already familiar
+      through talking with prisoners, and replied: &ldquo;Naow, oi oin't a-smowking,&rdquo;
+       then gradually dropped out of sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were nearly two hours in reaching Chazy where they passed the Forks,
+      going straight on north. Without doubt, now, the army was bound for
+      Canada! Rolf sat on a fence near by as their footsteps went tramp, tramp,
+      tramp&mdash;with the wagons, clank, clank, clank, and were lost in the
+      northern distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had seen perhaps three hundred men; there were thirteen thousand to
+      account for, and he sat and waited. He did not have long to wait; within
+      half an hour a much larger body of troops evidently was approaching from
+      the south; several lanterns gleamed ahead of them, so Rolf got over the
+      fence, but it was low and its pickets offered poor shelter. Farther back
+      was Judge Hubbell's familiar abode with dense shrubbery. He hastened to it
+      and in a minute was hidden where he could see something of the approaching
+      troops. They were much like those that had gone before, but much more
+      numerous, at least a regiment, and as they filled the village way, an
+      officer cried &ldquo;Halt!&rdquo; and gave new orders. Evidently they were about to
+      bivouac for the night. A soldier approached the picket fence to use it for
+      firewood, but an officer rebuked him. Other fuel, chiefly fence rails, was
+      found, and a score or more of fires were lighted on the highway and in the
+      adjoining pasture. Rolf found himself in something like a trap, for in
+      less than two hours now would be the dawn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The simplest way out was to go in; he crawled quietly round the house to
+      the window of Mrs. Hubbell's room. These were times of nervous tension,
+      and three or four taps on the pane were enough to arouse the good lady.
+      Her husband had come that way more than once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is it?&rdquo; she demanded, through a small opening of the sash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rolf Kittering,&rdquo; he whispered, &ldquo;the place is surrounded by soldiers;
+      can't you hide me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Could she? Imagine an American woman saying &ldquo;No&rdquo; at such a time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He slipped in quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What news?&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;They say that MacDonough has won on the Lake, but
+      Plattsburg is taken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, indeed; Plattsburgh is safe; MacDonough has captured the fleet. I am
+      nearly sure that the whole British army is retiring to Canada.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God, thank God,&rdquo; she said fervently, &ldquo;I knew it must be so; the
+      women have met here and prayed together every day, morning and night. But
+      hush!&rdquo; she laid a warning finger on her lips and pointed up toward one of
+      the rooms&mdash;&ldquo;British officer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She brought two blankets from a press and led up to the garret. At the
+      lowest part of the roof was a tiny door to a lumber closet. In this Rolf
+      spread his blankets, stretched his weary limbs, and soon was sound asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At dawn the bugles blew, the camp was astir. The officer in the house
+      arose and took his post on the porch. He was there on guard to protect the
+      house. His brother officers joined him. Mrs. Hubbell prepared breakfast.
+      It was eaten silently, so far as Rolf could learn. They paid for it and,
+      heading their regiment, went away northward, leaving the officer still on
+      the porch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Rolf heard a stealthy step in his garret, the closed door was
+      pushed open, and Mrs. Hubbell's calm, handsome face appeared, as, with a
+      reassuring nod, she set down a mug of coffee, some bread, and a bowl of
+      mush and milk. And only those who have travelled and fasted for twelve
+      hours when they were nineteen know how good it tasted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From a tiny window ventilator Rolf had a view of the road in front. A
+      growing din of men prepared him for more troops, but still he was
+      surprised to see ten regiments march past with all their stores&mdash;a
+      brave army, but no one could mistake their looks; they wore the despondent
+      air of an army in full retreat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0081" id="link2HCH0081">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 83. The Last of Sir George Prevost
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The battle was over at Plattsburg town, though it had not been fought; for
+      the spirit of MacDonough was on land and water, and it was felt by the
+      British general, as well as the Yankee riflemen, as soon as the Union Jack
+      had been hauled from the mast of the Confiance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Sir George Prevost had to face a momentous decision: He could force
+      the passage of the Saranac and march on to Albany, but his communications
+      would be cut, and he must rely on a hostile country for supplies. Every
+      day drew fresh bands of riflemen from the hills. Before he could get to
+      Albany their number might exceed his, and then what? Unless Great Britain
+      could send a new army or a fleet to support him, he must meet the fate of
+      Burgoyne. Prevost proposed to take no such chances and the night of the
+      11th eight hours after MacDonough's victory, he gave the order &ldquo;Retire to
+      Canada.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To hide the move as long as possible, no change was made till after
+      sundown; no hint was given to the beleaguered town; they must have no
+      opportunity to reap the enormous advantages, moral and material, of
+      harrying a retreating foe. They must arise in the morning to find the
+      enemy safely over the border. The plan was perfect, and would have been
+      literally carried out, had not he had to deal with a foe as clever as
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How eagerly Rolf took in the scene on Chazy Road; how much it meant! how
+      he longed to fly at his fastest famous speed with the stirring news. In
+      two hours and a half he could surely let his leader know. And he gazed
+      with a sort of superior pride at the martial pomp and bravery of the
+      invaders driven forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Near the last was a gallant array of gentlemen in gorgeous uniforms of
+      scarlet and gold; how warlike they looked, how splendid beside the
+      ill-clad riflemen of Vermont and the rude hunters of the Adirondacks. How
+      much more beautiful is an iron sword with jewels, than a sword of plain
+      gray steel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dame Hubbell stood in her door as they went by. Each and all saluted
+      politely; her guard was ordered to join his regiment. The lady waved her
+      sun-bonnet in response to their courteous good-bye, and could not refrain
+      from calling out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How about my prophecy, Sir George, and those purses?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf could not see his hostess, but he heard her voice, and he saw the
+      astonishing effect:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The British general reined in his horse. &ldquo;A gentleman's word is his bond,
+      madam,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Let every officer now throw his purse at the lady's
+      feet,&rdquo; and he set the example. A dozen rattling thuds were heard and a
+      dozen officers saluting, purseless, rode away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A round thousand dollars in gold the lady gathered on her porch that
+      morning, and to this day her grand-kin tell the tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0082" id="link2HCH0082">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 84. Rolf Unmasks the Ambush
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Rolf's information was complete now, and all that remained was to report
+      at Plattsburg. Ten regiments he had counted from his peep hole. The rear
+      guard passed at ten o'clock. At eleven Mrs. Hubbell did a little scouting
+      and reported that all was quiet as far as she could see both ways, and no
+      enemy in sight anywhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a grateful hand shake he left the house to cover the fourteen miles
+      that lay between Chazy and Plattsburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Refreshed and fed, young and strong, the representative of a just and
+      victorious cause, how he exulted in that run, rejoicing in his youth, his
+      country, his strength, his legs, his fame as a runner. Starting at a
+      stride he soon was trotting; then, when the noon hour came, he had covered
+      a good six miles. Now he heard faint, far shots, and going more slowly was
+      soon conscious that a running fight was on between his own people and the
+      body of British sent westward to hold the upper Saranac.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      True to the instinct of the scout, his first business was to find out
+      exactly what and where they were. From a thick tree top he saw the
+      red-coats spotting an opening of the distant country. Then they were lost
+      sight of in the woods. The desultory firing became volley firing, once or
+      twice. Then there was an interval of silence. At length a mass of
+      red-coats appeared on the highway within half a mile. They were travelling
+      very fast, in full retreat, and were coming his way. On the crest of the
+      hill over which the road ran, Rolf saw them suddenly drop to the ground
+      and take up position to form a most dangerous ambuscade, and half a mile
+      away, straggling through the woods, running or striding, were the men in
+      the colours he loved. They had swept the enemy before them, so far, but
+      trained troops speedily recover from a panic, if they have a leader of
+      nerve, and seeing a noble chance in the angle of this deep-sunk road, the
+      British fugitives turned like boars at bay. Not a sign of them was visible
+      to the Americans. The latter were suffering from too much success. Their
+      usual caution seemed to have deserted them, and trotting in a body they
+      came along the narrow road, hemmed in by a forest and soon to be hedged
+      with cliffs of clay. They were heading for a death-trap. At any price he
+      must warn them. He slid down the tree, and keeping cover ran as fast as
+      possible toward the ambush. It was the only hill near&mdash;Beekman's
+      Rise, they call it. As far as possible from the red-coats, but still on
+      the hill that gave a view, he leaped on to a high stump and yelled as he
+      never did before: &ldquo;Go back, go back! A trap! A trap!&rdquo; And lifting high his
+      outspread hands he flung their palms toward his friends, the old-time
+      signal for &ldquo;go back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Not twice did they need warning. Like hunted wolves they flashed from view
+      in the nearest cover. A harmless volley from the baffled ambush rattled
+      amongst them, and leaping from his stump Rolf ran for life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Furious at their failure, a score of red-coats, reloading as they ran,
+      came hot-footed after him. Down into cover of an alder swamp he plunged,
+      and confident of his speed, ran on, dashing through thickets and mudholes.
+      He knew that the red-coats would not follow far in such a place, and his
+      comrades were near. But the alder thicket ended at a field. He heard the
+      bushes crashing close at hand, and dashed down a little ravine at whose
+      lower edge the friendly forest recommenced. That was his fatal mistake.
+      The moment he took to the open there was a rattle of rifles from the hill
+      above, and Rolf fell on his face as dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was after noontide when he fell; he must have lain unconscious for an
+      hour; when he came to himself he was lying still in that hollow,
+      absolutely alone. The red-coats doubtless had continued their flight with
+      the Yankee boys behind them. His face was covered with blood. His coat was
+      torn and bloody; his trousers showed a ragged rent that was reddened and
+      sopping. His head was aching, and in his leg was the pain of a
+      cripplement. He knew it as soon as he tried to move; his right leg was
+      shattered below the knee. The other shots had grazed his arm and head; the
+      latter had stunned him for a time, but did no deeper damage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lay still for a long time, in hopes that some of his friends might
+      come. He tried to raise his voice, but had no strength. Then he remembered
+      the smoke signal that had saved him when he was lost in the woods. In
+      spite of his wounded arm, he got out his flint and steel, and prepared to
+      make a fire. But all the small wood he could reach was wet with recent
+      rains. An old pine stump was on the bank not far away; he might cut
+      kindling-wood from that to start his fire, and he reached for his knife.
+      Alas! its case was empty. Had Rolf been four years younger, he might have
+      broken down and wept at this. It did seem such an unnecessary accumulation
+      of disasters. Without gun or knife, how was he to call his friends?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He straightened his mangled limb in the position of least pain and lay for
+      a while. The September sun fell on his back and warmed him. He was parched
+      with thirst, but only thirty yards away was a little rill. With a long and
+      fearful crawling on his breast, he dragged himself to the stream and drank
+      till he could drink no more, then rested, washed his head and hands, 'and
+      tried to crawl again to the warm place. But the sun had dropped behind the
+      river bank, the little ravine was in shadow, and the chill of the grave
+      was on the young man's pain-racked frame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shadows crossed his brain, among them Si Sylvanne with his quaint sayings,
+      and one above all was clear:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trouble is only sent to make ye do yer best. When ye hev done yer best,
+      keep calm and wait. Things is comin' all right.&rdquo; Yes, that was what he
+      said, and the mockery of it hurt him now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sunset slowly ended; the night wind blew; the dragging hours brought
+      gloom that entered in. This seemed indeed the direst strait of his lot.
+      Crippled, dying of cold, helpless, nothing to do but wait and die, and
+      from his groaning lips there came the half-forgotten prayer his mother
+      taught him long ago, &ldquo;O God, have mercy on me!&rdquo; and then he forgot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he awoke, the stars were shining; he was numb with cold, but his mind
+      was clear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is war,&rdquo; he thought, &ldquo;and God knows we never sought it.&rdquo; And again
+      the thought: &ldquo;When I offered to serve my country, I offered my life. I am
+      willing to die, but this is not a way of my choosing,&rdquo; and a blessed,
+      forgetfulness came upon him again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But his was a stubborn-fibred race; his spark of life was not so quickly
+      quenched; its blazing torch might waver, wane, and wax again. In the
+      chill, dark hour when the life-lamp flickers most, he wakened to hear the
+      sweet, sweet music of a dog's loud bark; in a minute he heard it nearer,
+      and yet again at hand, and Skookum, erratic, unruly, faithful Skookum, was
+      bounding around and barking madly at the calm, unblinking stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A human &ldquo;halloo&rdquo; rang not far away; then others, and Skookum barked and
+      barked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the bushes rustled near, a man came out, kneeled down, laid hand on
+      the dying soldier's brow, and his heart. He opened his eyes, the man bent
+      over him and softly said, &ldquo;Nibowaka! it's Quonab.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That night when the victorious rangers had returned to Plattsburg it was a
+      town of glad, thankful hearts, and human love ran strong. The thrilling
+      stories of the day were told, the crucial moment, the providential way in
+      which at every hopeless pass, some easy, natural miracle took place to
+      fight their battle and back their country's cause. The harrying of the
+      flying rear-guard, the ambuscade over the hill, the appearance of an
+      American scout at the nick of time to warn them&mdash;the shooting, and
+      his disappearance&mdash;all were discussed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then rollicking Seymour and silent Fiske told of their scouting on the
+      trail of the beaten foe; and all asked, &ldquo;Where is Kittering?&rdquo; So talk was
+      rife, and there was one who showed a knife he had picked up near the
+      ambuscade with R. K. on the shaft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now a dark-faced scout rose up, stared at the knife, and quickly left the
+      room. In three minutes he stood before General Macomb, his words were few,
+      but from his heart:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is my boy, Nibowaka; it is Rolf; my heart tells me. Let me go. I feel
+      him praying for me to come. Let me go, general. I must go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It takes a great man to gauge the heart of a man who seldom speaks. &ldquo;You
+      may go, but how can you find him tonight?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh, I find him,&rdquo; and the Indian pointed to a little, prick-eared, yellow
+      cur that sneaked at his heels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Success to you; he was one of the best we had,&rdquo; said the general, as the
+      Indian left, then added: &ldquo;Take a couple of men along, and, here, take
+      this,&rdquo; and he held out a flask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it was that the dawning saw Rolf on a stretcher carried by his three
+      scouting partners, while Skookum trotted ahead, looking this way and that&mdash;they
+      should surely not be ambushed this time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And thus the crowning misfortune, the culminating apes of disaster&mdash;the
+      loss of his knife&mdash;the thing of all others that roused in Rolf the
+      spirit of rebellion, was the way of life, his dungeon's key, the golden
+      chain that haled him from the pit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0083" id="link2HCH0083">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 85. The Hospital, the Prisoners, and Home
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There were wagons and buckboards to be had, but the road was rough, so the
+      three changed off as litter-bearers and brought him to the lake where the
+      swift and smooth canoe was ready, and two hours later they carried him
+      into the hospital at Plattsburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The leg was set at once, his wounds were dressed, he was warmed, cleaned,
+      and fed; and when the morning sun shone in the room, it was a room of calm
+      and peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The general came and sat beside him for a time, and the words he spoke
+      were ample, joyful compensation for his wounds. MacDonough, too, passed
+      through the ward, and the warm vibrations of his presence drove death from
+      many a bed whose inmate's force ebbed low, whose soul was walking on the
+      brink, was near surrender.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf did not fully realize it then, but long afterward it was clear that
+      this was the meaning of the well-worn words, &ldquo;He filled them with a new
+      spirit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was not a man in the town but believed the war was over; there was
+      not a man in the town who doubted that his country's cause was won.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three weeks is a long time to a youth near manhood, but there was much of
+      joy to while away the hours. The mothers of the town came and read and
+      talked. There was news from the front. There were victories on the high
+      seas. His comrades came to sit beside him; Seymour, the sprinter, as merry
+      a soul as ever hankered for the stage and the red cups of life; Fiske, the
+      silent, and McGlassin, too, with his dry, humorous talk; these were the
+      bright and funny hours. There were others. There came a bright-checked
+      Vermont mother whose three sons had died in service at MacDonough's guns;
+      and she told of it in a calm voice, as one who speaks of her proudest
+      honour. Yes, she rejoiced that God had given her three such sons, and had
+      taken again His gifts in such a day of glory. Had England's rulers only
+      known, that this was the spirit of the land that spoke, how well they
+      might have asked: &ldquo;What boots it if we win a few battles, and burn a few
+      towns; it is a little gain and passing; for there is one thing that no
+      armies, ships, or laws, or power on earth, or hell itself can down or
+      crush&mdash;that alone is the thing that counts or endures&mdash;the thing
+      that permeates these men, that finds its focal centre in such souls as
+      that of the Vermont mother, steadfast, proud, and rejoicing in her
+      bereavement.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But these were forms that came and went; there were two that seldom were
+      away&mdash;the tall and supple one of the dark face and the easy tread,
+      and his yellow shadow&mdash;the ever unpopular, snappish, prick-eared cur,
+      that held by force of arms all territories at floor level contiguous to,
+      under, comprised, and bounded by, the four square legs and corners of the
+      bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab's nightly couch was a blanket not far away, and his daily,
+      self-given task to watch the wounded and try by devious ways and plots to
+      trick him into eating ever larger meals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Garrison duty was light now, so Quonab sought the woods where the flocks
+      of partridge swarmed, with Skookum as his aid. It was the latter's joyful
+      duty to find and tree the birds, and &ldquo;yap&rdquo; below, till Quonab came up
+      quietly with bow and blunt arrows, to fill his game-bag; and thus the best
+      of fare was ever by the invalid's bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf's was easily a winning fight from the first, and in a week he was
+      eating well, sleeping well, and growing visibly daily stronger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then on a fleckless dawn that heralded a sun triumphant, the Indian
+      borrowed a drum from the bandsman, and, standing on the highest
+      breastwork, he gazed across the dark waters to the whitening hills. There
+      on a tiny fire he laid tobacco and kinnikinnik, as Gisiss the Shining One
+      burnt the rugged world rim at Vermont, and, tapping softly with one stick,
+      he gazed upward, after the sacrificial thread of smoke, and sang in his
+      own tongue:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Father, I burn tobacco, I smoke to Thee. I sing for my heart is singing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pleasant chatter of the East was current by Rolf's bedside. Stories of
+      homes in the hills he heard, tales of hearths by far away lakes and
+      streams, memories of golden haired children waiting for father's or
+      brother's return from the wars. Wives came to claim their husbands,
+      mothers to bring away their boys, to gain again their strength at home.
+      And his own heart went back, and ever back, to the rugged farm on the
+      shores of the noble George.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In two weeks he was able to sit up. In three he could hobble, and he moved
+      about the town when the days were warm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now he made the acquaintance of the prisoners. They were closely
+      guarded and numbered over a hundred. It gave him a peculiar sensation to
+      see them there. It seemed un-American to hold a human captive; but he
+      realized that it was necessary to keep them for use as hostages and
+      exchanges.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of them he found to be sullen brutes, but many were kind and
+      friendly, and proved to be jolly good fellows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the occasion of his second visit, a familiar voice saluted him with,
+      &ldquo;Well, Rolf! Comment ca va?&rdquo; and he had the painful joy of greeting
+      Francois la Colle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll help me get away, Rolf, won't you?&rdquo; and the little Frenchman
+      whispered and winked. &ldquo;I have seven little ones now on La Riviere, dat
+      have no flour, and tinks dere pa is dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll do all I can, Francois,&rdquo; and the picture of the desolate home,
+      brought a husk in his voice and a choke in his throat. He remembered too
+      the musket ball that by intent had whistled harmless overhead. &ldquo;But,&rdquo; he
+      added in a shaky voice, &ldquo;I cannot help my country's enemy to escape.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Rolf took counsel with McGlassin, told him all about the affair at
+      the mill, and McGlassin with a heart worthy of his mighty shoulders,
+      entered into the spirit of the situation, went to General Macomb
+      presenting such a tale and petition that six hours later Francis bearing a
+      passport through the lines was trudging away to Canada, paroled for the
+      rest of the war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another face that Rolf recognized&mdash;hollow-cheeked,
+      flabby-jowled and purplish-gray. The man was one of the oldest of the
+      prisoners. He wore a white beard end moustache. He did not recognize Rolf,
+      but Rolf knew him, for this was Micky Kittering. How he escaped from jail
+      and joined the enemy was an episode of the war's first year. Rolf was
+      shocked to see what a miserable wreck his uncle was. He could not do him
+      any good. To identify him would have resulted in his being treated as a
+      renegade, so on the plea that he was an old man, Rolf saw that the
+      prisoner had extra accommodation and out of his own pocket kept him
+      abundantly supplied with tobacco. Then in his heart he forgave him, and
+      kept away. They never met again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bulk of the militia had been disbanded after the great battle. A few
+      of the scouts and enough men to garrison the fort and guard the prisoners
+      were retained. Each day there were joyful partings&mdash;the men with
+      homes, going home. And the thought that ever waxed in Rolf came on in
+      strength. He hobbled to headquarters. &ldquo;General, can I get leave&mdash;to
+      go&mdash;he hesitated&mdash;home?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Kittering, I didn't know you had a home. But, certainly, I'll give
+      you a month's leave and pay to date.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Champlain is the lake of the two winds; the north wind blows for six
+      months with a few variations, and the south wind for the other six months
+      with trifling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next morning a bark canoe was seen skimming southward before as much north
+      wind as it could stand, with Rolf reclining in the middle, Quonab at the
+      stern, and Skookum in the bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In two days they were at Ticonderoga. Here help was easily got at the
+      portage and on the evening of the third day, Quonab put a rope on
+      Skookum's neck and they landed at Hendrik's farm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hickory logs were blazing bright, and the evening pot was reeking as
+      they opened the door and found the family gathered for the meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't know you had a home,&rdquo; the general had said. He should have been
+      present now to see the wanderer's welcome. If war breeds such a spirit in
+      the land, it is as much a blessing as a curse. The air was full of it, and
+      the Van Trumpers, when they saw their hero hobble in, were melted. Love,
+      pity, pride, and tenderness were surging in storms through every heart
+      that knew. &ldquo;Their brother, their son come back, wounded, but proven and
+      glorious.&rdquo; Yes, Rolf had a home, and in that intoxicating realization he
+      kissed them all, even Annette of the glowing cheeks and eyes; though in
+      truth he paid for it, for it conjured up in her a shy aloofness that
+      lasted many days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Hendrik sputtered around. &ldquo;Och, I am smile; dis is goood, yah. Vere is
+      that tam dog? Yah! tie him not, he shall dis time von chicken have for
+      joy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Marta,&rdquo; said Rolf, &ldquo;you told me to come here if I got hurt. Well, I've
+      come, and I've brought a boat-load of stuff in case I cannot do my share
+      in the fields.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Press you, my poy you didn't oughter brung dot stuff; you know we loff
+      you here, and effery time it is you coom I get gladsomer, and dot Annette
+      she just cried ven you vent to de war.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, mother, I did not; it was you and little Hendrick!&rdquo; and Annette
+      turned her scarlet cheeks away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      October, with its trees of flame and gold, was on the hills; purple and
+      orange, the oaks and the birches; blue blocked with white was the sky
+      above, and the blue, bright lake was limpid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, God of my fathers,&rdquo; Quonab used to pray, &ldquo;when I reach the Happy
+      Hunting, let it be ever the Leaf-falling Moon, for that is the only
+      perfect time.&rdquo; And in that unmarred month of sunny sky and woodlands
+      purged of every plague, there is but one menace in the vales. For who can
+      bring the glowing coal to the dry-leafed woods without these two begetting
+      the dread red fury that devastates the hills?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who can bring the fire in touch with tow and wonder at the blaze? Who,
+      indeed? And would any but a dreamer expect young manhood in its growing
+      strength, and girlhood just across the blush-line, to meet in daily meals
+      and talk and still keep up the brother and sister play? It needs only a
+      Virginia on the sea-girt island to turn the comrade into Paul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Marta, I tink dot Rolf an Annette don't quarrel bad, ain't it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hendrik, you vas von blind old bat-mole,&rdquo; said Marta, &ldquo;I fink dat farm
+      next ours purty good, but Rolf he say 'No Lake George no good.' Better he
+      like all his folk move over on dat Hudson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0084" id="link2HCH0084">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 86. The New Era of Prosperity
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      As November neared and his leave of absence ended, Rolf was himself again;
+      had been, indeed, for two weeks, and, swinging fork or axe, he had helped
+      with many an urgent job on the farm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fine log stable they had rolled up together, with corners dovetailed
+      like cabinet work, and roof of birch bark breadths above the hay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there was another building, too, that Rolf had worked at night and
+      day. It was no frontier shack, but a tall and towering castle, splendid
+      and roomy, filled with loved ones and love. Not by the lake near by, not
+      by the river of his choice, but higher up than the tops of the high
+      mountains it loomed, and he built and built until the month was nearly
+      gone. Then only did he venture to ask for aid, and Annette it was who
+      promised to help him finish the building.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, the Lake George shore was a land of hungry farms. It was off the line
+      of travel, too. It was neither Champlain nor Hudson; and Hendrik, after
+      ten years' toil with barely a living to show, was easily convinced. Next
+      summer they must make a new choice of home. But now it was back to
+      Plattsburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On November 1st Rolf and Quonab reported to General Macomb. There was
+      little doing but preparations for the winter. There were no prospects of
+      further trouble from their neighbours in the north. Most of the militia
+      were already disbanded, and the two returned to Plattsburg, only to
+      receive their honourable discharge, to be presented each with the medal of
+      war, with an extra clasp on Rolf's for that dauntless dash that spiked the
+      British guns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wicked war with its wickedness was done at last. &ldquo;The greatest evil that
+      can befall a country,&rdquo; some call it, and yet out of this end came three
+      great goods: The interstate distrust had died away, for now they were
+      soldiers who had camped together, who had &ldquo;drunk from the same canteen&rdquo;;
+      little Canada, until then a thing of shreds and scraps, had been fused in
+      the furnace, welded into a young nation, already capable of defending her
+      own. England, arrogant with long success at sea, was taught a lesson of
+      courtesy and justice, for now the foe whom she had despised and insulted
+      had shown himself her equal, a king of the sea-king stock. The unnecessary
+      battle of New Orleans, fought two weeks after the war was officially
+      closed, showed that the raw riflemen of Tennessee were more than a match
+      for the seasoned veterans who had overcome the great Napoleon, and thus on
+      land redeemed the Stars and Stripes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The war brought unmeasured material loss on all concerned, but some
+      weighty lasting gains to two at least. On December 24, 1814, the Treaty of
+      Ghent was signed and the long rides were hung up on the cabin walls.
+      Nothing was said in the treaty about the cause of war&mdash;the right of
+      search. Why should they speak of it? If a big boy bullies a smaller one
+      and gets an unexpected knockdown blow, it is not necessary to have it all
+      set forth in terms before they shake hands that &ldquo;I, John, of the first
+      part, to wit, the bully, do hereby agree, promise, and contract to refrain
+      in future forevermore from bullying you, Jonathan, of the second part, to
+      wit, the bullied.&rdquo; That point had already been settled by the logic of
+      events. The right of search was dead before the peace was born, and the
+      very place of its bones is forgotten to-day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolf with Quonab returned to the trapping that winter; and as soon as the
+      springtime came and seeding was over, he and Van Trumper made their choice
+      of farms. Every dollar they could raise was invested in the beautiful
+      sloping lands of the upper Hudson. Rolf urged the largest possible
+      purchase now. Hendrick looked somewhat aghast at such a bridge-burning
+      move. But a purchaser for his farm was found with unexpected promptness,
+      one who was not on farming bent and the way kept opening up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wedding did not take place till another year, when Annette was
+      nineteen and Rolf twenty-one. And the home they moved to was not exactly a
+      castle, but much more complete and human.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the beginning of a new settlement. Given good land in plenty, and
+      all the rest is easy; neighbours came in increasing numbers; every claim
+      was taken up; Rolf and Hendrik saw themselves growing rich, and at length
+      the latter was thankful for the policy that he once thought so rash, of
+      securing all the land he could. Now it was his making, for in later years
+      his grown-up sons were thus provided for, and kept at home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The falls of the river offered, as Rolf had foreseen, a noble chance for
+      power. Very early he had started a store and traded for fur. Now, with the
+      careful savings, he was able to build his sawmill; and about it grew a
+      village with a post-office that had Rolf's name on the signboard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quonab had come, of course, with Rolf, but he shunned the house, and the
+      more so as it grew in size. In a remote and sheltered place he built a
+      wigwam of his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Skookum was divided in his allegiance, but he solved the puzzle by
+      dividing his time between them. He did not change much, but he did rise in
+      a measure to the fundamental zoological fact that hens are not partridges;
+      and so acquired a haughty toleration of the cackle-party throng that
+      assembled in the morning at Annette's call. Yes, he made even another step
+      of progress, for on one occasion he valiantly routed the unenlightened dog
+      of a neighbour, a &ldquo;cur of low degree,&rdquo; whose ideas of ornithology were as
+      crude as his own had been in the beginning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All of which was greatly to his credit, for he found it hard to learn now;
+      he was no longer young, and before he had seen eight springs dissolve the
+      snow, he was called to the Land of Happy Hunting, where the porcupine is
+      not, but where hens abound on every side, and there is no man near to
+      meddle with his joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet, when he died, he lived. His memory was kept ever green, for Skookum
+      Number 2 was there to fill his room, and he gave place to Skookum 3, and
+      so they keep their line on to this very day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0086" id="link2H_4_0086">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Quonab Goes Home
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The public has a kind of crawlin' common-sense, that is always right and
+      fair in the end, only it's slow&mdash;Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Twenty years went by. Rolf grew and prospered. He was a man of substance
+      and of family now; for store and mill were making money fast, and the
+      little tow-tops came at regular intervals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when the years had added ripeness to his thought, and the kind gods of
+      gold had filled his scrip, it was that his ampler life began to bloom. His
+      was a mind of the best begetting, born and bred of ancient, clean-blooded
+      stock; inflexibly principled, trained by a God-fearing mother, nurtured in
+      a cradle of adversity, schooled in a school of hardship, developed in the
+      big outdoors, wise in the ways of the woods, burnt in the fire of
+      affliction, forced into self-reliance, inspired with the lofty inspiration
+      of sacrificial patriotism&mdash;the good stuff of his make-up shone, as
+      shines the gold in the fervent heat; the hard blows that prove or crush,
+      had proved; the metal had rung true; and in the great valley, Rolf
+      Kittering was a man of mark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The country's need of such is ever present and ever seeking. Those in
+      power who know and measure men soon sought him out, and their messenger
+      was the grisly old Si Sylvanne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Because he was a busy man, Rolf feared to add to his activities. Because
+      he was a very busy man, the party new they needed him. So at length it was
+      settled, and in a little while, Rolf stood in the Halls of Albany and
+      grasped the hand of the ancient mill-man as a colleague, filling an
+      honoured place in the councils of the state.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each change brought him new activities. Each year he was more of a public
+      man, and his life grew larger. From Albany he went to New York, in the
+      world of business and men's affairs; and at last in Washington, his tall,
+      manly figure was well known, and his good common-sense and clean business
+      ways were respected. Yet each year during hunting time he managed to spend
+      a few weeks with Quonab in the woods. Tramping on their ancient trapping
+      grounds, living over the days of their early hunts; and double zest was
+      added when Rolf the second joined them and lived and loved it all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this was no longer Kittering's life, rather the rare precarious
+      interval, and more and more old Quonab realized that they were meeting
+      only in the past. When the big house went up on the river-bank, he indeed
+      had felt that they were at the parting of the ways. His respect for
+      Nibowaka had grown to be almost a worship, and yet he knew that their
+      trails had yearly less in common. Rolf had outgrown him; he was alone
+      again, as on the day of their meeting. His years had brought a certain
+      insight; and this he grasped&mdash;that the times were changed, and his
+      was the way of a bygone day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mine is the wisdom of the woods,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but the woods are going fast;
+      in a few years there will be no more trees, and my wisdom will be
+      foolishness. There is in this land now a big, strong thing called 'trade,'
+      that will eat up all things and the people themselves. You are wise
+      enough, Nibowaka, to paddle with the stream, you have turned so the big
+      giant is on your side, and his power is making you great. But this is not
+      for me; so only I have enough to eat, and comfort to sleep, I am content
+      to watch for the light.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Across the valley from the big store he dwelt, in a lodge from which he
+      could easily see the sunrise. Twenty-five years added to the fifty he
+      spent in the land of Mayn Mayano had dimmed his eye, had robbed his foot
+      of its spring, and sprinkled his brow with the winter rime; but they had
+      not changed his spirit, nor taught him less to love the pine woods and the
+      sunrise. Yes, even more than in former days did he take his song-drum to
+      the rock of worship, to his idaho&mdash;as the western red man would have
+      called it. And there, because it was high and the wind blew cold, he made
+      a little eastward-facing lodge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was old and hunting was too hard for him, but there was a strong arm
+      about him now; he dimly thought of it at times&mdash;the arm of the
+      fifteen-year-old boy that one time he had shielded. There was no lack of
+      food or blankets in the wigwam, or of freedom in the woods under the
+      sun-up rock. But there was a hunger that not farseeing Nibowaka could
+      appease, not even talk about. And Quonab built another medicine lodge to
+      watch the sun go down over the hill. Sitting by a little fire to tune his
+      song-drum, he often crooned to the blazing skies. &ldquo;I am of the sunset now,
+      I and my people,&rdquo; he sang, &ldquo;the night is closing over us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One day a stranger came to the hills; his clothes were those of a white
+      man, but his head, his feet, and his eyes&mdash;his blood, his walk, and
+      his soul were those of a red Indian of the West. He came from the unknown
+      with a message to those who knew him not: &ldquo;The Messiah was coming; the
+      deliverer that Hiawatha bade them look for. He was coming in power to
+      deliver the red race, and his people must sing the song of the ghost-dance
+      till the spirit came, and in a vision taught them wisdom and his will!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Not to the white man, but to the lonely Indian in the hill cleft he came,
+      and the song that he brought and taught him was of a sorrowing people
+      seeking their father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Father have pity on us! Our souls are hungry for Thee. There is nothing
+      here to satisfy us Father we bow to Thy will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By the fire that night they sang, and prayed as the Indian prays&mdash;&ldquo;Father
+      have pity and guide us.&rdquo; So Quonab sang the new song, and knew its message
+      was for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger went on, for he was a messenger, but Quonab sang again and
+      again, and then the vision came, as it must, and the knowledge that he
+      sought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None saw him go, but ten miles southward on the river he met a hunter and
+      said: &ldquo;Tell the wise one that I have heard the new song. Tell him I have
+      seen the vision. We are of the sunset, but the new day comes. I must see
+      the land of Mayn Mayano, the dawn-land, where the sun rises out of the
+      sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They saw no more of him. But a day later, Rolf heard of it, and set out in
+      haste next morning for Albany. Skookum the fourth leaped into the canoe as
+      he pushed off. Rolf was minded to send him back, but the dog begged hard
+      with his eyes and tail. It seemed he ought to go, when it was the old man
+      they sought. At Albany they got news. &ldquo;Yes, the Indian went on the
+      steamboat a few days ago.&rdquo; At New York, Rolf made no attempt to track his
+      friend, but took the Stamford boat and hurried to the old familiar woods,
+      where he had lived and suffered and wakened as a boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a house now near the rock that is yet called &ldquo;Quonab's.&rdquo; From
+      the tenants he learned that in the stillest hours of the night before,
+      they had heard the beating of an Indian drum, and the cadence of a chant
+      that came not from throat of white man's blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning when it was light Rolf hastened to the place, expecting to
+      find at least an Indian camp, where once had stood the lodge. There was no
+      camp; and as he climbed for a higher view, the Skookum of to-day gave
+      bristling proof of fear at some strange object there&mdash;a man that
+      moved not. His long straight hair was nearly white, and by his side,
+      forever still, lay the song-drum of his people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And those who heard the mournful strains the night before knew now from
+      Rolf that it was Ouonab come back to his rest, and the song that he sang
+      was the song of the ghost dance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pity me, Wahkonda. My soul is ever hungry. There is nothing here to
+      satisfy me, I walk in darkness; Pity me, Wahkondal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
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+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rolf In The Woods, by Ernest Thompson Seton
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+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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+
+Title: Rolf In The Woods
+
+Author: Ernest Thompson Seton
+
+Posting Date: August 3, 2008 [EBook #1088]
+Release Date: October, 1997
+Last Updated: January 17, 2011
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROLF IN THE WOODS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Anonymous Volunteers, and Ted Soldan
+
+
+
+
+
+ROLF IN THE WOODS
+
+By Ernest Thompson Seton
+
+[Chapters 10 and 60 not designated in the original file.]
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+In this story I have endeavoured to realize some of the influences that
+surrounded the youth of America a hundred years ago, and made of them,
+first, good citizens, and, later, in the day of peril, heroes that won
+the battles of Lake Erie, Plattsburg, and New Orleans, and the great sea
+fights of Porter, Bainbridge, Decatur, Lawrence, Perry, and MacDonough.
+
+I have especially dwelt in detail on the woodland and peace scouting
+in the hope that I may thus help other boys to follow the hard-climbing
+trail that leads to the higher uplands.
+
+For the historical events of 1812-14, I have consulted among books
+chiefly, Theodore Roosevelt's "Naval War of 1812," Peter S. Palmer's
+"History of Lake Champlain," and Walter Hill Crockett's "A History of
+Lake Champlain," 1909. But I found another and more personal mine of
+information. Through the kindness of my friend, Edmund Seymour, a native
+of the Champlain region, now a resident of New York, I went over all the
+historical ground with several unpublished manuscripts for guides, and
+heard from the children of the sturdy frontiersmen new tales of the
+war; and in getting more light and vivid personal memories, I was glad,
+indeed, to realize that not only were there valour and heroism on both
+sides, but also gentleness and courtesy. Histories written by either
+party at the time should be laid aside. They breathe the rancourous
+hate of the writers of the age--the fighters felt not so--and the
+many incidents given here of chivalry and consideration were actual
+happenings, related to me by the descendants of those who experienced
+them; and all assure me that these were a true reflex of the feelings of
+the day.
+
+I am much indebted to Miss Katherine Palmer, of Plattsburg, for kindly
+allowing me to see the unpublished manuscript memoir of her grandfather,
+Peter Sailly, who was Collector of the Port of Plattsburg at the time of
+the war.
+
+Another purpose in this story was to picture the real Indian with his
+message for good or for evil.
+
+Those who know nothing of the race will scoff and say they never heard
+of such a thing as a singing and religious red man. Those who know him
+well will say, "Yes, but you have given to your eastern Indian songs
+and ceremonies which belong to the western tribes, and which are of
+different epochs." To the latter I reply:
+
+"You know that the western Indians sang and prayed in this way. How do
+you know that the eastern ones did not? We have no records, except
+those by critics, savagely hostile, and contemptuous of all religious
+observances but their own. The Ghost Dance Song belonged to a much more
+recent time, no doubt, but it was purely Indian, and it is generally
+admitted that the races of continental North America were of one stock,
+and had no fundamentally different customs or modes of thought."
+
+The Sunrise Song was given me by Frederick R. Burton, author of
+"American Primitive Music." It is still in use among the Ojibwa.
+
+The songs of the Wabanaki may be read in C. G. Leland's "Kuloskap the
+Master."
+
+The Ghost Dance Song was furnished by Alice C. Fletcher, whose "Indian
+Song and Story" will prove a revelation to those who wish to follow
+further.
+
+ERNEST THOMPSON SETON.
+
+
+
+Chapter 1. The Wigwam Under the Rock
+
+The early springtime sunrise was near at hand as Quonab, the last of the
+Myanos Sinawa, stepped from his sheltered wigwam under the cliff that
+borders the Asamuk easterly, and, mounting to the lofty brow of the
+great rock that is its highest pinnacle, he stood in silence, awaiting
+the first ray of the sun over the sea water that stretches between
+Connecticut and Seawanaky.
+
+His silent prayer to the Great Spirit was ended as a golden beam shot
+from a long, low cloud-bank over the sea, and Quonab sang a weird Indian
+song for the rising sun, an invocation to the Day God:
+
+     "O thou that risest from the low cloud
+     To burn in the all above;
+     I greet thee!  I adore thee!"
+
+Again and again he sang to the tumming of a small tom-tom, till the
+great refulgent one had cleared the cloud, and the red miracle of the
+sunrise was complete. Back to his wigwam went the red man, down to his
+home tucked dosed under the sheltering rock, and, after washing his
+hands in a basswood bowl, began to prepare his simple meal.
+
+A tin-lined copper pot hanging over the fire was partly filled with
+water; then, when it was boiling, some samp or powdered corn and some
+clams were stirred in. While these were cooking, he took his smooth-bore
+flint-lock, crawled gently over the ridge that screened his wigwam from
+the northwest wind, and peered with hawk-like eyes across the broad
+sheet of water that, held by a high beaver-dam, filled the little valley
+of Asamuk Brook.
+
+The winter ice was still on the pond, but in all the warming shallows
+there was open water, on which were likely to be ducks. None were to be
+seen, but by the edge of the ice was a round object which, although so
+far away, he knew at a glance for a muskrat.
+
+By crawling around the pond, the Indian could easily have come within
+shot, but he returned at once to his wigwam, where he exchanged his gun
+for the weapons of his fathers, a bow and arrows, and a long fish-line.
+A short, quick stalk, and the muskrat, still eating a flagroot, was
+within thirty feet. The fish-line was coiled on the ground and then
+attached to an arrow, the bow bent--zip--the arrow picked up the line,
+coil after coil, and trans-fixed the muskrat. Splash! and the animal was
+gone under the ice.
+
+But the cord was in the hands of the hunter; a little gentle pulling and
+the rat came to view, to be despatched with a stick and secured. Had he
+shot it with a gun, it had surely been lost.
+
+He returned to his camp, ate his frugal breakfast, and fed a small,
+wolfish-looking yellow dog that was tied in the lodge.
+
+He skinned the muskrat carefully, first cutting a slit across the rear
+and then turning the skin back like a glove, till it was off to the
+snout; a bent stick thrust into this held it stretched, till in a day,
+it was dry and ready for market. The body, carefully cleaned, he hung in
+the shade to furnish another meal.
+
+As he worked, there were sounds of trampling in the woods, and
+presently a tall, rough-looking man, with a red nose and a curling white
+moustache, came striding through brush and leaves. He stopped when
+he saw the Indian, stared contemptuously at the quarry of the morning
+chase, made a scornful remark about "rat-eater," and went on toward the
+wigwam, probably to peer in, but the Indian's slow, clear, "keep away!"
+changed his plan. He grumbled something about "copper-coloured tramp,"
+and started away in the direction of the nearest farmhouse.
+
+
+
+Chapter 2. Rolf Kittering and the Soldier Uncle
+
+     A feller that chatters all the time is bound to talk a
+     certain amount of drivel.--The Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+This was the Crow Moon, the white man's March. The Grass Moon was at
+hand, and already the arrow bands of black-necked honkers were passing
+northward from the coast, sending down as they flew the glad tidings
+that the Hunger Moon was gone, that spring was come, yea, even now was
+in the land. And the flicker clucked from a high, dry bough, the spotted
+woodwale drummed on his chosen branch, the partridge drummed in the pine
+woods, and in the sky the wild ducks, winging, drummed their way. What
+wonder that the soul of the Indian should seek expression in the drum
+and the drum song of his race?
+
+Presently, as though remembering something, he went quietly to the
+southward under the ridge, just where it breaks to let the brook go by,
+along the edge of Strickland's Plain, and on that hill of sliding stone
+he found, as he always had, the blue-eyed liver-leaf smiling, the first
+sweet flower of spring! He did not gather it, he only sat down and
+looked at it. He did not smile, or sing, or utter words, or give it
+a name, but he sat beside it and looked hard at it, and, in the first
+place, he went there knowingly to find it. Who shall say that its beauty
+did not reach his soul?
+
+He took out his pipe and tobacco bag, but was reminded of something
+lacking--the bag was empty. He returned to his wigwam, and from their
+safe hanger or swinging shelf overhead, he took the row of stretched
+skins, ten muskrats and one mink, and set out along a path which led
+southward through the woods to the broad, open place called Strickland's
+Plain, across that, and over the next rock ridge to the little town and
+port of Myanos.
+
+               SILAS PECK
+               Trading Store
+
+was the sign over the door he entered. Men and women were buying and
+selling, but the Indian stood aside shyly until all were served, and
+Master Peck cried out:
+
+"Ho, Quonab! what have ye got for trade to-day?"
+
+Quonab produced his furs. The dealer looked at them narrowly and said:
+
+"They are too late in the season for primes; I cannot allow you more
+than seven cents each for the rats and seventy-five cents for the mink,
+all trade."
+
+The Indian gathered up the bundle with an air of "that settles it," when
+Silas called out:
+
+"Come now, I'll make it ten cents for the rats."
+
+"Ten cents for rats, one dollar for mink, all cash, then I buy what I
+like," was the reply.
+
+It was very necessary to Silas's peace that no customer of his should
+cross the street to the sign,
+
+              SILAS MEAD
+              Trading Store
+
+So the bargain, a fair one now, was made, and the Indian went off with a
+stock of tobacco, tea, and sugar.
+
+His way lay up the Myanos River, as he had one or two traps set along
+the banks for muskrats, although in constant danger of having them
+robbed or stolen by boys, who considered this an encroachment on their
+trapping grounds.
+
+After an hour he came to Dumpling Pond, then set out for his home,
+straight through the woods, till he reached the Catrock line, and
+following that came to the farm and ramshackle house of Micky Kittering.
+He had been told that the man at this farm had a fresh deer hide for
+sale, and hoping to secure it, Quonab walked up toward the house. Micky
+was coming from the barn when he saw the Indian. They recognized each
+other at a glance. That was enough for Quonab; he turned away. The
+farmer remembered that he had been "insulted." He vomited a few oaths,
+and strode after the Indian, "To take it out of his hide"; his purpose
+was very clear. The Indian turned quickly, stood, and looked calmly at
+Michael.
+
+Some men do not know the difference between shyness and cowardice, but
+they are apt to find it out unexpectedly Something told the white man,
+"Beware! this red man is dangerous." He muttered something about, "Get
+out of that, or I'll send for a constable." The Indian stood gazing
+coldly, till the farmer backed off out of sight, then he himself turned
+away to the woods.
+
+Kittering was not a lovely character. He claimed to have been a soldier.
+He certainly looked the part, for his fierce white moustache was curled
+up like horns on his purple face, at each side of his red nose, in
+a most milita style. His shoulders were square and his gait was
+swaggering, beside which, he had an array of swear words that was new
+and tremendously impressive in Connecticut. He had married late in life
+a woman who would have made him a good wife, had he allowed her. But, a
+drunkard himself he set deliberately about bringing his wife to his own
+ways and with most lamentable success. They had had no children, but
+some months before a brother's child, fifteen-year-old lad, had become
+a charge on their hands and, with any measure of good management, would
+have been a blessing to all. But Micky had gone too far. His original
+weak good-nature was foundered in rum. Always blustery and frothy, he
+divided the world in two--superior officers, before whom he grovelled,
+and inferiors to whom he was a mouthy, foul-tongued, contemptible bully,
+in spite of a certain lingering kindness of heart that showed itself at
+such rare times when he was neither roaring drunk nor crucified by black
+reaction. His brother's child, fortunately, had inherited little of the
+paternal family traits, but in both body and brain favoured his mother,
+the daughter of a learned divine who had spent unusual pains on her book
+education, but had left her penniless and incapable of changing that
+condition.
+
+Her purely mental powers and peculiarities were such that, a hundred
+years before, she might have been burned for a witch, and fifty years
+later might have been honoured as a prophetess. But she missed the crest
+of the wave both ways and fell in the trough; her views on religious
+matters procured neither a witch's grave nor a prophet's crown, but a
+sort of village contempt.
+
+The Bible was her standard--so far so good--but she emphasized the wrong
+parts of it. Instead of magnifying the damnation of those who follow not
+the truth (as the village understood it), she was content to semi-quote:
+
+"Those that are not against me are with me," and "A kind heart is the
+mark of His chosen." And then she made a final utterance, an echo really
+of her father: "If any man do anything sincerely, believing that thereby
+he is worshipping God, he is worshipping God."
+
+Then her fate was sealed, and all who marked the blazing eyes, the
+hollow cheeks, the yet more hollow chest and cough, saw in it all the
+hand of an offended God destroying a blasphemer, and shook their heads
+knowingly when the end came.
+
+So Rolf was left alone in life, with a common school education, a
+thorough knowledge of the Bible and of "Robinson Crusoe," a vague
+tradition of God everywhere, and a deep distrust of those who should
+have been his own people.
+
+The day of the little funeral he left the village of Redding to tramp
+over the unknown road to the unknown south where his almost unknown
+Uncle Michael had a farm and, possibly, a home for him.
+
+Fifteen miles that day, a night's rest in a barn, twenty-five miles the
+next day, and Rolf had found his future home.
+
+"Come in, lad," was the not unfriendly reception, for his arrival
+was happily fallen on a brief spell of good humour, and a strong,
+fifteen-year-old boy is a distinct asset on a farm.
+
+
+
+Chapter 3. Rolf Catches a Coon and Finds a Friend
+
+Aunt Prue, sharp-eyed and red-nosed, was actually shy at first, but
+all formality vanished as Rolf was taught the mysteries of pig-feeding,
+hen-feeding, calf-feeding, cow-milking, and launched by list only in
+a vast number of duties familiar to him from his babyhood. What a list
+there was. An outsider might have wondered if Aunt Prue was saving
+anything for herself, but Rolf was used to toil. He worked without
+ceasing and did his best, only to learn in time that the best could win
+no praise, only avert punishment. The spells of good nature arrived more
+seldom in his uncle's heart. His aunt was a drunken shrew and soon Rolf
+looked on the days of starving and physical misery with his mother as
+the days of his happy youth gone by.
+
+He was usually too tired at night and too sleepy in the morning to say
+his prayers, and gradually he gave it up as a daily habit. The more he
+saw of his kinsfolk, the more wickedness came to view; and yet it was
+with a shock that he one day realized that some fowls his uncle brought
+home by night were there without the owner's knowledge or consent. Micky
+made a jest of it, and intimated that Rolf would have to "learn to do
+night work very soon." This was only one of the many things that showed
+how evil a place was now the orphan's home.
+
+At first it was not clear to the valiant uncle whether the silent boy
+was a superior to be feared, or an inferior to be held in fear, but
+Mick's courage grew with non-resistance, and blows became frequent;
+although not harder to bear than the perpetual fault-finding and
+scolding of his aunt, and all the good his mother had implanted was
+being shrivelled by the fires of his daily life.
+
+Rolf had no chance to seek for companions at the village store, but an
+accident brought one to him. Before sunrise one spring morning he went,
+as usual, to the wood lot pasture for the cow, and was surprised to find
+a stranger, who beckoned him to come. On going near he saw a tall
+man with dark skin and straight black hair that was streaked with
+gray--undoubtedly an Indian. He held up a bag and said, "I got coon
+in that hole. You hold bag there, I poke him in." Rolf took the sack
+readily and held it over the hole, while the Indian climbed the tree to
+a higher opening, then poked in this with a long pole, till all at once
+there was a scrambling noise and the bag bulged full and heavy. Rolf
+closed its mouth triumphantly. The Indian laughed lightly, then swung to
+the ground.
+
+"Now, what will you do with him?" asked Rolf.
+
+"Train coon dog," was the answer.
+
+"Where?"
+
+The Indian pointed toward the Asamuk Pond.
+
+"Are you the singing Indian that lives under Ab's Rock?
+
+"Ugh! [*] Some call me that. My name is Quonab."
+
+"Wait for an hour and then I will come and help," volunteered Rolf
+impulsively, for the hunting instinct was strong in him.
+
+The Indian nodded. "Give three yelps if you no find me;" then he
+shouldered a short stick, from one end of which, at a safe distance from
+his back, hung the bag with the coon. And Rolf went home with the cow.
+
+He had acted on hasty impulse in offering to come, but now, in the
+normal storm state of the household, the difficulties of the course
+appeared. He cudgelled his brain for some plan to account for his
+absence, and finally took refuge unwittingly in ancient wisdom: "When
+you don't know a thing to do, don't do a thing." Also, "If you can't
+find the delicate way, go the blunt way."
+
+So having fed the horses, cleaned the stable, and milked the cow, fed
+the pigs, the hens, the calf, harnessed the horses, cut and brought in
+wood for the woodshed, turned out the sheep, hitched the horses to the
+wagon, set the milk out in the creaming pans, put more corn to soak for
+the swill barrel, ground the house knife, helped to clear the breakfast
+things, replaced the fallen rails of a fence, brought up potatoes from
+the root cellar, all to the maddening music of a scolding tongue, he set
+out to take the cow back to the wood lot, sullenly resolved to return
+when ready.
+
+
+     * Ugh (yes) and wah (no) are Indianisms that continue no
+     matter how well the English has been acquired.
+
+
+
+Chapter 4. The Coon Hunt Makes Trouble for Rolf
+
+Not one hour, but nearly three, had passed before Rolf sighted the
+Pipestave Pond, as it was called. He had never been there before, but
+three short whoops, as arranged, brought answer and guidance. Quonab was
+standing on the high rock. When Rolf came he led down to the wigwam on
+its south side. It was like stepping into a new life. Several of the
+old neighbours at Redding were hunters who knew the wild Indians and had
+told him tales that glorified at least the wonderful woodcraft of the
+red man. Once or twice Rolf had seen Indians travelling through, and he
+had been repelled by their sordid squalour. But here was something of
+a different kind; not the Champlain ideal, indeed, for the Indian wore
+clothes like any poor farmer, except on his head and his feet; his head
+was bare, and his feet were covered with moccasins that sparkled with
+beads on the arch. The wigwam was of canvas, but it had one or two
+of the sacred symbols painted on it. The pot hung over the fire was
+tin-lined copper, of the kind long made in England for Indian trade,
+but the smaller dishes were of birch bark and basswood. The gun and the
+hunting knife were of white man's make, but the bow, arrows, snowshoes,
+tom-tom, and a quill-covered gun case were of Indian art, fashioned of
+the things that grow in the woods about.
+
+The Indian led into the wigwam. The dog, although not fully grown,
+growled savagely as it smelled the hated white man odour. Quonab gave
+the puppy a slap on the head, which is Indian for, "Be quiet; he's all
+right;" loosed the rope, and led the dog out. "Bring that," and the
+Indian pointed to the bag which hung from a stick between two trees. The
+dog sniffed suspiciously in the direction of the bag and growled, but
+he was not allowed to come near it. Rolf tried to make friends with the
+dog, but without success and Quonab said, "Better let Skookum [*] alone.
+He make friends when he ready--maybe never."
+
+The two hunters now set out for the open plain, two or three hundred
+yards to the southward. Here the raccoon was dumped out of the sack,
+and the dog held at a little distance, until the coon had pulled itself
+together and began to run. Now the dog was released and chivvied on.
+With a tremendous barking he rushed at the coon, only to get a nip that
+made him recoil, yelping. The coon ran as hard as it could, the dog
+and hunters came after it; again it was overtaken, and, turning with a
+fierce snarl, it taught the dog a second lesson. Thus, running, dodging,
+and turning to fight, the coon got back to the woods, and there made
+a final stand under a small, thick tree; and, when the dog was again
+repulsed, climbed quickly up into the branches.
+
+The hunters did all they could to excite the dog, until he was jumping
+about, trying to climb the tree, and barking uproariously. This was
+exactly what they wanted. Skookum's first lesson was learned--the duty
+of chasing the big animal of that particular smell, then barking up the
+tree it had climbed.
+
+Quonab, armed with a forked stick and a cord noose, now went up the
+tree. After much trouble he got the noose around the coon's neck, then,
+with some rather rough handling, the animal was dragged down, maneuvered
+into the sack, and carried back to camp, where it was chained up to
+serve in future lessons; the next two or three being to tree the coon,
+as before; in the next, the coon was to be freed and allowed to get out
+of sight, so that the dog might find it by trailing, and the last, in
+which the coon was to be trailed, treed, and shot out of the tree, so
+that the dog should have the final joy of killing a crippled coon, and
+the reward of a coon-meat feast. But the last was not to be, for the
+night before it should have taken place the coon managed to slip its
+bonds, and nothing but the empty collar and idle chain were found in the
+captive's place next morning.
+
+These things were in the future however. Rolf was intensely excited over
+all he had seen that day. His hunting instincts were aroused. There had
+been no very obvious or repellant cruelty; the dog alone had suffered,
+but he seemed happy. The whole affair was so exactly in the line of
+his tastes that the boy was in a sort of ecstatic uplift, and already
+anticipating a real coon hunt, when the dog should be properly trained.
+The episode so contrasted with the sordid life he had left an hour
+before that he was spellbound. The very animal smell of the coon seemed
+to make his fibre tingle. His eyes were glowing with a wild light. He
+was so absorbed that he did not notice a third party attracted by the
+unusual noise of the chase, but the dog did. A sudden, loud challenge
+called all attention to a stranger on the ridge behind the camp. There
+was no mistaking the bloated face and white moustache of Rolf's uncle.
+
+"So, you young scut! that is how you waste your time. I'll larn ye a
+lesson."
+
+The dog was tied, the Indian looked harmless, and the boy was cowed,
+so the uncle's courage mounted high. He had been teaming in the nearby
+woods, and the blacksnake whip was in his hands. In a minute its thong
+was lapped, like a tongue of flame, around Rolf's legs. The boy gave a
+shriek and ran, but the man followed and furiously plied the whip.
+The Indian, supposing it was Rolf's father, marvelled at his method
+of showing affection, but said nothing, for the Fifth Commandment is a
+large one in the wigwam. Rolf dodged some of the cruel blows, but was
+driven into a corner of the rock. One end of the lash crossed his face
+like a red-hot wire.
+
+"Now I've got you!" growled the bully.
+
+Rolf was desperate. He seized two heavy stones and hurled the first with
+deadly intent at his uncle's head. Mick dodged in time, but the second,
+thrown lower, hit him on the thigh. Mick gave a roar of pain. Rolf
+hastily seized more stones and shrieked out, "You come on one step and
+I'll kill you!"
+
+Then that purple visage turned a sort of ashen hue. Its owner mouthed in
+speechless rage. He "knew it was the Indian had put Rolf up to it. He'd
+see to it later," and muttering, blasting, frothing, the hoary-headed
+sinner went limping off to his loaded wagon.
+
+
+     * "Skookum" or "Skookum Chuck," in Chinook means "Troubled
+     waters."
+
+
+
+Chapter 5. Good-bye to Uncle Mike
+
+     For counsel comes with the night, and action comes with the
+     day; But the gray half light, neither dark nor bright, is a
+     time to hide away.
+
+
+Rolf had learned one thing at least--his uncle was a coward. But he also
+knew that he himself was in the wrong, for he was neglecting his work
+and he decided to go back at once and face the worst. He made little
+reply to the storm of scolding that met him. He would have been
+disappointed if it had not come. He was used to it; it made him feel at
+home once more. He worked hard and silently.
+
+Mick did not return till late. He had been drawing wood for Horton that
+day, which was the reason he happened in Quonab's neighbourhood; but his
+road lay by the tavern, and when he arrived home he was too helpless to
+do more than mutter.
+
+The next day there was an air of suspended thunder. Rolf overheard his
+uncle cursing "that ungrateful young scut--not worth his salt." But
+nothing further was said or done. His aunt did not strike at him once
+for two days. The third night Micky disappeared. On the next he returned
+with another man; they had a crate of fowls, and Rolf was told to keep
+away from "that there little barn."
+
+So he did all morning, but he peeped in from the hayloft when a chance
+came, and saw a beautiful horse. Next day the "little barn" was open and
+empty as before.
+
+That night this worthy couple had a jollification with some callers, who
+were strangers to Rolf. As he lay awake, listening to the carouse, he
+overheard many disjointed allusions that he did not understand, and some
+that he could guess at: "Night work pays better than day work any time,"
+etc. Then he heard his own name and a voice, "Let's go up and settle it
+with him now." Whatever their plan, it was clear that the drunken crowd,
+inspired by the old ruffian, were intent on doing him bodily harm. He
+heard them stumbling and reeling up the steep stairs. He heard, "Here,
+gimme that whip," and knew he was in peril, maybe of his life, for they
+were whiskey-mad. He rose quickly, locked the door, rolled up an old rag
+carpet, and put it in his bed. Then he gathered his clothes on his arm,
+opened the window, and lowered himself till his head only was above the
+sill, and his foot found a resting place. Thus he awaited. The raucous
+breathing of the revellers was loud on the stairs; then the door was
+tried; there was some muttering; then the door was burst open and in
+rushed two, or perhaps three, figures. Rolf could barely see in the
+gloom, but he knew that his uncle was one of them. The attack they made
+with whip and stick on that roll of rags in the bed would have broken
+his bones and left him shapeless, had he been in its place. The men were
+laughing and took it all as a joke, but Rolf had seen enough; he slipped
+to the ground and hurried away, realizing perfectly well now that this
+was "good-bye."
+
+Which way? How naturally his steps turned northward toward Redding, the
+only other place he knew. But he had not gone a mile before he stopped.
+The yapping of a coon dog came to him from the near woods that lay to
+the westward along Asamuk. He tramped toward it. To find the dog is one
+thing, to find the owner another; but they drew near at last. Rolf gave
+the three yelps and Quonab responded.
+
+"I am done with that crowd," said the boy. "They tried to kill me
+tonight. Have you got room for me in your wigwam for a couple of days?"
+
+"Ugh, come," said the Indian.
+
+That night, for the first time, Rolf slept in the outdoor air of a
+wigwam. He slept late, and knew nothing of the world about him till
+Quonab called him to breakfast.
+
+
+
+Chapter 6. Skookum Accepts Rolf at Last
+
+Rolf expected that Micky would soon hear of his hiding place and come
+within a few days, backed by a constable, to claim his runaway ward. But
+a week went by and Quonab, passing through Myanos, learned, first, that
+Rolf had been seen tramping northward on the road to Dumpling Pond, and
+was now supposed to be back in Redding; second, that Micky Kittering was
+lodged in jail under charge of horse-stealing and would certainly get
+a long sentence; third, that his wife had gone back to her own folks at
+Norwalk, and the house was held by strangers.
+
+All other doors were closed now, and each day that drifted by made it
+the more clear that Rolf and Quonab were to continue together. What boy
+would not exult at the thought of it? Here was freedom from a brutal
+tyranny that was crushing out his young life; here was a dream of the
+wild world coming true, with gratification of all the hunter instincts
+that he had held in his heart for years, and nurtured in that single,
+ragged volume of "Robinson Crusoe." The plunge was not a plunge, except
+it be one when an eagle, pinion-bound, is freed and springs from a cliff
+of the mountain to ride the mountain wind.
+
+The memory of that fateful cooning day was deep and lasting. Never
+afterward did smell of coon fail to bring it back; in spite of the many
+evil incidents it was a smell of joy.
+
+"Where are you going, Quonab?" he asked one morning, as he saw the
+Indian rise at dawn and go forth with his song drum, after warming it at
+the fire. He pointed up to the rock, and for the first time Rolf heard
+the chant for the sunrise. Later he heard the Indian's song for "Good
+Hunting," and another for "When His Heart Was Bad." They were prayers or
+praise, all addressed to the Great Spirit, or the Great Father, and it
+gave Rolf an entirely new idea of the red man, and a startling light
+on himself. Here was the Indian, whom no one considered anything but a
+hopeless pagan, praying to God for guidance at each step in life, while
+he himself, supposed to be a Christian, had not prayed regularly for
+months--was in danger of forgetting how.
+
+Yet there was one religious observance that Rolf never forgot--that was
+to keep the Sabbath, and on that day each week he did occasionally say
+a little prayer his mother had taught him. He avoided being seen at such
+times and did not speak of kindred doings. Whereas Quonab neither hid
+nor advertised his religious practices, and it was only after many
+Sundays had gone that Quonab remarked:
+
+"Does your God come only one day of the week? Does He sneak in after
+dark? Why is He ashamed that you only whisper to Him? Mine is here all
+the time. I can always reach Him with my song; all days are my Sunday."
+
+The evil memories of his late life were dimming quickly, and the joys of
+the new one growing. Rolf learned early that, although one may talk of
+the hardy savage, no Indian seeks for hardship. Everything is done that
+he knows to make life pleasant, and of nothing is he more careful than
+the comfort of his couch. On the second day, under guidance of his host,
+Rolf set about making his own bed. Two logs, each four inches thick and
+three feet long, were cut. Then two strong poles, each six feet long,
+were laid into notches at the ends of the short logs. About seventy-five
+straight sticks of willow were cut and woven with willow bark into a
+lattice, three feet wide and six feet long. This, laid on the poles,
+furnished a spring mattress, on which a couple of blankets made a most
+comfortable couch, dry, warm, and off the ground. In addition to the
+lodge cover, each bed had a dew cloth which gave perfect protection, no
+matter how the storm might rage outdoors. There was no hardship in it,
+only a new-found pleasure, to sleep and breathe the pure night air of
+the woods.
+
+The Grass Moon--April--had passed, and the Song Moon was waxing, with
+its hosts of small birds, and one of Rolf's early discoveries was that
+many of these love to sing by night. Again and again the familiar voice
+of the song sparrow came from the dark shore of Asamuk, or the field
+sparrow trilled from the top of some cedar, occasionally the painted
+one, Aunakeu, the partridge, drummed in the upper woods, and nightly
+there was the persistent chant of Muckawis, the whippoorwill, the myriad
+voices of the little frogs called spring-peepers, and the peculiar,
+"peent, peent," from the sky, followed by a twittering, that Quonab told
+him was the love song of the swamp bird--the big snipe, with the fantail
+and long, soft bill, and eyes like a deer.
+
+"Do you mean the woodcock?" "Ugh, that's the name; Pah-dash-ka-anja we
+call it."
+
+The waning of the moon brought new songsters, with many a nightingale
+among them. A low bush near the plain was vocal during the full moon
+with the sweet but disconnected music of the yellow-breasted chat. The
+forest rang again and again with a wild, torrential strain of music
+that seemed to come from the stars. It sent peculiar thrill into Rolf's
+heart, and gave him a lump his throat as he listened.
+
+"What is that, Quonab?"
+
+The Indian shook his head. Then, later, when it ended, he said: "That
+is the mystery song of some one I never saw him."
+
+There was a long silence, then the lad began, "There's no good hunting
+here now, Quonab. Why don't you go to the north woods, where deer are
+plentiful?"
+
+The Indian gave a short shake of his head, and then to prevent further
+talk, "Put up your dew cloth; the sea wind blows to-night."
+
+He finished; both stood for a moment gazing into the fire. Then Rolf
+felt something wet and cold thrust into his hand. It was Skookum's nose.
+At last the little dog had made up his mind to accept the white boy as a
+friend.
+
+
+
+Chapter 7. Rolf Works Out with Many Results
+
+     He is the dumbest kind of a dumb fool that ain't king in
+     some little corner.--Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+The man who has wronged you will never forgive you, and he who has
+helped you will be forever grateful. Yes, there is nothing that draws
+you to a man so much as the knowledge that you have helped him.
+
+Quonab helped Rolf, and so was more drawn to him than to many of the
+neighbours that he had known for years; he was ready to like him.
+Their coming together was accidental, but it was soon very clear that a
+friendship was springing up between them. Rolf was too much of a child
+to think about the remote future; and so was Quonab. Most Indians are
+merely tall children.
+
+But there was one thing that Rolf did think of--he had no right to
+live in Quonab's lodge without contributing a fair share of the things
+needful. Quonab got his living partly by hunting, partly by fishing,
+partly by selling baskets, and partly by doing odd jobs for the
+neighbours. Rolf's training as a loafer had been wholly neglected,
+and when he realized that he might be all summer with Quonab he said
+bluntly:
+
+"You let me stay here a couple of months. I'll work out odd days, and
+buy enough stuff to keep myself any way." Quonab said nothing, but their
+eyes met, and the boy knew it was agreed to.
+
+Rolf went that very day to the farm of Obadiah Timpany, and offered to
+work by the day, hoeing corn and root crops. What farmer is not glad of
+help in planting time or in harvest? It was only a question of what did
+he know and how much did he want? The first was soon made clear; two
+dollars a week was the usual thing for boys in those times, and when he
+offered to take it half in trade, he was really getting three dollars a
+week and his board. Food was as low as wages, and at the end of a week,
+Rolf brought back to camp a sack of oatmeal, a sack of cornmeal, a
+bushel of potatoes, a lot of apples, and one dollar cash. The dollar
+went for tea and sugar, and the total product was enough to last them
+both a month; so Rolf could share the wigwam with a good conscience.
+
+Of course, it was impossible to keep the gossipy little town of Myanos
+from knowing, first, that the Indian had a white boy for partner; and,
+later, that that boy was Rolf. This gave rise to great diversity of
+opinion in the neighbourhood. Some thought it should not be allowed, but
+Horton, who owned the land on which Quonab was camped, could not see any
+reason for interfering.
+
+Ketchura Peck, spinster, however, did see many most excellent reasons.
+She was a maid with a mission, and maintained it to be an outrage that a
+Christian boy should be brought up by a godless pagan. She worried over
+it almost as much as she did over the heathen in Central Africa, where
+there are no Sunday schools, and clothes are as scarce as churches.
+Failing to move Parson Peck and Elder Knapp in the matter, and
+despairing of an early answer to her personal prayers, she resolved on
+a bold move, "An' it was only after many a sleepless, prayerful night,"
+namely, to carry the Bible into the heathen's stronghold.
+
+Thus it was that one bright morning in June she might have been seen,
+prim and proper--almost glorified, she felt, as she set her lips just
+right in the mirror--making for the Pipestave Pond, Bible in hand and
+spectacles clean wiped, ready to read appropriate selections to the
+unregenerate.
+
+She was full of the missionary spirit when she left Myanos, and partly
+full when she reached the Orchard Street Trail; but the spirit was
+leaking badly, and the woods did appear so wild and lonely that she
+wondered if women had any right to be missionaries. When she came in
+sight of the pond, the place seemed unpleasantly different from Myanos
+and where was the Indian camp? She did not dare to shout; indeed, she
+began to wish she were home again, but the sense of duty carried her
+fully fifty yards along the pond, and then she came to an impassable
+rock, a sheer bank that plainly said, "Stop!" Now she must go back or up
+the bank. Her Yankee pertinacity said, "Try first up the bank," and she
+began a long, toilsome ascent, that did not end until she came out on a
+high, open rock which, on its farther side, had a sheer drop and gave a
+view of the village and of the sea.
+
+Whatever joy she had on again seeing her home was speedily queued in the
+fearsome discovery that she was right over the Indian camp, and the two
+inmates looked so utterly, dreadfully savage that she was thankful
+they had not seen her. At once she shrank back; but on recovering
+sufficiently to again peer down, she saw something roasting before the
+fire--"a tiny arm with a hand that bore five fingers," as she afterward
+said, and "a sickening horror came over her." Yes, she had heard of
+such things. If she could only get home in safety! Why had she tempted
+Providence thus? She backed softly and prayed only to escape. What, and
+never even deliver the Bible? "It would be wicked to return with it!" In
+a cleft of the rock she placed it, and then, to prevent the wind blowing
+off loose leaves, she placed a stone on top, and fled from the dreadful
+place.
+
+That night, when Quonab and Rolf had finished their meal of corn and
+roasted coon, the old man climbed the rock to look at the sky. The book
+caught his eye at once, evidently hidden there carefully, and therefore
+in cache. A cache is a sacred thing to an Indian. He disturbed it not,
+but later asked Rolf, "That yours?"
+
+"No."
+
+It was doubtless the property of some one who meant to return for it, so
+they left it untouched. It rested there for many months, till the winter
+storms came down, dismantling the covers, dissolving the pages, but
+leaving such traces as, in the long afterward, served to identify the
+book and give the rock the other name, the one it bears to-day--"Bible
+Rock, where Quonab, the son of Cos Cob, used to live."
+
+
+
+Chapter 8. The Law of Property Among Our Four-Footed Kin
+
+Night came down on the Asamuk woods, and the two in the wigwam were
+eating their supper of pork, beans, and tea, for the Indian did not, by
+any means object to the white man's luxuries, when a strange "yap-yurr"
+was heard out toward the plain. The dog was up at once with a growl.
+Rolf looked inquiringly, and Quonab said, "Fox," then bade the dog be
+still.
+
+"Yap-yurr, yap-yurr," and then, "yurr, yeow," it came again and again.
+"Can we get him?" said the eager young hunter. The Indian shook his
+head.
+
+"Fur no good now. An' that's a she-one, with young ones on the
+hillside."
+
+"How do you know?" was the amazed inquiry. "I know it's a she-one,
+'cause she says:
+
+"Yap-yurr" (high pitched)
+
+If it was a he-one he'd say:
+
+"Yap-yurr" (low pitched)
+
+"And she has cubs, 'cause all have at this season. And they are on that
+hillside, because that's the nearest place where any fox den is, and
+they keep pretty much to their own hunting grounds. If another fox
+should come hunting on the beat of this pair, he'd have to fight for it.
+That is the way of the wild animals; each has his own run, and for that
+he will fight an outsider that he would be afraid of at any other
+place. One knows he is right--that braces him up; the other knows he is
+wrong--and that weakens him." Those were the Indian's views, expressed
+much less connectedly than here given, and they led Rolf on to a train
+of thought. He remembered a case that was much to the point.
+
+Their little dog Skookum several times had been worsted by the dog on
+the Horton farm, when, following his master, he had come into the
+house yard. There was no question that the Horton dog was stronger. But
+Skookum had buried a bone under some brushes by the plain and next day
+the hated Horton dog appeared. Skookum watched him with suspicion and
+fear, until it was no longer doubtful that the enemy had smelled the
+hidden food and was going for it. Then Skookum, braced up by some
+instinctive feeling, rushed forward with bristling mane and gleaming
+teeth, stood over his cache, and said in plainest dog, "You can't touch
+that while I live!"
+
+And the Horton dog--accustomed to domineer over the small yellow
+cur--growled contemptuously, scratched with his hind feet, smelled
+around an adjoining bush, and pretending not to see or notice, went off
+in another direction.
+
+What was it that robbed him of his courage, but the knowledge that he
+was in the wrong?
+
+Continuing with his host Rolf said, "Do you think they have any idea
+that it is wrong to steal?"
+
+"Yes, so long as it is one of their own tribe. A fox will take all he
+can get from a bird or a rabbit or a woodchuck, but he won't go far on
+the hunting grounds of another fox. He won't go into another fox's den
+or touch one of its young ones, and if he finds a cache of food with
+another fox's mark on it, he won't touch it unless he is near dead of
+hunger."
+
+"How do you mean they cache food and how do they mark it?"
+
+"Generally they bury it under the leaves and soft earth, and the only
+mark is to leave their body scent. But that is strong enough, and every
+fox knows it."
+
+"Do wolves make food caches?"
+
+"Yes, wolves, cougars, weasels, squirrels, bluejays, crows, owls, mice,
+all do, and all have their own way of marking a place."
+
+"Suppose a fox finds a wolf cache, will he steal from it?"
+
+"Yes, always. There is no law between fox and wolf. They are always at
+war with each other. There is law only between fox and fox, or wolf and
+wolf."
+
+"That is like ourselves, ain't it? We say, 'Thou shalt not steal,' and
+then when we steal the Indian's land or the Frenchman's ships, we say,
+'Oh, that don't mean not steal from our enemies; they are fair game.'"
+
+Quonab rose to throw some sticks on the fire, then went out to turn the
+smoke flap of the wigwam, for the wind was changed and another set
+was needed to draw the smoke. They heard several times again the
+high-pitched "yap yurr," and once the deeper notes, which told that the
+dog fox, too, was near the camp, and was doubtless seeking food to carry
+home.
+
+
+
+Chapter 9. Where the Bow Is Better Than the Gun
+
+Of all popular errors about the Indians, the hardest to down is the idea
+that their women do all the work. They do the housework, it is true, but
+all the heavy labour beyond their strength is done by the men. Examples
+of this are seen in the frightful toil of hunting, canoeing, and
+portaging, besides a multitude of kindred small tasks, such as making
+snowshoes, bows, arrows, and canoes.
+
+Each warrior usually makes his own bow and arrows, and if, as often
+happens, one of them proves more skilful and turns out better weapons,
+it is a common thing for others to offer their own specialty in
+exchange.
+
+The advantages of the bow over the gun are chiefly its noiselessness,
+its cheapness, and the fact that one can make its ammunition anywhere.
+As the gun chiefly used in Quonab's time was the old-fashioned,
+smooth-bore flint-lock, there was not much difference in the accuracy
+of the two weapons. Quonab had always made a highclass bow, as well as
+high-class arrows, and was a high-class shot. He could set up ten clam
+shells at ten paces and break all in ten shots. For at least half of
+his hunting he preferred the bow; the gun was useful to him chiefly
+when flocks of wild pigeons or ducks were about, and a single charge of
+scattering shot might bring down a dozen birds.
+
+But there is a law in all shooting--to be expert, you must practise
+continually--and when Rolf saw his host shoot nearly every day at some
+mark, he tried to join in the sport.
+
+It took not many trys to show that the bow was far too strong for him
+to use, and Quonab was persuaded at length to make an outfit for his
+visitor.
+
+From the dry store hole under the rock, he produced a piece of common
+red cedar. Some use hickory; it is less liable to break and will stand
+more abuse, but it has not the sharp, clean action of cedar. The latter
+will send the arrow much farther, and so swiftly does it leave the
+string that it baffles the eye. But the cedar bow must be cared for like
+a delicate machine; overstring it, and it breaks; twang it without an
+arrow, and it sunders the cords; scratch it, and it may splinter; wet
+it, and it is dead; let it lie on the ground, even, and it is weakened.
+But guard it and it will serve you as a matchless servant, and as can no
+other timber in these woods.
+
+Just where the red heart and the white sap woods join is the bowman's
+choice. A piece that reached from Rolf's chin to the ground was shaved
+down till it was flat on the white side and round on the red side,
+tapering from the middle, where it was one inch wide and one inch thick
+to the ends, where it was three fourths of an inch wide and five eighths
+of an inch thick, the red and white wood equal in all parts.
+
+The string was made of sinew from the back of a cow, split from the
+long, broad sheath that lies on each side the spine, and the bow strung
+for trial. Now, on drawing it (flat or white side in front), it was
+found that one arm bent more than the other, so a little more scraping
+was done on the strong side, till both bent alike.
+
+Quonab's arrows would answer, but Rolf needed a supply of his own. Again
+there was great choice of material. The long, straight shoots ol' the
+arrowwood (Viburnuin dentatum) supplied the ancient Indians, but
+Quonab had adopted a better way, since the possession of an axe made it
+possible. A 25-inch block of straight-grained ash was split and split
+until it yielded enough pieces. These were shaved down to one fourth of
+an inch thick, round, smooth, and perfectly straight. Each was notched
+deeply at one end; three pieces of split goose feather were lashed on
+the notched end, and three different kinds of arrows were made. All were
+alike in shaft and in feathering, but differed in the head. First, the
+target arrows: these were merely sharpened, and the points hardened by
+roasting to a brown colour. They would have been better with conical
+points of steel, but none of these were to be had. Second, the ordinary
+hunting arrows with barbed steel heads, usually bought ready-made, or
+filed out of a hoop: these were for use in securing such creatures as
+muskrats, ducks close at hand, or deer. Third, the bird bolts: these
+were left with a large, round, wooden head. They were intended for
+quail, partridges, rabbits, and squirrels, but also served very often,
+and most admirably, in punishing dogs, either the Indian's own when he
+was not living up to the rules and was too far off for a cuff or kick,
+or a farmer's dog that was threatening an attack.
+
+Now the outfit was complete, Rolf thought, but one other touch was
+necessary. Quonab painted the feather part of the shaft bright red, and
+Rolf learned why. Not for ornament, not as an owner's mark, but as a
+finding mark. Many a time that brilliant red, with the white feather
+next it, was the means of saving the arrow from loss. An uncoloured
+arrow among the sticks and leaves of the woods was usually hidden, but
+the bright-coloured shaft could catch the eye 100 yards away.
+
+It was very necessary to keep the bow and arrows from the wet. For this,
+every hunter provides a case, usually of buckskin, but failing that they
+made a good quiver of birch bark laced with spruce roots for the arrows,
+and for the bow itself a long cover of tarpaulin.
+
+Now came the slow drilling in archery; the arrow held and the bow
+drawn with three fingers on the cord--the thumb and little finger doing
+nothing. The target was a bag of hay set at twenty feet, until the
+beginner could hit it every time: then by degrees it was moved away
+until at the standard distance of forty yards he could do fair shooting,
+although of course he never shot as well as the Indian, who had
+practised since he was a baby.
+
+There are three different kinds of archery tests: the first for aim: Can
+you shoot so truly as to hit a three-inch mark, ten times in succession,
+at ten paces?
+
+Next for speed: Can you shoot so quickly and so far up, as to have five
+arrows in the air at once? If so, you are good: Can you keep up six?
+Then you are very good. Seven is wonderful. The record is said to be
+eight. Last for power: Can you pull so strong a bow and let the arrow go
+so clean that it will fly for 250 yards or will pass through a deer at
+ten paces? There is a record of a Sioux who sent an arrow through three
+antelopes at one shot, and it was not unusual to pierce the huge buffalo
+through and through; on one occasion a warrior with one shot pierced the
+buffalo and killed her calf running at the other side.
+
+If you excel in these three things, you can down your partridge and
+squirrel every time; you can get five or six out of each flock of birds;
+you can kill your deer at twenty-five yards, and so need never starve in
+the woods where there is game.
+
+Of course, Rolf was keen to go forth and try in the real chase, but it
+was many a shot he missed and many an arrow lost or broken, before
+he brought in even a red squirrel, and he got, at least, a higher
+appreciation of the skill of those who could count on the bow for their
+food.
+
+For those, then, who think themselves hunters and woodmen, let this be
+a test and standard: Can you go forth alone into the wilderness where
+there is game, take only a bow and arrows for weapons, and travel afoot
+250 miles, living on the country as you go?
+
+
+
+Chapter 10. Rolf Works Out with Many Results
+
+    He is the dumbest kind of a dumb fool that ain't king in some
+    little corner.--_Sayings of Si Sylvanne_
+
+
+The man who has wronged you will never forgive you, and he who has
+helped you will be forever grateful. Yes, there is nothing that draws
+you to a man so much as the knowledge that you have helped him.
+
+Quonab helped Rolf, and so was more drawn to him than to many of the
+neighbours that he had known cor years; he was ready to like him. Their
+coming together ffas accidental, but it was soon very clear that a
+friendship was springing up between them. Rolf was too much of a child
+to think about the remote future; and so was Quonab. Most Indians are
+merely tall children.
+
+But there was one thing that Rolf did think of--he had no right to live
+in Quonab's lodge without contributing a fair share of the things
+needful. Quonab got his living partly by hunting, partly by fishing,
+partly by selling baskets, and partly by doing odd jobs for the
+neighbours. Rolf's training as a loafer had been wholly neglected, and
+when he realized that he might be all summer with Quonab he said
+bluntly:
+
+"You let me stay here a couple of months. I'll work out odd days, and
+buy enough stuff to keep myself any way." Quonab said nothing, but
+their eyes met, and the boy knew it was agreed to.
+
+Rolf went that very day to the farm of Obadiah Timpany, and offered to
+work by the day, hoeing corn and root crops. What farmer is not glad of
+help in planting time 01 in harvest? It was only a question of what did
+he know and how much did he want? The first was soon made clear; two
+dollars a week was the usual thing for boys in those times, and when he
+offered to take it half in trade, he was really getting three dollars a
+week and his board. Food was as low as wages, and at the end of a week,
+Rolf brought back to camp a sack of oatmeal, a sack of cornmeal, a
+bushel of potatoes, a lot of apples, and one dollar cash. The dollar
+went for tea and sugar, and the total product was enough to last them
+both a month; so Rolf could share the wigwam with a good conscience.
+
+Of course, it was impossible to keep the gossipy little town of Myanos
+from knowing, first, that the Indian had a white boy for partner; and,
+later, that that boy was Rolf. This gave rise to great diversity of
+opinion in the neighbourhood. Some thought it should not be allowed,
+but Horton, who owned the land on which Quonab was camped, could not
+see any reason for interfering.
+
+Ketchura Peck, spinster, however, did see many most excellent reasons.
+She was a maid with a mission, and maintained it to be an outrage that
+a Christian boy should be brought up by a godless pagan. She worried
+over it almost as much as she did over the heathen in Central Africa,
+where there are no Sunday schools, and clothes are as scarce as
+churches. Failing to move Parson Peck and Elder Knapp in the matter,
+and despairing of an early answer to her personal prayers, she resolved
+on a bold move, "An' it was only after many a sleepless, prayerful
+night," namely, to carry the Bible into the heathen's stronghold.
+
+Thus it was that one bright morning in June she might have been seen,
+prim and proper--almost glorified, she felt, as she set her lips just
+right in the mirror--making for the Pipestave Pond, Bible in hand and
+spectacles clear wiped, ready to read appropriate selections to the
+unregenerate.
+
+She was full of the missionary spirit when she left Myanos, and partly
+full when she reached the Orchard Street Trail; but the spirit was
+leaking badly, and the woods did appear so wild and lonely that she
+wondered if women had any right to be missionaries. When she came in
+sight of the pond, the place seemed unpleasantly different from Myanos
+and where was the Indian camp? She did not dare to shout; indeed, she
+began to wish she were home again, but the sense of duty carried her
+fully fifty yards along the pond, and then she came to an impassable
+rock, a sheer bank that plainly said, "Stop!" Now she must go back or
+up the bank. Her Yankee pertinacity said, "Try first up the bank," and
+she began a long, toilsome ascent, that did not end until she came out
+on a high, open rock which, on its farther side, had a sheer drop and
+gave a view of the village and of the sea.
+
+Whatever joy she had on again seeing her home was speedily quelled in
+the fearsome discovery that she was right over the Indian camp, and the
+two inmates looked so utterly, dreadfully savage that she was thankful
+they had not seen her. At once she shrank back; but on recovering
+sufficiently to again peer down, she saw something roasting before the
+fire--"a tiny arm with a hand that bore five fingers," as she afterward
+said, and "a sickening horror came over her." Yes, she had heard of
+such things. If she could only get home in safety! Why had she tempted
+Providence thus? She backed softly and prayed only to escape. What, and
+never even deliver the Bible? "It would be wicked to return with it!"
+In a cleft of the rock she placed it, and then, to prevent the wind
+blowing off loose leaves, she placed a stone on top, and fled from the
+dreadful place.
+
+That night, when Quonab and Rolf had finished theic meal of corn and
+roasted coon, the old man climbed the rock to look at the sky. The book
+caught his eye at once, evidently hidden there carefully, and therefore
+in cache. A cache is a sacred thing to an Indian. He disturbed it not,
+but later asked Rolf, "That yours?"
+
+"No."
+
+It was doubtless the property of some one who meant to return for it,
+so they left it untouched. It rested there for many months, till the
+winter storms came down, dismantling the covers, dissolving the pages,
+but leaving such traces as, in the long afterward, served to identify
+the book and give the rock the other name, the one it bears
+to-day--"Bible Rock, where Quonab, the son of Cos Cob, used to live."
+
+
+
+Chapter 11. The Thunder-storm and the Fire Sticks
+
+When first Rolf noticed the wigwam's place, he wondered that Quonab had
+not set it somewhere facing the lake, but he soon learned that it is
+best to have the morning sun, the afternoon shade, and shelter from the
+north and west winds.
+
+The first two points were illustrated nearly every day; but it was two
+weeks before the last was made clear.
+
+That day the sun came up in a red sky, but soon was lost to view in a
+heavy cloud-bank. There was no wind, and, as the morning passed, the day
+grew hotter and closer. Quonab prepared for a storm; but it came with
+unexpected force, and a gale of wind from the northwest that would
+indeed have wrecked the lodge, but for the great sheltering rock. Under
+its lea there was hardy a breeze; but not fifty yards away were two
+trees that rubbed together, and in the storm they rasped so violently
+that fine shreds of smoking wood were dropped and, but for the rain,
+would surely have made a blaze. The thunder was loud and lasted long,
+and the water poured down in torrents. They were ready for rain, but not
+for the flood that rushed over the face of the cliff, soaking everything
+in the lodge except the beds, which, being four inches off the ground,
+were safe; and lying on them the two campers waited patiently, or
+impatiently, while the weather raged for two drenching hours. And then
+the pouring became a pattering; the roaring, a swishing; the storm, a
+shower which died away, leaving changing patches of blue in the lumpy
+sky, and all nature calm and pleased, but oh, so wet! Of course the fire
+was out in the lodge and nearly all the wood was wet. Now Quonab drew
+from a small cave some dry cedar and got down his tinder-box with flint
+and steel to light up; but a serious difficulty appeared at once--the
+tinder was wet and useless.
+
+These were the days before matches were invented. Every one counted on
+flint and steel for their fire, but the tinder was an essential, and now
+a fire seemed hopeless; at least Rolf thought so.
+
+"Nana Bojou was dancing that time," said the Indian.
+
+"Did you see him make fire with those two rubbing trees? So he taught
+our fathers, and so make we fire when the tricks of the white man fail
+us."
+
+Quonab now cut two pieces of dry cedar, one three fourths of an inch
+thick and eighteen inches long, round, and pointed at both ends; the
+other five eighths of an inch thick and flat. In the flat one he cut a
+notch and at the end of the notch a little pit. Next he made a bow of
+a stiff, curved stick, and a buckskin thong: a small pine knot was
+selected and a little pit made in it with the point of a knife. These
+were the fare-making sticks, but it was necessary to prepare the
+firewood, lay the fire, and make some fibre for tinder. A lot of fine
+cedar shavings, pounded up with cedar bark and rolled into a two-inch
+ball, made good tinder, and all was ready. Quonab put the bow thong once
+around the long stick, then held its point in the pit of the flat stick,
+and the pine knot on the top to steady it. Now he drew the bow back and
+forth, slowly, steadily, till the long stick or drill revolving ground
+smoking black dust out of the notch. Then faster, until the smoke was
+very strong and the powder filled the notch. Then he lifted the flat
+stick, fanning the powder with his hands till a glowing coal appeared.
+Over this he put the cedar tinder and blew gently, till it flamed, and
+soon the wigwam was aglow.
+
+The whole time taken, from lifting the sticks to the blazing fire, was
+less than one minute.
+
+This is the ancient way of the Indian; Rolf had often heard of it as a
+sort of semi-myth; never before had he seen it, and so far as he could
+learn from the books, it took an hour or two of hard work, not a few
+deft touches and a few seconds of time.
+
+He soon learned to do it himself, and in the years which followed,
+he had the curious experience of showing it to many Indians who had
+forgotten how, thanks to the greater portability of the white man's
+flint and steel.
+
+As they walked in the woods that day, they saw three trees that had been
+struck by lightning during the recent storm; all three were oaks. Then
+it occurred to Rolf that he had never seen any but an oak struck by
+lightning.
+
+"Is it so, Quonab?"
+
+"No, there are many others; the lightning strikes the oaks most of all,
+but it will strike the pine, the ash, the hemlock, the basswood, and
+many more. Only two trees have I never seen struck, the balsam and the
+birch."
+
+"Why do they escape?"
+
+"My father told me when I was a little boy it was because they sheltered
+and warmed the Star-girl, who was the sister of the Thunder-bird."
+
+"I never heard that; tell me about it."
+
+"Sometime maybe, not now."
+
+
+
+Chapter 12. Hunting the Woodchucks
+
+Cornmeal and potatoes, with tea and apples, three times a day, are apt
+to lose their charm. Even fish did not entirely satisfy the craving for
+flesh meat. So Quonab and Rolf set out one morning on a regular hunt for
+food. The days of big game were over on the Asamuk, but there were still
+many small kinds and none more abundant than the woodchuck, hated of
+farmers. Not without reason. Each woodchuck hole in the field was a
+menace to the horses' legs. Tradition, at least, said that horses' legs
+and riders' necks had been broken by the steed setting foot in one of
+these dangerous pitfalls: besides which, each chuck den was the hub
+centre of an area of desolation whenever located, as mostly it was, in
+the cultivated fields. Undoubtedly the damage was greatly exaggerated,
+but the farmers generally agreed that the woodchuck was a pest.
+
+Whatever resentment the tiller of the soil might feel against the
+Indian's hunting quail on his land, he always welcomed him as a killer
+of woodchucks.
+
+And the Indian looked on this animal as fair game and most excellent
+eating.
+
+Rolf watched eagerly when Quonab, taking his bow and arrows, said they
+were going out for a meat hunt. Although there were several fields
+with woodchucks resident, they passed cautiously from one to another,
+scanning the green expanse for the dark-brown spots that meant
+woodchucks out foraging. At length they found one, with a large and two
+small moving brown things among the clover. The large one stood up on
+its hind legs from time to time, ever alert for danger. It was a broad,
+open field, without cover; but close to the cleared place in which,
+doubtless, was the den, there was a ridge that Quonab judged would help
+him to approach.
+
+Rolf was instructed to stay in hiding and make some Indian signs that
+the hunter could follow when he should lose sight of the prey. First,
+"Come on" (beckoning); and, second, "Stop," (hand raised, palm forward);
+"All right" (hand drawn across level and waist high); forefinger moved
+forward, level, then curved straight down, meant "gone in hole." But
+Rolf was not to sign anything or move, unless Quonab asked him by making
+the question sign (that is waving his hand with palm forward and spread
+fingers).
+
+Quonab went back into the woods, then behind the stone walls to get
+around to the side next the ridge, and crawling so flat on his breast in
+the clover that, although it was but a foot high, he was quite invisible
+to any one not placed much above him.
+
+In this way he came to the little ridge back of the woodchuck den, quite
+unknown to its occupants. But now he was in a difficulty. He could not
+see any of them.
+
+They were certainly beyond range of his bow, and it was difficult to
+make them seek the den without their rushing into it. But he was
+equal to the occasion. He raised one hand and made the query sign, and
+watching Rolf he got answer, "All well; they are there." (A level sweep
+of the flat hand and a finger pointing steadily.) Then he waited a few
+seconds and made exactly the same sign, getting the same answer.
+
+He knew that the movement of the distant man would catch the eye of the
+old woodchuck; she would sit up high to see what it was, and when it
+came a second time she would, without being exactly alarmed, move toward
+the den and call the young ones to follow.
+
+The hunter had not long to wait. He heard her shrill, warning whistle,
+then the big chuck trotted and waddled into sight, stopping occasionally
+to nibble or look around. Close behind her were the two fat cubs.
+Arrived near the den their confidence was restored, and again they began
+to feed, the young ones close to the den. Then Quonab put a blunt bird
+dart in his bow and laid two others ready. Rising as little as possible,
+he drew the bow. 'Tsip! the blunt arrow hit the young chuck on the nose
+and turned him over. The other jumped in surprise and stood up. So did
+the mother. 'Tsip! another bolt and the second chuck was kicking. But
+the old one dashed like a flash into the underground safety of her den.
+Quonab knew that she had seen nothing of him and would likely come forth
+very soon. He waited for some time; then the gray-brown muzzle of the
+fat old clover-stealer came partly to view; but it was not enough for
+a shot, and she seemed to have no idea of coming farther. The Indian
+waited what seemed like a long time, then played an ancient trick. He
+began to whistle a soft, low air. Whether the chuck thinks it is another
+woodchuck calling, or merely a pleasant sound, is not known, but she
+soon did as her kind always does, came out of the hole slowly and ever
+higher, till she was half out and sitting up, peering about.
+
+This was Quonab's chance. He now drew a barbed hunting arrow to the head
+and aimed it behind her shoulders. 'Tsip! and the chuck was transfixed
+by a shaft that ended her life a minute later, and immediately prevented
+that instinctive scramble into the hole, by which so many chucks elude
+the hunter, even when mortally wounded.
+
+Now Quonab stood up without further concealment, and beckoned to Rolf,
+who came running. Three fat woodchucks meant abundance of the finest
+fresh meat for a week; and those who have not tried it have no idea
+what a delicacy is a young, fat, clover-fed woodchuck, pan-roasted, with
+potatoes, and served at a blazing campfire to a hunter who is young,
+strong, and exceedingly hungry.
+
+
+
+Chapter 13. The Fight with the Demon of the Deep
+
+One morning, as they passed the trail that skirts the pond, Quonab
+pointed to the near water. There was something afloat like a small,
+round leaf, with two beads well apart, on it. Then Rolf noticed, two
+feet away, a larger floating leaf, and now he knew that the first was
+the head and eyes, the last the back, of a huge snapping turtle. A
+moment more and it quickly sank from view. Turtles of three different
+kinds were common, and snappers were well known to Rolf; but never
+before had he seen such a huge and sinister-looking monster of the deep.
+
+"That is Bosikado. I know him; he knows me," said the red man. "There
+has long been war between us; some day we will settle it. I saw him
+here first three years ago. I had shot a duck; it floated on the water.
+Before I could get to it something pulled it under, and that was the
+last of it. Then a summer duck came with young ones. One by one he took
+them, and at last got her. He drives all ducks away, so I set many night
+lines for him. I got some little snappers, eight and ten pounds each.
+They were good to eat, and three times already I took Bosikado on the
+hooks, but each time when I pulled him up to the canoe, he broke my
+biggest line and went down. He was as broad as the canoe; his claws
+broke through the canoe skin; he made it bulge and tremble. He looked
+like the devil of the lake. I was afraid!
+
+"But my father taught me there is only one thing that can shame a
+man--that is to be afraid, and I said I will never let fear be my guide.
+I will seek a fair fight with Bosikado. He is my enemy. He made me
+afraid once; I will make him much afraid. For three years we have been
+watching each other. For three years he has kept all summer ducks away,
+and robbed my fish-lines, my nets, and my muskrat traps. Not often do I
+see him--mostly like today.
+
+"Before Skookum I had a little dog, Nindai. He was a good little dog. He
+could tree a coon, catch a rabbit, or bring out a duck, although he was
+very small. We were very good friends. One time I shot a duck; it fell
+into the lake; I called Nindai. He jumped into the water and swam to
+the duck. Then that duck that I thought dead got up and flew away, so I
+called Nindai. He came across the water to me. By and by, over that deep
+place, he howled and splashed. Then he yelled, like he wanted me. I ran
+for the canoe and paddled quick; I saw my little dog Nindai go down.
+Then I knew it was that Bosikado again. I worked a long time with a
+pole, but found nothing; only five days later one of Nindai's paws
+floated down the stream. Some day I will tear open that Bosikado!
+
+"Once I saw him on the bank. He rolled down like a big stone to the
+water. He looked at me before he dived, and as we looked in each other's
+eyes I knew he was a Manito; but he is evil, and my father said, 'When
+an evil Manito comes to trouble you, you must kill him.'
+
+"One day, when I swam after a dead duck, he took me by the toe, but I
+reached shallow water and escaped him; and once I drove my fish-spear
+in his back, but it was not strong enough to hold him. Once he caught
+Skookum's tail, but the hair came out; the dog has not since swum across
+the pond.
+
+"Twice I have seen him like today and might have killed him with the
+gun, but I want to meet him fighting. Many a time I have sat on the bank
+and sung to him the 'Coward's Song,' and dared him to come and fight in
+the shallow water where we are equals. He hears me. He does not come.
+
+"I know he made me sick last winter; even now he is making trouble with
+his evil magic. But my magic must prevail, and some day we shall meet.
+He made me afraid once. I will make him much afraid, and will meet him
+in the water."
+
+Not many days were to pass before the meeting. Rolf had gone for water
+at the well, which was a hole dug ten feet from the shore of the lake.
+He had learned the hunter's cautious trick of going silently and peering
+about, before he left cover. On a mud bank in a shallow bay, some fifty
+yards off, he described a peculiar gray and greenish form that he slowly
+made out to be a huge turtle, sunning itself. The more he looked and
+gauged it with things about, the bigger it seemed. So he slunk back
+quickly and silently to Quonab. "He is out sunning himself--Bosikado--on
+the bank!"
+
+The Indian rose quickly, took his tomahawk and a strong line. Rolf
+reached for the gun, but Quonab shook his head. They went to the lake.
+Yes! There was the great, goggle-eyed monster, like a mud-coloured
+log. The bank behind him was without cover. It would be impossible to
+approach the watchful creature within striking distance before he could
+dive. Quonab would not use the gun; in this case he felt he must atone
+by making an equal fight. He quickly formed a plan; he fastened the
+tomahawk and the coiled rope to his belt, then boldly and silently
+slipped into the lake, to approach the snapper from the water
+side--quite the easiest in this case, not only because the snapper would
+naturally watch on the land side, but because there was a thick clump of
+rushes behind which the swimmer could approach.
+
+Then, as instructed, Rolf went back into the woods, and came silently
+to a place whence he could watch the snapper from a distance of twenty
+yards.
+
+The boy's heart beat fast as he watched the bold swimmer and the savage
+reptile. There could be little doubt that the creature weighed a
+hundred pounds. It is the strongest for its size and the fiercest of all
+reptiles. Its jaws, though toothless, have cutting edges, a sharp beak,
+and power to the crushing of bones. Its armour makes it invulnerable to
+birds and beasts of prey. Like a log it lay on the beach, with its long
+alligator tail stretched up the bank and its serpentine head and tiny
+wicked eyes vigilantly watching the shore. Its shell, broad and ancient,
+was fringed with green moss, and its scaly armpits exposed, were decked
+with leeches, at which a couple of peetweets pecked with eager interest,
+apparently to the monster's satisfaction. Its huge limbs and claws were
+in marked contrast to the small, red eyes. But the latter it was that
+gave the thrill of unnervement.
+
+Sunk down nearly out of sight, the Indian slowly reached the reeds. Here
+he found bottom, and pausing, he took the rope in one hand, the tomahawk
+in the other, and dived, and when he reappeared he was within ten yards
+of the enemy, and in water but four feet deep.
+
+With a sudden rush the reptile splashed into the pond and out of sight,
+avoiding the rope noose. But Quonab clutched deep in the water as
+it passed, and seized the monster's rugged tail. Then it showed its
+strength. In a twinkling that mighty tail was swung sidewise, crushing
+the hand with terrible force against the sharp-edged points of the back
+armour. It took all the Indian's grit to hold on to that knife-edged war
+club. He dropped his tomahawk, then with his other hand swung the rope
+to catch the turtle's head, but it lurched so quickly that the rope
+missed again, slipped over the shell, and, as they struggled, encircled
+one huge paw. The Indian jerked it tight, and they were bound together.
+But now his only weapon was down at the bottom and the water all
+muddied. He could not see, but plunged to grope for the tomahawk. The
+snapper gave a great lurch to escape, releasing the injured hand, but
+jerking the man off his legs. Then, finding itself held by a forepaw, it
+turned with gaping, hissing jaws, and sprang on the foe that struggled
+in bottom of the water.
+
+The snapper has the bulldog habit to seize and hold till the piece tears
+out. In the muddy water it had to seize in the dark, and fending first
+the left arm of its foe, fastened on with fierce beak and desperate
+strength. At this moment Quonab recovered his tomahawk; rising into the
+air he dragged up the hanging snapper, and swung the weapon with all the
+force of his free arm. The blow sank through the monster's shell, deep
+into its back, without any visible effect, except to rob the Indian of
+his weapon as he could not draw it out.
+
+Then Rolf rushed into the water to help. But Quonab gasped, "No, no, go
+back--I'm alone."
+
+The creature's jaws were locked on his arm, but its front claws, tearing
+downward and outward, were demolishing the coat that had protected it,
+and long lines of mingled blood were floating on the waves.
+
+After a desperate plunge toward shallow water, Quonab gave another
+wrench to the tomahawk--it moved, loosed; another, and it was free.
+Then "chop, chop, chop," and that long, serpentine neck was severed; the
+body, waving its great scaly legs and lashing its alligator tail, went
+swimming downward, but the huge head, blinking its bleary, red eyes and
+streaming with blood, was clinched on his arm. The Indian made for the
+bank hauling the rope that held the living body, and fastened it to a
+tree, then drew his knife to cut the jaw muscles of the head that ground
+its beak into his flesh. But the muscles were protected by armour
+plates and bone; he could not deal a stab to end their power. In vain he
+fumbled and slashed, until in a spasmodic quiver the jaws gaped wide and
+the bloody head fell to the ground. Again it snapped, but a tree branch
+bore the brunt; on this the strong jaws clinched, and so remained.
+
+For over an hour the headless body crawled, or tried to crawl, always
+toward the lake. And now they could look at the enemy. Not his size so
+much as his weight surprised them. Although barely four feet long, he
+was so heavy that Rolf could not lift him. Quonab's scratches were many
+but slight; only the deep bill wound made his arm and the bruises of the
+jaws were at all serious and of these he made light. Headed by Skookum
+in full 'yap,' they carried the victim's body to camp; the head, still
+dutching the stick, was decorated with three feathers, then set on a
+pole near the wigwam. And the burden of the red man's song when next he
+sang was:
+
+"Bosikado, mine enemy was mighty, But I went into his country And made
+him afraid!"
+
+
+
+Chapter 14. Selectman Horton Appears at the Rock
+
+Summer was at its height on the Asamuk. The woodthrush was nearing the
+end of its song; a vast concourse of young robins in their speckled
+plumage joined chattering every night in the thickest cedars; and one or
+two broods of young ducks were seen on the Pipestave Pond.
+
+Rolf had grown wonderfully well into his wigwam life. He knew now
+exactly how to set the flap so as to draw out all the smoke, no matter
+which way the wind blew; he had learned the sunset signs, which tell
+what change of wind the night might bring. He knew without going to the
+shore whether the tide was a little ebb, with poor chances, or a mighty
+outflow that would expose the fattest oyster beds. His practiced fingers
+told at a touch whether it was a turtle or a big fish on his night line;
+and by the tone of the tom-tom he knew when a rainstorm was at hand.
+
+Being trained in industry, he had made many improvements in their camp,
+not the least of which was to clean up and burn all the rubbish and
+garbage that attracted hordes of flies. He had fitted into the camp
+partly by changing it to fit himself, and he no longer felt that his
+stay there was a temporary shift. When it was to end, he neither knew
+nor cared. He realized only that he was enjoying life as he never had
+done before. His canoe had passed a lot of rapids and was now in a
+steady, unbroken stream--but it was the swift shoot before the fall.
+A lull in the clamour does not mean the end of war, but a new onset
+preparing; and, of course, it came in the way least looked for.
+
+Selectman Horton stood well with the community; he was a man of good
+judgment, good position, and kind heart. He was owner of all the
+woods along the Asamuk, and thus the Indian's landlord on the Indian's
+ancestral land. Both Rolf and Quonab had worked for Horton, and so they
+knew him well, and liked him for his goodness.
+
+It was Wednesday morning, late in July, when Selectman Horton,
+clean-shaven and large, appeared at the wigwam under the rock.
+
+"Good morrow to ye both!" Then without wasting time he plunged in.
+"There's been some controversy and much criticism of the selectmen for
+allowing a white lad, the child of Christian parents, the grandson of a
+clergyman, to leave all Christian folk and folds, and herd with a pagan,
+to become, as it were, a mere barbarian. I hold not, indeed, with those
+that out of hand would condemn as godless a good fellow like Quonab,
+who, in my certain knowledge and according to his poor light, doth
+indeed maintain in some kind a daily worship of a sort. Nevertheless,
+the selectmen, the magistrates, the clergy, the people generally, and
+above all the Missionary Society, are deeply moved in the matter. It
+hath even been made a personal charge against myself, and with much
+bitterness I am held up as unzealous for allowing such a nefarious
+stronghold of Satan to continue on mine own demesne, and harbour one,
+escaped, as it were, from grace. Acting, therefore, not according to my
+heart, but as spokesman of the Town Council, the Synod of Elders, and
+the Society for the Promulgation of Godliness among the Heathen, I am
+to state that you, Rolf Kittering, being without kinsfolk and under age,
+are in verity a ward of the parish, and as such, it hath been arranged
+that you become a member of the household of the most worthy Elder
+Ezekiel Peck, a household filled with the spirit of estimable piety and
+true doctrine; a man, indeed, who, notwithstanding his exterior coldness
+and severity, is very sound in all matters regarding the Communion of
+Saints, and, I may even say in a measure a man of fame for some most
+excellent remarks he hath passed on the shorter catechism, beside which
+he hath gained much approval for having pointed out two hidden meanings
+in the 27th verse of the 12th chapter of Hebrews; one whose very
+presence, therefore, is a guarantee against levity, laxity, and false
+preachment.
+
+"There, now, my good lad, look not so like a colt that feels the whip
+for the first time. You will have a good home, imbued with the spirit of
+a most excellent piety that will be ever about you."
+
+"Like a colt feeling the whip," indeed! Rolf reeled like a stricken
+deer. To go back as a chore-boy drudge was possible, but not alluring;
+to leave Quonab, just as the wood world was opening to him, was
+devastating; but to exchange it all for bondage in the pious household
+of Old Peck, whose cold cruelty had driven off all his own children, was
+an accumulation of disasters that aroused him.
+
+"I won't go!" he blurted out, and gazed defiantly at the broad and
+benevolent selectman.
+
+"Come now, Rolf, such language is unbecoming. Let not a hasty tongue
+betray you into sin. This is what your mother would have wished. Be
+sensible; you will soon find it was all for the best. I have ever liked
+you, and will ever be a friend you can count on.
+
+"Acting, not according to my instructions, but according to my heart,
+I will say further that you need not come now, you need not even give
+answer now, but think it over. Nevertheless, remember that on or before
+Monday morning next, you will be expected to appear at Elder Peck's, and
+I fear that, in case you fail, the messenger next arriving will be
+one much less friendly than myself. Come now, Rolf, be a good lad, and
+remember that in your new home you will at least be living for the glory
+of God."
+
+Then, with a friendly nod, but an expression of sorrow, the large, black
+messenger turned and tramped away.
+
+Rolf slowly, limply, sank down on a rock and stared at the fire. After
+awhile Quonab got up and began to prepare the mid-day meal. Usually Rolf
+helped him. Now he did nothing but sullenly glare at the glowing coals.
+In half an hour the food was ready. He ate little; then went away in the
+woods by himself. Quonab saw him lying on a flat rock, looking at the
+pond, and throwing pebbles into it. Later Quonab went to Myanos. On his
+return he found that Rolf had cut up a great pile of wood, but not a
+word passed between them. The look of sullen anger and rebellion on
+Rolf's face was changing to one of stony despair. What was passing in
+each mind the other could not divine.
+
+The evening meal was eaten in silence; then Quonab smoked for an hour,
+both staring into the fire. A barred owl hooted and laughed over their
+heads, causing the dog to jump up and bark at the sound that ordinarily
+he would have heeded not at all. Then silence was restored, and the red
+man's hidden train of thought was in a flash revealed.
+
+"Rolf, let's go to the North Woods!"
+
+It was another astounding idea. Rolf had realized more and more how much
+this valley meant to Quonab, who worshipped the memory of his people.
+
+"And leave all this?" he replied, making a sweep with his hand toward
+the rock, the Indian trail, the site of bygone Petuquapen, and the
+graves of the tribe.
+
+For reply their eyes met, and from the Indian's deep chest came the
+single word, "Ugh." One syllable, deep and descending, but what a tale
+it told of the slowly engendered and strong-grown partiality, of a
+struggle that had continued since the morning when the selectman came
+with words of doom, and of friendship's victory won.
+
+Rolf realized this, and it gave him a momentary choking in his throat,
+and, "I'm ready if you really mean it."
+
+"Ugh I go, but some day come back."
+
+There was a long silence, then Rolf, "When shall we start?" and the
+answer, "To-morrow night."
+
+
+
+Chapter 15. Bound for the North Woods
+
+When Quonab left camp in the morning he went heavy laden, and the
+trail he took led to Myanos. There was nothing surprising in it when
+he appeared at Silas Peck's counter and offered for sale a pair of
+snowshoes, a bundle of traps, some dishes of birch bark and basswood,
+and a tom-tom, receiving in exchange some tea, tobacco, gunpowder, and
+two dollars in cash. He turned without comment, and soon was back in
+camp. He now took the kettle into the woods and brought it back filled
+with bark, fresh chipped from a butternut tree. Water was added, and the
+whole boiled till it made a deep brown liquid. When this was cooled he
+poured it into a flat dish, then said to Rolf: "Come now, I make you a
+Sinawa."
+
+With a soft rag the colour was laid on. Face, head, neck, and hands were
+all at first intended, but Rolf said, "May as well do the whole thing."
+So he stripped off; the yellow brown juice on his white skin turned it
+a rich copper colour, and he was changed into an Indian lad that none
+would have taken for Rolf Kittering. The stains soon dried, and Rolf,
+re-clothed, felt that already he had burned a bridge.
+
+Two portions of the wigwam cover were taken off; and two packs were
+made of the bedding. The tomahawk, bows, arrows, and gun, with the few
+precious food pounds in the copper pot, were divided between them and
+arranged into packs with shoulder straps; then all was ready. But there
+was one thing more for Quonab; he went up alone to the rock. Rolf knew
+what he went for, and judged it best not to follow.
+
+The Indian lighted his pipe, blew the four smokes to the four winds,
+beginning with the west, then he sat in silence for a time. Presently
+the prayer for good hunting came from the rock:
+
+     "Father lead us!
+     Father, help us!
+     Father, guide us to the good hunting."
+
+And when that ceased a barred owl hooted in the woods, away to the
+north.
+
+"Ugh! good," was all he said as he rejoined Rolf; and they set out, as
+the sun went down, on their long journey due northward, Quonab, Rolf,
+and Skookum. They had not gone a hundred yards before the dog turned
+back, raced to a place where he had a bone in cache and rejoining there
+trotted along with his bone.
+
+The high road would have been the easier travelling, but it was very
+necessary to be unobserved, so they took the trail up the brook Asamuk,
+and after an hour's tramp came out by the Cat-Rock road that runs
+westerly. Again they were tempted by the easy path, but again Quonab
+decided on keeping to the woods. Half an hour later they were halted by
+Skookum treeing a coon. After they had secured the dog, they tramped on
+through the woods for two hours more, and then, some eight miles from
+the Pipestave, they halted, Rolf, at least, tired out. It was now
+midnight. They made a hasty double bed of the canvas cover over a pole
+above them, and slept till morning, cheered, as they closed their drowsy
+eyes, by the "Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, yah, hoo," of their friend, the barred
+owl, still to the northward.
+
+The sun was high, and Quonab had breakfast ready before Rolf awoke. He
+was so stiff with the tramp and the heavy pack that it was with secret
+joy he learned that they were to rest, concealed in the woods, that day,
+and travel only by night, until in a different region, where none knew
+or were likely to stop them. They were now in York State, but that did
+not by any means imply that they were beyond pursuit.
+
+As the sun rose high, Rolf went forth with his bow and blunt arrows, and
+then, thanks largely to Skookum, he succeeded in knocking over a couple
+of squirrels, which, skinned and roasted, made their dinner that day.
+At night they set out as before, making about ten miles. The third night
+they did better, and the next day being Sunday, they kept out of sight.
+But Monday morning, bright and clear, although it was the first morning
+when they were sure of being missed, they started to tramp openly along
+the highway, with a sense of elation that they had not hitherto known
+on the joumey. Two things impressed Rolf by their novelty: the curious
+stare of the country folk whose houses and teams they passed, and the
+violent antagonism of the dogs. Usually the latter could be quelled by
+shaking a stick at them, or by pretending to pick up a stone, but one
+huge and savage brindled mastiff kept following and barking just out of
+stick range, and managed to give Skookum a mauling, until Quonab drew
+his bow and let fly a blunt arrow that took the brute on the end of
+the nose, and sent him howling homeward, while Skookum got a few highly
+satisfactory nips at the enemy's rear. Twenty miles they made that day
+and twenty-five the next, for now they were on good roads, and their
+packs were lighter. More than once they found kind farmer folk who gave
+them a meal. But many times Skookum made trouble for them. The farmers
+did not like the way he behaved among their hens. Skookum never could be
+made to grasp the fine zoological distinction between partridges which
+are large birds and fair game, and hens which are large birds, but not
+fair game. Such hair splitting was obviously unworthy of study, much
+less of acceptance.
+
+Soon it was clearly better for Rolf, approaching a house, to go alone,
+while Quonab held Skookum. The dogs seemed less excited by Rolf's smell,
+and remembering his own attitude when tramps came to one or another
+of his ancient homes, he always asked if they would let him work for a
+meal, and soon remarked that his success was better when he sought first
+the women of the house, and then, smiling to show his very white teeth,
+spoke in clear and un-Indian English, which had the more effect coming
+from an evident Indian.
+
+"Since I am to be an Indian, Quonab, you must give me an Indian name,"
+he said after one of these episodes.
+
+"Ugh! Good! That's easy! You are 'Nibowaka,' the wise one." For the
+Indian had not missed any of the points, and so he was named.
+
+Twenty or thirty miles a day they went now, avoiding the settlements
+along the river. Thus they saw nothing of Albany, but on the tenth
+day they reached Fort Edward, and for the first time viewed the great
+Hudson. Here they stayed as short a time as might be, pushed on by
+Glen's Falls, and on the eleventh night of the journey they passed the
+old, abandoned fort, and sighted the long stretch of Lake George, with
+its wooded shore, and glimpses of the mountains farther north.
+
+Now a new thought possessed them--"If only they had the canoe that they
+had abandoned on the Pipestave." It came to them both at the sight of
+the limit less water, and especially when Rolf remembered that Lake
+George joined with Champlain, which again was the highway to all the
+wilderness.
+
+They camped now as they had fifty times before, and made their meal. The
+bright blue water dancing near was alluring, inspiring; as they sought
+the shore Quonab pointed to a track and said, "Deer." He did not show
+much excitement, but Rolf did, and they returned to the camp fire with
+a new feeling of elation--they had reached the Promised Land. Now they
+must prepare for the serious work of finding a hunting ground that was
+not already claimed.
+
+Quonab, remembering the ancient law of the woods, that parcels off the
+valleys, each to the hunter first arriving, or succeeding the one who
+had, was following his own line of thought. Rolf was puzzling over means
+to get an outfit, canoe, traps, axes, and provisions. The boy broke
+silence.
+
+"Quonab, we must have money to get an outfit; this is the beginning of
+harvest; we can easily get work for a month. That will feed us and give
+us money enough to live on, and a chance to learn something about the
+country."
+
+The reply was simple, "You are Nibowaka."
+
+The farms were few and scattered here, but there were one or two along
+the lake. To the nearest one with standing grain Rolf led the way. But
+their reception, from the first brush with the dog to the final tilt
+with the farmer, was unpleasant--"He didn't want any darn red-skins
+around there. He had had two St. Regis Indians last year, and they were
+a couple of drunken good-for-nothings."
+
+The next was the house of a fat Dutchman, who was just wondering how he
+should meet the compounded accumulated emergencies of late hay, early
+oats, weedy potatoes, lost cattle, and a prospective increase of
+his family, when two angels of relief appeared at his door, in
+copper-coloured skins.
+
+"Cahn yo work putty goood?
+
+"Yes, I have always lived on a farm," and Rolf showed his hands, broad
+and heavy for his years.
+
+"Cahn yo mebby find my lost cows, which I haf not find, already yet?"
+
+Could they! it would be fun to try.
+
+"I giff yo two dollars you pring dem putty kvick."
+
+So Quonab took the trail to the woods, and Rolf started into the
+potatoes with a hoe, but he was stopped by a sudden outcry of poultry.
+Alas! It was Skookum on an ill-judged partridge hunt. A minute later he
+was ignominiously chained to a penitential post, nor left it during the
+travellers' sojourn.
+
+In the afternoon Quonab returned with the cattle, and as he told Rolf he
+saw five deer, there was an unmistakable hunter gleam in his eye.
+
+Three cows in milk, and which had not been milked for two days, was a
+serious matter, needing immediate attention. Rolf had milked five cows
+twice a day for five years, and a glance showed old Van Trumper that the
+boy was an expert.
+
+"Good, good! I go now make feed swine."
+
+He went into the outhouse, but a tow-topped, redcheeked girl ran after
+him. "Father, father, mother says--" and the rest was lost.
+
+"Myn Hemel! Myn Hemel! I thought it not so soon," and the fat Dutchman
+followed the child. A moment later he reappeared, his jolly face clouded
+with a look of grave concern. "Hi yo big Injun, yo cahn paddle canoe?"
+Quonab nodded. "Den coom. Annette, pring Tomas und Hendrik." So
+the father carried two-year-old Hendrik, while the Indian carried
+six-year-old Tomas, and twelve-year-old Annette followed in vague,
+uncomprehended alarm. Arrived at the shore the children were placed in
+the canoe, and then the difficulties came fully to the father's
+mind--he could not leave his wife. He must send the children with the
+messenger--In a sort of desperation, "Cahn you dem childen take to de
+house across de lake, and pring back Mrs. Callan? Tell her Marta Van
+Trumper need her right now mooch very kvick." The Indian nodded. Then
+the father hesitated, but a glance at the Indian was enough. Something
+said, "He is safe," and in spite of sundry wails from the little ones
+left with a dark stranger, he pushed off the canoe: "Yo take care for my
+babies," and turned his brimming eyes away.
+
+The farmhouse was only two miles off, and the evening calm; no time was
+lost: what woman will not instantly drop all work and all interests, to
+come to the help of another in the trial time of motherhood?
+
+Within an hour the neighbour's wife was holding hands with the mother of
+the banished tow-heads. He who tempers the wind and appoints the season
+of the wild deer hinds had not forgotten the womanhood beyond the reach
+of skilful human help, and with the hard and lonesome life had conjoined
+a sweet and blessed compensation. What would not her sister of the city
+give for such immunity; and long before that dark, dread hour of
+night that brings the ebbing life force low, the wonderful miracle was
+complete; there was another tow-top in the settler's home, and all was
+well.
+
+
+
+Chapter 16. Life with the Dutch Settler
+
+The Indians slept in the luxuriant barn of logs, with blankets, plenty
+of hay, and a roof. They were more than content, for now, on the edge of
+the wilderness, they were very close to wild life. Not a day or a night
+passed without bringing proof of that.
+
+One end of the barn was portioned off for poultry. In this the working
+staff of a dozen hens were doing their duty, which, on that first night
+of the "brown angels' visit," consisted of silent slumber, when all at
+once the hens and the new hands were aroused by a clamorous cackling,
+which speedily stopped. It sounded like a hen falling in a bad dream,
+then regaining her perch to go to sleep again. But next morning the body
+of one of these highly esteemed branches of the egg-plant was found in
+the corner, partly devoured. Quonab examined the headless hen, the dust
+around, and uttered the word, "Mink."
+
+Rolf said, "Why not skunk?"
+
+"Skunk could not climb to the perch."
+
+"Weasel then."
+
+"Weasel would only suck the blood, and would kill three or four."
+
+"Coon would carry him away, so would fox or wildcat, and a marten would
+not come into the building by night."
+
+There was no question, first, that it was a mink, and, second, that he
+was hiding about the barn until the hunger pang should send him again
+to the hen house. Quonab covered the hen's body with two or three large
+stones so that there was only one approach. In the way of this approach
+he buried a "number one" trap.
+
+That night they were aroused again; this time by a frightful screeching,
+and a sympathetic, inquiring cackle from the fowls.
+
+Arising, quickly they entered with a lantem. Rolf then saw a sight that
+gave him a prickling in his hair. The mink, a large male, was caught by
+one front paw. He was writhing and foaming, tearing, sometimes at the
+trap, sometimes at the dead hen, and sometimes at his own imprisoned
+foot, pausing now and then to utter the most ear-piercing shrieks, then
+falling again in crazy animal fury on the trap, splintering his sharp
+white teeth, grinding the cruel metal with bruised and bloody jaws,
+frothing, snarling, raving mad. As his foemen entered he turned on them
+a hideous visage of inexpressible fear and hate, rage and horror.
+His eyes glanced back green fire in the lantern light; he strained in
+renewed efforts to escape; the air was rank with his musky smell. The
+impotent fury of his struggle made a picture that continued in Rolf's
+mind. Quonab took a stick and with a single blow put an end to the
+scene, but never did Rolf forget it, and never afterward was he a
+willing partner when the trapping was done with those relentless jaws of
+steel.
+
+A week later another hen was missing, and the door of the hen house left
+open. After a careful examination of the dust, inside and out of the
+building, Quonab said, "Coon." It is very unusual for coons to raid a
+hen house. Usually it is some individual with abnormal tastes, and once
+he begins, he is sure to come back. The Indian judged that he might be
+back the next night, so prepared a trap. A rope was passed from the door
+latch to a tree; on this rope a weight was hung, so that the door was
+selfshutting, and to make it self-locking he leaned a long pole against
+it inside. Now he propped it open with a single platform, so set that
+the coon must walk on it once he was inside, and so release the door.
+The trappers thought they would hear in the night when the door closed,
+but they were sleepy; they knew nothing until next morning. Then they
+found that the self-shutter had shut, and inside, crouched in one of the
+nesting boxes, was a tough, old fighting coon. Strange to tell, he had
+not touched a second hen. As soon as he found himself a prisoner he had
+experienced a change of heart, and presently his skin was nailed on the
+end of the barn and his meat was hanging in the larder.
+
+"Is this a marten," asked little Annette. And when told not,
+her disappointment elicited the information that old Warren, the
+storekeeper, had promised her a blue cotton dress for a marten skin.
+
+"You shall have the first one I catch," said Rolf.
+
+Life in Van Trumper's was not unpleasant. The mother was going about
+again in a week. Annette took charge of the baby, as well as of
+the previous arrivals. Hendrik senior was gradually overcoming his
+difficulties, thanks to the unexpected help, and a kindly spirit made
+the hard work not so very hard. The shyness that was at first felt
+toward the Indians wore off, especially in the case of Rolf, he was
+found so companionable; and the Dutchman, after puzzling over the
+combination of brown skin and blue eyes, decided that Rolf was a
+half-breed.
+
+August wore on not unpleasantly for the boy, but Quonab was getting
+decidedly restless. He could work for a week as hard as any white man,
+but his race had not risen to the dignity of patient, unremitting,
+life-long toil.
+
+"How much money have we now, Nibowaka?" was one of the mid-August
+indications of restlessness. Rolf reckoned up; half a month for Quonab,
+$15.00; for himself, $10.00; for finding the cows $2.00--$27.00 in all.
+Not enough.
+
+Three days later Quonab reckoned up again. Next day he said: "We need
+two months' open water to find a good country and build a shanty." Then
+did Rolf do the wise thing; he went to fat Hendrik and told him all
+about it. They wanted to get a canoe and an outfit, and seek for a
+trapping or hunting ground that would not encroach on those already
+possessed, for the trapping law is rigid; even the death penalty is not
+considered too high in certain cases of trespass, provided the injured
+party is ready to be judge, jury, and executioner. Van Trumper was able
+to help them not a little in the matter of location--there was no use
+trying on the Vermont side, nor anywhere near Lake Champlain, nor near
+Lake George; neither was it worth while going to the far North, as the
+Frenchmen came in there, and they were keen hunters, so that
+Hamilton County was more promising than any other, but it was almost
+inaccessible, remote from all the great waterways, and of course without
+roads; its inaccessibility was the reason why it was little known. So
+far so good; but happy Hendrik was unpleasantly surprised to learn that
+the new help were for leaving at once. Finally he made this offer: If
+they would stay till September first, and so leave all in "good shape
+fer der vinter," he would, besides the wages agreed, give them the
+canoe, one axe, six mink traps, and a fox trap now hanging in the barn,
+and carry them in his wagon as far as the Five-mile portage from Lake
+George to Schroon River, down which they could go to its junction with
+the upper Hudson, which, followed up through forty miles of rapids and
+hard portages, would bring them to a swampy river that enters from the
+southwest, and ten miles up this would bring them to Jesup's Lake, which
+is two miles wide and twelve miles long. This country abounded with
+game, but was so hard to enter that after Jesup's death it was deserted.
+
+There was only one possible answer to such an offer--they stayed.
+
+In spare moments Quonab brought the canoe up to the barn, stripped off
+some weighty patches of bark and canvas and some massive timber thwarts,
+repaired the ribs, and when dry and gummed, its weight was below one
+hundred pounds; a saving of at least forty pounds on the soggy thing he
+crossed the lake in that first day on the farm.
+
+September came. Early in the morning Quonab went alone to the lakeside;
+there on a hill top he sat, looking toward the sunrise, and sang a song
+of the new dawn, beating, not with a tom-tom--he had none--but with one
+stick on another. And when the sunrise possessed the earth he sang again
+the hunter's song:
+
+"Father, guide our feet, Lead us to the good hunting."
+
+Then he danced to the sound, his face skyward, his eyes closed, his feet
+barely raised, but rythmically moved. So went he three times round to
+the chant in three sun circles, dancing a sacred measure, as royal David
+might have done that day when he danced around the Ark of the Covenant
+on its homeward joumey. His face was illumined, and no man could have
+seen him then without knowing that this was a true heart's worship of a
+true God, who is in all things He has made.
+
+
+
+Chapter 17. Canoeing on the Upper Hudson
+
+     There is only one kind of a man I can't size up; that's the
+     faller that shets up and says nothing.--Sayings of Si
+     Sylvanne.
+
+A settler named Hulett had a scow that was borrowed by the neighbours
+whenever needed to take a team across the lake. On the morning of their
+journey, the Dutchman's team and wagon, the canoe and the men, were
+aboard the scow, Skookum took his proper place at the prow, and all
+was ready for "Goodbye." Rolf found it a hard word to say. The good old
+Dutch mother had won his heart, and the children were like his brothers
+and sisters.
+
+"Coom again, lad; coom and see us kvick." She kissed him, he kissed
+Annette and the three later issues. They boarded the scow to ply the
+poles till the deep water was reached, then the oars. An east wind
+springing up gave them a chance to profit by a wagon-cover rigged as a
+sail, and two hours later the scow was safely landed at West Side,
+where was a country store, and the head of the wagon road to the Schroon
+River.
+
+As they approached the door, they saw a rough-looking man slouching
+against the building, his hands in his pockets, his blear eyes taking in
+the new-comers with a look of contemptuous hostility. As they passed, he
+spat tobacco juice on the dog and across the feet of the men.
+
+Old Warren who kept the store was not partial to Indians, but he was
+a good friend of Hendrik and very keen to trade for fur, so the new
+trappers were well received; and now came the settling of accounts.
+Flour, oatmeal, pork, potatoes, tea, tobacco, sugar, salt, powder,
+ball, shot, clothes, lines, an inch-auger, nails, knives, awls, needles,
+files, another axe, some tin plates, and a frying pan were selected and
+added to Hendrik's account.
+
+"If I was you, I'd take a windy-sash; you'll find it mighty convenient
+in cold weather." The store keeper led them into an outhouse where was a
+pile of six-lighted window-frames all complete. So the awkward thing was
+added to their load.
+
+"Can't I sell you a fine rifle?" and he took down a new, elegant small
+bore of the latest pattern. "Only twenty-five dollars." Rolf shook his
+head; "part down, and I'll take the rest in fur next spring." Rolf was
+sorely tempted; however, he had an early instilled horror of debt. He
+steadfastly said: "No." But many times he regretted it afterward! The
+small balance remaining was settled in cash.
+
+As they were arranging and selecting, they heard a most hideous
+yelping outdoors, and a minute later Skookum limped in, crying as if
+half-killed. Quonab was out in a moment.
+
+"Did you kick my dog?"
+
+The brutal loafer changed countenance as he caught the red man's eye.
+"Naw! never touched him; hurted himself on that rake."
+
+It was obviously a lie, but better to let it pass, and Quonab came in
+again.
+
+Then the rough stranger appeared at the door and growled: "Say, Warren!
+ain't you going to let me have that rifle? I guess my word's as good as
+the next man's."
+
+"No," said Warren; "I told you, no!"
+
+"Then you can go to blazes, and you'll never see a cent's worth of fur
+from the stuff I got last year."
+
+"I don't expect to," was the reply; "I've learned what your word's
+worth." And the stranger slouched away.
+
+"Who vas he?" asked Hendrik.
+
+"I only know that his name is Jack Hoag; he's a little bit of a trapper
+and a big bit of a bum; stuck me last year. He doesn't come out this
+way; they say he goes out by the west side of the mountains."
+
+New light on their course was secured from Warren, and above all, the
+important information that the mouth of Jesup's River was marked by an
+eagle's nest in a dead pine. "Up to that point keep the main stream, and
+don't forget next spring I'm buying fur."
+
+The drive across Five-mile portage was slow. It took over two hours to
+cover it, but late that day they reached the Schroon.
+
+Here the Dutchman said "Good-bye: Coom again some noder time." Skookum
+saluted the farmer with a final growl, then Rolf and Quonab were left
+alone in the wilderness.
+
+It was after sundown, so they set about camping for the night. A wise
+camper always prepares bed and shelter in daylight, if possible. While
+Rolf made a fire and hung the kettle, Quonab selected a level, dry place
+between two trees, and covered it with spruce boughs to make the beds,
+and last a low tent was made by putting the lodge cover over a pole
+between the trees. The ends of the covers were held down by loose
+green logs quickly cut for the purpose, and now they were safe against
+weather.
+
+Tea, potatoes, and fried pork, with maple syrup and hard-tack, made
+their meal of the time, after which there was a long smoke. Quonab took
+a stick of red willow, picked up-in the daytime, and began shaving it
+toward one end, leaving the curling shreds still on the stick. When
+these were bunched in a fuzzy mop, he held them over the fire until they
+were roasted brown; then, grinding all up in his palm with some tobacco,
+and filling his pipe he soon was enveloped in that odour of woodsy smoke
+called the "Indian smell," by many who do not know whence or how it
+comes. Rolf did not smoke. He had promised his mother that he would
+not until he was a man, and something brought her back home now with
+overwhelming force; that was the beds they had made of fragrant balsam
+boughs. "Cho-ko-tung or blister tree" as Quonab called it. His mother
+had a little sofa pillow, brought from the North--a "northern pine"
+pillow they called it, for it was stuffed with pine needles of a kind
+not growing in Connecticut. Many a time had Rolf as a baby pushed his
+little round nose into that bag to inhale the delicious odour it gave
+forth, and so it became the hallowed smell of all that was dear in his
+babyhood, and it never lost its potency. Smell never does. Oh, mighty
+aura! that, in marching by the nostrils, can reach and move the soul;
+how wise the church that makes this power its handmaid, and through its
+incense overwhelms all alien thought when the worshipper, wandering,
+doubting, comes again to see if it be true, that here doubt dies. Oh,
+queen of memory that is master of the soul! how fearful should we be of
+letting evil thought associated grow with some recurrent odour that
+we love. Happy, indeed, are they that find some ten times pure and
+consecrated fragrance, like the pine, which entering in is master
+of their moods, and yet through linking thoughts has all its power,
+uplifting, full of sweetness and blessed peace. So came to Rolf his
+medicine tree.
+
+The balsam fir was his tree of hallowed memory. Its odour never failed,
+and he slept that night with its influence all about him.
+
+Starting in the morning was no easy matter. There was so much to be
+adjusted that first day. Packs divided in two, new combinations to trim
+the canoe, or to raise such and such a package above a possible leak.
+The heavy things, like axes and pans, had to be fastened to the canoe or
+to packages that would float in case of an upset. The canoe itself had
+to be gummed in one or two places; but they got away after three hours,
+and began the voyage down the Schroon.
+
+This was Rolf's first water journey. He had indeed essayed the canoe on
+the Pipestave Pond, but that was a mere ferry. This was real travel. He
+marvelled at the sensitiveness of the frail craft; the delicacy of its
+balance; its quick response to the paddle; the way it seemed to shrink
+from the rocks; and the unpleasantly suggestive bend-up of the ribs
+when the bottom grounded upon a log. It was a new world for him. Quonab
+taught him never to enter the canoe except when she was afloat; never to
+rise in her or move along without hold of the gunwale; never to make a
+sudden move; and he also learned that it was easier to paddle when there
+were six feet of water underneath than when only six inches.
+
+In an hour they had covered the five miles that brought them to the
+Hudson, and here the real labour began, paddling up stream. Before long
+they came to a shallow stretch with barely enough water to float the
+canoe. Here they jumped out and waded in the stream, occasionally
+lifting a stone to one side, till they reached the upper stretch of deep
+water and again went merrily paddling. Soon they came to an impassable
+rapid, and Rolf had his first taste of a real carry or portage. Quonab's
+eye was watching the bank as soon as the fierce waters appeared; for
+the first question was, where shall we land? and the next, how far do we
+carry? There are no rapids on important rivers in temperate America
+that have not been portaged more or less for ages. No canoe man portages
+without considering most carefully when, where, and how to land. His
+selection of the place, then, is the result of careful study. He cannot
+help leaving some mark at the place, slight though it be, and the next
+man looks for that mark to save himself time and trouble.
+
+"Ugh" was the only sound that Rolf heard from his companion, and
+the canoe headed for a flat rock in the pool below the rapids. After
+landing, they found traces of an old camp fire. It was near noon now,
+so Rolf prepared the meal while Quonab took a light pack and went on to
+learn the trail. It was not well marked; had not been used for a year
+or two, evidently, but there are certain rules that guide one. The trail
+keeps near the water, unless there is some great natural barrier, and it
+is usually the easiest way in sight. Quonab kept one eye on the river,
+for navigable water was the main thing, and in about one hundred yards
+he was again on the stream's edge, at a good landing above the rapid.
+
+After the meal was finished and the Indian had smoked, they set to work.
+In a few loads each, the stuff was portaged across, and the canoe was
+carried over and moored to the bank.
+
+The cargo replaced, they went on again, but in half an hour after
+passing more shoal water, saw another rapid, not steep, but too shallow
+to float the canoe, even with both men wading. Here Quonab made what
+the Frenchmen call a demi-charge. He carried half the stuff to the bank;
+then, wading, one at each end, they hauled the canoe up the portage and
+reloaded her above. Another strip of good going was succeeded by a long
+stretch of very swift water that was two or three feet deep and between
+shores that were densely grown with alders. The Indian landed, cut two
+light, strong poles, and now, one at the bow, the other at the stern,
+they worked their way foot by foot up the fierce current until safely on
+the upper level.
+
+Yet one more style of canoe propulsion was forced on them. They came to
+a long stretch of smooth, deep, very swift water, almost a rapid-one of
+the kind that is a joy when you are coming down stream. It differed from
+the last in having shores that were not alder-hidden, but open gravel
+banks. Now did Quonab take a long, strong line from his war sack. One
+end he fastened, not to the bow, but to the forward part of the canoe,
+the other to a buckskin band which he put across his breast. Then, with
+Rolf in the stern to steer and the Indian hauling on the bank, the canoe
+was safely "tracked" up the "strong waters."
+
+Thus they fought their way up the hard river, day after day, making
+sometimes only five miles after twelve hours' toilsome travel. Rapids,
+shoals, portages, strong waters, abounded, and before they had covered
+the fifty miles to the forks of Jesup's River, they knew right well why
+the region was so little entered.
+
+It made a hardened canoe man of Rolf, and when, on the evening of the
+fifth day, they saw a huge eagle's nest in a dead pine tree that stood
+on the edge of a long swamp, both felt they had reached their own
+country, and were glad.
+
+
+
+Chapter 18. Animal Life Along the River
+
+It must not be supposed that, because it has been duly mentioned, they
+saw no wild life along the river. The silent canoe man has the best of
+opportunities. There were plenty of deer tracks about the first camp,
+and that morning, as they turned up the Hudson, Rolf saw his first deer.
+They had rounded a point in rather swift water when Quonab gave two taps
+on the gunwale, the usual sign, "Look out," and pointed to the shore.
+There, fifty yards away on bank, gazing at them, was a deer. Stock still
+he stood like a red statue, for he was yet in the red coat. With three
+or four strong strokes, Quonab gave a long and mighty forward spurt;
+then reached for his gun. But the deer's white flag went up. It turned
+and bounded away, the white flag the last thing to disappear. Rolf sat
+spellbound. It was so sudden; so easy; it soon melted into the woods
+again. He trembled after it was gone.
+
+Many a time in the evening they saw muskrats in the eddies, and once
+they glimpsed a black, shiny something like a monstrous leech rolling up
+and down as it travelled in the stream. Quonab whispered, "Otter," and
+made ready his gun, but it dived and showed itself no more. At one of
+the camps they were awakened by an extraordinary tattoo in the middle of
+the night--a harsh rattle close by their heads; and they got up to find
+that a porcupine was rattling his teeth on the frying-pan in an effort
+to increase the amount of salt that he could taste on it. Skookum, tied
+to a tree, was vainly protesting against the intrusion and volunteered
+to make a public example of the invader. The campers did not finally get
+rid of the spiny one till all their kitchen stuff was hung beyond his
+reach.
+
+Once they heard the sharp, short bark of a fox, and twice or thrice
+the soft, sweet, moaning call of the gray wolf out to hunt. Wild fowl
+abounded, and their diet was varied by the ducks that one or other of
+the hunters secured at nearly every camp.
+
+On the second day they saw three deer, and on the third morning Quonab
+loaded his gun with buckshot, to be ready, then sallied forth at dawn.
+Rolf was following, but the Indian shook his head, then said: "Don't
+make fire for half an hour."
+
+In twenty minutes Rolf heard the gun, then later the Indian returned
+with a haunch of venison, and when they left that camp they stopped a
+mile up the river to add the rest of the venison to their cargo. Seven
+other deer were seen, but no more killed; yet Rolf was burning to try
+his hand as a hunter. Many other opportunities he had, and improved some
+of them. On one wood portage he, or rather Skookum, put up a number
+of ruffed grouse. These perched in the trees above their heads and the
+travellers stopped. While the dog held their attention Rolf with blunt
+arrows knocked over five that proved most acceptable as food. But his
+thoughts were now on deer, and his ambition was to go out alone and
+return with a load of venison.
+
+Another and more thrilling experience followed quickly. Rounding a bend
+in the early dawn they sighted a black bear and two cubs rambling along
+the gravelly bank and stopping now and then to eat something that turned
+out to be crayfish.
+
+Quonab had not seen a bear since childhood, when he and his father
+hunted along the hardwood ridges back of Myanos, and now he was excited.
+He stopped paddling, warned Rolf to do the same, and let the canoe drift
+backward until out of sight; then made for the land. Quickly tying up
+the canoe he took his gun and Rolf his hunting arrows, and, holding
+Skookum in a leash, they dashed into the woods. Then, keeping out of
+sight, they ran as fast and as silently as possible in the direction
+of the bears. Of course, the wind was toward the hunters, or they never
+could have got so near. Now they were opposite the family group and
+needed only a chance for a fair shot. Sneaking forward with the utmost
+caution, they were surely within twenty-five yards, but still the bushes
+screened the crab-eaters. As the hunters sneaked, the old bear stopped
+and sniffed suspiciously; the wind changed, she got an unmistakable
+whiff; then gave a loud warning "Koff! Koff! Koff! Koff!" and ran as
+fast as she could. The hunters knowing they were discovered rushed out,
+yelling as loudly as possible, in hopes of making the bears tree. The
+old bear ran like a horse with Skookum yapping bravely in her rear. The
+young ones, left behind, lost sight of her, and, utterly bewildered by
+the noise, made for a tree conveniently near and scrambled up into the
+branches. "Now," Rolf thought, judging by certain tales he had heard,
+"that old bear will come back and there will be a fight."
+
+"Is she coming back?" he asked nervously.
+
+The Indian laughed. "No, she is running yet. Black bear always a coward;
+they never fight when they can run away."
+
+The little ones up the tree were, of course, at the mercy of the
+hunters, and in this case it was not a broken straw they depended on,
+but an ample salvation. "We don't need the meat and can't carry it
+with us; let's leave them," said Rolf, but added, "Will they find their
+mother?"
+
+"Yes, bime-by; they come down and squall all over woods. She will hang
+round half a mile away and by night all will be together."
+
+Their first bear hunt was over. Not a shot fired, not a bear wounded,
+not a mile travelled, and not an hour lost. And yet it seemed much more
+full of interesting thrills than did any one of the many stirring bear
+hunts that Rolf and Quonab shared together in the days that were to
+come.
+
+
+
+Chapter 19. The Footprint on the Shore
+
+Jesup's River was a tranquil stream that came from a region of swamps,
+and would have been easy canoeing but for the fallen trees. Some of
+these had been cut years ago, showing that the old trapper had used this
+route. Once they were unpleasantly surprised by seeing a fresh chopping
+on the bank, but their mourning was changed into joy when they found it
+was beaver-work.
+
+Ten miles they made that day. In the evening they camped on the shore of
+Jesup's Lake, proud and happy in the belief that they were the rightful
+owners of it all. That night they heard again and again the howling of
+wolves, but it seemed on the far side of the lake. In the morning they
+went out on foot to explore, and at once had the joy of seeing five
+deer, while tracks showed on every side. It was evidently a paradise for
+deer, and there were in less degree the tracks of other animals--mink in
+fair abundance, one or two otters, a mountain lion, and a cow moose with
+her calf. It was thrilling to see such a feast of possibilities. The
+hunters were led on and on, revelling in the prospect of many joys
+before them, when all at once they came on something that turned their
+joy to grief--the track of a man; the fresh imprint of a cowhide boot.
+It was maddening. At first blush, it meant some other trapper ahead of
+them with a prior claim to the valley; a claim that the unwritten law
+would allow. They followed it a mile. It went striding along the shore
+at a great pace, sometimes running, and keeping down the west shore.
+Then they found a place where he had sat down and broken a lot of clam
+shells, and again had hastened on. But there was no mark of gunstock
+or other weapon where he sat; and why was he wearing boots? The hunters
+rarely did.
+
+For two miles the Indian followed with Rolf, and sometimes found
+that the hated stranger had been running hard. Then they turned back,
+terribly disappointed. At first it seemed a crushing blow. They had
+three courses open to them--to seek a location farther north, to assume
+that one side of the lake was theirs, or to find out exactly who and
+what the stranger was. They decided on the last. The canoe was launched
+and loaded, and they set out to look for what they hoped they would not
+find, a trapper's shanty on the lake.
+
+After skirting the shore for four or five miles and disturbing one or
+two deer, as well as hosts of ducks, the voyagers landed and there still
+they found that fateful bootmark steadily tramping southward. By noon
+they had reached the south end of the west inlet that leads to another
+lake, and again an examination of the shore showed the footmarks, here
+leaving the lake and going southerly. Now the travellers retired to the
+main lake and by noon had reached the south end. At no point had they
+seen any sign of a cabin, though both sides of the lake were in plain
+view all day. The travelling stranger was a mystery, but he did not live
+here and there was no good reason why they should not settle.
+
+Where? The country seemed equally good at all points, but it is usually
+best to camp on an outlet. Then when a storm comes up, the big waves
+do not threaten your canoe, or compel you to stay on land. It is a
+favourite crossing for animals avoiding the lake, and other trappers
+coming in are sure to see your cabin before they enter.
+
+Which side of the outlet? Quonab settled that--the west. He wanted to
+see the sun rise, and, not far back from the water, was a hill with a
+jutting, rocky pinnade. He pointed to this and uttered the one word,
+"Idaho." Here, then, on the west side, where the lake enters the river,
+they began to clear the ground for their home.
+
+
+
+Chapter 20. The Trappers' Cabin
+
+     It's a smart fellow that knows what he can't do.--Sayings of
+     Si Sylvanne.
+
+I suppose every trapper that ever lived, on first building a cabin,
+said, "Oh, any little thing will do, so long as it has a roof and is
+big enough to lie down in." And every trapper has realized before spring
+that he made a sad mistake in not having it big enough to live in and
+store goods in. Quonab and Rolf were new at the business, and made the
+usual mistake. They planned their cabin far too small; 10 X 12 ft.,
+instead of 12 X 20 ft. they made it, and 6-ft. walls, instead of 8-ft.
+walls. Both were expert axemen. Spruce was plentiful and the cabin rose
+quickly. In one day the walls were up. An important thing was the roof.
+What should it be? Overlapping basswood troughs, split shingles, also
+called shakes, or clay? By far the easiest to make, the warmest
+in winter and coolest in summer, is the clay roof. It has three
+disadvantages: It leaks in long-continued wet weather; it drops down
+dust and dirt in dry weather; and is so heavy that it usually ends by
+crushing in the log rafters and beams, unless they are further supported
+on posts, which are much in the way. But its advantages were so obvious
+that the builders did not hesitate. A clay roof it was to be.
+
+When the walls were five feet high, the doorway and window were cut
+through the logs, but leaving in each case one half of the log at the
+bottom of the needed opening. The top log was now placed, then rolled
+over bottom up, while half of its thickness was cut away to fit over
+the door: a similar cut out was made over the window. Two flat pieces
+of spruce were prepared for door jambs and two shorter ones for window
+jambs. Auger holes were put through, so as to allow an oak pin to
+be driven through the jamb into each log, and the doorway and window
+opening were done.
+
+In one corner they planned a small fireplace, built of clay and stone.
+Not stone from the lake, as Rolf would have had it, but from the
+hillside; and why? Quonab said that the lake stone was of the water
+spirits, and would not live near fire, but would burst open; while the
+hillside stone was of the sun and fire spirit, and in the fire would add
+its heat.
+
+The facts are that lake stone explodes when greatly heated and hill
+stone does not; and since no one has been able to improve upon Quonab's
+explanation, it must stand for the present.
+
+The plan of the fireplace was simple. Rolf had been present at the
+building of several, and the main point was to have the chimney large
+enough, and the narrowest point just above the fire.
+
+The eaves logs, end logs, and ridge logs were soon in place; then came
+the cutting of small poles, spruce and tamarack, long enough to reach
+from ridge to eaves, and in sufficient number to completely cover the
+roof. A rank sedge meadow near by afforded plenty of coarse grass with
+which the poles were covered deeply; and lastly clay dug out with a
+couple of hand-made, axe-hewn wooden spades was thrown evenly on the
+grass to a depth of six inches; this, when trampled flat, made a roof
+that served them well.
+
+The chinks of the logs when large were filled with split pieces of wood;
+when small they were plugged with moss. A door was made of hewn planks,
+and hinged very simply on two pins; one made by letting the plank
+project as a point, the other by nailing on a pin after the door was
+placed; both pins fitting, of course, into inch auger holes.
+
+A floor was not needed, but bed bunks were, and in making these they
+began already to realize that the cabin was too small. But now after a
+week's work it was done. It had a sweet fragrance of wood and moss, and
+the pleasure it gave to Rolf at least was something he never again could
+expect to find in equal measure about any other dwelling he might make.
+
+Quonab laid the fire carefully, then lighted his pipe, sang a little
+crooning song about the "home spirits," which we call "household gods,"
+walked around the shanty, offering the pipestem to each of the four
+winds in turn, then entering lighted the fire from his pipe, threw some
+tobacco and deer hair on the blaze, and the house-warming was ended.
+
+Nevertheless, they continued to sleep in the tent they had used all
+along, for Quonab loved not the indoors, and Rolf was growing daily more
+of his mind.
+
+
+
+Chapter 21. Rolf's First Deer
+
+Anxious to lose no fine day they had worked steadily on the shanty, not
+even going after the deer that were seen occasionally over the lake, so
+that now they were out of fresh meat, and Rolf saw a chance he long had
+looked for. "Quonab, I want to go out alone and get a deer, and I want
+your gun.
+
+"Ugh! you shall go. To-night is good."
+
+"To-night" meant evening, so Rolf set out alone as soon as the sun was
+low, for during the heat of the day the deer are commonly lying in some
+thicket. In general, he knew enough to travel up wind, and to go as
+silently as possible. The southwest wind was blowing softly, and so he
+quickened his steps southwesterly which meant along the lake. Tracks and
+signs abounded; it was impossible to follow any one trail. His plan was
+to keep on silently, trusting to luck, nor did he have long to wait.
+Across a little opening of the woods to the west he saw a movement in
+the bushes, but it ceased, and he was in doubt whether the creature,
+presumably a deer, was standing there or had gone on. "Never quit till
+you are sure," was one of Quonab's wise adages. Rolf was bound to know
+what it was that had moved. So he stood still and waited. A minute
+passed; another; many; a long time; and still he waited, but got no
+further sign of life from the bush. Then he began to think he was
+mistaken; yet it was good huntercraft to find out what that was. He
+tried the wind several times, first by wetting his finger, which test
+said "southwest"; second, by tossing up some handfuls of dried grass,
+which said "yes, southwest, but veering southerly in this glade." So he
+knew he might crawl silently to the north side of that bush. He looked
+to the priming of his gun and began a slow and stealthy stalk, selecting
+such openings as might be passed without effort or movement of bushes or
+likelihood of sound. He worked his way step by step; each time his foot
+was lifted he set it down again only after trying the footing. At each
+step he paused to look and listen. It was only one hundred yards to the
+interesting spot, but Rolf was fifteen minutes in covering the distance,
+and more than once, he got a great start as a chicadee flew out or
+a woodpecker tapped. His heart beat louder and louder, so it seemed
+everything near must hear; but he kept on his careful stalk, and at last
+had reached the thicket that had given him such thrills and hopes. Here
+he stood and watched for a full minute. Again he tried the wind, and
+proceeded to circle slowly to the west of the place.
+
+After a long, tense crawl of twenty yards he came on the track and sign
+of a big buck, perfectly fresh, and again his heart worked harder;
+it seemed to be pumping his neck full of blood, so he was choking. He
+judged it best to follow this hot trail for a time, and holding his gun
+ready cocked he stepped softly onward. A bluejay cried out, "jay, jay!"
+with startling loudness, and seemingly enjoyed his pent-up excitement. A
+few steps forward at slow, careful stalk, and then behind him he heard
+a loud whistling hiss. Instantly turning he found himself face to face
+with a great, splendid buck in the short blue coat. There not thirty
+yards away he stood, the creature he had been stalking so long, in plain
+view now, broadside on. They gazed each at the other, perfectly still
+for a few seconds, then Rolf without undue movement brought the gun
+to bear, and still the buck stood gazing. The gun was up, but oh, how
+disgustingly it wabbled and shook! and the steadier Rolf tried to bold
+it, the more it trembled, until from that wretched gun the palsy spread
+all over his body; his breath came tremulously, his legs and arms were
+shaking, and at last, as the deer moved its head to get a better view
+and raised its tail, the lad, making an effort at selfcontrol, pulled
+the trigger. Bang! and the buck went lightly bounding out of sight.
+
+Poor Rolf; how disgusted he felt; positively sick with self-contempt.
+Thirty yards, standing, broadside on, full daylight, a big buck, a clean
+miss. Yes, there was the bullet hole in a tree, five feet above the
+deer's head. "I'm no good; I'll never be a hunter," he groaned, then
+turned and slowly tramped back to camp. Quonab looked inquiringly, for,
+of course, he heard the shot. He saw a glum and sorry-looking youth, who
+in response to his inquiring look gave merely a head-shake, and hung up
+the gun with a vicious bang.
+
+Quonab took down the gun, wiped it out, reloaded it, then turning to the
+boy said: "Nibowaka, you feel pretty sick. Ugh! You know why? You got
+a good chance, but you got buck fever. It is always so, every one the
+first time. You go again to-morrow and you get your deer."
+
+Rolf made no reply. So Quonab ventured, "You want me to go?" That
+settled it for Rolf; his pride was touched.
+
+"No; I'll go again in the morning."
+
+In the dew time he was away once more on the hunting trail. There was
+no wind, but the southwest was the likeliest to spring up. So he went
+nearly over his last night's track. He found it much easier to go
+silently now when all the world was dew wet, and travelled quickly. Past
+the fateful glade he went, noted again the tree torn several feet too
+high up, and on. Then the cry of a bluejay rang out; this is often a
+notification of deer at hand. It always is warning of something doing,
+and no wise hunter ignores it.
+
+Rolf stood for a moment listening and peering. He thought he heard a
+scraping sound; then again the bluejay, but the former ceased and the
+jay-note died in the distance. He crept cautiously on again for a few
+minutes; another opening appeared. He studied this from a hiding place;
+then far across he saw a little flash near the ground. His heart gave
+a jump; he studied the place, saw again the flash and then made out the
+head of a deer, a doe that was lying in the long grass. The flash was
+made by its ear shaking off a fly. Rolf looked to his priming, braced
+himself, got fully ready, then gave a short, sharp whistle; instantly
+the doe rose to her feet; then another appeared, a sinal one; then a
+young buck; all stood gazing his way.
+
+Up went the gun, but again its muzzle began to wabble. Rolf lowered it,
+said grimly and savagely to himself, "I will not shake this time." The
+deer stretched themselves and began slowly walking toward the lake. All
+had disappeared but the buck. Rolf gave another whistle that turned the
+antler-bearer to a statue. Controlling himself with a strong "I
+will," he raised the gun, held it steadily, and fired. The buck gave
+a gathering spasm, a bound, and disappeared. Rolf felt sick again with
+disgust, but he reloaded, then hastily went forward.
+
+There was the deep imprint showing where the buck had bounded at the
+shot, but no blood. He followed, and a dozen feet away found the next
+hoof marks and on them a bright-red stain; on and another splash; and
+more and shortening bounds, till one hundred yards away--yes, there it
+lay; the round, gray form, quite dead, shot through the heart.
+
+Rolf gave a long, rolling war cry and got an answer from a point that
+was startlingly near, and Quonab stepped from behind a tree.
+
+"I got him," shouted Rolf.
+
+The Indian smiled. "I knew you would, so I followed; last night I knew
+you must have your shakes, so let you go it alone."
+
+Very carefully that deer was skinned, and Rolf learned the reason for
+many little modes of procedure.
+
+After the hide was removed from the body (not the hand or legs), Quonab
+carefully cut out the-broad sheath of tendon that cover the muscles,
+beginning at the hip bones on the back and extending up to the
+shoulders; this is the sewing sinew. Then he cut out the two long
+fillets of meat that lie on each side of the spine outside (the loin)
+and the two smaller ones inside (the tenderloin).
+
+These, with the four quarters, the heart, and the kidneys, were put into
+the hide. The entrails, head, neck, legs, feet, he left for the foxes,
+but the hip bone or sacrum he hung in a tree with three little red
+yarns from them, so that the Great Spirit would be pleased and send good
+hunting. Then addressing the head he said: "Little brother, forgive
+us. We are sorry to kill you. Behold! we give you the honour of red
+streamers." Then bearing the rest they tramped back to camp.
+
+The meat wrapped in sacks to keep off the flies was hung in the shade,
+but the hide he buried in the warm mud of a swamp hole, and three days
+later, when the hair began to slip, he scraped it clean. A broad ash
+wood hoop he had made ready and when the green rawhide was strained on
+it again the Indian had an Indian drum.
+
+It was not truly dry for two or three days and as it tightened on its
+frame it gave forth little sounds of click and shrinkage that told of
+the strain the tensioned rawhide made. Quonab tried it that night as he
+sat by the fire softly singing:
+
+"Ho da ho-he da he."
+
+But the next day before sunrise he climbed the hill and sitting on the
+sun-up rock he hailed the Day God with the invocation, as he had not
+sung it since the day they left the great rock above the Asalnuk, and
+followed with the song:
+
+"Father, we thank thee; We have found the good hunting. There is meat in
+the wigwam."
+
+
+
+Chapter 22. The Line of Traps
+
+Now that they had the cabin for winter, and food for the present,
+they must set about the serious business of trapping and lay a line of
+deadfalls for use in the coming cold weather. They were a little ahead
+of time, but it was very desirable to get their lines blazed through the
+woods in all proposed directions in case of any other trapper coming in.
+Most fur-bearing animals are to be found along the little valleys of the
+stream: beaver, otter, mink, muskrat, coon, are examples. Those that
+do not actually live by the water seek these places because of their
+sheltered character and because their prey lives there; of this class
+are the lynx, fox, fisher, and marten that feed on rabbits and mice.
+Therefore a line of traps is usually along some valley and over the
+divide and down some other valley back to the point of beginning.
+
+So, late in September, Rolf and Quonab, with their bedding, a pot, food
+for four days, and two axes, alternately followed and led by Skookum,
+set out along a stream that entered the lake near their cabin. A quarter
+mile up they built their first deadfall for martens. It took them one
+hour and was left unset. The place was under a huge tree on a neck of
+land around which the stream made a loop. This tree they blazed on three
+sides. Two hundred yards up another good spot was found and a deadfall
+made. At one place across a neck of land was a narrow trail evidently
+worn by otters. "Good place for steel trap, bime-by," was Quonab's
+remark.
+
+From time to time they disturbed deer, and in a muddy place where a
+deer path crossed the creek, they found, among the numerous small hoof
+prints, the track of wolves, bears, and a mountain lion, or panther. At
+these little Skookum sniffed fearsomely, and showed by his bristly mane
+that he was at least much impressed.
+
+After five hours' travel and work they came to another stream joining
+on, and near the angle of the two little valleys they found a small tree
+that was chewed and scratched in a remarkable manner for three to six
+feet up. "Bear tree," said Quonab, and by degrees Rolf got the facts
+about it.
+
+The bears, and indeed most animals, have a way of marking the range that
+they consider their own. Usually this is done by leaving their personal
+odour at various points, covering the country claimed, but in some cases
+visible marks are added. Thus the beaver leaves a little dab of mud, the
+wolf scratches with his hind feet, and the bear tears the signal tree
+with tooth and claw. Since this is done from time to time, when the bear
+happens to be near the tree, it is kept fresh as long as the region
+is claimed. But it is especially done in midsummer when the bears are
+pairing, and helps them to find suitable companions, nor all are then
+roaming the woods seeking mates; all call and leave their mark on the
+sign post, so the next bear, thanks to his exquisite nose, can tell at
+once the sex of the bear that called last and by its track tell which
+way it travelled afterward.
+
+In this case it was a bear's register, but before long Quonab showed
+Rolf a place where two long logs joined at an angle by a tree that was
+rubbed and smelly, and showed a few marten hairs, indicating that this
+was the sign post of a marten and a good place to make a deadfall.
+
+Yet a third was found in an open, grassy glade, a large, white stone on
+which were pellets left by foxes. The Indian explained:
+
+"Every fox that travels near will come and smell the stone to see who
+of his kind is around, so this is a good place for a fox-trap; a steel
+trap, of course, for no fox will go into a deadfall."
+
+And slowly Rolf learned that these habits are seen in some measure
+in all animals; yes, down to the mice and shrews. We see little of
+it because our senses are blunt and our attention untrained; but the
+naturalist and the hunter always know where to look for the four-footed
+inhabitants and by them can tell whether or not the land is possessed by
+such and such a furtive tribe.
+
+
+
+Chapter 23. The Beaver Pond
+
+AT THE noon halt they were about ten miles from home and had made
+fifteen deadfalls for marten, for practice was greatly reducing the time
+needed for each.
+
+In the afternoon they went on, but the creek had become a mere rill and
+they were now high up in a more level stretch of country that was
+more or less swampy. As they followed the main course of the dwindling
+stream, looking ever for signs of fur-bearers, they crossed and
+recrossed the water. At length Quonab stopped, stared, and pointed at
+the rill, no longer clear but clouded with mud. His eyes shone as he
+jerked his head up stream and uttered the magic word, "Beaver."
+
+They tramped westerly for a hundred yards through a dense swamp of
+alders, and came at last to an irregular pond that spread out among the
+willow bushes and was lost in the swampy thickets. Following the stream
+they soon came to a beaver dam, a long, curving bank of willow branches
+and mud, tumbling through the top of which were a dozen tiny streams
+that reunited their waters below to form the rivulet they had been
+following.
+
+Red-winged blackbirds were sailing in flocks about the pond; a number
+of ducks were to be seen, and on a dead tree, killed by the backed up
+water, a great blue heron stood. Many smaller creatures moved or flitted
+in the lively scene, while far out near the middle rose a dome-like pile
+of sticks, a beaver lodge, and farther three more were discovered. No
+beaver were seen, but the fresh cut sticks, the floating branches peeled
+of all the bark, and the long, strong dam in good repair were enough
+to tell a practised eye that here was a large colony of beavers in
+undisturbed possession.
+
+In those days beaver was one of the most valued furs. The creature is
+very easy to trap; so the discovery of the pond was like the finding of
+a bag of gold. They skirted its uncertain edges and Quonab pointed out
+the many landing places of the beaver; little docks they seemed, built
+up with mud and stones with deep water plunge holes alongside. Here and
+there on the shore was a dome-shaped ant's nest with a pathway to it
+from the pond, showing, as the Indian said, that here the beaver came on
+sunny days to lie on the hill and let the swarming ants come forth and
+pick the vermin from their fur. At one high point projecting into the
+still water they found a little mud pie with a very strong smell; this,
+the Indian said, was a "castor cache," the sign that, among beavers,
+answers the same purpose as the bear tree among bears.
+
+Although the pond seemed small they had to tramp a quarter of a mile
+before reaching the upper end and here they found another dam, with its
+pond. This was at a slightly higher level and contained a single lodge;
+after this they found others, a dozen ponds in a dozen successive rises,
+the first or largest and the second only having lodges, but all were
+evidently part of the thriving colony, for fresh cut trees were seen on
+every side. "Ugh, good; we get maybe fifty beaver," said the Indian, and
+they knew they had reached the Promised Land.
+
+Rolf would gladly have spent the rest of the day exploring the pond and
+trying for a beaver, when the eventide should call them to come forth,
+but Quonab said, "Only twenty deadfall; we should have one hundred and
+fifty." So making for a fine sugar bush on the dry ground west of the
+ponds they blazed a big tree, left a deadfall there, and sought the
+easiest way over the rough hills that lay to the east, in hopes of
+reaching the next stream leading down to their lake.
+
+
+
+Chapter 24. The Porcupine
+
+Skookum was a partly trained little dog; he would stay in camp when
+told, if it suited him; and would not hesitate to follow or lead his
+master, when he felt that human wisdom was inferior to the ripe product
+of canine experience covering more than thirteen moons of recollection.
+But he was now living a life in which his previous experience must often
+fail him as a guide. A faint rustling on the leafy ground had sent
+him ahead at a run, and his sharp, angry bark showed that some hostile
+creature of the woods had been discovered. Again and again the angry
+yelping was changed into a sort of yowl, half anger, half distress. The
+hunters hurried forward to find the little fool charging again and
+again a huge porcupine that was crouched with its head under a log, its
+hindquarters exposed but bristling with spines; and its tail lashing
+about, left a new array of quills in the dog's mouth and face each time
+he charged. Skookum was a plucky fighter, but plainly he was nearly sick
+of it. The pain of the quills would, of course, increase every minute
+and with each movement. Quonab took a stout stick and threw the
+porcupine out of its retreat, (Rolf supposed to kill it when the head
+was exposed,) but the spiny one, finding a new and stronger enemy,
+wasted no time in galloping at its slow lumbering pace to the nearest
+small spruce tree and up that it scrambled to a safe place in the high
+branches.
+
+Now the hunters called the dog. He was a sorry-looking object, pawing at
+his muzzle, first with one foot, then another, trying to unswallow the
+quills in his tongue, blinking hard, uttering little painful grunts and
+whines as he rubbed his head upon the ground or on his forelegs. Rolf
+held him while Quonab, with a sharp jerk, brought out quill after quill.
+Thirty or forty of the poisonous little daggers were plucked from his
+trembling legs, head, face, and nostrils, but the dreadful ones were
+those in his lips and tongue. Already they were deeply sunk in the soft,
+quivering flesh. One by one those in the lips were with-drawn by the
+strong fingers of the red man, and Skookum whimpered a little, but he
+shrieked outright when those in the tongue were removed. Rolf had hard
+work to hold him, and any one not knowing the case might have thought
+that the two men were deliberately holding the dog to administer the
+most cruel torture.
+
+But none of the quills had sunk very deep. All were got out at last and
+the little dog set free.
+
+Now Rolf thought of vengeance on the quill-pig snugly sitting in the
+tree near by.
+
+Ammunition was too precious to waste, but Rolf was getting ready to climb
+when Quonab said: "No, no; you must not. Once I saw white man climb
+after the Kahk; it waited till he was near, then backed down, lashing
+its tail. He put up his arm to save his face. It speared his arm in
+fifty places and he could not save his face, so he tried to get down,
+but the Kahk came faster, lashing him; then he lost his hold and
+dropped. His leg was broken and his arm was swelled up for half a year.
+They are very poisonous. He nearly died."
+
+"Well, I can at least chop him down," and Rolf took the axe.
+
+"Wah!" Quonab said, "no; my father said you must not kill the Kahk,
+except you make sacrifice and use his quills for household work. It is
+bad medicine to kill the Kahk."
+
+So the spiny one was left alone in the place he had so ably fought for.
+But Skookum, what of him? He was set free at last. To be wiser? Alas,
+no! before one hour he met with another porcupine and remembering only
+his hate of the creature repeated the same sad mistake, and again had to
+have the painful help, without which he must certainly have died. Before
+night, however, he began to feel his real punishment and next morning
+no one would have known the pudding-headed thing that sadly followed the
+hunters, for the bright little dog that a day before had run so joyously
+through the woods. It was many a long day before he fully recovered and
+at one time his life was in the balance; and yet to the last of his
+days he never fully realized the folly of his insensate attacks on the
+creature that fights with its tail.
+
+"It is ever so," said the Indian. "The lynx, the panther, the wolf, the
+fox, the eagle, all that attack the Kahk must die. Once my father saw
+a bear that was killed by the quills. He had tried to bite the Kahk;
+it filled his mouth with quills that he could not spit out. They sunk
+deeper and his jaws swelled so he could not open or shut his mouth
+to eat; then he starved. My people found him near a fish pond below a
+rapid. There were many fish. The bear could kill them with his paw but
+not eat, so with his mouth wide open and plenty about him he died of
+starvation in that pool.
+
+"There is but one creature that can kill the Kahk that is the Ojeeg the
+big fisher weasel. He is a devil. He makes very strong medicine; the
+Kahk cannot harm him. He turns it on its back and tears open its smooth
+belly. It is ever so. We not know, but my father said, that it is
+because when in the flood Nana Bojou was floating on the log with Kahk
+and Ojeeg, Kahk was insolent and wanted the highest place, but Ojeeg was
+respectful to Nana Bojou, he bit the Kahk to teach him a lesson and got
+lashed with the tail of many stings. But the Manito drew out the quills
+and said: 'It shall be ever thus; the Ojeeg shall conquer the Kahk and
+the quills of Kahk shall never do Ojeeg any harm.'"
+
+
+
+Chapter 25. The Otter Slide
+
+It was late now and the hunters camped in the high cool woods. Skookum
+whined in his sleep so loudly as to waken them once or twice. Near dawn
+they heard the howling of wolves and the curiously similar hooting of
+a horned owl. There is, indeed, almost no difference between the short
+opening howl of a she-wolf and the long hoot of the owl. As he listened,
+half awake, Rolf heard a whirr of wings which stopped overhead, then
+a familiar chuckle. He sat up and saw Skookum sadly lift his misshapen
+head to gaze at a row of black-breasted grouse partridge on a branch
+above, but the poor doggie was feeling too sick to take any active
+interest. They were not ruffed grouse, but a kindred kind, new to Rolf.
+As he gazed at the perchers, he saw Quonab rise gently, go to nearest
+willow and cut a long slender rod at least two feet long; on the top of
+this he made a short noose of cord. Then he went cautiously under the
+watching grouse, the spruce partridges, and reaching up slipped the
+noose over the neck of the first one; a sharp jerk then tightened noose,
+and brought the grouse tumbling out of the tree while its companions
+merely clucked their puzzlement, made no effort to escape.
+
+A short, sharp blow put the captive out of pain. The rod was reached
+again and a second, the lowest always, was jerked down, and the trick
+repeated till three grouse were secured. Then only did it dawn on the
+others that they were in a most perilous neighbourhood, so they took
+flight.
+
+Rolf sat up in amazement. Quonab dropped the three birds by the fire and
+set about preparing breakfast.
+
+"These are fool hens," he explained. "You can mostly get them this way;
+sure, if you have a dog to help, but ruffed grouse is no such fool."
+
+Rolf dressed the birds and as usual threw the entrails Skookum. Poor
+little dog! he was, indeed, a sorry sight. He looked sadly out of his
+bulging eyes, feebly moved swollen jaws, but did not touch the food he
+once would have pounced on. He did not eat because he could not open his
+mouth.
+
+At camp the trappers made a log trap and continued the line with blazes
+and deadfalls, until, after a mile, they came to a broad tamarack swamp,
+and, skirting its edge, found a small, outflowing stream that brought
+them to an eastward-facing hollow. Everywhere there were signs game,
+but they were not prepared for the scene that opened as they cautiously
+pushed through the thickets into a high, hardwood bush. A deer rose
+out of the grass and stared curiously at them; then another and another
+until nearly a dozen were in sight; still farther many others appeared;
+to the left were more, and movements told of yet others to the right.
+Then their white flags went up and all loped gently away on the slope
+that rose to the north. There may have been twenty or thirty deer in
+sight, but the general effect of all their white tails, bobbing away,
+was that the woods were full of deer. They seemed to be there by the
+hundreds and the joy of seeing so many beautiful live things was helped
+in the hunters by the feeling that this was their own hunting-ground.
+They had, indeed, reached the land of plenty.
+
+The stream increased as they marched; many springs and some important
+rivulets joined on. They found some old beaver signs but none new; and
+they left their deadfalls every quarter mile or less.
+
+The stream began to descend more quickly until it was in a long, narrow
+valley with steep clay sides and many pools. Here they saw again and
+again the tracks and signs of otter and coming quietly round a turn that
+opened a new reach they heard a deep splash, then another and another.
+
+The hunters' first thought was to tie up Skookum, but a glance showed
+that this was unnecessary. They softly dropped the packs and the sick
+dog lay meekly down beside them. Then they crept forward with hunter
+caution, favoured by an easterly breeze. Their first thought was of
+beaver, but they had seen no recent sign, nor was there anything that
+looked like a beaver pond. The measured splash, splash, splash--was not
+so far ahead. It might be a bear snatching fish, or--no, that was too
+unpleasant--a man baling out a canoe. Still the slow splash, splash,
+went on at intervals, not quite regular.
+
+Now it seemed but thirty yards ahead and in the creek.
+
+With the utmost care they crawled to the edge of the clay and opposite
+they saw a sight but rarely glimpsed by man. Here were six otters; two
+evidently full-grown, and four seeming young of the pair, engaged in a
+most hilarious and human game of tobogganing down a steep clay hill to
+plump into a deep part at its foot.
+
+Plump went the largest, presumably the father; down he went, to reappear
+at the edge, scramble out and up an easy slope to the top of the
+twenty-foot bank. Splash, splash, splash, came three of the young ones;
+splash, splash, the mother and one of the cubs almost together.
+
+"Scoot" went the big male again, and the wet furslopping and rubbing on
+the long clay chute made it greasier and slipperier every time.
+
+Splash, plump, splash--splash, plump, splash, went the otter family
+gleefully, running up the bank again, eager each to be first, it seemed,
+and to do the chute the oftenest.
+
+The gambolling grace, the obvious good humour, the animal hilarity of
+it all, was absorbingly amusing. The trappers gazed with pleasure that
+showed how near akin are naturalist and hunter. Of course, they had
+some covetous thought connected with those glossy hides, but this
+was September still, and even otter were not yet prime. Shoot, plump,
+splash, went the happy crew with apparently unabated joy and hilarity.
+The slide improved with use and the otters seemed tireless; when all
+at once a loud but muffled yelp was heard and Skookum, forgetting all
+caution, came leaping down the bank to take a hand.
+
+With a succession of shrill, birdy chirps the old otters warned their
+young. Plump, plump, plump, all shot into the pool, but to reappear,
+swimming with heads out, for they were but slightly alarmed. This was
+too much for Quonob; he levelled his flintlock; snap, bang, it went,
+pointed at the old male, but he dived at the snap and escaped. Down the
+bank now rushed the hunters, joined by Skookum, to attack the otters
+in the pool, for it was small and shallow; unless a burrow led from it,
+they were trapped.
+
+But the otters realized the peril. All six dashed out of the pool, down
+the open, gravelly stream the old ones uttering loud chirps that rang
+like screams. Under the fallen logs and brush they glided, dodging
+beneath roots and over banks, pursued by the hunters, each armed with a
+club and by Skookum not armed at all.
+
+The otters seemed to know where they were going and distanced all but
+the dog. Forgetting his own condition Skookum had almost overtaken
+one of the otter cubs when the mother wheeled about and, hissing and
+snarling, charged. Skookum was lucky to get off with a slight nip, for
+the otter is a dangerous fighter. But the unlucky dog was sent howling
+back to the two packs that he never should have left.
+
+The hunters now found an open stretch of woods through which Quonab
+could run ahead and intercept the otters as they bounded on down the
+stream bed, pursued by Rolf, who vainly tried to deal a blow with his
+club. In a few seconds the family party was up to Quonab, trapped it
+seemed, but there is no more desperate assailant than an otter
+fighting for its young. So far from being cowed the two old ones made a
+simultaneous, furious rush at the Indian. Wholly taken by surprise, he
+missed with his club, and sprang aside to escape their jaws. The family
+dashed around then past him, and, urged by the continuous chirps of the
+mother, they plunged under a succession of log jams and into a willow
+swamp that spread out into an ancient beaver lake and were swallowed up
+in the silent wilderness.
+
+
+
+Chapter 26. Back to the Cabin
+
+The far end of the long swamp the stream emerged, now much larger, and
+the trappers kept on with their work. When night fell they had completed
+fifty traps, all told, and again they camped without shelter overhead.
+
+Next day Skookum was so much worse that they began to fear for his life.
+He had eaten nothing since the sad encounter. He could drink a little,
+so Rolf made a pot of soup, and when it was cool the poor doggie managed
+to swallow some of the liquid after half an hour's patient endeavour.
+
+They were now on the home line; from a hill top they got a distant view
+of their lake, though it was at least five miles away. Down the creek
+they went, still making their deadfalls at likely places and still
+seeing game tracks at the muddy spots. The creek came at length to an
+extensive, open, hardwood bush, and here it was joined by another stream
+that came from the south, the two making a small river. From then on
+they seemed in a land of game; trails of deer were seen on the ground
+everywhere, and every few minutes they started one or two deer. The
+shady oak wood itself was flanked and varied with dense cedar swamps
+such as the deer love to winter in, and after they had tramped through
+two miles of it, the Indian said, "Good! now we know where to come in
+winter when we need meat."
+
+At a broad, muddy ford they passed an amazing number of tracks, mostly
+deer, but a few of panther, lynx, fisher, wolf, otter, and mink.
+
+In the afternoon they reached the lake. The stream, quite a broad one
+here, emptied in about four miles south of the camp. Leaving a deadfall
+near its mouth they followed the shore and made a log trap every quarter
+mile just above the high water mark.
+
+When they reached the place of Rolf's first deer they turned aside to
+see it. The gray jays had picked a good deal of the loose meat. No large
+animal had troubled it, and yet in the neighbourhood they found the
+tracks of both wolves and foxes.
+
+"Ugh," said Quonab, "they smell it and come near, but they know that a
+man has been here; they are not very hungry, so keep away. This is good
+for trap."
+
+So they made two deadfalls with the carrion half way between them. Then
+one or two more traps and they reached home, arriving at the camp just
+as darkness and a heavy rainfall began.
+
+"Good," said Quonab, "our deadfalls are ready; we have done all the work
+our fingers could not do when the weather is very cold, and the ground
+too hard for stakes to be driven. Now the traps can get weathered before
+we go round and set them. Yet we need some strong medicine, some trapper
+charm."
+
+Next morning he went forth with fish-line and fish-spear; he soon
+returned with a pickerel. He filled a bottle with cut-up shreds of this,
+corked it up, and hung it on the warm, sunny side of the shanty. "That
+will make a charm that every bear will come to," he said, and left it
+to the action of the sun.
+
+
+
+Chapter 27. Sick Dog Skookum
+
+Getting home is always a joy; but walking about the place in the morning
+they noticed several little things that were wrong. Quonab's lodge was
+down, the paddles that stood against the shanty were scattered on the
+ground, and a bag of venison hung high at the ridge was opened and
+empty.
+
+Quonab studied the tracks and announced "a bad old black bear; he has
+rollicked round for mischief, upsetting things. But the venison he could
+not reach; that was a marten that ripped open the bag."
+
+"Then that tells what we should do; build a storehouse at the end of the
+shanty," said Rolf, adding, "it must be tight and it must be cool."
+
+"Maybe! sometime before winter," said the Indian; "but now we should
+make another line of traps while the weather is fine."
+
+"No," replied the lad, "Skookum is not fit to travel now. We can't leave
+him behind, and we can make a storehouse in three days."
+
+The unhappy little dog was worse than ever. He could scarcely breathe,
+much less eat or drink, and the case was settled.
+
+First they bathed the invalid's head in water as hot as he could stand
+it. This seemed to help him so much that he swallowed eagerly some soup
+that they poured into his mouth. A bed was made for him in a sunny place
+and the hunters set about the new building.
+
+In three days the storehouse was done, excepting the chinking. It was
+October now, and a sharp night frost warned them of the hard white moons
+to come. Quonab, as he broke the ice in a tin cup and glanced at the
+low-hung sun, said: "The leaves are falling fast; snow comes soon; we
+need another line of traps."
+
+He stopped suddenly; stared across the lake. Rolf looked, and here came
+three deer, two bucks and a doe, trotting, walking, or lightly clearing
+obstacles, the doe in advance; the others, rival followers. As they kept
+along the shore, they came nearer the cabin. Rolf glanced at Quonab, who
+nodded, then slipped in, got down the gun, and quickly glided unseen to
+the river where the deer path landed. The bucks did not actually fight,
+for the season was not yet on, but their horns were clean, their necks
+were swelling, and they threatened each other as they trotted after the
+leader. They made for the ford as for some familiar path, and splashed
+through, almost without swimming. As they landed, Rolf waited a clear
+view, then gave a short sharp "Hist!" It was like a word of magic, for
+it turned the three moving deer to three stony-still statues. Rolf's
+sights were turned on the smaller buck, and when the great cloud
+following the bang had deared away, the two were gone and the lesser
+buck was kicking on the ground some fifty yards away.
+
+"We have found the good hunting; the deer walk into camp," said Quonab;
+and the product of the chase was quickly stored, the first of the
+supplies to be hung in the new storehouse.
+
+The entrails were piled up and covered with brush and stones. "That will
+keep off ravens and jays; then in winter the foxes will come and we can
+take their coats."
+
+Now they must decide for the morning. Skookum was somewhat better, but
+still very sick, and Rolf suggested: "Quonab, you take the gun and axe
+and lay a new line. I will stay behind and finish up the cabin for the
+winter and look after the dog." So it was agreed. The Indian left the
+camp alone this time and crossed to the east shore of the lake; there to
+follow up another stream as before and to return in three or four days
+to the cabin.
+
+
+
+Chapter 28. Alone in the Wilderness
+
+Rolf began the day by giving Skookum a bath as hot as he could stand it,
+and later his soup. For the first he whined feebly and for the second
+faintly wagged his tail; but clearly he was on the mend.
+
+Now the chinking and moss-plugging of the new cabin required all
+attention. That took a day and looked like the biggest job on hand, but
+Rolf had been thinking hard about the winter. In Connecticut the
+wiser settlers used to bank their houses for the cold weather; in the
+Adirondacks he knew it was far, far colder, and he soon decided to bank
+the two shanties as deeply as possible with earth. A good spade made of
+white oak, with its edge hardened by roasting it brown, was his first
+necessity, and after two days of digging he had the cabin with its annex
+buried up to "the eyes" in fresh, clean earth.
+
+A stock of new, dry wood for wet weather helped to show how much too
+small the cabin was; and now the heavier work was done, and Rolf had
+plenty of time to think.
+
+Which of us that has been left alone in the wilderness does not remember
+the sensations of the first day! The feeling of self-dependency, not
+unmixed with unrestraint; the ending of civilized thought; the total
+reversion to the primitive; the nearness of the wood-folk; a sense of
+intimacy; a recurrent feeling of awe at the silent inexorability of
+all around; and a sweet pervading sense of mastery in the very freedom.
+These were among the feelings that swept in waves through Rolf, and
+when the first night came, he found such comfort--yes, he had to confess
+it--in the company of the helpless little dog whose bed was by his own.
+
+But these were sensations that come not often; in the four days and
+nights that he was alone they lost all force.
+
+The hunter proverb about "strange beasts when you have no gun" was amply
+illustrated now that Quonab had gone with their only firearm. The second
+night before turning in (he slept in the shanty now), he was taking a
+last look at the stars, when a large, dark form glided among the tree
+trunks between him and the shimmering lake; stopped, gazed at him, then
+silently disappeared along the shore. No wonder that he kept the shanty
+door closed that night, and next morning when he studied the sandy
+ridges he read plainly that his night visitor had been not a lynx or a
+fox, but a prowling cougar or panther.
+
+On the third morning as he went forth in the still early dawn he heard
+a snort, and looking toward the spruce woods, was amazed to see towering
+up, statuesque, almost grotesque, with its mulish ears and antediluvian
+horns, a large bull moose.
+
+Rolf was no coward, but the sight of that monster so close to him set
+his scalp a-prickling. He felt so helpless without any firearms. He
+stepped into the cabin, took down his bow and arrows, then gave a
+contemptuous "Humph; all right for partridge and squirrels, but give me
+a rifle for the woods!" He went out again; there was the moose standing
+as before. The lad rushed toward it a few steps, shouting; it stared
+unmoved. But Rolf was moved, and he retreated to the cabin. Then
+remembering the potency of fire he started a blaze on the hearth. The
+thick smoke curled up on the still air, hung low, made swishes through
+the grove, until a faint air current took a wreath of it to the moose.
+The great nostrils drank in a draught that conveyed terror to the
+creature's soul, and wheeling it started at its best pace to the distant
+swamp, to be seen no more.
+
+Five times, during these four days, did deer come by and behave as
+though they knew perfectly well that this young human was harmless,
+entirely without the power of the far-killing mystery.
+
+How intensely Rolf wished for a gun. How vividly came back the scene
+in the trader's store,--when last month he had been offered a beautiful
+rifle for twenty-five dollars, to be paid for in fur next spring, and
+savagely he blamed himself for not realizing what a chance it was. Then
+and there he made resolve to be the owner of a gun as soon as another
+chance came, and to make that chance come right soon.
+
+One little victory he had in that time. The creature that had torn open
+the venison bag was still around the camp; that was plain by the further
+damage on the bag hung in the storehouse, the walls of which were not
+chinked. Mindful of Quonab's remark, he set two marten traps, one on
+the roof, near the hole that had been used as entry; the other on a log
+along which the creature must climb to reach the meat. The method of
+setting is simple; a hollow is made, large enough to receive the trap
+as it lies open; on the pan of the trap some grass is laid smoothly;
+on each side of the trap a piece of prickly brush is placed, so that
+in leaping over these the creature will land on the lurking snare. The
+chain was made fast to a small log.
+
+Although so seldom seen there is no doubt that the marten comes out
+chiefly by day. That night the trap remained unsprung; next morning
+as Rolf went at silent dawn to bring water from the lake, he noticed
+a long, dark line that proved to be ducks. As he sat gazing he heard
+a sound in the tree beyond the cabin. It was like the scratching of
+a squirrel climbing about. Then he saw the creature, a large, dark
+squirrel, it seemed. It darted up this tree and down that, over logs and
+under brush, with the lightning speed of a lightning squirrel, and from
+time to time it stopped still as a bump while it gazed at some far and
+suspicious object. Up one trunk it went like a brown flash, and a moment
+later, out, cackling from its top, flew two partridges. Down to the
+ground, sinuous, graceful, incessantly active flashed the marten. Along
+a log it raced in undulating leaps; in the middle it stopped as though
+frozen, to gaze intently into a bed of sedge; with three billowy bounds
+its sleek form reached the sedge, flashed in and out again with a
+mouse in its snarling jaws; a side leap now, and another squeaker was
+squeakless, and another. The three were slain, then thrown aside, as the
+brown terror scanned a flight of ducks passing over. Into a thicket of
+willow it disappeared and out again like an eel going through the mud,
+then up a tall stub where woodpecker holes were to be seen. Into the
+largest it went so quickly Rolf could scarcely see how it entered,
+and out in a few seconds bearing a flying squirrel whose skull it had
+crushed. Dropping the squirrel it leaped after it, and pounced again on
+the quivering form with a fearsome growl; then shook it savagely, tore
+it apart, cast it aside. Over the ground it now undulated, its shining
+yellow breast like a target of gold. Again it stopped. Now in pose like
+a pointer, exquisitely graceful, but oh, so wicked! Then the snaky
+neck swung the cobra head in the breeze and the brown one sniffed and
+sniffed, advanced a few steps, tried the wind and the ground. Still
+farther and the concentrated interest showed in its outstretched neck
+and quivering tail. Bounding into a thicket it went, when out of the
+other side there leaped a snowshoe rabbit, away and away for dear life.
+Jump, jump, jump; twelve feet at every stride, and faster than the eye
+could follow, with the marten close behind. What a race it was, and
+how they twinkled through the brush! The rabbit is, indeed, faster, but
+courage counts for much, and his was low; but luck and his good stars
+urged him round to the deer trail crossing of the stream; once there he
+could not turn. There was only one course. He sprang into the open river
+and swam for his life. And the marten--why should it go in? It hated the
+water; it was not hungry; it was out for sport, and water sport is not
+to its liking. It braced its sinewy legs and halted at the very brink,
+while bunny crossed to the safe woods.
+
+Back now came Wahpestan, the brown death, over the logs like a winged
+snake, skimming the ground like a sinister shadow, and heading for the
+cabin as the cabin's owner watched. Passing the body of the squirrel it
+paused to rend it again, then diving into the brush came out so far away
+and so soon that the watcher supposed at first that this was another
+marten. Up the shanty corner it flashed, hardly appearing to climb,
+swung that yellow throat and dark-brown muzzle for a second, then made
+toward the entry.
+
+Rolf sat with staring eyes as the beautiful demon, elegantly
+spurning the roof sods, went at easy, measured bounds toward the open
+chink--toward its doom. One, two, three--clearing the prickly cedar
+bush, its forefeet fell on the hidden trap; clutch, a savage shriek, a
+flashing,--a struggle baffling the eyes to follow, and the master of the
+squirrels was himself under mastery.
+
+Rolf rushed forward now. The little demon in the trap was frothing with
+rage and hate; it ground the iron with its teeth; it shrieked at the
+human foeman coming.
+
+The scene must end, the quicker the better, and even as the marten
+itself had served the flying squirrel and the mice, and as Quonab served
+the mink, so Rolf served the marten and the woods was still.
+
+
+
+Chapter 29. Snowshoes
+
+"That's for Annette," said Rolf, remembering his promise as he hung the
+stretched marten skin to dry.
+
+"Yi! Yi! Yi!" came three yelps, just as he had heard them the day he
+first met Quonab, and crossing the narrow lake he saw his partner's
+canoe.
+
+"We have found the good hunting," he said, as Rolf steadied the canoe at
+the landing and Skookum, nearly well again, wagged his entire ulterior
+person to welcome the wanderer home. The first thing to catch the boy's
+eye was a great, splendid beaver skin stretched on a willow hoop.
+
+"Ho, ho!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Ugh; found another pond."
+
+"Good, good," said Rolf as he stroked the first beaver skin he had ever
+seen in the woods.
+
+"This is better," said Quonab, and held up the two barkstones, castors,
+or smell-glands that are found in every beaver and which for some hid
+reason have an irresistible attraction for all wild animals. To us the
+odour is slight, but they have the power of intensifying, perpetuating,
+and projecting such odorous substances as may be mixed with them.
+No trapper considers his bait to be perfect without a little of the
+mysterious castor. So that that most stenchable thing they had already
+concocted of fish-oil, putrescence, sewer-gas, and sunlight, when
+commingled and multiplied with the dried-up powder of a castor, was
+intensified into a rich, rancid, gas-exhaling hell-broth as rapturously
+bewitching to our furry brothers as it is poisonously nauseating to
+ourselves--seductive afar like the sweetest music, inexorable as fate,
+insidious as laughing-gas, soothing and numbing as absinthe--this, the
+lure and caution-luller, is the fellest trick in all the trappers' code.
+As deadly as inexplicable, not a few of the states have classed it with
+black magic and declared its use a crime.
+
+But no such sentiment prevailed in the high hills of Quonab's time, and
+their preparations for a successful trapping season were nearly perfect.
+Thirty deadfalls made by Quonab, with the sixty made on the first trip
+and a dozen steel traps, were surely promise of a good haul. It was
+nearly November now; the fur was prime; then why not begin? Because
+the weather was too fine. You must have frosty weather or the creatures
+taken in the deadfalls are spoiled before the trapper can get around.
+
+Already a good, big pile of wood was cut; both shanty and storeroom
+were chinked, plugged, and banked for the winter. It was not safe yet to
+shoot and store a number of deer, but there was something they could do.
+Snowshoes would soon be a necessary of life; and the more of this finger
+work they did while the weather was warm, the better.
+
+Birch and ash are used for frames; the former is less liable to split,
+but harder to work. White ash was plentiful on the near flat, and a
+small ten-foot log was soon cut and split into a lot of long laths.
+Quonab of course took charge; but Rolf followed in everything. Each took
+a lath and shaved it down evenly until an inch wide and three quarters
+of an inch thick. The exact middle was marked, and for ten inches at
+each side of that it was shaved down to half an inch in thickness. Two
+flat crossbars, ten and twelve inches long, were needed and holes to
+receive these made half through the frame. The pot was ready boiling and
+by using a cord from end to end of each lath they easily bent it in the
+middle and brought the wood into touch with the boiling water. Before an
+hour the steam had so softened the wood, and robbed it of spring, that
+it was easy to make it into any desired shape. Each lath was cautiously
+bent round; the crossbars slipped into their prepared sockets; a
+temporary lashing of cord kept all in place; then finally the frames
+were set on a level place with the fore end raised two inches and a
+heavy log put on the frame to give the upturn to the toe.
+
+Here they were left to dry and the Indian set about preparing the
+necessary thongs. A buckskin rolled in wet, hard wood ashes had been
+left in the mud hole. Now after a week the hair was easily scraped off
+and the hide, cleaned and trimmed of all loose ends and tags, was spread
+out--soft, white, and supple. Beginning outside, and following round and
+round the edge, Quonab cut a thong of rawhide as nearly as possible a
+quarter inch wide. This he carried on till there were many yards of it,
+and the hide was all used up. The second deer skin was much smaller and
+thinner. He sharpened his knife and cut it much finer, at least half the
+width of the other. Now they were ready to lace the shoes, the finer for
+the fore and back parts, the heavy for the middle on which the wearer
+treads. An expert squaw would have laughed at the rude snowshoes that
+were finished that day, but they were strong and serviceable.
+
+Naturally the snowshoes suggested a toboggan. That was easily made by
+splitting four thin boards of ash, each six inches wide and ten feet
+long. An up-curl was steamed on the prow of each, and rawhide lashings
+held all to the crossbars.
+
+
+
+Chapter 30. Catching a Fox
+
+     "As to wisdom, a man ain't a spring; he's a tank, an' gives
+     out only what he gathers"--Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+Quonab would not quit his nightly couch in the canvas lodge so Rolf and
+Skookum stayed with him. The dog was himself again, and more than once
+in the hours of gloom dashed forth in noisy chase of something which
+morning study of the tracks showed to have been foxes. They were
+attracted partly by the carrion of the deer, partly by the general
+suitability of the sandy beach for a gambolling place, and partly by a
+foxy curiosity concerning the cabin, the hunters, and their dog.
+
+One morning after several night arousings and many raids by Skookum,
+Rolf said: "Fox is good now; why shouldn't I add some fox pelts to
+that?" and he pointed with some pride to the marten skin.
+
+"Ugh, good; go ahead; you will learn," was the reply.
+
+So getting out the two fox traps Rolf set to work. Noting where chiefly
+the foxes ran or played he chose two beaten pathways and hid the traps
+carefully, exactly as he did for the marten; then selecting a couple of
+small cedar branches he cut these and laid them across the path, one on
+each side of the trap, assuming that the foxes following the usual route
+would leap over the boughs and land in disaster. To make doubly sure he
+put a piece of meat by each trap and half-way between them set a large
+piece on a stone.
+
+Then he sprinkled fresh earth over the pathways and around each trap and
+bait so he should have a record of the tracks.
+
+Foxes came that night, as he learned by the footprints along the beach,
+but never one went near his traps. He studied the marks; they slowly
+told him all the main facts. The foxes had come as usual, and frolicked
+about. They had discovered the bait and the traps at once--how could
+such sharp noses miss them--and as quickly noted that the traps were
+suspicious-smelling iron things, that manscent, hand, foot, and body,
+were very evident all about; that the only inducement to go forward was
+some meat which was coarse and cold, not for a moment to be compared
+with the hot juicy mouse meat that abounded in every meadow. The foxes
+were well fed and unhungry. Why should they venture into such evident
+danger? In a word, walls of stone could not have more completely
+protected the ground and the meat from the foxes than did the obvious
+nature of the traps; not a track was near, and many afar showed how
+quickly they had veered off.
+
+"Ugh, it is always so," said Quonab. "Will you try again?"
+
+"Yes, I will," replied Rolf, remembering now that he had omitted to
+deodorize his traps and his boots.
+
+He made a fire of cedar and smoked his traps, chains, and all. Then
+taking a piece of raw venison he rubbed it on his leather gloves and
+on the soles of his boots, wondering how he had expected to succeed the
+night before with all these man-scent killers left out. He put fine,
+soft moss under the pan of each trap, then removed the cedar brush, and
+gently sprinkled all with fine, dry earth. The set was perfect; no human
+eye could have told that there was any trap in the place. It seemed a
+foregone success.
+
+"Fox don't go by eye," was all the Indian said, for he reckoned it best
+to let the learner work it out.
+
+In the morning Rolf was up eager to see the results. There was nothing
+at all. A fox had indeed, come within ten feet at one place, but behaved
+then as though positively amused at the childishness of the whole smelly
+affair. Had a man been there on guard with a club, he could not have
+kept the spot more wholly clear of foxes. Rolf turned away baffled and
+utterly puzzled. He had not gone far before he heard a most terrific
+yelping from Skookum, and turned to see that trouble-seeking pup caught
+by the leg in the first trap. It was more the horrible surprise than the
+pain, but he did howl.
+
+The hunters came quickly to the rescue and at once he was freed, none
+the worse, for the traps have no teeth; they merely hold. It is the
+long struggle and the starvation chiefly that are cruel, and these every
+trapper should cut short by going often around his line.
+
+Now Quonab took part. "That is a good setting for some things. It would
+catch a coon, a mink, or a marten,--or a dog--but not a fox or a wolf.
+They are very clever. You shall see."
+
+The Indian got out a pair of thick leather gloves, smoked them in cedar,
+also the traps. Next he rubbed his moccasin soles with raw meat and
+selecting a little bay in the shore he threw a long pole on the sand,
+from the line of high, dry shingle across to the water's edge. In
+his hand he carried a rough stake. Walking carefully on the pole and
+standing on it, he drove the stake in at about four feet from the shore;
+then split it, and stuffed some soft moss into the split. On this he
+poured three or four drops of the "smell-charm." Now he put a lump of
+spruce gum on the pan of the trap, holding a torch under it till the gum
+was fused, and into this he pressed a small, flat stone. The chain of
+the trap he fastened to a ten-pound stone of convenient shape, and sank
+the stone in the water half-way between the stake and the shore. Last
+he placed the trap on this stone, so that when open everything would be
+under water except the flat stone on the pan. Now he returned along the
+pole and dragged it away with him.
+
+Thus there was now no track or scent of human near the place.
+
+The setting was a perfect one, but even then the foxes did not go near
+it the following night; they must become used to it. In their code, "A
+strange thing is always dangerous." In the morning Rolf was inclined to
+scoff. But Quonab said: "Wah! No trap goes first night."
+
+They did not need to wait for the second morning. In the middle of the
+night Skookum rushed forth barking, and they followed to see a wild
+struggle, the fox leaping to escape and fast to his foot was the trap
+with its anchor stone a-dragging.
+
+Then was repeated the scene that ended the struggle of mink and marten.
+The creature's hind feet were tied together and his body hung from a
+peg in the shanty. In the morning they gloated over his splendid fur and
+added his coat to their store of trophies.
+
+
+
+Chapter 31. Following the Trap Line
+
+That night the moon changed. Next day came on with a strong north wind.
+By noon the wild ducks had left the lake. Many long strings of geese
+passed southeastward, honking as they flew. Colder and colder blew the
+strong wind, and soon the frost was showing on the smaller ponds. It
+snowed a little, but this ceased. With the clearing sky the wind fell
+and the frost grew keener.
+
+At daybreak, when the hunters rose, it was very cold. Everything but the
+open lake was frozen over, and they knew that winter was come; the time
+of trapping was at hand. Quonab went at once to the pinnacle on the
+hill, made a little fire, then chanting the "Hunter's Prayer," he cast
+into the fire the whiskers of the fox and the marten, some of the
+beaver castor, and some tobacco. Then descended to prepare for the
+trail--blankets, beaver traps, weapons, and food for two days, besides
+the smell-charm and some fish for bait.
+
+Quickly the deadfalls were baited and set; last the Indian threw into
+the trap chamber a piece of moss on which was a drop of the "smell," and
+wiped another drop on each of his moccasins. "Phew," said Rolf.
+
+"That make a trail the marten follow for a month," was the explanation.
+Skookum seemed to think so too, and if he did not say "phew," it was
+because he did not know how.
+
+Very soon the little dog treed a flock of partridge and Rolf with blunt
+arrows secured three. The breasts were saved for the hunters' table, but
+the rest with the offal and feathers made the best of marten baits and
+served for all the traps, till at noon they reached the beaver pond.
+It was covered with ice too thin to bear, but the freshly used
+landing places were easily selected. At each they set a strong, steel
+beaver-trap, concealing it amid some dry grass, and placing in a split
+stick a foot away a piece of moss in which were a few drops of the magic
+lure. The ring on the trap chain was slipped over a long, thin, smooth
+pole which was driven deep in the mud, the top pointing away from
+the deep water. The plan was old and proven. The beaver, eager
+to investigate that semifriendly smell, sets foot in the trap;
+instinctively when in danger he dives for the deep water; the ring slips
+along the pole till at the bottom and there it jams so that the beaver
+cannot rise again and is drowned.
+
+In an hour the six traps were set for the beavers; presently the
+hunters, skirmishing for more partridges, had much trouble to save
+Skookum from another porcupine disaster.
+
+They got some more grouse, baited the traps for a couple of miles, then
+camped for the night.
+
+Before morning it came on to snow and it was three inches deep when they
+arose. There is no place on earth where the first snow is more beautiful
+than in the Adirondacks. In early autumn nature seems to prepare for
+it. Green leaves are cleared away to expose the berry bunches in red;
+rushbeds mass their groups, turn golden brown and bow their heads to
+meet the silver load; the low hills and the lines of various Christmas
+trees are arrayed for the finest effect: the setting is perfect and the
+scene, but it lacks the lime light yet. It needs must have the lavish
+blaze of white. And when it comes like the veil on a bride, the silver
+mountings on a charger's trappings, or the golden fire in a sunset, the
+shining crystal robe is the finishing, the crowning glory, without which
+all the rest must fail, could have no bright completeness. Its beauty
+stirred the hunters though it found no better expression than Rolf's
+simple words, "Ain't it fine," while the Indian gazed in silence.
+
+There is no other place in the eastern woods where the snow has
+such manifold tales to tell, and the hunters that day tramping found
+themselves dowered over night with the wonderful power of the hound
+to whom each trail is a plain record of every living creature that has
+passed within many hours. And though the first day after a storm has
+less to tell than the second, just as the second has less than the
+third, there was no lack of story in the snow. Here sped some antlered
+buck, trotting along while yet the white was flying. There went a
+fox, sneaking across the line of march, and eying distrustfully that
+deadfall. This broad trail with many large tracks not far apart was
+made by one of Skookum's friends, a knight of many spears. That bounding
+along was a marten. See how he quartered that thicket like a hound, here
+he struck our odour trail. Mark, how he paused and whiffed it; now away
+he goes; yes, straight to our trap.
+
+"It's down; hurrah!" Rolf shouted, for there, dead under the log, was
+an exquisite marten, dark, almost black, with a great, broad, shining
+breast of gold.
+
+They were going back now toward the beaver lake. The next trap was
+sprung and empty; the next held the body of a red squirrel, a nuisance
+always and good only to rebait the trap he springs. But the next held a
+marten, and the next a white weasel. Others were unsprung, but they
+had two good pelts when they reached the beaver lake. They were in high
+spirits with their good luck, but not prepared for the marvellous haul
+that now was theirs. Each of the six traps held a big beaver, dead,
+drowned, and safe. Each skin was worth five dollars, and the hunters
+felt rich. The incident had, moreover, this pleasing significance: It
+showed that these beavers were unsophisticated, so had not been hunted.
+Fifty pelts might easily be taken from these ponds.
+
+The trappers reset the traps; then dividing the load, sought a remote
+place to camp, for it does not do to light a fire near your beaver pond.
+One hundred and fifty pounds of beaver, in addition, to their packs, was
+not a load to be taken miles away; within half a mile on a lower level
+they selected a warm place, made a fire, and skinned their catch. The
+bodies they opened and hung in a tree with a view to future use, but the
+pelts and tails they carried on.
+
+They made a long, hard tramp that day, baiting all the traps and reached
+home late in the night.
+
+
+
+Chapter 32. The Antler-bound Bucks
+
+IN THE man-world, November is the month of gloom, despair, and many
+suicides. In the wild world, November is the Mad Moon. Many and diverse
+the madnesses of the time, but none more insane than the rut of the
+white-tailed deer. Like some disease it appears, first in the swollen
+necks of the antler-bearers, and then in the feverish habits of all.
+Long and obstinate combats between the bucks now, characterize the time;
+neglecting even to eat, they spend their days and nights in rushing
+about and seeking to kill.
+
+Their horns, growing steadily since spring, are now of full size, sharp,
+heavy, and cleaned of the velvet; in perfection. For what? Has Nature
+made them to pierce, wound, and destroy? Strange as it may seem, these
+weapons of offence are used for little but defence; less as spears than
+as bucklers they serve the deer in battles with its kind. And the long,
+hard combats are little more than wrestling and pushing bouts; almost
+never do they end fatally. When a mortal thrust is given, it is rarely a
+gaping wound, but a sudden springing and locking of the antlers, whereby
+the two deer are bound together, inextricably, hopelessly, and so suffer
+death by starvation. The records of deer killed by their rivals and left
+on the duel-ground are few; very few and far between. The records of
+those killed by interlocking are numbered by the scores.
+
+There were hundreds of deer in this country that Rolf and Quonab
+claimed. Half of them were bucks, and at least half of these engaged in
+combat some times or many times a day, all through November; that is to
+say, probably a thousand duels were fought that month within ten miles
+of the cabin. It was not surprising that Rolf should witness some of
+them, and hear many more in the distance.
+
+They were living in the cabin now, and during the still, frosty nights,
+when he took a last look at the stars, before turning in, Rolf formed
+the habit of listening intently for the voices of the gloom. Sometimes
+it was the "hoo-hoo" of the horned-owl, once or twice it was the long,
+smooth howl of the wolf; but many times it was the rattle of antlers
+that told of two bucks far up in the hardwoods, trying out the
+all-important question, "Which is the better buck?"
+
+One morning he heard still an occasional rattle at the same place as the
+night before. He set out alone, after breakfast, and coming cautiously
+near, peered into a little, open space to see two bucks with heads
+joined, slowly, feebly pushing this way and that. Their tongues were
+out; they seemed almost exhausted, and the trampled snow for an acre
+about plainly showed that they had been fighting for hours; that indeed
+these were the ones he had heard in the night. Still they were evenly
+matched, and the green light in their eyes told of the ferocious spirit
+in each of these gentle-looking deer.
+
+Rolf had no difficulty in walking quite near. If they saw him, they gave
+slight heed to the testimony of their eyes, for the unenergetic struggle
+went on until, again pausing for breath, they separated, raised their
+heads a little, sniffed, then trotted away from the dreaded enemy so
+near. Fifty yards off, they turned, shook their horns, seemed in doubt
+whether to run away, join battle again, or attack the man. Fortunately
+the first was their choice, and Rolf returned to the cabin.
+
+Quonab listened to his account, then said: "You might have been killed.
+Every buck is crazy now. Often they attack man. My father's brother was
+killed by a Mad Moon buck. They found only his body, torn to rags. He
+had got a little way up a tree, but the buck had pinned him. There were
+the marks, and in the snow they could see how he held on to the deer's
+horns and was dragged about till his strength gave out. He had no gun.
+The buck went off. That was all they knew. I would rather trust a bear
+than a deer."
+
+The Indian's words were few, but they drew a picture all too realistic.
+The next time Rolf heard the far sound of a deer fight, it brought back
+the horror of that hopeless fight in the snow, and gave him a new and
+different feeling for the antler-bearer of the changing mood.
+
+It was two weeks after this, when he was coming in from a trip alone on
+part of the line, when his ear caught some strange sounds in the
+woods ahead; deep, sonorous, semi-human they were. Strange and weird
+wood-notes in winter are nearly sure to be those of a raven or a jay; if
+deep, they are likely to come from a raven.
+
+"Quok, quok, ha, ha, ha-hreww, hrrr, hooop, hooop," the diabolic noises
+came, and Rolf, coming gently forward, caught a glimpse of sable pinions
+swooping through the lower pines.
+
+"Ho, ho, ho yah--hew--w--w--w" came the demon laughter of the death
+birds, and Rolf soon glimpsed a dozen of them in the branches, hopping
+or sometimes flying to the ground. One alighted on a brown bump. Then
+the bump began to move a little. The raven was pecking away, but
+again the brown bump heaved and the raven leaped to a near perch.
+"Wah--wah--wah--wo--hoo--yow--wow--rrrrrr-rrrr-rrrr"--and the other
+ravens joined in.
+
+Rolf had no weapons but his bow, his pocket knife, and a hatchet. He
+took the latter in his hand and walked gently forward; the hollow-voiced
+ravens "haw--hawed," then flew to safe perches where they chuckled like
+ghouls over some extra-ghoulish joke.
+
+The lad, coming closer, witnessed a scene that stirred him with mingled
+horror and pity. A great, strong buck--once strong, at least--was
+standing, staggering, kneeling there; sometimes on his hind legs,
+spasmodically heaving and tugging at a long gray form on the ground,
+the body of another buck, his rival, dead now, with a broken neck, as
+it proved, but bearing big, strong antlers with which the antlers of the
+living buck were interlocked as though riveted with iron, bolted with
+clamps of steel. With all his strength, the living buck could barely
+move his head, dragging his adversary's body with him. The snow marks
+showed that at first he had been able to haul the carcass many yards;
+had nibbled a little at shoots and twigs; but that was when he was
+stronger, was long before. How long? For days, at least, perhaps a week,
+that wretched buck was dying hopelessly a death that would not come. His
+gaunt sides, his parched and lolling tongue, less than a foot from the
+snow and yet beyond reach, the filmy eye, whose opaque veil of death was
+illumined again with a faint fire of fighting green as the new foe came.
+The ravens had picked the eyes out of the dead buck and eaten a hole in
+its back. They had even begun on the living buck, but he had been able
+to use one front foot to defend his eyes; still his plight could scarce
+have been more dreadful. It made the most pitiful spectacle Rolf had
+ever seen in wild life; yes, in all his life. He was full of compassion
+for the poor brute. He forgot it as a thing to be hunted for food;
+thought of it only as a harmless, beautiful creature in dire and
+horrible straits; a fellow-being in distress; and he at once set about
+being its helper. With hatchet in hand he came gently in front, and
+selecting an exposed part at the base of the dead buck's antler he
+gave a sharp blow with the hatchet. The effect on the living buck was
+surprising. He was roused to vigorous action that showed him far from
+death as yet. He plunged, then pulled backward, carrying with him the
+carcass and the would-be rescuer. Then Rolf remembered the Indian's
+words: "You can make strong medicine with your mouth." He spoke to
+the deer, gently, softly. Then came nearer, and tapped o'n the horn he
+wished to cut; softly speaking and tapping he increased his force, until
+at last he was permitted to chop seriously at that prison bar. It took
+many blows, for the antler stuff is very thick and strong at this time,
+but the horn was loose at last. Rolf gave it a twist and the strong buck
+was free. Free for what?
+
+Oh, tell it not among the folk who have been the wild deer's friend!
+Hide it from all who blindly believe that gratitude must always follow
+good-will! With unexpected energy, with pent-up fury, with hellish
+purpose, the ingrate sprang on his deliverer, aiming a blow as deadly as
+was in his power.
+
+Wholly taken by surprise, Rolf barely had time to seize the murderer's
+horns and ward them off his vitals. The buck made a furious lunge. Oh!
+what foul fiend was it gave him then such force?--and Rolf went down.
+Clinging for dear life to those wicked, shameful horns, he yelled as he
+never yelled before: "Quonab, Quonabi help me, oh, help me!" But he
+was pinned at once, the fierce brute above him pressing on his chest,
+striving to bring its horns to bear; his only salvation had been that
+their wide spread gave his body room between. But the weight on his
+chest was crushing out his force, his life; he had no breath to call
+again. How the ravens chuckled, and "haw-hawed" in the tree!
+
+The buck's eyes gleamed again with the emerald light of murderous
+hate, and he jerked his strong neck this way and that with the power of
+madness. It could not last for long. The boy's strength was going fast;
+the beast was crushing in his chest.
+
+"Oh, God, help me!" he gasped, as the antlered fiend began again
+struggling for the freedom of those murderous horns. The brute was
+almost free, when the ravens rose with loud croaks, and out of the woods
+dashed another to join the fight. A smaller deer? No; what? Rolf knew
+not, nor how, but in a moment there was a savage growl and Skookum
+had the murderer by the hind leg. Worrying and tearing he had not the
+strength to throw the deer, but his teeth were sharp, his heart was in
+his work, and when he transferred his fierce attack to parts more tender
+still, the buck, already spent, reared, wheeled, and fell. Before he
+could recover Skookum pounced upon him by the nose and hung on like a
+vice. The buck could swing his great neck a little, and drag the
+dog, but he could not shake him off. Rolf saw the chance, rose to his
+tottering legs, seized his hatchet, stunned the fierce brute with a
+blow. Then finding on the snow his missing knife he gave the hunter
+stroke that spilled the red life-blood and sank on the ground to know no
+more till Quonab stood beside him.
+
+
+
+Chapter 33. A Song of Praise
+
+ROLF was lying by a fire when he came to, Quonab bending over him with a
+look of grave concern. When he opened his eyes, the Indian smiled; such
+a soft, sweet smile, with long, ivory rows in its background.
+
+Then he brought hot tea, and Rolf revived so he could sit up and tell
+the story of the morning.
+
+"He is an evil Manito," and he looked toward the dead buck; "we must not
+eat him. You surely made medicine to bring Skookum."
+
+"Yes, I made medicine with my mouth," was the answer, "I called, I
+yelled, when he came at me."
+
+"It is a long way from here to the cabin," was Quonab's reply. "I could
+not hear you; Skookum could not hear you; but Cos Cob, my father, told
+me that when you send out a cry for help, you send medicine, too, that
+goes farther than the cry. May be so; I do not know: my father was very
+wise."
+
+"Did you see Skookum come, Quonab?"
+
+"No; he was with me hours after you left, but he was restless and
+whimpered. Then he left me and it was a long time before I heard him
+bark. It was the 'something-wrong' bark. I went. He brought me here."
+
+"He must have followed my track all 'round the line."
+
+After an hour they set out for the cabin. The ravens "Ha-ha-ed" and
+"Ho-ho-ed" as they went. Quonab took the fateful horn that Rolf had
+chopped off, and hung it on a sapling with a piece of tobacco and a red
+yam streamer ', to appease the evil spirit that surely was near. There
+it hung for years after, until the sapling grew to a tree that swallowed
+the horn, all but the tip, which rotted away.
+
+Skookum took a final sniff at his fallen enemy, gave the body the
+customary expression of a dog's contempt, then led the procession
+homeward.
+
+Not that day, not the next, but on the first day of calm, red, sunset
+sky, went Quonab to his hill of worship; and when the little fire that
+he lit sent up its thread of smoke, like a plumb-line from the red cloud
+over him, he burnt a pinch of tobacco, and, with face and arms upraised
+in the red light, he sang a new song:
+
+     "The evil one set a trap for my son,
+     But the Manito saved him;
+     In the form of a Skookum he saved him."
+
+
+
+Chapter 34. The Birch-bark Vessels
+
+Rolf was sore and stiff for a week afterward; so was Skookum. There were
+times when Quonab was cold, moody, and silent for days. Then some milder
+wind would blow in the region of his heart and the bleak ice surface
+melted into running rills of memory or kindly emanation.
+
+Just before the buck adventure, there had been an unpleasant time of
+chill and aloofness. It arose over little. Since the frost had come,
+sealing the waters outside, Quonab would wash his hands in the vessel
+that was also the bread pan. Rolf had New England ideas of propriety
+in cooking matters, and finally he forgot the respect due to age and
+experience. That was one reason why he went out alone that day. Now,
+with time to think things over, the obvious safeguard would be to have
+a wash bowl; but where to get it? In those days, tins were scarce and
+ex-pensive. It was the custom to look in the woods for nearly all the
+necessaries of life; and, guided by ancient custom and experience, they
+seldom looked in vain. Rolf had seen, and indeed made, watering troughs,
+pig troughs, sap troughs, hen troughs, etc., all his life, and he now
+set to work with the axe and a block of basswood to hew out a trough
+for a wash bowl. With adequate tools he might have made a good one; but,
+working with an axe and a stiff arm, the result was a very heavy, crude
+affair. It would indeed hold water, but it was almost impossible to dip
+it into the water hole, so that a dipper was needed.
+
+When Quonab saw the plan and the result, he said: "In my father's lodge
+we had only birch bark. See; I shall make a bowl." He took from the
+storehouse a big roll of birch bark, gathered in warm weather (it can
+scarcely be done in cold), for use in repairing the canoe. Selecting a
+good part he cut out a square, two feet each way, and put it in the big
+pot which was full of boiling water. At the same time he soaked with
+it a bundle of wattap, or long fibrous roots of the white spruce, also
+gathered before the frost came, with a view to canoe repairs in the
+spring.
+
+While these were softening in the hot water, he cut a couple of long
+splints of birch, as nearly as possible half an inch wide and an eighth
+of an inch thick, and put them to steep with the bark. Next he made two
+or three straddle pins or clamps, like clothes pegs, by splitting the
+ends of some sticks which had a knot at one end.
+
+Now he took out the spruce roots, soft and pliant, and selecting a lot
+that were about an eighth of an inch in diameter, scraped off the bark
+and roughness, until he had a bundle of perhaps ten feet of soft, even,
+white cords.
+
+The bark was laid flat and cut as below.
+
+The rounding of A and B is necessary, for the holes of the sewing would
+tear the piece off if all were on the same line of grain. Each corner
+was now folded and doubled on itself (C), then held so with a straddle
+pin (D). The rim was trimmed so as to be flat where it crossed the fibre
+of the bark, and arched where it ran along. The pliant rods of birch
+were bent around this, and using the large awl to make holes, Quonab
+sewed the rim rods to the bark with an over-lapping stitch that made
+a smooth finish to the edge, and the birch-bark wash pan was complete.
+(E.) Much heavier bark can be used if the plan F G be followed, but it
+is hard to make it water-tight.
+
+So now they had a wash pan and a cause of friction was removed. Rolf
+found it amusing as well as useful to make other bark vessels of varying
+sizes for dippers and dunnage. It was work that he could do now while he
+was resting and recovering and he became expert. After watching a fairly
+successful attempt at a box to hold fish-hooks and tackle, Quonab said:
+"In my father's lodge these would bear quill work in colours."
+
+"That's so," said Rolf, remembering the birch-bark goods often sold by
+the Indians. "I wish we had a porcupine now."
+
+"Maybe Skookum could find one," said the Indian, with a smile.
+
+"Will you let me kill the next Kahk we find?"
+
+"Yes, if you use the quills and burn its whiskers."
+
+"Why burn its whiskers?"
+
+"My father said it must be so. The smoke goes straight to the All-above;
+then the Manito knows we have killed, but we have remembered to kill
+only for use and to thank Him."
+
+It was some days before they found a porcupine, and when they did,
+it was not necessary for them to kill it. But that belongs to another
+chapter.
+
+They saved its skin with all its spears and hung it in the storehouse.
+The quills with the white bodies and ready-made needle at each end are
+admirable for embroidering, but they are white only.
+
+"How can we dye them, Quonab?
+
+"In the summer are many dyes; in winter they are hard to get. We can get
+some."
+
+So forth he went to a hemlock tree, and cut till he could gather the
+inner pink bark, which, boiled with the quills, turned them a dull pink;
+similarly, alder bark furnished rich orange, and butternut bark a brown.
+Oak chips, with a few bits of iron in the pot, dyed black.
+
+"Must wait till summer for red and green," said the Indian. "Red comes
+only from berries; the best is the blitum. We call it squaw-berry and
+mis-caw-wa, yellow comes from the yellow root (Hydrastis)."
+
+But black, white, orange, pink, brown, and a dull red made by a double
+dip of orange and pink, are a good range of colour. The method in using
+the quills is simple. An awl to make holes in the bark for each;
+the rough parts behind are concealed afterward with a lining of bark
+stitched over them; and before the winter was over, Rolf had made a
+birch-bark box, decorated lid and all, with porcupine quill work, in
+which he kept the sable skin that was meant to buy Annette's new
+dress, the costume she had dreamed of, the ideal and splendid, almost
+unbelievable vision of her young life, ninety-five cents' worth of
+cotton print.
+
+There was one other point of dangerous friction. Whenever it fell to
+Quonab to wash the dishes, he simply set them on the ground and let
+Skookum lick them off. This economical arrangement was satisfactory to
+Quonab, delightful to Skookum, and apparently justified by the finished
+product, but Rolf objected. The Indian said: "Don't he eat the same food
+as we do? You cannot tell if you do not see."
+
+Whenever he could do so, Rolf washed the doubtful dishes over again, yet
+there were many times when this was impossible, and the situation became
+very irritating. But he knew that the man who loses his temper has
+lost the first round of the fight, so, finding the general idea of
+uncleanness without avail, he sought for some purely Indian argument.
+As they sat by the evening fire, one day, he led up to talk of his
+mother--of her power as a medicine woman, of the many evil medicines
+that harmed her. "It was evil medicine for her if a dog licked her hand
+or touched her food. A dog licked her hand and the dream dog came to her
+three days before she died." After a long pause, he added, "In some ways
+I am like my mother."
+
+Two days later, Rolf chanced to see his friend behind the shanty give
+Skookum the pan to clean off after they had been frying deer fat. The
+Indian had no idea that Rolf was near, nor did he ever learn the truth
+of it.
+
+That night, after midnight, the lad rose quietly, lighted the pine
+splints that served them for a torch, rubbed some charcoal around each
+eye to make dark rings that should supply a horror-stricken look. Then
+he started in to pound on Quonab's tom-tom, singing:
+
+     "Evil spirit leave me;
+     Dog-face do not harm me."
+
+Quonab sat up in amazement. Rolf paid no heed, but went on, bawling
+and drumming and staring upward into vacant space. After a few minutes
+Skookum scratched and whined at the shanty door. Rolf rose, took his
+knife, cut a bunch of hair from Skookum's neck and burned it in the
+torch, then went on singing with horrid solemnity:
+
+     "Evil spirit leave me;
+     Dog-face do not harm me."
+
+At last he turned, and seeming to discover that Quonab was looking on,
+said:
+
+"The dream dog came to me. I thought I saw him lick deer grease from the
+frying pan behind the shanty. He laughed, for he knew that he made evil
+medicine for me. I am trying to drive him away, so he cannot harm me. I
+do not know. I am like my mother. She was very wise, but she died after
+it."
+
+Now Quonab arose, cut some more hair from Skookum, added a pinch of
+tobacco, then, setting it ablaze, he sang in the rank odour of the
+burning weed and hair, his strongest song to kill ill magic; and Rolf,
+as he chuckled and sweetly sank to sleep, knew that the fight was won.
+His friend would never, never more install Skookum in the high and
+sacred post of pot-licker, dishwasher, or final polisher.
+
+
+
+Chapter 35. Snaring Rabbits
+
+The deepening snow about the cabin was marked in all the thickets by
+the multitudinous tracks of the snowshoe rabbits or white hares.
+Occasionally the hunters saw them, but paid little heed. Why should they
+look at rabbits when deer were plentiful?
+
+"You catch rabbit?" asked Quonab one day when Rolf was feeling fit
+again.
+
+"I can shoot one with my bow," was the answer, "but why should I, when
+we have plenty of deer?"
+
+"My people always hunted rabbits. Sometimes no deer were to be found;
+then the rabbits were food. Sometimes in the enemy's country it was not
+safe to hunt, except rabbits, with blunt arrows, and they were food.
+Sometimes only squaws and children in camp--nothing to eat; no guns;
+then the rabbits were food."
+
+"Well, see me get one," and Rolf took his bow and arrow. He found many
+white bunnies, but always in the thickest woods. Again and again he
+tried, but the tantalizing twigs and branches muffled the bow and
+turned the arrow. It was hours before he returned with a fluffy snowshoe
+rabbit.
+
+"That is not our way." Quonab led to the thicket and selecting a place
+of many tracks he cut a lot of brush and made a hedge across with half a
+dozen openings. At each of these openings he made a snare of strong cord
+tied to a long pole, hung on a crotch, and so arranged that a tug at the
+snare would free the pole which in turn would hoist the snare and the
+creature in it high in the air.
+
+Next morning they went around and found that four of the snares had
+each a snow-white rabbit hanging by the neck. As he was handling these,
+Quonab felt a lump I on the hind leg of one. He carefully cut it open
+and turned out a curious-looking object about the size of an acorn,
+flattened, made of flesh and covered with hair, and nearly the shape of
+a large bean. He gazed at it, and, turning to Rolf, said with intense
+meaning:
+
+"Ugh! we have found the good hunting. This is the Peeto-wab-oos-once,
+the little medicine rabbit. Now we have strong medicine in the lodge.
+You shall see."
+
+He went out to the two remaining snares and passed the medicine rabbit
+through each. An hour later, when they returned, they found a rabbit
+taken in the first snare.
+
+"It is ever so," said the Indian. "We can always catch rabbits now. My
+father had the Peeto-wab-i-ush once, the little medicine deer, and so
+he never failed in hunting but twice. Then he found that his papoose,
+Quonab, had stolen his great medicine. He was a very wise papoose. He
+killed a chipmunk each of those days."
+
+"Hark! what is that?" A faint sound of rustling branches, and some short
+animal noises in the woods had caught Rolf's ear, and Skookum's, too,
+for he was off like one whose life is bound up in a great purpose.
+
+"Yap, yap, yap," came the angry sound from Skookum. Who can say that
+animals have no language? His merry "yip, yip, yip," for partridge up a
+tree, or his long, hilarious, "Yow, yow, yow," when despite all orders
+he chased some deer, were totally distinct from the angry "Yap, yap,"
+he gave for the bear up the tree, or the "Grrryapgrryap," with which he
+voiced his hatred of the porcupine.
+
+But now it was the "Yap, yap," as when he had treed the bears.
+
+"Something up a tree," was the Indian's interpretation, as they followed
+the sound. Something up a tree! A whole menagerie it seemed to Rolf when
+they got there. Hanging by the neck in the remaining snare, and limp
+now, was a young lynx, a kit of the year. In the adjoining tree, with
+Skookum circling and yapping 'round the base, was a savage old lynx.
+In the crotch above her was another young one, and still higher was a
+third, all looking their unutterable disgust at the noisy dog below;
+the mother, indeed, expressing it in occasional hisses, but none of them
+daring to come down and face him. The lynx is very good fur and very
+easy prey. The Indian brought the old one down with a shot; then, as
+fast as he could reload, the others were added to the bag, and, with the
+one from the snare, they returned laden to the cabin.
+
+The Indian's eyes shone with a peculiar light. "Ugh! Ugh! My father told
+me; it is great medicine. You see, now, it does not fail."
+
+
+
+Chapter 36. Something Wrong at the Beaver Traps
+
+Once they had run the trap lines, and their store of furs was increasing
+finely. They had taken twenty-five beavers and counted on getting two
+or three each time they went to the ponds. But they got an unpleasant
+surprise in December, on going to the beaver grounds, to find all the
+traps empty and unmistakable signs that some man had been there and had
+gone off with the catch. They followed the dim trail of his snowshoes,
+half hidden by a recent wind, but night came on with more snow, and all
+signs were lost.
+
+The thief had not found the line yet, for the haul of marten and mink
+was good. But this was merely the beginning.
+
+The trapper law of the wilderness is much like all primitive laws; first
+come has first right, provided he is able to hold it. If a strong rival
+comes in, the first must fight as best he can. The law justifies him
+in anything he may do, if he succeeds. The law justifies the second in
+anything he may do, except murder. That is, the defender may shoot to
+kill; the offender may not.
+
+But the fact of Quonab's being an Indian and Rolf supposedly one, would
+turn opinion against them in the Adirondacks, and it was quite likely
+that the rival considered them trespassers on his grounds, although the
+fact that he robbed their traps without removing them, and kept out of
+sight, rather showed the guilty conscience of a self-accused poacher.
+
+He came in from the west, obviously; probably the Racquet River
+country; was a large man, judging by his foot and stride, and understood
+trapping; but lazy, for he set no traps. His principal object seemed to
+be to steal.
+
+And it was not long before he found their line of marten traps, so his
+depredations increased. Primitive emotions are near the surface at all
+times, and under primitive conditions are very ready to appear. Rolf and
+Quonab felt that now it was war.
+
+
+
+Chapter 37. The Pekan or Fisher
+
+There was one large track in the snow that they saw several times--it
+was like that of a marten, but much larger. "Pekan," said the Indian,
+"the big marten; the very strong one, that fights without fear."
+
+"When my father was a papoose he shot an arrow at a pekan. He did not
+know what it was; it seemed only a big black marten. It was wounded, but
+sprang from the tree on my father's breast. It would have killed him,
+but for the dog; then it would have killed the dog, but my grandfather
+was near.
+
+"He made my father eat the pekan's heart, so his heart might be like it.
+It sought no fight, but it turned, when struck, and fought without fear.
+That is the right way; seek peace, but fight without fear. That was my
+father's heart and mine." Then glancing toward the west he continued in
+a tone of menace: "That trap robber will find it so. We sought no fight,
+but some day I kill him."
+
+The big track went in bounds, to be lost in a low, thick woods. But they
+met it again.
+
+They were crossing a hemlock ridge a mile farther on, when they came to
+another track which was first a long, deep furrow, some fifteen inches
+wide, and in this were the wide-spread prints of feet as large as those
+of a fisher.
+
+"Kahk," said Quonab, and Skookum said "Kahk," too, but he did it
+by growling and raising his back hair, and doubtless also by sadly
+remembering. His discretion seemed as yet embryonic, so Rolf slipped
+his sash through the dog's collar, and they followed the track, for the
+porcupine now stood in Rolf's mind as a sort of embroidery outfit.
+
+They had not followed far before another track joined on--the track
+of the fisher-pekan; and soon after they heard in the woods ahead
+scratching sounds, as of something climbing, and once or twice a faint,
+far, fighting snarl.
+
+Quickly tying the over-valiant Skookum to a tree, they crept forward,
+ready for anything, and arrived on the scene of a very peculiar action.
+
+Action it was, though it was singularly devoid of action. First, there
+was a creature, like a huge black marten or a short-legged black fox,
+standing at a safe distance, while, partly hidden under a log, with hind
+quarters and tail only exposed, was a large porcupine. Both were
+very still, but soon the fisher snarled and made a forward lunge. The
+porcupine, hearing the sounds or feeling the snow dash up on that side,
+struck with its tail; but the fisher kept out of reach. Next a feint was
+made on the other side, with the same result; then many, as though the
+fisher were trying to tire out the tail or use up all its quills.
+
+Sometimes the assailant leaped on the log and teased the quill-pig to
+strike upward, while many white daggers already sunk in the bark showed
+that these tactics had been going on for some time.
+
+Now the two spectators saw by the trail that a similar battle had
+been fought at another log, and that the porcupine trail from that was
+spotted with blood. How the fisher had forced it out was not then clear,
+but soon became so.
+
+After feinting till the Kahk would not strike, the pekan began a new
+manceuvre. Starting on the opposite side of the log that protected the
+spiny one's nose, he burrowed quickly through the snow and leaves. The
+log was about three inches from the ground, and before the porcupine
+could realize it, the fisher had a space cleared and seized the spiny
+one by its soft, unspiny nose. Grunting and squealing it pulled back and
+lashed its terrible tail. To what effect? Merely to fill the log around
+with quills. With all its strength the quill-pig pulled and writhed, but
+the fisher was stronger. His claws enlarged the hole and when the victim
+ceased from exhaustion, the fisher made a forward dash and changed
+his hold from the tender nose to the still more tender throat of the
+porcupine. His hold was not deep enough and square enough to seize the
+windpipe, but he held on. For a minute or two the struggles of Kahk were
+of desperate energy and its lashing tail began to be short of spines,
+but a red stream trickling from the wound was sapping its strength.
+Protected by the log, the fisher had but to hold on and play a waiting
+game.
+
+The heaving and backward pulling of Kahk were very feeble at length; the
+fisher had nearly finished the fight. But he was impatient of further
+delay and backing out of the hole he mounted the log, displaying a much
+scratched nose; then reaching down with deft paw, near the quill-pig's
+shoulder, he gave a sudden jerk that threw the former over on its back,
+and before it could recover, the fisher's jaws closed on its ribs, and
+crushed and tore. The nerveless, almost quilless tail could not harm him
+there. The red blood flowed and the porcupine lay still. Again and again
+as he uttered chesty growls the pekan ground his teeth into the warm
+flesh and shook and worried the unconquerable one he had conquered. He
+was licking his bloody chops for the twentieth time, gloating in gore,
+when "crack" went Quonab's gun, and the pekan had an opportunity of
+resuming the combat with Kahk far away in the Happy Hunting.
+
+"Yap, yap, yap!" and in rushed Skookum, dragging the end of Rolf's sash
+which he had gnawed through in his determination to be in the fight,
+no matter what it cost; and it was entirely due to the fact that the
+porcupine was belly up, that Skookum did not have another hospital
+experience.
+
+This was Rolf's first sight of a fisher, and he examined it as one does
+any animal--or man--that one has so long heard described in superlative
+terms that it has become idealized into a semi-myth. This was the
+desperado of the woods; the weird black cat that feared no living thing.
+This was the only one that could fight and win against Kahk.
+
+They made a fire at once, and while Rolf got the mid-day meal of tea and
+venison, Quonab skinned the fisher. Then he cut out its heart and liver.
+When these were cooked he gave the first to Rolf and the second to
+Skookum, saying to the one, "I give you a pekan heart;" and to the
+dog, "That will force all of the quills out of you if you play the fool
+again, as I think you will."
+
+In the skin of the fisher's neck and tail they found several quills,
+some of them new, some of them dating evidently from another fight
+of the same kind, but none of them had done any damage. There was no
+inflammation or sign of poisoning. "It is ever so," said Quonab, "the
+quills cannot hurt him." Then, turning to the porcupine, he remarked, as
+he prepared to skin it:
+
+"Ho, Kahk! you see now it was a big mistake you did not let Nana Bojou
+sit on the dry end of that log."
+
+
+
+Chapter 38. The Silver Fox
+
+They were returning to the cabin, one day, when Quonab stopped and
+pointed. Away off on the snow of the far shore was a moving shape to be
+seen.
+
+"Fox, and I think silver fox; he so black. I think he lives there."
+
+"Why?" "I have seen many times a very big fox track, and they do not go
+where they do not live. Even in winter they keep their own range."
+
+"He's worth ten martens, they say?" queried Rolf.
+
+"Ugh! fifty."
+
+"Can't we get him?"
+
+"Can try. But the water set will not work in winter; we must try
+different."
+
+This was the plan, the best that Quonab could devise for the snow:
+Saving the ashes from the fire (dry sand would have answered), he
+selected six open places in the woods on the south of the lake, and in
+each made an ash bed on which he scattered three or four drops of the
+smell-charm. Then, twenty-five yards from each, on the north or west
+side (the side of the prevailing wind) he hung from some sapling a few
+feathers, a partridge wing or tail with some red yarns to it. He left
+the places unvisited for two weeks, then returned to learn the progress
+of act one.
+
+Judging from past experience of fox nature and from the few signs that
+were offered by the snow, this is what had happened: A fox came along
+soon after the trappers left, followed the track a little way, came to
+the first opening, smelled the seductive danger-lure, swung around it,
+saw the dangling feathers, took alarm, and went off. Another of the
+places had been visited by a marten. He had actually scratched in the
+ashes. A wolf had gone around another at a safe distance.
+
+Another had been shunned several times by a fox or by foxes, but they
+had come again and again and at last yielded to the temptation to
+investigate the danger-smell; finally had rolled in it, evidently
+wallowing in an abandon of delight. So far, the plan was working there.
+
+The next move was to set the six strong fox traps, each thoroughly
+smoked, and chained to a fifteen-pound block of wood.
+
+Approaching the place carefully and using his blood-rubbed glove, Quonab
+set in each ash pile a trap. Under its face he put a wad of white rabbit
+fur. Next he buried all in the ashes, scattered a few bits of rabbit and
+a few drops of smell-charm, then dashed snow over the place, renewed
+the dangling feathers to lure the eye; and finally left the rest to the
+weather.
+
+Rolf was keen to go the next day, but the old man said: "Wah! no good!
+no trap go first night; man smell too strong." The second day there
+was a snowfall, and the third morning Quonab said, "Now seem like good
+time."
+
+The first trap was untouched, but there was clearly the track of a large
+fox within ten yards of it.
+
+The second was gone. Quonab said, with surprise in his voice, "Deer!"
+Yes, truly, there was the record. A deer--a big one--had come wandering
+past; his keen nose soon apprised him of a strong, queer appeal near
+by. He had gone unsuspiciously toward it, sniffed and pawed the
+unaccountable and exciting nose medicine; then "snap!" and he had sprung
+a dozen feet, with that diabolic smell-thing hanging to his foot. Hop,
+hop, hop, the terrified deer had gone into a slashing windfall. Then the
+drag had caught on the logs, and, thanks to the hard and taper hoofs,
+the trap had slipped off and been left behind, while the deer had sought
+safer regions.
+
+In the next trap they found a beautiful marten dead, killed at once
+by the clutch of steel. The last trap was gone, but the tracks and the
+marks told a tale that any one could read; a fox had been beguiled and
+had gone off, dragging the trap and log. Not far did they need to go;
+held in a thicket they found him, and Rolf prepared the mid-day meal
+while Quonab gathered the pelt. After removing the skin the Indian cut
+deep and carefully into the body of the fox and removed the bladder. Its
+contents sprinkled near each of the traps was good medicine, he said; a
+view that was evidently shared by Skookum.
+
+More than once they saw the track of the big fox of the region,
+but never very near the snare. He was too clever to be fooled by
+smell-spells or kidney products, no matter how temptingly arrayed. The
+trappers did, indeed, capture three red foxes; but it was at cost of
+great labour. It was a venture that did not pay. The silver fox was
+there, but he took too good care of his precious hide. The slightest
+hint of a man being near was enough to treble his already double
+wariness. They would never have seen him near at hand, but for a
+stirring episode that told a tale of winter hardship.
+
+
+
+Chapter 39. The Humiliation of Skookum
+
+If Skookum could have been interviewed by a newspaper man, he would
+doubtless have said: "I am a very remarkable dog. I can tree partridges.
+I'm death on porcupines. I am pretty good in a dog fight; never was
+licked in fact: but my really marvellous gift is my speed; I'm a terror
+to run."
+
+Yes, he was very proud of his legs, and the foxes that came about in the
+winter nights gave him many opportunities of showing what he could do.
+Many times over he very nearly caught a fox. Skookum did not know that
+these wily ones were playing with him; but they were, and enjoyed it
+immensely.
+
+The self-sufficient cur never found this out, and never lost a chance of
+nearly catching a fox. The men did not see those autumn chases because
+they were by night; but foxes hunt much by day in winter, perforce, and
+are often seen; and more than once they witnessed one of these farcical
+races.
+
+And now the shining white furnished background for a much more important
+affair.
+
+It was near sundown one day when a faint fox bark was heard out on the
+snow-covered ice of the lake.
+
+"That's for me," Skookum seemed to think, and jumping up, with a very
+fierce growl, he trotted forth; the men looked first from the window.
+Out on the snow, sitting on his haunches, was their friend, the big,
+black silver fox.
+
+Quonab reached for his gun and Rolf tried to call Skookum, but it was
+too late. He was out to catch that fox; their business was to look on
+and applaud. The fox sat on his haunches, grinning apparently, until
+Skookum dashed through the snow within twenty yards. Then, that shining,
+black fox loped gently away, his huge tail level out behind him, and
+Skookum, sure of success, raced up, within six or seven yards. A few
+more leaps now, and the victory would be won. But somehow he could not
+close that six or seven yard gap. No matter how he strained and leaped,
+the great black brush was just so far ahead. At first they had headed
+for the shore, but the fox wheeled back to the ice and up and down.
+Skookum felt it was because escape was hopeless, and he redoubled
+his effort. But all in vain. He was only wearing himself out, panting
+noisily now. The snow was deep enough to be a great disadvantage,
+more to dog than to fox, since weight counted as such a handicap.
+Unconsciously Skookum slowed up. The fox increased his headway; then
+audaciously turned around and sat down in the snow.
+
+This was too much for the dog. He wasted about a lungful of air in an
+angry bark, and again went after the enemy. Again the chase was round
+and round, but very soon the dog was so wearied that he sat down, and
+now the black fox actually came back and barked at him.
+
+It was maddening. Skookum's pride was touched.
+
+He was in to win or break. His supreme effort brought him within five
+feet of that white-tipped brush. Then, strange to tell, the big black
+fox put forth his large reserve of speed, and making for the woods,
+left Skookum far behind. Why? The cause was clear. Quonab, after vainly
+watching for a chance to shoot, that would not endanger the dog, had,
+under cover, crept around the lake and now was awaiting in a thicket.
+But the fox's keen nose had warned him. He knew that the funny part was
+over, so ran for the woods and disappeared as a ball tossed up the snow
+behind him.
+
+Poor Skookum's tongue was nearly a foot long as he walked meekly ashore.
+He looked depressed; his tail was depressed; so were his ears; but there
+was nothing to show whether he would have told that reporter that he
+"wasn't feeling up to his usual, to-day," or "Didn't you see me get the
+best of him?"
+
+
+
+Chapter 40. The Rarest of Pelts
+
+They saw that silver fox three or four times during the winter, and once
+found that he had had the audacity to jump from a high snowdrift onto
+the storehouse and thence to the cabin roof, where he had feasted on
+some white rabbits kept there for deadfall baits. But all attempts to
+trap or shoot him were vain, and their acquaintance might have ended as
+it began, but for an accident.
+
+It proved a winter of much snow. Heavy snow is the worst misfortune that
+can befall the wood folk in fur. It hides their food beyond reach, and
+it checks their movements so they can neither travel far in search of
+provender nor run fast to escape their enemies. Deep snow then means
+fetters, starvation, and death. There are two ways of meeting the
+problem: stilts and snowshoes. The second is far the better. The
+caribou, and the moose have stilts; the rabbit, the panther, and the
+lynx wear snowshoes. When there are three or four feet of soft snow, the
+lynx is king of all small beasts, and little in fear of the large ones.
+Man on his snowshoes has most wild four-foots at his mercy.
+
+Skookum, without either means of meeting the trouble was left much alone
+in the shanty. Apparently, it was on one of these occasions that the
+silver fox had driven him nearly frantic by eating rabbits on the roof
+above him.
+
+The exasperating robbery of their trap line had gone on irregularly all
+winter, but the thief was clever enough or lucky enough to elude them.
+
+They were returning to the cabin after a three days' round, when they
+saw, far out on the white expanse of the lake, two animals, alternately
+running and fighting. "Skookum and the fox," was the first thought that
+came, but on entering the cabin Skookum greeted them in person.
+
+Quonab gazed intently at the two running specks and said: "One has no
+tail. I think it is a peeshoo (lynx) and a fox."
+
+Rolf was making dinner. From time to time he glanced over the lake and
+saw the two specks, usually running. After dinner was over, he said,
+"Let's sneak 'round and see if we can get a shot."
+
+So, putting on their snowshoes and keeping out of sight, they skimmed
+over the deer crossing and through the woods, till at a point near the
+fighters, and there they saw something that recalled at once the day of
+Skookum's humiliation.
+
+A hundred yards away on the open snow was a huge lynx and their
+old friend, the black and shining silver fox, face to face; the fox
+desperate, showing his rows of beautiful teeth, but sinking belly deep
+in the snow as he strove to escape. Already he was badly wounded. In
+any case he was at the mercy of the lynx who, in spite of his greater
+weight, had such broad and perfect snowshoes that he skimmed on the
+surface, while the fox's small feet sank deep. The lynx was far from
+fresh, and still stood in some awe of those rows of teeth that snapped
+like traps when he came too near. He was minded, of course, to kill his
+black rival, but not to be hurt in doing so. Again and again there was
+in some sort a closing fight, the wearied fox plunging breathlessly
+through the treacherous, relentless snow. If he could only get back to
+cover, he might find a corner to protect his rear and have some fighting
+chance for life. But wherever he turned that huge cat faced him, doubly
+armed, and equipped as a fox can never be for the snow.
+
+No one could watch that plucky fight without feeling his sympathies go
+out to the beautiful silver fox. Rolf, at least, was for helping him to
+escape, when the final onset came. In another dash for the woods the fox
+plunged out of sight in a drift made soft by sedge sticking through, and
+before he could recover, the lynx's jaws closed on the back of his neck
+and the relentless claws had pierced his vitals.
+
+The justification of killing is self-preservation, and in this case the
+proof would have been the lynx making a meal of the fox. Did he do
+so? Not at all. He shook his fur, licked his chest and paws in a
+self-congratulatory way, then giving a final tug at the body, walked
+calmly over the snow along the shore.
+
+Quonab put the back of his hand to his mouth and made a loud squeaking,
+much like a rabbit caught in a snare. The lynx stopped, wheeled, and
+came trotting straight toward the promising music. Unsuspectingly he
+came within twenty yards of the trappers. The flint-lock banged and the
+lynx was kicking in the snow.
+
+The beautiful silver fox skin was very little injured and proved of
+value almost to double their catch so far; while the lynx skin was as
+good as another marten.
+
+They now had opportunity of studying the tracks and learned that the fox
+had been hunting rabbits in a thicket when he was set on by the lynx.
+At first he had run around in the bushes and saved himself from serious
+injury, for the snow was partly packed by the rabbits. After perhaps an
+hour of this, he had wearied and sought to save himself by abandoning
+the lynx's territory, so had struck across the open lake. But here the
+snow was too soft to bear him at all, and the lynx could still skim
+over. So it proved a fatal error. He was strong and brave. He fought at
+least another hour here before the much stronger, heavier lynx had
+done him to death. There was no justification. It was a clear case of
+tyrannical murder, but in this case vengeance was swift and justice came
+sooner than its wont.
+
+
+
+Chapter 41. The Enemy's Fort
+
+     It pays 'bout once in  a hundred times to git mad, but there
+     ain't any  way o' tellin' beforehand which is the time.
+     --Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+It generally took two days to run the west line of traps. At a
+convenient point they had built a rough shack for a half-way house. On
+entering this one day, they learned that since their last visit it had
+been occupied by some one who chewed tobacco. Neither of them had this
+habit. Quonab's face grew darker each time fresh evidence of the enemy
+was discovered, and the final wrong was added soon.
+
+Some trappers mark their traps; some do not bother. Rolf had marked all
+of theirs with a file, cutting notches on the iron. Two, one, three, was
+their mark, and it was a wise plan, as it turned out.
+
+On going around the west beaver pond they found that all six traps had
+disappeared. In some, there was no evidence of the thief; in some, the
+tracks showed clearly that they were taken by the same interloper that
+had bothered them all along, and on a jagged branch was a short blue
+yarn.
+
+"Now will I take up his trail and kill him," said the Indian.
+
+Rolf had opposed extreme measures, and again he remonstrated. To his
+surprise, the Indian turned fiercely and said: "You know it is white
+man. If he was Indian would you be patient? No!"
+
+"There is plenty of country south of the lake; maybe he was here first."
+
+"You know he was not. You should eat many pekan hearts. I have sought
+peace, now I fight."
+
+He shouldered his pack, grasped his gun, and his snowshoes went "tssape,
+tssape, tssape," over the snow.
+
+Skookum was sitting by Rolf. He rose to resume the march, and trotted
+a few steps on Quonab's trail. Rolf did not move; he was dazed by the
+sudden and painful situation. Mutiny is always worse than war. Skookum
+looked back, trotted on, still Rolf sat staring. Quonab's figure was
+lost in the distance; the dog's was nearly so. Rolf moved not. All the
+events of the last year were rushing through his mind; the refuge he
+had found with the Indian; the incident of the buck fight and the tender
+nurse the red man proved. He wavered. Then he saw Skookum coming back
+on the trail. The dog trotted up to the boy and dropped a glove, one of
+Quonab's. Undoubtedly the Indian had lost it; Skookum had found it on
+the trail and mechanically brought it to the nearest of his masters.
+Without that glove Quonab's hand would freeze. Rolf rose and sped along
+the other's trail. Having taken the step, he found it easy to send a
+long halloo, then another and another, till an answer came. In a few
+minutes Rolf came up. The Indian was sitting on a log, waiting. The
+glove was handed over in silence, and received with a grunt.
+
+After a minute or two, Rolf said "Let's get on," and started on the dim
+trail of the robber.
+
+For an hour or two they strode in silence. Then their course rose as
+they reached a rocky range. Among its bare, wind-swept ridges all sign
+was lost, but the Indian kept on till they were over and on the other
+side. A far cast in the thick, windless woods revealed the trail again,
+surely the same, for the snowshoe was two fingers wider on every side,
+and a hand-breadth longer than Quonab's; besides the right frame had
+been broken and the binding of rawhide was faintly seen in the snow
+mark. It was a mark they had seen all winter, and now it was headed as
+before for the west.
+
+When night came down, they camped in a hollow. They were used to snow
+camps. In the morning they went on, but wind and snow had hidden their
+tell-tale guide.
+
+What was the next move? Rolf did not ask, but wondered.
+
+Quonab evidently was puzzled.
+
+At length Rolf ventured: "He surely lives by some river--that way--and
+within a day's journey. This track is gone, but we may strike a fresh
+one. We'll know it when we see it."
+
+The friendly look came back to the Indian's face. "You are Nibowaka."
+
+They had not gone half a mile before they found a fresh track--their old
+acquaintance. Even Skookum showed his hostile recognition. And in a few
+minutes it led them to a shanty. They slipped off their snowshoes,
+and hung them in a tree. Quonab opened the door without knocking. They
+entered, and in a moment were face to face with a lanky, ill-favoured
+white man that all three, including Skookum, recognized as Hoag, the man
+they had met at the trader's.
+
+That worthy made a quick reach for his rifle, but Quonab covered him and
+said in tones that brooked no discussion, "Sit down!"
+
+Hoag did so, sullenly, then growled: "All right; my partners will be
+here in ten minutes."
+
+Rolf was startled. Quonab and Skookum were not.
+
+"We settled your partners up in the hills," said the former, knowing
+that one bluff was as good as another. Skookum growled and sniffed at
+the enemy's legs. The prisoner made a quick move with his foot.
+
+"You kick that dog again and it's your last kick," said the Indian.
+
+"Who's kicked yer dog, and what do you mean coming here with yer
+cutthroat ways? You'll find there's law in this country before yer
+through," was the answer.
+
+"That's what we're looking for, you trap robber, you thief. We're here
+first to find our traps; second to tell you this: the next time you come
+on our line there'll be meat for the ravens. Do you suppose I don't
+know them?" and the Indian pointed to a large pair of snowshoes with long
+heels and a repair lashing on the right frame. "See that blue yarn," and
+the Indian matched it with a blue sash hanging to a peg.
+
+"Yes, them belongs to Bill Hawkins; he'll be 'round in five minutes
+now."
+
+The Indian made a gesture of scorn; then turning to Rolf said: "look
+'round for our traps." Rolf made a thorough search in and about the
+shanty and the adjoining shed. He found some traps but none with his
+mark; none of a familiar make even.
+
+"Better hunt for a squaw and papoose," sneered Hoag, who was utterly
+puzzled by the fact that now Rolf was obviously a white lad.
+
+But all the search was vain. Either Hoag had not stolen the traps or had
+hidden them elsewhere. The only large traps they found were two of the
+largest size for taking bear.
+
+Hoag's torrent of bad language had been quickly checked by the threat of
+turning Skookum loose on his legs, and he looked such a grovelling beast
+that presently the visitors decided to leave him with a warning.
+
+The Indian took the trapper's gun, fired it off out of doors, not in
+the least perturbed by the possibility of its being heard by Hoag's
+partners. He knew they were imaginary. Then changing his plan, he said
+"Ugh! You find your gun in half a mile on our trail. But don't come
+farther and don't let me see the snowshoe trail on the divide again.
+Them ravens is awful hungry."
+
+Skookum, to his disappointment, was called off and, talking the
+trapper's gun for a time, they left it in a bush and made for their own
+country.
+
+
+
+Chapter 42. Skookum's Panther
+
+"Why are there so few deer tracks now?"
+
+"Deer yarded for winter," replied the Indian; "no travel in deep snow."
+
+"We'll soon need another," said Rolf, which unfortunately was true. They
+could have killed many deer in early winter, when the venison was in
+fine condition, but they had no place to store it. Now they must get it
+as they could, and of course it was thinner and poorer every week.
+
+They were on a high hill some days later. There was a clear view and
+they noticed several ravens circling and swooping.
+
+"Maybe dead deer; maybe deer yard," said the Indian.
+
+It was over a thick, sheltered, and extensive cedar swamp near the woods
+where last year they had seen so many deer, and they were not surprised
+to find deer tracks in numbers, as soon as they got into its dense
+thicket.
+
+A deer yard is commonly supposed to be a place in which the deer have a
+daily "bee" at road work all winter long and deliberately keep the snow
+hammered down so they can run on a hard surface everywhere within its
+limits. The fact is, the deer gather in a place where there is plenty
+of food and good shelter. The snow does not drift here, so the deer,
+by continually moving about, soon make a network of tracks in all
+directions, extending them as they must to seek more food. They may,
+of course, leave the yard at any time, but at once they encounter the
+dreaded obstacle of deep, soft snow in which they are helpless.
+
+Once they reached the well-worn trails, the hunters took off their
+snowshoes and went gently on these deer paths. They saw one or two
+disappearing forms, which taught them the thick cover was hiding many
+more. They made for the sound of the ravens, and found that the feast of
+the sable birds was not a deer but the bodies of three, quite recently
+killed.
+
+Quonab made a hasty study of the signs and said, "Panther."
+
+Yes, a panther, cougar, or mountain lion also had found the deer yard;
+and here he was living, like a rat in a grocer shop with nothing to do
+but help himself whenever he felt like feasting.
+
+Pleasant for the panther, but hard on the deer; for the killer is
+wasteful and will often kill for the joy of murder.
+
+Not a quarter of the carcasses lying here did he eat; he was feeding at
+least a score of ravens, and maybe foxes, martens, and lynxes as well.
+
+Before killing a deer, Quonab thought it well to take a quiet prowl
+around in hopes of seeing the panther. Skookum was turned loose and
+encouraged to display his talents.
+
+Proud as a general with an ample and obedient following, he dashed
+ahead, carrying fresh dismay among the deer, if one might judge from the
+noise. Then he found some new smell of excitement, and voiced the new
+thrill in a new sound, one not unmixed with fear. At length his barking
+was far away to the west in a rocky part of the woods. Whatever the
+prey, it was treed, for the voice kept one place.
+
+The hunters followed quickly and found the dog yapping furiously under
+a thick cedar. The first thought was of porcupine; but a nearer view
+showed the game to be a huge panther on the ground, not greatly excited,
+disdaining to climb, and taking little notice of the dog, except to
+curl his nose and utter a hissing kind of snarl when the latter came too
+near.
+
+But the arrival of the hunters gave a new colour to the picture. The
+panther raised his head, then sprang up a large tree and ensconced
+himself on a fork, while the valorous Skookum reared against the trunk,
+threatening loudly to come up and tear him to pieces.
+
+This was a rare find and a noble chance to conserve their stock of deer,
+so the hunters went around the tree seeking for a fair shot. But
+every point of view had some serious obstacle. It seemed as though the
+branches had been told off to guard the panther's vitals, for a big one
+always stood in the bullet's way.
+
+After vainly going around, Quonab said to Rolf: "Hit him with something,
+so he'll move."
+
+Rolf always was a good shot with stones, but he found none to throw.
+Near where they stood, however, was an unfreezing spring, and the soggy
+snow on it was easily packed into a hard, heavy snowball. Rolf threw it
+straight, swift, and by good luck it hit the panther square on the nose
+and startled him so that he sprang right out of the tree and flopped
+into the snow.
+
+Skookum was on him at once, but got a slap on the ear that changed
+his music, and the panther bounded away out of sight with the valiant
+Skookum ten feet behind, whooping and yelling like mad.
+
+It was annoyance rather than fear that made that panther take to a low
+tree while Skookum boxed the compass, and made a beaten dog path all
+around him. The hunters approached very carefully now, making little
+sound and keeping out of sight. The panther was wholly engrossed with
+observing the astonishing impudence of that dog, when Quonab came
+quietly up, leaned his rifle against a tree and fired. The smoke cleared
+to show the panther on his back, his legs convulsively waving in the
+air, and Skookum tugging valiantly at his tail.
+
+"My panther," he seemed to say; "whatever would you do without me?"
+
+A panther in a deer yard is much like a wolf shut up in a sheepfold. He
+would probably have killed all the deer that winter, though there were
+ten times as many as he needed for food; and getting rid of him was a
+piece of good luck for hunters and deer, while his superb hide made a
+noble trophy that in years to come had unexpected places of honour.
+
+
+
+Chapter 43. Sunday in the Woods
+
+Rolf still kept to the tradition of Sunday, and Quonab had in a manner
+accepted it. It was a curious fact that the red man had far more
+toleration for the white man's religious ideas than the white man had
+for the red's.
+
+Quonab's songs to the sun and the spirit, or his burning of a tobacco
+pinch, or an animal's whiskers were to Rolf but harmless nonsense. Had
+he given them other names, calling them hymns and incense, he would
+have been much nearer respecting them. He had forgotten his mother's
+teaching: "If any man do anything sincerely, believing that thereby he
+is worshipping God, he is worshipping God." He disliked seeing Quonab
+use an axe or a gun on Sunday, and the Indian, realizing that such
+action made "evil medicine" for Rolf, practically abstained. But Rolf
+had not yet learned to respect the red yarns the Indian hung from a
+deer's skull, though he did come to understand that he must let them
+alone or produce bad feeling in camp.
+
+Sunday had become a day of rest and Quonab made it also a day of song
+and remembrance.
+
+They were sitting one Sunday night by the fire in the cabin, enjoying
+the blaze, while a storm rattled on the window and door. A white-footed
+mouse, one of a family that lived in the shanty, was trying how close he
+could come to Skookum's nose without being caught, while Rolf looked
+on. Quonab was lying back on a pile of deer skins, with his pipe in his
+mouth, his head on the bunk, and his hands clasped back of his neck.
+
+There was an atmosphere of content and brotherly feeling; the evening
+was young, when Rolf broke silence:
+
+"Were you ever married, Quonab?"
+
+"Ugh," was the Indian's affirmative.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Myanos."
+
+Rolf did not venture more questions, but left the influence of the hour
+to work. It was a moment of delicate poise, and Rolf knew a touch would
+open the door or double bar it. He wondered how he might give that touch
+as he wished it. Skookum still slept. Both men watched the mouse, as,
+with quick movements it crept about. Presently it approached a long
+birch stick that stood up against the wall. High hanging was the
+song-drum. Rolf wished Quonab would take it and let it open his heart,
+but he dared not offer it; that might have the exact wrong effect. Now
+the mouse was behind the birch stick. Then Rolf noticed that the stick
+if it were to fall would strike a drying line, one end of which was
+on the song-drum peg. So he made a dash at the mouse and displaced the
+stick; the jerk it gave the line sent the song-drum with hollow bumping
+to the ground. The boy stooped to replace it; as he did, Quonab grunted
+and Rolf turned to see his hand stretched for the drum. Had Rolf
+officiously offered it, it would have been refused; now the Indian took
+it, tapped and warmed it at the fire, and sang a song of the Wabanaki.
+It was softly done, and very low, but Rolf was close, for almost the
+first time in any long rendition, and he got an entirely new notion of
+the red music. The singer's face brightened as he tummed and sang with
+peculiar grace notes and throat warbles of "Kaluscap's war with the
+magi," and the spirit of his people, rising to the sweet magic of
+melody, came shining in his eyes. He sang the lovers' song, "The Bark
+Canoe." (See F. R. Burton's "American Primitive Music.)
+
+"While the stars shine and falls the dew, I seek my love in bark canoe."
+
+And then the cradle song,
+
+     "The Naked Bear Shall Never Catch Thee."
+
+When he stopped, he stared at the fire; and after a long pause Rolf
+ventured, "My mother would have loved your songs."
+
+Whether he heard or not, the warm emanation surely reached the Indian,
+and he began to answer the question of an hour before:
+
+"Her name was Gamowini, for she sang like the sweet night bird at
+Asamuk. I brought her from her father's house at Saugatuck. We lived at
+Myanos. She made beautiful baskets and moccasins. I fished and trapped;
+we had enough. Then the baby came. He had big round eyes, so we called
+him Wee-wees, 'our little owl,' and we were very happy. When Gamowini
+sang to her baby, the world seemed full of sun. One day when Wee-wees
+could walk she left him with me and she went to Stamford with some
+baskets to sell. A big ship was in the harbour. A man from the ship told
+her that his sailors would buy all her baskets. She had no fear. On the
+ship they seized her for a runaway slave, and hid her till they sailed
+away.
+
+"When she did not come back I took Wee-wees on my shoulder and went
+quickly to Stamford. I soon found out a little, but the people did not
+know the ship, or whence she came, or where she went, they said. They
+did not seem to care. My heart grew hotter and wilder. I wanted to
+fight. I would have killed the men on the dock, but they were many. They
+bound me and put me in jail for three months. 'When I came out Wee-wees
+was dead. They did not care. I have heard nothing since. Then I went to
+live under the rock, so I should not see our first home. I do not know;
+she may be alive. But I think it killed her to lose her baby."
+
+The Indian stopped; then rose quickly. His face was hard set. He stepped
+out into the snowstorm and the night. Rolf was left alone with Skookum.
+
+Sad, sad, everything seemed sad in his friend's life, and Rolf, brooding
+over it with wisdom beyond his years, could not help asking: "Had Quonab
+and Gamowini been white folk, would it have happened so? Would his agony
+have been received with scornful indifference?" Alas! he knew it would
+not. He realized it would have been a very different tale, and the
+sequent questions that would not down, were, "Will this bread cast
+on the waters return after many days?" "Is there a God of justice and
+retribution?" "On whom will the flail of vengeance fall for all these
+abominations?"
+
+Two hours later the Indian returned. No word was spoken as he entered.
+He was not cold. He must have walked far. Rolf prepared for bed. The
+Indian stooped, picked up a needle from the dusty ground, one that had
+been lost the day before, silently handed it to his companion, who gave
+only a recognizant "Hm," and dropped it into the birch-bark box.
+
+
+
+Chapter 44. The Lost Bundle of Furs
+
+There had been a significant cessation of robbery on their trap line
+after the inconclusive visit to the enemy's camp. But a new and extreme
+exasperation arose in the month of March, when the alternation of thaw
+and frost had covered the snow with a hard crust that rendered snowshoes
+unnecessary and made it easy to run anywhere and leave no track.
+
+They had gathered up a fisher and some martens before they reached the
+beaver pond. They had no beaver traps now, but it was interesting to
+call and see how many of the beavers were left, and what they were
+doing.
+
+Bubbling springs on the bank of the pond had made open water at several
+places, now that the winter frost was weakening. Out of these the
+beavers often came, as was plainly seen in the tracks, so the trappers
+approached them carefully.
+
+They were scrutinizing one of them from behind a log, Quonab with ready
+gun, Rolf holding the unwilling Skookum, when the familiar broad, flat
+head appeared. A large beaver swam around the hole, sniffed and looked,
+then silently climbed the bank, evidently making for a certain aspen
+tree that he had already been cutting. He was in easy range, and the
+gunner was about to fire when Rolf pressed his arm and pointed. Here,
+wandering through the wood, came a large lynx. It had not seen or smelt
+any of the living creatures ahead, as yet, but speedily sighted the
+beaver now working away to cut down his tree.
+
+As a pelt, the beaver was worth more than the lynx, but the naturalist
+is strong in most hunters, and they watched to see what would happen.
+
+The lynx seemed to sink into the ground, and was lost to sight as soon
+as he knew of a possible prey ahead. And now he began his stalk. The
+hunters sighted him once as he crossed a level opening in the snow. He
+seemed less than four inches high as he crawled. Logs, ridges, trees,
+or twigs, afforded ample concealment, till his whiskers appeared in a
+thicket within fifteen feet of the beaver.
+
+All this was painfully exciting to Skookum, who, though he could not
+see, could get some thrilling whiffs, and he strained forward to improve
+his opportunities. The sound of this slight struggle caught the beaver's
+ear. It stopped work, wheeled, and made for the water hole. The lynx
+sprang from his ambush, seized the beaver by the back, and held on;
+but the beaver was double the lynx's weight, the bank was steep and
+slippery, the struggling animals kept rolling down hill, nearer and
+nearer the hole. Then, on the very edge, the beaver gave a great plunge,
+and splashed into the water with the lynx clinging to its back. At once
+they disappeared, and the hunters rushed to the place, expecting them to
+float up and be an easy prey; but they did not float. At length it was
+clear that the pair had gone under the ice, for in water the beaver was
+master.
+
+After five minutes it was certain that the lynx must be dead. Quonab cut
+a sapling and made a grappler. He poked this way and that way under the
+ice, until at length he felt something soft. With the hatchet they cut
+a hole over the place and then dragged out the body of the lynx. The
+beaver, of course, escaped and was probably little the worse.
+
+While Quonab skinned the catch, Rolf prowled around the pond and soon
+came running back to tell of a remarkable happening.
+
+At another open hole a beaver had come out, wandered twenty yards to a
+mound which he had castorized, then passed several hard wood trees to
+find a large poplar or aspen, the favourite food tree. This he had begun
+to fell with considerable skill, but for some strange reason, perhaps
+because alone, he had made a miscalculation, and when the tree came
+crashing down, it had fallen across his back, killed him, and pinned him
+to the ground.
+
+It was an easy matter for the hunters to remove the log and secure his
+pelt, so they left the beaver pond, richer than they had expected.
+
+Next night, when they reached their half-way shanty, they had the best
+haul they had taken on this line since the memorable day when they got
+six beavers.
+
+The morning dawned clear and bright. As they breakfasted, they noticed
+an extraordinary gathering of ravens far away to the north, beyond any
+country they had visited. At least twenty or thirty of the birds were
+sailing in great circles high above a certain place, uttering a deep,
+sonorous croak, from time to time. Occasionally one of the ravens would
+dive down out of sight.
+
+"Why do they fly above that way?"
+
+"That is to let other ravens know there is food here. Their eyes are
+very good. They can see the signal ten miles away, so all come to the
+place. My father told me that you can gather all the ravens for twenty
+miles by leaving a carcass so they can see it and signal each other."
+
+"Seems as if we should look into that. Maybe another panther," was
+Rolf's remark.
+
+The Indian nodded; so leaving the bundle of furs in a safe place with
+the snowshoes, that they carried on a chance, they set out over the
+hard crust. It was two or three miles to the ravens' gathering, and, as
+before, it proved to be over a cedar brake where was a deer yard.
+
+Skookum knew all about it. He rushed into the woods, filled with the
+joy of martial glory. But speedily came running out again as hard as
+he could, yelling "yow, yow, yowl" for help, while swiftly following,
+behind him were a couple of gray wolves. Quonab waited till they were
+within forty yards; then, seeing the men, the wolves slowed up and
+veered; Quonab fired; one of the wolves gave a little, doglike yelp.
+Then they leaped into the bushes and were lost to view.
+
+A careful study of the snow showed one or two trifling traces of blood.
+In the deer yard they found at least a dozen carcasses of deer killed by
+the wolves, but none very recent. They saw but few deer and nothing more
+of the wolves, for the crust had made all the country easy, and both
+kinds fled before the hunters.
+
+Exploring a lower level of willow country in hopes of finding beaver
+delayed them, and it was afternoon when they returned to the half-way
+shanty, to find everything as they left it, except that their Pack of
+furs had totally disappeared.
+
+Of course, the hard crust gave no sign of track. Their first thought
+was of the old enemy, but, seeking far and near for evidence, they found
+pieces of an ermine skin, and a quarter mile farther, the rest of it,
+then, at another place, fragments of a muskrat's skin. Those made it
+look like the work of the trapper's enemy, the wolverine, which, though
+rare, was surely found in these hills. Yes! there was a wolverine
+scratch mark, and here another piece of the rat skin. It was very clear
+who was the thief.
+
+"He tore up the cheapest ones of the lot anyway," said Rolf.
+
+Then the trappers stared at each other significantly--only the cheap
+ones destroyed; why should a wolverine show such discrimination? There
+was no positive sign of wolverine; in fact, the icy snow gave no sign of
+anything. There was little doubt that the tom furs and the scratch marks
+were there to mislead; that this was the work of a human robber, almost
+certainly Hoag.
+
+He had doubtless seen them leave in the morning, and it was equally
+sure, since he had had hours of start, he would now be far away.
+
+"Ugh! Give him few days to think he safe, then I follow and settle all,"
+and this time the Indian clearly meant to end the matter.
+
+
+
+Chapter 45. The Subjugation of Hoag
+
+     A feller as weeps for pity and never does a finger-tap to
+     help is 'bout as much use as an overcoat on a drowning man.
+     --Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+SOME remarkable changes of weather made some remarkable changes in their
+plan and saved their enemy from immediate molestation. For two weeks it
+was a succession of thaws and there was much rain. The lake was covered
+with six inches of water; the river had a current above the ice, that
+was rapidly eating, the latter away. Everywhere there were slush and wet
+snow that put an end to travel and brought on the spring with a rush.
+
+Each night there was, indeed, a trifling frost, but each day's sun
+seemed stronger, and broad, bare patches of ground appeared on all sunny
+slopes.
+
+On the first crisp day the trappers set out to go the rounds, knowing
+full well that this was the end of the season. Henceforth for six months
+deadfall and snare would lie idle and unset.
+
+They went their accustomed line, carrying their snowshoes, but rarely
+needing them. Then they crossed a large track to which Quonab pointed,
+and grunted affirmatively as Rolf said "Bear?" Yes! the bears were about
+once more; their winter sleep was over. Now they were fat and the fur
+was yet prime; in a month they would be thin and shedding. Now is the
+time for bear hunting with either trap or dog.
+
+Doubtless Skookum thought the party most fortunately equipped in the
+latter respect, but no single dog is enough to bay a bear. There must
+be three or four to bother him behind, to make him face about and fight;
+one dog merely makes him run faster.
+
+They had no traps, and knowing that a spring bear is a far traveller,
+they made no attempt to follow.
+
+The deadfalls yielded two martens, but one of them was spoiled by the
+warm weather. They learned at last that the enemy had a trap-line, for
+part of which he used their deadfalls. He had been the rounds lately and
+had profited at least a little by their labours.
+
+The track, though two days old, was not hard to follow, either on snow
+or ground. Quonab looked to the lock of his gun; his lower lip tightened
+and he strode along.
+
+"What are you going to do, Quonab? Not shoot?"
+
+"When I get near enough," and the dangerous look in the red man's eye
+told Rolf to be quiet and follow.
+
+In three miles they passed but three of his marten traps--very lazy
+trapping--and then found a great triangle of logs by a tree with a bait
+and signs enough to tell the experienced eye that, in that corner, was
+hidden a huge steel trap for bear.
+
+They were almost too late in restraining the knowledge-hunger of
+Skookum. They went on a mile or two and realized in so doing that,
+however poor a trapper the enemy might be, he was a good tramper and
+knew the country.
+
+At sundown they came to their half-way shelter and put up there for the
+night. Once when Rolf went out to glimpse the skies before turning in,
+he heard a far tree creaking and wondered, for it was dead calm. Even
+Skookum noticed it. But it was not repeated. Next morning they went on.
+
+There are many quaint sounds in the woods at all times, the rasping
+of trees, at least a dozen different calls by jays, twice as many by
+ravens, and occasional notes from chicadees, grouse, and owls. The
+quadrupeds in general are more silent, but the red squirrel is ever
+about and noisy, as well as busy.
+
+Far-reaching sounds are these echoes of the woods--some of them very
+far. Probably there were not five minutes of the day or night when some
+weird, woodland chatter, scrape, crack, screech, or whistle did not
+reach the keen ears of that ever-alert dog. That is, three hundred times
+a day his outer ear submitted to his inner ear some report of things
+a-doing, which same report was as often for many days disregarded as of
+no interest or value. But this did not mean that he missed anything; the
+steady tramp, tramp of their feet, while it dulled all sounds for the
+hunter, seemed to have no effect on Skookum. Again the raspy squeal of
+some far tree reached his inmost brain, and his hair rose as he stopped
+and gave a low "woof."
+
+The hunters held still; the wise ones always do, when a dog says "Stop!"
+They waited. After a few minutes it came again--merely the long-drawn
+creak of a tree bough, wind-rubbed on its neighbour.
+
+And yet, "Woof, woof, woof," said Skookum, and ran ahead.
+
+"Come back, you little fool!" cried Rolf.
+
+But Skookum had a mind of his own. He trotted ahead, then stopped,
+paused, and sniffed at something in the snow. The Indian picked it up.
+It was the pocket jackscrew that every bear trapper carries to set the
+powerful trap, and without which, indeed, one man cannot manage the
+springs.
+
+He held it up with "Ugh! Hoag in trouble now." Clearly the rival trapper
+had lost this necessary tool.
+
+But the finding was an accident. Skookum pushed on. They came along a
+draw to a little hollow. The dog, far forward, began barking and angrily
+baying at something. The men hurried to the scene to find on the snow,
+fast held in one of those devilish engines called a bear trap--the body
+of their enemy--Hoag, the trapper, held by a leg, and a hand in the gin
+he himself had been setting.
+
+A fierce light played on the Indian's face. Rolf was stricken with
+horror. But even while they contemplated the body, the faint cry was
+heard again coming from it.
+
+"He's alive; hurry!" cried Rolf. The Indian did not hurry, but he came.
+He had vowed vengeance at sight; why should he haste to help?
+
+The implacable iron jaws had clutched the trapper by one knee and the
+right hand. The first thing was to free him. How? No man has power
+enough to force that spring. But the jackscrew!
+
+"Quonab, help him! For God's sake, come!" cried Rolf in agony,
+forgetting their feud and seeing only tortured, dying man.
+
+The Indian gazed a moment, then rose quickly, and put on the jackscrew.
+Under his deft fingers the first spring went down, but what about the
+other? They had no other screw. The long buckskin line they always
+carried was quickly lashed round and round the down spring to hold it.
+Then the screw was removed and put on the other spring; it bent, and the
+jaws hung loose. The Indian forced them wide open, drew out the mangled
+limbs, a the trapper was free, but so near death, it seemed they were
+too late.
+
+Rolf spread his coat. The Indian made a fire. In fifteen minutes they
+were pouring hot tea between victim's lips. Even as they did, his feeble
+throat gave out again the long, low moan.
+
+The weather was mild now. The prisoner was not actually frozen, but
+numbed and racked. Heat, hot tea, kindly rubbing, and he revived a
+little.
+
+At first they thought him dying, but in an hour recovered enough to
+talk. In feeble accents and broken phrases they learned the tale:
+
+"Yest--m-m-m. Yesterday--no; two or three days back--m-m-m-m-m--I dunno;
+I was a goin'--roun' me traps--me bear traps. Didn't have no luck m-m-m
+(yes, I'd like another sip; ye ain't got no whiskey no?) m-m-m. Nothing
+in any trap, and when I come to this un--oh-h--m-m; I seen--the bait
+was stole by birds, an' the pan--m-m-m; an' the pan, m-m-m--(yes, that's
+better)--an' the pan laid bare. So I starts to cover it with--ce-ce-dar;
+the ony thing I c'd get--m-m-m-w---wuz leanin' over--to fix tother
+side--me foot slipped on--the--ice--ev'rything was icy--an'--m-m-m-m--I
+lost--me balance--me knee the pan--O Lord--how I suffer!--m-m-m it
+grabbed me--knee an'--h-h-hand--" His voice died to a whisper and
+ceased; he seemed sinking.
+
+Quonab got up to hold him. Then, looking at Rolf, Indian shook his
+head as though to say all was over; the poor wretch had a woodman's
+constitution, and in spite of a mangled, dying body, he revived again.
+They gave him more hot tea, and again he began in a whisper:
+
+"I hed one arm free an'--an'--an'--I might--a--got out--m-m--but I hed
+no wrench--I lost it some place--m-m-m-m.
+
+"Then--I yelled--I dun--no--maybe some un might hear--it kin-kin-kinder
+eased me--to yell m-m-m.
+
+"Say--make that yer dog keep--away--will yer I dunno--it seems like a
+week--must a fainted some M-m-m--I yelled--when I could."
+
+There was a long pause. Rolf said, "Seems to me I heard you last night,
+when we were up there. And dog heard you, too. Do you want me to move
+that leg around?"
+
+"M-m-m--yeh--that's better--say, you air white--ain't ye? Ye won't leave
+me--cos--I done some mean things--m-m-m. Ye won't, will ye?"
+
+"No, you needn't worry--we'll stay by ye."
+
+Then he muttered, they could not tell what. He closed his eyes. After
+long silence he looked around wildly and began again:
+
+"Say--I done you dirt--but don't leave me--don't leave me." Tears ran
+down his face and he moaned piteously. "I'll--make it--right--you're
+white, ain't ye?"
+
+Quonab rose and went for more firewood. The trapper whispered, "I'm
+scared o' him--now--he'll do me--say, I'm jest a poor ole man. If I do
+live--through--this--m-m-m-m--I'll never walk again. I'm crippled sure."
+
+It was long before he resumed. Then he began: "Say, what day is
+it--Friday!--I must--been two days in there--m-m-m--I reckoned it was a
+week. When--the--dog came I thought it was wolves. Oh--ah, didn't care
+much--m-m-m. Say, ye won't leave me--coz--coz--I treated--ye mean.
+I--ain't had no l-l-luck." He went off into a stupor, but presently let
+out a long, startling cry, the same as that they had heard in the night.
+The dog growled; the men stared. The wretch's eyes were rolling again.
+He seemed delirious.
+
+Quonab pointed to the east, made the sun-up sign, and shook his head at
+the victim. And Rolf understood it to mean that he would never see the
+sunrise. But they were wrong.
+
+The long night passed in a struggle between heath and the tough make-up
+of a mountaineer. The waiting light of dawn saw death defeated,
+retiring from the scene. As the sun rose high, the victim seemed to gain
+considerably in strength. There was no immediate danger of an end.
+
+Rolf said to Quonab: "Where shall we take him? Guess you better go home
+for the toboggan, and we'll fetch him to the shanty."
+
+But the invalid was able to take part in the conversation. "Say, don't
+take me there. Ah--want to go home. 'Pears like--I'd be better at home.
+My folks is out Moose River way. I'd never get out if I went in
+there," and by "there" he seemed to mean the Indian's lake, and glanced
+furtively at the unchanging countenance of the red man.
+
+"Have you a toboggan at your shanty?" asked Rolf.
+
+"Yes--good enough--it's on the roof--say," and he beckoned feebly to
+Rolf, "let him go after it--don't leave me--he'll kill me," and he wept
+feebly in his self pity.
+
+So Quonab started down the mountain--a sinewy man--a striding form, a
+speck in the melting distance.
+
+
+
+Chapter 46. Nursing Hoag
+
+In two hours the red man reached the trapper's shanty, and at once,
+without hesitation or delicacy, set about a thorough examination of its
+contents. Of course there was the toboggan on the roof, and in fairly
+good condition for such a shiftless owner.
+
+There were bunches of furs hanging from the rafters, but not many, for
+fur taking is hard work; and Quonab, looking suspiciously over them,
+was 'not surprised to see the lynx skin he had lost, easily known by the
+absence of wound and the fur still in points as it had dried from the
+wetting. In another bundle, he discovered the beaver that had killed
+itself, for there was the dark band across its back.
+
+The martens he could not be sure of, but he had a strong suspicion that
+most of this fur came out of his own traps.
+
+He tied Hoag's blankets on the toboggan, and hastened back to where he
+left the two on the mountain.
+
+Skookum met him long before he was near. Skookum did not enjoy Hoag's
+company.
+
+The cripple had been talking freely to Rolf, but the arrival of the
+Indian seemed to suppress him.
+
+With the wounded man on the toboggan, they set out, The ground was bare
+in many places, so that the going was hard; but, fortunately, it was all
+down hill, and four hours' toil brought them to the cabin.
+
+They put the sick man in his bunk, then Rolf set about preparing a meal,
+while Quonab cut wood.
+
+After the usual tea, bacon, and flour cakes, all were feeling refreshed.
+Hoag seemed much more like himself. He talked freely, almost cheerfully,
+while Quonab, with Skookum at his feet, sat silently smoking and staring
+into the fire.
+
+After a long silence, the Indian turned, looked straight at the trapper,
+and, pointing with his pipestem to the furs, said, "How many is ours?"
+
+Hoag looked scared, then sulky, and said; "I dunno what ye mean. I'm a
+awful sick man. You get me out to Lyons Falls all right, and ye can have
+the hull lot," and he wept.
+
+Rolf shook his head at Quonab, then turned to the sufferer and said:
+"Don't you worry; we'll get you out all right. Have you a good canoe?"
+
+"Pretty fair; needs a little fixing."
+
+The night passed with one or two breaks, when the invalid asked for a
+drink of water. In the morning he was evidently recovering, and they
+began to plan for the future.
+
+He took the first chance of wispering to Rolf, "Can't you send him away?
+I'll be all right with you." Rolf said nothing.
+
+"Say," he continued, "say, young feller, what's yer name?"
+
+"Rolf Kittering."
+
+"Say, Rolf, you wait a week or ten days, and the ice 'll be out; then
+I'll be fit to travel. There ain't on'y a few carries between here an'
+Lyons Falls."
+
+After a long pause, due to Quonab's entry, he continued again: "Moose
+River's good canoeing; ye can get me out in five days; me folks is at
+Lyons Falls." He did not say that his folks consisted of a wife and boy
+that he neglected, but whom he counted on to nurse him now.
+
+Rolf was puzzled by the situation.
+
+"Say! I'll give ye all them furs if ye git me out." Rolf gave him a
+curious look--as much as to say, "Ye mean our furs."
+
+Again the conversation was ended by the entry of Quonab.
+
+Rolf stepped out, taking the Indian with him. They had a long talk,
+then, as Rolf reentered, the sick man began:
+
+"You stay by me, and git me out. I'll give ye my rifle"--then, after a
+short silence--"an' I'll throw in all the traps an' the canoe."
+
+"I'll stay by you," said Rolf, "and in about two weeks we'll take you
+down to Lyons Falls. I guess you can guide us."
+
+"Ye can have all them pelts," and again the trapper presented the spoils
+he had stolen, "an' you bet it's your rifle when ye get me out."
+
+So it was arranged. But it was necessary for Quonab to go back to their
+own cabin. Now what should he do? Carry the new lot of fur there, or
+bring the old lot here to dispose of all at Lyons Falls?
+
+Rolf had been thinking hard. He had seen the evil side of many men,
+including Hoag. To go among Hoag's people with a lot of stuff that Hoag
+might claim was running risks, so he said:
+
+"Quonab, you come back in not more than ten days. We'll take a few furs
+to Lyons Falls so we can get supplies. Leave the rest of them in good
+shape, so we can go out later to Warren's. We'll get a square deal
+there, and we don't know what at Lyon's."
+
+So they picked out the lynx, the beaver, and a dozen martens to leave,
+and making the rest into a pack, Quonab shouldered them, and followed by
+Skookum, trudged up the mountain and was lost to view in the woods.
+
+The ten days went by very slowly. Hoag was alternately querulous,
+weeping, complaining, unpleasantly fawning, or trying to insure good
+attention by presenting again and again the furs, the gun, and the
+canoe.
+
+Rolf found it pleasant to get away from the cabin when the weather was
+fine. One day, taking Hoag's gun, he travelled up the nearest stream for
+a mile, and came on a big beaver pond. Round this he scouted and soon
+discovered a drowned beaver, held in a trap which he recognized at once,
+for it had the (" ' "') mark on the frame. Then he found an empty trap
+with a beaver leg in it, and another, till six traps were found. Then
+he gathered up the six and the beaver, and returned to the cabin to be
+greeted with a string of complaints:
+
+"Ye didn't ought to leave me like this. I'm paying ye well enough. I
+don't ax no favours," etc.
+
+"See what I got," and Rolf showed the beaver. "An' see what I found;"
+then he showed the traps. "Queer, ain't it," he went on, "we had six
+traps just like them, and I marked the face just like these, and they
+all disappeared, and there was a snowshoe trail pointing this way. You
+haven't got any crooked neighbours about here, have you?"
+
+The trapper looked sulky and puzzled, and grumbled, "I bet it was Bill
+Hawkins done it"; then relapsed into silence.
+
+
+
+Chapter 47. Hoag's Home-coming
+
+     When it comes to personal feelin's better let yer friends
+     do the talkin' and jedgin'.  A man can't handle his own
+     case any more than a delirious doctor kin give hisself the
+     right physic--Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+The coming of springtime in the woods is one of the gentlest, sweetest
+advents in the world. Sometimes there are heavy rains which fill all the
+little rivers with an overflood that quickly eats away the ice and snow,
+but usually the woodland streams open, slowly and gradually. Very rarely
+is there a spate, an upheaval, and a cataclysmal sweep that bursts the
+ice and ends its reign in an hour or two. That is the way of the large
+rivers, whose ice is free and floating. The snow in the forest melts
+slowly, and when the ice is attacked, it goes gradually, gently, without
+uproar. The spring comes in the woods with swelling of buds and a
+lengthening of drooping catkins, with honking of wild geese, and cawing
+of crows coming up from the lower countries to divide with their larger
+cousins, the ravens, the spoils of winter's killing.
+
+The small birds from the South appear with a few short notes of spring,
+and the pert chicadees that have braved it all winter, now lead the
+singing with their cheery "I told you so" notes, till robins and
+blackbirds join in, and with their more ambitious singing make all the
+lesser roundelays forgot.
+
+Once the winter had taken a backward step--spring found it easy to turn
+retreat into panic and rout; and the ten days Quonab stayed away were
+days of revolutionary change. For in them semi-winter gave place to
+smiling spring, with all the snow-drifts gone, except perhaps in the
+shadiest hollows of the woods.
+
+It was a bright morning, and a happy one for Rolf, when he heard the
+Indian's short "Ho," outside, and a minute later had Skookum dancing and
+leaping about him. On Hoag the effect was quite different. He was well
+enough to be up, to hobble about painfully on a stick; to be exceedingly
+fault-finding, and to eat three hearty meals a day; but the moment the
+Indian appeared, he withdrew into himself, and became silent and uneasy.
+Before an hour passed, he again presented the furs, the gun, the canoe,
+and the traps to Rolf, on condition that he should get him out to his
+folks.
+
+All three were glad to set out that very day on the outward trip to
+Lyons Falls.
+
+Down Little Moose River to Little Moose Lake and on to South Branch of
+Moose, then by the Main Moose, was their way. The streams were flush;
+there was plenty of water, and this fortunately reduced the number of
+carries; for Hoag could not walk and would not hobble. They sweat and
+laboured to carry him over every portage; but they covered the fifty
+miles in three days, and on the evening of the third, arrived at the
+little backwoods village of Lyons Falls.
+
+The change that took place in Hoag now was marked and unpleasant. He
+gave a number of orders, where, the day before, he would have made
+whining petitions. He told them to "land easy, and don't bump my canoe."
+He hailed the loungers about the mill with an effusiveness that they did
+not respond to. Their cool, "Hello, Jack, are you back?" was little but
+a passing recognition. One of them was persuaded to take Rolf's place in
+carrying Hoag to his cabin. Yes, his folks were there, but they did not
+seem overjoyed at his arrival. He whispered to the boy, who sullenly
+went out to the river and returned with the rifle, Rolf's rifle now, the
+latter supposed, and would have taken the bundle of furs had not Skookum
+sprung on the robber and driven him away from the canoe.
+
+And now Hoag showed his true character. "Them's my furs and my canoe,"
+he said to one of the mill hands, and turning to the two who had saved
+him, he said: "An' you two dirty, cutthroat, redskin thieves, you can
+get out of town as fast as ye know how, or I'll have ye jugged," and all
+the pent-up hate of his hateful nature frothed out in words insulting
+and unprintable.
+
+"Talks like a white man," said Quonab coldly. Rolf was speechless.
+To toil so devotedly, and to have such filthy, humiliating words for
+thanks! He wondered if even his Uncle Mike would have shown so vile a
+spirit.
+
+Hoag gave free rein to his tongue, and found in his pal, Bill Hawkins,
+one with ready ears to hear his tale of woe. The wretch began to feel
+himself frightfully ill-used. So, fired at last by the evermore lurid
+story of his wrongs, the "partner" brought the magistrate, so they could
+swear out a warrant, arrest the two "outlaws," and especially secure the
+bundle of "Hoag's furs" in the canoe.
+
+Old Silas Sylvanne, the mill-owner and pioneer of the place, was also
+its magistrate. He was tall, thin, blacklooking, a sort of Abe Lincoln
+in type, physically, and in some sort, mentally. He heard the harrowing
+tale of terrible crime, robbery, and torture, inflicted on poor harmless
+Hoag by these two ghouls in human shape; he listened, at first shocked,
+but little by little amused.
+
+"You don't get no warrant till I hear from the other side," he said.
+Roff and Quonab came at call. The old pioneer sized up the two, as they
+stood, then, addressing Rolf, said:
+
+"Air you an Injun?" "No, sir." "Air you half-breed?" "No, sir." "Well,
+let's hear about this business," and he turned his piercing eyes full on
+the lad's face.
+
+Rolf told the simple, straight story of their acquaintance with Hoag,
+from the first day at Warren's to their arrival at the Falls. There is
+never any doubt about the truth of a true story, if it be long enough,
+and this true story, presented in its nakedness to the shrewd and kindly
+old hunter, trader, mill-owner and magistrate, could have only one
+effect.
+
+"Sonny," he said, slowly and kindly, "I know that ye have told me the
+truth. I believe every word of it. We all know that Hoag is the meanest
+cuss and biggest liar on the river. He's a nuisance, and always was.
+He only promised to give ye the canoe and the rifle, and since he don't
+want to, we can't help it. About the trouble in the woods, you got two
+witnesses to his one, and ye got the furs and the traps; it's just as
+well ye left the other furs behind, or ye might have had to divide 'em;
+so keep them and call the hull thing square. We'll find ye a canoe to
+get out of this gay metropolis, and as to Hoag, ye needn't a-worry; his
+travelling days is done."
+
+A man with a bundle of high-class furs is a man of means in any frontier
+town. The magistrate was trader, too, so they set about disposing of
+their furs and buying the supplies they needed.
+
+The day was nearly done before their new canoe was gummed and ready with
+the new supplies. When dealing, old Sylvanne had a mild, quiet manner,
+and a peculiar way of making funny remarks that led some to imagine he
+was "easy" in business; but it was usual to find at the end that he had
+lost nothing by his manners, and rival traders shunned an encounter with
+Long Sylvanne of the unruffled brow.
+
+When business was done--keen and complete--he said: "Now, I'm a goin' to
+give each of ye a present," and handed out two double-bladed jackknives,
+new things in those days, wonderful things, precious treasures in their
+eyes, sources of endless joy; and even had they known that one marten
+skin would buy a quart of them, their pleasant surprise and childish joy
+would not have been in any way tempered or alloyed.
+
+"Ye better eat with me, boys, an' start in the morning." So they joined
+the miller's long, continuous family, and shared his evening meal.
+Afterward as they sat for three hours and smoked on the broad porch that
+looked out on the river, old Sylvanne, who had evidently taken a
+fancy to Rolf, regaled them with a long, rambling talk on "fellers and
+things," that was one of the most interesting Rolf had ever listened to.
+At the time it was simply amusing; it was not till years after that the
+lad realized by its effect on himself, its insight, and its hold on his
+memory, that Si Sylvanne's talk was real wisdom. Parts of it would not
+look well in print; but the rugged words, the uncouth Saxonism, the
+obscene phrase, were the mere oaken bucket in which the pure and
+precious waters were hauled to the surface.
+
+"Looked like he had ye pinched when that shyster got ye in to Lyons
+Falls. Wall, there's two bad places for Jack Hoag; one is where they
+don't know him at all, an' take him on his looks; an' t'other is where
+they know him through and through for twenty years, like we hev. A smart
+rogue kin put up a false front fer a year or maybe two, but given twenty
+year to try him, for and bye, summer an' winter, an' I reckon a man's
+make is pretty well showed up, without no dark corners left unexplored.
+
+"Not that I want to jedge him harsh, coz I don't know what kind o'
+maggots is eatin' his innards to make him so ornery. I'm bound to
+suppose he has 'em, or he wouldn't act so dum like it. So I says, go
+slow and gentle before puttin' a black brand on any feller; as my mother
+used to say, never say a bad thing till ye ask, 'Is it true, is it kind,
+is it necessary?' An' I tell you, the older I git, the slower I jedge;
+when I wuz your age, I wuz a steel trap on a hair trigger, an' cocksure.
+I tell you, there ain't anythin' wiser nor a sixteen-year-old boy, 'cept
+maybe a fifteen-year-old girl.
+
+"Ye'll genilly find, lad, jest when things looks about as black as they
+kin look, that's the sign of luck a-comin' your way, pervidin' ye hold
+steady, keep cool and kind; something happens every time to make it all
+easy. There's always a way, an' the stout heart will find it.
+
+"Ye may be very sure o' this, boy, yer never licked till ye think ye air
+an' if ye won't think it, ye can't be licked. It's just the same as
+being sick. I seen a lot o' doctorin' in my day, and I'm forced to
+believe there ain't any sick folks 'cept them that thinks they air sick.
+
+"The older I git, the more I'm bound to consider that most things is
+inside, anyhow, and what's outside don't count for much.
+
+"So it stands to reason when ye play the game for what's inside, ye win
+over all the outside players. When ye done kindness to Hoag, ye mightn't
+a meant it, but ye was bracin' up the goodness in yerself, or bankin' it
+up somewher' on the trail ahead, where it was needed. And he was
+simply chawin' his own leg off, when he done ye dirt. I ain't much o'
+a prattlin' Christian, but I reckon as a cold-blooded, business
+proposition it pays to lend the neighbour a hand; not that I go much on
+gratitude. It's scarcer'n snowballs in hell--which ain't the point;
+but I take notice there ain't any man'll hate ye more'n the feller that
+knows he's acted mean to ye. An' there ain't any feller more ready to
+fight yer battles than the chap that by some dum accident has hed the
+luck to help ye, even if he only done it to spite some one else--which
+'minds me o' McCarthy's bull pup that saved the drowning kittens by
+mistake, and ever after was a fightin' cat protector, whereby he lost
+the chief joy o' his life, which had been cat-killin'. An' the way they
+cured the cat o' eatin' squirrels was givin' her a litter o' squirrels
+to raise.
+
+"I tell ye there's a lot o' common-sense an' kindness in the country,
+only it's so dum slow to git around; while the cussedness and meanness
+always acts like they felt the hell fire sizzlin' their hind-end
+whiskers, an' knowed they had jest so many minutes to live an' make a
+record. There's where a man's smart that fixes things so he kin hold out
+a long time, fer the good stuff in men's minds is what lasts; and the
+feller what can stay with it hez proved hisself by stayin'. How'd ye
+happen to tie up with the Injun, Rolf?"
+
+"Do ye want me to tell it long or short?" was the reply. "Wall, short,
+fer a start," and Silas Sylvanne chuckled.
+
+So Rolf gave a very brief account of his early life.
+
+"Pretty good," said the miller; "now let's hear it long."
+
+And when he had finished, the miller said: "I've seen yer tried fer most
+everything that goes to make a man, Rolf, an' I hev my own notion of the
+results. You ain't goin' to live ferever in them hills. When ye've hed
+yer fling an' want a change, let me know."
+
+Early next day the two hunters paddled up the Moose River with a good
+canoe, an outfit of groceries, and a small supply of ready cash.
+
+"Good-bye, lad, good-bye! Come back again and ye'll find we improve on
+acquaintance; an' don't forget I'm buying fur," was Si Sylvanne's last
+word. And as they rounded the point, on the home way, Rolf turned in
+the canoe, faced Quonab, and said: "Ye see there are some good white men
+left;" but the Indian neither blinked, nor moved, nor made a sound.
+
+
+
+Chapter 48. Rolf's Lesson in Trailing
+
+The return journey was hard paddling against strong waters, but
+otherwise uneventful. Once over any trail is enough to fix it in the
+memory of a woodman. They made no mistakes and their loads were light,
+so the portages were scarcely any loss of time, and in two days they
+were back at Hoag's cabin.
+
+Of this they took possession. First, they gathered all things of value,
+and that was little since the furs and bedding were gone, but there were
+a few traps and some dishes. The stuff was made in two packs; now it
+was an overland journey, so the canoe was hidden in a cedar thicket,
+a quarter of a mile inland. The two were about to shoulder the packs,
+Quonab was lighting his pipe for a start, when Rolf said:
+
+"Say, Quonab! that fellow we saw at the Falls claimed to be Hoag's
+partner. He may come on here and make trouble if we don't head him off.
+Let's burn her," and he nodded toward the shanty.
+
+"Ugh!" was the reply.
+
+They gathered some dry brush and a lot of birch bark, piled them up
+against the wall inside, and threw plenty of firewood on this. With
+flint and steel Quonab made the vital spark, the birch bark sputtered,
+the dry, resinous logs were easily set ablaze, and soon great volumes
+of smoke rolled from the door, the window, and the chimney; and Skookum,
+standing afar, barked pleasantly aloud.
+
+The hunters shouldered their packs and began the long, upward slope. In
+an hour they had reached a high, rocky ridge. Here they stopped to rest,
+and, far below them, marked with grim joy a twisted, leaning column of
+thick black smoke.
+
+That night they camped in the woods and next day rejoiced to be back
+again at their own cabin, their own lake, their home.
+
+Several times during the march they had seen fresh deer tracks, and now
+that the need of meat was felt, Rolf proposed a deer hunt.
+
+Many deer die every winter; some are winter-killed; many are devoured
+by beasts of prey, or killed by hunters; their numbers are at low ebb in
+April, so that now one could not count on finding a deer by roaming at
+random. It was a case for trailing.
+
+Any one can track a deer in the snow. It is not very hard to follow a
+deer in soft ground, when there are no other deer about. But it is very
+hard to take one deer trail and follow it over rocky ground and dead
+leaves, never losing it or changing off, when there are hundreds of deer
+tracks running in all directions.
+
+Rolf's eyes were better than Quonab's, but experience counts for as much
+as eyes, and Quonab was leading. They picked out a big buck track that
+was fresh--no good hunter kills a doe at this season. They knew it for a
+buck, because of its size and the roundness of the toes.
+
+Before long, Rolf said: "See, Quonab, I want to learn this business; let
+me do the trailing, and you set me right if I get off the line."
+
+Within a hundred yards, Quonab gave a grunt and shook his head. Rolf
+looked surprised, for he was on a good, fresh track.
+
+Quonab said but one word, "Doe."
+
+Yes, a closer view showed the tracks to be a little narrower, a little
+closer together, and a little sharper than those he began with.
+
+Back went Rolf to the last marks that he was sure of, and plainly read
+where the buck had turned aside. For a time, things went along smoothly,
+Quonab and Skookum following Rolf. The last was getting very familiar
+with that stub hoof on the left foot. At length they came to the "fumet"
+or "sign"; it was all in one pile. That meant the deer had stood, so was
+unalarmed; and warm; that meant but a few minutes ahead. Now, they must
+use every precaution for this was the crux of the hunt. Of this much
+only they were sure--the deer was within range now, and to get him they
+must see him before he saw them.
+
+Skookum was leashed. Rolf was allowed to get well ahead, and crawling
+cautiously, a step at a time, he went, setting down his moccasined foot
+only after he had tried and selected a place. Once or twice he threw
+into the air a tuft of dry grass to make sure that the wind was right,
+and by slow degrees he reached the edge of a little opening.
+
+Across this he peered long, without entering it. Then he made a sweep
+with his hand and pointed, to let Quonab know the buck had gone across
+and he himself must go around. But he lingered still and with his eyes
+swept the near woods. Then, dim gray among the gray twigs, he saw a
+slight movement, so slight it might have been made by the tail of a
+tomtit. But it fixed his attention, and out of this gray haze he slowly
+made out the outline of a deer's head, antlers, and neck. A hundred
+yards away, but "take a chance when it comes" is hunter wisdom. Rolf
+glanced at the sight, took steady aim, fired, and down went the buck
+behind a log. Skookum whined and leaped high in his eagerness to see.
+Rolf restrained his impatience to rush forward, at once reloaded, then
+all three went quickly to the place. Before they were within fifty
+yards, the deer leaped up and bounded off. At seventy-five yards, it
+stood for a moment to gaze. Rolf fired again; again the buck fell down,
+but jumped to its feet and bounded away.
+
+They went to the two places, but found no blood. Utterly puzzled, they
+gave it up for the day, as already the shades of night were on the
+woods, and in spite of Skookum's voluble offer to solve and settle
+everything, they returned to the cabin.
+
+"What do you make of it, Quonab?'
+
+The Indian shook his head, then: "Maybe touched his head and stunned
+him, first shot; second, wah! I not know."
+
+"I know this," said Rolf. "I touched him and I mean to get him in the
+morning."
+
+True to this resolve, he was there again at dawn, but examined the place
+in vain for a sign of blood. The red rarely shows up much on leaves,
+grass, or dust; but there are two kinds of places that the hunter can
+rely on as telltales--stones and logs. Rolf followed the deer track, now
+very dim, till at a bare place he found a speck of blood on a pebble.
+Here the trail joined onto a deer path, with so many tracks that it was
+hard to say which was the right one. But Rolf passed quickly along to a
+log that crossed the runway, and on that log he found a drop of dried-up
+blood that told him what he wished to know.
+
+Now he had a straight run of a quarter of a mile, and from time to time
+he saw a peculiar scratching mark that puzzled him. Once he found a
+speck of blood at one of these scratches but no other evidence that the
+buck was touched.
+
+A wounded deer is pretty sure to work down hill, and Quonab, leaving
+Skookum with Rolf, climbed a lookout that might show whither the deer
+was heading.
+
+After another half mile, the deer path forked; there were buck trails on
+both, and Rolf could not pick out the one he wanted. He went a few yards
+along each, studying the many marks, but was unable to tell which was
+that of the wounded buck.
+
+Now Skookum took a share in it. He had always been forbidden to run
+deer and knew it was a contraband amusement, but he put his nose to that
+branch of the trail that ran down hill, followed it for a few yards,
+then looked at Rolf, as much as to say: "You poor nose-blind creature;
+don't you know a fresh deer track when you smell it? Here it is; this is
+where he went."
+
+Rolf stared, then said, "I believe he means it"; and followed the lower
+trail. Very soon he came to another scrape, and, just beyond it, found
+the new, velvet-covered antler of a buck, raw and bloody, and splintered
+at the base.
+
+From this on, the task was easier, as there were no other tracks, and
+this was pointing steadily down hill.
+
+Soon Quonab came striding along. He had not seen the buck, but a couple
+of jays and a raven were gathered in a thicket far down by the stream.
+The hunters quit the trail and made for that place. As they drew near,
+they found the track again, and again saw those curious scrapes.
+
+Every hunter knows that the bluejay dashing about a thicket means that
+hidden there is game of some kind, probably deer. Very, very slowly and
+silently they entered that copse. But nothing appeared until there was a
+rush in the thickest part and up leaped the buck. This was too much for
+Skookum. He shot forward like a wolf, fastened on one hind leg, and the
+buck went crashing head over heels. Before it could rise, another shot
+ended its troubles. And now a careful study shed the light desired.
+Rolf's first shot had hit the antler near the base, breaking it, except
+for the skin on one side, and had stunned the buck. The second shot had
+broken a hind leg. The scratching places he had made were efforts to
+regain the use of this limb, and at one of them the deer had fallen and
+parted the rag of skin by which the antler hung.
+
+It was Rolf's first important trailing on the ground; it showed how
+possible it was, and how quickly he was learning the hardest of all the
+feats of woodcraft.
+
+
+
+Chapter 49. Rolf Gets Lost
+
+Every one who lives in the big woods gets lost at some time. Yes, even
+Daniel Boone did sometimes go astray. And whether it is to end as a joke
+or a horrible tragedy depends entirely on the way in which the person
+takes it. This is, indeed, the grand test of a hunter and scout, the
+trial of his knowledge, his muscle, and, above everything, his courage;
+and, like all supreme trials, it comes without warning.
+
+The wonderful flocks of wild pigeons had arrived. For a few days in May
+they were there in millions, swarming over the ground in long-reaching
+hordes, walking along, pecking and feeding, the rearmost flying on
+ahead, ever to the front. The food they sought so eagerly now was
+chiefly the seeds of the slippery elm, tiny nuts showered down on wings
+like broad-brimmed hats. And when the flock arose at some alarm, the
+sound was like that of the sea beach in a storm.
+
+There seemed to be most pigeons in the low country southeast of the
+lake, of course, because, being low, it had most elms. So Rolf took
+his bow and arrows, crossed in the canoe, and confidently set about
+gathering in a dozen or two for broilers.
+
+It is amazing how well the game seems to gauge the range of your weapon
+and keep the exact safe distance. It is marvellous how many times you
+may shoot an arrow into a flock of pigeons and never kill one. Rolf went
+on and on, always in sight of the long, straggling flocks on the ground
+or in the air, but rarely within range of them. Again and again he fired
+a random shot into the distant mass, without success for two hours.
+Finally a pigeon was touched and dropped, but it rose as he ran forward,
+and flew ten yards, to drop once more. Again he rushed at it, but it
+fluttered out of reach and so led him on and on for about half an hour's
+breathless race, until at last he stopped, took deliberate aim, and
+killed it with an arrow.
+
+Now a peculiar wailing and squealing from the woods far ahead attracted
+him. He stalked and crawled for many minutes before he found out, as he
+should have known, that it was caused by a mischievous bluejay.
+
+At length he came to a spring in a low hollow, and leaving his bow and
+arrows on a dry log, he went down to get a drink.
+
+As he arose, he found himself face to face with a doe and a fat,
+little yearling buck, only twenty yards away. They stared at him, quite
+unalarmed, and, determining to add the yearling to his bag, Rolf went
+back quietly to his bow and arrows.
+
+The deer were just out of range now, but inclined to take a curious
+interest in the hunter. Once when he stood still for a long time,
+they walked forward two or three steps; but whenever he advanced, they
+trotted farther away.
+
+To kill a deer with an arrow is quite a feat of woodcraft, and Rolf was
+keen to show his prowess; so he kept on with varying devices, and was
+continually within sight of the success that did not actually arrive.
+
+Then the deer grew wilder and loped away, as he entered another valley
+that was alive with pigeons.
+
+He was feeling hungry now, so he plucked the pigeon he had secured, made
+a fire with the flint and steel he always carried, then roasted the bird
+carefully on a stick, and having eaten it, felt ready for more travel.
+
+The day was cloudy, so he could not see the sun; but he knew it was
+late, and he made for camp.
+
+The country he found himself in was entirely strange to him, and the
+sun's whereabouts doubtful; but he knew the general line of travel and
+strode along rapidly toward the place where he had left the canoe.
+
+After two hours' tramping, he was surprised at not seeing the lake
+through the trees, and he added to his pace.
+
+Three hours passed and still no sign of the water.
+
+He began to think he had struck too far to the north; so corrected his
+course and strode along with occasional spells of trotting. But another
+hour wore away and no lake appeared.
+
+Then Rolf knew he was off his bearings. He climbed a tree and got a
+partial view of the country. To the right was a small hill. He made for
+that. The course led him through a hollow. In this he recognized two
+huge basswood trees, that gave him a reassuring sense. A little farther
+he came on a spring, strangely like the one he had left some hours
+ago. As he stooped to drink, he saw deer tracks, then a human track. He
+studied it. Assuredly it was his own track, though now it seemed on the
+south side instead of the north. He stared at the dead gray sky, hoping
+for sign of sun, but it gave no hint. He tramped off hastily toward the
+hill that promised a lookout. He went faster and faster. In half an hour
+the woods opened a little, then dipped. He hastened down, and at the
+bottom found himself standing by the same old spring, though again it
+had changed its north bearing.
+
+He was stunned by this succession of blows. He knew now he was lost in
+the woods; had been tramping in a circle.
+
+The spring whirled around him; it seemed now north and now south. His
+first impulse was to rush madly northwesterly, as he understood it. He
+looked at all the trees for guidance. Most moss should be on the north
+side. It would be so, if all trees were perfectly straight and evenly
+exposed, but alas! none are so. All lean one way or another, and by
+the moss he could prove any given side to be north. He looked for the
+hemlock top twigs. Tradition says they always point easterly; but now
+they differed among themselves as to which was east.
+
+Rolf got more and more worried. He was a brave boy, but grim fear came
+into his mind as he realized that he was too far from camp to be heard;
+the ground was too leafy for trailing him; without help he could not get
+away from that awful spring. His head began to swim, when all at once he
+remembered a bit of advice his guide had given him long ago: "Don't get
+scared when you're lost. Hunger don't kill the lost man, and it ain't
+cold that does it; it's being afraid. Don't be afraid, and everything
+will come out all right."
+
+So, instead of running, Rolf sat down to think it over.
+
+"Now," said he, "I went due southeast all day from the canoe." Then he
+stopped; like a shock it came to him that he had not seen the sun all
+day. Had he really gone southeast? It was a devastating thought, enough
+to unhinge some men; but again Rolf said to himself "Never mind, now;
+don't get scared, and it'll be all right. In the morning the sky will be
+clear."
+
+As he sat pondering, a red squirrel chippered and scolded from a near
+tree; closer and closer the impudent creature came to sputter at the
+intruder.
+
+Rolf drew his bow, and when the blunt arrow dropped to the ground, there
+also dropped the red squirrel, turned into acceptable meat. Rolf put
+this small game into his pocket, realizing that this was his supper.
+
+It would soon be dark now, so he prepared to spend the night.
+
+While yet he could see, he gathered a pile of dry wood into a sheltered
+hollow. Then he made a wind-break and a bed of balsam boughs. Flint,
+steel, tinder, and birch bark soon created a cheerful fire, and there is
+no better comforter that the lone lost man can command.
+
+The squirrel roasted in its hide proved a passable supper, and Rolf
+curled up to sleep. The night would have been pleasant and uneventful,
+but that it turned chilly, and when the fire burnt low, the cold
+awakened him, so he had a succession of naps and fire-buildings.
+
+Soon after dawn, he heard a tremendous roaring, and in a few minutes the
+wood was filled again with pigeons.
+
+Rolf was living on the country now, so he sallied forth with his bow.
+Luck was with him; at the first shot he downed a big, fat cock. At the
+second he winged another, and as it scrambled through the brush, he
+rushed headlong in pursuit. It fluttered away beyond reach, half-flying,
+half-running, and Rolf, in reckless pursuit, went sliding and tumbling
+down a bank to land at the bottom with a horrid jar. One leg was twisted
+under him; he thought it was broken, for there was a fearful pain in
+the lower part. But when he pulled himself together he found no broken
+bones, indeed, but an ankle badly sprained. Now his situation was truly
+grave, for he was crippled and incapable of travelling.
+
+He had secured the second bird, and crawling painfully and slowly back
+to the fire, he could not but feel more and more despondent and gloomy
+as the measure of his misfortune was realized.
+
+"There is only one thing that can shame a man, that is to be afraid."
+And again, "There's always a way out." These were the sayings that came
+ringing through his head to his heart; one was from Quonab, the other
+from old Sylvanne. Yes, there's always a way, and the stout heart can
+always find it.
+
+Rolf prepared and cooked the two birds, made a breakfast of one and put
+the other in his pocket for lunch, not realizing at the time that his
+lunch would be eaten on this same spot. More than once, as he sat, small
+flocks of ducks flew over the trees due northward. At length the sky,
+now clear, was ablaze with the rising sun, and when it came, it was in
+Rolf's western sky.
+
+Now he comprehended the duck flight. They were really heading southeast
+for their feeding grounds on the Indian Lake, and Rolf, had he been able
+to tramp, could have followed, but his foot was growing worse. It was
+badly swollen, and not likely to be of service for many a day--perhaps
+weeks--and it took all of his fortitude not to lie down and weep over
+this last misfortune.
+
+Again came the figure of that grim, kindly, strong old pioneer, with the
+gray-blue eyes and his voice was saying: "Jest when things looks about
+as black as they can look, if ye hold steady, keep cool and kind,
+something sure happens to make it all easy. There's always a way and the
+stout heart will find it."
+
+What way was there for him? He would die of hunger and cold before
+Quonab could find him, and again came the spectre of fear. If only he
+could devise some way of letting his comrade know. He shouted once or
+twice, in the faint hope that the still air might carry the sound, but
+the silent wood was silent when he ceased.
+
+Then one of his talks with Quonab came to mind. He remembered how the
+Indian, as a little papoose, had been lost for three days. Though, then
+but ten years old, he had built a smoke fire that brought him help.
+Yes, that was the Indian way; two smokes means "I am lost"; "double for
+trouble."
+
+Fired by this new hope, Rolf crawled a little apart from his camp
+and built a bright fire, then smothered it with rotten wood and green
+leaves. The column of smoke it sent up was densely white and towered
+above the trees.
+
+Then painfully he hobbled and crawled to a place one hundred yards away,
+and made another smoke. Now all he could do was wait.
+
+A fat pigeon, strayed from its dock, sat on a bough above his camp, in
+a way to tempt Providence. Rolf drew a blunt arrow to the head and
+speedily had the pigeon in hand for some future meal.
+
+As he prepared it, he noticed that its crop was crammed with the winged
+seed of the slippery elm, so he put them all back again into the body
+when it was cleaned, knowing well that they are a delicious food and in
+this case would furnish a welcome variant to the bird itself.
+
+An hour crawled by. Rolf had to go out to the far fire, for it was
+nearly dead. Instinctively he sought a stout stick to help him; then
+remembered how Hoag had managed with one leg and two crutches. "Ho!" he
+exclaimed. "That is the answer--this is the 'way."'
+
+Now his attention was fixed on all the possible crutches. The trees
+seemed full of them, but all at impossible heights. It was long before
+he found one that he could cut with his knife. Certainly he was an hour
+working at it; then he heard a sound that made his blood jump.
+
+From far away in the north it came, faint but reaching;
+
+"Ye-hoo-o."
+
+Rolf dropped his knife and listened with the instinctively open mouth
+that takes all pressure from the eardrums and makes them keen. It came
+again: "Ye-hoo-o." No mistake now, and Rolf sent the ringing answer
+back:
+
+"Ye-hoo-o, ye-hoo-o."
+
+In ten minutes there was a sharp "yap, yap," and Skookum bounded out of
+the woods to leap and bark around Rolf, as though he knew all about it;
+while a few minutes later, came Quonab striding.
+
+"Ho, boy," he said, with a quiet smile, and took Rolf's hand. "Ugh!
+That was good," and he nodded to the smoke fire. "I knew you were in
+trouble."
+
+"Yes," and Rolf pointed to the swollen ankle.
+
+The Indian picked up the lad in his arms and carried him back to the
+little camp. Then, from his light pack, he took bread and tea and made a
+meal for both. And, as they ate, each heard the other's tale.
+
+"I was troubled when you did not come back last night, for you had no
+food or blanket. I did not sleep. At dawn I went to the hill, where
+I pray, and looked away southeast where you went in the canoe. I saw
+nothing. Then I went to a higher hill, where I could see the northeast,
+and even while I watched, I saw the two smokes, so I knew my son was
+alive."
+
+"You mean to tell me I am northeast of camp?"
+
+"About four miles. I did not come very quickly, because I had to go for
+the canoe and travel here.
+
+"How do you mean by canoe?" said Rolf, in surprise.
+
+"You are only half a mile from Jesup River," was the reply. "I soon bring
+you home."
+
+It was incredible at first, but easy of proof. With the hatchet they
+made a couple of serviceable crutches and set out together.
+
+In twenty minutes they were afloat in the canoe; in an hour they
+were safely home again.
+
+And Rolf pondered it not a little. At the very moment of blackest
+despair, the way had opened, and it had been so simple, so natural, so
+effectual. Surely, as long as he lived, he would remember it. "There is
+always a way, and the stout heart will find it."
+
+
+
+Chapter 50. Marketing the Fur
+
+If Rolf had been at home with his mother, she would have rubbed his
+black and swollen ankle with goose grease. The medical man at Stamford
+would have rubbed it with a carefully prepared and secret ointment. His
+Indian friend sang a little crooning song and rubbed it with deer's fat.
+All different, and all good, because each did something to reassure the
+patient, to prove that big things were doing on his behalf, and each
+helped the process of nature by frequent massage.
+
+Three times a day, Quonab rubbed that blackened ankle. The grease saved
+the skin from injury, and in a week Rolf had thrown his crutches away.
+
+The month of May was nearly gone; June was at hand; that is, the spring
+was over.
+
+In all ages, man has had the impulse, if not the habit, of spring
+migration. Yielding to it he either migrated or made some radical change
+in his life. Most of the Adirondack men who trapped in the winter sought
+work on the log drives in spring; some who had families and a permanent
+home set about planting potatoes and plying the fish nets. Rolf and
+Quonab having neither way open, yet feeling the impulse, decided to go
+out to Warren's with the fur.
+
+Quonab wanted tobacco--and a change.
+
+Rolf wanted a rifle, and to see the Van Trumpers--and a change.
+
+So June 1st saw them all aboard, with Quonab steering at the stern, and
+Skookum bow-wowing at the bow, bound for the great centre of Warren's
+settlement--one store and three houses, very wide apart.
+
+There was a noble flush of water in the streams, and, thanks to their
+axe work in September, they passed down Jesup's River without a pause,
+and camped on the Hudson that night, fully twenty-five miles from home.
+
+Long, stringing flocks of pigeons going north were the most numerous
+forms of life. But a porcupine on the bank and a bear in the water
+aroused Skookum to a pitch of frightful enthusiasm and vaulting ambition
+that he was forced to restrain.
+
+On the evening of the third day they landed at Warren's and found a
+hearty welcome from the trader, who left a group of loafers and came
+forward:
+
+"Good day to ye, boy. My, how ye have growed."
+
+So he had. Neither Rolf nor Quonab had remarked it, but now they
+were much of the same height. "Wall, an' how'd ye make out with yer
+hunt?--Ah, that's fine!" as each of them dropped a fur pack on the
+counter. "Wall, this is fine; we must have a drink on the head of it,"
+and the trader was somewhat nonplussed when both the trappers refused.
+He was disappointed, too, for that refusal meant that they would get
+much better prices for their fun But he concealed his chagrin and
+rattled on: "I reckon I'll sell you the finest rifle in the country this
+time," and he knew by Rolf's face that there was business to do in that
+line.
+
+Now came the listing of the fur, and naturally the bargaining was
+between the shrewd Yankee boy and the trader. The Indian stood shyly
+aside, but he did not fail to help with significant grunts and glances.
+
+"There, now," said Warren, as the row of martens were laid out side
+by side, "thirty martens--a leetle pale--worth three dollars and fifty
+cents each, or, to be generous, we'll say four dollars." Rolf glanced
+at Quonab, who, unseen by the trader shook his head, held his right hand
+out, open hollow up, then raised it with a jerk for two inches.
+
+Quickly Rolf caught the idea and said; "No, I don't reckon them pale.
+I call them prime dark, every one of them." Quonab spread his hand with
+all five fingers pointed up, and Rolf continued, "They are worth five
+dollars each, if they're worth a copper."
+
+"Phew!" said the trader. "you forget fur is an awful risky thing; what
+with mildew, moth, mice, and markets, we have a lot of risk. But I
+want to please you, so let her go; five each. There's a fine black fox;
+that's worth forty dollars."
+
+"I should think it is," said Rolf, as Quonab, by throwing to his right
+an imaginary pinch of sand, made the sign "refuse."
+
+They had talked over the value of that fox skin and Rolf said, "Why, I
+know of a black fox that sold for two hundred dollars."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Oh, down at Stamford."
+
+"Why, that's near New York."
+
+"Of course; don't you send your fur to New York?"
+
+"Yes, but it costs a lot to get it there.
+
+"Now," said Warren, "if you'll take it in trade, I'll meet you half-way
+and call it one hundred dollars."
+
+"Make it one hundred and twenty-five dollars and I'll take a rifle,
+anyway."
+
+"Phew!" whistled the trader. "Where do ye get such notions?"
+
+"Nothing wrong about the notion; old Si Sylvanne offered me pretty near
+that, if I'd come out his way with the stuff."
+
+This had the desired effect of showing that there were other traders. At
+last the deal was closed. Besides the fox skin, they had three hundred
+dollars' worth of fur. The exchange for the fox skin was enough to buy
+all the groceries and dry goods they needed. But Rolf had something else
+in mind.
+
+He had picked out some packages of candies, some calico prints and
+certain bright ribbons, when the trader grasped the idea. "I see; yer
+goin' visitin'. Who is it? Must be the Van Trumpers!"
+
+Rolf nodded and now he got some very intelligent guidance. He did not
+buy Annette's dress, because part of her joy was to be the expedition
+in person to pick it out; but he stocked up with some gorgeous pieces
+of jewellery that were ten cents each, and ribbons whose colours were
+as far beyond expression as were the joys they could create in the
+backwoods female heart.
+
+Proudly clutching his new rlile, and carrying in his wallet a memorandum
+of three hundred dollars for their joint credit, Rolf felt himself a
+person of no little importance. As he was stepping out of the store, the
+trader said, "Ye didn't run across Jack Hoag agin, did ye?"
+
+"Did we? Hmph!" and Rolf told briefly of their experience with that
+creature.
+
+"Just like him, just like him; served him right; he was a dirty cuss.
+But, say; don't you be led into taking your fur out Lyons Falls way.
+They're a mean lot in there, and it stands to reason I can give you
+better prices, being a hundred miles nearer New York."
+
+And that lesson was not forgotten. The nearer New York the better the
+price; seventy-five dollars at Lyons Falls; one hundred and twenty-five
+dollars at Warren's; two hundred dollars at New York. Rolf pondered long
+and the idea was one which grew and bore fruit.
+
+
+
+Chapter 51. Back at Van Trumper's
+
+"Nibowaka"--Quonab always said "Nibowaka" when he was impressed with
+Rolf's astuteness--"What about the canoe and stuff?"
+
+"I think we better leave all here. Callan will lend us a canoe." So they
+shouldered the guns, Rolf clung to his, and tramped across the portage,
+reaching Callan's in less than two hours.
+
+"Why, certainly you can have the canoe, but come in and eat first," was
+the kindly backwoods greeting. However, Rolf was keen to push on; they
+launched the canoe at once and speedily were flashing their paddles on
+the lake.
+
+The place looked sweetly familiar as they drew near. The crops in the
+fields were fair; the crop of chickens at the barn was good; and the
+crop of children about the door was excellent.
+
+"Mein Hemel! mein Hemel!" shouted fat old Hendrik, as they walked up
+to the stable door. In a minute he was wringing their hands and smiling
+into great red, white, and blue smiles. "Coom in, coom in, lad. Hi,
+Marta, here be Rolf and Quonab. Mein Hemel! mein Hemel! what am I now so
+happy."
+
+"Where's Annette?" asked Rolf.
+
+"Ach, poor Annette, she fever have a little; not mooch, some," and he
+led over to a corner where on a low cot lay Annette, thin, pale, and
+listless.
+
+She smiled faintly, in response, when Rolf stooped and kissed her.
+
+"Why, Annette, I came back to see you. I want to take you over to
+Warren's store, so you can pick out that dress. See, I brought you my
+first marten and I made this box for you; you must thank Skookum for the
+quills on it."
+
+"Poor chile; she bin sick all spring," and Marta used a bunch of sedge
+to drive away the flies and mosquitoes that, bass and treble, hovered
+around the child.
+
+"What ails her?" asked Rolf anxiously.
+
+"Dot ve do not know," was the reply.
+
+"Maybe there's some one here can tell," and Roll glanced at the Indian.
+
+"Ach, sure! Have I you that not always told all-vays--eet is so.
+All-vays, I want sumpin bad mooch. I prays de good Lord and all-vays,
+all-vays, two times now, He it send by next boat. Ach, how I am spoil,"
+and the good Dutchman's eyes filled with tears of thankfulness.
+
+Quonab knelt by the sufferer. He felt her hot, dry hand; he noticed her
+short, quick breathing, her bright eyes, and the untouched bowl of mush
+by her bed.
+
+"Swamp fever," he said. "I bring good medicine." He passed quietly out
+into the woods. When he returned, he carried a bundle of snake-root
+which he made into tea.
+
+Annette did not wish to touch it, but her mother persuaded her to take a
+few sips from a cup held by Rolf.
+
+"Wah! this not good," and Quonab glanced about the close, fly-infested
+room. "I must make lodge." He turned up the cover of the bedding; three
+or four large, fiat brown things moved slowly out of the light. "Yes, I
+make lodge."
+
+It was night now, and all retired; the newcomers to the barn. They had
+scarcely entered, when a screaming of poultry gave a familiar turn
+to affairs. On running to the spot, it proved not a mink or coon, but
+Skookum, up to his old tricks. On the appearance of his masters, he fled
+with guilty haste, crouched beneath the post that he used to be, and
+soon again was, chained to.
+
+In the morning Quonab set about his lodge, and Rolf said: "I've got to
+go to Warren's for sugar." The sugar was part truth and part blind. As
+soon as he heard the name swamp fever, Rolf remembered that, in Redding,
+Jesuit's bark (known later as quinine) was the sovereign remedy. He had
+seen his mother administer it many times, and, so far as he knew, with
+uniform success. Every frontier (or backwoods, it's the same) trader
+carries a stock of medicine, and in two hours Rolf left Warren's counter
+with twenty-five pounds of maple sugar and a bottle of quinine extract
+in his pack.
+
+"You say she's bothered with the flies; why don't you take some of
+this new stuff for a curtain?" and the trader held up a web of mosquito
+gauze, the first Rolf had seen. That surely was a good idea, and ten
+yards snipped off was a most interesting addition to his pack. The
+amount was charged against him, and in two hours more he was back at Van
+Trumper's.
+
+On the cool side of the house, Quonab had built a little lodge, using
+a sheet for cover. On a low bed of pine boughs lay the child. Near the
+door was a smouldering fire of cedar, whose aromatic fumes on the lazy
+wind reached every cranny of the lodge.
+
+Sitting by the bed head, with a chicken wing to keep off the few
+mosquitoes, was the Indian. The child's eyes were closed; she was
+sleeping peacefully. Rolf crept gently forward, laid his hand on hers,
+it was cool and moist. He went into the house with his purchases; the
+mother greeted him with a happy look: Yes, Annette was a little better;
+she had slept quietly ever since she was taken outdoors. The mother
+could not understand. Why should the Indian want to have her surrounded
+by pine boughs? why cedar-smoke? and why that queer song? Yes, there it
+was again. Rolf went out to see and hear. Softly summing on a tin
+pan, with a mudded stick, the Indian sang a song. The words which Rolf
+learned in the after-time were:
+
+"Come, Kaluskap, drive the witches; Those who came to harm the dear
+one."
+
+Annette moved not, but softly breathed, as she slept a sweet, restful
+slumber, the first for many days.
+
+"Vouldn't she be better in de house?" whispered the anxious mother.
+
+"No, let Quonab do his own way," and Rolf wondered if any white man had
+sat by little Wee-wees to brush away the flies from his last bed.
+
+
+
+Chapter 52. Annette's New Dress
+
+     Deep feelin's ain't any count by themselves; work 'em off,
+     an' ye're somebody; weep 'em off an' you'd be more use with
+     a heart o' stone--Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+"Quonab, I am going out to get her a partridge." "Ugh, good."
+
+So Rolf went off. For a moment he was inclined to grant Skookom's prayer
+for leave to, follow, but another and better plan came in mind. Skookum
+would most likely find a mother partridge, which none should kill in
+June, and there was a simple way to find a cock; that was, listen. It
+was now the evening calm, and before Rolf had gone half a mile he
+heard the distant "Thump, thump, thump, thump--rrrrrrr" of a partridge,
+drumming. He went quickly and cautiously toward the place, then waited
+for the next drumming. It was slow in coming, so he knelt down by a
+mossy, rotten log, and struck it with his hands to imitate the thump and
+roll of the partridge. At once this challenge procured response.
+
+"Thump--thump--thump,, thump rrrrrrrrrrrr" it came, with martial swing
+and fervour, and crawling nearer, Rolf spied the drummer, pompously
+strutting up and down a log some forty yards away. He took steady aim,
+not for the head--a strange gun, at forty yards--for the body. At the
+crack, the bird fell dead, and in Rolf's heart there swelled up a little
+gush of joy, which he believed was all for the sake of the invalid, but
+which a finer analysis might have proved to be due quite as much to
+pride in himself and his newly bought gun.
+
+Night was coming on when he got back, and he found the Dutch parents
+in some excitement. "Dot Indian he gay no bring Annette indoors for de
+night. How she sleep outdoors--like dog--like Bigger--like tramp? Yah
+it is bad, ain't it?" and poor old Hendrik looked sadly upset and
+mystified.
+
+"Hendrik, do you suppose God turns out worse air in the night than in
+the day?"
+
+"Ach, dunno."
+
+"Well, you see Quonab knows what he's doing."
+
+"Yah."
+
+"Well, let him do it. He or I'll sleep alongside the child she'll be
+all right," and Rolf thought of those horrible brown crawlers under the
+bedding indoors.
+
+Rolf had much confidence in the Indian as a doctor, but he had more in
+his own mother. He was determined to give Annette the quinine, yet he
+hesitated to interfere. At length, he said: "It is cool enough now; I
+will put these thin curtains round her bed."
+
+"Ugh, good!" but the red man sat there while it was being done.
+
+"You need not stay now; I'll watch her, Quonab."
+
+"Soon, give more medicine," was the reply that Rolf did not want. So he
+changed his ruse. "I wish you'd take that partridge and make soup of it.
+I've had my hands in poison ivy, so I dare not touch it."
+
+"Ach, dot shall I do. Dot kin myself do," and the fat mother, laying the
+recent baby in its cradle, made cumbrous haste to cook the bird.
+
+"Foiled again," was Rolf's thought, but his Yankee wit was with him. He
+laid one hand on the bowl of snake-root tea. It was lukewarm. "Do you
+give it hot or cold, Quonab?"
+
+"Hot."
+
+"I'll take it in and heat it." He carried it off, thinking, "If Quonab
+won't let me give the bark extract, I'll make him give it." In the gloom
+of the kitchen he had no difficulty in adding to the tea, quite unseen,
+a quarter of the extract; when heated, he brought it again, and the
+Indian himself gave the dose.
+
+As bedtime drew near, and she heard the red man say he would sleep
+there, the little one said feebly, "Mother, mother," then whispered in
+her mother's ear, "I want Rolf."
+
+Rolf spread his blanket by the cot and slept lightly. Once or twice he
+rose to look at Annette. She was moving in her sleep, but did not awake.
+He saw to it that the mosquito bar was in place, and slept till morning.
+
+There was no question that the child was better. The renewed interest in
+food was the first good symptom, and the partridge served the end of its
+creation. The snakeroot and the quinine did noble work, and thenceforth
+her recovery was rapid. It was natural for her mother to wish the child
+back indoors. It was a matter of course that she should go. It was
+accepted as an unavoidable evil that they should always have those brown
+crawlers about the bed.
+
+But Rolf felt differently. He knew what his mother would have thought
+and done. It meant another visit to Warren's, and the remedy he brought
+was a strong-smelling oil, called in those days "rock oil"--a crude
+petroleum. When all cracks in the bed and near wall were treated with
+this, it greatly mitigated, if it did not quite end, the nuisance of the
+"plague that walks in the dark."
+
+Meanwhile, Quonab had made good his welcome by working on the farm. But
+when a week had flown, he showed signs of restlessness. "We have enough
+money, Nibowaka, why do we stay?"
+
+Rolf was hauling a bucket of water from the well at the time. He stopped
+with his burden on the well-sweep, gazed into the well, and said slowly:
+"I don't know." If the truth were set forth, it would be that this was
+the only home circle he knew. It was the clan feeling that held him, and
+soon it was clearly the same reason that was driving Quonab to roam.
+
+"I have heard," said the Indian, "that my people still dwell in Canada,
+beyond Rouse's Point. I would see them. I will come again in the Red
+Moon (August)."
+
+So they hired a small canoe, and one bright morning, with Skookum in the
+bow, Quonab paddled away on his voyage of 120 miles on the plead waters
+of Lakes George and Champlain. His canoe became a dark spot on the
+water; slowly it faded till only the flashing paddle was seen, and that
+was lost around a headland.
+
+The next day Rolf was sorry he let Quonab go alone, for it was evident
+that Van Trumper needed no help for a month yet; that is, he could not
+afford to hire, and while it was well enough for Rolf to stay a few days
+and work to equalize his board, the arrangement would not long continue
+satisfactory to both.
+
+Yet there was one thing he must do before leaving, take Annette to pick
+out her dress. She was well again now, and they set off one morning
+in the canoe, she and Rolf. Neither father nor mother could leave the
+house. They had their misgivings, but what could they do? She was
+bright and happy, full of the childish joy that belongs to that age, and
+engaged on such an important errand for the first time in her life.
+
+There was something more than childish joy showing in her face, an older
+person would have seen that, but it was largely lost on Rolf. There was
+a tendency to blush when she laughed, a disposition to tease her "big
+brother," to tyrannize over him in little things.
+
+"Now, you tell me some more about 'Robinson Crusoe,'" she began, as soon
+as they were in the canoe, and Rolf resumed the ancient, inspiring tale
+to have it listened to eagerly, but criticized from the standpoint of
+a Lake George farm. "Where was his wife?" "How could he have a farm
+without hens?" "Dried grapes must be nice, but I'd rather have pork than
+goat," etc.
+
+Rolf, of course, took the part of Robinson Crusoe, and it gave him a
+little shock to hear Quonab called his man Friday.
+
+At the west side they were to invite Mrs. Callan to join their shopping
+trip, but in any case they were to borrow a horse and buckboard. Neither
+Mrs. Callan nor the buckboard was available, but they were welcome to
+the horse. So Annette was made comfortable on a bundle of blankets,
+and chattered incessantly while Rolf walked alongside with the grave
+interest and superiority of a much older brother. So they crossed the
+five-mile portage and came to Warren's store. Nervous and excited,
+with sparkling eyes, Annette laid down her marten skin, received five
+dollars, and set about the tremendous task of selecting her first dress
+of really, truly calico print; and Rolf realized that the joy he had
+found in his new rifle was a very small affair, compared with the
+epoch-making, soul-filling, life-absorbing, unspeakable, and cataclysmal
+bliss that a small girl can have in her first chance of unfettered
+action in choice of a cotton print.
+
+"Beautiful?" How can mere words do justice to masses of yellow corn,
+mixed recklessly with green and scarlet poppies on a bright blue ground.
+No, you should have seen Annette's dress, or you cannot expect to get
+the adequate thrill. And when they found that there was enough cash left
+over to add a red cotton parasol to the glorious spoils, every one there
+beamed in a sort of friendly joy, and the trader, carried away by the
+emotions of the hour, contributed a set of buttons of shining brass.
+
+Warren kept a "meal house," which phrase was a ruse that saved him from
+a burdensome hospitality. Determined to do it all in the best style,
+Rolf took Annette to the meal-house table. She was deeply awed by the
+grandeur of a tablecloth and white plates, but every one was kind.
+
+Warren, talking to a stranger opposite, and evidently resuming a subject
+they had discussed, said:
+
+"Yes, I'd like to send the hull lot down to Albany this week, if I could
+get another man for the canoe."
+
+Rolf was interested at once and said: "What wages are you offering?"
+
+"Twenty-five dollars and board."
+
+"How will I do?"
+
+"Well," said Warren, as though thinking it over: "I dunno but ye would.
+Could ye go to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, for one month."
+
+"All right, it's a bargain."
+
+And so Rolf took the plunge that influenced his whole life.
+
+But Annette whispered gleefully and excitedly, "May I have some of that,
+and that?" pointing to every strange food she could see, and got them
+all.
+
+After noon they set out on their return journey, Annette clutching her
+prizes, and prattling incessantly, while Rolf walked alongside, thinking
+deeply, replying to her chatter, but depressed by the thought of
+good-bye tomorrow. He was aroused at length by a scraping sound overhead
+and a sharp reprimand, "Rolf, you'll tear my new parasol, if you don't
+lead the horse better."
+
+By two o'clock they were at Callan's. Another hour and they had crossed
+the lake, and Annette, shrill with joy, was displaying her treasures to
+the wonder and envy of her kin.
+
+Making a dress was a simple matter in those and Marta promised: "Yah,
+soom day ven I one have, shall I it sew." Meanwhile, Annette was
+quaffing deep, soul-satisfying draughts in the mere contempt of the
+yellow, red, green, and blue glories in which was soon to appear in
+public. And when the bed came, she fell asleep holding the dress-goods
+stuff in arms, and with the red parasol spread above her head, tired
+out, but inexpressibly happy.
+
+
+
+Chapter 53. Travelling to the Great City
+
+     He's a bad failure that ain't king in some little corner.
+     --Sayings of Sylvanne Sylvanne
+
+The children were not astir when Rolf was off in the morning. He caught
+a glimpse of Annette, still asleep under the red parasol, but the dress
+goods and the brass buttons had fallen to the floor. He stepped into the
+canoe. The dead calm of early morning was on the water, and the little
+craft went skimming and wimpling across. In half an hour it was beached
+at Callan's. In a little more than an hour's jog and stride he was at
+Warren's, ready for work. As he marched in, strong and brisk, his colour
+up, his blue eyes kindled with the thought of seeing Albany, the trader
+could not help being struck by him, especially when he remembered each
+of their meetings--meetings in which he discerned a keen, young mind of
+good judgment, one that could decide quickly.
+
+Gazing at the lithe, red-checked lad, he said: "Say, Rolf, air ye an
+Injun??"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Air ye a half-breed?"
+
+"No, I'm a Yank; my name is Kittering; born and bred in Redding,
+Connecticut."
+
+"Well, I swan, ye look it. At fust I took ye fur an Injun; ye did look
+dark (and Rolf laughed inside, as he thought of that butternut dye), but
+I'm bound to say we're glad yer white."
+
+"Here, Bill, this is Rolf, Rolf Kittering, he'll go with ye to
+Albany." Bill, a loose-jointed, middle-aged, flat-footed, large-handed,
+semi-loafer, with keen gray eyes, looked up from a bundle he was roping.
+
+Then Warren took Rolf aside and explained: "I'm sending down all my fur
+this trip. There's ten bales of sixty pounds each, pretty near my hull
+fortune. I want it took straight to Vandam's, and, night or day, don't
+leave it till ye git it there. He's close to the dock. I'm telling ye
+this for two reasons: The river's swarming with pirates and sneaks.
+They'd like nothing better than to get away with a five-hundred-dollar
+bundle of fur; and, next, while Bill is A1 on the river and true as
+steel, he's awful weak on the liquor; goes crazy, once it's in him. And
+I notice you've always refused it here. So don't stop at Troy, an'
+when ye get to Albany go straight past there to Vandam's. You'll have
+a letter that'll explain, and he'll supply the goods yer to bring back.
+He's a sort of a partner, and orders from him is same as from me.
+
+"I suppose I ought to go myself, but this is the time all the fur is
+coming in here, an' I must be on hand to do the dickering, and there's
+too much much to risk it any longer in the storehouse."
+
+"Suppose," said Rolf, "Bill wants to stop at Troy?"
+
+"He won't. He's all right, given he's sober. I've give him the letter."
+
+"Couldn't you give me the letter, in case?"
+
+"Law, Bill'd get mad and quit."
+
+"He'll never know."
+
+"That's so; I will." So when they paddled away, Bill had an important
+letter of instructions ostentatiously tucked in his outer pocket.
+Rolf, unknown to any one else but Warren, had a duplicate, wrapped in
+waterproof, hidden in an inside pocket.
+
+Bill was A1 on the river; a kind and gentle old woodman, much stronger
+than he looked. He knew the value of fur and the danger of wetting it,
+so he took no chances in doubtful rapids. This meant many portages and
+much hard labour.
+
+I wonder if the world realizes the hard labour of the portage or carry?
+Let any man who seeks for light, take a fifty-pound sack of flour on his
+shoulders and walk a quarter of a mile on level ground in cool weather.
+Unless he is in training, he will find it a heavy burden long before
+he is half-way. Suppose, instead of a flour sack, the burden has sharp
+angles; the bearer is soon in torture. Suppose the weight carried be
+double; then the strain is far more than doubled. Suppose, finally,
+the road be not a quarter mile but a mile, and not on level but through
+swamps, over rocks, logs, and roots, and the weather not cool, but
+suffocating summer weather in the woods, with mosquitoes boring into
+every exposed part, while both hands are occupied, steadying the burden
+or holding on to branches for help up steep places--and then he will
+have some idea of the horror of the portage; and there were many of
+these, each one calling for six loaded and five light trips for each
+canoe-man. What wonder that men will often take chances in some fierce
+rapid, rather than to make a long carry through the fly-infested woods.
+
+It was weighty evidence of Bill's fidelity that again and again they
+made a portage around rapids he had often run, because in the present
+case he was in sacred trust of that much prized commodity--fur.
+
+Eighty miles they called it from Warren's to Albany, but there were many
+halts and carries which meant long delay, and a whole week was covered
+before Bill and Rolf had passed the settlements of Glens Falls, Fort
+Edward, and Schuylerville, and guided their heavily laden canoe on the
+tranquil river, past the little town of Troy. Loafers hailed them from
+the bank, but Bill turned a deaf ear to all temptation; and they pushed
+on happy in the thought that now their troubles were over; the last
+rapid was past; the broad, smooth waters extended to their port.
+
+
+
+Chapter 54. Albany
+
+Only a man who in his youth has come at last in sight of some great city
+he had dreamed of all his life and longed to see, can enter into Rolf's
+feelings as they swept around the big bend, and Albany--Albany, hove in
+view. Albany, the first chartered city of the United States; Albany, the
+capital of all the Empire State; Albany, the thriving metropolis with
+nearly six thousand living human souls; Albany with its State House,
+beautiful and dignified, looking down the mighty Hudson highway that led
+to the open sea.
+
+Rolf knew his Bible, and now he somewhat realized the feelings of St.
+Paul on that historic day when his life-long dream came true, when
+first he neared the Eternal City--when at last he glimpsed the towers of
+imperial, splendid Rome.
+
+The long-strung docks were massed and webbed with ship rigging; the
+water was livened with boats and canoes; the wooden warehouses back of
+the docks were overtopped by wooden houses in tiers, until high above
+them all the Capitol itself was the fitting climax.
+
+Rolf knew something of shipping, and amid all the massed boats his eyes
+fell on a strange, square-looking craft with a huge water-wheel on each
+side. Then, swinging into better view, he read her name, the Clermont,
+and knew that this was the famous Fulton steamer, the first of the
+steamboat age.
+
+But Bill was swamped by no such emotion. Albany, Hudson, Clermont, and
+all, were familiar stories to him and he stolidly headed the canoe for
+the dock he knew of old.
+
+Loafers roosting on the snubbing posts hailed him, at first with
+raillery; but, coming nearer, he was recognized. "Hello, Bill; back
+again? Glad to see you," and there was superabundant help to land the
+canoe.
+
+"Wall, wall, wall, so it's really you," said the touter of a fur house,
+in extremely friendly voice; "come in now and we'll hev a drink."
+
+"No, sir-ree," said Bill decisively, "I don't drink till business is
+done."
+
+"Wall, now, Bill, here's Van Roost's not ten steps away an' he hez
+tapped the finest bar'l in years."
+
+"No, I tell ye, I'm not drinking--now."
+
+"Wall, all right, ye know yer own business. I thought maybe ye'd be glad
+to see us."
+
+"Well, ain't I?"
+
+"Hello, Bill," and Bill's fat brother-in-law came up. "Thus does me good,
+an' yer sister is spilin' to see ye. We'll hev one on this."
+
+"No, Sam, I ain't drinkin'; I've got biz to tend."
+
+"Wall, hev just one to clear yer head. Then settle yer business and come
+back to us."
+
+So Bill went to have one to clear his head. "I'll be back in two
+minutes, Rolf," but Rolf saw him no more for many days.
+
+"You better come along, cub," called out a red-nosed member of the
+group. But Rolf shook his head.
+
+"Here, I'll help you git them ashore," volunteered an effusive stranger,
+with one eye.
+
+"I don't want help."
+
+"How are ye gain' to handle 'em alone?"
+
+"Well, there's one thing I'd be glad to have ye do; that is, go up there
+and bring Peter Vandam."
+
+"I'll watch yer stuff while you go."
+
+"No, I can't leave." "Then go to blazes; d'yte take me for yer errand
+boy?" And Rolf was left alone.
+
+He was green at the business, but already he was realizing the power of
+that word fur and the importance of the peltry trade. Fur was the one
+valued product of the wilderness that only the hunter could bring. The
+merchants of the world were as greedy for fur as for gold, and far more
+so than for precious stones.
+
+It was a commodity so light that, even in those days, a hundred weight
+of fur might range in value from one hundred to five thousand dollars,
+so that a man with a pack of fine furs was a capitalist. The profits
+of the business were good for trapper, very large for the trader, who
+doubled his first gain by paying in trade; but they were huge for the
+Albany middleman, and colossal for the New Yorker who shipped to London.
+
+With such allurements, it was small wonder that more country was
+explored and opened for fur than for settlement or even for gold; and
+there were more serious crimes and high-handed robberies over the right
+to trade a few furs than over any other legitimate business. These
+things were new to Rolf within the year, but he was learning the lesson,
+and Warren's remarks about fur stuck in his memory with growing value.
+Every incident since the trip began had given them new points.
+
+The morning passed without sign of Bill; so, when in the afternoon, some
+bare-legged boys came along, Rolf said to them: "Do any of ye know where
+Peter Vandam's house is?"
+
+"Yeh, that's it right there," and they pointed to a large log house less
+than a hundred yards away.
+
+"Do ye know him?"
+
+"Yeh, he's my paw," said a sun-bleached freckle-face.
+
+"If you bring him here right away, I'll give you a dime. Tell him I'm
+from Warren's with a cargo."
+
+The dusty stampede that followed was like that of a mustang herd, for a
+dime was a dime in those days. And very soon, a tall, ruddy man appeared
+at the dock. He was a Dutchman in name only. At first sight he was much
+like the other loafers, but was bigger, and had a more business-like air
+when observed near at hand.
+
+"Are you from Warren's?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"No, sir. I came with Bill Bymus. But he went off early this morning; I
+haven't seen him since. I'm afraid he's in trouble."
+
+"Where'd he go?"
+
+"In there with some friends."
+
+"Ha, just like him; he's in trouble all right. He'll be no good for a
+week. Last time he came near losing all our stuff. Now let's see what
+ye've got."
+
+"Are you Mr. Peter Vandam?"
+
+"Of course I am."
+
+Still Rolf looked doubtful. There was a small group around, and Rolf
+heard several voices, "Yes, this is Peter; ye needn't a-worry." But Rolf
+knew none of the speakers. His look of puzzlement at first annoyed then
+tickled the Dutchman, who exploded into a hearty guffaw.
+
+"Wall, wall, you sure think ill of us. Here, now look at that," and he
+drew out a bundle of letters addressed to Master Peter Vandam. Then he
+displayed a gold watch inscribed on the back "Peter Vandam"; next he
+showed a fob seal with a scroll and an inscription, "Petrus Vandamus";
+then he turned to a youngster and said, "Run, there is the Reverend
+Dr. Powellus, he may help us"; so the black-garbed, knee-breached,
+shovel-hatted clergyman came and pompously said: "Yes, my young friend,
+without doubt you may rest assured that this is our very estimable
+parishioner, Master Peter Vandam; a man well accounted in the world of
+trade."
+
+"And now," said Peter, "with the help of my birth-register and
+marriage-certificate, which will be placed at your service with all
+possible haste, I hope I may win your recognition." The situation, at
+first tense, had become more and more funny, and the bystanders laughed
+aloud. Rolf rose to it, and smiling said slowly, "I am inclined to think
+that you must be Master Peter Vandam, of Albany. If that's so, this
+letter is for you, also this cargo." And so the delivery was made.
+
+Bill Bymus has not delivered the other letter to this day. Presumably he
+went to stay with his sister, but she saw little of him, for his stay at
+Albany was, as usual, one long spree. It was clear that, but for
+Rolf, there might have been serious loss of fur, and Vandam showed his
+appreciation by taking the lad to his own home, where the story of
+the difficult identification furnished ground for gusty laughter and
+primitive jest on many an after day.
+
+The return cargo for Warren consisted of stores that the Vandam
+warehouse had in stock, and some stuff that took a day or more to
+collect in town.
+
+As Rolf was sorting and packing next day, a tall, thin, well-dressed
+young man walked in with the air of one much at home.
+
+"Good morrow, Peter."
+
+"Good day to ye, sir," and they talked of crops and politics.
+
+Presently Vandam said, "Rolf, come over here."
+
+He came and was presented to the tall man, who was indeed very thin,
+and looked little better than an invalid. "This," said Peter, "is Master
+Henry van Cortlandt the son of his honour, the governor, and a very
+learned barrister. He wants to go on a long hunting trip for his health.
+I tell him that likely you are the man he needs."
+
+This was so unexpected that Rolf turned red and gazed on the ground. Van
+Cortlandt at once began to clear things by interjecting: "You see, I'm
+not strong. I want to live outdoors for three months, where I can have
+some hunting and be beyond reach of business. I'll pay you a hundred
+dollars for the three months, to cover board and guidance. And providing
+I'm well pleased and have good hunting, I'll give you fifty dollars more
+when I get back to Albany."
+
+"I'd like much to be your guide," said Rolf, "but I have a partner. I
+must find out if he's willing."
+
+"Ye don't mean-that drunken Bill Bymus?"
+
+"No! my hunting partner; he's an Indian." Then, after a pause, he added,
+"You wouldn't go in fly-time, would you?"
+
+"No, I want to be in peace. But any time after the first of August."
+
+"I am bound to help Van Trumper with his harvest; that will take most of
+August."
+
+As he talked, the young lawyer sized him up and said to himself, "This
+is my man."
+
+And before they parted it was agreed that Rolf should come to Albany
+with Quonab as soon as he could return in August, to form the camping
+party for the governor's son.
+
+
+
+Chapter 55. The Rescue of Bill
+
+Bales were ready and the canoe newly gummed three days after
+their arrival, but still no sign of Bill. A messengers sent to the
+brother-in-law's home reported that he had not been seen for two days.
+In spite of the fact that Albany numbered nearly "six thousand living
+human souls," a brief search by the docksharps soon revealed the
+sinner's retreat. His worst enemy would have pitied him; a red-eyed
+wreck; a starved, sick and trembling weakling; conscience-stricken,
+for the letter intrusted to him was lost; the cargo stolen--so his
+comforters had said--and the raw country lad murdered and thrown out
+into the river. What wonder that he should shun the light of day! And
+when big Peter with Rolf in the living flesh, instead of the sheriff,
+stood before him and told him to come out of that and get into the
+canoe, he wept bitter tears of repentance and vowed that never, never,
+never, as long as he lived would he ever again let liquor touch his
+lips. A frame of mind which lasted in strength for nearly one day and a
+half, and did not entirely varnish for three.
+
+They passed Troy without desiring to stop, and began their fight with
+the river. It was harder than when coming, for their course was against
+stream when paddling, up hill when portaging, the water was lower, the
+cargo was heavier, and Bill not so able. Ten days it took them to cover
+those eighty miles. But they came out safely, cargo and all, and landed
+at Warren's alive and well on the twenty-first day since leaving.
+
+Bill had recovered his usual form. Gravely and with pride he marched
+up to Warren and handed out a large letter which read outside, "Bill of
+Lading," and when opened, read: "The bearer of this, Bill Bymus, is no
+good. Don't trust him to Albany any more. (Signed) Peter Vandam."
+
+Warren's eyes twinkled, but he said nothing. He took
+
+Rolf aside and said, "Let's have it." Rolf gave him the real letter
+that, unknown to Bill, he had carried, and Warren learned some things
+that he knew before.
+
+Rolf's contract was for a month; it had ten days to run, and those ten
+days were put in weighing sugar, checking accounts, milking cows, and
+watching the buying of fur. Warren didn't want him to see too much of
+the fur business, but Rolf gathered quickly that these were the main
+principles: Fill the seller with liquor, if possible; "fire water for
+fur" was the idea; next, grade all fur as medium or second-class, when
+cash was demanded, but be easy as long as payment was to be in trade.
+That afforded many loopholes between weighing, grading, charging, and
+shrinkage, and finally he noticed that Albany prices were 30 to 50 per
+cent. higher than Warren prices. Yet Warren was reckoned a first-class
+fellow, a good neighbour, and a member of the church. But it was
+understood everywhere that fur, like horseflesh, was a business with
+moral standards of its own.
+
+A few days before their contract was up, Warren said: "How'd ye like to
+renew for a month?"
+
+"Can't; I promised to help Van Trumper with his harvest."
+
+"What does he pay ye?"
+
+"Seventy-five cents a day and board."
+
+"I'll make it a dollar."
+
+"I've given my word," said Rolf, in surprise.
+
+"Hey ye signed papers?"
+
+"They're not needed. The only use of signed papers is to show ye
+have given your word," said Rolf, quoting his mother, with rising
+indignation.
+
+The trader sniffed a little contemptuously and said nothing. But he
+realized the value of a lad who was a steady, intelligent worker,
+wouldn't drink, and was absolutely bound by a promise; so, after awhile,
+he said: "Wall, if Van don't want ye now, come back for a couple of
+weeks."
+
+Early in the morning Rolf gathered the trifles he had secured for the
+little children and the book he had bought for Annette, a sweet story of
+a perfect girl who died and went to heaven, the front embellished with a
+thrilling wood-cut. Then he crossed the familiar five-mile portage at a
+pace that in an hour brought him to the lake.
+
+The greeting at Van's was that of a brother come home.
+
+"Vell, Rolf, it's goood to see ye back. It's choost vat I vented. Hi,
+Marta, I told it you, yah. I say, now I hope ze good Gott send Rolf.
+Ach, how I am shpoil!"
+
+Yes, indeed. The hay was ready; the barley was changing. So Rolf took
+up his life on the farm, doing work that a year before was beyond his
+strength, for the spirit of the hills was on him, with its impulse of
+growth, its joy in effort, its glory in strength. And all who saw the
+longlegged, long-armed, flat-backed youth plying fork or axe or hoe, in
+some sort ventured a guess: "He'll be a good 'un some day; the kind o'
+chap to keep friendly with.
+
+
+
+Chapter 56. The Sick Ox
+
+The Thunder Moon passed quickly by; the hay was in; the barley partly
+so. Day by day the whitefaced oxen toiled at the creaking yoke, as the
+loads of hay and grain were jounced cumbrously over roots and stumps of
+the virgin fields. Everything was promising well, when, as usual, there
+came a thunderbolt out of the clear sky. Buck, the off ox, fell sick.
+
+Those who know little about cattle have written much of the meek and
+patient ox. Those who know them well tell us that the ox is the "most
+cussedest of all cussed" animals; a sneak, a bully, a coward, a thief,
+a shirk, a schemer; and when he is not in mischief he is thinking
+about it. The wickedest pack mule that ever bucked his burden is a
+pinfeathered turtle-dove compared with an average ox. There are
+some gentle oxen, but they are rare; most are treacherous, some are
+dangerous, and these are best got rid of, as they mislead their yoke
+mates and mislay their drivers. Van's two oxen, Buck and Bright,
+manifested the usual variety and contrariety of disposition. They were
+all right when well handled, and this Rolf could do better than Van,
+for he was "raised on oxen," and Van's over voluble, sputtering,
+Dutch-English seemed ill comprehended of the massive yoke beasts. The
+simpler whip-waving and fewer orders of the Yankee were so obviously
+successful that Van had resigned the whip of authority and Rolf was
+driver.
+
+Ordinarily, an ox driver walks on the hew (nigh or left) side, near
+the head of his team, shouting "gee" (right), "haw" (left), "get up,"
+"steady," or "whoa" (stop), accompanying the order with a waving of the
+whip. Foolish drivers lash the oxen on the haw side when they wish them
+to gee--and vice versa; but it is notorious that all good drivers do
+little lashing. Spare the lash or spoil your team. So it was not long
+before Rolf could guide them from the top of the load, as they travelled
+from shook to shook in the field. This voice of command saved his life,
+or at least his limb, one morning, for he made a misstep that tumbled
+him down between the oxen and the wagon. At once the team started, but
+his ringing "Whoa!" brought them to a dead stop, and saved him; whereas,
+had it been Van's "Whoa!" it would have set them off at a run, for every
+shout from him meant a whip lick to follow.
+
+Thus Rolf won the respect, if not the love, of the huge beasts; more and
+more they were his charge, and when, on that sad morning, in the last of
+the barley, Van came in, "Ach, vot shall I do! Vot shall I do! Dot Buck
+ox be nigh dead."
+
+Alas! there he lay on the ground, his head sometimes raised, sometimes
+stretched out flat, while the huge creature uttered short moans at
+times.
+
+Only four years before, Rolf had seen that same thing at Redding.
+The rolling eye, the working of the belly muscles, the straining and
+moaning. "It's colic; have you any ginger?"
+
+"No, I hat only dot soft soap."
+
+What soft soap had to do with ginger was not clear, and Rolf wondered if
+it had some rare occult medical power that had escaped his mother.
+
+"Do you know where there's any slippery elm?"
+
+"Yah."
+
+"Then bring a big boiling of the bark, while I get some peppermint."
+
+The elm bark was boiled till it made a kettleful of brown slime. The
+peppermint was dried above the stove till it could be powdered,
+and mixed with the slippery slush. Some sulphur and some soda were
+discovered and stirred in, on general principles, and they hastened to
+the huge, helpless creature in the field.
+
+Poor Buck seemed worse than ever. He was flat on his side, with his
+spine humped up, moaning and straining at intervals. But now relief was
+in sight--so thought the men. With a tin dipper they tried to pour
+some relief into the open mouth of the sufferer, who had so little
+appreciation that he simply taxed his remaining strength to blow it out
+in their faces. Several attempts ended the same way. Then the brute, in
+what looked like temper, swung his muzzle and dashed the whole dipper
+away. Next they tried the usual method, mixing it with a bran mash,
+considered a delicacy in the bovine world, but Buck again took notice,
+under pressure only, to dash it away and waste it all.
+
+It occurred to them they might force it down his throat if they could
+raise his head. So they used a hand lever and a prop to elevate the
+muzzle, and were about to try another inpour, when Buck leaped to his
+feet, and behaving like one who has been shamming, made at full gallop
+for the stable, nor stopped till safely in his stall, where at once he
+dropped in all the evident agony of a new spasm.
+
+It is a common thing for oxen to sham sick, but this was the real thing,
+and it seemed they were going to lose the ox, which meant also lose a
+large part of the harvest.
+
+In the stable, now, they had a better chance; they tied him, then raised
+his head with a lever till his snout was high above his shoulders. Now
+it seemed easy to pour the medicine down that long, sloping passage. But
+his mouth was tightly closed, any that entered his nostrils was blown
+afar, and the suffering beast strained at the rope till he seemed likely
+to strangle.
+
+Both men and ox were worn out with the struggle; the brute was no
+better, but rather worse.
+
+"Wall," said Rolf, "I've seen a good many ornery steers, but that's the
+orneriest I ever did handle, an' I reckon we'll lose him if he don't get
+that poison into him pretty soon."
+
+Oxen never were studied as much as horses, for they were considered a
+temporary shift, and every farmer looked forward to replacing them with
+the latter. Oxen were enormously strong, and they could flourish without
+grain when the grass was good; they never lost their head in a swamp
+hole, and ploughed steadily among all kinds of roots and stumps; but
+they were exasperatingly slow and eternally tricky. Bright, being the
+trickier of the two, was made the nigh ox, to be more under control.
+Ordinarily Rolf could manage Buck easily, but the present situation
+seemed hopeless. In his memory he harked back to Redding days, and he
+recalled old Eli Gooch, the ox expert, and wondered what he would have
+done. Then, as he sat, he caught sight of the sick ox reaching out its
+head and deftly licking up a few drops of bran mash that had fallen from
+his yoke fellow's portion. A smile spread over Rolf's face. "Just like
+you; you think nothing's good except it's stolen. All right; we'll see."
+He mixed a big dose of medicine, with bran, as before. Then he tied
+Bright's head so that he could not reach the ground, and set the bucket
+of mash half way between the two oxen. "Here ye are, Bright," he said,
+as a matter of form, and walked out of the stable; but, from a crack, he
+watched. Buck saw a chance to steal Bright's bran; he looked around; Oh,
+joy! his driver was away. He reached out cautiously; sniffed; his long
+tongue shot forth for a first taste, when Rolf gave a shout and ran in.
+"Hi, you old robber! Let that alone; that's for Bright."
+
+The sick ox was very much in his own stall now, and stayed there for
+some time after Rolf went to resume his place at the peephole. But
+encouraged by a few minutes of silence, he again reached out, and
+hastily gulped down a mouthful of the mixture before Rolf shouted and
+rushed in armed with a switch to punish the thief. Poor Bright, by his
+efforts to reach the tempting mash, was unwittingly playing the game,
+for this was proof positive of its desirableness.
+
+After giving Buck a few cuts with the switch, Rolf retired, as before.
+Again the sick ox waited for silence, and reaching out with greedy
+haste, he gulped down the rest and emptied the bucket; seeing which,
+Rolf ran in and gave the rogue a final trouncing for the sake of
+consistency.
+
+Any one who knows what slippery elm, peppermint, soda, sulphur, colic,
+and ox do when thoroughly interincorporated will not be surprised to
+learn that in the morning the stable needed special treatment, and of
+all the mixture the ox was the only ingredient left on the active list.
+He was all right again, very thirsty, and not quite up to his usual
+standard, but, as Van said, after a careful look, "Ah, tell you vot, dot
+you vas a veil ox again, an' I t'ink I know not vot if you all tricky
+vas like Bright."
+
+
+
+Chapter 57. Rolf and Skookum at Albany
+
+The Red Moon (August) follows the Thunder Moon, and in the early part of
+its second week Rolf and Van, hauling in the barley and discussing the
+fitness of the oats, were startled by a most outrageous clatter among
+the hens. Horrid murder evidently was stalking abroad, and, hastening
+to the rescue, Rolf heard loud, angry barks; then a savage beast with
+a defunct "cackle party" appeared, but dropped the victim to bark and
+bound upon the "relief party" with ecstatic expressions of joy, in spite
+of Rolf's--"Skookum! you little brute!"
+
+Yes! Quonab was back; that is, he was at the lake shore, and Skookum had
+made haste to plunge into the joys and gayeties of this social centre,
+without awaiting the formalities of greeting or even of dry-shod
+landing.
+
+The next scene was--a big, high post, a long, strong chain and a small,
+sad dog.
+
+"Ho, Quonab, you found your people? You had a good time?"
+
+"Ugh," was the answer, the whole of it, and all the light Rolf got for
+many a day on the old man's trip to the North. The prospect of going to
+Albany for Van Cortlandt was much more attractive to Quonab than that of
+the harvest field, so a compromise was agreed on. Callan's barley was in
+the stock; if all three helped Callan for three days, Callan would owe
+them for nine, and so it was arranged.
+
+Again "good-bye," and Rolf, Quonab, and little dog Skookum went sailing
+down the Schroon toward the junction, where they left a cache of their
+supplies, and down the broadening Hudson toward Albany.
+
+Rolf had been over the road twice; Quonab never before, yet his nose for
+water was so good and the sense of rapid and portage was so strong in
+the red man, that many times he was the pilot. "This is the way, because
+it must be"; "there it is deep because so narrow"; "that rapid is
+dangerous, because there is such a well-beaten portage trail"; "that
+we can run, because I see it," or, "because there is no portage trail,"
+etc. The eighty miles were covered in three sleeps, and in the mid-moon
+days of the Red Moon they landed at the dock in front of Peter Vandam's.
+If Quonab had any especial emotions for the occasion, he cloaked
+them perfectly under a calm and copper-coloured exterior of absolute
+immobility.
+
+Their Albany experiences included a meeting with the governor and an
+encounter with a broad and burly river pirate, who, seeing a lone and
+peaceable-looking red man, went out of his way to insult him; and when
+Quonab's knife flashed out at last, it was only his recently established
+relations with the governor's son that saved him from some very sad
+results, for there were many loafers about. But burly Vandam appeared in
+the nick of time to halt the small mob with the warning: "Don't you know
+that's Mr. Van Cortlandt's guide?" With the governor and Vandam to back
+him, Quonab soon had the mob on his side, and the dock loafer's own
+friends pelted him with mud as he escaped. But not a little credit
+is due to Skookum, for at the critical moment he had sprung on the
+ruffian's bare and abundant leg with such toothsome effect that the
+owner fell promptly backward and the knife thrust missed. It was quickly
+over and Quonab replaced his knife, contemptuous of the whole crowd
+before, during and after the incident. Not at the time, but days later,
+he said of his foe: "He was a talker; he was full of fear."
+
+With the backwoods only thirty miles away, and the unbroken wilderness
+one hundred, it was hard to believe how little Henry van Cortlandt knew
+of the woods and its life. He belonged to the ultra-fashionable set, and
+it was rather their pose to affect ignorance of the savage world and
+its ways. But he had plenty of common-sense to fan back on, and the
+inspiring example of Washington, equally at home in the nation's
+Parliament, the army intrenchment, the glittering ball room, or the
+hunting lodge of the Indian, was a constant reminder that the perfect
+man is a harmonious development of mind, morals, and physique.
+
+His training had been somewhat warped by the ultraclassic fashion of
+the times, so he persisted in seeing in Quonab a sort of discoloured,
+barbaric clansman of Alaric or a camp follower of Xenophon's host,
+rather than an actual living, interesting, native American, exemplifying
+in the highest degree the sinewy, alert woodman, and the saturated
+mystic and pantheist of an age bygone and out of date, combined with
+a middle-measure intelligence. And Rolf, tall, blue-eyed with brown,
+curling hair, was made to pose as the youthful Achilles, rather than
+as a type of America's best young manhood, cleaner, saner, and of far
+higher ideals and traditions than ever were ascribed to Achilles by his
+most blinded worshippers. It recalled the case of Wordsworth and Southey
+living side by side in England; Southey, the famous, must needs seek in
+ancient India for material to write his twelve-volume romance that no
+one ever looks at; Wordsworth, the unknown, wrote of the things of his
+own time, about his own door? and produced immortal verse.
+
+What should we think of Homer, had he sung his impressions of the
+ancient Egyptians? or of Thackeray, had he novelized the life of the
+Babylonians? It is an ancient blindness, with an ancient wall to bruise
+one's head. It is only those who seek ointment of the consecrated clay
+that gives back sight, who see the shining way at their feet, who beat
+their face against no wall, who safely climb the heights. Henry van
+Cortlandt was a man of rare parts, of every advantage, but still he had
+been taught steadfastly to live in the past. His eyes were yet to be
+opened. The living present was not his--but yet to be.
+
+The young lawyer had been assembling his outfit at Vandam's warehouse,
+for, in spite of scoffing friends, he knew that Rolf was coming back to
+him.
+
+When Rolf saw the pile of stuff that was gathered for that outfit, he
+stared at it aghast, then looked at Vandam, and together they roared.
+There was everything for light housekeeping and heavy doctoring, even
+chairs, a wash stand, a mirror, a mortar, and a pestle. Six canoes could
+scarcely have carried the lot.
+
+"'Tain't so much the young man as his mother," explained Big Pete; "at
+first I tried to make 'em understand, but it was no use; so I says, 'All
+right, go ahead, as long as there's room in the warehouse.' I reckon
+I'll set on the fence and have some fun seein' Rolf ontangle the
+affair."
+
+"Phew, pheeeww--ph-e-e-e-e-w," was all Rolf could say in answer. But
+at last, "Wall, there's always a way. I sized him up as pretty level
+headed. We'll see."
+
+There was a way and it was easy, for, in a secret session, Rolf, Pete,
+and Van Cortlandt together sorted out the things needed. A small tent,
+blankets, extra clothes, guns, ammunition, delicate food for three
+months, a few medicines and toilet articles--a pretty good load for one
+canoe, but a trifle compared with the mountain of stuff piled up on the
+floor.
+
+"Now, Mr. van Cortlandt," said Rolf, "will you explain to your mother
+that we are going on with this so as to travel quickly, and will send
+back for the rest as we need it?"
+
+A quiet chuckle was now heard from Big Pete. "Good! I wondered how he'd
+settle it."
+
+The governor and his lady saw them off; therefore, there was a crowd.
+The mother never before had noted what a frail and dangerous thing a
+canoe is. She cautioned her son never to venture out alone, and to be
+sure that he rubbed his chest with the pectoral balm she had made from
+such and such a famous receipt, the one that saved the life but not
+the limb of old Governor Stuyvesant, and come right home if you catch a
+cold; and wait at the first camp till the other things come, and (in a
+whisper) keep away from that horrid red Indian with the knife, and never
+fail to let every one know who you are, and write regularly, and don't
+forget to take your calomel Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, alternating
+with Peruvian bark Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and squills on
+Sunday, except every other week, when he should devote Tuesdays,
+Fridays, and Sundays to rhubarb and catnip tea, except in the full
+moon, when the catnip was to be replaced with graveyard bergamot and the
+squills with opodeldoc in which an iron nail had been left for a week.
+
+So Henry was embraced, Rolf was hand-shaken, Quonab was nodded at,
+Skookum was wisely let alone, and the trim canoe swung from the dock.
+Amid hearty cheers, farewells, and "God speed ye's" it breasted the
+flood for the North.
+
+And on the dock, with kerchief to her eyes, stood the mother, weeping to
+think that her boy was going far, far away from his home and friends in
+dear, cultured, refined Albany, away, away, to that remote and barbarous
+inaccessible region almost to the shore land of Lake Champlain.
+
+
+
+Chapter 58. Back to Indian Lake
+
+Young Van Cortlandt, six feet two in his socks and thirty-four inches
+around the chest, was, as Rolf long afterward said, "awful good raw
+material, but awful raw." Two years out of college, half of which had
+been spent at the law, had done little but launch him as a physical
+weakling and a social star. But his mental make-up was more than good;
+it was of large promise. He lacked neither courage nor sense, and the
+course he now followed was surely the best for man-making.
+
+Rolf never realized how much a farmer-woodman-canoeman-hunter-camper had
+to know, until now he met a man who did not know anything, nor dreamed
+how many wrong ways there were of doing a job, till he saw his new
+companion try it.
+
+There is no single simple thing that is a more complete measure of one's
+woodcraft than the lighting of a fire. There are a dozen good ways and
+a thousand wrong ones. A man who can light thirty fires on thirty
+successive days with thirty matches or thirty sparks from flint and
+steel is a graduated woodman, for the feat presupposes experience of
+many years and the skill that belongs to a winner.
+
+When Quonab and Rolf came back from taking each a load over the first
+little portage, they found Van Cortlandt getting ready for a fire with a
+great, solid pile of small logs, most of them wet and green. He knew how
+to use flint and steel, because that was the established household way
+of the times. Since childhood had he lighted the candle at home by this
+primitive means. When his pile of soggy logs was ready, he struck his
+flint, caught a spark on the tinder that is always kept on hand, blew
+it to a flame, thrust in between two of the wet logs, waited for all to
+blaze up, and wondered why the tiny blaze went out at once, no matter
+how often he tried.
+
+When the others came back, Van Cortlandt remarked: "It doesn't seem to
+burn." The Indian turned away in silent contempt. Rolf had hard work to
+keep the forms of respect, until the thought came: "I suppose I looked
+just as big a fool in his world at Albany."
+
+"See," said he, "green wood and wet wood won't do, but yonder is some
+birch bark and there's a pine root." He took his axe and cut a few
+sticks from the root, then used his knife to make a sliver-fuzz of each;
+one piece, so resinous that it would not whittle, he smashed with
+the back of the axe into a lot of matchwood. With a handful of finely
+shredded birch bark he was now quite ready. A crack of the flint a
+blowing of the spark caught on the tinder from the box, a little flame
+that at once was magnified by the birch bark, and in a minute the pine
+splinters made a sputtering fire. Quonab did not even pay Van Cortlandt
+the compliment of using one of his logs. He cut a growing poplar, built
+a fireplace of the green logs around the blaze that Rolf had made, and
+the meal was ready in a few minutes.
+
+Van Cortlandt was not a fool; merely it was all new to him. But his
+attention was directed to fire-making now, and long before they reached
+their cabin he had learned this, the first of the woodman's arts--he
+could lay and light a fire. And when, weeks later, he not only made the
+flint fire, but learned in emergency to make the rubbing stick spark,
+his cup of joy was full. He felt he was learning.
+
+Determined to be in everything, now he paddled all day; at first with
+vigour, then mechanically, at last feebly and painfully. Late in the
+afternoon they made the first long portage; it was a quarter mile. Rolf
+took a hundred pounds, Quonab half as much more, Van Cortlandt tottered
+slowly behind with his pill-kit and his paddle. That night, on his ample
+mattress, he slept the sleep of utter exhaustion. Next day he did little
+and said nothing. It came on to rain; he raised a huge umbrella and
+crouched under it till the storm was over. But the third day he began to
+show signs of new life, and before they reached the Schroon's mouth, on
+the fifth day, his young frame was already responding to the elixir of
+the hills.
+
+It was very clear that they could not take half of the stuff that they
+had cached at the Schroon's mouth, so that a new adjustment was needed
+and still a cache to await another trip.
+
+That night as they sat by their sixth camp fire, Van Cortlandt pondered
+over the recent days, and they seemed many since he had left home.
+He felt much older and stronger. He felt not only less strange, but
+positively intimate with the life, the river, the canoe, and his
+comrades; and, pleased with his winnings, he laid his hand on Skookum,
+slumbering near, only to arouse in response a savage growl, as that
+important animal arose and moved to the other side of the fire. Never
+did small dog give tall man a more deliberate snub. "You can't do that
+with Skookum; you must wait till he's ready," said Rolf.
+
+The journey up the Hudson with its "mean" waters and its "carries" was
+much as before. Then they came to the eagle's nest and the easy waters
+of Jesup's River, and without important incident they landed at the
+cabin. The feeling of "home again" spread over the camp and every one
+was gay.
+
+
+
+Chapter 59. Van Cortlandt's Drugs
+
+"AIN'T ye feelin' all right?" said Rolf, one bright, calomel morning, as
+he saw Van Cortlandt preparing his daily physic.
+
+"Why, yes; I'm feeling fine; I'm better every day," was the jovial
+reply.
+
+"Course I don't know, but my mother used to say: 'Med'cine's the stuff
+makes a sick man well, an' a well man sick."'
+
+"My mother and your mother would have fought at sight, as you may judge.
+B-u-t," he added with reflective slowness, and a merry twinkle in his
+eye, "if things were to be judged by their product, I am afraid your
+mother would win easily," and he laid his long, thin, scrawny hand
+beside the broad, strong hand of the growing youth.
+
+"Old Sylvanne wasn't far astray when he said: 'There aren't any sick,
+'cept them as thinks they are,"' said Rolf. "I suppose I ought to begin
+to taper off," was the reply. But the tapering was very sudden. Before a
+week went by, it seemed desirable to go back for the stuff left in cache
+on the Schroon, where, of course, it was subject to several risks. There
+seemed no object in taking Van Cortlandt back, but they could not
+well leave him alone. He went. He had kept time with fair
+regularity--calomel, rhubarb; calomel, rhubarb; calomel, rhubarb,
+squills--but Rolf's remarks had sunk into his intelligence, as a
+red-hot shot will sink through shingles, letting in light and creating
+revolution.
+
+This was a rhubarb morning. He drank his potion, then, carefully
+stoppering the bottle, he placed it with its companions in a box and
+stowed that near the middle of the canoe. "I'll be glad when it's
+finished," he said reflectively; "I don't believe I need it now. I wish
+sometimes I could run short of it all."
+
+That was what Rolf had been hoping for. Without such a remark, he would
+not have dared do as he did. He threw the tent cover over the canoe
+amidships, causing the unstable craft to cant: "That won't do," he
+remarked, and took out several articles, including the medicine chest,
+put them ashore under the bushes, and, when he replaced them, contrived
+that the medicine should be forgotten.
+
+Next morning Van Cortlandt, rising to prepare his calomel, got a shock
+to find it not.
+
+"It strikes me," says Rolf, "the last time I saw that, it was on the
+bank when we trimmed the canoe." Yes, there could be no doubt of it.
+Van must live his life in utter druglessness for a time. It gave him
+somewhat of a scare, much like that a young swimmer gets when he finds
+he has drifted away from his floats; and, like that same beginner, it
+braced him to help himself. So Van found that he could swim without
+corks.
+
+They made a rapid journey down, and in a week they were back with the
+load.
+
+There was the potion chest where they had left it. Van Cortlandt
+picked it up with a sheepish smile, and they sat down for evening meal.
+Presently Rolf said: "I mind once I seen three little hawks in a nest
+together. The mother was teaching them to fly. Two of them started off
+all right, and pretty soon were scooting among the treetops. The other
+was scared. He says: 'No, mother, I never did fly, and I'm scared I'd
+get killed if I tried.' At last the mother got mad and shoved him over.
+As soon as he felt he was gone, he spread out his wings to save himself.
+The wings were all right enough, and long before he struck the ground,
+he was flying."
+
+
+
+Chapter 60. Van Cortlandt's Adventure
+
+The coming of Van had compelled the trappers to build a new and much
+larger cabin. When they were planning it, the lawyer said: "If I were,
+you, I'd make it twenty by thirty, with a big stone fireplace."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I might want to come back some day and bring a friend."
+
+Rolf looked at him keenly. Here was an important possibility, but it
+was too difficult to handle such large logs without a team; so the new
+cabin was made fifteen by twenty, and the twenty-foot logs were very
+slim indeed. Van Cortlandt took much trouble to fix it up inside with
+two white birch bedsteads, balsam beds, and basswood mats on the floor.
+
+After the first depression, he had recovered quickly since abandoning
+his apothecary diet, and now he was more and more in their life, one of
+themselves. But Quonab never liked him. The incident of the fire-making
+was one of many which reduced him far below zero in the red man's
+esteem. When he succeeded with the rubbing-stick fire, he rose a few
+points; since then he had fallen a little, nearly every day, and now an
+incident took place which reduced him even below his original low level.
+
+In spite of his admirable perseverance, Van Cortlandt failed in his
+attempts to get a deer. This was depressing and unfortunate because of
+the Indian's evident contempt, shown, not in any act, but rather in his
+avoiding Van and never noticing him; while Van, on his part, discovered
+that, but for this, that, and the other negligence on Quonab's part, he
+himself might have done thus and so.
+
+To relieve the situation, Rolf said privately to the Indian, "Can't we
+find some way of giving him a deer?"
+
+"Humph," was the voluble reply.
+
+"I've heard of that jack-light trick.    Can ye work it?"
+
+"Ugh!"
+
+So it was arranged.
+
+Quonab prepared a box which he filled with sand. On three sides of it
+he put a screen of bark, eighteen inches high, and in the middle he
+made a good torch of pine knots with a finely frizzled lighter of birch
+bark. Ordinarily this is placed on the bow of the canoe, and, at the
+right moment, is lighted by the sportsman. But Quonab distrusted Van as
+a lighter, so placed this ancient search-light on the after thwart in
+front of himself and pointing forward, but quartering.
+
+The scheme is to go along the lake shore about dark, as the deer come
+to the water to drink or eat lily pads. As soon as a deer is located by
+the sound, the canoe is silently brought to the place, the torch is
+lighted, the deer stops to gaze at this strange sunrise; its body is
+not usually visible in the dim light, but the eyes reflect the glare
+like two lamps; and now the gunner, with a volley of buckshot, plays
+his part. It is the easiest and most unsportsmanlike of all methods. It
+has long been declared illegal; and was especially bad, because it
+victimized chiefly the does and fawns.
+
+But now it seemed the proper way to "save Van Cortlandt's face."
+
+So forth they went; Van armed with his double-barrelled shotgun and
+carrying in his belt a huge and ornamental hunting knife, the badge of
+woodcraft or of idiocy, according as yon took Van's view or Quonab's.
+Rolf stayed in camp.
+
+At dusk they set out, a slight easterly breeze compelling them to take
+the eastern shore, for the deer must not smell them. As they silently
+crossed the lake, the guide's quick eye caught sight of a long wimple
+on the surface, across the tiny ripples of the breeze--surely the wake
+of some large animal, most likely a deer. Good luck. Putting on all
+speed, he sent the canoe flying after it, and in three or four minutes
+they sighted a large, dark creature moving fast to escape, but it was
+low on the water, and had no horns. They could not make out what it
+was. Van sat tensely gazing, with gun in hand, but the canoe overran
+the swimmer; it disappeared under the prow, and a moment later there
+scrambled over the gunwale a huge black fisher.
+
+"Knife," cried Quonab, in mortal fear that Van would shoot and blow a
+hole throught the canoe.
+
+The fisher went straight at the lawyer hissing and snarling with voice
+like a bear.
+
+Van grasped his knife, and then and there began A most extraordinary
+fight; holding his assailant off as best he could, he stabbed again and
+again with that long blade. But the fisher seemed cased in iron. The
+knife glanced off or was solidly stopped again and again, while the
+fierce, active creature, squirming, struggling, clawing, and tearing
+had wounded the lawyer in a dozen places. Jab, jab went the knife in
+vain. The fisher seemed to gain in strength and fury. It fastened on
+Van's leg just below the knee, and grow/ed and tore like a bulldog. Van
+seized its throat in both hands and choked with all his strength. The
+brute at length let go and sprang back to attack again, when Quonab saw
+his chance and felled it with a blow of the paddle across the nose. It
+tumbled forward; Van lunged to avoid what seemed a new attack, and in a
+moment the canoe upset, and all were swimming for their lives.
+
+As luck would have it, they had drifted to the west side and the water
+was barely six feet deep. So Quonab swam ashore holding onto a paddle,
+and hauling the canoe, while Van waded ashore, hauling the dead fisher
+by the tail.
+
+Quonab seized a drift pole and stuck it in the mud as near the place as
+possible, so they could come again in daylight to get the guns; then
+silently paddled back to camp.
+
+Next day, thanks to the pole, they found the place and recovered first
+Van's gun, second, that mighty hunting knife; and learned to the
+amazement and disgust of all that it had not been out of its sheath:
+during all that stabbing and slashing, the keen edge was hidden and the
+knife was wearing its thick, round scabbard of leather and studs of
+brass.
+
+
+
+Chapter 61. Rolf Learns Something from Van
+
+     A man can't handle his own case, any more than a delirious
+     doctor kin give himself the right physic.--Saying of Si
+     Sylvanne.
+
+However superior Rolf might feel in the canoe or the woods, there was
+one place where Van Cortlandt took the lead, and that was in the long
+talks they had by the campfire or in Van's own shanty which Quonab
+rarely entered.
+
+The most interesting subjects treated in these were ancient Greece and
+modern Albany. Van Cortlandt was a good Greek scholar, and, finding an
+intelligent listener, he told the stirring tales of royal Ilion, Athens,
+and Pergamos, with the loving enthusiasm of one whom the teachers found
+it easy to instruct in classic lore. And when he recited or intoned
+the rolling Greek heroics of the siege of Troy, Rolf listened with an
+interest that was strange, considering that he knew not a word of it.
+But he said, "It sounded like real talk, and the tramp of men that were
+all astir with something big a-doing."
+
+Albany and politics, too, were vital strains, and life at the Government
+House, with the struggling rings and cabals, social and political. These
+were extraordinarily funny and whimsical to Rolf. No doubt because Van
+Cortlandt presented them that way. And he more than once wondered how
+rational humans could waste their time in such tomfoolery and childish
+things as all conventionalities seemed to be. Van Cortlandt smiled at
+his remarks, but made no answer for long.
+
+One day, the first after the completion of Van Cortlandt's cabin, as the
+two approached, the owner opened the door and stood aside for Rolf to
+enter.
+
+"Go ahead," said Rolf.
+
+"After you," was the polite reply.
+
+"Oh, go on," rejoined the lad, in mixed amusement and impatience.
+
+Van Cortlandt touched his hat and went in.
+
+Inside, Rolf turned squarely and said: "The other day you said there was
+a reason for all kinds o' social tricks; now will you tell me what the
+dickens is the why of all these funny-do's? It 'pears to me a free-born
+American didn't ought to take off his hat to any one but God."
+
+Van Cortlandt chuckled softly and said: "You may be very sure that
+everything that is done in the way of social usage is the result
+of common-sense, with the exception of one or two things that have
+continued after the reason for them has passed, like the buttons you
+have behind on your coat; they were put there originally to button the
+tails out of the way of your sword. Sword wearing and using have passed
+away, but still you see the buttons.
+
+"As to taking off your hat to no man: it depends entirely on what you
+mean by it; and, being a social custom, you must accept its social
+meaning.
+
+"In the days of knight errantry, every one meeting a stranger had to
+suppose him an enemy; ten to one he was. And the sign and proof of
+friendly intention was raising the right hand without a weapon in it.
+The hand was raised high, to be seen as far as they could shoot with
+a bow, and a further proof was added when they raised the vizor and
+exposed the face. The danger of the highway continued long after knights
+ceased to wear armour; so, with the same meaning, the same gesture was
+used, but with a lifting of the hat. If a man did not do it, he was
+either showing contempt, or hostility for the other, or proving himself
+an ignorant brute. So, in all civilized countries, lifting the hat is a
+sign of mutual confidence and respect."
+
+"Well! that makes it all look different. But why should you touch your
+hat when you went ahead of me just now?"
+
+"Because this is my house; you are my guest. I am supposed to serve you
+in reasonable ways and give you precedence. Had I let you open my door
+for me, it would have been putting you in the place of my servant; to
+balance that, I give you the sign of equality and respect."
+
+"H'm," said Rolf, "'it just shows,' as old Sylvanne sez, 'this yer
+steel-trap, hair-trigger, cocksure jedgment don't do. An' the more a
+man learns, the less sure he gits. An' things as hez lasted a long time
+ain't liable to be on a rotten foundation.'"
+
+
+
+Chapter 62. The Charm of Song
+
+With a regular tum ta tum ta, came a weird sound from the sunrise rock
+one morning, as Van slipped out of his cabin.
+
+     "Ag-aj-way-o-say
+     Pem-o-say
+     Gezhik-om era-bid ah-keen
+     Ena-bid ah-keen"
+
+"What's he doing, Rolf?"
+
+"That's his sunrise prayer," was the answer.
+
+"Do you know what it means?"
+
+"Yes, it ain't much; jest 'Oh, thou that walkest in the sky in the
+morning, I greet thee."'
+
+"Why, I didn't know Indians had such performances; that's exactly like
+the priests of Osiris. Did any one teach him? I mean any white folk."
+
+"No, it's always been the Indian way. They have a song or a prayer
+for most every big event, sunrise, sunset, moonrise, good hunting, and
+another for when they're sick, or when they're going on a journey, or
+when their heart is bad."
+
+"You astonish me. I had no idea they were so human. It carries me back
+to the temple of Delphi. It is worthy of Cassandra of Ilion. I supposed
+all Indians were just savage Indians that hunted till their bellies were
+full, and slept till they were empty again."
+
+"H'm," rejoined Rolf, with a gentle laugh. "I see you also have been
+doing some 'hair-trigger, steel-trap, cocksure jedgin'.'"
+
+"I wonder if he'd like to hear some of my songs?"
+
+"It's worth trying; anyway, I would," said Rolf.
+
+That night, by the fire, Van sang the "Gay Cavalier," "The Hunting of
+John Peel," and "Bonnie Dundee." He had a fine baritone voice. He was
+most acceptable in the musical circles of Albany. Rolf was delighted,
+Skookum moaned sympathetically, and Quonab sat nor moved till the music
+was over. He said nothing, but Rolf felt that it was a point gained,
+and, trying to follow it up, said:
+
+"Here's your drum, Quonab; won't you sing 'The Song of the Wabanaki?'"
+But it was not well timed, and the Indian shook his head.
+
+"Say, Van," said Rolf, (Van Cortlandt had suggested this abbreviation)
+"you'll never stand right with Quonab till you kill a deer."
+
+"I've done some trying."
+
+"Well, now, we'll go out to-morrow evening and try once more. What do
+you think of the weather, Quonab?"
+
+"Storm begin noon and last three days," was the brief answer, as the red
+man walked away.
+
+"That settles it," said Rolf; "we wait."
+
+Van was surprised, and all the more so when in an hour the sky grew
+black and heavy rain set in, with squalls.
+
+"How in the name of Belshazzar's weather bugler does he tell?"
+
+"I guess you better not ask him, if you want to know. I'll find out and
+tell you later."
+
+Rolf learned, not easily or at single talk:
+
+"Yesterday the chipmunks worked hard; to-day there are none to be seen.
+
+"Yesterday the loons were wailing; now they are still, and no small
+birds are about.
+
+"Yesterday it was a yellow sunrise; to-day a rosy dawn.
+
+"Last night the moon changed and had a thick little ring.
+
+"It has not rained for ten days, and this is the third day of easterly
+winds.
+
+"There was no dew last night. I saw Tongue Mountain at daybreak; my
+tom-tom will not sing.
+
+"The smoke went three ways at dawn, and Skookum's nose was hot."
+
+So they rested, not knowing, but forced to believe, and it was not till
+the third day that the sky broke; the west wind began to pay back its
+borrowings from the east, and the saying was proved that "three days'
+rain will empty any sky."
+
+That evening, after their meal, Rolf and Van launched the canoe and
+paddled down the lake. A mile from camp they landed, for this was a
+favourite deer run. Very soon Rolf pointed to the ground. He had found a
+perfectly fresh track, but Van seemed not to comprehend. They went along
+it, Rolf softly and silently, Van with his long feet and legs making a
+dangerous amount of clatter. Rolf turned and whispered, "That won't
+do. You must not stand on dry sticks." Van endeavoured to move more
+cautiously and thought he was doing well, but Rolf found it very trying
+to his patience and began to understand how Quonab had felt about
+himself a year ago. "See," said Rolf, "lift your legs so; don't turn
+your feet out that way. Look at the place before you put it down again;
+feel with your toe to make sure there is no dead stick, then wriggle it
+down to the solid ground. Of course, you'd do better in moccasins. Never
+brush past any branches; lift them aside and don't let them scratch;
+ease them back to the place; never try to bend a dry branch; go around
+it," etc. Van had not thought of these things, but now he grasped them
+quickly, and they made a wonderful improvement in his way of going.
+
+They came again to the water's edge; across a little bay Rolf sighted at
+once the form of a buck, perfectly still, gazing their way, wondering,
+no doubt, what made those noises.
+
+"Here's your chance," he whispered.
+
+"Where?" was the eager query.
+
+"There; see that gray and white thing?"
+
+"I can't see him."
+
+For five minutes Rolf tried in vain to make his friend see that
+statuesque form; for five minutes it never moved. Then, sensing danger,
+the buck gave a bound and was lost to view.
+
+It was disheartening. Rolf sat down, nearly disgusted; then one of
+Sylvanne's remarks came to him: "It don't prove any one a fool, coz he
+can't play your game."
+
+Presently Rolf said, "Van, hev ye a book with ye?"
+
+"Yes, I have my Virgil."
+
+"Read me the first page."
+
+Van read it, holding the book six inches from his nose.
+
+"Let's see ye read this page there," and Rolf held it up four feet away.
+
+"I can't; it's nothing but a dim white spot."
+
+"Well, can ye see that loon out there?"
+
+"You mean that long, dark thing in the bay?"
+
+"No, that's a pine log close to," said Rolf, with a laugh, "away out
+half a mile."
+
+"No, I can't see anything but shimmers."
+
+"I thought so. It's no use your trying to shoot deer till ye get a pair
+of specs to fit yer eyes. You have brains enough, but you haven't got
+the eyesight of a hunter. You stay here till I go see if I have any
+luck."
+
+Rolf melted into the woods. In twenty minutes Van heard a shot and very
+soon Rolf reappeared, carrying a two-year-old buck, and they returned
+to their camp by nightfall. Quonab glanced at their faces as they passed
+carrying the little buck. They tried to look inscrutable. But the Indian
+was not deceived. He gave out nothing but a sizzling "Humph!"
+
+
+
+Chapter 63. The Redemption of Van
+
+"WHEN things is looking black as black can be, it's a sure sign of luck
+coming your way." so said Si Sylvanne, and so it proved to Van Cortlandt
+The Moon of the Falling Leaves was waning, October was nearly over, the
+day of his return to Albany was near, as he was to go out in time for
+the hunters to return in open water. He was wonderfully improved in
+strength and looks. His face was brown and ruddy. He had abandoned all
+drugs, and had gained fully twenty pounds in weight. He had learned to
+make a fire, paddle a canoe, and go through the woods in semi-silence.
+His scholarly talk had given him large place in Rolf's esteem, and
+his sweet singing had furnished a tiny little shelf for a modicum of
+Quonab's respect. But his attempts to get a deer were failures. "You
+come back next year with proper, farsight glasses and you'll all right,"
+said Rolf; and that seemed the one ray of hope.
+
+The three days' storm had thrown so many trees that the hunters decided
+it would be worth while making a fast trip down to Eagle's Nest, to cut
+such timber as might have fallen across the stream, and so make an easy
+way for when they should have less time.
+
+The surmise was quite right. Much new-fallen timber was now across
+the channel. They chopped over twenty-five trunks before they reached
+Eagle's Nest at noon, and, leaving the river in better shape than ever
+it was, they turned, for the swift, straight, silent run of ten miles
+home.
+
+As they rounded the last point, a huge black form in the water loomed to
+view. Skookum's bristles rose. Quonab whispered, "Moose! Shoot quick!"
+Van was the only one with a gun. The great black beast stood for a
+moment, gazing at them with wide-open eyes, ears, and nostrils, then
+shook his broad horns, wheeled, and dashed for the shore. Van fired
+and the bull went down with a mighty splash among the lilies. Rolf and
+Skookum let off a succession of most unhunterlike yells of triumph. But
+the giant sprang up again and reached the shore, only to fall to Van
+Cortlandt's second barrel. Yet the stop was momentary; he rose and
+dashed into the cover. Quonab turned the canoe at once and made for the
+land.
+
+A great sob came from the bushes, then others at intervals. Quonab
+showed his teeth and pointed. Rolf seized his rifle, Skookum sprang from
+the boat, and a little later was heard letting off his war-cry in the
+bushes not far away.
+
+The men rushed forward, guns in hand, but Quonab called, "Look out!
+Maybe he waiting."
+
+"If he is, he'll likely get one of us." said Rolf, with a light laugh,
+for he had some hearsay knowledge of moose.
+
+Covered each by a tree, they waited till Van had reloaded his
+double-barrelled, then cautiously approached. The great frothing sobs
+had resounded from time to time.
+
+Skookum's voice also was heard in the thicket, and when they neared and
+glimpsed the place, it was to see the monster on the ground, lying at
+full length, dinging up his head at times when he uttered that horrid
+sound of pain.
+
+The Indian sent a bullet through the moose's brain; then all was still,
+the tragedy was over.
+
+But now their attention was turned to Van Cortlandt. He reeled,
+staggered, his knees trembled, his face turned white, and, to save
+himself from falling, he sank onto a log. Here he covered his face with
+his hands, his feet beat the ground, and his shoulders heaved up and
+down.
+
+The others said nothing. They knew by the signs and the sounds that it
+was only through a mighty effort that young Van Cortlandt, grown man as
+he was, could keep himself from hysterical sobs and tears.
+
+Not then, but the next day it was that Quonab said: "It comes to some
+after they kill, to some before, as it came to you, Rolf; to me it came
+the day I killed my first chipmunk, that time when I stole my father's
+medicine."
+
+They had ample work for several hours now, to skin the game and save the
+meat. It was fortunate they were so near home. A marvellous change there
+was in the atmosphere of the camp. Twice Quonab spoke to Van Cortlandt,
+as the latter laboured with them to save and store the meat of his
+moose. He was rubbed, doped, soiled, and anointed with its flesh, hair,
+and blood, and that night, as they sat by their camp fire, Skookum
+arose, stretched, yawned, walked around deliberately, put his nose
+in the lawyer's hand, gave it a lick, then lay down by his feet. Van
+Cortlandt glanced at Rolf, a merry twinkle was in the eyes of both.
+"It's all right. You can pat Skookum now, without risk of being
+crippled. He's sized you up. You are one of us at last;" and Quonab
+looked on with two long ivory rows a-gleaming in his smile.
+
+
+
+Chapter 64. Dinner at the Governor's
+
+Was ever there a brighter blazing sunrise after such a night of gloom?
+Not only a deer, but the biggest of all deer, and Van himself the only
+one of the party that had ever killed a moose. The skin was removed and
+afterward made into a hunting coat for the victor. The head and horns
+were carefully preserved to be carried back to Albany, where they were
+mounted and still hang in the hall of a later generation of the name.
+The final days at the camp were days of happy feeling; they passed too
+soon, and the long-legged lawyer, bronzed and healthy looking, took his
+place in their canoe for the flying trip to Albany. With an empty canoe
+and three paddles (two and one half, Van said), they flew down the open
+stretch of Jesup's River in something over two hours and camped that
+night fully thirty-five miles from their cabin. The next day they nearly
+reached the Schroon and in a week they rounded the great bend, and
+Albany hove in view.
+
+How Van's heart did beat! How he did exult to come in triumph home,
+reestablished in health and strengthened in every way. They were sighted
+and recognized. Messengers were seen running; a heavy gun was fired,
+the flag run up on the Capitol, bells set a-ringing, many people came
+running, and more flags ran up on vessels.
+
+A great crowd gathered by the dock.
+
+"There's father, and mother too!" shouted Van, waving his hat.
+
+"Hurrah," and the crowd took it up, while the bells went jingle, jangle,
+and Skookum in the bow sent back his best in answer.
+
+The canoe was dragged ashore. Van seized his mother in his arms, as
+she cried: "My boy, my boy, my darling boy! how well you look. Oh, why
+didn't you write? But, thank God, you are back again, and looking so
+healthy and strong. I know you took your squills and opodeldoc. Thank
+God for that! Oh, I'm so happy! my boy, my boy! There's nothing like
+squills and God's blessing."
+
+Rolf and Quonab were made to feel that they had a part in it all. The
+governor shook them warmly by the hand, and then a friendly voice was
+heard: "Wall, boy, here ye air agin; growed a little, settin' up and
+sassin' back, same as ever." Rolf turned to see the gigantic, angular
+form and kindly face of grizzly old Si Sylvanne and was still more
+surprised to hear him addressed "senator."
+
+"Yes," said the senator, "one o' them freak elections that sometimes
+hits right; great luck for Albany, wa'nt it?"
+
+"Ho," said Quonab, shaking the senator's hand, while Skookum looked
+puzzled and depressed.
+
+"Now, remember," said the governor, addressing the Indian, the lad,
+and the senator, "we expect you to dine tonight at the mansion; seven
+o'clock."
+
+Then the terror of the dragon conventionality, that guards the gate
+and hovers over the feast, loomed up in Rolf's imagination. He sought a
+private word with Van. "I'm afraid I have no fit clothes; I shan't know
+how to behave," he said.
+
+"Then I'll show you. The first thing is to be perfectly clean and get a
+shave; put on the best clothes you have, and be sure they're clean; then
+you come at exactly seven o'clock, knowing that every one is going to
+be kind to you and you're bound to have a good time. As to any other
+'funny-do' you watch me, and you'll have no trouble."
+
+So when the seven o'clock assemblage came, and guests were ascending the
+steps of the governor's mansion, there also mounted a tall, slim
+youth, an easy-pacing Indian, and a prick-eared, yellow dog. Young Van
+Cortlandt was near the door, on watch to save them any embarrassment.
+But what a swell he looked, cleanshaven, ruddy, tall, and handsome in
+the uniform of an American captain, surrounded by friends and immensely
+popular. How different it all was from that lonely cabin by the lake.
+
+A butler who tried to remove Skookum was saved from mutilation by the
+intervention first of Quonab and next of Van; and when they sat down,
+this uncompromising four-legged child of the forest ensconced himself
+under Quonab's chair and growled whenever the silk stockings of the
+footman seemed to approach beyond the line of true respect.
+
+Young Van Cortlandt was chief talker at the dinner, but a pompous
+military man was prominent in the company. Once or twice Rolf was
+addressed by the governor or Lady Van Cortlandt, and had to speak to the
+whole table; his cheeks were crimson, but he knew what he wanted to say
+and stopped when it was said, so suffered no real embarrassment.
+
+After what seemed an interminable feast of countless dishes and hours'
+duration, an extraordinary change set in. Led by the hostess, all stood
+up, the chairs were lifted out of their way, and the ladies trooped into
+another room; the doors were closed, and the men sat down again at the
+end next the governor.
+
+Van stayed by Rolf and explained: "This is another social custom that
+began with a different meaning. One hundred years ago, every man got
+drunk at every formal dinner, and carried on in a way that the ladies
+did not care to see, so to save their own feelings and give the men
+a free rein, the ladies withdrew. Nowadays, men are not supposed to
+indulge in any such orgy, but the custom continues, because it gives the
+men a chance to smoke, and the ladies a chance to discuss matters that
+do not interest the men. So again you see it is backed by common sense."
+
+This proved the best part of the dinner to Rolf. There was a peculiar
+sense of over-politeness, of insincerity, almost, while the ladies were
+present; the most of the talking had been done by young Van Cortlandt
+and certain young ladies, assisted by some very gay young men and the
+general. Their chatter was funny, but nothing more. Now a different air
+was on the group; different subjects were discussed, and by different
+men, in a totally different manner.
+
+"We've stood just about all we can stand," said the governor, alluding
+to an incident newly told, of a British frigate boarding an American
+merchant vessel by force and carrying off half her crew, under presence
+that they were British seamen in disguise. "That's been going on for
+three years now. It's either piracy or war, and, in either case, it's
+our duty to fight."
+
+"Jersey's dead against war," said a legislator from down the river.
+
+"Jersey always was dead against everything that was for the national
+good, sir," said a red-faced, puffy, military man, with a husky voice, a
+rolling eye, and a way of ending every sentence in "sir."
+
+"So is Connecticut," said another; "they say, 'Look at all our
+defenceless coasts and harbour towns.'"
+
+"They're not risking as much as New York," answered the governor,
+"with her harbours all the way up the Hudson and her back door open to
+invasion from Canada."
+
+"Fortunately, sir, Pennyslvania, Maryland, and the West have not
+forgotten the glories of the past. All I ask--is a chance to show what
+we can do, sir. I long for the smell of powder once more, sir."
+
+"I understand that President Madison has sent several protests, and, in
+spite of Connecticut and New Jersey, will send an ultimatum within three
+months. He believes that Britain has all she can manage, with Napoleon
+and his allies battering at her doors, and will not risk a war.
+
+"It's my opinion," said Sylvanne; "that these English men is too
+pig-headed an' ornery to care a whoop in hell whether we get mad or not.
+They've a notion Paul Jones is dead, but I reckon we've got plenty of
+the breed only waitin' a chance. Mor'n twenty-five of our merchantmen
+wrecked each year through being stripped of their crews by a 'friendly
+power.' 'Pears to me we couldn't be worse off going to war, an' might be
+a dum sight better."
+
+"Your home an' holdings are three hundred safe miles from the seacoast,"
+objected the man from Manhattan.
+
+"Yes, and right next Canada," was the reply.
+
+"The continued insults to our flag, sir, and the personal indignities
+offered to our people are even worse than the actual loss in ships and
+goods. It makes my blood fairly boil," and the worthy general looked the
+part as his purple jowl quivered over his white cravat.
+
+"Gosh all hemlock! the one pricks, but t'other festers, it's tarnal sure
+you steal a man's dinner and tell him he's one o' nature's noblemen,
+he's more apt to love you than if you give him five dollars to keep out
+o' your sight," said Sylvanne, with slow emphasis.
+
+"There's something to be said on the other side," said the timid one.
+"You surely allow that the British government is trying to do right,
+and after all we must admit that that Jilson affair resected very little
+credit on our own administration."
+
+"A man ken make one awful big mistake an' still be all right, but he
+can't go on making a little mistake every day right along an' be fit
+company for a clean crowd," retorted the new senator.
+
+At length the governor rose and led the way to the drawing-room, where
+they rejoined the ladies and the conversation took on a different colour
+and weight, by which it lost all value for those who knew not the art
+of twittering persiflage and found less joy in a handkerchief flirtation
+than in the nation's onward march. Rolf and Quonab enjoyed it now about
+as much as Skookum had done all the time.
+
+
+
+Chapter 65. The Grebes and the Singing Mouse
+
+Quonab puzzled long over the amazing fact that young Van Cortlandt had
+evident high standing "in his own tribe." "He must be a wise counsellor,
+for I know he cannot fight and is a fool at hunting," was the ultimate
+decision.
+
+They had a final interview with the governor and his son before they
+left. Rolf received for himself and his partner the promised one hundred
+and fifty dollars, and the hearty thanks of all in the governor's home.
+Next, each was presented with a handsome hunting knife, not unlike
+the one young Van had carried, but smaller. Quonab received his with
+"Ho--" then, after a pause, "He pull out, maybe, when I need him."--"Ho!
+good!" he exclaimed, as the keen blade appeared.
+
+"Now, Rolf," said the lawyer, "I want to come back next year and bring
+three companions, and we will pay you at the same rate per month for
+each. What do you say?"
+
+"Glad to have you again," said Rolf: "we'll come for you on August
+fifteenth; but remember you should bring your guitar and your
+spectacles."
+
+"One word," said the governor, "do you know the canoe route through
+Champlain to Canada?"
+
+"Quonab does."
+
+"Could you undertake to render scout service in that region?"
+
+The Indian nodded.
+
+"In case of war, we may need you both, so keep your ears open."
+
+And once more the canoe made for the north, with Quonab in the stern and
+Skookum in the bow.
+
+In less than a week they were home, and none too soon; for already the
+trees were bare, and they had to break the ice on the river before they
+ended their trip.
+
+Rolf had gathered many ideas the last two-months. He did not propose to
+continue all his life as a trapper. He wanted to see New York. He wanted
+to plan for the future. He needed money for his plans. He and Quonab had
+been running a hundred miles of traps, but some men run more than that
+single handed. They must get out two new lines at once, before the frost
+came. One of these they laid up the Hudson, above Eagle's Nest; the
+other northerly on Blue Mountain, toward Racquet River. Doing this was
+hard work, and when they came again to their cabin the robins had gone
+from the bleak and leafless woods; the grouse were making long night
+flights; the hollows had tracks of racing deer; there was a sense of
+omen, a length of gloom, for the Mad Moon was afloat in the shimmering
+sky; its wan light ghasted all the hills.
+
+Next day the lake was covered with thin, glare ice; on the glassy
+surface near the shore were two ducks floundering. The men went as near
+as they could, and Quonab said, "No, not duck, but Shingebis, divers.
+They cannot rise except from water. In the night the new ice looks like
+water; they come down and cannot rise. I have often seen it." Two days
+after, a harder frost came on. The ice was safe for a dog; the divers or
+grebes were still on its surface. So they sent Skookum. He soon returned
+with two beautiful grebes, whose shining, white breast feathers are as
+much prized as some furs.
+
+Quonab grunted as he held them up. "Ugh, it is often so in this Mad
+Moon. My father said it is because of Kaluskap's dancing."
+
+"I don't remember that one."
+
+"Yes, long ago. Kaluskap felt lazy. He wanted to eat, but did not wish
+to hunt, so he called the bluejay and said: 'Tell all the woods that
+to-morrow night Kaluskap gives a new dance and teaches a new song,'
+and he told the hoot owl to do the same, so one kept it up all
+day--'Kaluskap teaches a new dance to-morrow night,' and the other kept
+it up all night: 'Kaluskap teaches a new song at next council.'
+
+"Thus it came about that all the woods and waters sent their folk to the
+dance.
+
+"Then Kaluskap took his song-drum and said: 'When I drum and sing you
+must dance in a circle the same way as the sun, close your eyes tightly,
+and each one shout his war whoop, as I cry "new songs"!'
+
+"So all began, with Kaluskap drumming in the middle, singing:
+
+"'New songs from the south, brothers, Close your eyes tightly, brothers,
+Dance and learn a new song.
+
+"As they danced around, he picked out the fattest, and, reaching out
+one hand, seized them and twisted their necks, shouting out, 'More
+war-cries, more poise! that's it; now you are learning!'
+
+"At length Shingebis the diver began to have his doubts and he
+cautiously opened one eye, saw the trick, and shouted: 'Fly, brothers,
+fly! Kaluskap is killing us!'
+
+"Then all was confusion. Every one tried to escape, and Kaluskap, in
+revenge, tried to kill the Shingebis. But the diver ran for the water
+and, just as he reached the edge, Kaluskap gave him a kick behind that
+sent him half a mile, but it knocked off all his tail feathers and
+twisted his shape so that ever since his legs have stuck out where his
+tail was, and he cannot rise from the land or the ice. I know it is so,
+for my father, Cos Cob, told me it was true, and we ourselves have seen
+it. It is ever so. To go against Kaluskap brings much evil to brood
+over."
+
+A few nights later, as they sat by their fire in the cabin, a curious
+squeaking was heard behind the logs. They had often heard it before, but
+never so much as now. Skookum turned his head on one side, set his ears
+at forward cock. Presently, from a hole 'twixt logs and chimney, there
+appeared a small, white breasted mouse.
+
+Its nose and ears shivered a little; its black eyes danced in the
+firelight. It climbed up to a higher log, scratched its ribs, then
+rising on its hind legs, uttered one or two squeaks like those they had
+heard so often, but soon they became louder and continuous:
+
+"Peg, peo, peo, peo, peo, peo, peo, oo. Tree, tree, tree, tree,
+trrrrrrr, Turr, turr, turr, tur, tur, Wee, wee, wee, we"--
+
+The little creature was sitting up high on its hind legs, its belly
+muscles were working, its mouth was gaping as it poured out its music.
+For fully half a minute this went on, when Skookum made a dash; but the
+mouse was quick and it flashed into the safety of its cranny.
+
+Rolf gazed at Quonab inquiringly.
+
+"That is Mish-a-boh-quas, the singing mouse. He always comes to tell of
+war. In a little while there will be fighting."
+
+
+
+Chapter 66. A Lesson in Stalking
+
+"Did you ever see any fighting, Quonab?"
+
+"Ugh! In Revolution, scouted for General Gates."
+
+"Judging by the talk, we're liable to be called on before a year. What
+will you do?"
+
+"Fight."
+
+"As soldier?"
+
+"No! scout."
+
+"They may not want us."
+
+"Always want scouts," replied the Indian.
+
+"It seems to me I ought to start training now."
+
+"You have been training."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"A scout is everything that an army is, but it's all in one man. An' he
+don't have to keep step."
+
+"I see, I see," replied Rolf, and he realized that a scout is merely
+a trained hunter who is compelled by war to hunt his country's foes
+instead of the beasts of the woods.
+
+"See that?" said the Indian, and he pointed to a buck that was nosing
+for cranberries in the open expanse across the river where it left the
+lake. "Now, I show you scouting." He glanced at the smoke from the fire,
+found it right for his plan, and said: "See! I take my bow. No cover,
+yet I will come close and kill that deer."
+
+Then began a performance that was new to Rolf, and showed that the
+Indian had indeed reached the highest pitch of woodcraft. He took his
+bow and three good arrows, tied a band around his head, and into this
+stuck a lot of twigs and vines, so that his head looked like a tussock
+of herbage. Then he left the shanty door, and, concealed by the last
+bushes on the edge, he reached the open plain. Two hundred yards off was
+the buck, nosing among the herbage, and, from time to time, raising its
+superb head and columnar neck to look around. There was no cover but
+creeping herbage. Rolf suspected that the Indian would decoy the buck by
+some whistle or challenge, for the thickness of its neck showed the deer
+to be in fighting humour.
+
+Flat on his breast the Indian lay. His knees and elbow seemed to develop
+centipedic power; his head was a mere clump of growing stuff. He snaked
+his way quietly for twenty-five yards, then came to the open, sloping
+shore, with the river forty yards wide of level shining ice, all in
+plain view of the deer; how was this to be covered?
+
+There is a well-known peculiarity of the white tail that the Indian was
+counting on; when its head is down grazing, even though not hidden, the
+deer does not see distant objects; before the head is raised, its tail
+is raised or shaken. Quonab knew that if he could keep the tail in view,
+he could avoid being viewed by the head. In a word, only an ill-timed
+movement or a whiff could betray him.
+
+The open ice was, of course, a hard test, and the hunter might have
+failed, but that his long form looked like one of the logs that were
+lying about half stranded or frozen in the stream.
+
+Watching ever the alert head and tail, he timed his approach, working
+hard and moving East when the head was down; but when warned by a
+tail-jerk he turned to a log nor moved a muscle. Once the ice was
+crossed, the danger of being seen was less, but of being smelt was
+greater, for the deer was moving about, and Quonab watched the smoke
+from the cabin for knowledge of the wind. So he came within fifty yards,
+and the buck, still sniffing along and eagerly champing the few red
+cranberries it found above the frozen moss, was working toward a
+somewhat higher cover. The herbage was now fully eighteen inches high,
+and Quonab moved a little faster. The buck found a large patch of
+berries under a tussock and dropped on its knees to pick them out, while
+Quonab saw the chance and gained ten yards before the tail gave warning.
+After so long a feeding-spell, the buck took an extra long lookout,
+and then walked toward the timber, whereby the Indian lost all he had
+gained. But the browser's eye was drawn by a shining bunch of red, then
+another; and now the buck swung until there was danger of betrayal by
+the wind; then down went its head and Quonab retreated ten yards to keep
+the windward. Once the buck raised its muzzle and sniffed with flaring
+nostrils, as though its ancient friend had brought a warning. But soon
+he seemed reassured, for the landscape showed no foe, and nosed back and
+forth, while Quonab regained the yards he had lost. The buck worked now
+to the taller cover, and again a tempting bunch of berries under a low,
+dense bush caused it to kneel for farther under-reaching. Quonab glided
+swiftly forward, reached the twenty-five-yard limit, rose to one knee,
+bent the stark cedar bow. Rolf saw the buck bound in air, then make for
+the wood with great, high leaps; the dash of disappointment was on him,
+but Quonab stood erect, with right hand raised, and shouted:
+
+"Ho--ho."
+
+He knew that those bounds were unnecessarily high, and before the woods
+had swallowed up the buck, it fell--rose--and fell again, to rise not.
+The arrow had pierced its heart.
+
+Then Rolf rushed up with kindled eye and exultant pride to slap his
+friend on the back, and exclaim:
+
+"I never thought it possible; the greatest feat in hunting I ever saw;
+you are a wonder!"
+
+To which the Indian softly replied, as he smiled:
+
+"Ho! it was so I got eleven British sentries in the war. They gave me a
+medal with Washington's head."
+
+"They did! how is it I never heard of it? Where is it?"
+
+The Indian's face darkened. "I threw it after the ship that stole my
+Gamowini."
+
+
+
+Chapter 67. Rolf Meets a Canuck
+
+The winter might have been considered eventful, had not so many of the
+events been repetitions of former experience. But there were several
+that by their newness deserve a place on these pages, as they did in
+Rolf's memory.
+
+One of them happened soon after the first sharp frost. It had been an
+autumn of little rain, so that many ponds had dried up, with the
+result that hundreds of muskrats were forced out to seek more habitable
+quarters. The first time Rolf saw one of these stranded mariners on its
+overland journey, he gave heedless chase. At first it made awkward haste
+to escape; then a second muskrat was discovered just ahead, and a third.
+This added to Rolf's interest. In a few bounds he was among them, but it
+was to get a surprise. Finding themselves overtaken, the muskrats turned
+in desperation and attacked the common enemy with courage and fury. Rolf
+leaped over the first, but the second sprang, caught him by the slack
+of the trouser leg, and hung on. The third flung itself on his foot and
+drove its sharp teeth through the moccasin. Quickly the first rallied
+and sprang on his other leg with all the force of its puny paws, and
+powerful jaws.
+
+Meanwhile Quonab was laughing aloud and holding back Skookum, who,
+breathing fire and slaughter, was mad to be in the fight.
+
+"Ho! a good fight! good musquas! Ho, Skookum, you must not always take
+care of him, or he will not learn to go alone.
+
+"Ugh, good!" as the third muskrat gripped Rolf by the calf.
+
+There could be but one finish, and that not long delayed. A well-placed
+kick on one, the second swung by the tail, the third crushed under
+his heel, and the affair ended. Rolf had three muskrats and five cuts.
+Quonab had much joy and Skookum a sense of lost opportunity.
+
+"This we should paint on the wigwam," said Quonab. "Three great warriors
+attacked one Sagamore. They were very brave, but he was Nibowaka and
+very strong; he struck them down as the Thunderbird, Hurakan, strikes
+the dead pines the fire has left on the hilltop against the sky. Now
+shall you eat their hearts, for they were brave. My father told me a
+fighting muskrat's heart is great medicine; for he seeks peace while it
+is possible, then he turns and fights without fear."
+
+A few days later, they sighted a fox. In order to have a joke on
+Skookum, they put him on its track, and away he went, letting off his
+joy-whoops at every jump. The men sat down to wait, knowing full well
+that after an hour Skookum would come back with a long tongue and an
+air of depression. But they were favoured with an unexpected view of
+the chase. It showed a fox bounding over the snow, and not twenty yards
+behind was their energetic four-legged colleague.
+
+And, still more unexpected, the fox was overtaken in the next thicket,
+shaken to limpness, and dragged to be dropped at Quonab's feet.
+This glorious victory by Skookum was less surprising, when a closer
+examination showed that the fox had been in a bad way. Through some sad,
+sudden indiscretion, he had tackled a porcupine and paid the penalty.
+His mouth, jaws and face, neck and legs, were bristling with quills. He
+was sick and emaciated. He could not have lasted many days longer, and
+Skookum's summary lynching was a blessing in disguise.
+
+The trappers' usual routine was varied by a more important happening.
+One day of deep snow in January, when they were running the northern
+line on Racquet River, they camped for the night at their shelter
+cabin, and were somewhat surprised at dusk to hear a loud challenge from
+Skookum replied to by a human voice, and a short man with black whiskers
+appeared. He raised one hand in token of friendliness and was invited to
+come in.
+
+He was a French Canadian from La Colle Mills. He had trapped here for
+some years. The almost certainty of war between Canada and the States
+had kept his usual companions away. So he had trapped alone, always a
+dangerous business, and had gathered a lot of good fur, but had fallen
+on the ice and hurt himself inwardly, so that he had no strength. He
+could tramp out on snowshoes, but could not carry his pack of furs. He
+had long known that he had neighbours on the south; the camp fire smoke
+proved that, and he had come now to offer all his furs for sale.
+
+Quonab shook his head, but Rolf said, "We'll come over and see them."
+
+A two-hours' tramp in the morning brought them to the Frenchman's cabin.
+He opened out his furs; several otter, many sable, some lynx, over
+thirty beaver--the whole lot for two hundred dollars. At Lyons Falls
+they were worth double that.
+
+Rolf saw a chance for a bargain. He whispered, "We can double our money
+on it, Quonab. What do ye say?"
+
+The reply was simply, "Ugh! you are Nibowaka."
+
+"We'll take your offer, if we can fix it up about payment, for I have no
+money with me and barely two hundred dollars at the cabin."
+
+"You half tabac and grosairs?"
+
+"Yes, plenty."
+
+"You can go 'get 'em? Si?"
+
+Rolf paused, looked down, then straight at the Frenchman.
+
+"Will you trust me to take half the fur now; when I come back with the
+pay I can get the rest."
+
+The Frenchman looked puzzled, then, "By Gar you look de good look. I let
+um go. I tink you pretty good fellow, parbleu!"
+
+So Rolf marched away with half the furs and four days later he was back
+and paid the pale-faced but happy Frenchman the one hundred and fifty
+dollars he had received from Van Cortlandt, with other bills making one
+hundred and ninety-five dollars and with groceries and tobacco enough to
+satisfy the trapper. The Frenchman proved a most amiable character.
+He and Rolf took to each other greatly, and when they shook hands at
+parting, it was in the hope of an early and happier meeting.
+
+Francois la Colle turned bravely for the ninety-mile tramp over the snow
+to his home, while Rolf went south with the furs that were to prove
+a most profitable investment, shaping his life in several ways, and
+indirectly indeed of saving it on one occasion.
+
+
+
+Chapter 68. War
+
+Eighteen hundred and twelve had passed away. President Madison, driven
+by wrongs to his countrymen and indignities that no nation should meekly
+accept, had in the midsummer declared war on Great Britain. Unfitted to
+cope with the situation and surrounded by unfit counsellors, his little
+army of heroic men led by unfit commanders had suffered one reverse
+after another.
+
+The loss of Fort Mackinaw, Chicago, Detroit, Brownstown, and the total
+destruction of the American army that attacked Queenstown were but
+poorly offset by the victory at Niagara and the successful defence of
+Ogdensburg.
+
+Rolf and Quonab had repaired to Albany as arranged, but they left it
+as United States scouts, not as guides to the four young sportsmen who
+wished to hark back to the primitive.
+
+Their first commission had been the bearing of despatches to Plattsburg.
+
+With a selected light canoe and a minimum of baggage they reached
+Ticonderoga in two days, and there renewed their acquaintance
+with General Hampton, who was fussing about, and digging useless
+entrenchments as though he expected a mighty siege. Rolf was called
+before him to receive other despatches for Colonel Pike at Plattsburg.
+He got the papers and learned their destination, then immediately made a
+sad mistake. "Excuse me, sir," he began, "if I meet with--"
+
+"Young man," said the general, severely, "I don't want any of your 'ifs'
+or 'buts'; your orders are 'go.' 'How' and 'if' are matters for you to
+find out; that's what you are paid for."
+
+Rolf bowed; his cheeks were tingling. He was very angry at what he
+thought a most uncalled for rebuke, but he got over it, and he never
+forgot the lesson. It was Si Sylvanne that put it into rememberable
+form.
+
+"A fool horse kin follow a turnpike, but it takes a man with wits to
+climb, swim, boat, skate, run, hide, go it blind, pick a lock, take the
+long way, round, when it's the short way across, run away at the right
+time, or fight when it's wise--all in one afternoon." Rolf set out for
+the north carrying a bombastic (meant to be reassuring) message from
+Hampton that he would annihilate any enemy who dared to desecrate the
+waters of the lake.
+
+It was on this trip that Rolf learned from Quonab the details of the
+latter's visit to his people on the St. Regis. Apparently the joy of
+meeting a few of his own kin, with whom he could talk his own language,
+was offset by meeting with a large number of his ancient enemies the
+Mohawks. There had been much discussion of the possible war between the
+British and the Yankees. The Mohawks announced their intention to fight
+for the British, which was a sufficient reason for Quonab as a Sinawa
+remaining with the Americans; and when he left the St. Regis reserve the
+Indian was without any desire to reenter it.
+
+At Plattsburg Rolf and Quonab met with another Albany acquaintance in
+General Wilkinson, and from him received despatches which they brought
+back to Albany, having covered the whole distance in eight days.
+
+When 1812 was gone Rolf had done little but carry despatches up and down
+Lake Champlain. Next season found the Americans still under command of
+Generals Wilkinson and Hampton, whose utter incompetence was becoming
+daily more evident.
+
+The year 1813 saw Rolf, eighteen years old and six feet one in his
+socks, a trained scout and despatch bearer.
+
+By a flying trip on snowshoes in January he took letters, from General
+Hampton at Ticonderoga to Sackett's Harbour and back in eight days,
+nearly three hundred miles. It made him famous as a runner, but the
+tidings that he brought were sad. Through him they learned in detail of
+the total defeat and capture of the American army at Frenchtown. After a
+brief rest he was sent across country on snowshoes to bear a reassuring
+message to Ogdensburg. The weather was much colder now, and the single
+blanket bed was dangerously slight; so "Flying Kittering," as they named
+him, took a toboggan and secured Quonab as his running mate. Skookum
+was given into safe keeping. Blankets, pots, cups, food, guns, and
+despatches were strapped on the toboggan, and they sped away at dawn
+from Ticonderoga on the 18th of February 1813, headed northwestward,
+guided by little but the compass. Thirty miles that day they made in
+spite of piercing blasts and driving snow. But with the night there
+began a terrible storm with winds of zero chill. The air was filled
+with stinging, cutting snow. When they rose at daylight they were nearly
+buried in drifts, although their camp was in a dense, sheltered thicket.
+Guided wholly by the compass they travelled again, but blinded by the
+whirling white they stumbled and blundered into endless difficulties
+and made but poor headway. After dragging the toboggan for three hours,
+taking turns at breaking the way, they were changing places when Rolf
+noticed a large gray patch on Quonab's cheek and nose.
+
+"Quonab, your face is frozen," he said.
+
+"So is yours," was the reply.
+
+Now they turned aside, followed a hollow until they reached a spruce
+grove, where they camped and took an observation, to learn that the
+compass and they held widely different views about the direction of
+travel. It was obviously useless to face the storm. They rubbed out
+their frozen features with dry snow and rested by the fire.
+
+No good scout seeks for hardship; he avoids the unnecessary trial of
+strength and saves himself for the unavoidable. With zero weather about
+them and twenty-four hours to wait in the storm, the scouts set about
+making themselves thoroughly comfortable.
+
+With their snowshoes they dug away the snow in a circle a dozen feet
+across, piling it up on the outside so as to make that as high as
+possible. When they were down to the ground, the wall of snow around
+them was five feet high. Now they went forth with the hatchets, cut many
+small spruces, and piled them against the living spruces about the camp
+till there was a dense mass of evergreen foliage ten feet high around
+them, open only at the top, where was a space five feet across. With
+abundance of dry spruce wood, a thick bed of balsam boughs, and plenty
+of blankets they were in what most woodmen consider comfort complete.
+
+They had nothing to do now but wait. Quonab sat placidly smoking, Rolf
+was sewing a rent in his coat, the storm hissed, and the wind-driven ice
+needles rattled through the trees to vary the crackle of the fire with a
+"siss" as they fell on the embers. The low monotony of sound was lulling
+in its evenness, when a faint crunch of a foot on the snow was heard.
+Rolf reached for his gun, the fir tree screen was shaken a little, and a
+minute later there bounded in upon them the snow covered form of little
+dog Skookum, expressing his good-will by excessive sign talk in which
+every limb and member had a part. They had left him behind, indeed, but
+not with his consent, so the bargain was incomplete.
+
+There was no need to ask now, What shall we do with him? Skookum had
+settled that, and why or how he never attempted to explain.
+
+He was wise who made it law that "as was his share who went forth to
+battle, so shall his be that abode with the stuff," for the hardest of
+all is the waiting. In the morning there was less doing in the elemental
+strife. There were even occasional periods of calm and at length it grew
+so light that surely the veil was breaking.
+
+Quonab returned from a brief reconnoitre to say, "Ugh!--good going."
+
+The clouds were broken and flying, the sun came out at times, but the
+wind was high, the cold intense, and the snow still drifting. Poor
+Skookum had it harder than the men, for they wore snowshoes; but he kept
+his troubles to himself and bravely trudged along behind. Had he been
+capable of such reflection he might have said, "What delightful weather,
+it keeps the fleas so quiet."
+
+That day there was little to note but the intense cold, and again both
+men had their cheeks frost-bitten on the north side. A nook under an
+overhanging rock gave a good camp that night. Next day the bad weather
+resumed, but, anxious to push on they faced it, guided chiefly by the
+wind. It was northwest, and as long as they felt this fierce, burning
+cold mercilessly gnawing on their hapless tender right cheek bones, they
+knew they were keeping their proper main course.
+
+They were glad indeed to rest at dusk and thaw their frozen faces. Next
+day at dawn they were off; at first it was calm, but the surging of the
+snow waves soon began again, and the air was filled with the spray of
+their lashing till it was hard to see fifty yards in any direction. They
+were making very bad time. The fourth day should have brought them to
+Ogdensburg, but they were still far off; how far they could only guess,
+for they had not come across a house or a settler.
+
+
+
+Chapter 69. Ogdensburg
+
+The same blizzard was raging on the next day when Skookum gave
+unequivocal sign talk that he smelled something.
+
+It is always well to find out what stirs your dog. Quonab looked hard at
+Skookum. That sagacious mongrel was sniffing vigorously, up in the air,
+not on the ground; his mane was not bristling, and the patch of dark
+hair that every gray or yellow dog has at the base of his tail, was not
+lifted.
+
+"He smells smoke," was the Indian's quick diagnosis. Rolf pointed Up the
+wind and made the sign-talk query. Quonab nodded.
+
+It was their obvious duty to find out who was their smoky neighbour.
+They were now not so far from the St. Lawrence; there was a small chance
+of the smoke being from a party of the enemy; there was a large chance
+of it being from friends; and the largest chance was that it came from
+some settler's cabin where they could get necessary guidance.
+
+They turned aside. The wind now, instead of on the right cheek, was
+square in their faces. Rolf went forward increasing his pace till he was
+as far ahead as was possible without being out of sight. After a mile
+their way led downward, the timber was thicker, the wind less, and the
+air no more befogged with flying snow. Rolf came to a long, deep trench
+that wound among the trees; the snow at the bottom of it was very hard.
+This was what he expected; the trail muffled under new, soft snow, but
+still a fresh trail and leading to the camp that Skookum had winded.
+
+He turned and made the sign for them to halt and wait. Then strode
+cautiously along the winding guide line.
+
+In twenty minutes the indications of a settlement increased, and the
+scout at length was peering from the woods across the open down to a
+broad stream on whose bank was a saw mill, with the usual wilderness of
+ramshackle shanties, sheds, and lumber piles about.
+
+There was no work going on, which was a puzzle till Rolf remembered
+it was Sunday. He went boldly up and asked for the boss. His whole
+appearance was that of a hunter and as such the boss received him.
+
+He was coming through from the other side and had missed his way in the
+storm, he explained.
+
+"What are ye by trade?"
+
+"A trapper."
+
+"Where are ye bound now?"
+
+"Well, I'll head for the nearest big settlement, whatever that is."
+
+"It's just above an even thing between Alexandria Bay and Ogdensburg."
+
+So Rolf inquired fully about the trail to Alexandria Bay that he did not
+want to go to. Why should he be so careful? The mill owner was clearly
+a good American, but the scout had no right to let any outsider know his
+business. This mill owner might be safe, but he might be unwise and blab
+to some one who was not all right.
+
+Then in a casual way he learned that this was the Oswegatchie River and
+thirty miles down he would find the town of Ogdensburg.
+
+No great recent events did he hear of, but evidently the British
+troops across the river were only awaiting the springtime before taking
+offensive measures.
+
+For the looks of it, Rolf bought some tea and pork, but the hospitable
+mill man refused to take payment and, leaving in the direction of
+Alexandria Bay, Rolf presently circled back and rejoined his friends in
+the woods.
+
+A long detour took them past the mill. It was too cold for outdoor
+idling. Every window was curtained with frost, and not a soul saw them
+as they tramped along past the place and down to continue on the ice of
+the Oswegatchie.
+
+Pounded by the ceaseless wind, the snow on the ice was harder, travel
+was easier, and the same tireless blizzard wiped out the trail as soon
+as it was behind them.
+
+Crooked is the river trail, but good the footing, and good time was
+made. When there was a north reach, the snow was extra hard or the ice
+clear and the scouts slipped off their snow shoes, and trotted at a good
+six-mile gait. Three times they halted for tea and rest, but the fact
+that they were the bearers of precious despatches, the bringers of
+inspiring good news, and their goal ever nearer, spurred them on and
+on. It was ten o'clock that morning when they left the mill, some thirty
+miles from Ogdensburg. It was now near sundown, but still they figured
+that by an effort they could reach the goal that night. It was their
+best day's travel, but they were nerved to it by the sense of triumph as
+they trotted; and the prospective joy of marching up to the commandant
+and handing over the eagerly looked for, reassuring documents, gave
+them new strength and ambition. Yes! they must push on at any price that
+night. Day was over now; Rolf was leading at a steady trot. In his hand
+he held the long trace of his toboggan, ten feet behind was Quonab with
+the short trace, while Skookum trotted before, beside, or behind, as was
+dictated by his general sense of responsibility.
+
+It was quite dark now. There was no moon, the wooded shore was black.
+Their only guide was the broad, wide reach of the river, sometimes swept
+bare of snow by the wind, but good travelling at all times. They were
+trotting and walking in spells, going five miles an hour; Quonab was
+suffering, but Rolf was young and eager to finish. They rounded another
+reach, they were now on the last big bend, they were reeling off the
+miles; only ten more, and Rolf was so stirred that, instead of dropping
+to the usual walk on signal at the next one hundred yards spell, he
+added to his trot. Quonab, taken unawares, slipped and lost his hold of
+the trace. Rolf shot ahead and a moment later there was the crash of a
+breaking air-hole, and Rolf went through the ice, clutched at the broken
+edge and disappeared, while the toboggan was dragged to the hole.
+
+Quonab sprung to his feet, and then to the lower side of the hole.
+The toboggan had swung to the same place and the long trace was tight;
+without a moment's delay the Indian hauled at it steadily, heavily, and
+in a few seconds the head of his companion reappeared; still clutching
+that long trace he was safely dragged from the ice-cold flood, blowing
+and gasping, shivering and sopping, but otherwise unhurt.
+
+Now here a new danger presented itself. The zero wind would soon turn
+his clothes to boards. They stiffened in a few minutes, and the Indian
+knew that frozen hands and feet were all too easy in frozen clothes.
+
+He made at once for the shore, and, seeking the heart of a spruce
+thicket, lost no time in building two roaring fires between which Rolf
+stood while the Indian made the bed, in which, as soon as he could be
+stripped, the lad was glad to hide. Warm tea and warm blankets made
+him warm, but it would take an hour or two to dry his clothes. There is
+nothing more damaging than drying them too quickly. Quonab made racks of
+poles and spent the next two hours in regulating the fire, watching the
+clothes, and working the moccasins.
+
+It was midnight when they were ready and any question of going on at
+once was settled by Quonab. "Ogdensburg is under arms," he said. "It is
+not wise to approach by night."
+
+At six in the morning they were once more going, stiff with travel,
+sore-footed, face-frozen, and chafed by delay; but, swift and keen,
+trotting and walking, they went. They passed several settlements, but
+avoided them. At seven-thirty they had a distant glimpse of Ogdensburg
+and heard the inspiring roll of drums, and a few minutes later from
+the top of a hill they had a complete view of the heroic little town to
+see--yes! plainly enough--that the British flag was flying from the flag
+pole.
+
+
+
+Chapter 70. Saving the Despatches
+
+Oh, the sickening shock of it! Rolf did not know till now how tired he
+was, how eager to deliver the heartening message, and to relax a little
+from the strain. He felt weak through and through. There could be no
+doubt that a disaster had befallen his country's arms.
+
+His first care was to get out of sight with his sled and those precious
+despatches.
+
+Now what should he do? Nothing till he had fuller information. He sent
+Quonab back with the sled, instructing him to go to a certain place two
+miles off, there camp out of sight and wait.
+
+Then he went in alone. Again and again he was stung by the thought, "If
+I had come sooner they might have held out."
+
+A number of teams gathered at the largest of a group of houses on the
+bank suggested a tavern. He went in and found many men sitting down
+to breakfast. He had no need to ask questions. It was the talk of the
+table. Ogdensburg had been captured the day before. The story is well
+known. Colonel MacDonnell with his Glengarry Highlanders at Prescott
+went to drill daily on the ice of the St. Lawrence opposite Ogdensburg.
+Sometimes they marched past just out of range, sometimes they charged
+and wheeled before coming too near. The few Americans that held the
+place watched these harmless exercises and often cheered some clever
+manceuvre. They felt quite safe behind their fortification. By an
+unwritten agreement both parties refrained from firing random shots at
+each other. There was little to suggest enemies entrenched; indeed, many
+men in each party had friends in the other, and the British had several
+times trotted past within easy range, without provoking a shot.
+
+On February 22d, the day when Rolf and Quonab struck the Oswegatchie,
+the British colonel directed his men as usual, swinging them ever nearer
+the American fort, and then, at the nearest point, executed a very
+pretty charge. The Americans watched it as it neared, but instead of
+wheeling at the brink the little army scrambled up with merry shouts,
+and before the garrison could realize that this was war, they were
+overpowered and Ogdensburg was taken.
+
+The American commander was captured. Captain Forsyth, the second in
+command, had been off on a snowshoe trip, so had escaped. All the
+rest were prisoners, and what to do with the despatches or how to get
+official instructions was now a deep problem. "When you don't know a
+thing to do, don't do a thing," was one of Si Sylvanne's axioms; also,
+"In case of doubt lay low and say nothing." Rolf hung around the town
+all day waiting for light. About noon a tall, straight, alert man in a
+buffalo coat drove up with a cutter. He had a hasty meal in an inside
+room. Rolf sized him up for an American officer, but there was a
+possibility of his being a Canadian. Rolf tried in vain to get light on
+him but the inner door was kept closed; the landlord was evidently in
+the secret. When he came out he was again swaddled in the buffalo coat.
+Rolf brushed past him--here was something hard and long in the right
+pocket of the big coat.
+
+The landlord, the guest, and the driver had a whispered conference.
+Rolf went as near as he dared, but got only a searching look. The driver
+spoke to another driver and Rolf heard the words "Black Lake." Yes,
+that was what he suspected. Black Lake was on the inland sleigh route to
+Alexandria Bay and Sackett's Harbour.
+
+The driver, a fresh young fellow, was evidently interested in the
+landlord's daughter; the stranger was talking with the landlord. As soon
+as they had parted, Rolf went to the latter and remarked quietly: "The
+captain is in a hurry." The only reply was a cold look and: "Guess
+that's his business." So it was the captain. The driver's mitts were on
+the line back of the stove. Rolf shook them so that they fell in a dark
+corner. The driver missed his mitts, and glad of a chance went back in,
+leaving the officer alone. "Captain Forsyth," whispered Rolf, "don't go
+till I have talked with you. I'll meet you a mile down the road."
+
+"Who are you and what do you want?" was the curt and hostile reply,
+evidently admitting the identification correct however.
+
+Rolf opened his coat and showed his scout badge.
+
+"Why not talk now if you have any news--come in side." So the two went
+to the inner room. "Who is this?" asked Rolf cautiously as the landlord
+came in.
+
+"He's all right. This is Titus Flack, the landlord."
+
+"How am I to know that?"
+
+"Haven't you heard him called by name all day?" said the captain.
+
+Flack smiled, went out and returned with his license to sell liquor, and
+his commission as a magistrate of New York State. The latter bore his
+own signature. He took a pen and reproduced it. Now the captain threw
+back his overcoat and stood in the full uniform of an army officer.
+He opened his satchel and took out a paper, but Rolf caught sight of
+another packet addressed to General Hampton. The small one was merely a
+map. "I think that packet in there is meant for me," remarked Rolf.
+
+"We haven't seen your credentials yet," said the officer. "I have them
+two miles back there," and Rolf pointed to the woods.
+
+"Let's go," said the captain and they arose. Kittering had a way of
+inspiring confidence, but in the short, silent ride of two miles the
+captain began to have his doubts. The scout badge might have been
+stolen; Canadians often pass for Americans, etc. At length they stopped
+the sleigh, and Rolf led into the woods. Before a hundred yards the
+officer said, "Stop," and Rolf stopped to find a pistol pointed at his
+head. "Now, young fellow, you've played it pretty slick, and I don't
+know yet what to make of it. But I know this; at the very first sign of
+treachery I'll blow your brains out anyway." It gave Rolf a jolt. This
+was the first time he had looked down a pistol barrel levelled at him.
+He used to think a pistol a little thing, an inch through and a foot
+long, but he found now it seemed as big as a flour barrel and long
+enough to reach eternity. He changed colour but quickly recovered,
+smiled, and said: "Don't worry; in five minutes you will know it's all
+right."
+
+Very soon a sharp bark was heard in challenge, and the two stepped into
+camp to meet Quonab and little dog Skookum.
+
+"Doesn't look much like a trap," thought the captain after he had cast
+his eyes about and made sure that no other person was in the camp; then
+aloud, "Now what have you to show me?"
+
+"Excuse me, captain, but how am I to know you are Captain Forsyth? It is
+possible for a couple of spies to give all the proof you two gave me."
+
+The captain opened his bag and showed first his instructions given
+before he left Ogdensburg four days ago; he bared his arm and showed a
+tattooed U. S. A., a relic of Academy days, then his linen marked J. F.,
+and a signet ring with similar initials, and last the great packet of
+papers addressed to General Hampton. Then he said: "When you hand over
+your despatches to me I will give mine to you and we shall have good
+guarantee each of the other."
+
+Rolf rose, produced his bundle of papers, and exchanged them for those
+held by Forsyth; each felt that the other was safe. They soon grew
+friendly, and Rolf heard of some stirring doings on the lake and
+preparations for a great campaign in the spring.
+
+After half an hour the tall, handsome captain left them and strode away,
+a picture of manly vigour. Three hours later they were preparing their
+evening meal when Skookum gave notice of a stranger approaching. This
+was time of war; Rolf held his rifle ready, and a moment later in burst
+the young man who had been Captain Forsyth's driver.
+
+His face was white; blood dripped from his left arm, and in his other
+hand was the despatch bag. He glanced keenly at Rolf. "Are you General
+Hampton's scout?" Rolf nodded and showed the badge on his breast.
+"Captain Forsyth sent this back," he gasped. "His last words were, 'Burn
+the despatches rather than let the British get them.' They got him--a
+foraging party--there was a spy at the hotel. I got away, but my tracks
+are easy to follow unless it drifts. Don't wait."
+
+Poor boy, his arm was broken, but he carried out the dead officer's
+command, then left them to seek for relief in the settlement.
+
+Night was near, but Rolf broke camp at once and started eastward with
+the double packet. He did not know it then, but learned afterward that
+these despatches made clear the weakness of Oswego, Rochester, and
+Sackett's Harbour, their urgent need of help, and gave the whole plan
+for an American counter attack on Montreal. But he knew they were
+valuable, and they must at once be taken to General Hampton.
+
+It was rough, hard going in the thick woods and swamps away from the
+river, for he did not dare take the ice route now, but they pushed on
+for three hours, then, in the gloom, made a miserable camp in a cedar
+swamp.
+
+At dawn they were off again. To their disgust the weather now was dead
+calm; there was no drift to hide their tracks; the trail was as plain as
+a highway wherever they went. They came to a beaten road, followed that
+for half a mile, then struck off on the true line. But they had no idea
+that they were followed until, after an hour of travel, the sun came up
+and on a far distant slope, full two miles away, they saw a thin black
+line of many spots, at least a dozen British soldiers in pursuit.
+
+The enemy was on snowshoes, and without baggage evidently, for they
+travelled fast. Rolf and Quonab burdened with the sled were making
+a losing race. But they pushed on as fast as possible--toiling and
+sweating at that precious load. Rolf was pondering whether the time had
+not yet come to stop and burn the packet, when, glancing back from a
+high ridge that gave an outlook, he glimpsed a row of heads that dropped
+behind some rocks half a mile away, and a scheme came into his mind. He
+marched boldly across the twenty feet opening that was in the enemy's
+view, dropped behind the spruce thickets, called Quonab to follow, ran
+around the thicket, and again crossed the open view. So he and Quonab
+continued for five minutes, as fast as they could go, knowing perfectly
+well that they were watched. Round and round that bush they went,
+sometimes close together, carrying the guns, sometimes dragging the
+sled, sometimes with blankets on their shoulders, sometimes with a short
+bag or even a large cake of snow on their backs. They did everything
+they could to vary the scene, and before five minutes the British
+officer in charge had counted fifty-six armed Americans marching in
+single file up the bank with ample stores, accompanied by five yellow
+dogs. Had Skookum been allowed to carry out his ideas, there would have
+been fifty or sixty yellow dogs, so thoroughly did he enter into the
+spirit of the game.
+
+The track gave no hint of such a troop, but of course not, how could it?
+since the toboggan left all smooth after they had passed, or maybe this
+was a reinforcement arriving. What could he do with his ten men against
+fifty of the enemy? He thanked his stars that he had so cleverly evaded
+the trap, and without further attempt to gauge the enemy's strength, he
+turned and made all possible haste back to the shelter of Ogdensburg.
+
+
+
+Chapter 71. Sackett's Harbour
+
+It was hours before Rolf was sure that he had stopped the pursuit, and
+the thing that finally set his mind at rest was the rising wind that
+soon was a raging and drifting snow storm. "Oh, blessed storm!" he said
+in his heart, as he marked all trail disappear within a few seconds
+of its being made. And he thought: "How I cursed the wind that held me
+back--really from being made prisoner. How vexed I was at that ducking
+in the river, that really saved my despatches from the enemy. How
+thankful I am now for the storm that a little while back seemed so
+bitterly cruel."
+
+That forenoon they struck the big bend of the river and now did not
+hesitate to use the easy travel on the ice as far as Rensselaer Falls,
+where, having got their bearings from a settler, they struck across the
+country through the storm, and at night were encamped some forty miles
+from Ogdensburg.
+
+Marvellously few signs of game had they seen in this hard trip;
+everything that could hide away was avoiding the weather. But in a cedar
+bottom land near Cranberry Lake they found a "yard" that seemed to be
+the winter home of hundreds of deer. It extended two or three miles one
+way a half a mile the other; in spite of the deep snow this was nearly
+all in beaten paths. The scouts saw at least fifty deer in going
+through, so, of course, had no difficulty in selecting a young buck for
+table use.
+
+The going from there on was of little interest. It was the same old
+daily battle with the frost, but less rigorous than before, for now the
+cold winds were behind, and on the 27th of February, nine days after
+leaving, they trotted into Ticonderoga and reported at the commandant's
+headquarters.
+
+The general was still digging entrenchments and threatening to
+annihilate all Canada. But the contents of the despatches gave him new
+topics for thought and speech. The part he must play in the proposed
+descent on Montreal was flattering, but it made the Ticonderoga
+entrenchments ridiculous.
+
+For three days Rolf was kept cutting wood, then he went with despatches
+to Albany.
+
+Many minor labours, from hog-killing to stable-cleaning and trenching,
+varied the month of March. Then came the uncertain time of April when
+it was neither canoeing nor snow-shoeing and all communication from the
+north was cut off.
+
+But May, great, glorious May came on, with its inspiring airs and
+livening influence. Canoes were afloat, the woods were brown beneath and
+gold above.
+
+Rolf felt like a young stag in his strength. He was spoiling for a run
+and volunteered eagerly to carry despatches to Sackett's Harbour. He
+would go alone, for now one blanket was sufficient bed, and a couple of
+pounds of dry meat was enough food for each day. A small hatchet would
+be useful, but his rifle seemed too heavy to carry; as he halted in
+doubt, a junior officer offered him a pistol instead, and he gladly
+stuck it in his belt.
+
+Taller than ever, considerably over six feet now, somewhat lanky, but
+supple of joint and square of shoulder, he strode with the easy stride
+of a strong traveller. His colour was up, his blue-gray eyes ablaze
+as he took the long trail in a crow line across country for Sackett's
+Harbour. The sentry saluted, and the officer of the day, struck by his
+figure and his glowing face as much as by the nature of his errand,
+stopped to shake hands and say, "Well, good luck, Kittering, and may you
+bring us better news than the last two times."
+
+Rolf knew how to travel now; he began softly. At a long, easy stride he
+went for half an hour, then at a swinging trot for a mile or two. Five
+miles an hour he could make, but there was one great obstacle to speed
+at this season--every stream was at flood, all were difficult to cross.
+The brooks he could wade or sometimes could fell a tree across them, but
+the rivers were too wide to bridge, too cold and dangerous to swim. In
+nearly every case he had to make a raft. A good scout takes no chances.
+A slight raft means a risky passage; a good one, a safe crossing but
+loss of time in preparations. Fifteen good rafts did Rolf make in that
+cross-country journey of three days: dry spruce logs he found each time
+and bound them together with leather-wood and withes of willow. It meant
+a delay of at least an hour each time; that is five hours each day. But
+the time was wisely spent. The days were lengthening; he could travel
+much at dusk. Soon he was among settlements. Rumours he got at a
+settler's cabin of Sir George Prevost's attack on Sackett's Harbour and
+the gallant repulse and at morning of the fourth day he came on the hill
+above Sackett's Harbour--the same hill where he had stood three months
+before. It was with something like a clutching of his breath that he
+gazed; his past experiences suggested dreadful thoughts but no--thank
+God, "Old Glory" floated from the pole. He identified himself to the
+sentinels and the guard, entered the fort at a trot, and reported at
+headquarters.
+
+There was joy on every side. At last the tide had turned. Commodore
+Chauncey, after sweeping Lake Ontario, had made a sudden descent on York
+(Toronto now) the capital of Upper Canada, had seized and destroyed
+it. Sir George Prevost, taking advantage of Chauncey's being away, had
+attacked Sackett's Harbour, but, in spite of the absence of the fleet,
+the resistance had been so vigorous that in a few days the siege was
+abandoned.
+
+There were shot holes in walls and roofs, there were a few wounded
+in the hospital, the green embankments were torn, and the flag-pole
+splintered; but the enemy was gone, the starry flag was floating on the
+wind, and the sturdy little garrison filled with a spirit that grows
+only in heroes fighting for their homes.
+
+How joyfully different from Ogdensburg.
+
+
+
+Chapter 72. Scouting Across Country
+
+That very night, Rolf turned again with the latest news and the
+commandant's reports.
+
+He was learning the country well now, and, with the wonderful
+place-memory of a woodman, he was able to follow his exact back trail.
+It might not have been the best way, but it gave him this advantage--in
+nearly every case he was able to use again the raft he had made in
+coming, and thereby saved many hours of precious time.
+
+On the way out he had seen a good many deer and one bear, and had heard
+the howling of wolves every night; but always at a distance. On the
+second night, in the very heart of the wilderness, the wolves were noisy
+and seemed very near. Rolf was camping in the darkness. He made a small
+fire with such stuff as he could find by groping, then, when the fire
+blazed, he discovered by its light a dead spruce some twenty yards away.
+Taking his hatchet he went toward this, and, as he did so, a wolf rose
+up, with its forefeet on a log, only five yards beyond the tree and
+gazed curiously at him. Others were heard calling; presently this wolf
+raised its muzzle and uttered a long smooth howl.
+
+Rolf had left his pistol back at the fire; he dared not throw his
+hatchet, as that would have left him unarmed. He stooped, picked up a
+stick, and threw that; the wolf ducked so that it passed over, then,
+stepping back from the log, stood gazing without obvious fear or menace.
+The others were howling; Rolf felt afraid. He backed cautiously to the
+fire, got his pistol and came again to the place, but nothing more did
+he see of the wolf, though he heard them all night and kept up two great
+fires for a protection.
+
+In the morning he started as usual, and before half an hour he was aware
+of a wolf, and later of two, trotting along his trail, a few hundred
+yards behind. They did not try to overtake him; indeed, when he stopped,
+they did the same; and when he trotted, they, true to their dog-like
+nature, ran more rapidly in pursuit. How Rolf did wish for his long
+rifle; but they gave no opportunity for a shot with the pistol. They
+acted, indeed, as though they knew their safe distance and the exact
+range of the junior gun. The scout made a trap for them by stealing back
+after he had crossed a ridge, and hiding near his own trail. But the
+wind conveyed a warning, and the wolves merely sat down and waited
+till he came out and went on. All day long these two strange ban dogs
+followed him and gave no sign of hunger or malice; then, after he
+crossed a river, at three in the afternoon, he saw no more of them.
+Years after, when Rolf knew them better, he believed they followed him
+out of mild curiosity, or possibly in the hope that he would kill a deer
+in which they might share. And when they left him, it was because they
+were near the edge of their own home region; they had seen him off their
+hunting grounds.
+
+That night he camped sixty miles from Ticonderoga, but he was resolved
+to cover the distance in one day. Had he not promised to be back in a
+week? The older hands had shaken their heads incredulously, and he, in
+the pride of his legs, was determined to be as good as his promise. He
+scarcely dared sleep lest he should oversleep. At ten he lay down. At
+eleven the moon was due to rise; as soon as that was three hours high
+there would be light enough, and he proposed to go on. At least half
+a dozen times he woke with a start, fearing he had overslept, but
+reassured by a glance at the low-hung moon, he had slumbered again.
+
+At last the moon was four hours high, and the woods were plain in the
+soft light. A horned owl "hoo-hoo-ed," and a far-off wolf uttered
+a drawn-out, soft, melancholy cry, as Rolf finished his dried meat,
+tightened his belt, and set out on a long, hard run that, in the days of
+Greece, would have furnished the theme of many a noble epic poem.
+
+No need to consult his compass. The blazing lamp of the dark sky was his
+guide, straight east his course, varied a little by hills and lakes, but
+nearly the crow-flight line. At first his pace was a steady, swinging
+stride; then after a mile he came to an open lake shore down which he
+went at a six-mile trot; and then an alder thicket through which his
+progress was very slow; but that soon passed, and for half a mile he
+splashed through swamps with water a foot deep: nor was he surprised
+at length to see it open into a little lake with a dozen beaver huts in
+view. "Splash, prong" their builders went at his approach, but he made
+for the hillside; the woods were open, the moonlight brilliant now, and
+here he trotted at full swing as long as the way was level or down,
+but always walked on the uphill. A sudden noise ahead was followed by
+a tremendous crashing and crackling of the brush. For a moment it
+continued, and what it meant, Rolf never knew or guessed.
+
+"Trot, trot," he went, reeling off six miles in the open, two or perhaps
+three in the thickets, but on and on, ever eastward. Hill after hill,
+swamp after swamp, he crossed, lake after lake he skirted round, and,
+when he reached some little stream, he sought a log bridge or prodded
+with a pole till he found a ford and crossed, then ran a mile or two to
+make up loss of time.
+
+Tramp, tramp, tramp, and his steady breath and his steady heart kept
+unremitting rhythm.
+
+
+
+Chapter 73. Rolf Makes a Record
+
+Twelve miles were gone when the foreglow--the first cold dawn-light
+showed, and shining across his path ahead was a mighty rolling stream.
+Guided by the now familiar form of Goodenow Peak he made for this, the
+Hudson's lordly flood. There was his raft securely held, with paddle and
+pole near by, and he pushed off with all the force of his young vigour.
+Jumping and careening with the stream in its freshet flood, the raft and
+its hardy pilot were served with many a whirl and some round spins, but
+the long pole found bottom nearly everywhere, and not ten minutes passed
+before the traveller sprang ashore, tied up his craft, then swung and
+tramped and swung.
+
+Over the hills of Vanderwhacker, under the woods of Boreas. Tramp,
+tramp, splash, tramp, wringing and sopping, but strong and hot, tramp,
+tramp, tramp, tramp. The partridge whirred from his path, the gray deer
+snorted, and the panther sneaked aside. Tramp, tramp, trot, trot, and
+the Washburn Ridge was blue against the sunrise. Trot, trot, over the
+low, level, mile-long slope he went, and when the Day-god burnt the
+upper hill-rim he was by brown Tahawus flood and had covered eighteen
+miles.
+
+By the stream he stopped to drink. A partridge cock, in the pride of
+spring, strutted arrogantly on a log. Rolf drew his pistol, fired, then
+hung the headless body while he made a camper's blaze: an oatcake, the
+partridge, and river water were his meal. His impulse was to go on at
+once. His reason, said "go slow." So he waited for fifteen minutes. Then
+again, beginning with a slow walk, he ere long added to his pace. In
+half an hour he was striding and in an hour the steady "trot, trot,"
+that slackened only for the hills or swamps. In an hour more he was
+on the Washburn Ridge, and far away in the east saw Schroon Lake that
+empties in the river Schroon; and as he strode along, exulting in his
+strength, he sang in his heart for joy. Again a gray wolf cantered on
+his trail, and the runner laughed, without a thought of fear. He seemed
+to know the creature better now; knew it as a brother, for it gave
+no hostile sound, but only seemed to trot, trot, for the small joy of
+running with a runner, as a swallow or an antelope will skim along by
+a speeding train. For an hour or more it matched his pace, then left as
+though its pleasant stroll was done, and Rolf kept on and on and on.
+
+The spring sun soared on high, the day grew warm at noon. Schroon River
+just above the lake was in his path, and here he stopped to rest. Here,
+with the last of his oatcake and a little tea, he made his final meal;
+thirty eight miles had he covered since he rose; his clothes were torn,
+his moccasins worn, but his legs were strong, his purpose sure; only
+twenty-two miles now, and his duty would be done; his honours won. What
+should he do, push on at once? No, he meant to rest an hour. He made a
+good fire by a little pool, and using a great mass of caribou moss as a
+sponge, he had a thorough rub-down. He got out his ever-ready needle
+and put his moccasins in good shape; he dried his clothes and lay on his
+back till the hour was nearly gone. Then he girded himself for this the
+final run. He was weary, indeed, but he was far from spent, and the iron
+will that had yearly grown in force was there with its unconquerable
+support.
+
+Slowly at start, soon striding, and at last in the famous jog trot of
+the scout he went. The sky was blackened with clouds at length, and the
+jealous, howling east wind rolled up in rain; the spindrift blurred the
+way; the heavy showers of spring came down and drenched him; but his
+pack was safe and he trotted on and on. Then long, deep swamps of alder
+barred his path, and, guided only by the compass, Rolf pushed in and
+through and ever east. Barely a mile an hour in the thickest part
+he made, but lagged not; drenched and footsore, warm and torn, but
+doggedly, steadily on. At three he had made a scant seven miles; then
+the level, open wood of Thunderbolt was reached and his stride became a
+run; trot, trot, trot, at six-mile gait, for but fifteen miles remained.
+Sustained, inspired, the bringer of good news, he halted not and
+faltered not, but on and on.
+
+Tramp tramp, tramp tramp--endless, tireless, hour by hour. At five he
+was on Thunder Creek, scarce eight miles more to the goal; his limbs
+were sore, his feet were sore; bone tired was he, but his heart was
+filled with joy.
+
+"News of battle, news of victory" he was bringing, and the thought lent
+strength; the five mires passed, the way was plain with good roads now,
+but the runner was so weary. He was striding, his running was done, the
+sun was low in the west, his feet were bleeding, the courier was brain
+worn and leg worn, but he strode and strode. He passed by homes but
+heeded them not.
+
+"Come in and rest," called one who saw nothing but a weary traveller.
+Rolf shook his head, but gave no word and strode along. A mile--a short
+mile now; he must hold out; if he sat down he feared he could not rise.
+He came at last in sight of the fort; then, gathering all his force, he
+broke into a trot, weak, so weak that had he fallen, he could scarcely
+have got up, and slow, but faster than a walk: and so, as the red sun
+sank, he passed the gate. He had no right to give tidings to any but the
+general, yet they read it in his eyes. The guard broke into a cheer,
+and trotting still, though reeling, Rolf had kept his word, had made his
+run, had brought the news, and had safely reached his goal.
+
+
+
+Chapter 74. Van Trumper's Again
+
+Why should the scout bringing good news be differently received from the
+one that brings the ill? He did not make, the news, he simply did his
+duty; the same in both cases. He is merely the telegraph instrument.
+Yet it is so ever. King Pharaoh slew the bearer of ill-tidings; that was
+human nature. And General Hampton brought in the tall stripling to his
+table, to honour him, to get the fullest details, to glory in every
+item as though it all were due to himself. Rolf's wonderful journey was
+dilated on, and in the reports to Albany he was honourably mentioned for
+exceptionally meritorious service as a bearer of despatches.
+
+For three days Flying Kittering was hero of the post; then other runners
+came with other news and life went on.
+
+Hitherto the scouts had worn no uniform, but the execution of one of
+their number, who was captured by the British and treated as a spy,
+resulted in orders that all be formally enlisted and put in uniform.
+
+Not a few withdrew from the service; some, like Quonab, reluctantly
+consented, but Rolf was developing the fighting spirit, and was proud to
+wear the colours.
+
+The drill was tedious enough, but it was of short duration for him.
+Despatches were to go to Albany. The general, partly to honour Rolf,
+selected him.
+
+"Are you ready for another run, Kittering?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then prepare to start as soon as possible for Fort George and Albany.
+Do you want a mate?"
+
+"I should like a paddler as far as Fort George."
+
+"Well, pick your man."
+
+"Quonab."
+
+And when they set out, for the first time Rolf was in the stern, the
+post of guidance and command. So once more the two were travelling again
+with Skookum in the bow. It was afternoon when they started and the
+four-mile passage of the creek was slow, but down the long, glorious
+vista of the noble George they went at full canoe-flight, five miles an
+hour, and twenty-five miles of the great fair-way were reeled and past
+when they lighted their nightly fire.
+
+At dawn-cry of the hawk they sped away, and in spite of a rising wind
+they made six miles in two hours.
+
+As they approached the familiar landing of Van Trumper's farm, Skookum
+began to show a most zestful interest that recalled the blackened pages
+of his past. "Quonab, better use that," and Rolf handed a line with
+which Skookum was secured and thus led to make a new record, for this
+was the first time in his life that he landed at Van Trumper's without
+sacrificing a chicken in honour of the joyful occasion.
+
+They entered the house as the family were sitting down to breakfast.
+
+"Mein Hemel! mein Hemel! It is Rolf and Quonab; and vere is dot tam dog?
+Marta, vere is de chickens? Vy, Rolf, you bin now a giant, yah. Mein
+Gott, it is I am glad! I did tink der cannibals you had eat; is it dem
+Canadian or cannibal? I tink it all one the same, yah!"
+
+Marta was actually crying, the little ones were climbing over Rolf's
+knee, and Annette, tall and sixteen now, stood shyly by, awaiting a
+chance to shake hands. Home is the abiding place of those we love; it
+may be a castle or a cave, a shanty or a chateau, a moving van, a tepee,
+or a canal boat, a fortress or the shady side of a bush, but it is home,
+if there indeed we meet the faces that are ever in the heart, and find
+the hands whose touch conveys the friendly glow. Was there any other
+spot on earth where he could sit by the fire and feel that "hereabout
+are mine own, the people I love?" Rolf knew it now--Van Trumper's was
+his home.
+
+Talks of the war, of disasters by land, and of glorious victories on
+the sea, where England, long the unquestioned mistress of the waves,
+had been humbled again and again by the dauntless seamen of her Western
+blood; talks of big doings by the nation, and, yet more interesting,
+small doings by the travellers, and the breakfast passed all too soon.
+The young scout rose, for he was on-duty, but the long rollers on the
+lake forbade the going forth. Van's was a pleasant place to wait, but
+he chafed at the delay; his pride would have him make a record on every
+journey. But wait he must. Skookum tied safely to his purgatorial post
+whined indignantly--and with head cocked on one side, picked out
+the very hen he would like to utilize--as soon as released from his
+temporary embarrassment. Quonab went out on a rock to bum some tobacco
+and pray for calm, and Rolf, ever active, followed Van to look over
+the stock and buildings, and hear of minor troubles. The chimney was
+unaccountably given to smoking this year. Rolf took an axe and with two
+blows cut down a vigorous growth shrubbery that stood above the chimney
+on the west, and the smoking ceased. Buck ox had a lame foot and would
+allow no one even to examine it. But a skilful ox-handler easily hobbles
+an ox, throws him near some small tree, and then, by binding the lame
+foot to the tree, can have a free hand. It proved a simple matter, a
+deep-sunk, rusty nail. And when the nail was drawn and the place washed
+clean with hot brine, kind nature was left in confidence to do the
+rest. They drifted back to the house now. Tomas met them shouting out a
+mixture of Dutch and English and holding by the cover Annette's book of
+the "Good Girl." But its rightful owner rescued the precious volume and
+put it on the shelf.
+
+"Have you read it through, Annette?"
+
+"Yes," was the reply, for she had learned to read before they left
+Schuylerville.
+
+"How do you like it?"
+
+"Didn't like it a bit; I like 'Robinson Crusoe'," was the candid reply.
+
+The noon hour came, still the white rollers were pounding the shore.
+
+"If it does not calm by one o'clock I'll go on afoot."
+
+So off he went with the packet, leaving Quonab to follow and await his
+return at Fort George. In Schuyler settlement he spent the night and at
+noon next day was in Albany.
+
+How it stirred his soul to see the busy interest, the marching of men,
+the sailing of vessels, and above all to hear of more victories on the
+high seas. What mattered a few frontier defeats in the north, when the
+arrogant foe that had spurned and insulted them before the world had now
+been humbled again and again.
+
+Young Van Cortlandt was away, but the governor's reception of him
+reflected the electric atmosphere--the country's pride in her sons.
+
+Rolf had a matter of his own to settle. At the bookseller's he asked for
+and actually secured a copy of the great book--"Robinson Crusoe." It was
+with a thrilling feeling of triumph that he wrote Annette's name in it
+and stowed it in his bag.
+
+He left Albany next day in the gray dawn. Thanks to his uniform, he got
+a twenty-five mile lift with a traveller who drove a fast team, and the
+blue water was glinting back the stars when he joined Quonab at Fort
+George, some sixty miles away.
+
+In the calm betwixt star-peep and sun-up they were afloat. It was a
+great temptation to stop at Hendrik's for a spell, but breakfast was
+over, the water was calm, and duty called him. He hallooed, then they
+drew near enough to hand the book ashore. Skookum growled, probably at
+the hens, and the family waved their aprons as he sped on. Thirty miles
+of lake and four miles of Ticonderoga Creek they passed and the packet
+was delivered in four days and three hours since leaving.
+
+The general smiled and his short but amply sufficient praise was merely,
+"You're a good 'un."
+
+
+
+Chapter 75. Scouting in Canada
+
+"Thar is two things," said Si Sylvanne to the senate, "that every
+national crisis is bound to show up: first, a lot o' dum fools in
+command; second a lot o great commanders in the ranks. An' fortunately
+before the crisis is over the hull thing is sure set right, and the men
+is where they oughter be."
+
+How true this was the nation was just beginning to learn. The fools in
+command were already demonstrated, and the summer of 1813 was replete
+with additional evidence. May, June, and July passed with many
+journeyings for Rolf and many times with sad news. The disasters at
+Stony Creek, Beaver Dam, and Niagara were severe blows to the army on
+the western frontier. In June on Lake Champlain the brave but reckless
+Lieutenant Sidney Smith had run his two sloops into a trap. Thus the
+Growler and the Eagle were lost to the Americans, and strengthened by
+that much the British navy on the lake.
+
+Encouraged by these successes, the British north of Lake Champlain made
+raid after raid into American territory, destroying what they could not
+carry off.
+
+Rolf and Quonab were sent to scout in that country and if possible give
+timely notice of raiders in force.
+
+The Americans were averse to employing Indians in warfare; the British
+entertained no such scruples and had many red-skinned allies. Quonab's
+case, however, was unusual, since he was guaranteed by his white
+partner, and now he did good service, for he knew a little French and
+could prowl among the settlers without anyone suspecting him of being an
+American scout.
+
+Thus he went alone and travelled far. He knew the country nearly to
+Montreal and late in July was lurking about Odletown, when he overheard
+scattered words of a conversation that made him eager for more. "Colonel
+Murray--twelve hundred men--four hundred men--"
+
+Meanwhile Rolf was hiding in the woods about La Colle Mill. Company
+after company of soldiers he saw enter, until at least five hundred were
+there. When night came down, he decided to risk a scarer approach. He
+left the woods and walked cautiously across the open lands about.
+
+The hay had been cut and most of it drawn in, but there was in the
+middle of the field a hay-cock. Rolf was near this when he heard sounds
+of soldiers from the mill. Soon large numbers came out, carrying their
+blankets. Evidently there was not room for them in the mill, and they
+were to camp on the field.
+
+The scout began to retreat when sounds behind showed that another
+body of soldiers was approaching from that direction and he was caught
+between the two. There was only one place to hide and that was beneath
+the haycock. He lifted its edge and crawled under, but it was full of
+thistles and brambles; indeed, that was why it was left, and he had the
+benefit of all the spines about him.
+
+His heart beat fast as he heard the clank of arms and the trampling;
+they came nearer, then the voices became more distinct. He heard
+unmistakable evidence too that both bodies were camping for the night,
+and that he was nearly surrounded. Not knowing what move was best he
+kept quiet. The men were talking aloud, then they began preparing their
+beds and he heard some one say, "There's a hay-cock; bring some of
+that."
+
+A soldier approached to get an armful of the hay, but sputtered out a
+chapter of malediction as his bare hands touched the masses of thistle
+and briers. His companions laughed at his mishap. He went to the fire
+and vowed he'd stick a brand in it and back he came with a burning
+stick.
+
+Rolf was all ready to make a dash for his life as soon as the cover
+should take fire, and he peered up into the soldier's face as the latter
+blew on the brand; but the flame had died, the thistles were not dry,
+and the fire was a failure; so, growling again, the soldier threw down
+the smoking stick and went away. As soon as he was safely afar, Rolf
+gathered a handful of soil and covered the red embers.
+
+It was a critical moment and his waiting alone had saved him.
+
+Two soldiers came with their blankets and spread them near. For a time
+they smoked and talked. One of them was short of tobacco; the other
+said, "Never mind, we'll get plenty in Plattsburg," and they guffawed.
+
+Then he heard, "As soon as the colonel" and other broken phrases.
+
+It was a most difficult place for Rolf; he was tormented with thistles
+in his face and down his neck; he dared not change his position; and
+how long he must stay was a problem. He would try to escape when all was
+still.
+
+The nearer soldiers settled to rest now. All was very quiet when Rolf
+cautiously peeped forth to see two dreadful things: first, a couple
+of sentries pacing up and down the edges of the camp; second, a broad,
+brilliant, rising moon. How horrible that lovely orb could be Rolf never
+before knew.
+
+Now, what next? He was trapped in the middle of a military camp
+and undoubtedly La Colle Mill was the rendezvous for some important
+expedition.
+
+He had ample time to think it all over. Unless he could get away before
+day he would surely be discovered. His uniform might save his life,
+but soldiers have an awkward, hasty way of dealing summarily with a
+spy--then discovering too late that he was in uniform.
+
+From time to time he peered forth, but the scene was unchanged--the
+sleeping regiment, the pacing sentries, the ever-brightening moon. Then
+the guard was changed, and the sentries relieved selected of all places
+for their beds, the bank beside the hay-cock. Again one of them went to
+help himself to some hay for a couch; and again the comic anger as he
+discovered it to be a bed of thorns. How thankful Rolf was for those
+annoying things that pricked his face and neck.
+
+He was now hemmed in on every side and, not knowing what to do, did
+nothing. For a couple of hours he lay still, then actually fell asleep.
+He was awakened by a faint rustling near his head and peered forth to
+see a couple of field mice playing about.
+
+The moon was very bright now, and the movements of the mice were plain;
+they were feeding on the seeds of plants in the hay-cock, and from time
+to time dashed under--the hay. Then they gambolled farther off and were
+making merry over a pod of wild peas when a light form came skimming
+noiselessly over the field. There was a flash, a hurried rush, a clutch,
+a faint squeak, and one of the mice was borne away in the claws of its
+feathered foe. The survivor scrambled under the hay over Rolf's face and
+somewhere into hiding.
+
+The night passed in many short naps. The bugle sounded at daybreak and
+the soldiers arose to make breakfast. Again one approached to use a
+handful of hay for fire-kindler, and again the friendly thistles did
+their part. More and more now his ear caught suggestive words and
+sounds--"Plattsburg"--"the colonel"--etc.
+
+The breakfast smelt wonderfully captivating--poor Rolf was famished. The
+alluring aroma of coffee permeated the hay-cock. He had his dried meat,
+but his need was water; he was tormented with thirst, and stiff and
+tortured; he was making the hardest fight of his life. It seemed long,
+though doubtless it was less than half an hour before the meal was
+finished, and to Rolf's relief there were sounds of marching and the
+noises were drowned in the distance.
+
+By keeping his head covered with hay and slowly raising it, he was safe
+to take a look around. It was a bright, sunny morning. The hay-cock,
+or thistle-cock, was one of several that had been rejected. It was a
+quarter-mile from cover; the soldiers were at work cutting timber and
+building a stockade around the mill; and, most dreadful to relate, a
+small dog was prowling about, looking for scraps on the scene of the
+soldiers' breakfast. If that dog came near his hiding-place, he knew the
+game was up. At such close quarters, you can fool a man but not a dog.
+
+Fortunately the breakfast tailings proved abundant, and the dog went off
+to assist a friend of his in making sundry interesting smell analyses
+along the gate posts of the stockade.
+
+
+
+Chapter 76. The Duel
+
+This was temporary relief, but left no suggestion of complete escape.
+He lay there till nearly noon suffering more and more from the cramped
+position and thirst, and utterly puzzled as to the next move.
+
+"When ye don't like whar ye air, git up without any fuss, and go whar
+ye want to be," was what Sylvanne once said to him, and it came to Rolf
+with something like a comic shock. The soldiers were busy in the woods
+and around the forges. In half an hour it would be noon and they might
+come back to eat.
+
+Rolf rose without attempting any further concealment, then stopped, made
+a bundle of the stuff that had sheltered him and, carrying this on his
+shoulder, strode boldly across the field toward the woods.
+
+His scout uniform was inconspicuous; the scouts on duty at the mill saw
+only one of themselves taking a bundle of hay round to the stables.
+
+He reached the woods absolutely unchallenged. After a few yards in its
+friendly shade, he dropped the thorny bundle and strode swiftly toward
+his own camp. He had not gone a hundred yards before a voice of French
+type cried "'Alt," and he was face to face with a sentry whose musket
+was levelled at him.
+
+A quick glance interchanged, and each gasped out the other's name.
+
+"Francois la Colle!"
+
+"Rolf Kittering! Mon Dieu! I ought to shoot you, Rolf; I cannot, I
+cannot! But run, run! I'll shoot over your head," and his kindly eyes
+filled with tears.
+
+Rolf needed no second hint; he ran like a deer, and the musket ball
+rattled the branches above his shoulders.
+
+In a few minutes other soldiers came running and from La Colle they
+heard of the hostile spy in camp.
+
+"I shoot; I t'ink maybe I not hit eem; maybe some brood dere? No, dat
+netting."
+
+There were both runners and trackers in camp. They were like bloodhounds
+and they took up the trail of the fugitive. But Rolf was playing his own
+game now; he was "Flying Kittering." A crooked trail is hard to follow,
+and, going at the long stride that had made his success, he left many
+a crook and turn. Before two miles I they gave it up and the fugitive
+coming to the river drank a deep and cooling draught, the first he had
+had that day. Five miles through is the dense forest that lies between
+La Colle and the border. He struck a creek affluent of the Richelieu
+River and followed to its forks, which was the place of rendezvous with
+Quonab.
+
+It was evening as he drew near and after long, attentive listening he
+gave the cry of the barred owl:
+
+The answer came: a repetition of the last line, and a minute later the
+two scouts were together.
+
+As they stood, they were startled by a new, sudden answer, an exact
+repetition of the first call. Rolf had recovered his rifle from its
+hiding place and instantly both made ready for some hostile prowler;
+then after a long silence he gave the final wail line "hoooo-aw" and
+that in the woods means, "Who are you?"
+
+Promptly the reply came:
+
+"Wa wah wa wah Wa wah wa hoooo-aw."
+
+But this was the wrong reply. It should have been only the last half.
+The imitation was perfect, except, perhaps, on the last note, which
+was a trifle too human. But the signal was well done; it was an expert
+calling, either an Indian or some thoroughly seasoned scout; yet Quonab
+was not deceived into thinking it an owl. He touched his cheek and
+his coat, which, in the scout sign language, means "red coat," i. e.,
+Britisher.
+
+Rolf and his partner got silently out of sight, each with his rlile
+cocked and ready to make a hole in any red uniform or badge that might
+show itself. Then commenced a very peculiar duel, for evidently the
+enemy was as clever as themselves and equally anxious to draw them out
+of cover.
+
+Wa-wah-wa hooo-aw called the stranger, giving the right answer in the
+wrong place. He was barely a hundred yards off, and, as the two strained
+their senses to locate him, they heard a faint click that told of his
+approach.
+
+Rolf turned his head and behind a tree uttered again the Wa-wah-a--hoo
+which muffled by his position would convince the foe that he was
+retreating. The answer came promptly and much nearer:
+
+Wa--wah--wa--hoooo-aw.
+
+Good! the medicine was working. So Rolf softened his voice still more,
+while Quonab got ready to shoot.
+
+The Wa--wa--hooo-aw that came in answer this time was startlingly clear
+and loud and nearly perfect in intonation, but again betrayed by the
+human timbre of the aw. A minute or two more and they would reach a
+climax.
+
+After another wait, Rolf muffled his voice and gave the single hooo-aw,
+and a great broad-winged owl came swooping through the forest, alighted
+on a tree overhead, peered about, then thrilled them with his weird:
+
+Wa--hoo--wa--boo
+
+Wa--hoo--wa--hooooooooo-aw, the last note with the singular human
+quality that had so completely set them astray.
+
+
+
+Chapter 77. Why Plattsburg Was Raided
+
+     The owl's hull reputation for wisdom is built up on lookin'
+     wise and keepin' mum.--Sayings of St Sylvanne
+
+THE owl incident was one of the comedies of their life, now they had
+business on hand. The scraps of news brought by Quonab pieced out with
+those secured by Rolf, spelt clearly this: that Colonel Murray with
+about a thousand men was planning a raid on Plattsburg.
+
+Their duty was to notify General Hampton without delay.
+
+Burlington, forty miles away, was headquarters. Plattsburg, twenty miles
+away, was marked for spoil.
+
+One more item they must add: Was the raid to baby land or water? If the
+latter, then they must know what preparations were being made at the
+British naval station, Isle au Noix. They travelled all night through
+the dark woods, to get there, though it was but seven miles away, and in
+the first full light they saw the gallant array of two warships, three
+gunboats, and about fifty long boats, all ready, undoubtedly waiting
+only for a change in the wind, which at this season blew on Champlain
+almost steadily form the south.
+
+A three-hour, ten-mile tramp through ways now familiar brought Rolf and
+his partner to the north of the Big Chazy where the canoe was hidden,
+and without loss of time they pushed off for Burlington, thirty miles
+away. The wind was head on, and when four hours later they stopped for
+noon, they had made not more than a dozen miles.
+
+All that afternoon they had to fight a heavy sea; this meant they must
+keep near shore in case of an upset, and so lengthened the course; but
+it also meant that the enemy would not move so long as this wind kept
+up.
+
+It was six at night before the scouts ran into Burlington Harbour and
+made for Hampton's headquarters.
+
+His aide received them and, after learning that they had news, went in
+to the general. From the inner room now they heard in unnecessarily loud
+tones the great man's orders to, "Bring them in, sah."
+
+The bottles on the table, his purple visage, and thick tongued speech
+told how well-founded were the current whispers.
+
+"Raid on Plattsburg? Ha! I hope so. I only hope so. Gentlemen," and
+he turned to his staff, "all I ask is a chance to get at them--Ha, Ha!
+Here, help yourself, Macomb," and the general pushed the decanter to a
+grave young officer who was standing by.
+
+"No, thank you, sir," was the only reply.
+
+The general waved his hand, the scouts went out, puzzled and ashamed.
+Was this the brains of the army? No wonder our men are slaughtered.
+
+Now Macomb ventured to suggest: "Have you any orders, sir? These scouts
+are considered quite reliable. I understand from them that the British
+await only a change of wind. They have between one thousand and two
+thousand men."
+
+"Plenty of time in the morning, sah. Plattsburg will be the bait of my
+trap, not one of them shall return alive," and the general dismissed his
+staff that he might fortify himself against a threatened cold.
+
+Another young man, Lieut. Thomas MacDonough, the naval commandant, now
+endeavoured to stir him by a sense of danger. First he announced that
+his long boats, and gunboats were ready and in six hours he could
+transfer three thousand troops from Burlington to Plattsburg. Then he
+ventured to urge the necessity for action.
+
+Champlain is a lake of two winds. It had brown from the south for two
+weeks; now a north wind was likely to begin any day. MacDonough urged
+this point, but all in vain, and, shocked and humiliated, the young man
+obeyed the order "to wait till his advice was asked."
+
+The next day Hampton ordered a review, not an embarkation, and was not
+well enough to appear in person.
+
+The whole army knew now of the situation of affairs, and the militia in
+particular were not backward in expressing their minds.
+
+Next day, July 30th, the wind changed. Hampton did nothing. On the
+morning of July 31st they heard the booming of guns in the north, and at
+night their scouts came with the news that the raid was on. Plattsburg
+was taken and pillaged by a force less than one third of those held at
+Burlington.
+
+There were bitter, burning words on the lips of the rank and file, and
+perfunctory rebukes on the lips of the young officers when they chanced
+to overhear. The law was surely working out as set forth by Si Sylvanne:
+"The fools in command, the leaders in the ranks."
+
+And now came news of fresh disasters--the battles of Beaverdam,
+Stony Creek, and Niagara River. It was the same story in nearly every
+case--brave fighting men, ill-drilled, but dead shots, led into traps by
+incompetent commanders.
+
+In September Lieutenant Macomb was appointed to command at Plattsburg.
+This proved as happy an omen as it was a wise move. Immediately after,
+in all this gloom, came the news of Perry's famous victory on Lake Erie,
+marking a new era for the American cause, followed by the destruction of
+Moraviantown and the British army which held it.
+
+Stirred at last to action General Wilkinson sent despatches to Hampton
+to arrange an attack on Montreal. There was no possibility of failure,
+he said, for the sole defence of Montreal was 600 marines. His army
+consisted of 8000 men. Hampton's consisted of 4000. By a union of these
+at the mouth of Chateaugay River, they would form an invincible array.
+
+So it seemed. Rolf had not yet seen any actual fighting and began to
+long for the front. But his powers as a courier kept him ever busy
+bearing despatches. The road to Sackett's Harbour and thence to
+Ogdensburg and Covington, and back to Plattsburg he knew thoroughly, and
+in his canoe he had visited every port on Lakes Champlain and George.
+
+He was absent at Albany in the latter half of October and first of
+November, but the ill news travelled fast. Hampton requested MacDonough
+to "swoop down on Isle au Noix"--an insane request, compliance with
+which would have meant certain destruction to the American fleet.
+MacDonough's general instructions were: "Cooperate with the army, but
+at any price retain supremacy of the lake," and he declined to receive
+Hampton's order.
+
+Threatening court-martials and vengeance on his return, Hampton now set
+out by land; but at Chateaugay he was met by a much smaller force of
+Canadians who resisted him so successfully that he ordered a retreat and
+his army retired to Plattsburg.
+
+Meanwhile General Wilkinson had done even worse. His army numbered 8000.
+Of these the rear guard were 2500. A body of 800 Canadians harassed
+their line of march. Turning to brush away this annoyance, the Americans
+were wholly defeated at Chrystler's farm and, giving up the attack on
+Montreal, Wilkinson crossed the St. Lawrence and settled for the winter
+at Chateaugay.
+
+In December, America scored an important advance by relieving Hampton of
+his command.
+
+As the spring drew near, it was clearly Wilkinson's first play to
+capture La Colle Mill, which had been turned into a fortress of
+considerable strength and a base for attack on the American border, some
+five miles away.
+
+Of all the scouts Rolf best knew that region, yet he was the one left
+out of consideration and despatched with papers to Plattsburg. The
+attack was bungled from first to last, and when Wilkinson was finally
+repulsed, it was due to Macomb that the retreat was not a rout.
+
+But good came out of this evil, for Wilkinson was recalled and the law
+was nearly fulfilled--the incompetents were gone. General Macomb was in
+command of the land force and MacDonough of the Lake.
+
+
+
+Chapter 78. Rumours and Papers
+
+MacDonough's orders were to hold control of the Lake. How he did it will
+be seen. The British fleet at Isle au Noix was slightly stronger than
+his own, therefore he established a navy yard at Vergennes, in Vermont,
+seven miles up the Otter River, and at the mouth erected earthworks
+and batteries. He sent for Brown (of the firm of Adam and Noah Brown)
+a famous New York shipbuilder. Brown agreed to launch a ship of
+twenty-four guns in sixty days. The trees were standing in the forest on
+March 2d the keel was laid March 7th, and on April 11th the Saratoga was
+launched--forty days after the timbers were green standing trees on the
+hills.
+
+Other vessels were begun and pushed as expeditiously. And now
+MacDonough's wisdom in choice of the navy yard was seen, for a British
+squadron was sent to destroy his infant fleet, or at least sink
+stone-boats across the exit so as to bottle it up.
+
+But their attempts were baffled by the batteries which the far-seeing
+American had placed at the river's mouth.
+
+The American victory at Chippewa was followed by the defeat at Lundy's
+Lane, and on August 25th the city of Washington was captured by the
+British and its public buildings destroyed. These calamities, instead of
+dampening the spirits of the army, roused the whole nation at last to
+a realization of the fact that they were at war. Fresh troops and
+plentiful supplies were voted, the deadwood commanders were retired, and
+the real men revealed by the two campaigns were given place and power.
+
+At the same time, Great Britain, having crushed Napoleon, was in a
+position to greatly reinforce her American army, and troops seasoned in
+Continental campaigns were poured into Canada.
+
+All summer Rolf was busied bearing despatches. During the winter he
+and Quonab had built a birch canoe on special lines for speed; it would
+carry two men but no baggage.
+
+With this he could make fully six miles an hour for a short time, and
+average five on smooth water. In this he had crossed and recrossed
+Champlain, and paddled its length, till he knew every bay and headland.
+The overland way to Sackett's Harbour he had traversed several times;
+the trail from Plattsburg to Covington he knew in all weathers, and had
+repeatedly covered its sixty miles in less than twenty-four hours on
+foot. The route he picked and followed was in later years the line
+selected for the military highway between these two camps.
+
+But the chief scene of his activities was the Canadian wilderness at the
+north end of Lake Champlain. Chazy, Champlain, Odelltown, La Colle
+Mill, Isle au Noix, and Richelieu River he knew intimately and had also
+acquired a good deal of French in learning their country.
+
+It was characteristic of General Wilkinson to ignore the scout who knew
+and equally characteristic of his successors, Izard and Macomb, to seek
+and rely on the best man.
+
+The news that he brought in many different forms was that the British
+were again concentrating an army to strike at Plattsburg and Albany.
+
+Izard on the land at Plattsburg and Champlain, and Macomb at Burlington
+strained all their resources to meet the invader at fair terms. Izard
+had 4000 men assembled, when an extraordinary and devastating order from
+Washington compelled him to abandon the battle front at Champlain and
+lead his troops to Sackett's Harbour where all was peace. He protested
+like a statesman, then obeyed like a soldier, leaving Macomb in command
+of the land forces of Lake Champlain, with, all told, some 3400 men. On
+the day that Izard left Champlain, the British troops, under Brisbane,
+advanced and occupied his camp.
+
+As soon as Rolf had seen them arrive, and had gauged their number, he
+sent Quonab back to report, and later retired by night ten miles up the
+road to Chazy. He was well known to many of the settlers and was
+welcome where ever known, not only because he was a patriot fighting his
+country's battles, but for his own sake, for he was developing into
+a handsome, alert, rather silent youth. It is notorious that in the
+drawing-room, given equal opportunity, the hunter has the advantage over
+the farmer. He has less self-consciousness, more calm poise. He is not
+troubled about what to do with his feet and hands, and is more convinced
+of his native dignity and claims to respect. In the drawin-room Rolf
+was a hunter: the leading inhabitants of the region around received him
+gladly and honoured him. He was guest at Judge Hubbell's in Chazy, in
+September of 1814. Every day he scouted in the neighbourhood and at
+night returned to the hospitable home of the judge.
+
+On the 12th of September, from the top of a tall tree on a distant
+wooded hill, he estimated the force at Champlain to be 10,000 to 15,000
+men. Already their bodyguard was advancing on Chazy.
+
+Judge Hubbell and anxious neighbours hastily assembled now, discussed
+with Rolf the situation and above all, "What shall we do with our
+families?" One man broke into a storm of hate and vituperation against
+the British. "Remember the burning of Washington and the way they
+treated the women at Bladensburg."
+
+"All of which about the women was utterly disproved, except in one
+case, and in that the criminal was shot by order of his own commander,"
+retorted Hubbell.
+
+At Plattsburg others maintained that the British had harmed no one.
+Colonel Murray had given strict orders that all private property be
+absolutely respected. Nothing but government property was destroyed and
+only that which could be construed into war stores and buildings. What
+further damage was done was the result of accident or error. Officers
+were indeed quartered on the inhabitants, but they paid for what
+they got, and even a carpet destroyed by accident was replaced months
+afterward by a British officer who had not the means at the time.
+
+So it was agreed that Hubbell with Rolf and the village fathers and
+brothers should join their country's army, leaving wives and children
+behind.
+
+There were wet bearded cheeks among the strong, rugged men as they
+kissed their wives and little ones and prepared to go, then stopped, as
+horrible misgivings rose within. "This was war, and yet again, 'We have
+had proofs that the British harmed no woman or child'." So they dashed
+away the tears, suppressed the choking in their throats, shouldered
+their guns, and marched away to the front, commending their dear ones to
+the mercy of God and the British invaders.
+
+None had any cause to regret this trust. Under pain of death, Sir George
+Prevost enforced his order that the persons of women and children and
+all private property be held inviolate. As on the previous raid, no
+damage was done to non-combatants, and the only hardships endured were
+by the few who, knowing nothing, feared much, and sought the precarious
+safety of life among the hills.
+
+Sir George Prevost and his staff of ten officers were quartered in Judge
+Hubbell's house. Mrs. Hubbell was hard put to furnish them with meals,
+but they treated her with perfect respect, and every night, not knowing
+how long they might stay, they left on the table the price of their
+board and lodging.
+
+For three days they waited, then all was ready for the advance.
+
+"Now for Plattsburg this week and Albany next, so good-bye, madam" they
+said politely, and turned to ride away, a gay and splendid group.
+
+"Good-bye, sirs, for a very little while, but I know you'll soon be back
+and hanging your heads as you come," was the retort.
+
+Sir George replied: "If a man had said that, I would call him out; but
+since it is a fair lady that has been our charming hostess, I reply that
+when your prophecy comes true, every officer here shall throw his purse
+on your door step as he passes."
+
+So they rode away, 13,000 trained men with nothing between them and
+Albany but 2000 troops, double as many raw militia, and--MacDonough of
+the Lake.
+
+Ten times did Rolf cover that highway north of Plattsburg in the week
+that followed, and each day his tidings were the same--the British
+steadily advance.
+
+
+
+Chapter 79. McGlassin's Exploit
+
+There was a wonderful spirit on everything in Plattsburg, and the
+earthly tabernacle in which it dwelt, was the tall, grave young man who
+had protested against Hampton's behaviour at Burlington--Captain, now
+General Macomb. Nothing was neglected, every emergency was planned for,
+every available man was under arms. Personally tireless, he was ever
+alert and seemed to know every man in his command and every man of
+it had implicit confidence in the leader. We have heard of soldiers
+escaping from a besieged fortress by night; but such was the inspiring
+power of this commander that there was a steady leaking in of men from
+the hills, undrilled and raw, but of superb physique and dead shots with
+the ride.
+
+A typical case was that of a sturdy old farmer who was marching through
+the woods that morning to take his place with those who manned the
+breastworks and was overheard to address his visibly trembling legs:
+"Shake, damn you, shake; and if ye knew where I was leading you, you'd
+be ten times worse."
+
+His mind was more valiant than his body, and his mind kept control--this
+is true courage.
+
+No one had a better comprehension of all this than Macomb. He knew that
+all these men needed was a little training to make of them the best
+soldiers on earth. To supply that training he mixed them with veterans,
+and arranged a series of unimportant skirmishes as coolly and easily as
+though he were laying out a programme for an evening's entertainment.
+
+The first of these was at Culver's Hill. Here a barricade was thrown up
+along the highway, a gun was mounted, and several hundred riflemen were
+posted under leaders skilled in the arts of harrying a foe and giving
+him no chance to strike back.
+
+Among the men appointed for the barricade's defence was Rolf and near
+him Quonab. The latter had been seasoned in the Revolution, but it was
+the former's first experience at the battle front, and he felt as most
+men do when the enemy in brave array comes marching up. As soon as they
+were within long range, his leader gave the order "Fire!" The rifles
+rattled and the return fire came at once. Balls pattered on the
+barricade or whistled above. The man next to him was struck and dropped
+with a groan; another fell back dead. The horror and roar were overmuch.
+Rolf was nervous enough when he entered the fight. Now he was unstrung,
+almost stunned, his hands and knees were shaking, he was nearly
+panic-stricken and could not resist the temptation to duck, as the balls
+hissed murder over his head. He was blazing away, without aiming, when
+an old soldier, noting his white face and shaking form, laid a hand
+on his shoulder and, in kindly tones, said: "Steady, boy, steady;
+yer losing yer head; see, this is how," and he calmly took aim, then,
+without firing, moved the gun again and put a little stick to raise the
+muzzle and make a better rest, then fired as though at target practice.
+"Now rest for a minute. Look at Quonab there; you can see he's been
+through it before. He is making a hit with every shot."
+
+Rolf did as he was told, and in a few minutes his colour came back,
+his hand was steady, and thenceforth he began to forget the danger and
+thought only of doing his work.
+
+When at length it was seen that the British were preparing to charge,
+the Americans withdrew quickly and safely to Halsey's Corner, where was
+another barricade and a fresh lot of recruits awaiting to receive their
+baptism of fire. And the scene was repeated. Little damage was done to
+the foe but enormous benefit was gained by the Americans, because it
+took only one or two of these skirmishes to turn a lot of shaky-kneed
+volunteers into a band of steady soldiers--for they had it all inside.
+Thus their powder terror died.
+
+That night the British occupied the part of the town that was north
+of the Saranac, and began a desultory bombardment of the fortification
+opposite. Not a very serious one, for they considered they could take
+the town at any time, but preferred to await the arrival of their fleet
+under Downie.
+
+The fight for the northern half of the town was not serious, merely part
+of Macomb's prearranged training course; but when the Americans retired
+across the Saranac, the planks of the bridges were torn up, loop-holed
+barricades were built along the southern bank, and no effort spared to
+prepare for a desperate resistance.
+
+Every man that could hold up a gun was posted on the lines of
+Plattsburg. The school-boys, even, to the number of five hundred formed
+a brigade, and were assigned to places where their squirrel-hunting
+experiences could be made of service to their country.
+
+Meanwhile the British had established a battery opposite Fort Brown. It
+was in a position to do some material and enormous moral damage. On the
+ninth it was nearly ready for bloody work, and would probably begin next
+morning. That night, however, an extraordinary event took place, and
+showed how far from terror-palsy were the motley troops in Plattsburg. A
+sturdy Vermonter, named Captain McGlassin, got permission of Malcomb to
+attempt a very Spartan sortie.
+
+He called for fifty volunteers to go on a most hazardous enterprise. He
+got one thousand at once. Then he ordered all over twenty-five and under
+eighteen to retire. This reduced the number to three hundred. Then,
+all married men were retired, and thus again they were halved. Next he
+ordered away all who smoked--Ah, deep philosopher that he was!--and from
+the remnant he selected his fifty. Among them was Rolf. Then he divulged
+his plan. It was nothing less than a dash on the new-made fort to spike
+those awful guns--fifty men to dash into a camp of thirteen thousand.
+
+Again he announced, "Any who wish to withdraw now may do so." Not a man
+stirred.
+
+Twenty of those known to be expert with tools were provided with hammers
+and spikes for the guns, and Rolf was proud to be one of them.
+
+In a night of storm and blackness they crossed the Saranac; dividing in
+two bodies they crawled unseen, one on each side of the battery. Three
+hundred British soldiers were sleeping near, only the sentries peered
+into the storm-sleet.
+
+All was ready when McGlassin's tremendous voice was heard, "Charge
+front and rear!" Yelling, pounding, making all the noise they could, the
+American boys rushed forth. The British were completely surprised, the
+sentries were struck down, and the rest assured that Macomb's army was
+on them recoiled for a few minutes. The sharp click, click, click of the
+hammers was heard. An iron spike was driven into every touch hole;
+the guns were made harmless as logs and quickly wheeling, to avoid the
+return attack, these bold Yankee boys leaped from the muzzled redoubt
+and reached their own camp without losing one of their number.
+
+
+
+Chapter 80. The Bloody Saranac
+
+Sir George Prevost had had no intention of taking Plattsburg, till
+Plattsburg's navy was captured. But the moral effect of McGlassin's
+exploit must be offset at once. He decided to carry the city by storm--a
+matter probably of three hours' work.
+
+He apportioned a regiment to each bridge, another to each ford near the
+town, another to cross the river at Pike's Cantonment, and yet another
+to cross twenty miles above, where they were to harry the fragments of
+the American as it fled.
+
+That morning Plattsburg was wakened by a renewal of the bombardment. The
+heavy firing killed a few men knocked down a few walls and chimneys, but
+did little damage to the earthworks.
+
+It was surprising to all how soon the defenders lost their gun-shyness.
+The very school-boys and their sisters went calmly about their business,
+with cannon and musket balls whistling overhead, striking the walls and
+windows, or, on rare occasions, dropping some rifleman who was over-rash
+as he worked or walked on the ramparts.
+
+There were big things doing in the British camp--regiments marching and
+taking their places--storms of rifle and cannon balls raging fiercely.
+By ten o'clock there was a lull. The Americans, from the grandfathers to
+the school-boys, were posted, each with his rifle and his pouch full of
+balls; there were pale faces among the youngsters, and nervous fingers,
+but there was no giving way. Many a man there was, no doubt, who, under
+the impulse of patriotism, rushed with his gun to join the ranks, and
+when the bloody front was reached, he wished in his heart he was safe at
+home. But they did not go. Something kept them staunch.
+
+Although the lines were complete all along the ramparts, there were four
+places where the men were massed. These were on the embankments opposite
+the bridges and the fords. Here the best shots were placed and among
+them was Rolf, with others of McGlassin's band.
+
+The plank of the bridges had been torn up and used with earth to form
+breastworks; but the stringers of the bridges were there, and a body of
+red-coats approaching, each of them showed plainly what their plan was.
+
+The farthest effective range of rifle fire in those days was reckoned at
+a hundred yards. The Americans were ordered to hold their fire till
+the enemy reached the oaks, a grove one hundred yards from the main
+bridge--on the other bank.
+
+The British came on in perfect review-day style. Now a hush fell on all.
+The British officer in command was heard clearly giving his orders. How
+strange it must have been to the veterans of wars in Spain, France,
+and the Rhine, to advance against a force with whom they needed no
+interpreter.
+
+McGlassin's deep voice now rang along the defences, "Don't fire till I
+give the order."
+
+The red-coats came on at a trot, they reached the hundred-yard-mark.
+
+"Now, aim low and fire!" from McGlassin, and the rattle of the Yankee
+guns was followed by reeling ranks of red in the oaks.
+
+"Charge!" shouted the British officer and the red-coats charged to the
+bridge, but the fire from the embankment was incessant; the trail of the
+charging men was cluttered with those who fell.
+
+"Forward!" and the gallant British captain leaped on the central
+stringer of the bridge and, waving his sword, led on. Instantly three
+lines of men were formed, one on each stringer.
+
+They were only fifty yards from the barricade, with five hundred rifles,
+all concentrated on these stringers. The first to fall was the captain,
+shot through the heart, and the river bore him away. But on and on came
+the three ranks into the whistling, withering fire of lead. It was like
+slaughtering sheep. Yet on and on they marched steadily for half an
+hour. Not a man held back or turned, though all knew they were marching
+to their certain death. Not one of them ever reached the centre of the
+span, and those who dropped, not dead, were swallowed by the swollen
+stream. How many hundred brave men were sacrificed that day, no one ever
+knew. He who gave the word to charge was dead with his second and third
+in command and before another could come to change the order, the river
+ran red--the bloody Saranac they call it ever since.
+
+The regiment was wrecked, and the assault for the time was over.
+
+Rolf had plied his rifle with the rest, but it sickened him to see the
+horrible waste of human valour. It was such ghastly work that he was
+glad indeed when a messenger came to say he was needed at headquarters.
+And in an hour he was crossing the lake with news and instructions for
+the officer in command at Burlington.
+
+
+
+Chapter 81. The Battle of Plattsburg
+
+In broad daylight he skimmed away in his one man canoe.
+
+For five hours he paddled, and at star-peep he reached the dock at
+Burlington. The howl of a lost dog caught his ear; and when he traced
+the sound, there, on the outmost plank, with his nose to the skies, was
+the familiar form of Skookum, wailing and sadly alone.
+
+What a change he showed when Rolf landed; he barked, leaped, growled,
+tail-wagged, head-wagged, feet-wagged, body-wagged, wig-wagged and
+zigzagged for joy; he raced in circles, looking for a sacrificial hen,
+and finally uttered a long and conversational whine that doubtless was
+full of information for those who could get it out.
+
+Rolf delivered his budget at once. It was good news, but not conclusive.
+Everything depended now on MacDonough. In the morning all available
+troops should hurry to the defence of Plattsburg; not less than fifteen
+hundred men were ready to embark at daylight.
+
+That night Rolf slept with Skookum in the barracks. At daybreak, much
+to the latter's disgust, he was locked up in a cellar, and the troops
+embarked for the front.
+
+It was a brisk north wind they had to face in crossing and passing down
+the lake. There were many sturdy oarsmen at the sweeps, but they could
+not hope to reach their goal in less than five hours.
+
+When they were half way over, they heard the cannon roar; the booming
+became incessant; without question, a great naval battle was on, for
+this north wind was what the British had been awaiting. The rowers bent
+to their task and added to the speed. Their brothers were hard pressed;
+they knew it, they must make haste. The long boats flew. In an hour they
+could see the masts, the sails, the smoke of the battle, but nothing
+gather of the portentous result. Albany and New York, as well as
+Plattsburg, were in the balance, and the oarsmen rowed and rowed and
+rowed.
+
+The cannon roared louder and louder, though less continuously, as
+another hour passed. Now they could see the vessels only four miles
+away. The jets of smoke were intermittent from the guns; masts went
+down. They could see it plainly. The rowers only set their lips and
+rowed and rowed and rowed.
+
+Sir George had reckoned on but one obstacle in his march to Albany, an
+obstruction named MacDonough; but he now found there was another called
+Macomb.
+
+It was obviously a waste of men to take Plattsburg by front assault,
+when he could easily force a passage of the river higher up and take it
+on the rear; and it was equally clear that when his fleet arrived and
+crushed the American fleet, it would be a simple matter for the war
+vessels to blow the town to pieces, without risking a man.
+
+Already a favouring wind had made it possible for Downie to leave Isle
+au Noix and sail down the lake with his gallant crew, under gallant
+canvas clouds.
+
+Tried men and true in control of every ship, outnumbering MacDonough,
+outweighing him, outpointing him in everything but seamanship, they came
+on, sure of success.
+
+Three chief moves were in MacDonough's strategy. He anchored to the
+northward of the bay, so that any fleet coming down the lake would have
+to beat up against the wind to reach him; so close to land that any
+fleet trying to flank him would come within range of the forts; and left
+only one apparent gap that a foe might try to use, a gap in front
+of which was a dangerous sunken reef. This was indeed a baited trap.
+Finally he put out cables, kedges, anchors, and springs, so that with
+the capstan he could turn his vessels and bring either side to bear on
+the foe.
+
+All was ready, that morning of September the 11th as the British fleet,
+ably handled, swung around the Cumberland Head.
+
+The young commander of the Yankee fleet now kneeled bareheaded with his
+crew and prayed to the God of Battles as only those going into battle
+pray. The gallant foe came on, and who that knows him doubts that he,
+too, raised his heart in reverent prayer? The first broadside from the
+British broke open a chicken coop on the Saratoga from which a game-cock
+flew, and, perching on a gun, flapped his wings and crowed; so all the
+seamen cheered at such a happy omen.
+
+Then followed the fighting, with its bravery and its horrors--its
+brutish wickedness broke loose.
+
+Early in the action, the British sloop, Finch, fell into MacDonough's
+trap and grounded on the reef.
+
+The British commander was killed, with many of his officers. Still,
+the heavy fire of the guns would have given them the victory, but for
+MacDonough's foresight in providing for swinging his ships. When one
+broadside was entirely out of action, he used his cables, kedges and
+springs, and brought the other batteries to bear.
+
+It was one of the most desperate naval fights the world has ever seen.
+Of the three hundred men on the British flagship not more than five, we
+are told, escaped uninjured; and at the close there was not left on any
+one of the eight vessels a mast that could carry sail, or a sail that
+could render service. In less than two hours and a half the fight was
+won, and the British fleet destroyed.
+
+To the God of Battles each had committed his cause: and the God of
+Battles had spoken.
+
+Far away to the southward in the boats were the Vermont troops with
+their general and Rolf in the foremost. Every sign of the fight they had
+watched as men whose country's fate is being tried.
+
+It was a quarter after eleven when the thunder died away; and the
+Vermonters were headed on shore, for a hasty landing, if need be, when
+down from the peak of the British flag-ship went the Union Jack, and the
+Stars and Stripes was hauled to take its place.
+
+"Thank God!" a soft, murmuring sigh ran through all the boats and many
+a bronzed and bearded cheek was wet with tears. Each man clasped hands
+with his neighbour; all were deeply moved, and even as an audience
+melted renders no applause, so none felt any wish to vent his deep
+emotion in a cheer.
+
+
+
+Chapter 82. Scouting for Macomb
+
+General Macomb knew that Sir George Prevost was a cautious and
+experienced commander. The loss of his fleet would certainly make a
+radical change in his plans, but what change? Would he make a flank
+move and dash on to Albany, or retreat to Canada, or entrench himself to
+await reinforcements at Plattsburg, or try to retrieve his laurels by an
+overwhelming assault on the town?
+
+Whatever his plan, he would set about it quickly, and Macomb studied
+the enemy's camp with a keen, discerning eye, but nothing suggesting a
+change was visible when the sun sank in the rainy west.
+
+It was vital that he know it at once when an important move was begun,
+and as soon as the night came down, a score of the swiftest scouts were
+called for. All were young men; most of them had been in McGlassin's
+band. Rolf was conspicuous among them for his tall figure, but there
+was a Vermont boy named Seymour, who had the reputation of being the
+swiftest runner of them all.
+
+They had two duties laid before them: first, to find whether Prevost's
+army was really retreating; second, what of the regiment he sent up the
+Saranac to perform the flank movement.
+
+Each was given the country he knew best. Some went westerly, some
+followed up the river. Rolf, Seymour, and Fiske, another Vermonter,
+skimmed out of Plattsburg harbour in the dusk, rounded Cumberland Bend,
+and at nine o'clock landed at Point au Roche, at the north side of
+Treadwell's Bay.
+
+Here they hid the canoe and agreeing to meet again at midnight, set
+off in three different westerly directions to strike the highway at
+different points. Seymour, as the fast racer, was given the northmost
+route; Rolf took the middle. Their signals were arranged--in the woods
+the barred-owl cry, by the water the loon; and they parted.
+
+The woods seemed very solemn to Rolf that historic September night,
+as he strode along at speed, stopping now and again when he thought he
+heard some signal, and opened wide his mouth to relieve his ear-drums of
+the heart-beat or to still the rushing of his breath.
+
+In half an hour he reached the high-road. It was deserted. Then he heard
+a cry of the barred owl:
+
+Wa--wah--wa--wah Wa--wah--wa--hooooo-aw.
+
+He replied with the last line, and the answer came a repeat of the whole
+chant, showing that it might be owl, it might be man; but it was not the
+right man, for the final response should have been the hooooo-aw. Rolf
+never knew whence it came, but gave no further heed.
+
+For a long time he sat in a dark corner, where he could watch the road.
+There were sounds of stir in the direction of Plattsburg. Then later,
+and much nearer, a couple of shots were fired. He learned afterward that
+those shots were meant for one of his friends. At length there was a
+faint tump ta tump ta. He drew his knife, stuck it deep in the ground,
+then held the handle in his teeth. This acted like a magnifier, for now
+he heard it plainly enough--the sound of a horse at full gallop--but so
+far away that it was five minutes before he could clearly hear it while
+standing. As the sound neared, he heard the clank of arms, and when it
+passed, Rolf knew that this was a mounted British officer. But why, and
+whither?
+
+In order to learn the rider's route, Rolf followed at a trot for a mile.
+This brought him to a hilltop, whither in the silent night, that fateful
+north wind carried still the sound
+
+     te--rump te--rump te--rump.
+
+As it was nearly lost, Rolf used his knife again; that brought the rider
+back within a mile it seemed, and again the hoof beat faded, te--rump
+te--rump.
+
+"Bound for Canada all right," Rolf chuckled to himself. But there was
+nothing to show whether this was a mere despatch rider, or an advance
+scout, or a call for reinforcements.
+
+So again he had a long wait. About half-past ten a new and larger sound
+came from the south. The knife in the ground increased but did not
+explain it. The night was moonless, dark now, and it was safe to sit
+very near the road. In twenty minutes the sound was near at hand in
+five, a dark mass was passing along the road. There is no mistaking the
+language of drivers. There is never any question about such and such a
+voice being that of an English officer. There can be no doubt about
+the clank of heavy wheels--a rich, tangy voice from some one in advance
+said: "Oui. Parbleu, tows ce que je sais, c'est par la." A body of about
+one hundred Britishers, two or three wagons, guns, and a Frenchman for
+guide. Rolf thought he knew that voice; yes, he was almost sure it was
+the voice of Francios la Colle.
+
+This was important but far from conclusive. It was now eleven. He was
+due at the canoe by midnight. He made for the place as fast as he could
+go, which, on such a night, was slow, but guided by occasional glimpses
+of the stars he reached the lake, and pausing a furlong from the
+landing, he gave the rolling, quivering loon call:
+
+Ho-o-o-o-ooo-o Ho-o-o-o-ooo-o. Hooo-ooo.
+
+After ten seconds the answer came:
+
+Ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o Hoo-ooo.
+
+And again after ten seconds Rolf's reply:
+
+Hoo-ooo.
+
+Both his friends were there; Fiske with a bullet-hole through his arm.
+It seemed their duty to go back at once to headquarters with the meagre
+information and their wounded comrade. But Fiske made light of his
+trouble--it was a mere scratch--and reminded them that their orders were
+to make sure of the enemy's movements. Therefore, it was arranged that
+Seymour take back Fiske and what news they had, while Rolf went on to
+complete his scouting.
+
+By one o'clock he was again on the hill where he had marked the
+horseman's outward flight and the escorted guns. Now, as he waited,
+there were sounds in the north that faded, and in the south were similar
+sounds that grew. Within an hour he was viewing a still larger body
+of troops with drivers and wheels that clanked. There were only two
+explanations possible: Either the British were concentrating on Chazy
+Landing, where, protected from MacDonough by the north wind, they
+could bring enough stores and forces from the north to march overland
+independent of the ships, or else they were in full retreat for Canada.
+There was but one point where this could be made sure, namely, at the
+forks of the road in Chazy village. So he set out at a jog trot for
+Chazy, six miles away.
+
+The troops ahead were going three miles an hour. Rolf could go five.
+In twenty minutes he overtook them and now was embarrassed by their
+slowness. What should he do? It was nearly impossible to make speed
+through the woods in the darkness, so as to pass them. He was forced to
+content himself by marching a few yards in their rear.
+
+Once or twice when a group fell back, he was uncomfortably close and
+heard scraps of their talk.
+
+These left little doubt that the army was in retreat. Still this was the
+mere chatter of the ranks. He curbed his impatience and trudged with
+the troop. Once a man dropped back to light his pipe. He almost touched
+Rolf, and seeing a marching figure, asked in unmistakable accents "Oi
+soi matey, 'ave ye a loight?"
+
+Rolf assumed the low south country English dialect, already familiar
+through talking with prisoners, and replied: "Naow, oi oin't
+a-smowking," then gradually dropped out of sight.
+
+They were nearly two hours in reaching Chazy where they passed the
+Forks, going straight on north. Without doubt, now, the army was bound
+for Canada! Rolf sat on a fence near by as their footsteps went tramp,
+tramp, tramp--with the wagons, clank, clank, clank, and were lost in the
+northern distance.
+
+He had seen perhaps three hundred men; there were thirteen thousand to
+account for, and he sat and waited. He did not have long to wait; within
+half an hour a much larger body of troops evidently was approaching from
+the south; several lanterns gleamed ahead of them, so Rolf got over the
+fence, but it was low and its pickets offered poor shelter. Farther back
+was Judge Hubbell's familiar abode with dense shrubbery. He hastened
+to it and in a minute was hidden where he could see something of the
+approaching troops. They were much like those that had gone before, but
+much more numerous, at least a regiment, and as they filled the village
+way, an officer cried "Halt!" and gave new orders. Evidently they were
+about to bivouac for the night. A soldier approached the picket fence
+to use it for firewood, but an officer rebuked him. Other fuel, chiefly
+fence rails, was found, and a score or more of fires were lighted on the
+highway and in the adjoining pasture. Rolf found himself in something
+like a trap, for in less than two hours now would be the dawn.
+
+The simplest way out was to go in; he crawled quietly round the house to
+the window of Mrs. Hubbell's room. These were times of nervous tension,
+and three or four taps on the pane were enough to arouse the good lady.
+Her husband had come that way more than once.
+
+"Who is it?" she demanded, through a small opening of the sash.
+
+"Rolf Kittering," he whispered, "the place is surrounded by soldiers;
+can't you hide me?"
+
+Could she? Imagine an American woman saying "No" at such a time.
+
+He slipped in quietly.
+
+"What news?" she said. "They say that MacDonough has won on the Lake,
+but Plattsburg is taken."
+
+"No, indeed; Plattsburgh is safe; MacDonough has captured the fleet. I
+am nearly sure that the whole British army is retiring to Canada."
+
+"Thank God, thank God," she said fervently, "I knew it must be so; the
+women have met here and prayed together every day, morning and night.
+But hush!" she laid a warning finger on her lips and pointed up toward
+one of the rooms--"British officer."
+
+She brought two blankets from a press and led up to the garret. At the
+lowest part of the roof was a tiny door to a lumber closet. In this
+Rolf spread his blankets, stretched his weary limbs, and soon was sound
+asleep.
+
+At dawn the bugles blew, the camp was astir. The officer in the house
+arose and took his post on the porch. He was there on guard to protect
+the house. His brother officers joined him. Mrs. Hubbell prepared
+breakfast. It was eaten silently, so far as Rolf could learn. They paid
+for it and, heading their regiment, went away northward, leaving the
+officer still on the porch.
+
+Presently Rolf heard a stealthy step in his garret, the closed door was
+pushed open, and Mrs. Hubbell's calm, handsome face appeared, as, with a
+reassuring nod, she set down a mug of coffee, some bread, and a bowl of
+mush and milk. And only those who have travelled and fasted for twelve
+hours when they were nineteen know how good it tasted.
+
+From a tiny window ventilator Rolf had a view of the road in front.
+A growing din of men prepared him for more troops, but still he was
+surprised to see ten regiments march past with all their stores--a brave
+army, but no one could mistake their looks; they wore the despondent air
+of an army in full retreat.
+
+
+
+Chapter 83. The Last of Sir George Prevost
+
+The battle was over at Plattsburg town, though it had not been fought;
+for the spirit of MacDonough was on land and water, and it was felt
+by the British general, as well as the Yankee riflemen, as soon as the
+Union Jack had been hauled from the mast of the Confiance.
+
+Now Sir George Prevost had to face a momentous decision: He could
+force the passage of the Saranac and march on to Albany, but his
+communications would be cut, and he must rely on a hostile country for
+supplies. Every day drew fresh bands of riflemen from the hills. Before
+he could get to Albany their number might exceed his, and then what?
+Unless Great Britain could send a new army or a fleet to support him, he
+must meet the fate of Burgoyne. Prevost proposed to take no such chances
+and the night of the 11th eight hours after MacDonough's victory, he
+gave the order "Retire to Canada."
+
+To hide the move as long as possible, no change was made till after
+sundown; no hint was given to the beleaguered town; they must have no
+opportunity to reap the enormous advantages, moral and material, of
+harrying a retreating foe. They must arise in the morning to find the
+enemy safely over the border. The plan was perfect, and would have been
+literally carried out, had not he had to deal with a foe as clever as
+himself.
+
+How eagerly Rolf took in the scene on Chazy Road; how much it meant! how
+he longed to fly at his fastest famous speed with the stirring news. In
+two hours and a half he could surely let his leader know. And he gazed
+with a sort of superior pride at the martial pomp and bravery of the
+invaders driven forth.
+
+Near the last was a gallant array of gentlemen in gorgeous uniforms
+of scarlet and gold; how warlike they looked, how splendid beside the
+ill-clad riflemen of Vermont and the rude hunters of the Adirondacks.
+How much more beautiful is an iron sword with jewels, than a sword of
+plain gray steel.
+
+Dame Hubbell stood in her door as they went by. Each and all saluted
+politely; her guard was ordered to join his regiment. The lady waved
+her sun-bonnet in response to their courteous good-bye, and could not
+refrain from calling out:
+
+"How about my prophecy, Sir George, and those purses?"
+
+Rolf could not see his hostess, but he heard her voice, and he saw the
+astonishing effect:
+
+The British general reined in his horse. "A gentleman's word is his
+bond, madam," he said. "Let every officer now throw his purse at the
+lady's feet," and he set the example. A dozen rattling thuds were heard
+and a dozen officers saluting, purseless, rode away.
+
+A round thousand dollars in gold the lady gathered on her porch that
+morning, and to this day her grand-kin tell the tale.
+
+
+
+Chapter 84. Rolf Unmasks the Ambush
+
+Rolf's information was complete now, and all that remained was to report
+at Plattsburg. Ten regiments he had counted from his peep hole. The
+rear guard passed at ten o'clock. At eleven Mrs. Hubbell did a little
+scouting and reported that all was quiet as far as she could see both
+ways, and no enemy in sight anywhere.
+
+With a grateful hand shake he left the house to cover the fourteen miles
+that lay between Chazy and Plattsburg.
+
+Refreshed and fed, young and strong, the representative of a just and
+victorious cause, how he exulted in that run, rejoicing in his youth,
+his country, his strength, his legs, his fame as a runner. Starting at
+a stride he soon was trotting; then, when the noon hour came, he had
+covered a good six miles. Now he heard faint, far shots, and going more
+slowly was soon conscious that a running fight was on between his own
+people and the body of British sent westward to hold the upper Saranac.
+
+True to the instinct of the scout, his first business was to find out
+exactly what and where they were. From a thick tree top he saw the
+red-coats spotting an opening of the distant country. Then they were
+lost sight of in the woods. The desultory firing became volley firing,
+once or twice. Then there was an interval of silence. At length a mass
+of red-coats appeared on the highway within half a mile. They were
+travelling very fast, in full retreat, and were coming his way. On the
+crest of the hill over which the road ran, Rolf saw them suddenly drop
+to the ground and take up position to form a most dangerous ambuscade,
+and half a mile away, straggling through the woods, running or striding,
+were the men in the colours he loved. They had swept the enemy before
+them, so far, but trained troops speedily recover from a panic, if they
+have a leader of nerve, and seeing a noble chance in the angle of this
+deep-sunk road, the British fugitives turned like boars at bay. Not a
+sign of them was visible to the Americans. The latter were suffering
+from too much success. Their usual caution seemed to have deserted them,
+and trotting in a body they came along the narrow road, hemmed in by a
+forest and soon to be hedged with cliffs of clay. They were heading for
+a death-trap. At any price he must warn them. He slid down the tree, and
+keeping cover ran as fast as possible toward the ambush. It was the only
+hill near--Beekman's Rise, they call it. As far as possible from the
+red-coats, but still on the hill that gave a view, he leaped on to a
+high stump and yelled as he never did before: "Go back, go back! A
+trap! A trap!" And lifting high his outspread hands he flung their palms
+toward his friends, the old-time signal for "go back."
+
+Not twice did they need warning. Like hunted wolves they flashed from
+view in the nearest cover. A harmless volley from the baffled ambush
+rattled amongst them, and leaping from his stump Rolf ran for life.
+
+Furious at their failure, a score of red-coats, reloading as they ran,
+came hot-footed after him. Down into cover of an alder swamp he plunged,
+and confident of his speed, ran on, dashing through thickets and
+mudholes. He knew that the red-coats would not follow far in such a
+place, and his comrades were near. But the alder thicket ended at a
+field. He heard the bushes crashing close at hand, and dashed down a
+little ravine at whose lower edge the friendly forest recommenced. That
+was his fatal mistake. The moment he took to the open there was a rattle
+of rifles from the hill above, and Rolf fell on his face as dead.
+
+It was after noontide when he fell; he must have lain unconscious for
+an hour; when he came to himself he was lying still in that hollow,
+absolutely alone. The red-coats doubtless had continued their flight
+with the Yankee boys behind them. His face was covered with blood. His
+coat was torn and bloody; his trousers showed a ragged rent that was
+reddened and sopping. His head was aching, and in his leg was the pain
+of a cripplement. He knew it as soon as he tried to move; his right leg
+was shattered below the knee. The other shots had grazed his arm and
+head; the latter had stunned him for a time, but did no deeper damage.
+
+He lay still for a long time, in hopes that some of his friends
+might come. He tried to raise his voice, but had no strength. Then he
+remembered the smoke signal that had saved him when he was lost in the
+woods. In spite of his wounded arm, he got out his flint and steel, and
+prepared to make a fire. But all the small wood he could reach was wet
+with recent rains. An old pine stump was on the bank not far away; he
+might cut kindling-wood from that to start his fire, and he reached for
+his knife. Alas! its case was empty. Had Rolf been four years younger,
+he might have broken down and wept at this. It did seem such an
+unnecessary accumulation of disasters. Without gun or knife, how was he
+to call his friends?
+
+He straightened his mangled limb in the position of least pain and lay
+for a while. The September sun fell on his back and warmed him. He was
+parched with thirst, but only thirty yards away was a little rill. With
+a long and fearful crawling on his breast, he dragged himself to the
+stream and drank till he could drink no more, then rested, washed his
+head and hands, 'and tried to crawl again to the warm place. But the sun
+had dropped behind the river bank, the little ravine was in shadow, and
+the chill of the grave was on the young man's pain-racked frame.
+
+Shadows crossed his brain, among them Si Sylvanne with his quaint
+sayings, and one above all was clear:
+
+"Trouble is only sent to make ye do yer best. When ye hev done yer best,
+keep calm and wait. Things is comin' all right." Yes, that was what he
+said, and the mockery of it hurt him now.
+
+The sunset slowly ended; the night wind blew; the dragging hours brought
+gloom that entered in. This seemed indeed the direst strait of his lot.
+Crippled, dying of cold, helpless, nothing to do but wait and die, and
+from his groaning lips there came the half-forgotten prayer his mother
+taught him long ago, "O God, have mercy on me!" and then he forgot.
+
+When he awoke, the stars were shining; he was numb with cold, but his
+mind was clear.
+
+"This is war," he thought, "and God knows we never sought it." And again
+the thought: "When I offered to serve my country, I offered my life. I
+am willing to die, but this is not a way of my choosing," and a blessed,
+forgetfulness came upon him again.
+
+But his was a stubborn-fibred race; his spark of life was not so quickly
+quenched; its blazing torch might waver, wane, and wax again. In the
+chill, dark hour when the life-lamp flickers most, he wakened to hear
+the sweet, sweet music of a dog's loud bark; in a minute he heard it
+nearer, and yet again at hand, and Skookum, erratic, unruly, faithful
+Skookum, was bounding around and barking madly at the calm, unblinking
+stars.
+
+A human "halloo" rang not far away; then others, and Skookum barked and
+barked.
+
+Now the bushes rustled near, a man came out, kneeled down, laid hand
+on the dying soldier's brow, and his heart. He opened his eyes, the man
+bent over him and softly said, "Nibowaka! it's Quonab."
+
+That night when the victorious rangers had returned to Plattsburg it
+was a town of glad, thankful hearts, and human love ran strong.
+The thrilling stories of the day were told, the crucial moment, the
+providential way in which at every hopeless pass, some easy, natural
+miracle took place to fight their battle and back their country's cause.
+The harrying of the flying rear-guard, the ambuscade over the hill, the
+appearance of an American scout at the nick of time to warn them--the
+shooting, and his disappearance--all were discussed.
+
+Then rollicking Seymour and silent Fiske told of their scouting on the
+trail of the beaten foe; and all asked, "Where is Kittering?" So talk
+was rife, and there was one who showed a knife he had picked up near the
+ambuscade with R. K. on the shaft.
+
+Now a dark-faced scout rose up, stared at the knife, and quickly left
+the room. In three minutes he stood before General Macomb, his words
+were few, but from his heart:
+
+"It is my boy, Nibowaka; it is Rolf; my heart tells me. Let me go. I
+feel him praying for me to come. Let me go, general. I must go."
+
+It takes a great man to gauge the heart of a man who seldom speaks. "You
+may go, but how can you find him tonight?"
+
+"Ugh, I find him," and the Indian pointed to a little, prick-eared,
+yellow cur that sneaked at his heels.
+
+"Success to you; he was one of the best we had," said the general, as
+the Indian left, then added: "Take a couple of men along, and, here,
+take this," and he held out a flask.
+
+Thus it was that the dawning saw Rolf on a stretcher carried by his
+three scouting partners, while Skookum trotted ahead, looking this way
+and that--they should surely not be ambushed this time.
+
+And thus the crowning misfortune, the culminating apes of disaster--the
+loss of his knife--the thing of all others that roused in Rolf the
+spirit of rebellion, was the way of life, his dungeon's key, the golden
+chain that haled him from the pit.
+
+
+
+Chapter 85. The Hospital, the Prisoners, and Home
+
+There were wagons and buckboards to be had, but the road was rough,
+so the three changed off as litter-bearers and brought him to the lake
+where the swift and smooth canoe was ready, and two hours later they
+carried him into the hospital at Plattsburg.
+
+The leg was set at once, his wounds were dressed, he was warmed,
+cleaned, and fed; and when the morning sun shone in the room, it was a
+room of calm and peace.
+
+The general came and sat beside him for a time, and the words he spoke
+were ample, joyful compensation for his wounds. MacDonough, too, passed
+through the ward, and the warm vibrations of his presence drove death
+from many a bed whose inmate's force ebbed low, whose soul was walking
+on the brink, was near surrender.
+
+Rolf did not fully realize it then, but long afterward it was clear that
+this was the meaning of the well-worn words, "He filled them with a new
+spirit."
+
+There was not a man in the town but believed the war was over; there was
+not a man in the town who doubted that his country's cause was won.
+
+Three weeks is a long time to a youth near manhood, but there was much
+of joy to while away the hours. The mothers of the town came and read
+and talked. There was news from the front. There were victories on the
+high seas. His comrades came to sit beside him; Seymour, the sprinter,
+as merry a soul as ever hankered for the stage and the red cups of life;
+Fiske, the silent, and McGlassin, too, with his dry, humorous talk;
+these were the bright and funny hours. There were others. There came a
+bright-checked Vermont mother whose three sons had died in service at
+MacDonough's guns; and she told of it in a calm voice, as one who speaks
+of her proudest honour. Yes, she rejoiced that God had given her three
+such sons, and had taken again His gifts in such a day of glory. Had
+England's rulers only known, that this was the spirit of the land that
+spoke, how well they might have asked: "What boots it if we win a few
+battles, and burn a few towns; it is a little gain and passing; for
+there is one thing that no armies, ships, or laws, or power on earth,
+or hell itself can down or crush--that alone is the thing that counts or
+endures--the thing that permeates these men, that finds its focal centre
+in such souls as that of the Vermont mother, steadfast, proud, and
+rejoicing in her bereavement."
+
+But these were forms that came and went; there were two that seldom were
+away--the tall and supple one of the dark face and the easy tread, and
+his yellow shadow--the ever unpopular, snappish, prick-eared cur, that
+held by force of arms all territories at floor level contiguous to,
+under, comprised, and bounded by, the four square legs and corners of
+the bed.
+
+Quonab's nightly couch was a blanket not far away, and his daily,
+self-given task to watch the wounded and try by devious ways and plots
+to trick him into eating ever larger meals.
+
+Garrison duty was light now, so Quonab sought the woods where the flocks
+of partridge swarmed, with Skookum as his aid. It was the latter's
+joyful duty to find and tree the birds, and "yap" below, till Quonab
+came up quietly with bow and blunt arrows, to fill his game-bag; and
+thus the best of fare was ever by the invalid's bed.
+
+Rolf's was easily a winning fight from the first, and in a week he was
+eating well, sleeping well, and growing visibly daily stronger.
+
+Then on a fleckless dawn that heralded a sun triumphant, the Indian
+borrowed a drum from the bandsman, and, standing on the highest
+breastwork, he gazed across the dark waters to the whitening hills.
+There on a tiny fire he laid tobacco and kinnikinnik, as Gisiss the
+Shining One burnt the rugged world rim at Vermont, and, tapping softly
+with one stick, he gazed upward, after the sacrificial thread of smoke,
+and sang in his own tongue:
+
+"Father, I burn tobacco, I smoke to Thee. I sing for my heart is
+singing."
+
+Pleasant chatter of the East was current by Rolf's bedside. Stories
+of homes in the hills he heard, tales of hearths by far away lakes and
+streams, memories of golden haired children waiting for father's or
+brother's return from the wars. Wives came to claim their husbands,
+mothers to bring away their boys, to gain again their strength at home.
+And his own heart went back, and ever back, to the rugged farm on the
+shores of the noble George.
+
+In two weeks he was able to sit up. In three he could hobble, and he
+moved about the town when the days were warm.
+
+And now he made the acquaintance of the prisoners. They were closely
+guarded and numbered over a hundred. It gave him a peculiar sensation
+to see them there. It seemed un-American to hold a human captive; but
+he realized that it was necessary to keep them for use as hostages and
+exchanges.
+
+Some of them he found to be sullen brutes, but many were kind and
+friendly, and proved to be jolly good fellows.
+
+On the occasion of his second visit, a familiar voice saluted him with,
+"Well, Rolf! Comment ca va?" and he had the painful joy of greeting
+Francois la Colle.
+
+"You'll help me get away, Rolf, won't you?" and the little Frenchman
+whispered and winked. "I have seven little ones now on La Riviere, dat
+have no flour, and tinks dere pa is dead."
+
+"I'll do all I can, Francois," and the picture of the desolate home,
+brought a husk in his voice and a choke in his throat. He remembered too
+the musket ball that by intent had whistled harmless overhead. "But," he
+added in a shaky voice, "I cannot help my country's enemy to escape."
+
+Then Rolf took counsel with McGlassin, told him all about the affair
+at the mill, and McGlassin with a heart worthy of his mighty shoulders,
+entered into the spirit of the situation, went to General Macomb
+presenting such a tale and petition that six hours later Francis bearing
+a passport through the lines was trudging away to Canada, paroled for
+the rest of the war.
+
+There was another face that Rolf recognized--hollow-cheeked,
+flabby-jowled and purplish-gray. The man was one of the oldest of the
+prisoners. He wore a white beard end moustache. He did not recognize
+Rolf, but Rolf knew him, for this was Micky Kittering. How he escaped
+from jail and joined the enemy was an episode of the war's first year.
+Rolf was shocked to see what a miserable wreck his uncle was. He could
+not do him any good. To identify him would have resulted in his being
+treated as a renegade, so on the plea that he was an old man, Rolf saw
+that the prisoner had extra accommodation and out of his own pocket kept
+him abundantly supplied with tobacco. Then in his heart he forgave him,
+and kept away. They never met again.
+
+The bulk of the militia had been disbanded after the great battle. A
+few of the scouts and enough men to garrison the fort and guard the
+prisoners were retained. Each day there were joyful partings--the men
+with homes, going home. And the thought that ever waxed in Rolf came on
+in strength. He hobbled to headquarters. "General, can I get leave--to
+go--he hesitated--home?"
+
+"Why, Kittering, I didn't know you had a home. But, certainly, I'll give
+you a month's leave and pay to date."
+
+Champlain is the lake of the two winds; the north wind blows for six
+months with a few variations, and the south wind for the other six
+months with trifling.
+
+Next morning a bark canoe was seen skimming southward before as much
+north wind as it could stand, with Rolf reclining in the middle, Quonab
+at the stern, and Skookum in the bow.
+
+In two days they were at Ticonderoga. Here help was easily got at
+the portage and on the evening of the third day, Quonab put a rope on
+Skookum's neck and they landed at Hendrik's farm.
+
+The hickory logs were blazing bright, and the evening pot was reeking as
+they opened the door and found the family gathered for the meal.
+
+"I didn't know you had a home," the general had said. He should have
+been present now to see the wanderer's welcome. If war breeds such a
+spirit in the land, it is as much a blessing as a curse. The air was
+full of it, and the Van Trumpers, when they saw their hero hobble in,
+were melted. Love, pity, pride, and tenderness were surging in storms
+through every heart that knew. "Their brother, their son come back,
+wounded, but proven and glorious." Yes, Rolf had a home, and in that
+intoxicating realization he kissed them all, even Annette of the glowing
+cheeks and eyes; though in truth he paid for it, for it conjured up in
+her a shy aloofness that lasted many days.
+
+Old Hendrik sputtered around. "Och, I am smile; dis is goood, yah. Vere
+is that tam dog? Yah! tie him not, he shall dis time von chicken have
+for joy."
+
+"Marta," said Rolf, "you told me to come here if I got hurt. Well, I've
+come, and I've brought a boat-load of stuff in case I cannot do my share
+in the fields."
+
+"Press you, my poy you didn't oughter brung dot stuff; you know we
+loff you here, and effery time it is you coom I get gladsomer, and dot
+Annette she just cried ven you vent to de war."
+
+"Oh, mother, I did not; it was you and little Hendrick!" and Annette
+turned her scarlet cheeks away.
+
+October, with its trees of flame and gold, was on the hills; purple and
+orange, the oaks and the birches; blue blocked with white was the sky
+above, and the blue, bright lake was limpid.
+
+"Oh, God of my fathers," Quonab used to pray, "when I reach the Happy
+Hunting, let it be ever the Leaf-falling Moon, for that is the only
+perfect time." And in that unmarred month of sunny sky and woodlands
+purged of every plague, there is but one menace in the vales. For who
+can bring the glowing coal to the dry-leafed woods without these two
+begetting the dread red fury that devastates the hills?
+
+Who can bring the fire in touch with tow and wonder at the blaze? Who,
+indeed? And would any but a dreamer expect young manhood in its growing
+strength, and girlhood just across the blush-line, to meet in daily
+meals and talk and still keep up the brother and sister play? It needs
+only a Virginia on the sea-girt island to turn the comrade into Paul.
+
+"Marta, I tink dot Rolf an Annette don't quarrel bad, ain't it?"
+
+"Hendrik, you vas von blind old bat-mole," said Marta, "I fink dat farm
+next ours purty good, but Rolf he say 'No Lake George no good.' Better
+he like all his folk move over on dat Hudson."
+
+
+Chapter 86. The New Era of Prosperity
+
+As November neared and his leave of absence ended, Rolf was himself
+again; had been, indeed, for two weeks, and, swinging fork or axe, he
+had helped with many an urgent job on the farm.
+
+A fine log stable they had rolled up together, with corners dovetailed
+like cabinet work, and roof of birch bark breadths above the hay.
+
+But there was another building, too, that Rolf had worked at night and
+day. It was no frontier shack, but a tall and towering castle, splendid
+and roomy, filled with loved ones and love. Not by the lake near by,
+not by the river of his choice, but higher up than the tops of the high
+mountains it loomed, and he built and built until the month was nearly
+gone. Then only did he venture to ask for aid, and Annette it was who
+promised to help him finish the building.
+
+Yes, the Lake George shore was a land of hungry farms. It was off the
+line of travel, too. It was neither Champlain nor Hudson; and Hendrik,
+after ten years' toil with barely a living to show, was easily
+convinced. Next summer they must make a new choice of home. But now it
+was back to Plattsburg.
+
+On November 1st Rolf and Quonab reported to General Macomb. There was
+little doing but preparations for the winter. There were no prospects of
+further trouble from their neighbours in the north. Most of the militia
+were already disbanded, and the two returned to Plattsburg, only to
+receive their honourable discharge, to be presented each with the medal
+of war, with an extra clasp on Rolf's for that dauntless dash that
+spiked the British guns.
+
+Wicked war with its wickedness was done at last. "The greatest evil that
+can befall a country," some call it, and yet out of this end came three
+great goods: The interstate distrust had died away, for now they were
+soldiers who had camped together, who had "drunk from the same canteen";
+little Canada, until then a thing of shreds and scraps, had been fused
+in the furnace, welded into a young nation, already capable of defending
+her own. England, arrogant with long success at sea, was taught a lesson
+of courtesy and justice, for now the foe whom she had despised and
+insulted had shown himself her equal, a king of the sea-king stock. The
+unnecessary battle of New Orleans, fought two weeks after the war was
+officially closed, showed that the raw riflemen of Tennessee were
+more than a match for the seasoned veterans who had overcome the great
+Napoleon, and thus on land redeemed the Stars and Stripes.
+
+The war brought unmeasured material loss on all concerned, but some
+weighty lasting gains to two at least. On December 24, 1814, the Treaty
+of Ghent was signed and the long rides were hung up on the cabin walls.
+Nothing was said in the treaty about the cause of war--the right of
+search. Why should they speak of it? If a big boy bullies a smaller one
+and gets an unexpected knockdown blow, it is not necessary to have it
+all set forth in terms before they shake hands that "I, John, of the
+first part, to wit, the bully, do hereby agree, promise, and contract to
+refrain in future forevermore from bullying you, Jonathan, of the second
+part, to wit, the bullied." That point had already been settled by the
+logic of events. The right of search was dead before the peace was born,
+and the very place of its bones is forgotten to-day.
+
+Rolf with Quonab returned to the trapping that winter; and as soon as
+the springtime came and seeding was over, he and Van Trumper made their
+choice of farms. Every dollar they could raise was invested in the
+beautiful sloping lands of the upper Hudson. Rolf urged the largest
+possible purchase now. Hendrick looked somewhat aghast at such a
+bridge-burning move. But a purchaser for his farm was found with
+unexpected promptness, one who was not on farming bent and the way kept
+opening up.
+
+The wedding did not take place till another year, when Annette was
+nineteen and Rolf twenty-one. And the home they moved to was not exactly
+a castle, but much more complete and human.
+
+This was the beginning of a new settlement. Given good land in plenty,
+and all the rest is easy; neighbours came in increasing numbers; every
+claim was taken up; Rolf and Hendrik saw themselves growing rich, and
+at length the latter was thankful for the policy that he once thought so
+rash, of securing all the land he could. Now it was his making, for in
+later years his grown-up sons were thus provided for, and kept at home.
+
+The falls of the river offered, as Rolf had foreseen, a noble chance for
+power. Very early he had started a store and traded for fur. Now, with
+the careful savings, he was able to build his sawmill; and about it grew
+a village with a post-office that had Rolf's name on the signboard.
+
+Quonab had come, of course, with Rolf, but he shunned the house, and the
+more so as it grew in size. In a remote and sheltered place he built a
+wigwam of his own.
+
+Skookum was divided in his allegiance, but he solved the puzzle by
+dividing his time between them. He did not change much, but he did
+rise in a measure to the fundamental zoological fact that hens are not
+partridges; and so acquired a haughty toleration of the cackle-party
+throng that assembled in the morning at Annette's call. Yes, he made
+even another step of progress, for on one occasion he valiantly routed
+the unenlightened dog of a neighbour, a "cur of low degree," whose ideas
+of ornithology were as crude as his own had been in the beginning.
+
+All of which was greatly to his credit, for he found it hard to learn
+now; he was no longer young, and before he had seen eight springs
+dissolve the snow, he was called to the Land of Happy Hunting, where the
+porcupine is not, but where hens abound on every side, and there is no
+man near to meddle with his joy.
+
+Yet, when he died, he lived. His memory was kept ever green, for Skookum
+Number 2 was there to fill his room, and he gave place to Skookum 3, and
+so they keep their line on to this very day.
+
+
+
+
+Quonab Goes Home
+
+The public has a kind of crawlin' common-sense, that is always right and
+fair in the end, only it's slow--Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+Twenty years went by. Rolf grew and prospered. He was a man of substance
+and of family now; for store and mill were making money fast, and the
+little tow-tops came at regular intervals.
+
+And when the years had added ripeness to his thought, and the kind
+gods of gold had filled his scrip, it was that his ampler life began to
+bloom. His was a mind of the best begetting, born and bred of ancient,
+clean-blooded stock; inflexibly principled, trained by a God-fearing
+mother, nurtured in a cradle of adversity, schooled in a school of
+hardship, developed in the big outdoors, wise in the ways of the woods,
+burnt in the fire of affliction, forced into self-reliance, inspired
+with the lofty inspiration of sacrificial patriotism--the good stuff
+of his make-up shone, as shines the gold in the fervent heat; the hard
+blows that prove or crush, had proved; the metal had rung true; and in
+the great valley, Rolf Kittering was a man of mark.
+
+The country's need of such is ever present and ever seeking. Those in
+power who know and measure men soon sought him out, and their messenger
+was the grisly old Si Sylvanne.
+
+Because he was a busy man, Rolf feared to add to his activities. Because
+he was a very busy man, the party new they needed him. So at length it
+was settled, and in a little while, Rolf stood in the Halls of Albany
+and grasped the hand of the ancient mill-man as a colleague, filling an
+honoured place in the councils of the state.
+
+Each change brought him new activities. Each year he was more of a
+public man, and his life grew larger. From Albany he went to New York,
+in the world of business and men's affairs; and at last in Washington,
+his tall, manly figure was well known, and his good common-sense and
+clean business ways were respected. Yet each year during hunting time he
+managed to spend a few weeks with Quonab in the woods. Tramping on their
+ancient trapping grounds, living over the days of their early hunts;
+and double zest was added when Rolf the second joined them and lived and
+loved it all.
+
+But this was no longer Kittering's life, rather the rare precarious
+interval, and more and more old Quonab realized that they were meeting
+only in the past. When the big house went up on the river-bank, he
+indeed had felt that they were at the parting of the ways. His respect
+for Nibowaka had grown to be almost a worship, and yet he knew that
+their trails had yearly less in common. Rolf had outgrown him; he was
+alone again, as on the day of their meeting. His years had brought a
+certain insight; and this he grasped--that the times were changed, and
+his was the way of a bygone day.
+
+"Mine is the wisdom of the woods," he said, "but the woods are going
+fast; in a few years there will be no more trees, and my wisdom will
+be foolishness. There is in this land now a big, strong thing called
+'trade,' that will eat up all things and the people themselves. You are
+wise enough, Nibowaka, to paddle with the stream, you have turned so the
+big giant is on your side, and his power is making you great. But this
+is not for me; so only I have enough to eat, and comfort to sleep, I am
+content to watch for the light."
+
+Across the valley from the big store he dwelt, in a lodge from which he
+could easily see the sunrise. Twenty-five years added to the fifty he
+spent in the land of Mayn Mayano had dimmed his eye, had robbed his foot
+of its spring, and sprinkled his brow with the winter rime; but they had
+not changed his spirit, nor taught him less to love the pine woods
+and the sunrise. Yes, even more than in former days did he take his
+song-drum to the rock of worship, to his idaho--as the western red man
+would have called it. And there, because it was high and the wind blew
+cold, he made a little eastward-facing lodge.
+
+He was old and hunting was too hard for him, but there was a strong
+arm about him now; he dimly thought of it at times--the arm of the
+fifteen-year-old boy that one time he had shielded. There was no lack
+of food or blankets in the wigwam, or of freedom in the woods under the
+sun-up rock. But there was a hunger that not farseeing Nibowaka could
+appease, not even talk about. And Quonab built another medicine lodge
+to watch the sun go down over the hill. Sitting by a little fire to
+tune his song-drum, he often crooned to the blazing skies. "I am of the
+sunset now, I and my people," he sang, "the night is closing over us."
+
+One day a stranger came to the hills; his clothes were those of a white
+man, but his head, his feet, and his eyes--his blood, his walk, and his
+soul were those of a red Indian of the West. He came from the unknown
+with a message to those who knew him not: "The Messiah was coming; the
+deliverer that Hiawatha bade them look for. He was coming in power
+to deliver the red race, and his people must sing the song of the
+ghost-dance till the spirit came, and in a vision taught them wisdom and
+his will!"
+
+Not to the white man, but to the lonely Indian in the hill cleft he
+came, and the song that he brought and taught him was of a sorrowing
+people seeking their father.
+
+"Father have pity on us! Our souls are hungry for Thee. There is nothing
+here to satisfy us Father we bow to Thy will."
+
+By the fire that night they sang, and prayed as the Indian
+prays--"Father have pity and guide us." So Quonab sang the new song, and
+knew its message was for him.
+
+The stranger went on, for he was a messenger, but Quonab sang again and
+again, and then the vision came, as it must, and the knowledge that he
+sought.
+
+None saw him go, but ten miles southward on the river he met a hunter
+and said: "Tell the wise one that I have heard the new song. Tell him
+I have seen the vision. We are of the sunset, but the new day comes. I
+must see the land of Mayn Mayano, the dawn-land, where the sun rises out
+of the sea."
+
+They saw no more of him. But a day later, Rolf heard of it, and set out
+in haste next morning for Albany. Skookum the fourth leaped into the
+canoe as he pushed off. Rolf was minded to send him back, but the dog
+begged hard with his eyes and tail. It seemed he ought to go, when it
+was the old man they sought. At Albany they got news. "Yes, the Indian
+went on the steamboat a few days ago." At New York, Rolf made no attempt
+to track his friend, but took the Stamford boat and hurried to the old
+familiar woods, where he had lived and suffered and wakened as a boy.
+
+There was a house now near the rock that is yet called "Quonab's." From
+the tenants he learned that in the stillest hours of the night before,
+they had heard the beating of an Indian drum, and the cadence of a chant
+that came not from throat of white man's blood.
+
+In the morning when it was light Rolf hastened to the place, expecting
+to find at least an Indian camp, where once had stood the lodge. There
+was no camp; and as he climbed for a higher view, the Skookum of to-day
+gave bristling proof of fear at some strange object there--a man that
+moved not. His long straight hair was nearly white, and by his side,
+forever still, lay the song-drum of his people.
+
+And those who heard the mournful strains the night before knew now from
+Rolf that it was Ouonab come back to his rest, and the song that he sang
+was the song of the ghost dance.
+
+"Pity me, Wahkonda. My soul is ever hungry. There is nothing here to
+satisfy me, I walk in darkness; Pity me, Wahkondal."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Rolf In The Woods, by Ernest Thompson Seton
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+***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Rolf In The Woods, by Seton***
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+Rolf In The Woods
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+Ernest Thompson Seton
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+October, 1997  [Etext #1088]
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+
+
+
+
+This etext was prepared by Ted Soldan and anonymous volunteers.
+
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+In this story I have endeavoured to realize some of the
+influences that surrounded the youth of America a hundred years
+ago, and made of them, first, good citizens, and, later, in the
+day of peril, heroes that won the battles of Lake Erie,
+Plattsburg, and New Orleans, and the great sea fights of Porter,
+Bainbridge, Decatur, Lawrence, Perry, and MacDonough.
+
+I have especially dwelt in detail on the woodland and peace
+scouting in the hope that I may thus help other boys to follow
+the hard-climbing trail that leads to the higher uplands.
+
+For the historical events of 1812-14, I have consulted among
+books chiefly, Theodore Roosevelt's "Naval War of 1812," Peter S.
+Palmer's "History of Lake Champlain," and Walter Hill Crockett's
+"A History of Lake Champlain," 1909.  But I found another and
+more personal mine of information.  Through the kindness of my
+friend, Edmund Seymour, a native of the Champlain region, now a
+resident of New York, I went over all the historical ground with
+several unpublished manuscripts for guides, and heard from the
+children of the sturdy frontiersmen new tales of the war; and in
+getting more light and vivid personal memories, I was glad,
+indeed, to realize that not only were there valour and heroism on
+both sides, but also gentleness and courtesy.  Histories written
+by either party at the time should be laid aside.  They breathe
+the rancourous hate of the writers of the age --the fighters felt
+not so --and the many incidents given here of chivalry and
+consideration were actual happenings, related to me by the
+descendants of those who experienced them; and all assure me that
+these were a true reflex of the feelings of the day.
+
+I am much indebted to Miss Katherine Palmer, of Plattsburg, for
+kindly allowing me to see the unpublished manuscript memoir of
+her grandfather, Peter Sailly, who was Collector of the Port of
+Plattsburg at the time of the war.
+
+Another purpose in this story was to picture the real Indian with
+his message for good or for evil.
+
+Those who know nothing of the race will scoff and say they never
+heard of such a thing as a singing and religious red man. Those
+who know him well will say, "Yes, but you have given to your
+eastern Indian songs and ceremonies which belong to the western
+tribes, and which are of different epochs.  "To the latter I
+reply:
+
+"You know that the western Inidians sang and prayed in this way.
+How do you know that the eastern ones did not?  We have no
+records, except those by critics, savagely hostile, and
+contemptuous of all religious observances but their own.  The
+Ghost Dance Song belonged to a much more recent time, no doubt,
+but it was purely Indian, and it is generally admitted that the
+races of continental North America were of one stock, and had no
+fundamentally different customs or modes of thought."
+
+The Sunrise Song was given me by Frederick R. Burton, author of
+"American Primitive Music." It is still in use among the Ojibwa.
+
+The songs of the Wabanaki may be read in C. G. Le- land's "
+Kuloskap the Master."
+
+The Ghost Dance Song was fumished by Alice C. Fletcher, whose
+"Indian Song and Story" will prove a revelation to those who wish
+to follow further.
+
+ERNEST THOMPSON SETON.
+The Wigwam Under the Rock
+
+The early springtime sunrise was near at hand as
+Quonab, the last of the Myanos Sinawa, stepped
+from his sheltered wigwam under the cliff that
+borders the Asamuk easterly, and, mounting to the lofty
+brow of the great rock that is its highest pinnacle, he
+stood in silence, awaiting the first ray of the sun over
+the sea water that stretches between Connecticut and
+Seawanaky.
+
+His silent prayer to the Great Spirit was ended as a
+golden beam shot from a long, low cloud-bank over the
+sea, and Quonab sang a weird Indian song for the rising
+sun, an invocation to the Day God:
+
+"O thou that risest from the low cloud
+To burn in the all above;
+I greet thee!  I adore thee!"
+
+Again and again he sang to the tumming of a small
+tom-tom, till the great refulgent one had cleared the cloud,
+and the red miracle of the sunrise was complete.
+Back to his wigwam went the red man, down to his home
+tucked dosed under the sheltering rock, and, after washing
+his hands in a basswood bowl, began to prepare his simple
+meal.
+
+A tin-lined copper pot hanging over the fire was partly
+filled with water; then, when it was boiling, some samp or
+powdered corn and some clams were stirred in.  While
+these were cooking, he took his smooth-bore flint-lock,
+crawled gently over the ridge that screened his wigwam
+from the northwest wind, and peered with hawk-like
+eyes across the broad sheet of water that, held by a high
+beaver-dam, filled the little valley of Asamuk Brook.
+
+The winter ice was still on the pond, but in all the warming
+shallows there was open water, on which were likely
+to be ducks.  None were to be seen, but by the edge of the
+ice was a round object which, although so far away, he
+knew at a glance for a muskrat.
+
+By crawling around the pond, the Indian could easily
+have come within shot, but he returned at once to his
+wigwam, where he exchanged his gun for the weapons of
+his fathers, a bow and arrows, and a long fish-line.  A
+short, quick stalk, and the muskrat, still eating a flagroot,
+was within thirty feet.  The fish-line was coiled on the
+ground and then attached to an arrow, the bow bent -- zip
+-- the arrow picked up the line, coil after coil, and trans-
+fixed the muskrat.  Splash! and the animal was gone under
+the ice.
+
+But the cord was in the hands of the hunter; a little
+gentle pulling and the rat came to view, to be despatched
+with a stick and secured.  Had he shot it with a gun, it
+had surely been lost.
+
+He returned to his camp, ate his frugal breakfast, and fed a
+small, wolfish-looking yellow dog that was tied in the lodge.
+
+He skinned the muskrat carefully, first cutting a
+slit across the rear and then turning the skin back like a
+glove, till it was off to the snout; a bent stick thrust into
+this held it stretched, till in a day, it was dry and ready for
+market.  The body, carefully cleaned, he hung in the
+shade to furnish another meal.
+
+As he worked, there were sounds of trampling in the
+woods, and presently a tall, rough-looking man, with a
+red nose and a curling white moustache, came striding
+through brush and leaves.  He stopped when he saw the
+Indian, stared contemptuously at the quarry of the morning
+chase, made a scornful remark about "rat-eater," and went
+on toward the wigwam, probably to peer in, but the
+Indian's slow, clear, "keep away!" changed his plan.  He
+grumbled something about "copper-coloured tramp,"
+and started away in the direction of the nearest farmhouse.
+Rolf Kittering and the Soldier Uncle
+
+A feller that chatters all the time is bound to talk a certain
+amount of drivel. -- The Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+
+This was the Crow Moon, the white man's March.
+The Grass Moon was at hand, and already the
+arrow bands of black-necked honkers were passing
+northward from the coast, sending down as they flew
+the glad tidings that the Hunger Moon was gone, that
+spring was come, yea, even now was in the land.  And the
+flicker clucked from a high, dry bough, the spotted
+woodwale drummed on his chosen branch, the partridge
+drummed in the pine woods, and in the sky the wild
+ducks, winging, drummed their way.  What wonder that
+the soul of the Indian should seek expression in the drum
+and the drum song of his race?
+
+Presently, as though remembering something, he went
+quietly to the southward under the ridge, just where it
+breaks to let the brook go by, along the edge of Strickland's
+Plain, and on that hill of sliding stone he found, as
+he always had, the blue-eyed liver-leaf smiling, the first
+sweet flower of spring!  He did not gather it, he only sat
+down and looked at it.  He did not smile, or sing, or
+utter words, or give it a name, but he sat beside it and
+looked hard at it, and, in the first place, he went there
+knowingly to find it.  Who shall say that its beauty did
+not reach his soul?
+
+He took out his pipe and tobacco bag, but was reminded
+of something lacking -- the bag was empty.  He returned
+to his wigwam, and from their safe hanger or swinging
+shelf overhead, he took the row of stretched skins, ten
+muskrats and one mink, and set out along a path which
+led southward through the woods to the broad, open place
+called Strickland's Plain, across that, and over the next
+rock ridge to the little town and port of Myanos.
+
+SILAS PECK
+Trading Store
+
+was the sign over the door he entered.  Men and women
+were buying and selling, but the Indian stood aside shyly
+until all were served, and Master Peck cried out:
+
+"Ho, Quonab! what have ye got for trade to-day?"
+
+Quonab produced his furs.  The dealer looked at them
+narrowly and said:
+
+"They are too late in the season for primes; I cannot
+allow you more than seven cents each for the rats and
+seventy-five cents for the mink, all trade."
+
+The Indian gathered up the bundle with an air of "that
+settles it," when Silas called out:
+
+"Come now, I'll make it ten cents for the rats."
+
+"Ten cents for rats, one dollar for mink, all cash, then
+I buy what I like," was the reply.
+
+It was very necessary to Silas's peace that no customer
+of his should cross the street to the sign,
+
+SILAS MEAD
+Trading Store
+
+So the bargain, a fair one now, was made, and the Indian
+went off with a stock of tobacco, tea, and sugar.
+
+His way lay up the Myanos River, as he had one or two
+traps set along the banks for muskrats, although in constant
+danger of having them robbed or stolen by boys, who
+considered this an encroachment on their trapping grounds.
+
+After an hour he came to Dumpling Pond, then set out
+for his home, straight through the woods, till he reached
+the Catrock line, and following that came to the farm and
+ramshackle house of Micky Kittering.  He had been told
+that the man at this farm had a fresh deer hide for sale,
+and hoping to secure it, Quonab walked up toward the
+house.  Micky was coming from the barn when he saw
+the Indian.  They recognized each other at a glance.
+That was enough for Quonab; he turned away.  The
+farmer remembered that he had been "insulted." He
+vomited a few oaths, and strode after the Indian, "To
+take it out of his hide"; his purpose was very clear.  The
+Indian turned quickly, stood, and looked calmly at Michael
+
+Some men do not know the difference between shyness
+and cowardice, but they are apt to find it out unexpectedly
+Something told the white man, "Beware! this red man is
+dangerous." He muttered something about, "Get out
+of that, or I'll send for a constable." The Indian stood
+gazing coldly, till the farmer backed off out of sight, then
+he himself turned away to the woods.
+
+Kittering was not a lovely character.  He claimed to
+have been a soldier.  He certainly looked the part, for
+his fierce white moustache was curled up like horns on his
+purple face, at each side of his red nose, in a most milita
+style.  His shoulders were square and his gait was
+swaggering, beside which, he had an array of swear words that
+was new and tremendously impressive in Connecticut.  He
+had married late in life a woman who would have made him
+a good wife, had he allowed her.  But, a drunkard himself
+he set deliberately about bringing his wife to his own ways
+and with most lamentable success.  They had had no
+children, but some months before a brother's child,
+fifteen-year-old lad, had become a charge on their hands
+and, with any measure of good management, would have
+been a blessing to all.  But Micky had gone too far.  His
+original weak good-nature was foundered in rum.  Always
+blustery and frothy, he divided the world in two --
+superior officers, before whom he grovelled, and inferiors
+to whom he was a mouthy, foul-tongued, contemptible
+bully, in spite of a certain lingering kindness of heart that
+showed itself at such rare times when he was neither
+roaring drunk nor crucified by black reaction.  His
+brother's child, fortunately, had inherited little of the
+paternal family traits, but in both body and brain favoured
+his mother, the daughter of a learned divine who had spent
+unusual pains on her book education, but had left her
+penniless and incapable of changing that condition.
+
+Her purely mental powers and peculiarities were such
+that, a hundred years before, she might have been burned
+for a witch, and fifty years later might have been honoured
+as a prophetess.  But she missed the crest of the wave
+both ways and fell in the trough; her views on religious
+matters procured neither a witch's grave nor a prophet's
+crown, but a sort of village contempt.
+
+The Bible was her standard -- so far so good -- but
+she emphasized the wrong parts of it.  Instead of
+magnifying the damnation of those who follow not the truth (as
+the village understood it), she was content to semi-quote:
+
+"Those that are not against me are with me," and
+"A kind heart is the mark of His chosen." And then
+she made a final utterance, an echo really of her father:
+"If any man do anything sincerely, believing that thereby
+he is worshipping God, he is worshipping God."
+
+Then her fate was sealed, and all who marked the blazing
+eyes, the hollow cheeks, the yet more hollow chest and
+cough, saw in it all the hand of an offended God destroying
+a blasphemer, and shook their heads knowingly when
+the end came.
+
+So Rolf was left alone in life, with a common school
+education, a thorough knowledge of the Bible and of
+"Robinson Crusoe," a vague tradition of God everywhere,
+and a deep distrust of those who should have been his
+own people.
+
+The day of the little funeral he left the village of Redding
+to tramp over the unknown road to the unknown south
+where his almost unknown Uncle Michael had a farm and,
+possibly, a home for him.
+
+Fifteen miles that day, a night's rest in a barn, twenty-
+five miles the next day, and Rolf had found his future
+home.
+
+"Come in, lad," was the not unfriendly reception, for
+his arrival was happily fallen on a brief spell of good
+humour, and a strong, fifteen-year-old boy is a distinct
+asset on a farm.
+
+
+
+Rolf Catches a Coon and Finds a Friend
+
+Aunt Prue, sharp-eyed and red-nosed, was
+actually shy at first, but all formality vanished
+as Rolf was taught the mysteries of pig-feeding,
+hen-feeding, calf-feeding, cow-milking, and launched by list
+only in a vast number of duties familiar to him from his
+babyhood.  What a list there was.  An outsider might
+have wondered if Aunt Prue was saving anything for herself,
+but Rolf was used to toil.  He worked without ceasing
+and did his best, only to learn in time that the best could
+win no praise, only avert punishment.  The spells of good
+nature arrived more seldom in his uncle's heart.  His
+aunt was a drunken shrew and soon Rolf looked on the
+days of starving and physical misery with his mother as
+the days of his happy youth gone by.
+
+He was usually too tired at night and too sleepy in the
+morning to say his prayers, and gradually he gave it up
+as a daily habit.  The more he saw of his kinsfolk, the
+more wickedness came to view; and yet it was with a
+shock that he one day realized that some fowls his uncle
+brought home by night were there without the owner's
+knowledge or consent.  Micky made a jest of it, and
+intimated that Rolf would have to "learn to do night work
+very soon."  This was only one of the many things that
+showed how evil a place was now the orphan's home.
+
+At first it was not clear to the valiant uncle whether the
+silent boy was a superior to be feared, or an inferior to be
+held in fear, but Mick's courage grew with non-resistance,
+and blows became frequent; although not harder to bear
+than the perpetual fault-finding and scolding of his aunt,
+and all the good his mother had implanted was being
+shrivelled by the fires of his daily life.
+
+Rolf had no chance to seek for companions at the
+village store, but an accident brought one to him.
+Before sunrise one spring morning he went, as usual,
+to the wood lot pasture for the cow, and was surprised to
+find a stranger, who beckoned him to come.  On going
+near he saw a tall man with dark skin and straight black
+hair that was streaked with gray -- undoubtedly an Indian.
+He held up a bag and said, "I got coon in that hole.  You
+hold bag there, I poke him in."  Rolf took the sack
+readily and held it over the hole, while the Indian climbed
+the tree to a higher opening, then poked in this with a long
+pole, till all at once there was a scrambling noise and the
+bag bulged full and heavy.  Rolf closed its mouth
+triumphantly.  The Indian laughed lightly, then swung to the
+ground.
+
+"Now, what will you do with him?" asked Rolf.
+
+"Train coon dog," was the answer.
+
+"Where?"
+
+The Indian pointed toward the Asamuk Pond.
+
+"Are you the singing Indian that lives under Ab's Rock?
+
+"Ugh!* Some call me that.  My name is Quonab."
+
+"Wait for an hour and then I will come and help,"
+volunteered Rolf impulsively, for the hunting instinct was
+strong in him.
+
+The Indian nodded.  "Give three yelps if you no find
+me;" then he shouldered a short stick, from one end of
+which, at a safe distance from his back, hung the bag with
+the coon.  And Rolf went home with the cow.
+
+He had acted on hasty impulse in offering to come, but
+now, in the normal storm state of the household, the
+difficulties of the course appeared.  He cudgelled his brain for
+some plan to account for his absence, and finally took
+refuge unwittingly in ancient wisdom: "When you don't
+know a thing to do, don't do a thing."  Also, "If you can't
+find the delicate way, go the blunt way."
+
+So having fed the horses, cleaned the stable, and milked
+the cow, fed the pigs, the hens, the calf, harnessed the
+horses, cut and brought in wood for the woodshed, turned
+out the sheep, hitched the horses to the wagon, set the milk
+out in the creaming pans, put more corn to soak for the
+swill barrel, ground the house knife, helped to clear the
+breakfast things, replaced the fallen rails of a fence,
+brought up potatoes from the root cellar, all to the
+maddening music of a scolding tongue, he set out to take the cow
+back to the wood lot, sullenly resolved to return when ready.
+
+
+*Ugh (yes) and wah (no) are Indianisms that continue no matter
+how well the English has been acquired.
+
+
+
+The Coon Hunt Makes Trouble for Rolf
+
+Not one hour, but nearly three, had passed before
+Rolf sighted the Pipestave Pond, as it was called.
+He had never been there before, but three short
+whoops, as arranged, brought answer and guidance.
+Quonab was standing on the high rock.  When Rolf came
+he led down to the wigwam on its south side.  It was like
+stepping into a new life.  Several of the old neighbours at
+Redding were hunters who knew the wild Indians and had
+told him tales that glorified at least the wonderful
+woodcraft of the red man. Once or twice Rolf had seen Indians
+travelling through, and he had been repelled by their sordid
+squalour.  But here was something of a different kind;
+not the Champlain ideal, indeed, for the Indian wore clothes
+like any poor farmer, except on his head and his feet; his
+head was bare, and his feet were covered with moccasins
+that sparkled with beads on the arch.  The wigwam was
+of canvas, but it had one or two of the sacred symbols
+painted on it.  The pot hung over the fire was tin-lined
+copper, of the kind long made in England for Indian trade,
+but the smaller dishes were of birch bark and basswood.
+The gun and the hunting knife were of white man's make,
+but the bow, arrows, snowshoes, tom-tom, and a quill-
+covered gun case were of Indian art, fashioned of the things
+that grow in the woods about.
+
+The Indian led into the wigwam.  The dog, although
+not fully grown, growled savagely as it smelled the hated
+white man odour.  Quonab gave the puppy a slap on the
+head, which is Indian for, "Be quiet; he's all right;" loosed
+the rope, and led the dog out.  "Bring that," and the
+Indian pointed to the bag which hung from a stick between
+two trees.  The dog sniffed suspiciously in the direction
+of the bag and growled, but he was not allowed to come
+near it.  Rolf tried to make friends with the dog, but
+without success and Quonab said, "Better let Skookum* alone.
+He make friends when he ready -- maybe never."
+
+The two hunters now set out for the open plain, two or
+three hundred yards to the southward.  Here the raccoon
+was dumped out of the sack, and the dog held at a little
+distance, until the coon had pulled itself together and
+began to run.  Now the dog was released and chivvied on.
+With a tremendous barking he rushed at the coon, only to
+get a nip that made him recoil, yelping.  The coon ran
+as hard as it could, the dog and hunters came after it;
+again it was overtaken, and, turning with a fierce snarl, it
+taught the dog a second lesson.  Thus, running, dodging,
+and turning to fight, the coon got back to the woods, and
+there made a final stand under a small, thick tree; and,
+when the dog was again repulsed, climbed quickly up into
+the branches.
+
+The hunters did all they could to excite the dog, until he
+was jumping about, tryng to  climb the tree, and barking
+uproariously.  This was exactly what they wanted.
+Skookum's first lesson was learned -- the duty of chasing
+the big animal of that particular smell, then barking up
+the tree it had climbed.
+
+Quonab, armed with a forked stick and a cord noose,
+now went up the tree.  After much trouble he got the
+noose around the coon's neck, then, with some rather
+rough handling, the animal was dragged down, maneuvered
+into the sack, and carried back to camp, where it was
+chained up to serve in future lessons; the next two or three
+being to tree the coon, as before; in the next, the coon
+was to be freed and allowed to get out of sight, so that the
+dog might find it by trailing, and the last, in which the
+coon was to be trailed, treed, and shot out of the tree,
+so that the dog should have the final joy of killing a
+crippled coon, and the reward of a coon-meat feast.  But
+the last was not to be, for the night before it should have
+taken place the coon managed to slip its bonds, and nothing
+but the empty collar and idle chain were found in the
+captive's place next morning.
+
+These things were in the future however.  Rolf was
+intensely excited over all he had seen that day.  His hunting
+instincts were aroused.  There had been no very obvious
+or repellant cruelty; the dog alone had suffered, but
+he seemed happy.  The whole affair was so exactly in the
+line of his tastes that the boy was in a sort of ecstatic
+uplift, and already anticipating a real coon hunt, when
+the dog should be properly trained.  The episode so
+contrasted with the sordid life he had left an hour before that
+he was spellbound.  The very animal smell of the coon
+seemed to make his fibre tingle.  His eyes were glowing
+with a wild light.  He was so absorbed that he did not
+notice a third party attracted by the unusual noise of the
+chase, but the dog did.  A sudden, loud challenge called
+all attention to a stranger on the ridge behind the camp.
+There was no mistaking the bloated face and white
+moustache of Rolf's uncle.
+
+"So, you young scut! that is how you waste your time.
+I'll larn ye a lesson."
+
+The dog was tied, the Indian looked harmless, and the
+boy was cowed, so the uncle's courage mounted high.  He
+had been teaming in the nearby woods, and the blacksnake
+whip was in his hands.  In a minute its thong was
+lapped, like a tongue of flame, around Rolf's legs.  The
+boy gave a shriek and ran, but the man followed and
+furiously plied the whip.  The Indian, supposing it was Rolf's
+father, marvelled at his method of showing affection, but
+said nothing, for the Fifth Commandment is a large one
+in the wigwam.  Rolf dodged some of the cruel blows, but
+was driven into a corner of the rock.  One end of the lash
+crossed his face like a red-hot wire.
+
+"Now I've got you!" growled the bully.
+
+Rolf was desperate.  He seized two heavy stones and
+hurled the first with deadly intent at his uncle's head.
+Mick dodged in time, but the second, thrown lower, hit
+him on the thigh.  Mick gave a roar of pain.  Rolf
+hastily seized more stones and shrieked out, "You come on
+one step and I'll kill you!"
+
+Then that purple visage turned a sort of ashen hue.
+Its owner mouthed in speechless rage.  He "knew it was
+the Indian had put Rolf up to it.  He'd see to it later," and
+muttering, blasting, frothing, the hoary-headed sinner
+went limping off to his loaded wagon.
+
+
+*"Skookum" or "Skookum Chuck," in Chinook means "Troubled waters."
+
+
+
+
+Good-bye to Uncle Mike
+
+For counsel comes with the night, and action comes with the day;
+But the gray half light, neither dark nor bright, is a time to
+hide away.
+
+
+Rolf had learned one thing at least -- his uncle was a coward.
+But he also knew that he himself was in the wrong, for he was
+neglecting his work and he decided to go back at once and face
+the worst.  He made little reply to the storm of scolding that
+met him. He would have been disappointed if it had not come.  He
+was used to it; it made him feel at home once more.  He worked
+hard and silently.
+
+Mick did not return till late.  He had been drawing wood for
+Horton that day, which was the reason he happened in Quonab's
+neighbourhood; but his road lay by the tavern, and when he
+arrived home he was too helples to do more than mutter.
+
+The next day there was an air of suspended thunder. Rolf
+overheard his uncle cursing "that ungrateful young scut - not
+worth his salt."  But nothing further was said or done.  His aunt
+did not strike at him once for two days.  The third night Micky
+disappeared.  On the next he returned with another man; they had
+a crate of fowls, and Rolf was told to keep away from "that there
+little barn."
+
+So he did all morning, but he peeped in from the hayloft when a
+chance came, and saw a beautiful horse.  Next day the "little
+barn" was open and empty as before.
+
+That night this worthy couple had a jollification with some
+callers, who were strangers to Rolf.  As he lay awake, listening
+to the carouse, he overheard many disjointed allusions that he
+did not understand, and some that he could guess at: "Night work
+pays better than day work any time," etc.  Then he heard his own
+name and a voice, "Let's go up and settle it with him now."
+Whatever their plan, it was clear that the drunken crowd,
+inspired by the old ruffian, were intent on doing him bodily
+harm.  He heard them stumbling and reeling up the steep stairs.
+He heard, "Here, gimme that whip," and knew he was in peril,
+maybe of his life, for they were whiskey-mad.  He rose quickly,
+locked the door, rolled up an old rag carpet, and put it in his
+bed.  Then he gathered his clothes on his arm, opened the window,
+and lowered himself till his head only was above the sill, and
+his foot found a resting place.  Thus he awaited.  The raucous
+breathing of the revellers was loud on the stairs; then the door
+was tried; there was some muttering; then the door was burst open
+and in rushed two, or perhaps three, figures.  Rolf could barely
+see in the gloom, but he knew that his uncle was one of them.
+The attack they made with whip and stick on that roll of rags in
+the bed would have broken his bones and left him shapeless, had
+he been in its place. The men were laughing and took it all as a
+joke, but Rolf had seen enough; he slipped to the ground and
+hurried away, realizing perfectly well now that this was
+"good-bye."
+
+Which way?  How naturally his steps turned northward toward
+Redding, the only other place he knew.  But he had not gone a
+mile before he stopped.  The yapping of a coon dog came to him
+from the near woods that lay to the westward along Asamuk.  He
+tramped toward it. To find the dog is one thing, to find the
+owner another; but they drew near at last.  Rolf gave the three
+yelps and Quonab responded.
+
+"I am done with that crowd," said the boy.  "They tried to kill
+me tonight.  Have you got room for me in your wigwam for a couple
+of days?"
+
+"Ugh, come," said the Indian.
+
+That night, for the first time, Rolf slept in the outdoor air of
+a wigwam.  He slept late, and knew nothing of the world about him
+till Quonab called him to breakfast.
+
+
+
+Skookum Accepts Rolf at Last
+
+Rolf expected that Micky would soon hear of his hiding place and
+come within a few days, backed by a constable, to claim his
+runaway ward.  But a week went by and Quonab, passing through
+Myanos, learned, first, that Rolf had been seen tramping
+northward on the road to Dumpling Pond, and was now supposed to
+be back in Redding; second, that Micky Kittering was lodged in
+jail under charge of horse-stealing and would certainly get a
+long sentence; third, that his wife had gone back to her own
+folks at Norwalk, and the house was held by strangers.
+
+All other doors were closed now, and each day that drifted by
+made it the more clear that Rolf and Quonab were to continue
+together.  What boy would not exult at the thought of it?  Here
+was freedom from a brutal tyranny that was crushing out his young
+life; here was a dream of the wild world coming true, with
+gratification of all the hunter instincts that he had held in his
+heart for years, and nurtured in that single, ragged volume of
+"Robinson Crusoe." The plunge was not a plunge, except it be one
+when an eagle, pinion-bound, is freed and springs from a cliff of
+the mountain to ride the mountain wind.
+
+The memory of that fateful cooning day was deep and lasting.
+Never afterward did smell of coon fail to bring it back; in spite
+of the many evil incidents it was a smell of joy.
+
+"Where are you going, Quonab?" he asked one morning, as he saw
+the Indian rise at dawn and go forth with his song drum, after
+warming it at the fire.  He pointed up to the rock, and for the
+first time Rolf heard the chant for the sunrise.  Later he heard
+the Indian's song for "Good Hunting," and another for "When His
+Heart Was Bad." They were prayers or praise, all addressed to the
+Great Spirit, or the Great Father, and it gave Rolf an entirely
+new idea of the red man, and a startling light on himself. Here
+was the Indian, whom no one considered anything but a hopeless
+pagan, praying to God for guidance at each step in life, while he
+himself, supposed to be a Christian, had not prayed regularly for
+months -- was in danger of forgetting how.
+
+Yet there was one religious observance that Rolf never forgot --
+that was to keep the Sabbath, and on that day each week he did
+occasionally say a little prayer his mother had taught him.  He
+avoided being seen at such times and did not speak of kindred
+doings.  Whereas Quonab neither hid nor advertised his religious
+practices, and it was only after many Sundays had gone that
+Quonab remarked:
+
+"Does your God come only one day of the week?  Does He sneak in
+after dark?  Why is He ashamed that you only whisper to Him?
+Mine is here all the time. I can always reach Him with my song;
+all days are my Sunday."
+
+The evil memories of his late life were dimming quickly, and the
+joys of the new one growing.  Rolf learned early that, although
+one may talk of the hardy savage, no Indian seeks for hardship.
+Everything is done that he knows to make life pleasant, and of
+nothing is he more careful than the comfort of his couch.  On the
+second day, under guidance of his host, Rolf set about making his
+own bed.  Two logs, each four inches thick and three feet long,
+were cut.  Then two strong poles, each six feet long, were laid
+into notches at the ends of the short logs.  About seventy-five
+straight sticks of willow were cut and woven with willow bark
+into a lattice, three feet wide and six feet long.  This, laid on
+the poles, furnished a spring mattress, on which a couple of
+blankets made a most comfortable couch, dry, warm, and off the
+ground.  In addition to the lodge cover, each bed had a dew cloth
+which gave perfect protection, no matter how the storm might rage
+outdoors.  There was no hardship in it, only a new-found
+pleasure, to sleep and breathe the pure night air of the woods.
+
+The Grass Moon - April - had passed, and the Song Moon was
+waxing, with its hosts of small birds, and one of Rolf's early
+discoveries was that many of these love to sing by night.  Again
+and again the familiar voice of the song sparrow came from the
+dark shore of Asamuk, or the field sparrow trilled from the top
+of some cedar, occasionally the painted one, Aunakeu, the
+partridge, drummed in the upper woods, and nightly there was the
+persistent chant of Muckawis, the whippoorwill, the myriad voices
+of the little frogs called spring-peepers, and the peculiar,
+"peent, peent," from the sky, followed by a twittering, that
+Quonab told him was the love song of the swamp bird -- the big
+snipe, with the fantail and long, soft bill, and eyes like a
+deer.
+
+  "Do you mean the woodcock?"   "Ugh, that's the name;
+Pah-dash-ka-anja we call it."
+
+The waning of the moon brought new songsters, with many a
+nightingale among them.  A low bush near the plain was vocal
+during the full moon with the sweet but disconnected music of the
+yellow-breasted chat.  The forest rang again and again with a
+wild, torrential strain of music that seemed to come from the
+stars.  It sent peculiar thrill into Rolf's heart, and gave him a
+lump his throat as he listened.
+
+"What is that, Quonab?"
+
+"The Indian shook his head.  Then, later, when it ended, he said:
+"That is the mystery song of some one I never saw him."
+
+There was a long silence, then the lad began, "There's no good
+hunting here now, Quonab.  Why don't you go to the north woods,
+where deer are plentiful?"
+
+The Indian gave a short shake of his head, and then to prevent
+further talk, "Put up your dew cloth; the sea wind blows
+to-night."
+
+He finished; both stood for a moment gazing into the fire.  Then
+Rolf felt something wet and cold thrust into his hand.  It was
+Skookum's nose.  At last the little dog had made up his mind to
+accept the white boy as a friend.
+
+
+
+
+Rolf Works Out with Many Results
+
+
+He is the dumbest kind of a dumb fool that ain't king in
+some little corner. -- Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+
+
+The man who has wronged you will never forgive you,
+and he who has helped you will be forever grateful.
+Yes, there is nothing that draws you to a man so much
+as the knowledge that you have helped him.
+
+
+Quonab helped Rolf, and so was more drawn to him
+than to many of the neighbours that he had known for
+years; he was ready to like him.  Their coming together
+was accidental, but it was soon very clear that a friendship
+was springing up between them.  Rolf was too much
+of a child to think about the remote future; and so was
+Quonab.  Most Indians are merely tall children.
+
+But there was one thing that Rolf did think of -- he
+had no right to live in Quonab's lodge without contributing
+a fair share of the things needful.  Quonab got his living
+partly by hunting, partly by fishing, partly by selling
+baskets, and partly by doing odd jobs for the neighbours.
+Rolf's training as a loafer had been wholly neglected, and
+when he realized that he might be all summer with Quonab
+he said bluntly:
+
+"You let me stay here a couple of months.  I'll work
+out odd days, and buy enough stuff to keep myself any
+way."  Quonab said nothing, but their eyes met, and the
+boy knew it was agreed to.
+
+Rolf went that very day to the farm of Obadiah Timpany,
+and offered to work by the day, hoeing corn and root
+crops.  What farmer is not glad of help in planting time
+or in harvest?  It was only a question of what did he know
+and how much did he want?  The first was soon made
+clear; two dollars a week was the usual thing for boys in
+those times, and when he offered to take it half in trade,
+he was really getting three dollars a week and his board.
+Food was as low as wages, and at the end of a week, Rolf
+brought back to camp a sack of oatmeal, a sack of cornmeal,
+a bushel of potatoes, a lot of apples, and one dollar
+cash.  The dollar went for tea and sugar, and the total
+product was enough to last them both a month; so Rolf
+could share the wigwam with a good conscience.
+
+Of course, it was impossible to keep the gossipy little
+town of Myanos from knowing, first, that the Indian had
+a white boy for partner; and, later, that that boy was Rolf.
+This gave rise to great diversity of opinion in the
+neighbourhood.  Some thought it should not be allowed, but
+Horton,
+who owned the land on which Quonab was camped, could
+not see any reason for interfering.
+
+Ketchura Peck, spinster, however, did see many most
+excellent reasons.  She was a maid with a mission, and
+maintained it to be an outrage that a Christian boy should
+be brought up by a godless pagan.  She worried over it
+almost as much as she did over the heathen in Central
+Africa, where there are no Sunday schools, and clothes
+are as scarce as churches.  Failing to move Parson Peck
+and Elder Knapp in the matter, and despairing of an early
+answer to her personal prayers, she resolved on a bold move,
+"An' it was only after many a sleepless, prayerful night,"
+namely, to carry the Bible into the heathen's stronghold.
+
+Thus it was that one bright morning in June she might
+have been seen, prim and proper -- almost glorified, she
+felt, as she set her lips just right in the mirror -- making
+for the Pipestave Pond, Bible in hand and spectacles clean
+wiped, ready to read appropriate selections to the unregenerate.
+
+She was full of the missionary spirit when she left Myanos,
+and partly full when she reached the Orchard Street Trail;
+but the spirit was leaking badly, and the woods did appear
+so wild and lonely that she wondered if women had any
+right to be missionaries.  When she came in sight of the
+pond, the place seemed unpleasantly different from Myanos
+and where was the Indian camp?   She did not dare to
+shout; indeed, she began to wish she were home again,
+but the sense of duty carried her fully fifty yards along the
+pond, and then she came to an impassable rock, a sheer
+bank that plainly said, "Stop!"  Now she must go back
+or up the bank.  Her Yankee pertinacity said, "Try first
+up the bank," and she began a long, toilsome ascent,
+that did not end until she came out on a bigh, open rock
+which, on its farther side, had a sheer drop and gave a
+view of the village and of the sea.
+
+Whatever joy she had on again seeing her bome was
+speedily queued in the fearsome discovery that she was
+right over the Indian camp, and the two inmates looked so
+utterly, dreadfully savage that she was thankful they had
+not seen her.  At once she shrank back; but on recovering
+sufficiently to again peer down, she saw something roasting
+before the fire -- "a tiny arm with a hand that bore
+five fmgers," as she afterward said, and "a sickening
+horror came over her.  " Yes, she had heard of such things.
+If she could only get home in safety!  Why had she
+tempted Providence thus?  She backed softly and prayed
+only to escape.  What, and never even deliver the Bible?
+"It would be wicked to return with it!"  In a cleft of
+the rock she placed it, and then, to prevent the wind
+blowing off loose leaves, she placed a stone on top, and
+fled from the dreadful place.
+
+That night, when Quonab and Rolf had finished their
+meal of corn and roasted coon, the old man climbed the
+rock to look at the sky.  The book caught his eye at once,
+evidently hidden there carefully, and therefore in cache.
+A cache is a sacred thing to an Indian.  He disturbed it
+not, but later asked Rolf, "That yours?"
+
+"No."
+
+It was doubtless the property of some one who meant
+to return for it, so they left it untouched.  It rested
+there for many months, till the winter storms came down,
+dismantling the covers, dissolving the pages, but leaving
+such traces as, in the long afterward, served to identify
+the book and give the rock the other name, the one it
+bears to-day - "Bible Rock, where Quonab, the son of
+Cos Cob, used to live."
+
+
+
+The Law of Property Among Our Four-Footed Kin
+
+Night came down on the Asamuk woods, and the two in the wigwam
+were eating their supper of pork, beans, and tea, for the Indian
+did not, by any means object to the white man's luxuries, when a
+strange "yap-yurr" was heard out toward the plain. The dog was up
+at once with a growl.  Rolf looked inquiringly, and Quonab said,
+"Fox," then bade the dog be still.
+
+"Yap-yurr, yap-yurr," and then, "yurr, yeow," it came again and
+again.  "Can we get him?" said the eager young hunter.  The
+Indian shook his head.
+
+"Fur no good now.  An' that's a she-one, with young ones on the
+hillside."
+
+"How do you know?" was the amazed inquiry. "I know it's a
+she-one, 'cause she says:
+
+"Yap-yurr" (high pitched)
+
+If it was a he-one he'd say:
+
+"Yap-yurr" (low pitched)
+
+"And she has cubs, 'cause all have at this season.  And they are
+on that hillside, because that's the nearest place where any fox
+den is, and they keep pretty much to their own hunting grounds.
+If another fox should come hunting on the beat of this pair, he'd
+have to fight for it.  That is the way of the wild animals; each
+has his own run, and for that he will fight an outsider that he
+would be afraid of at any other place.  One knows he is right --
+that braces him up; the other knows he is wrong -- and that
+weakens him."  Those were the Indian's views, expressed much less
+connectedly than here given, and they led Rolf on to a train of
+thought.  He remembered a case that was much to the point.
+
+Their little dog Skookum several times had been worsted by the
+dog on the Horton farm, when, following his master, he had come
+into the house yard.  There was no question that the Horton dog
+was stronger.  But Skookum had buried a bone under some brushes
+by the plain and next day the hated Horton dog appeared.  Skookum
+watched him with suspicion and fear, until it was no longer
+doubtful that the enemy had smelled the hidden food and was going
+for it.  Then Skookum, braced up by some instinctive feeling,
+rushed forward with bristling mane and gleaming teeth, stood over
+his cache, and said in plainest dog, "You can't touch that while
+I live!"
+
+And the Horton dog -- accustomed to domineer over the small
+yellow cur -- growled contemptuously, scratched with his hind
+feet, smelled around an adjoining bush, and pretending not to see
+or notice, went off in another direction.
+
+What was it that robbed him of his courage, but the knowledge
+that he was in the wrong?
+
+Continuing with his host Rolf said, "Do you think they have any
+idea that it is wrong to steal?"
+
+"Yes, so long as it is one of their own tribe.  A fox will take
+all he can get from a bird or a rabbit or a woodchuck, but he
+won't go far on the hunting grounds of another fox.  He won't go
+into another fox's den or touch one of its young ones, and if he
+finds a cache of food with another fox's mark on it, he won't
+touch it unless he is near dead of hunger."
+
+"How do you mean they cache food and how do they mark it?"
+
+"Generally they bury it under the leaves and soft earth, and the
+only mark is to leave their body scent. But that is strong
+enough, and every fox knows it."
+
+"Do wolves make food caches?"
+
+"Yes, wolves, cougars, weasels, squirrels, bluejays, crows, owls,
+mice, all do, and all have their own way of marking a place."
+
+"Suppose a fox finds a wolf cache, will he steal from it?"
+
+"Yes, always.  There is no law between fox and wolf. They are
+always at war with each other.  There is law only between fox and
+fox, or wolf and wolf."
+
+"That is like ourselves, ain't it?  We say, 'Thou shalt not
+steal,' and then when we steal the Indian's land or the
+Frenchman's ships, we say, 'Oh, that don't mean not steal from
+our enemies; they are fair game.'"
+
+Quonab rose to throw some sticks on the fire, then went out to
+turn the smoke flap of the wigwam, for the wind was changed and
+another set was needed to draw the smoke. They heard several
+times again the high-pitched "yap yurr," and once the deeper
+notes, which told that the dog fox, too, was near the camp, and
+was doubtless seeking food to carry home.
+
+
+
+Where the Bow Is Better Than the Gun
+
+Of all popular errors about the Indians, the hardest to down is
+the idea that their women do all the work.  They do the
+housework, it is true, but all the heavy labour beyond their
+strength is done by the men.  Examples of this are seen in the
+frightful toil of hunting, canoeing, and portaging, besides a
+multitude of kindred small tasks, such as making snowshoes, bows,
+arrows, and canoes.
+
+Each warrior usually makes his own bow and arrows, and if, as
+often happens, one of them proves more skilful and turns out
+better weapons, it is a common thing for others to offer their
+own specialty in exchange.
+
+The advantages of the bow over the gun are chiefly its
+noiselessness, its cheapness, and the fact that one can make its
+ammunition anywhere.  As the gun chiefly used in Quonab's time
+was the old-fashioned, smooth-bore flint-lock, there was not much
+difference in the accuracy of the two weapons.  Quonab had always
+made a highclass bow, as well as high-class arrows, and was a
+high- class shot.  He could set up ten clam shells at ten paces
+and break all in ten shots.  For at least half of his hunting he
+preferred the bow; the gun was useful to him chiefly when flocks
+of wild pigeons or ducks were about, and a single charge of
+scattering shot might bring down a dozen birds.
+
+But there is a law in all shooting -- to be expert, you must
+practise continually -- and when Rolf saw his host shoot nearly
+every day at some mark, he tried to join in the sport.
+
+It took not many trys to show that the bow was far too strong for
+him to use, and Quonab was persuaded at length to make an outfit
+for his visitor.
+
+From the dry store hole under the rock, he produced a piece of
+common red cedar.  Some use hickory; it is less liable to break
+and will stand more abuse, but it has not the sharp, clean action
+of cedar.  The latter will send the arrow much farther, and so
+swiftly does it leave the string that it baffles the eye.  But
+the cedar bow must be cared for like a delicate machine;
+overstring it, and it breaks; twang it without an arrow, and it
+sunders the cords; scratch it, and it may splinter; wet it, and
+it is dead; let it lie on the ground, even, and it is weakened.
+But guard it and it will serve you as a matchless servant, and as
+can no other timber in these woods.
+
+Just where the red heart and the white sap woods join is the
+bowman's choice.  A piece that reached from Rolf's chin to the
+ground was shaved down till it was flat on the white side and
+round on the red side, tapering from the middle, where it was one
+inch wide and one inch thick to the ends, where it was three
+fourths of an inch wide and five eighths of an inch thick, the
+red and white wood equal in all parts.
+
+The string was made of sinew from the back of a cow, split from
+the long, broad sheath that lies on each side the spine, and the
+bow strung for trial.  Now, on drawing it (flat or white side in
+front), it was found that one arm bent more than the other, so a
+little more scraping was done on the strong side, till both bent
+alike.
+
+Quonab's arrows would answer, but Rolf needed a supply of his
+own.  Again there was great choice of material. The long,
+straight shoots ol' the arrowwood (Viburnuin dentatum) supplied
+the ancient Indians, but Quonab had adopted a better way, since
+the possession of an axe made it possible.  A 25-inch block of
+straight-grained ash was split and split until it yielded enough
+pieces.  These were shaved down to one fourth of an inch tbick,
+round, smooth, and perfectly straight.  Each was notched deeply
+at one end; three pieces of split goose feather were lashed on
+the notched end, and three different kinds of arrows were made.
+All were alike in shaft and in feathering, but differed in the
+head.  First, the target arrows: these were merely sharpened, and
+the points hardened by roasting to a brown colour.  They would
+have been better with conical points of steel, but none of these
+were to be had.  Second, the ordinary hunting arrows with barbed
+steel heads, usuauy bought ready-made, or filed out of a hoop:
+these were for use in securing such creatures as muskrats, ducks
+close at hand, or deer.  Third, the bird bolts: these were left
+with a large, round, wooden head.  They were intended for quail,
+partridges, rabbits, and squirrels, but also served very often,
+and most admirably, in punishing dogs, either the Indian's own
+when he was not living up to the rules and was too far off for a
+cuff or kick, or a farmer's dog that was threatening an attack.
+
+Now the outfit was complete, Rolf thought, but one other touch
+was necessary.  Quonab painted the feather part of the shaft
+bright red, and Rolf learned why.  Not for ornament, not as an
+owner's mark, but as a finding mark.  Many a time that brilliant
+red, with the white feather next it, was the means of saving the
+arrow from loss.  An uncoloured arrow among the sticks and leaves
+of the woods was usually hidden, but the bright-coloured shaft
+could catch the eye ioo yards away.
+
+It was very necessary to keep the bow and arrows from the wet.
+For this, every hunter provides a case, usually of buckskin, but
+failing that they made a good quiver of birch bark laced with
+spruce roots for the arrows, and for the bow itself a long cover
+of tarpaulin.
+
+Now came the slow drilling in archery; the arrow held and the bow
+drawn with three fingers on the cord - the thumb and little
+finger doing nothing.  The target was a bag of hay set at twenty
+feet, until the beginner could hit it every time: then by degrees
+it was moved away until at the standard distance of forty yards
+he could do fair shooting, although of course he never shot as
+well as the Indian, who had practised since he was a baby.
+
+There are three different kinds of archery tests: the first for
+aim: Can you shoot so truly as to hit a three-inch mark, ten
+times in succession, at ten paces?
+
+Next for speed: Can you shoot so quickly and so far up, as to
+have five arrows in the air at once?  If so, you are good: Can
+you keep up six?  Then you are very good.  Seven is wonderful.
+The record is said to be eight. Last for power: Can you pull so
+strong a bow and let the arrow go so clean that it will fly for
+250 yards or will pass through a deer at ten paces?  There is a
+record of a Sioux who sent an arrow through three antelopes at
+one shot, and it was not unusual to pierce the huge buffalo
+through and through; on one occasion a warrior with one shot
+pierced the buffalo and killed her calf running at the other
+side.
+
+If you excel in these three things, you can down your partridge
+and squirrel every time; you can get five or six out of each
+flock of birds; you can kill your deer at twenty- five yards, and
+so need never starve in the woods where there is game.
+
+Of course, Rolf was keen to go forth and try in the real chase,
+but it was many a shot he missed and many an arrow lost or
+broken, before he brought in even a red squirrel, and he got, at
+least, a higher appreciation of the skill of those who could
+count on the bow for their food.
+
+For those, then, who think themselves hunters and woodmen,
+let this be a test and standard: Can you go forth alone into
+the wilderness where there is game, take only a bow and arrows for
+weapons, and travel afoot 250 miles, living on the country as you go?
+
+
+
+The Thunder-storm and the Fire Sticks
+
+When first Rolf noticed the wigwam's place, he wondered that
+Quonab had not set it somewhere facing the lake, but he soon
+learned that it is best to have the morning sun, the afternoon
+shade, and shelter from the north and west winds.
+
+The first two points were illustrated nearly every day; but it
+was two weeks before the last was made clear.
+
+That day the sun came up in a red sky, but soon was lost to view
+in a heavy cloud-bank.  There was no wind, and, as the morning
+passed, the day grew hotter and closer.  Quonab prepared for a
+storm; but it came with unexpected force, and a gale of wind from
+the northwest that would indeed have wrecked the lodge, but for
+the great sheltering rock.  Under its lea there was hardy a
+breeze; but not fifty yards away were two trees that rubbed
+together, and in the storm they rasped so violently that fine
+shreds of smoking wood were dropped and, but for the rain, would
+surely have made a blaze. The thunder was loud and lasted long,
+and the water poured down in torrents.  They were ready for rain,
+but not for the flood that rushed over the face of the cliff ,
+soaking everything in the lodge except the beds, which, being
+four inches off the ground, were safe; and lying on them the two
+campers waited patiently, or impatiently, while the weather raged
+for two drenching hours.  And then the pouring became a
+pattering; the roaring, a swishing; the storm, a shower which
+died away, leaving changing patches of blue in the lumpy sky, and
+all nature calm and pleased, but oh, so wet!  Of course the fire
+was out in the lodge and nearly all the wood was wet.  Now Quonab
+drew from a small cave some dry cedar and got down his tinder-box
+with flint and steel to light up; but a serious difficulty
+appeared at once -- the tinder was wet and useless.
+
+These were the days before matches were invented. Every one counted
+on flint and steel for their fire, but the tinder was an essential,
+and now a fire seemed hopeless; at least Rolf thought so.
+
+"Nana Bojou was dancing that time," said the Indian.
+
+"Did you see him make fire with those two rubbing trees? So he
+taught our fathers, and so make we fire when the tricks of the
+white man fail us."
+
+Quonab now cut two pieces of dry cedar, one three fourths of an
+inch thick and eighteen inches long, round, and pointed at both
+ends; the other five eighths of an inch thick and flat.  In the
+flat one he cut a notch and at the end of the notch a little pit.
+Next he made a bow of a stiff, curved stick, and a buckskin
+thong: a small pine knot was selected and a little pit made in it
+with the point of a knife.  These were the fare-making sticks,
+but it was necessary to prepare the firewood, lay the fire, and
+make some fibre for tinder.  A lot of fine cedar shavings,
+pounded up with cedar bark and rolled into a two-inch ball, made
+good tinder, and all was ready.  Quonab put the bow thong once
+around the long stick, then held its point in the pit of the flat
+stick, and the pine knot on the. top to steady it.  Now he drew
+the bow back and forth, slowly, steadily, till the long stick or
+drill revolving ground smoking black dust out of the notch.  Then
+faster, until the smoke was very strong and the powder filled the
+notch.  Then he lifted the flat stick, fanning the powder with
+his hands till a glowing coal appeared.  Over this he put the
+cedar tinder and blew gently, till it flamed, and soon the wigwam
+was aglow.
+
+The whole time taken, from lifting the sticks to the blazing
+fire, was less than one minute.
+
+This is the ancient way of the Indian; Rolf had often heard of it
+as a sort of semi-myth; never before had he seen it, and so far
+as he could learn from the books, it took an hour or two of hard
+work, not a few deft touches and a few seconds of time.
+
+He soon learned to do it himself, and in the years which
+followed, he had the curious experience of showing it to many
+Indians who had forgotten how, thanks to the greater portability
+of the white man's flint and steel.
+
+As they walked in the woods that day, they saw three trees that
+had been struck by lightning during the recent storm; all three
+were oaks.  Then it occurred to Rolf that he had never seen any
+but an oak struck by lightning.
+
+"Is it so, Quonab?"
+
+"No, there are many others; the lightning strikes the oaks most
+of all, but it will strike the pine, the ash, the hemlock, the
+basswood, and many more.  Only two trees have I never seen
+struck, the balsam and the birch."
+
+"Why do they escape?"
+
+"My father told me when I was a little boy it was because they
+sheltered and warmed the Star-girl, who was the sister of the
+Thunder-bird."
+
+"I never heard that; tell me about it."
+
+"Sometime maybe, not now."
+
+
+
+Hunting the Woodchucks
+
+Cornmeal and potatoes, with tea and apples, three times a day,
+are apt to lose their charm. Even fish did not entirely satisfy
+the craving for flesh meat.  So Quonab and Rolf set out one
+morning on a regular hunt for food.  The days of big game were
+over on the Asamuk, but there were still many small kinds and
+none more abundant than the woodchuck, hated of farmers.  Not
+without reason.  Each woodchuck hole in the field was a menace to
+the horses' legs.  Tradition, at least, said that horses' legs
+and riders' necks had been broken by the steed setting foot in
+one of these dangerous pitfalls: besides which, each chuck den
+was the hub centre of an area of desolation whenever located, as
+mostly it was, in the cultivated fields.  Undoubtedly the damage
+was greatly exaggerated, but the farmers generally agreed that
+the woodchuck was a pest.
+
+Whatever resentment the tiller of the soil might feel against the
+Indian's hunting quail on his land, he always welcomed him as a
+killer of woodchucks.
+
+And the Indian looked on this animal as fair game and most
+excellent eating.
+
+Rolf watched eagerly when Quonab, taking his bow and arrows, said
+they were going out for a meat hunt. Although there were several
+fields with woodchucks resident, they passed cautiously from one
+to another, scanning the green expanse for the dark-brown spots
+that meant woodchucks out foraging.  At length they found one,
+with a large and two small moving brown things among the clover.
+The large one stood up on its hind legs from time to time, ever
+alert for danger.  It was a broad, open field, without cover; but
+close to the cleared place in which, doubtless, was the den,
+there was a ridge that Quonab judged would help him to approach.
+
+Rolf was instructed to stay in hiding and make some Indian signs
+that the hunter could follow when he should lose sight of the
+prey.  First, "Come on" (beckoning); and, second, "Stop," (hand
+raised, palm forward); "All right" (hand drawn across level and
+waist high); forefinger moved forward, level, then curved
+straight down, meant "gone in hole." But Rolf was not to sign
+anything or move, unless Quonab asked him by making the question
+sign (that is waving his hand with palm forward and spread
+fingers).
+
+Quonab went back into the woods, then behind the stone walls to
+get around to the side next the ridge, and crawling so flat on
+his breast in the clover that, although it was but a foot high,
+he was quite invisible to any one not placed much above him.
+
+In this way he came to the little ridge back of the woodchuck
+den, quite unknown to its occupants.  But now he was in a
+difficulty.  He could not see any of them.
+
+They were certainly beyond range of his bow, and it was difficult
+to make them seek the den without their rushing into it.  But he
+was equal to the occasion.  He raised one hand and made the query
+sign, and watching Rolf he got answer, "All well; they are there."
+(A level sweep of the flat hand and a finger pointing steadily.)
+Then he waited a few seconds and made exactly the same sign,
+getting the same answer.
+
+He knew that the movement of the distant man would catch the eye
+of the old woodchuck; she would sit up high to see what it was,
+and when it came a second time she would, without being exactly
+alarmed, move toward the den and call the young ones to follow.
+
+The hunter had not long to wait.  He heard her shrill, warning
+whistle, then the big chuck trotted and waddled into sight,
+stopping occasionally to nibble or look around. Close behind her
+were the two fat cubs.  Arrived near the den their confidence was
+restored, and again they began to feed, the young ones close to
+the den.  Then Quonab put a blunt bird dart in his bow and laid
+two others ready.  Rising as little as possible, he drew the bow.
+'Tsip! the blunt arrow hit the young chuck on the nose and turned
+him over.  The other jumped in surprise and stood up.  So did the
+mother.  'Tsip! another bolt and the second chuck was kicking.
+But the old one dashed like a flash into the underground safety
+of her den.  Quonab knew that she had seen nothing of him and
+would likely come forth very soon.  He waited for some time; then
+the gray-brown muzzle of the fat old clover-stealer came partly
+to view; but it was not enough for a shot, and she seemed to have
+no idea of coming farther.  The Indian waited what seemed like a
+long time, then played an ancient trick.  He began to whistle a
+soft, low air.  Whether the chuck thinks it is another woodchuck
+calling, or merely a pleasant sound, is not known, but she soon
+did as her kind always does, came out of the hole slowly and ever
+higher, till she was half out and sitting up, peering about.
+
+This was Quonab's chance.  He now drew a barbed hunting arrow to
+the head and aimed it behind her shoulders. 'Tsip! and the chuck
+was transfixed by a shaft that ended her life a minute later, and
+immediately pre- vented that instinctive scramble into the hole,
+by which so many chucks elude the hunter, even when mortally
+wounded.
+
+Now Quonab stood up without further concealment, and beckoned to
+Rolf, who came running.  Three fat woodchucks meant abundance of
+the finest fresh meat for a week; and those who have not tried it
+have no idea what a delicacy is a young, fat, clover-fed
+woodchuck, pan-roasted, with potatoes, and served at a blazing
+campfire to a hunter who is young, strong, and exceedingly hungry.
+
+
+
+The Fight with the Demon of the Deep
+
+One morning, as they passed the trail that skirts the pond,
+Quonab pointed to the near water. There was someting afloat like
+a small, round leaf, with two beads well apart, on it.  Then Rolf
+noticed, two feet away, a larger floating leaf, and now he knew
+that the first was the head and eyes, the last the back, of a
+huge snapping turtle.  A moment more and it quickly sank from
+view.  Turtles of three different kinds were common, and snappers
+were well known to Rolf; but never before had he seen such a huge
+and sinister-looking monster of the deep.
+
+"That is Bosikado.  I know him; he knows me," said the red man.
+"There has long been war between us; some day we will settle it.
+I saw him here first three years ago.  I had shot a duck; it
+floated on the water.  Before I could get to it something pulled
+it under, and that was the last of it.  Then a summer duck came
+with young ones. One by one he took them, and at last got her.
+He drives all ducks away, so I set many night lines for him.  I
+got some little snappers, eight and ten pounds each.  They were
+good to eat, and three times already I took Bosikado on the
+hooks, but each time when I pulled him up to the canoe, he broke
+my biggest line and went down.  He was as broad as the canoe; his
+claws broke through the canoe skin; he made it bulge and tremble.
+He looked like the devil of the lake.  I was afraid!
+
+"But my father taught me there is only one thing that can shame a
+man -- that is to be afraid, and I said I will never let fear be
+my guide.  I will seek a fair fight with Bosikado.  He is my
+enemy.  He made me afraid once; I will make him much afraid.  For
+three years we have been watching each other.  For three years he
+has kept all summer ducks away, and robbed my fish-lines, my
+nets, and my muskrat traps.  Not often do I see him -- mostly
+like today.
+
+"Before Skookum I had a little dog, Nindai.  He was a good little
+dog.  He could tree a coon, catch a rabbit, or bring out a duck,
+although he was very small.  We were very good friends.  One time
+I shot a duck; it fell into the lake; I called Nindai.  He jumped
+into the water and swam to the duck.  Then that duck that I
+thought dead got up and flew away, so I called Nindai.  He came
+across the water to me.  By and by, over that deep place, he
+howled and splashed.  Then he yelled, like he wanted me. I ran
+for the canoe and paddled quick; I saw my little dog Nindai go
+down.  Then I knew it was that Bosikado again.  I worked a long
+time with a pole, but found nothing; only five days later one of
+Nindai's paws floated down the stream.  Some day I will tear open
+that Bosikado!
+
+"Once I saw him on the bank.  He rolled down like a big stone to
+the water.  He looked at me before he dived, and as we looked in
+each other's eyes I knew he was a Manito; but he is evil, and my
+father said, 'When an evil Manito comes to trouble you, you must
+kill him.'
+
+"One day, when I swam after a dead duck, he took me by the toe,
+but I reached shallow water and escaped him; and once I drove my
+fish-spear in his back, but it was not strong enough to hold him.
+Once he caught Skookum's tail, but the hair came out; the dog has
+not since swum across the pond.
+
+"Twice I have seen him like today and might have killed him with
+the gun, but I want to meet him fighting. Many a time I have sat
+on the bank and sung to him the 'Coward's Song,' and dared him to
+come and fight in the shallow water where we are equals.  He
+hears me.  He does not come.
+
+"I know he made me sick last winter; even now he is making
+trouble with his evil magic.  But my magic must prevail, and some
+day we shall meet.  He made me afraid once.  I uill make him much
+afraid, and will meet him in the water."
+
+Not many days were to pass before the meeting.  Rolf had gone for
+water at the well, which was a hole dug ten feet from the shore
+of the lake.  He had learned the hunter's cautious trick of going
+silently and peering about, before he left cover.  On a mud bank
+in a shallow bay, some fifty yards off, he described a peculiar
+gray and greenish form that he slowly made out to be a huge
+turtle, sunning itself.  The more he looked and gauged it with
+things about, the bigger it seemed.  So he slunk back quickly and
+silently to Quonab.  "He is out sunning himself -- Bosikado -- on
+the bank!"
+
+The Indian rose quickly, took his tomahawk and a strong line.
+Rolf reached for the gun, but Quonab shook his head.  They went
+to the lake.  Yes!  There was the great, goggle-eyed monster,
+like a mud-coloured log.  The bank behind him was without cover.
+It would be impossible to approach the watchful creature within
+striking distance before he could dive.  Quonab would not use the
+gun; in this case he felt he must atone by making an equal fight.
+He quickly formed a plan; he fastened the tomahawk and the coiled
+rope to his belt, then boldly and silently slipped into the lake,
+to approach the snapper from the water side -- quite the easiest
+in this case, not only because the snapper would naturally watch
+on the land side, but because there was a thick clump of rushes
+behind which the swimmer could approach.
+
+Then, as instructed, Rolf went back into the woods, and came
+silently to a place whence he could watch the snapper from a
+distance of twenty yards.
+
+The boy's heart beat fast as he watched the bold swimmer and the
+savage reptile.  There could be little doubt that the creature
+weighed a hundred pounds.  It is the strongest for its size and
+the fiercest of all reptiles.  Its jaws, though toothless, have
+cutting edges, a sharp beak, and power to the crushing of bones.
+Its armour makes it invulnerable to birds and beasts of prey.
+Like a log it lay on the beach, with its long alligator tail
+stretched up the bank and its serpentine head and tiny wicked
+eyes vigilantly watching the shore.  Its shell, broad and
+ancient, was fringed with green moss, and its scaly armpits
+exposed, were decked with leeches, at which a couple of peetweets
+pecked with eager interest, apparently to the monster's
+satisfaction.  Its huge limbs and claws were in marked contrast
+to the small, red eyes.  But the latter it was that gave the
+thrill of unnervement.
+
+Sunk down nearly out of sight, the Indian slowly reached the
+reeds.  Here he found bottom, and pausing, he took the rope in
+one hand, the tomahawk in the other, and dived, and when he
+reappeared he was within ten yards of the enemy, and in water but
+four feet deep.
+
+With a sudden rush the reptile splashed into the pond and out of
+sight, avoiding the rope noose.  But Quonab clutched deep in the
+water as it passed, and seized the monster's rugged tail.  Then
+it showed its strength.  In a twinkling that mighty tail was
+swung sidewise, crushing the hand with terrible force against the
+sharp-edged points of the back armour.  It took all the Indian's
+grit to hold on to that knife-edged war club.  He dropped his
+tomahawk, then with his other hand swung the rope to catch the
+turtle's head, but it lurched so quickly that the rope missed
+again, slipped over the shell, and, as they struggled, encircled
+one huge paw.  The Indian jerked it tight, and they were bound
+together.  But now his only weapon was down at the bottom and the
+water all muddied.  He could not see, but plunged to grope for
+the tomahawk. The snapper gave a great lurch to escape, releasing
+the injured hand, but jerking the man off his legs.  Then,
+finding itself held by a forepaw, it turned with gaping, hissing
+jaws, and sprang on the foe that struggled in bottom of the
+water.
+
+The snapper has the bulldog habit to seize and hold till the
+piece tears out.  In the muddy water it had to seize in the dark,
+and fending first the left arm of its foe, fastened on with
+fierce beak and desperate strength.  At this moment Quonab
+recovered his tomahawk; rising into the air he dragged up the
+hanging snapper, and swung the weapon with all the force of his
+free arm.  The blow sank through the monster's shell, deep into
+its back, without any visible effect, except to rob the Indian of
+his weapon as he could not draw it out.
+
+Then Rolf rushed into the water to help.  But Quonab gasped, "No,
+no, go back -- I'm alone."
+
+The creature's jaws were locked on his arm, but its front claws,
+tearing downward and outward, were demolishing the coat that had
+protected it, and long lines of mingled blood were floating on
+the waves.
+
+After a desperate plunge toward shallow water, Quonab gave
+another wrench to the tomahawk - it moved, loosed; another, and
+it was free.  Then "chop, chop, chop," and that long, serpentine
+neck was severed; the body, waving its great scaly legs and
+lashing its alligator tail, went swimming downward, but the huge
+head, blinking its bleary, red eyes and streaming with blood, was
+clinched on his arm.  The Indian made for the bank hauling the
+rope that held the living body, and fastened it to a tree, then
+drew his knife to cut the jaw muscles of the head that ground its
+beak into his flesh.  But the muscles were protected by armour
+plates and bone; he could not deal a stab to end their power.  In
+vain he fumbled and slashed, until in a spasmodic quiver the jaws
+gaped wide and the bloody head fell to the ground.  Again it
+snapped, but a tree branch bore the brunt; on this the strong
+jaws clinched, and so remained.
+
+For over an hour the headless body crawled, or tried to crawl,
+always toward the lake.  And now they could look at the enemy.
+Not his size so much as his weight surprised them.  Although
+barely four feet long, he was so heavy that Rolf could not lift
+him.  Quonab's scratches were many but slight; only the deep bill
+wound made his arm and the bruises of the jaws were at all
+serious and of these he made light.  Headed by Skookum in full
+'yap,' they carried the victim's body to camp; the head, still
+dutching the stick, was decorated with three feathers, then set
+on a pole near the wigwam.  And the burden of the red man's song
+when next he sang was:
+
+"Bosikado, mine enemy was mighty, But I went into his country And
+made him afraid!"
+
+
+
+Selectman Horton Appears at the Rock
+
+Summer was at its height on the Asamuk.  The woodthrush was
+nearing the end of its song; a vast concourse of young robins in
+their speckled plumage joined chattering every night in the
+thickest cedars; and one or two broods of young ducks were seen
+on the Pipestave Pond.
+
+Rolf had grown wonderfully well into his wigwam life. He knew now
+exactly how to set the flap so as to draw out all the smoke, no
+matter which way the wind blew; he had learned the sunset signs,
+which tell what change of wind the night might bring.  He knew
+without going to the shore whether the tide was a little ebb,
+with poor chances, or a mighty outflow that would expose the
+fattest oyster beds.  His practiced fingers told at a touch
+whether it was a turtle or a big fish on his night line; and by
+the tone of the tom-tom he knew when a rainstorm was at hand.
+
+Being trained in industry, he had made many improvements in their
+camp, not the least of which was to clean up and burn all the
+rubbish and garbage that attracted hordes of flies.  He had
+fitted into the camp partly by changing it to fit himself, and he
+no longer felt that his stay there was a temporary shift.  When
+it was to end, he neither knew nor cared.  He realized only that
+he was enjoying life as he never had done before.  His canoe had
+passed a lot of rapids and was now in a steady, unbroken stream
+-- but it was the swift shoot before the fall. A lull in the
+clamour does not mean the end of war, but a new onset preparing;
+and, of course, it came in the way least looked for.
+
+Selectman Horton stood well with the community; he was a man of
+good judgment, good position, and kind heart.  He was owner of
+all the woods along the Asamuk, and thus the Indian's landlord on
+the Indian's ancestral land.  Both Rolf and Quonab had worked for
+Horton, and so they knew him well, and liked him for his
+goodness.
+
+It was Wednesday morning, late in July, when Selectman Horton,
+clean-shaven and large, appeared at the wigwam under the rock.
+
+"Good morrow to ye both!" Then without wasting time he plunged
+in.  "There's been some controversy and much criticism of the
+selectmen for allowing a white lad, the child of Christian
+parents, the grandson of a clergyman, to leave all Christian folk
+and folds, and herd with a pagan, to become, as it were, a mere
+barbarian.  I hold not, indeed, with those that out of hand would
+condemn as godless a good fellow like Quonab, who, in my certain
+knowledge and according to his poor light, doth indeed maintain
+in some kind a daily worship of a sort.  Nevertheless, the
+selectmen, the magistrates, the clergy, the people generally, and
+above all the Missionary Society, are deeply moved in the matter.
+It hath even been made a personal charge against myself, and with
+much bitterness I am held up as unzealous for allowing such a
+nefarious stronghold of Satan to continue on mine own demesne,
+and harbour one, escaped, as it were, from grace.  Acting,
+therefore, not according to my heart, but as spokesman of the
+Town Council, the Synod of Elders, and the Society for the
+Promulgation of Godliness among the Heathen, I am to state that
+you, Rolf Kittering, being without kinsfolk and under age, are in
+verity a ward of the parish, and as such, it hath been arranged
+that you become a member of the household of the most worthy
+Elder Ezekiel Peck, a household filled with the spirit of
+estimable piety and true doctrine; a man, indeed, who,
+notwithstanding his exterior coldness and severity, is very sound
+in all matters regarding the Communion of Saints, and, I may even
+say in a measure a man of fame for some most excellent remarks he
+hath passed on the shorter catechism, beside which he hath gained
+much approval for having pointed out two hidden meanings in the
+27th verse of the 12th chapter of Hebrews; one whose very
+presence, therefore, is a guarantee against levity, laxity, and
+false preachment.
+
+"There, now, my good lad, look not so like a colt that feels the
+whip for the first time.  You will have a good home, imbued with
+the spirit of a most excellent piety that will be ever about
+you."
+
+"Like a colt feeling the whip," indeed!  Rolf reeled like a
+stricken deer.  To go back as a chore-boy drudge was possible,
+but not alluring; to leave Quonab, just as the wood world was
+opening to him, was devastating; but to exchange it all for
+bondage in the pious household of Old Peck, whose cold cruelty
+had driven off all his own children, was an accumulation of
+disasters that aroused him.
+
+"I won't go!" he blurted out, and gazed defiantly at the broad
+and benevolent selectman.
+
+"Come now, Rolf, such language is unbecoming.  Let not a hasty
+tongue betray you into sin.  This is what your mother would have
+wished.  Be sensible; you will soon find it was all for the best.
+I have ever liked you, and will ever be a friend you can count
+on.
+
+"Acting, not according to my instructions, but according to my
+heart, I will say further that you need not come now, you need
+not even give answer now, but think it over.  Nevertheless,
+remember that on or before Monday morning next, you will be
+expected to appear at Elder Peck's, and I fear that, in case you
+fail, the messenger next arriving will be one much less friendly
+than myself. Come now, Rolf, be a good lad, and remember that in
+your new home you will at least be living for the glory of God."
+
+Then, with a friendly nod, but an expression of sorrow, the
+large, black messenger turned and tramped away.
+
+Rolf slowly, limply, sank down on a rock and stared at the fire.
+After awhile Quonab got up and began to prepare the mid-day meal.
+Usually Rolf helped him.  Now he did nothing but sullenly glare
+at the glowing coals.  In half an hour the food was ready.  He
+ate little; then went away in the woods by himself.  Quonab saw
+him lying on a flat rock, looking at the pond, and throwing
+pebbles into it.  Later Quonab went to Myanos.  On his return he
+found that Rolf had cut up a great pile of wood, but not a word
+passed between them.  The look of sullen anger and rebellion on
+Rolf's face was changing to one of stony despair.  What was
+passing in each mind the other could not divine.
+
+The evening meal was eaten in silence; then Quonab smoked for an
+hour, both staring into the fire.  A barred owl hooted and
+laughed over their heads, causing the dog to jump up and bark at
+the sound that ordinarily he would have heeded not at all.  Then
+silence was restored, and the red man's hidden train of thought
+was in a flash revealed.
+
+"Rolf, let's go to the North Woods!"
+
+It was another astounding idea.  Rolf had realized more and more
+how much this valley meant to Quonab, who worshipped the memory
+of his people.
+
+"And leave all this?" he replied, making a sweep with his hand
+toward the rock, the Indian trail, the site of bygone Petuquapen,
+and the graves of the tribe.
+
+For reply their eyes met, and from the Indian's deep chest came
+the single word, "Ugh."  One syllable, deep and descending, but
+what a tale it told of the slowly engendered and strong-grown
+partiality, of a struggle that had continued since the morning
+when the selectman came with words of doom, and of friendship's
+victory won.
+
+Rolf realized this, and it gave him a momentary choking in his
+throat, and, "I'm ready if you really mean it."
+
+"Ugh I go, but some day come back."
+
+There was a long silence, then Rolf, "When shall we start?" and
+the answer, "To-morrow night,"
+
+
+
+Bound for the North Woods
+
+When Quonab left camp in the morning he went heavy laden, and the
+trail he took led to Myanos. There was nothing surprising in it
+when he appeared at Silas Peck's counter and offered for sale a
+pair of snowshoes, a bundle of traps, some dishes of birch bark
+and basswood, and a tom-tom, receiving in exchange some tea,
+tobacco, gunpowder, and two dollars in cash. He turned without
+comment, and soon was back in camp. He now took the kettle into
+the woods and brought it back filled with bark, fresh chipped
+from a butternut tree.  Water was added, and the whole boiled
+till it made a deep brown liquid.  When this was cooled he poured
+it into a flat dish, then said to Rolf: "Come now, I make you a
+Sinawa."
+
+With a soft rag the colour was laid on.  Face, head, neck, and
+hands were all at first intended, but Rolf said, "May as well do
+the whole thing." So he stripped off; the yellow brown juice on
+his white skin turned it a rich copper colour, and he was changed
+into an Indian lad that none would have taken for Rolf Kittering.
+The stains soon dried, and Rolf, re-clothed, felt that already he
+had burned a bridge.
+
+Two portions of the wigwam cover were taken off; and two packs
+were made of the bedding.  The tomahawk, bows, arrows, and gun,
+with the few precious food pounds in the copper pot, were divided
+between them and arranged into packs with shoulder straps; then
+all was ready. But there was one thing more for Quonab; he went
+up alone to the rock.  Rolf knew what he went for, and judged it
+best not to follow.
+
+The Indian lighted his pipe, blew the four smokes to the four
+winds, beginning with the west, then he sat in silence for a
+time.  Presently the prayer for good hunting came from the rock:
+
+"Father lead us!
+Father, help us!
+Father, guide us to the good hunting."
+
+And when that ceased a barred owl hooted in the woods,
+away to the north.
+
+"Ugh! good," was all he said as he rejoined Rolf; and they set
+out, as the sun went down, on their long journey due northward,
+Quonab, Rolf, and Skookum.  They had not gone a hundred yards
+before the dog turned back, raced to a place where he had a bone
+in cache and rejoining there trotted along with his bone.
+
+The high road would have been the easier travelling, but it was
+very necessary to be unobserved, so they took the trail up the
+brook Asamuk, and after an hour's tramp came out by the Cat-Rock
+road that runs westerly.  Again they were tempted by the easy
+path, but again Quonab decided on keeping to the woods.  Half an
+hour later they were halted by Skookum treeing a coon.  After
+they had secured the dog, they tramped on through the woods for
+two hours more, and then, some eight miles from the Pipestave,
+they halted, Rolf, at least, tired out.  It was now midnight.
+They made a hasty double bed of the canvas cover over a pole
+above them, and slept till morning, cheered, as they closed their
+drowsy eyes, by the "Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, yah, hoo," of their
+friend, the barred owl, still to the northward.
+
+The sun was high, and Quonab had breakfast ready before Rolf
+awoke.  He was so stiff with the tramp and the heavy pack that it
+was with secret joy he learned that they were to rest, concealed
+in the woods, that day, and travel only by night, until in a
+different region, where none knew or were likely to stop them.
+They were now in York State, but that did not by any means imply
+that they were beyond pursuit.
+
+As the sun rose high, Rolf went forth with his bow and blunt
+arrows, and then, thanks largely to Skookum, he succeeded in
+knocking over a couple of squirrels, which, skinned and roasted,
+made their dinner that day.  At night they set out as before,
+making about ten miles.  The third night they did better, and the
+next day being Sunday, they kept out of sight.  But Monday
+morning, bright and clear, although it was the first morning when
+they were sure of being missed, they started to tramp openly
+along the highway, with a sense of elation that they had not
+hitherto known on the joumey.  Two things impressed Rolf by their
+novelty: the curious stare of the country folk whose houses and
+teams they passed, and the violent antagonism of the dogs.
+Usually the latter could be quelled by shaking a stick at them,
+or by pretending to pick up a stone, but one huge and savage
+brindled mastiff kept following and barking just out of stick
+range, and managed to give Skookum a mauling, until Quonab drew
+his bow and let fly a blunt arrow that took the brute on the end
+of the nose, and sent him howl- ing homeward, while Skookum got a
+few highly satisfactory nips at the enemy's rear.  Twenty miles
+they made that day and twenty-five the next, for now they were on
+good roads, and their packs were lighter.  More than once they
+found kind farmer folk who gave them a meal. But many times
+Skookum made trouble for them.  The farmers did not like the way
+he behaved among their hens.  Skookum never could be made to
+grasp the fine zoological distinction between partridges which
+are large birds and fair game, and hens which are large birds,
+but not fair game.  Such hair splitting was obviously unworthy of
+study, much less of acceptance.
+
+Soon it was clearly better for Rolf, approaching a house, to go
+alone, while Quonab held Skookum.  The dogs seemed less excited
+by Rolf's smell, and remembering his own attitude when tramps
+came to one or another of his ancient homes, he always asked if
+they would let him work for a meal, and soon remarked that his
+success was better when he sought first the women of the house,
+and then, smiling to show his very white teeth, spoke in clear
+and un-Indian English, which had the more effect coming from an
+evident Indian.
+
+"Since I am to be an Indian, Quonab, you must give me an Indian
+name," he said after one of these episodes.
+
+"Ugh! Good!  That's easy!  You are 'Nibowaka,' the wise one." For
+the Indian had not missed any of the points, and so he was named.
+
+Twenty or thirty miles a day they went now, avoiding the
+settlements along the river.  Thus they saw nothing of Albany,
+but on the tenth day they reached Fort Edward, and for the first
+time viewed the great Hudson.  Here they stayed as short a time
+as might be, pushed on by Glen's Falls, and on the eleventh night
+of the journey they passed the old, abandoned fort, and sighted
+the long stretch of Lake George, with its wooded shore, and
+glimpses of the mountains farther north.
+
+Now a new thought possessed them -- "If only the had the canoe
+that they had abandoned on the Pipestave." It came to them both
+at the sight of the limit less water, and especially when Rolf
+remembered that Lake George joined with Champlain, which again
+was the highway to all the wilderness.
+
+They camped now as they had fifty times before, and made their
+meal.  The bright blue water dancing near was alluring,
+inspiring; as they sought the shore Quonab pointed to a track and
+said, "Deer." He did not show much excitement, but Rolf did, and
+they returned to the camp fire with a new feeling of elation -
+they had reached the Promised Land.  Now they must prepare for
+the serious work of finding a hunting ground that was not already
+claimed.
+
+Quonab, remembering the ancient law of the woods, that parcels
+off the valleys, each to the hunter first arriving, or succeeding
+the one who had, was following his own line of thought.  Rolf was
+puzzling over means to get an outfit, canoe, traps, axes, and
+provisions.  The boy broke silence.
+
+"Quonab, we must have money to get an outfit; this is the
+beginning of harvest; we can easily get work for a month.  That
+will feed us and give us money enough to live on, and a chance to
+learn something about the country."
+
+The reply was simple, "You are Nibowaka."
+
+The farms were few and scattered here, but there were one or two
+along the lake.  To the nearest one with standing grain Rolf led
+the way.  But their reception, from the first brush with the dog
+to the final tilt with the farmer, was unpleasant -- "He didn't
+want any darn red-skins around there.  He had had two St. Regis
+Indians last year, and they were a couple of drunken good-
+for-nothings."
+
+The next was the house of a fat Dutchman, who was just wondering
+how he should meet the compounded accumulated emergencies of late
+hay, early oats, weedy potatoes, lost cattle, and a prospective
+increase of his family, when two angels of relief appeared at his
+door, in copper-coloured skins.
+
+"Cahn yo work putty goood?
+
+"Yes, I have always lived on a farm," and Rolf showed his hands,
+broad and heavy for his years.
+
+"Cahn yo mebby find my lost cows, which I haf not find, already
+yet?"
+
+Could they! it would be fun to try.
+
+"I giff yo two dollars you pring dem putty kvick."
+
+So Quonab took the trail to the woods, and Rolf started into the
+potatoes with a hoe, but he was stopped by a sudden outcry of
+poultry.  Alas!  It was Skookum on an ill-judged partridge hunt.
+A minute later he was ignominiously chained to a penitential
+post, nor left it during the travellers' sojourn.
+
+In the afternoon Quonab returned with the cattle, and as he told
+Rolf he saw five deer, there was an unmisakable hunter gleam in
+his eye.
+
+Three cows in milk, and which had not been milked for two days,
+was a serious matter, needing immediate attention.  Rolf had
+milked five cows twice a day for five years, and a glance showed
+old Van Trumper that the boy was an expert.
+
+"Good, good! I go now make feed swine."
+
+He went into the outhouse, but a tow-topped, redcheeked girl ran
+after him.  "Father, father, mother says --" and the  rest was
+lost.
+
+"Myn Hemel! Myn Hemel! I thought it not so soon," and the fat
+Dutchman followed the child. A moment later he reappeared, his
+jolly face clouded with a look of grave concern. "Hi yo big
+Injun, yo cahn paddle canoe?"  Quonab nodded. "Den coom.
+Annette, pring Tomas und Hendrik."  So the father carried
+two-year-old Hendrik, while the Indian carried six-year-old
+Tomas, and twelve-year-old Annette followed in vague,
+uncomprehended alarm.  Arrived at the shore the children were
+placed in the canoe, and then the difficulties came fully to the
+father's mind -- he could not leave his wife.  He must send the
+children with the messenger -- In a sort of desperation, "Cahn
+you dem childen take to de house across de lake, and pring back
+Mrs. Callan?  Tell her Marta Van Trumper need her right now mooch
+very kvick."  The Indian nodded.  Then the father hesitated, but
+a glance at the Indian was enough.  Something said, "He is safe,"
+and in spite of sundry wails from the little ones left with a
+dark stranger, he pushed off the canoe: "Yo take care for my
+babies," and turned his brimming eyes away.
+
+The farmhouse was only two miles off, and the evening calm; no
+time was lost: what woman will not instantly drop all work and
+all interests, to come to the help of another in the trial time
+of motherhood?
+
+Within an hour the neighbour's wife was holding hands with the
+mother of the banished tow-heads.  He who tempers the wind and
+appoints the season of the wild deer hinds had not forgotten the
+womanhood beyond the reach of skilful human help, and with the
+hard and lonesome life had conjoined a sweet and blessed
+compensation. What would not her sister of the city give for such
+immunity; and long before that dark, dread hour of night that
+brings the ebbing life force low, the wonderful miracle was
+complete; there was another tow-top in the settler's home, and
+all was well.
+
+
+
+Life with the Dutch Settler
+
+The Indians slept in the luxuriant barn of logs, with blankets,
+plenty of hay, and a roof.  They were more than content, for now,
+on the edge of the wilderness, they were very close to wild life.
+Not a day or a night passed without bringing proof of that.
+
+One end of the barn was portioned off for poultry.  In this the
+working staff of a dozen hens were doing their duty, which, on
+that first night of the "brown angels' visit," consisted of
+silent slumber, when all at once the hens and the new hands were
+aroused by a clamorous cackling, which speedily stopped.  It
+sounded like a hen falling in a bad dream, then regaining her
+perch to go to sleep again.  But next morning the body of one of
+these highly esteemed branches of the egg-plant was found in the
+corner, partly devoured.  Quonab examined the headless hen, the
+dust around, and uttered the word, "Mink."
+
+Rolf said, "Why not skunk?"
+
+"Skunk could not climb to the perch."
+
+"Weasel then."
+
+"Weasel would only suck the blood, and would kill three or four."
+
+"Coon would carry him away, so would fox or wildcat, and a marten
+would not come into the building by night."
+
+There was no question, first, that it was a mink, and, second,
+that he was hiding about the barn until the hunger pang should
+send him again to the hen house.  Quonab covered the hen's body
+with two or three large stones so that there was only one
+approach.  In the way of this approach he buried a "number one"
+trap.
+
+That night they were aroused again; this time by a frightful
+screeching, and a sympathetic, inquiring cackle from the fowls.
+
+Arising, quickly they entered with a lantem.  Rolf then saw a
+sight that gave him a prickling in his hair.  The mink, a large
+male, was caught by one front paw.  He was writhing and foaming,
+tearing, sometimes at the trap, sometimes at the dead hen, and
+sometimes at his own imprisoned foot, pausing now and then to
+utter the most ear-piercing shrieks, then falling again in crazy
+animal fury on the trap, splintering his sharp white teeth,
+grinding the cruel metal with bruised and bloody jaws, frothing,
+snarling, raving mad.  As his foemen entered he turned on them a
+hideous visage of inexpressible fear and hate, rage and horror.
+His eyes glanced back green fire in the lantern light; he
+strained in renewed efforts to escape; the air was rank with his
+musky smell.  The impotent fury of his struggle made a picture
+that continued in Rolf's mind.  Quonab took a stick and with a
+single blow put an end to the scene, but never did Rolf forget
+it, and never afterward was he a willing partner when the
+trapping was done with those relentless jaws of steel.
+
+A week later another hen was missing, and the door of the hen
+house left open.  After a careful examination of the dust, inside
+and out of the building, Quonab said, "Coon." It is very unusual
+for coons to raid a hen house. Usually it is some individual with
+abnormal tastes, and once he begins, he is sure to come back.
+The Indian judged that he might be back the next night, so
+prepared a trap.  A rope was passed from the door latch to a
+tree; on this rope a weight was hung, so that the door was
+selfshutting, and to make it self-locking he leaned a long pole
+against it inside.  Now he propped it open with a single
+platform, so set that the coon must walk on it once he was
+inside, and so release the door.  The trappers thought they would
+hear in the night when the door closed, but they were sleepy;
+they knew nothing until next morning. Then they found that the
+self-shutter had shut, and inside, crouched in one of the nesting
+boxes, was a tough, old fighting coon.  Strange to tell, he had
+not touched a second hen.  As soon as he found himself a prisoner
+he had experienced a change of heart, and presently his skin was
+nailed on the end of the barn and his meat was hanging in the
+larder.
+
+"Is this a marten," asked little Annette.  And when told not, her
+disappointment elicited the information that old Warren, the
+storekeeper, had promised her a blue cotton dress for a marten
+skin.
+
+"You shall have the first one I catch," said Rolf.
+
+Life in Van Trumper's was not unpleasant.  The mother was going
+about again in a week.  Annette took charge of the baby, as well
+as of the previous arrivals.  Hendrik senior was gradually
+overcoming his difficulties, thanks to the unexpected help, and a
+kindly spirit made the hard work not so very hard.  The shyness
+that was at first felt toward the Indians wore off, especially in
+the case of Rolf, he was found so companionable; and the
+Dutchman, after puzzling over the combination of brown skin and
+blue eyes, decided that Rolf was a half-breed.
+
+August wore on not unpleasantly for the boy, but Quonab was
+getting decidedly restless.  He could work for a week as hard as
+any white man, but his race had not risen to the dignity of
+patient, unremitting, life-long toil.
+
+"How much money have we now, Nibowaka?" was one of the mid-August
+indications of restlessness.  Rolf reckoned up; half a month for
+Quonab, $15.00; for himself, $10.00; for finding the cows $2.00
+-- $27.00 in all.  Not enough.
+
+Three days later Quonab reckoned up again.  Next day he said: "We
+need two months' open water to find a good country and build a
+shanty."  Then did Rolf do the wise thing; he went to fat Hendrik
+and told him all about it.  They wanted to get a canoe and an
+outfit, and seek for a trapping or hunting ground that would not
+encroach on those already possessed, for the trapping law is
+rigid; even the death penalty is not considered too high in
+certain cases of trespass, provided the injured party is ready to
+be judge, jury, and executioner.  Van Trumper was able to help
+them not a little in the matter of location -- there was no use
+trying on the Vermont side, nor anywhere near Lake Champlain, nor
+near Lake George; neither was it worth while going to the far
+North, as the Frenchmen came in there, and they were keen
+hunters, so that Hamilton County was more promising than any
+other, but it was almost inaccessible, remote from all the great
+waterways, and of course without roads; its inaccessibility was
+the reason why it was little known. So far so good; but happy
+Hendrik was unpleasantly surprised to learn that the new help
+were for leaving at once. Finally he made this offer: If they
+would stay till September first, and so leave all in "good shape
+fer der vinter," he would, besides the wages agreed, give them
+the canoe, one axe, six mink traps, and a fox trap now hanging in
+the barn, and carry them in his wagon as far as the Five- mile
+portage from Lake George to Schroon River, down which they could
+go to its junction with the upper Hudson, which, followed up
+through forty miles of rapids and hard portages, would bring them
+to a swampy river that enters from the southwest, and ten miles
+up this would bring them to Jesup's Lake, which is two miles wide
+and twelve miles long.  This country abounded with game, but was
+so hard to enter that after Jesup's death it was deserted.
+
+There was only one possible answer to such an offer -- they stayed.
+
+In spare moments Quonab brought the canoe up to the barn,
+stripped off some weighty patches of bark and canvas and some
+massive timber thwarts, repaired the ribs, and when dry and
+gummed, its weight was below one hundred pounds; a saving of at
+least forty pounds on the soggy thing he crossed the lake in that
+first day on the farm.
+
+September came.  Early in the morning Quonab went alone to the
+lakeside; there on a hill top he sat, looking toward the sunrise,
+and sang a song of the new dawn, beating, not with a tom-tom --
+he had none -- but with one stick on another.  And when the
+sunrise possessed the earth he sang again the hunter's song:
+
+"Father, guide our feet, Lead us to the good hunting."
+
+Then he danced to the sound, his face skyward, his eyes closed,
+his feet barely raised, but rythmically moved. So went he three
+times round to the chant in three sun circles, dancing a sacred
+measure, as royal David might have done that day when he danced
+around the Ark of the Covenant on its homeward joumey.  His face
+was illumined, and no man could have seen him then without
+knowing that this was a true heart's worship of a true God, who
+is in all things He has made.
+
+
+
+Canoeing on the Upper Hudson
+
+There is only one kind of a man I can't size up; that's the
+faller that shets up and says nothing. -Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+A settler named Hulett had a scow that was borrowed by the
+neighbours whenever needed to take a team across the lake.  On
+the morning of their journey, the Dutchman's team and wagon, the
+canoe and the men, were aboard the scow, Skookum took his proper
+place at the prow, and all was ready for "Goodbye." Rolf found it
+a hard word to say.  The good old Dutch mother had won his heart,
+and the children were like his brothers and sisters.
+
+"Coom again, lad; coom and see us kvick."  She kissed him, he
+kissed Annette and the three later issues. They boarded the scow
+to ply the poles till the deep water was reached, then the oars.
+An east wind springing up gave them a chance to profit by a
+wagon-cover rigged as a sail, and two hours later the scow was
+safely landed at West Side, where was a country store, and the
+head of the wagon road to the Schroon River.
+
+As they approached the door, they saw a rough-looking man
+slouching against the building, his hands in his pockets, his
+blear eyes taking in the new-comers with a look of contemptuous
+hostility.  As they passed, he spat tobacco juice on the dog and
+across the feet of the men.
+
+Old Warren who kept the store was not partial to Indians, but he
+was a good friend of Hendrik and very keen to trade for fur, so
+the new trappers were well received; and now came the settling of
+accounts.  Flour, oatmeal, pork, potatoes, tea, tobacco, sugar,
+salt, powder, ball, shot, clothes, lines, an inch-auger, nails,
+knives, awls, needles, files, another axe, some tin plates, and a
+frying pan were selected and added to Hendrik's account.
+
+"If I was you, I'd take a windy-sash; you'll find it mighty
+convenient in cold weather." The store keeper led them into an
+outhouse where was a pile of six-lighted window-frames all
+complete.  So the awkward thing was added to their load.
+
+"Can't I sell you a fine rifle?" and he took down a new, elegant
+small bore of the latest pattern.  "Only twenty- five dollars."
+Rolf shook his head; "part down, and I'll take the rest in fur
+next spring." Rolf was sorely tempted; however, he had an early
+instilled horror of debt.  He steadfastly said: "No." But many
+times he regretted it afterward!  The small balance remaining was
+settled in cash.
+
+As they were arranging and selecting, they heard a most hideous
+yelping outdoors, and a minnute later Skookum limped in, crying
+as if half-killed.  Quonab was out in a moment.
+
+"Did you kick my dog?"
+
+The brutal loafer changed countenance as he caught the red man's
+eye.  "Naw! never touched him; hurted himself on that rake."
+
+It was obviously a lie, but better to let it pass, and Quonab
+came in again.
+
+Then the rough stranger appeared at the door and growled: "Say,
+Warren! ain't you going to let me have that rifle?  I guess my
+word's as good as the next man's."
+
+"No," said Warren; "I told you, no!"
+
+"Then you can go to blazes, and you'll never see a cent's worth
+of fur from the stuff I got last year."
+
+"I don't expect to," was the reply; "I've learned what your
+word's worth." And the stranger slouched away.
+
+"Who vas he?" asked Hendrik.
+
+"I only know that his name is Jack Hoag; he's a little bit of a
+trapper and a big bit of a bum; stuck me last year. He doesn't
+come out this way; they say he goes out by the west side of the
+mountains."
+
+New light on their course was secured from Warren, and above all,
+the important information that the mouth of Jesup's River was
+marked by an eagle's nest in a dead pine.  "Up to that point keep
+the main stream, and don't forget next spring I'm buying fur."
+
+The drive across Five-mile portage was slow.  It took over two
+hours to cover it, but late that day they reached the Schroon.
+
+Here the Dutchman said "Good-bye: Coom again some noder time."
+Skookum saluted the farmer with a final growl, then Rolf and
+Quonab were left alone in the wilderness.
+
+It was after sundown, so they set about camping for the night.  A
+wise camper always prepares bed and shelter in daylight, if
+possible.  While Rolf made a fire and hung the kettle, Quonab
+selected a level, dry place between two trees, and covered it
+with spruce boughs to make the beds, and last a low tent was made
+by putting the lodge cover over a pole between the trees.  The
+ends of the covers were held down by loose green logs quickly cut
+for the purpose, and now they were safe against weather.
+
+Tea, potatoes, and fried pork, with maple syrup and hard-tack,
+made their meal of the time, after which there was a long smoke.
+Quonab took a stick of red willow, picked up-in the daytime, and
+began shaving it toward one end, leaving the curling shreds still
+on the stick.  When these were bunched in a fuzzy mop, he held
+them over the fire until they were roasted brown; then, grinding
+all up in his palm with some tobacco, and filling his pipe he
+soon was enveloped in that odour of woodsy smoke called the
+"Indian smell," by many who do not know whence or how it comes.
+Rolf did not smoke.  He had promised his mother that he would not
+until he was a man, and something brought her back home now with
+overwhehning force; that was the beds they had made of fragrant
+balsam boughs.  "Cho-ko- tung or blister tree" as Quonab called
+it.  His mother had a little sofa pillow, brought from the North
+-- a "northern pine" pillow they called it, for it was stuffed
+with pine needles of a kind not growing in Connecticut.  Many a
+time had Rolf as a baby pushed his little round nose into that
+bag to inhale the delicious odour it gave forth, and so it became
+the hallowed smell of all that was dear in his babyhood, and it
+never lost its potency.  Smell never does. Oh, mighty aura! that,
+in marching by the nostrils, can reach and move the soul; how
+wise the church that makes this power its handmaid, and through
+its incense overwhelms all alien thought when the worshipper,
+wandering, doubting, comes again to see if it be true, that here
+doubt dies.  Oh, queen of memory that is master of the soul! how
+fearful should we be of letting evil thought associated grow with
+some recurrent odour that we love.  Happy, indeed, are they that
+find some ten times pure and consecrated fragrance, like the
+pine, which entering in is master of their moods, and yet through
+linking thoughts has all its power, uplifting, full of sweetness
+and blessed peace.  So came to Rolf his medicine tree.
+
+The balsam fir was his tree of hallowed memory.  Its odour never
+failed, and he slept that night with its influence all about him.
+
+Starting in the morning was no easy matter.  There was so much to
+be adjusted that first day.  Packs divided in two, new
+combinations to trim the canoe, or to raise such and such a
+package above a possible leak.  The heavy things, like axes and
+pans, had to be fastened to the canoe or to packages that would
+float in case of an upset.  The canoe itself had to be gummed in
+one or two places; but they got away after three hours, and began
+the voyage down the Schroon.
+
+This was Rolf's first water journey.  He had indeed essayed the
+canoe on the Pipestave Pond, but that was a mere ferry.  This was
+real travel.  He marvelled at the sensitiveness of the frail
+craft; the delicacy of its balance; its quick response to the
+paddle; the way it seemed to shrink from the rocks; and the
+unpleasantly suggestive bend-up of the ribs when the bottom
+grounded upon a log. It was a new world for him.  Quonab taught
+him never to enter the canoe except when she was afloat; never to
+rise in her or move along without hold of the gunwale; never to
+make a sudden move; and he also learned that it was easier to
+paddle when there were six feet of water underneath than when
+only six inches.
+
+In an hour they had covered the five miles that brought them to
+the Hudson, and here the real labour began, paddling up stream.
+Before long they came to a shallow stretch with barely enough
+water to float the canoe. Here they jumped out and waded in the
+stream, occasionally lifting a stone to one side, till they
+reached the upper stretch of deep water and again went merrily
+paddling. Soon they came to an impassable rapid, and Rolf had his
+first taste of a real carry or portage.  Quonab's eye was
+watching the bank as soon as the fierce waters appeared; for the
+first question was, where shall we land? and the next, how far do
+we carry?  There are no rapids on important rivers in temperate
+America that have not been portaged more or less for ages.  No
+canoe man portages without considering most carefully when,
+where, and how to land.  His selection of the place, then, is the
+result of careful study.  He cannot help leaving some mark at the
+place, slight though it be, and the next man looks for that mark
+to save himself time and trouble.
+
+"Ugh" was the only sound that Rolf heard from his companion, and
+the canoe headed for a flat rock in the pool below the rapids.
+After landing, they found traces of an old camp fire.  It was
+near noon now, so Rolf prepared the meal while Quonab took a
+light pack and went on to learn the trail.  It was not well
+marked; had not been used for a year or two, evidently, but there
+are certain rules that guide one.  The trail keeps near the
+water, unless there is some great natural barrier, and it is
+usually the easiest way in sight.  Quonab kept one eye on the
+river, for navigable water was the main thing, and in about one
+hundred yards he was again on the stream's edge, at a good
+landing above the rapid.
+
+After the meal was finished and the Indian had smoked, they set
+to work.  In a few loads each, the stuff was portaged across, and
+the canoe was carried over and moored to the bank.
+
+The cargo replaced, they went on again, but in half an hour after
+passing more shoal water, saw another rapid, not steep, but too
+shallow to float the canoe, even with both men wading.  Here
+Quonab made what the Frenchmen call a demi-charge.  He carried
+half the stuff to the bank; then, wading, one at each end, they
+hauled the canoe up the portage and reloaded her above.  Another
+strip of good going was succeeded by a long stretch of very swift
+water that was two or three feet deep and between shores that
+were densely grown with alders.  The Indian landed, cut two
+light, strong poles, and now, one at the bow, the other at the
+stern, they worked their way foot by foot up the fierce current
+until safely on the upper level.
+
+Yet one more style of canoe propulsion was forced on them.  They
+came to a long stretch of smooth, deep, very swift water, almost
+a rapid-one of the kind that is a joy when you are coming down
+stream.  It differed from the last in having shores that were not
+alder-hidden, but open gravel banks.  Now did Quonab take a long,
+strong line from his war sack.  One end he fastened, not to the
+bow, but to the forward part of the canoe, the other to a
+buckskin band which he put across his breast.  Then, with Rolf in
+the stern to steer and the Indian hauling on the bank, the canoe
+was safely "tracked" up the "strong waters."
+
+Thus they fought their way up the hard river, day after day,
+making sometimes only five miles after twelve hours' toilsome
+travel.  Rapids, shoals, portages, strong waters, abounded, and
+before they had covered the fifty miles to the forks of Jesup's
+River, they knew right well why the region was so little entered.
+
+It made a hardened canoe man of Rolf, and when, on the evening of
+the fifth day, they saw a huge eagle's nest in a dead pine tree
+that stood on the edge of a long swamp, both felt they had
+reached their own country, and were glad.
+Animal Life Along the River
+
+It must not be supposed that, because it has been duly mentioned,
+they saw no wild life along the river.  The silent canoe man has
+the best of opportunities.  There were plenty of deer tracks
+about the first camp, and that morning, as they turned up the
+Hudson, Rolf saw his first deer.  They had rounded a point in
+rather swift water when Quonab gave two taps on the gunwale, the
+usual sign, "Look out," and pointed to the shore.  There, fifty
+yards away on bank, gazing at them, was a deer.  Stock still he
+stood like a red statue, for he was yet in the red coat.  With
+three or four strong strokes, Quonab gave a long and mighty
+forward spurt; then reached for his gun.  But the deer's white
+flag went up.  It turned and bounded away, the white flag the
+last thing to disappear.  Rolf sat spellbound.  It was so sudden;
+so easy; it soon melted into the woods again.  He trembled after
+it was gone.
+
+Many a time in the evening they saw muskrats in the eddies, and
+once they glimpsed a black, shiny something like a monstrous
+leech rolling up and down as it travelled in the stream.  Quonab
+whispered, "Otter," and made ready his gun, but it dived and
+showed itself no more. At one of the camps they were awakened by
+an extraordinary tattoo in the middle of the night -- a harsh
+rattle close by their heads; and they got up to find that a
+porcupine was rattling his teeth on the frying-pan in an effort
+to increase the amount of salt that he could taste on it.
+Skookum, tied to a tree, was vainly protesting against the
+intrusion and volunteered to make a public example of the
+invader.  The campers did not finally get rid of the spiny one
+till all their kitchen stuff was hung beyond his reach.
+
+Once they heard the sharp, short bark of a fox, and twice or
+thrice the soft, sweet, moaning call of the gray wolf out to
+hunt.  Wild fowl abounded, and their diet was varied by the ducks
+that one or other of the hunters secured at nearly every camp.
+
+On the second day they saw three deer, and on the third morning
+Quonab loaded his gun with buckshot, to be ready, then sallied
+forth at dawn.  Rolf was following, but the Indian shook his
+head, then said: "Don't make fire for half an hour."
+
+In twenty minutes Rolf heard the gun, then later the Indian
+returned with a haunch of venison, and when they left that camp
+they stopped a mile up the river to add the rest of the venison
+to their cargo.  Seven other deer were seen, but no more killed;
+yet Rolf was burning to try his hand as a hunter.  Many other
+opportunities he had, and improved some of them.  On one wood
+portage he, or rather Skookum, put up a number of ruffed grouse.
+These perched in the trees above their heads and the travellers
+stopped.  While the dog held their attention Rolf with blunt
+arrows knocked over five that proved most acceptable as food.
+But his thoughts were now on deer, and his ambition was to go out
+alone and return with a load of venison.
+
+Another and more thrilling experience followed quickly. Rounding
+a bend in the early dawn they sighted a black bear and two cubs
+rambling along the gravelly bank and stopping now and then to eat
+something that turned out to be crayfish.
+
+Quonab had not seen a bear since childhood, when he and his
+father hunted along the hardwood ridges back of Myanos, and now
+he was excited.  He stopped paddling, warned Rolf to do the same,
+and let the canoe drift backward until out of sight; then made
+for the land. Quickly tying up the canoe he took his gun and Rolf
+his hunting arrows, and, holding Skookum in a leash, they dashed
+into the woods.  Then, keeping out of sight, they ran as fast and
+as silently as possible in the direction of the bears.  Of
+course, the wind was toward the hunters, or they never could have
+got so near.  Now they were opposite the family group and needed
+only a chance for a fair shot.  Sneaking forward with the utmost
+caution, they were surely within twenty-five yards, but still the
+bushes screened the crab-eaters.  As the hunters sneaked, the old
+bear stopped and sniffed suspiciously; the wind changed, she got
+an unmistakable whiff; then gave a loud warning "Koff! Koff!
+Koff! Koff!" and ran as fast as she could.  The hunters knowing
+they were discovered rushed out, yelling as loudly as possible,
+in hopes of making the bears tree.  The old bear ran like a horse
+with Skookum yapping bravely in her rear.  The young ones, left
+behind, lost sight of her, and, utterly bewildered by the noise,
+made for a tree conveniently near and scrambled up into the
+branches.  "Now," Rolf thought, judging by certain tales he had
+heard, "that old bear will come back and there will be a fight."
+
+"Is she coming back?" he asked nervously.
+
+The Indian laughed.  "No, she is running yet.  Black bear always
+a coward; they never fight when they can run away."
+
+The little ones up the tree were, of course, at the mercy of the
+hunters, and in this case it was not a broken straw they depended
+on, but an ample salvation.  "We don't need the meat and can't
+carry it with us; let's leave them," said Rolf, but added, "Will
+they find their mother?"
+
+"Yes, bime-by; they come down and squall all over woods.  She
+will hang round half a mile away and by night all will be
+together."
+
+Their first bear hunt was over.  Not a shot fired, not a bear
+wounded, not a mile travelled, and not an hour lost.  And yet it
+seemed much more full of interesting thrills than did any one of
+the many stirring bear hunts that Rolf and Quonab shared together
+in the days that were to come.
+
+
+
+The Footprint on the Shore
+
+Jesup's River was a tranquil stream that came from a region of
+swamps, and would have been easy canoeing but for the fallen
+trees.  Some of these had been cut years ago, showing that the
+old trapper had used this route.  Once they were unpleasantly
+surprised by seeing a fresh chopping on the bank, but their
+mourning was changed into joy when they found it was beaver-work.
+
+Ten miles they made that day.  In the evening they camped on the
+shore of Jesup's Lake, proud and happy in the belief that they
+were the rightful owners of it all. That night they heard again
+and again the howling of wolves, but it seemed on the far side of
+the lake.  In the morning they went out on foot to explore, and
+at once had the joy of seeing five deer, while tracks showed on
+every side.  It was evidently a paradise for deer, and there were
+in less degree the tracks of other animals -- mink in fair
+abundance, one or two otters, a mountain lion, and a cow moose
+with her calf.  It was thrilling to see such a feast of
+possibilities.  The hunters were led on and on, revelling in the
+prospect of many joys before them, when all at once they came on
+something that turned their joy to grief -- the track of a man;
+the fresh imprint of a cowhide boot.  It was maddening.  At first
+blush, it meant some other trapper ahead of them with a prior
+claim to the valley; a claim that the unwritten law would allow.
+They followed it a mile.  It went striding along the shore at a
+great pace, sometimes running, and keeping down the west shore.
+Then they found a place where he had sat down and broken a lot of
+clam shells, and again had hastened on.  But there was no mark of
+gunstock or other weapon where he sat; and why was he wearing
+boots? The hunters rarely did.
+
+For two miles the Indian followed with Rolf, and sometimes found
+that the hated stranger had been running hard.  Then they turned
+back, terribly disappointed.  At first it seemed a crushing blow.
+They had three courses open to them - to seek a location farther
+north, to assume that one side of the lake was theirs, or to find
+out exactly who and what the stranger was.  They decided on the
+last. The canoe was launched and loaded, and they set out to look
+for what they hoped they would not find, a trapper's shanty on
+the lake.
+
+After skirting the shore for four or five miles and disturbing
+one or two deer, as well as hosts of ducks, the voyagers landed
+and there still they found that fateful bootmark steadily
+tramping southward.  By noon they had reached the south end of
+the west inlet that leads to another lake, and again an
+examination of the shore showed the footmarks, here leaving the
+lake and going southerly. Now the travellers retired to the main
+lake and by noon had reached the south end.  At no point had they
+seen any sign of a cabin, though both sides of the lake were in
+plain view all day.  The travelling stranger was a mystery, but
+he did not live here and there was no good reason why they should
+not settle.
+
+Where?  The country seemed equally good at all points, but it is
+usually best to camp on an outlet.  Then when a storm comes up,
+the big waves do not threaten your canoe, or compel you to stay
+on land.  It is a favourite crossing for animals avoiding the
+lake, and other trappers coming in are sure to see your cabin
+before they enter.
+
+Which side of the outlet?  Quonab settled that -- the west.  He
+wanted to see the sun rise, and, not far back from the water, was
+a hill with a jutting, rocky pinnade. He pointed to this and
+uttered the one word, "Idaho." Here, then, on the west side,
+where the lake enters the river, they began to clear the ground
+for their home.
+
+
+
+The Trappers' Cabin
+
+It's a smart fellow that knows what he can't do. -Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+I suppose every trapper that ever lived, on first building a
+cabin, said, "Oh, any little thing will do, so long as it has a
+roof and is big enough to lie down in."  And every trapper has
+realized before spring that he made a sad mistake in not having
+it big enough to live in and store goods in.  Quonab and Rolf
+were new at the business, and made the usual mistake. They
+planned their cabin far too small; 10 X 12 ft., instead of 12 X
+20 ft. they made it, and 6-ft. walls, instead of 8-ft. walls.
+Both were expert axemen.  Spruce was plentiful and the cabin rose
+quickly.  In one day the walls were up. An important thing was
+the roof.  What should it be? Overlapping basswood troughs, split
+shingles, also called shakes, or clay?  By far the easiest to
+make, the warmest in winter and coolest in summer, is the clay
+roof.  It has three disadvantages: It leaks in long-continued wet
+weather; it drops down dust and dirt in dry weather; and is so
+heavy that it usually ends by crushing in the log rafters and
+beams, unless they are further supported on posts, which are much
+in the way.  But its advantages were so obvious that the builders
+did not hesitate.  A clay roof it was to be.
+
+When the walls were five feet high, the doorway and window were
+cut through the logs, but leaving in each case one half of the
+log at the bottom of the needed opening. The top log was now
+placed, then rolled over bottom up, wlile half of its thickness
+was cut away to fit over the door: a similar cut out was made
+over the window.  Two flat pieces of spruce were prepared for
+door jambs and two shorter ones for window jambs.  Auger holes
+were put through, so as to allow an oak pin to be driven through
+the jamb into each log, and the doorway and window opening were done.
+
+In one corner they planned a small fireplace, built of clay and
+stone.  Not stone from the lake, as Rolf would have had it, but
+from the hillside; and why?  Quonab said that the lake stone was
+of the water spirits, and would not live near fire, but would
+burst open; while the hillside stone was of the sun and fire
+spirit, and in the fire would add its heat.
+
+The facts are that lake stone explodes when greatly heated and
+hill stone does not; and since no one has been able to improve
+upon Quonab's explanation, it must stand for the present.
+
+The plan of the fireplace was simple.  Rolf had been present at
+the building of several, and the main point was to have the
+chimney large enough, and the narrowest point just above the fire.
+
+The eaves logs, end logs, and ridge logs were soon in place; then
+came the cutting of small poles, spruce and tamarack, long enough
+to reach from ridge to eaves, and in sufficient number to
+completely cover the roof.  A rank sedge meadow near by afforded
+plenty of coarse grass with which the poles were covered deeply;
+and lastly clay dug out with a couple of hand-made, axe-hewn
+wooden spades was thrown evenly on the grass to a depth of six
+inches; this, when trampled flat, made a roof that served them well.
+
+The chinks of the logs when large were filled with split pieces
+of wood; when small they were plugged with moss. A door was made
+of hewn planks, and hinged very simply on two pins; one made by
+letting the plank project as a point, the other by nailing on a
+pin after the door was placed; both pins fitting, of course, into
+inch auger holes.
+
+A floor was not needed, but bed bunks were, and in making these
+they began already to realize that the cabin was too small.  But
+now after a week's work it was done. It had a sweet fragrance of
+wood and moss, and the pleasure it gave to Rolf at least was
+something he never again could expect to find in equal measure
+about any other dwelling he might make.
+
+Quonab laid the fire carefully, then lighted his pipe, sang a
+little crooning song about the "home spirits," which we call
+"household gods," walked around the shanty, offering the pipestem
+to each of the four winds in turn, then entering lighted the flre
+from his pipe, threw some tobacco and deer hair on the blaze, and
+the house-warming was ended.
+
+Nevertheless, they continued to sleep in the tent they had used
+all along, for Quonab loved not the indoors, and Rolf was growing
+daily more of his mind.
+
+
+
+Rolf's First Deer
+
+Anxious to lose no fine day they had worked steadily on the
+shanty, not even going after the deer that were seen occasionally
+over the lake, so that now they were out of fresh meat, and Rolf
+saw a chance he long had looked for.  "Quonab, I want to go out
+alone and get a deer, and I want your gun.
+
+"Ugh! you shall go.  To-night is good."
+
+"To-night" meant evening, so Rolf set out alone as soon as the
+sun was low, for during the heat of the day the deer are commonly
+lying in some thicket.  In general, he knew enough to travel up
+wind, and to go as silently as possible.  The southwest wind was
+blowing softly, and so he quickened his steps southwesterly which
+meant along the lake.  Tracks and signs abounded; it was
+impossible to follow any one trail.  His plan was to keep on
+silently, trusting to luck, nor did he have long to wait.  Across
+a little opening of the woods to the west he saw a movement in
+the bushes, but it ceased, and he was in doubt whether the
+creature, presumably a deer, was standing there or had gone on.
+"Never quit till you are sure," was one of Quonab's wise adages.
+Rolf was bound to know what it was that had moved.  So he stood
+still and waited.  A minute passed; another; many; a long time;
+and still he waited, but got no further sign of life from the
+bush. Then he began to think he was mistaken; yet it was good
+huntercraft to find out what that was.  He tried the wind several
+times, first by wetting his finger, which test said "southwest";
+second, by tossing up some handfuls of dried grass, which said
+"yes, southwest, but veering southerly in this glade." So he knew
+he might crawl silentlv to the north side of that bush.  He
+looked to the priming of his gun and began a slow and stealthy
+stalk, selecting such openings as might be passed without effort
+or movement of bushes or likelihood of sound.  He worked his way
+step by step; each time his foot was lifted he set it down again
+only after trying the footing.  At each step he paused to look
+and listen.  It was only one hundred yards to the interesting
+spot, but Rolf was fifteen minutes in covering the distance, and
+more than once, he got a great start as a chicadee flew out or a
+woodpecker tapped.  His heart beat louder and louder, so it
+seemed everything near must hear; but he kept on his careful
+stalk, and at last had reached the thicket that had given him
+such thrills and hopes.  Here he stood and watched for a full
+minute.  Again he tried the wind, and proceeded to circle slowly
+to the west of the place.
+
+After a long, tense crawl of twenty yards he came on the track
+and sign of a big buck, perfectly fresh, and again his heart
+worked harder; it seemed to be pumping his neck full of blood, so
+he was choking.  He judged it best to follow this hot trail for a
+time, and holding his gun ready cocked he stepped softly onward.
+A bluejay cried out, "jay, jay!" with startling loudness, and
+seemingly enjoyed his pent-up excitement.  A few steps forward at
+slow, careful stalk, and then behind him he heard a loud
+whistling hiss.  Instantly turning he found himself face to face
+with a great, splendid buck in the short blue coat.  There not
+thirty yards away he stood, the creature he had been stalking so
+long, in plain view now, broadside on.  They gazed each at the
+other, perfectly still for a few seconds, then Rolf without undue
+movement brought the gun to bear, and still the buck stood
+gazing.  The gun was up, but oh, how disgustingly it wabbled and
+shook! and the steadier Rolf tried to bold it, the more it
+trembled, until from that wretched gun the palsy spread all over
+his body; his breath came tremulously, his legs and arms were
+shaking, and at last, as the deer moved its head to get a better
+view and raised its tail, the lad, making an effort at
+selfcontrol, pulled the trigger.  Bang! and the buck went lightly
+bounding out of sight.
+
+Poor Rolf; how disgusted he felt; positively sick with
+self-contempt.   Thirty yards, standing, broadside on, full
+daylight, a big buck, a clean miss.  Yes, there was the bullet
+hole in a tree, five feet above the deer's head. "I'm no good;
+I'll never be a hunter," he groaned, then turned and slowly
+tramped back to camp.  Quonab looked inquiringly, for, of course,
+he heard the shot.  He saw a glum and sorry-looking youth, who in
+response to his inquiring look gave merely a head-shake, and hung
+up the gun with a vicious bang.
+
+Quonab took down the gun, wiped it out, reloaded it, then turning
+to the boy said: "Nibowaka, you feel pretty sick.  Ugh! You know
+why?  You got a good chance, but you got buck fever.  It is
+always so, every one the first time.  You go again to-morrow and
+you get your deer."
+
+Rolf made no reply.  So Quonab ventured, "You want me to go?"
+That settled it for Rolf; his pride was touched.
+
+"No; I'll go again in the morning."
+
+In the dew time he was away once more on the hunting  trail.
+There was no wind, but the southwest was the likeliest to spring
+up.  So he went nearly over his last night's track.  He found it
+much easier to go silently now when all the world was dew wet,
+and travelled quickly. Past the fateful glade he went, noted
+again the tree torn several feet too high up, and on.  Then the
+cry of a bluejay rang out; this is often a notification of deer
+at hand.  It always is warning of something doing, and no wise
+hunter ignores it.
+
+Rolf stood for a moment listening and peering.  He thought he
+heard a scraping sound; then again the bluejay, but the former
+ceased and the jay-note died in the distance.  He crept
+cautiously on again for a few minutes; another opening appeared.
+He studied this from a hiding place; then far across he saw a
+little flash near the ground. His heart gave a jump; he studied
+the place, saw again the flash and then made out the head of a
+deer, a doe that was lying in the long grass.  The flash was made
+by its ear shaking off a fly.  Rolf looked to his priming, braced
+himself, got fully ready, then gave a short, sharp whistle;
+instantly the doe rose to her feet; then another appeared, a
+sinal one; then a young buck; all stood gazing his way.
+
+Up went the gun, but again its muzzle began to wabble. Rolf
+lowered it, said grimly and savagely to himself, "I will not
+shake this time."  The deer stretched themselves and began slowly
+walking toward the lake.  All had disappeared but the buck.  Rolf
+gave another whistle that turned the antler-bearer to a statue.
+Controlling himself with a strong "I will," he raised the gun,
+held it steadily, and fired.  The buck gave a gathering spasm, a
+bound, and disappeared.  Rolf felt sick again with disgust, but
+he reloaded, then hastily went forward.
+
+There was the deep imprint showing where the buck had bounded at
+the shot, but no blood.  He followed, and a dozen feet away found
+the next hoof marks and on them a bright-red stain; on and
+another splash; and more and shortening bounds, till one hundred
+yards away - yes, there it lay; the round, gray form, quite dead,
+shot through the heart.                       I
+
+Rolf gave a long, rolling war cry and got an answer from a point
+that was startlingly near, and Quonab stepped from behind a tree.
+
+"I got him," shouted Rolf.
+
+The Indian smiled.  "I knew you would, so I followed; last night
+I knew you must have your shakes, so let you go it alone."
+
+Very carefully that deer was skinned, and Rolf learned the reason
+for many little modes of procedure.
+
+After the hide was removed from the body (not the hand or legs),
+Quonab carefully cut out the-broad sheath of tendon that cover
+the muscles, beginning at the hip bones on the back and extending
+up to the shoulders; this is the sewing sinew.  Then he cut out
+the two long fillets of meat that lie on each side of the spine
+outside (the loin) and the two smaller ones inside (the
+tenderloin).
+
+These, with the four quarters, the heart, and the kidneys, were
+put into the hide.  The entrails, head, neck, legs, feet, he left
+for the foxes, but the hip bone or sacrum he hung in a tree with
+three little red yarns from them, so that the Great Spirit would
+be pleased and send good hunting.  Then addressing the head he
+said: "Little brother, forgive us.  We are sorry to kill you.
+Behold! we give you the honour of red streamers."  Then bearing
+the rest they tramped back to camp.
+
+The meat wrapped in sacks to keep off the flies was hung in the
+shade, but the hide he buried in the warm mud of a swamp hole,
+and three days later, when the hair began to slip, he scraped it
+clean.  A broad ash wood hoop he had made ready and when the
+green rawhide was strained on it again the Indian had an Indian
+drum.
+
+It was not truly dry for two or three days and as it tightened on
+its frame it gave forth little sounds of click and shrinkage that
+told of the strain the tensioned rawhide made.  Quonab tried it
+that night as he sat by the fire softly singing:
+
+"Ho da ho-he da he."
+
+But the next day before sunrise he climbed the hill and sitting
+on the sun-up rock he hailed the Day God with the invocation, as
+he had not sung it since the day they left the great rock above
+the Asalnuk, and followed with the song:
+
+"Father, we thank thee; We have found the good hunting. There is
+meat in the wigwam."
+
+
+
+The Line of Traps
+
+Now that they had the cabin for winter, and food for the present,
+they must set about the serious business of trapping and lay a
+line of deadfalls for use in the coming cold weather.  They were
+a little ahead of time, but it was very desirable to get their
+lines blazed through the woods in all proposed directions in case
+of any other trapper coming in.  Most fur-bearing animals are to
+be found along the little valleys of the stream: beaver, otter,
+mink, muskrat, coon, are examples. Those that do not actually
+live by the water seek these places because of their sheltered
+character and because their prey lives there; of this class are
+the lynx, fox, fisher, and marten that feed on rabbits and mice.
+Therefore a line of traps is usually along some valley and over
+the divide and down some other valley back to the point of
+beginning.
+
+So, late in September, Rolf and Quonab, with their bedding, a
+pot, food for four days, and two axes, alternately followed and
+led by Skookum, set out along a stream that entered the lake near
+their cabin.  A quarter mile up they built their first deadfall
+for martens.  It took them one hour and was left unset.  The
+place was under a huge tree on a neck of land around which the
+stream made a loop.  This tree they blazed on three sides.  Two
+hundred yards up another good spot was found and a deadfall made.
+At one place across a neck of land was a narrow trail evidently
+worn by otters.  "Good place for steel trap, bime-by," was
+Quonab's remark.
+
+From time to time they disturbed deer, and in a muddy place where
+a deer path crossed the creek, they found, among the numerous
+small hoof prints, the track of wolves, bears, and a mountain
+lion, or panther.  At these little Skookum sniffed fearsomely,
+and showed by his bristly mane that he was at least much
+impressed.
+
+After five hours' travel and work they came to another stream
+joining on, and near the angle of the two little valleys they
+found a small tree that was chewed and scratched in a remarkable
+manner for three to six feet up. "Bear tree," said Quonab, and by
+degrees Rolf got the facts about it.
+
+The bears, and indeed most animals, have a way of marking the
+range that they consider their own.  Usually this is done by
+leaving their personal odour at various points, covering the
+country claimed, but in some cases visible marks are added.  Thus
+the beaver leaves a little dab of mud, the wolf scratches with
+his hind feet, and the bear tears the signal tree with tooth and
+claw.  Since this is done from time to time, when the bear
+happens to be near the tree, it is kept fresh as long as the
+region is claimed. But it is especially done in midsummer when
+the bears are pairing, and helps them to find suitable
+companions, nor all are then roaming the woods seeking mates; all
+call and leave their mark on the sign post, so the next bear,
+thanks to his exquisite nose, can tell at once the sex of the
+bear that called last and by its track tell which way it
+travelled afterward.
+
+In this case it was a bear's register, but before long Quonab
+showed Rolf a place where two long logs joined at an angle by a
+tree that was rubbed and smelly, and showed a few marten hairs,
+indicating that this was the sign post of a marten and a good
+place to make a deadfall.
+
+Yet a third was found in an open, grassy glade, a large, white
+stone on which were pellets left by foxes.  The Indian explained:
+
+"Every fox that travels near will come and smell the stone to see
+who of his kind is around, so this is a good place for a
+fox-trap; a steel trap, of course, for no fox will go into a
+deadfall."
+
+And slowly Rolf learned that these habits are seen in some
+measure in all animals; yes, down to the mice and shrews.  We see
+little of it because our senses are blunt and our attention
+untrained; but the naturalist and the hunter always know where to
+look for the four-footed inhabitants and by them can tell whether
+or not the land is possessed by such and such a furtive tribe.
+The Beaver Pond
+
+AT THE noon halt they were about ten miles from home and had made
+fifteen deadfalls for marten, for practice was greatly reducing
+the time needed for each.
+
+In the afternoon they went on, but the creek had become a mere
+rill and they were now high up in a more level stretch of country
+that was more or less swampy. As they followed the main course of
+the dwindling stream, looking ever for signs of fur-bearers, they
+crossed and recrossed the water.  At length Quonab stopped,
+stared, and pointed at the rill, no longer clear but clouded with
+mud.  His eyes shone as he jerked his head up stream and uttered
+the magic word, "Beaver."
+
+They tramped westerly for a hundred yards through a dense swamp
+of alders, and came at last to an irregular pond that spread out
+among the willow bushes and was lost in the swampy thickets.
+Following the stream they soon came to a beaver dam, a long,
+curving bank of willow branches and mud, tumbling through the top
+of which were a dozen tiny streams that reunited their waters
+below to form the rivulet they had been following.
+
+Red-winged blackbirds were sailing in flocks about the pond; a
+number of ducks were to be seen, and on a dead tree, killed by
+the backed up water, a great blue heron stood.  Many smaller
+creatures moved or flitted in the lively scene, while far out
+near the middle rose a dome-like pile of sticks, a beaver lodge,
+and farther three more were discovered.  No beaver were seen, but
+the fresh cut sticks, the floating branches peeled of all the
+bark, and the long, strong dam in good repair were enough to tell
+a practised eye that here was a large colony of beavers in
+undisturbed possession.
+
+In those days beaver was one of the most valued furs. The
+creature is very easy to trap; so the discovery of the pond was
+like the finding of a bag of gold.  They skirted its uncertain
+edges and Quonab pointed out the many landing places of the
+beaver; little docks they seemed, built up with mud and stones
+with deep water plunge holes alongside.  Here and there on the
+shore was a dome-shaped ant's nest with a pathway to it from the
+pond, showing, as the Indian said, that here the beaver came on
+sunny days to lie on the hill and let the swarming ants come
+forth and pick the vermin from their fur. At one high point
+projecting into the still water they found a little mud pie with
+a very strong smell; this, the Indian said, was a "castor cache,"
+the sign that, among beavers, answers the same purpose as the
+bear tree among bears.
+
+Although the pond seemed small they had to tramp a quarter of a
+mile before reaching the upper end and here they found another
+dam, with its pond.  This was at a slightly higher level and
+contained a single lodge; after this they found others, a dozen
+ponds in a dozen successive rises, the first or largest and the
+second only having lodges, but all were evidently part of the
+thriving colony, for fresh cut trees were seen on every side.
+"Ugh, good; we get maybe fifty beaver," said the Indian, and they
+knew they had reached the Promised Land.
+
+Rolf would gladly have spent the rest of the day exploring the
+pond and trying for a beaver, when the eventide should call them
+to come forth, but Quonab said, "Only twenty deadfall; we should
+have one hundred and fifty."  So making for a fine sugar bush on
+the dry ground west of the ponds they blazed a big tree, left a
+deadfall there, and sought the easiest way over the rough hills
+that lay to the east, in hopes of reaching the next stream
+leading down to their lake.
+
+
+
+The Porcupine
+
+Skookum was a partly trained little dog; he would stay in camp
+when told, if it suited him; and would not hesitate to follow or
+lead his master, when he felt that human wisdom was inferior to
+the ripe product of canine experience covering more than thirteen
+moons of recollection.  But he was now living a life in which his
+previous experience must often fail him as a guide.  A faint
+rustling on the leafy ground had sent him ahead at a run, and his
+sharp, angry bark showed that some hostile creature of the woods
+had been discovered.  Again and again the angry yelping was
+changed into a sort of yowl, half anger, half distress. The
+hunters hurried forward to find the little fool charging again
+and again a huge porcupine that was crouched with its head under
+a log, its hindquarters exposed but bristling with spines; and
+its tail lashing about, left a new array of quills in the dog's
+mouth and face each time he charged. Skookum was a plucky
+fighter, but plainly he was nearly sick of it.  The pain of the
+quills would, of course, increase every minute and with each
+movement.  Quonab took a stout stick and threw the porcupine out
+of its retreat, (Rolf supposed to kill it when the head was
+exposed,) but the spiny one, finding a new and stronger enemy,
+wasted no time in galloping at its slow lumbering pace to the
+nearest small spruce tree and up that it scrambled to a safe
+place in the high branches.
+
+Now the hunters called the dog.  He was a sorry-looking object,
+pawing at his muzzle, first with one foot, then another, trying
+to unswallow the quills in his tongue, blinking hard, uttering
+little painful grunts and whines as he rubbed his head upon the
+ground or on his forelegs.  Rolf held him while Quonab, with a
+sharp jerk, brought out quill after quill.  Thirty or forty of
+the poisonous little daggers were plucked from his trembling
+legs, head, face, and nostrils, but the dreadful ones were those
+in his lips and tongue.  Already they were deeply sunk in the
+soft, quivering flesh.  One by one those in the lips were with-
+drawn by the strong fingers of the red man, and Skookum whimpered
+a little, but he shrieked outright when those in the tongue were
+removed.  Rolf had hard work to hold him, and any one not knowing
+the case might have thought that the two men were deliberately
+holding the dog to administer the most cruel torture.
+
+But none of the quills had sunk very deep.  All were got out at
+last and the little dog set free.
+
+Now Rolf thought of vengeance on the quill-pig snugly sitting in
+the tree near by.
+
+Ammunition was too predous to waste, but Rolf was getting ready
+to climb when Quonab said: "No, no; you must not.  Once I saw
+white man climb after the Kahk; it waited till he was near, then
+backed down, lashing its tail. He put up his arm to save his
+face.  It speared his arm in fifty places and he could not save
+his face, so he tried to get down, but the Kahk came faster,
+lashing him; then he lost his hold and dropped.  His leg was
+broken and his arm was swelled up for half a year.  They are very
+poisonous. He nearly died."
+
+"Well, I can at least chop him down," and Rolf took the axe.
+
+"Wah!" Quonab said, "no; my father said you must not kill the
+Kahk, except you make sacrifice and use his quills for household
+work.  It is bad medicine to kill the Kahk."
+
+So the spiny one was left alone in the place he had so ably
+fought for.  But Skookum, what of him?  He was set free at last.
+To be wiser?  Alas, no! before one hour he met with another
+porcupine and remembering only his hate of the creature repeated
+the same sad mistake, and again had to have the painful help,
+without which he must certainly have died.  Before night,
+however, he began to feel his real punishment and next morning no
+one would have known the pudding-headed thing that sadly followed
+the hunters, for the bright little dog that a day before had run
+so joyously through the woods.  It was many a long day before he
+fully recovered and at one time his life was in the balance; and
+yet to the last of his days he never fully realized the folly of
+his insensate attacks on the creature that fights with its tail.
+
+"It is ever so," said the Indian.  "The lynx, the panther, the
+wolf, the fox, the eagle, all that attack the Kahk must die.
+Once my father saw a bear that was killed by the quills.  He had
+tried to bite the Kahk; it filled his mouth with quills that he
+could not spit out.  They sunk deeper and his jaws swelled so he
+could not open or shut his mouth to eat; then he starved.  My
+people found him near a fish pond below a rapid.  There were many
+fish.  The bear could kill them with his paw but not eat, so with
+his mouth wide open and plenty about him he died of starvation in
+that pool.
+
+"There is but one creature that can kill the Kahk that is the
+Ojeeg the big fisher weasel.  He is a devil.  He makes very
+strong medicine; the Kahk cannot harm him. He turns it on its
+back and tears open its smooth belly. It is ever so.  We not
+know, but my, father said, that it is because when in the flood
+Nana Bojou was floating on the log with Kahk and Ojeeg, Kahk was
+insolent and wanted the highest place, but Ojeeg was respectful
+to Nana Bojou, he bit the Kahk to teach him a lesson and got
+lashed with the tail of many stings.  But the Manito drew out the
+quills and said: 'It shall be ever thus; the Ojeeg shall conquer
+the Kahk and the quills of Kahk shall never do Ojeeg any harm.'"
+
+
+
+The Otter Slide
+
+It was late now and the hunters camped in the high cool woods.
+Skookum whined in his sleep so loudly as to waken them once or
+twice.  Near dawn they heard the howling of wolves and the
+curiously similar hooting of a horned owl.  There is, indeed,
+almost no differece between the short opening howl of a she-wolf
+and the long hoot of the owl.  As he listened, half awake, Rolf
+heard a whirr of wings which stopped overhead, then a familiar
+chuckle.  He sat up and saw Skookum sadly lift his misshapen head
+to gaze at a row of black-breasted grouse partridge on a branch
+above, but the poor doggie was feeling too sick to take any
+active interest.  They were not ruffed grouse, but a kindred
+kind, new to Rolf.  As he gazed at the perchers, he saw Quonab
+rise gently, go to nearest willow and cut a long slender rod at
+least two feet long; on the top of this he made a short noose of
+cord. Then he went cautiously under the watching grouse, the
+spruce partridges, and reaching up slipped the noose over the
+neck of the first one; a sharp jerk then tightened noose, and
+brought the grouse tumbling out of the tree while its companions
+merely clucked their puzzlement, made no effort to escape.
+
+A short, sharp blow put the captive out of pain.  The rod was
+reached again and a second, the lowest always, was jerked down,
+and the trick repeated till three grouse were secured.  Then only
+did it dawn on the others that they were in a most perilous
+neighbourhood, so they took flight.
+
+Rolf sat up in amazement.  Quonab dropped the three birds by the
+fire and set about preparing breakfast.
+
+"These are fool hens," he explained.  "You can mostly get them
+this way; sure, if you have a dog to help, but ruffed grouse is
+no such fool."
+
+Rolf dressed the birds and as usual threw the entrails Skookum.
+Poor little dog! he was, indeed, a sorry sight. He looked sadly
+out of his bulging eyes, feebly moved swollen jaws, but did not
+touch the food he once would have pounced on.  He did not eat
+because he could not open his mouth.
+
+At camp the trappers made a log trap and continued the line with
+blazes and deadfalls, until, after a mile, they came to a broad
+tamarack swamp, and, skirting its edge, found a small, outflowing
+stream that brought them to an eastward-facing hollow.
+Everywhere there were signs game, but they were not prepared for
+the scene that opened as they cautiously pushed through the
+thickets into a high, hardwood bush.  A deer rose out of the
+grass and stared curiously at them; then another and another
+until nearly a dozen were in sight; still farther many others
+appeared; to the left were more, and movements told of yet others
+to the right. Then their white flags went up and all loped gently
+away on the slope that rose to the north. There may have been
+twenty or thirty deer in sight, but the general effect of all
+their white tails, bobbing away, was that the woods were full of
+deer.  They seemed to be there by the hundreds and the joy of
+seeing so many beautiful live things was helped in the hunters by
+the feeling that this was their own hunting-ground.  They had,
+indeed, reached the land of plenty.
+
+The stream increased as they marched; many springs and some
+important rivulets joined on.  They found some old beaver signs
+but none new; and they left their deadfalls every quarter mile or less.
+
+The stream began to descend more quickly until it was in a long,
+narrow valley with steep clay sides and many pools.  Here they
+saw again and again the tracks and signs of otter and coming
+quietly round a turn that opened a new reach they heard a deep
+splash, then another and another.
+
+The hunters' first thought was to tie up Skookum, but a glance
+showed that this was unnecessary.  They softly dropped the packs
+and the sick dog lay meekly down beside them.  Then they crept
+forward with hunter caution, favoured by an easterly breeze.
+Their first thought was of beaver, but they had seen no recent
+sign, nor was there anything that looked like a beaver pond. The
+measured splash, splash, splash -- was not so far ahead. It might
+be a bear snatching fish, or -- no, that was too unpleasant -- a
+man baling out a canoe.  Still the slow splash, splash, went on
+at intervals, not quite regular.
+
+Now it seemed but thirty yards ahead and in the creek.
+
+With the utmost care they crawled to the edge of the clay and
+opposite they saw a sight but rarely glimpsed by man.  Here were
+six otters; two evidently full-grown, and four seeming young of
+the pair, engaged in a most hilarious and human game of tobogganing
+down a steep clay hill to plump into a deep part at its foot.
+
+Plump went the largest, presumably the father; down he went, to
+reappear at the edge, scramble out and up an easy slope to the
+top of the twenty-foot bank.  Splash, splash, splash, came three
+of the young ones; splash, splash, the mother and one of the cubs
+almost together.
+
+"Scoot" went the big male again, and the wet furslopping and
+rubbing on the long clay chute made it greasier and slipperier
+every time.
+
+Splash, plump, splash -- splash, plump, splash, went the otter
+family gleefully, running up the bank again,  eager each to be
+first, it seemed, and to do the chute the oftenest.
+
+The gambolling grace, the obvious good humour, the animal
+hilarity of it all, was absorbingly amusing.  The trappers gazed
+with pleasure that showed how near akin are naturalist and
+hunter.  Of course, they had some covetous thought connected with
+those glossy hides, but this was September still, and even otter
+were not yet prime. Shoot, plump, splash, went the happy crew
+with apparently  unabated joy and hilarity.  The slide improved
+with use and the otters seemed tireless; when all at once a loud
+but muffled yelp was heard and Skookum, forgetting all caution,
+came leaping down the bank to take a hand.
+
+With a succession of shrill, birdy chirps the old otters warned
+their young.  Plump, plump, plump, all shot into the pool, but to
+reappear, swimming with heads out, for they were but slightly
+alarmed.  This was too much for Quonob; he levelled his flintlock;
+snap, bang, it went, pointed at the old male, but he dived at the
+snap and escaped.  Down the bank now rushed the hunters,
+joined by Skookum, to attack the otters in the pool, for it was
+small and shallow; unless a burrow led from it, they were  trapped.
+
+But the otters realized the peril.  All six dashed out of the
+pool, down the open, gravelly stream the old ones uttering loud
+chirps that rang like screams.  Under the fallen logs and brush
+they glided, dodging beneath roots and over banks, pursued by the
+hunters, each armed with a club and by Skookum not armed at all.
+
+The otters seemed to know where they were going and distanced all
+but the dog.  Forgetting his own condition Skookum had almost
+overtaken one of the otter cubs when the mother wheeled about
+and, hissing and snarling, charged.  Skookum was lucky to get off
+with a slight nip, for the otter is a dangerous fighter.  But the
+unlucky dog was sent howling back to the two packs that he never
+should have left.
+
+The hunters now found an open stretch of woods through which
+Quonab could run ahead and intercept the otters as they bounded
+on down the stream bed, pursued by Rolf, who vainly tried to deal
+a blow with his club.  In a few seconds the family party was up
+to Quonab, trapped it seemed, but there is no more desperate
+assailant than an otter fighting for its young.  So far from
+being cowed the two old ones made a simultaneous, furious rush at
+the Indian.  Wholly taken by surprise, he missed with his club,
+and sprang aside to escape their jaws.   The family dashed around
+then past him, and, urged by the continuous chirps of the mother,
+they plunged under a succession of log jams and into a willow
+swamp that spread out into an ancient beaver lake and were
+swallowed up in the silent wilderness.
+
+
+
+Back to the Cabin
+
+The far end of the long swamp the stream emerged, now much
+larger, and the trappers kept on with their work.  When night
+fell they had completed fifty traps, all told, and again they
+camped without shelter overhead.
+
+Next day Skookum was so much worse that they began to fear for
+his life.  He had eaten nothing since the sad encounter.  He
+could drink a little, so Rolf made a pot of soup, and when it was
+cool the poor doggie managed to swallow some of the liquid after
+half an hour's patient endeavour.
+
+They were now on the home line; from a hill top they got a
+distant view of their lake, though it was at least five miles
+away.  Down the creek they went, still making their deadfalls at
+likely places and still seeing game tracks at the muddy spots.
+The creek came at length to an extensive,  open, hardwood bush,
+and here it was joined by another  stream that came from the
+south, the two making a small river.  From then on they seemed in
+a land of game; trails of deer were seen on the ground
+everywhere, and every few minutes they started one or two deer.
+The shady oak wood itself was flanked and varied with dense cedar
+swamps such as the deer love to winter in, and after they had
+tramped through two miles of it, the Indian said, "Good! now we
+know where to come in winter when we need meat."
+
+At a broad, muddy ford they passed an amazing number of tracks,
+mostly deer, but a few of panther, lynx, fisher, wolf, otter, and
+mink.
+
+In the afternoon they reached the lake.  The stream, quite a
+broad one here, emptied in about four miles south of the camp.
+Leaving a deadfall near its mouth they followed the shore and
+made a log trap every quarter mile just above the high water
+mark.
+
+When they reached the place of Rolf's first deer they turned
+aside to see it.  The gray jays had picked a good deal of the
+loose meat.  No large animal had troubled it, and yet in the
+neighbourhood they found the tracks of both wolves and foxes;
+
+"Ugh," said Quonab, "they smell it and come near, but they know
+that a man has been here; they are not very hungry, so keep away.
+This is good for trap."
+
+So they made two deadfalls with the carrion half way between
+them.  Then one or two more traps and they reached home, arriving
+at the camp just as darkness and a heavy rainfall began.
+
+"Good," said Quonab, "our deadfalls are ready; we have done all
+the work our fingers could not do when the weather is very cold,
+and the ground too hard for stakes to be driven.  Now the traps
+can get weathered before we go round and set them.  Yet we need
+some strong medicine, some trapper charm."
+
+Next morning he went forth with fish-line and fish-spear; he soon
+returned with a pickerel.  He filled a bottle with cut-up shreds
+of this, corked it up, and hung it on the warm, sunny side of the
+shanty.  "That will make a charm that every bear will come to, "
+he said, and left it to the action of the sun.
+
+
+
+Sick Dog Skookum
+
+Getting home is always a joy; but walking about the place in the
+morning they noticed several little things that were wrong.
+Quonab's lodge was down, the paddles that stood against the
+shanty were scattered on the ground, and a bag of venison hung
+high at the ridge was opened and empty.
+
+Quonab studied the tracks and announced "a bad old black bear; he
+has rollicked round for mischief, upsetting things.  But the
+venison he could not reach; that was a marten that ripped open
+the bag."
+
+"Then that tells what we should do; build a storehouse at the end
+of the shanty, " said Rolf, adding, "it must be tight and it must
+be cool."
+
+"Maybe! sometime before winter," said the Indian; "but now we
+should make another line of traps while the weather is fine."
+
+"No," replied the lad, "Skookum is not fit to travel now.  We
+can't leave him behind, and we can make a storehouse in three
+days."
+
+The unhappy little dog was worse than ever.  He could scarcely
+breathe, much less eat or drink, and the case was settled.
+
+First they bathed the invalid's head in water as hot as he could
+stand it.  This seemed to help him so much that he swallowed
+eagerly some soup that they poured into his mouth.  A bed was
+made for him in a sunny place and the hunters set about the new
+building.
+
+In three days the storehouse was done, excepting the chinking.
+It was October now, and a sharp night frost warned them of the
+hard white moons to come.  Quonab, as he broke the ice in a tin
+cup and glanced at the low-hung sun, said: "The leaves are
+falling fast; snow comes soon; we need another line of traps."
+
+He stopped suddenly; stared across the lake.  Rolf looked, and
+here came three deer, two bucks and a doe, trotting, walking, or
+lightly clearing obstacles, the doe in advance; the others, rival
+followers.  As they kept along the shore, they came nearer the
+cabin.  Rolf glanced at Quonab, who nodded, then slipped in, got
+down the gun, and quickly glided unseen to the river where the
+deer path landed.  The bucks did not actually fight, for the
+season was not yet on, but their horns were clean, their necks
+were swelling, and they threatened each other as they trotted
+after the leader.  They made for the ford as for some familiar
+path, and splashed through, almost without swimming.  As they
+landed, Rolf waited a clear view, then gave a short sharp "Hist!"
+It was like a word of magic, for it turned the three moving deer
+to three stony-still statues.  Rolf's sights were turned on the
+smaller buck, and when the great cloud following the bang had
+deared away, the two were gone and the lesser buck was kicking on
+the ground some fifty yards away.
+
+"We have found the good hunting; the deer walk into camp," said
+Quonab; and the product of the chase was quickly stored, the
+first of the supplies to be hung in the new storehouse.
+
+The entrails were piled up and covered with brush and stones.
+"That will keep off ravens and jays; then in winter the foxes
+will come and we can take their coats."
+
+Now they must decide for the morning.  Skookum was somewhat
+better, but still very sick, and Rolf suggested: "Quonab, you
+take the gun and axe and lay a new line.  I will stay behind and
+finish up the cabin for the winter and look after the dog."  So
+it was agreed.  The Indian left the camp alone this time and
+crossed to the east shore of the lake; there to follow up another
+stream as before and to return in three or four days to the cabin.
+
+
+
+Alone in the Wilderness
+
+Rolf began the day by giving Skookum a bath as hot as he could
+stand it, and later his soup. For the first he whined feebly and
+for the second faintly wagged his tail; but clearly he was on the
+mend.
+
+Now the chinking and moss-plugging of the new cabin required all
+attention.  That took a day and looked like the biggest job on
+hand, but Rolf had been thinking hard about the winter.  In
+Connecticut the wiser settlers used to bank their houses for the
+cold weather; in the Adiron- dacks he knew it was far, far
+colder, and he soon decided to bank the two shanties as deeply as
+possible with earth. A good spade made of white oak, with its
+edge hardened by roasting it brown, was his first necessity, and
+after two days of digging he had the cabin with its annex buried
+up to "the eyes" in fresh, clean earth.
+
+A stock of new, dry wood for wet weather helped to show how much
+too small the cabin was; and now the heavier work was done, and
+Rolf had plenty of time to think.
+
+Which of us that has been left alone in the wilderness does not
+remember the sensations of the first day!  The feeling of
+self-dependency, not unmixed with unrestraint; the ending of
+civilized thought; the total reversion to the primitive; the
+nearness of the wood-folk; a sense of intimacy;  a recurrent
+feeling of awe at the silent inexorability of all around; and a
+sweet pervading sense of mastery in the very freedom.  These were
+among the feelings that swept in waves through Rolf, and when the
+first night came, he found such comfort -- yes, he had to confess
+it -- in the company of the helpless little dog whose bed was by
+his own.
+
+But these were sensations that come not often; in the four days
+and nights that he was alone they lost all force.
+
+The hunter proverb about "strange beasts when you have no gun"
+was amply illustrated now that Quonab had gone with their only
+firearm.  The second night before turning in (he slept in the
+shanty now), he was taking a last look at the stars, when a
+large, dark form glided among the tree trunks between him and the
+shimmering lake; stopped, gazed at him, then silently disappeared
+along the shore.  No wonder that he kept the shanty door closed
+that night, and next morning when he studied the sandy ridges he
+read plainly that his night visitor had been not a lynx or a fox,
+but a prowling cougar or panther.
+
+On the third morning as he went forth in the still early dawn he
+heard a snort, and looking toward the spruce woods, was amazed to
+see towering up, statuesque, almost grotesque, with its mulish
+ears and antediluvian horns, a large bull moose.
+
+Rolf was no coward, but the sight of that monster so close to him
+set his scalp a-prickling.  He felt so  helpless without any
+firearms.  He stepped into the cabin, took down his bow and
+arrows, then gave a contemptuous  "Humph; all right for partridge
+and squirrels, but give me a rifle for the woods!"  He went out
+again; there was the moose standing as before.  The lad rushed
+toward it a few steps, shouting; it stared unmoved.  But Rolf was
+moved, and he retreated to the cabin.  Then remembering the
+potency of fire he started a blaze on the hearth.  The thick
+smoke curled up on the still air, hung low, made swishes through
+the grove, until a faint air current took a wreath of it to the
+moose.  The great nostrils drank in a draught that conveyed
+terror to the creature's soul, and wheeling it started at its
+best pace to the distant swamp, to be seen no more.
+
+Five times, during these four days, did deer come by and behave
+as though they knew perfectly well that this young human was
+harmless, entirely without the power of the far-killing mystery.
+
+How intensely Rolf wished for a gun.  How vividly came back the
+scene in the trader's store, -- when last month he had been
+offered a beautiful rifle for twenty-five dollars, to be paid for
+in fur next spring, and savagely he blamed himself for not
+realizing what a chance it was.  Then and there he made resolve
+to be the owner of a gun as soon as another chance came, and to
+make that chance come right soon.
+
+One little victory he had in that time.  The creature that had
+torn open the venison bag was still around the camp; that was
+plain by the further damage on the bag hung in the storehouse,
+the walls of which were not chinked. Mindful of Quonab's remark,
+he set two marten traps, one on the roof, near the hole that had
+been used as entry; the other on a log along which the creature
+must climb to reach the meat.  The method of setting is simple; a
+hollow is made, large enough to receive the trap as it lies open;
+on the pan of the trap some grass is laid smoothly; on each side
+of the trap a piece of prickly brush is placed, so that in
+leaping over these the creature will land on the lurking snare.
+The chain was made fast to a small log.
+
+Although so seldom seen there is no doubt that the marten comes
+out chiefly by day.  That night the trap remained unsprung; next
+morning as Rolf went at silent dawn to bring water from the lake,
+he noticed a long, dark line that proved to be ducks.  As he sat
+gazing he heard a sound in the tree beyond the cabin.  It was
+like the scratching of a squirrel climbing about.  Then he saw
+the creature, a large, dark squirrel, it seemed.  It darted up
+this tree and down that, over logs and under brush, with the
+lightning speed of a lightning squirrel, and from time to time it
+stopped still as a bump while it gazed at some far and suspicious
+object.  Up one trunk it went like a brown flash, and a moment
+later, out,  cackling from its top, flew two partridges.  Down to
+the ground, sinuous, graceful, incessantly active flashed the
+marten.  Along a log it raced in undulating leaps; in the middle
+it stopped as though frozen, to gaze intently into a bed of
+sedge; with three billowy bounds its sleek form reached the
+sedge, flashed in and out again with a mouse in its snarling
+jaws; a side leap now, and another squeaker was squeakless, and
+another.  The three were slain, then thrown aside, as the brown
+terror scanned a flight of ducks passing over.  Into a thicket of
+willow it disap- peared and out again like an eel going through
+the mud, then up a tall stub where woodpecker holes were to be
+seen. Into the largest it went so quickly Rolf could scarcely see
+how it entered, and out in a few seconds bearing a flying
+squirrel whose skull it had crushed.  Dropping the squirrel  it
+leaped after it, and pounced again on the quivering form with a
+fearsome growl; then shook it savagely, tore it apart, cast it
+aside.  Over the ground it now undulated, its shining yellow
+breast like a target of gold.  Again it stopped.  Now in pose
+like a pointer, exquisitely graceful, but oh, so wicked!  Then
+the snaky neck swung the cobra head in the breeze and the brown
+one sniffed and sniffed, advanced a few steps, tried the wind and
+the ground. Still farther and the concentrated interest showed in
+its outstretched neck and quivering tail.  Bounding into a
+thicket it went, when out of the other side there leaped a
+snowshoe rabbit, away and away for dear life. Jump, jump, jump;
+twelve feet at every stride, and faster than the eye could
+follow, with the marten close behind.  What a race it was, and
+how they twinkled through the brush! The rabbit is, indeed,
+faster, but courage counts for much, and his was low; but luck
+and his good stars urged him round to the deer trail crossing of
+the stream; once there he could not turn.  There was only one
+course.  He sprang into the open river and swam for his life.
+And the marten - why should it go in?  It hated the water; it was
+not hungry; it was out for sport, and water sport is not to its
+liking.  It braced its sinewy legs and halted at the very brink,
+while bunny crossed to the safe woods.
+
+Back now came Wahpestan, the brown death, over the logs like a
+winged snake, skimming the ground like a sinister shadow, and
+heading for the cabin as the cabin's owner watched.  Passing the
+body of the squirrel it paused to rend it again, then diving into
+the brush came out so far away and so soon that the watcher
+supposed at first that this was another marten.  Up the shanty
+corner it flashed, hardly appearing to climb, swung that yellow
+throat and dark-brown muzzle for a second, then made toward the entry.
+
+Rolf sat with staring eyes as the beautiful demon, elegantly
+spurning the roof sods, went at easy, measured bounds toward the
+open chink -- toward its doom.  One, two, three -- clearing the
+prickly cedar bush, its forefeet fell on the hidden trap; clutch,
+a savage shriek, a flashing, -- a struggle baffling the eyes to
+follow, and the master of the squirrels was himself under
+mastery.
+
+Rolf rushed forward now.  The little demon in the trap was
+frothing with rage and hate; it ground the iron with its teeth;
+it shrieked at the human foeman coming.
+
+The scene must end, the quicker the better, and even as the
+marten itself had served the flying squirrel and the mice, and as
+Quonab served the mink, so Rolf served the marten and the woods
+was still.
+
+
+
+Snowshoes
+
+That's for Annette," said Rolf, remembering his promise as he
+hung the stretched marten skin to dry.
+
+"Yi!  Yi!  Yi!" came three yelps, just as he had heard them the
+day he first met Quonab, and crossing the narrow lake he saw his
+partner's canoe.
+
+"We have found the good hunting," he said, as Rolf steadied the
+canoe at the landing and Skookum, nearly well again, wagged his
+entire ulterior person to welcome the wanderer home.  The first
+thing to catch the boy's eye was a great, splendid beaver skin
+stretched on a willow hoop.
+
+"Ho, ho!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Ugh; found another pond."
+
+"Good, good," said Rolf as he stroked the flrst beaver skin he
+had ever seen in the woods.
+
+"This is better," said Quonab, and held up the two barkstones,
+castors, or smell-glands that are found in every beaver and which
+for some hid reason have an irresistible attraction for all wild
+animals.  To us the odour is slight, but they have the power of
+intensifying, perpetuating, and projecting such odorous
+substances as may be mixed with them.  No trapper considers his
+bait to be perfect without a little of the mysterious castor.  So
+that that most  stenchable thing they had already concocted of
+fish-oil,  putrescence, sewer-gas, and sunlight, when commingled
+and multiplied with the dried-up powder of a castor, was
+intensified into a rich, rancid, gas-exhaling hell-broth as
+rapturously bewitching to our furry brothers as it is
+poisonously nauseating to ourselves -- seductive afar like the
+sweetest music, inexorable as fate, insidious as laughing-gas,
+soothing and numbing as absinthe -- this, the lure and
+caution-luller, is the fellest trick in all the trappers' code.
+As deadly as inexplicable, not a few of the states have classed
+it with black magic and declared its use a crime.
+
+But no such sentiment prevailed in the high hills of Quonab's
+time, and their preparations for a successful trapping season
+were nearly perfect.  Thirty deadfalls made by Quonab, with the
+sixty made on the first trip and a dozen steel traps, were surely
+promise of a good haul.  It was nearly November now; the fur was
+prime; then why not begin?  Because the weather was too fine.
+You must have frosty weather or the creatures taken in the
+deadfalls are spoiled before the trapper can get around.
+
+Already a good, big pile of wood was cut; both shanty and
+storeroom were chinked, plugged, and banked for the winter.  It
+was not safe yet to shoot and store a number of deer, but there
+was something they could do.  Snowshoes would soon be a necessary
+of life; and the more of this finger work they did while the
+weather was warm, the better.
+
+Birch and ash are used for frames; the former is less liable to
+split, but harder to work.  White ash was plentiful on the near
+flat, and a small ten-foot log was soon cut and split into a lot
+of long laths.  Quonab of course took charge; but Rolf followed
+in everything.  Each took a lath and shaved it down evenly until
+an inch wide and three quarters of an inch thick.  The exact
+middle was marked, and for ten inches at each side of that it was
+shaved down to half an inch in thickness.  Two flat crossbars,
+ten and twelve inches long, were needed and holes to receive
+these made half through the frame.  The pot was ready boiling and
+by using a cord from end to end of each lath they easily bent it
+in the middle and brought the wood into touch with the boiling
+water.  Before an hour the steam had so softened the wood, and
+robbed it of spring, that it was easy to make it into any desired
+shape.  Each lath was cautiously bent round; the crossbars
+slipped into their prepared sockets; a temporary lashing of cord
+kept all in place; then finally the frames were set on a level
+place with the fore end raised two inches and a heavy log put on
+the frame to give the upturn to the toe.
+
+Here they were left to dry and the Indian set about  preparing
+the necessary thongs.  A buckskin rolled in wet, hard wood ashes
+had been left in the mud hole.  Now after a week the hair was
+easily scraped off and the hide, cleaned and trimmed of all loose
+ends and tags, was spread out -- soft, white, and supple.
+Beginning outside, and following round and round the edge, Quonab
+cut a thong of rawhide as nearly as possible a quarter inch wide.
+This he carried on till there were many yards of it, and the hide
+was all used up. The second deer skin was much smaller and
+thinner. He sharpened his knife and cut it much finer, at least
+half the width of the other.    Now they were ready to lace the
+shoes, the finer for the fore and back parts, the heavy for the
+middle on which the wearer treads.  An expert squaw would have
+laughed at the rude snowshoes that were finished that day, but
+they were strong and serviceable.
+
+Naturally the snowshoes suggested a toboggan.  That was easily
+made by splitting four thin boards of ash, each six inches wide
+and ten feet long.  An up-curl was steamed on the prow of each,
+and rawhide lashings held all to the crossbars.
+
+
+
+Catching a Fox
+
+As to wisdom, a man ain't a spring; he's a tank, an' gives out
+only what he gathers" -- Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+Quonab would not quit his nightly couch in the canvas lodge so
+Rolf and Skookum stayed with him.  The dog was himself again, and
+more than once in the hours of gloom dashed forth in noisy chase
+of something which morning study of the tracks showed to have
+been foxes.  They were attracted partly by the carrion of the
+deer, partly by the general suitability of the sandy beach for a
+gambolling place, and partly by a foxy curiosity concerning the
+cabin, the hunters, and their dog.
+
+One morning after several night arousings and many raids by
+Skookum, Rolf said: "Fox is good now; why shouldn't I add some
+fox pelts to that?" and he pointed with some pride to the marten
+skin.
+
+"Ugh, good; go ahead; you will learn," was the reply.
+
+So getting out the two fox traps Rolf set to work.   Noting where
+chiefly the foxes ran or played he chose two beaten pathways and
+hid the traps carefully, exactly as he did for the marten; then
+selecting a couple of small cedar branches he cut these and laid
+them across the path, one on each side of the trap, assuming that
+the foxes  following the usual route would leap over the boughs
+and land in disaster.  To make doubly sure he put a piece of meat
+by each trap and half-way between them set a large piece on a
+stone.
+
+Then he sprinkled fresh earth over the pathways and around each
+trap and bait so he should have a record of the tracks.
+
+Foxes came that night, as he learned by the footprints along the
+beach, but never one went near his traps.  He studied the marks;
+they slowly told him all the main facts. The foxes had come as
+usual, and frolicked about.  They had discovered the bait and the
+traps at once -- how could such sharp noses miss them -- and as
+quickly noted that the traps were suspicious-smelling iron
+things, that  manscent, hand, foot, and body, were very evident
+all about; that the only inducement to go forward was some meat
+which was coarse and cold, not for a moment to be  compared with
+the hot juicy mouse meat that abounded in every meadow.  The
+foxes were well fed and unhungry. Why should they venture into
+such evident danger?  In a word, walls of stone could not have
+more completely protected the ground and the meat from the foxes
+than did the obvious nature of the traps; not a track was near,
+and many afar showed how quickly they had veered off.
+
+"Ugh, it is always so," said Quonab.  "Will you try again?  "
+
+"Yes, I will, " replied Rolf, remembering now that he had omitted
+to deodorize his traps and his boots.
+
+He made a fire of cedar and smoked his traps, chains, and all.
+Then taking a piece of raw venison he rubbed it on his leather
+gloves and on the soles of his boots,  wondering how he had
+expected to succeed the night before with all these man-scent
+killers left out.  He put fine, soft moss under the pan of each
+trap, then removed the cedar brush, and gently sprinkled all with
+fine, dry earth.  The set was perfect; no human eye could have
+told that there was any trap in the place.  It seemed a foregone
+success.
+
+"Fox don't go by eye, " was all the Indian said, for he reckoned
+it best to let the learner work it out.
+
+In the morning Rolf was up eager to see the results. There was
+nothing at all.  A fox had indeed, come within ten feet at one
+place, but behaved then as though  positively amused at the
+childishness of the whole smelly affair.  Had a man been there on
+guard with a club, he could not have kept the spot more wholly
+clear of foxes. Rolf turned away baffled and utterly puzzled.  He
+had not gone far before he heard a most terrific yelping from
+Skookum, and turned to see that trouble-seeking pup caught by the
+leg in the first trap.  It was more the horrible surprise than
+the pain, but he did howl.
+
+The hunters came quickly to the rescue and at once he was freed,
+none the worse, for the traps have no teeth; they merely hold.
+It is the long struggle and the  starvation chiefly that are
+cruel, and these every trapper  should cut short by going often
+around his line.
+
+Now Quonab took part.  "That is a good setting for some things.
+It would catch a coon, a mink, or a marten, -- or a dog -- but
+not a fox or a wolf.  They are very clever.  You shall see."
+
+The Indian got out a pair of thick leather gloves, smoked them in
+cedar, also the traps.  Next he rubbed his moccasin  soles with
+raw meat and selecting a little bay in the shore he threw a long
+pole on the sand, from the line of high, dry shingle across to
+the water's edge.  In his hand he carried a rough stake.  Walking
+carefully on the pole and standing on it, he drove the stake in
+at about four feet from the shore; then split it, and stuffed
+some soft moss into the split.  On this he poured three or four
+drops of the "smell-charm." Now he put a lump of spruce gum on
+the pan of the trap, holding a torch under it till the gum was
+fused, and into this he pressed a small, flat stone. The chain of
+the trap he fastened to a ten-pound stone of convenient shape,
+and sank the stone in the water half-way between the stake and
+the shore.  Last he placed the trap on this stone, so that when
+open everything would be under water except the flat stone on the
+pan.  Now he returned along the pole and dragged it away with
+him.
+
+Thus there was now no track or scent of human near the place.
+
+The setting was a perfect one, but even then the foxes did not go
+near it the following night; they must become used to it.  In
+their code, " A strange thing is always dangerous."  In the
+morning Rolf was inclined to scoff. But Quonab said: "Wah!  No
+trap goes first night."
+
+They did not need to wait for the second morning.  In the middle
+of the night Skookum rushed forth barking, and they followed to
+see a wild struggle, the fox leaping to escape and fast to his
+foot was the trap with its anchor stone a-dragging.
+
+Then was repeated the scene that ended the struggle of mink and
+marten.  The creature's hind feet were tied together and his body
+hung from a peg in the shanty. In the morning they gloated over
+his splendid fur and added his coat to their store of trophies.
+Following the Trap Line
+
+THAT night the moon changed.  Next day came on with a strong
+north wind. By noon the wild ducks had left the lake.  Many long
+strings of geese passed southeastward, honking as they flew.
+Colder and colder blew the strong wind, and soon the frost was
+showing on the smaller ponds.  It snowed a little, but this
+ceased.  With the clearing sky the wind fell and the frost grew
+keener.
+
+At daybreak, when the hunters rose, it was very cold. Everything
+but the open lake was frozen over, and they knew that winter was
+come; the time of trapping was at hand.  Quonab went at once to
+the pinnacle on the hill, made a little fire, then chanting the
+"Hunter's Prayer," he cast into the fire the whiskers of the fox
+and the marten, some of the beaver castor, and some tobacco.
+Then descended to prepare for the trail -- blankets, beaver
+traps, weapons, and food for two days, besides the smell-charm
+and some fish for bait.
+
+Quickly the deadfalls were baited and set; last the Indian threw
+into the trap chamber a piece of moss on which was a drop of the
+"smell," and wiped another drop on each of his moccasins.
+"Phew," said Rolf.
+
+"That make a trail the marten follow for a month," was the
+explanation.  Skookum seemed to think so too, and if he did not
+say "phew," it was because he did not know how.
+
+Very soon the little dog treed a flock of partridge and Rolf with
+blunt arrows secured three.  The breasts were saved for the
+hunters' table, but the rest with the offal and feathers made the
+best of marten baits and served for all the traps, till at noon
+they reached the beaver pond.  It was covered with ice too thin
+to bear, but the freshly used landing places were easily
+selected.  At each they set a strong, steel beaver-trap,
+concealing it amid some dry grass, and placing in a split stick a
+foot away a piece of moss in which were a few drops of the magic
+lure.  The ring on the trap chain was slipped over a long, thin,
+smooth pole which was driven deep in the mud, the top pointing
+away from the deep water.  The plan was old and proven.  The
+beaver, eager to investigate that semifriendly  smell, sets foot
+in the trap; instinctively when in danger he dives for the deep
+water; the ring slips along the pole till at the bottom and there
+it jams so that the beaver cannot rise again and is drowned."
+
+In an hour the six traps were set for the beavers; presently the
+hunters, skirmishing for more partridges, had much trouble to
+save Skookum from another porcupine disaster.
+
+They got some more grouse, baited the traps for a couple of
+miles, then camped for the night.
+
+Before morning it came on to snow and it was three inches deep
+when they arose.  There is no place on earth where the first snow
+is more beautiful than in the Adirondacks.   In early autumn
+nature seems to prepare for it. Green leaves are cleared away to
+expose the berry bunches in red; rushbeds mass their groups, turn
+golden brown and bow their heads to meet the silver load; the low
+hills and the lines of various Christmas trees are arrayed for
+the finest effect: the setting is perfect and the scene, but it
+lacks the lime light yet.  It needs must have the lavish blaze of
+white.  And when it comes like the veil on a bride, the silver
+mountings on a charger's trappings, or the golden fire in a
+sunset, the shining crystal robe is the finishing, the crowning
+glory, without which all the rest must fail, could have no bright
+completeness.  Its beauty stirred the hunters though it found no
+better expression than Rolf's simple words, "Ain't it fine,"
+while the Indian gazed in silence.
+
+There is no other place in the eastern woods where the snow has
+such manifold tales to tell, and the hunters that day tramping
+found themselves dowered over night with the wonderful power of
+the hound to whom each trail is a plain record of every living
+creature that has passed within many hours.  And though the first
+day after a storm has less to tell than the second, just as the
+second has less than the third, there was no lack of story in the
+snow.  Here sped some antlered buck, trotting along while yet the
+white was flying.  There went a fox, sneaking across the line of
+march, and eying distrustfully that deadfall.  This broad trail
+with many large tracks not far apart was made by one of Skookum's
+friends, a knight of many spears.  That bounding along was a
+marten. See how he quartered that thicket like a hound, here he
+struck our odour trail.  Mark, how he paused and whiffed it; now
+away he goes; yes, straight to our trap.
+
+"It's down; hurrah!" Rolf shouted, for there, dead under the log,
+was an exquisite marten, dark, almost black, with a great, broad,
+shining breast of gold.
+
+They were going back now toward the beaver lake. The next trap
+was sprung and empty; the next held the body of a red squirrel, a
+nuisance always and good only to rebait the trap he springs.  But
+the next held a marten, and the next a white weasel.  Others were
+unsprung, but they had two good pelts when they reached the
+beaver lake.  They were in high spirits with their good luck, but
+not prepared for the marvellous haul that now was theirs.  Each
+of the six traps held a big beaver, dead, drowned, and safe.
+Each skin was worth five dollars, and the hunters felt rich.  The
+incident had, moreover, this pleasing significance: It showed
+that these beavers were unsophisticated, so had not been hunted.
+Fifty pelts might easily be taken from these ponds.
+
+The trappers reset the traps; then dividing the load, sought a
+remote place to camp, for it does not do to light a fire near
+your beaver pond.  One hundred and fifty pounds of beaver, in
+addition, to their packs, was not a load to be taken miles away;
+within half a mile on a lower level they selected a warm place,
+made a fire, and skinned their catch.  The bodies they opened and
+hung in a tree with a view to future use, but the pelts and tails
+they carried on.
+
+They made a long, hard tramp that day, baiting all the traps and
+reached home late in the night.
+The Antler-bound Bucks
+
+IN THE man-world, November is the month of gloom, despair, and
+many suicides. In the wild world, November is the Mad Moon. Many
+and diverse the madnesses of the time, but none more insane than
+the rut of the white-tailed deer.  Like some disease it appears,
+first in the swollen necks of the antler-bearers, and then in the
+feverish habits of all. Long and obstinate combats between the
+bucks now, characterize the time; neglecting even to eat, they
+spend their days and nights in rushing about and seeking to kill.
+
+Their horns, growing steadily since spring, are now of full size,
+sharp, heavy, and cleaned of the velvet; in perfection.  For
+what?  Has Nature made them to pierce, wound, and destroy?
+Strange as it may seem, these weapons of offence are used for
+little but defence; less as spears than as bucklers they serve
+the deer in  battles with its kind.  And the long, hard combats
+are little more than wrestling and pushing bouts; almost never do
+they end fatally.  When a mortal thrust is given, it is rarely a
+gaping wound, but a sudden springing and locking of the antlers,
+whereby the two deer are bound together, inextricably,
+hopelessly, and so suffer death by starvation.  The records of
+deer killed by their rivals and left on the duel-ground are few;
+very few and far between.  The records of those killed by
+interlocking are numbered by the scores.
+
+There were hundreds of deer in this country that Rolf and Quonab
+claimed.  Half of them were bucks, and at least half of these
+engaged in combat some times or many times a day, all through
+November; that is to say, probably  a thousand duels were fought
+that month within ten miles of the cabin.  It was not surprising
+that Rolf should witness some of them, and hear many more in the
+distance.
+
+They were living in the cabin now, and during the still, frosty
+nights, when he took a last look at the stars, before turning in,
+Rolf formed the habit of listening  intently for the voices of
+the gloom.  Sometimes it was the "hoo-hoo" of the horned-owl,
+once or twice it was the long, smooth howl of the wolf; but many
+times it was the rattle of antlers that told of two bucks far up
+in the hardwoods, trying out the all-important question, "Which
+is the better buck?"
+
+One morning he heard still an occasional rattle at the same place
+as the night before.  He set out alone, after breakfast, and
+coming cautiously near, peered into a little, open space to see
+two bucks with heads joined, slowly, feebly pushing this way and
+that.  Their tongues were out; they seemed almost exhausted, and
+the trampled snow for an acre about plainly showed that they had
+been fighting for hours; that indeed these were the ones he had
+heard in the night.  Still they were evenly matched, and the
+green light in their eyes told of the ferocious spirit in each of
+these gentle-looking deer.
+
+Rolf had no difficulty in walking quite near.  If they saw him,
+they gave slight heed to the testimony of their eyes, for the
+unenergetic struggle went on until, again pausing for breath,
+they separated, raised their heads a little, sniffed, then
+trotted away from the dreaded enemy so near.  Fifty yards off,
+they turned, shook their horns, seemed in doubt whether to run
+away, join battle again, or attack the man.  Fortunately the
+first was their choice, and Rolf returned to the cabin.
+
+Quonab listened to his account, then said: "You might have been
+killed.  Every buck is crazy now.  Often they attack man.  My
+father's brother was killed by a Mad Moon buck.  They found only
+his body, torn to rags.  He had got a little way up a tree, but
+the buck had pinned him.  There were the marks, and in the snow
+they could see how he held on to the deer's horns and was dragged
+about till his strength gave out.  He had no gun.  The buck went
+off.  That was all they knew.  I would rather trust a bear than a
+deer."
+
+The Indian's words were few, but they drew a picture all too
+realistic.  The next time Rolf heard the far sound of a deer
+fight, it brought back the horror of that hopeless fight in the
+snow, and gave him a new and different feel- ing for the
+antler-bearer of the changing mood.
+
+It was two weeks after this, when he was coming in from a trip
+alone on part of the line, when his ear caught some strange
+sounds in the woods ahead; deep, sonorous, semi-human they were.
+Strange and weird wood-notes in winter are nearly sure to be
+those of a raven or a jay; if deep, they are likely to come from
+a raven.
+
+"Quok, quok, ha, ha, ha-hreww, hrrr, hooop, hooop," the diabolic
+noises came, and Rolf, coming gently forward, caught a glimpse of
+sable pinions  swooping through the lower pines.
+
+"Ho, ho, ho yah - hew - w - w - w" came the demon laughter of the
+death birds, and Rolf soon glimpsed a dozen of them in the
+branches, hopping or sometimes flying to the ground.  One
+alighted on a brown bump.  Then the bump began to move a little.
+The raven was pecking away, but again the brown bump heaved and
+the raven leaped to a near perch.  "Wah -- wah -- wah - wo - hoo
+-- yow - wow -- rrrrrr-rrrr-rrrr" -- and the other ravens joined
+in.
+
+Rolf had no weapons but his bow, his pocket knife, and a hatchet.
+He took the latter in his hand and walked gently forward; the
+hollow-voiced ravens "haw - hawed," then flew to safe perches
+where they chuckled like ghouls over some extra-ghoulish joke.
+
+The lad, coming closer, witnessed a scene that stirred him with
+mingled horror and pity.  A great, strong buck -- once strong, at
+least -- was standing, staggering, kneeling there; sometimes on
+his hind legs, spasmodically heaving and tugging at a long gray
+form on the ground, the body of another buck, his rival, dead
+now, with a broken neck, as it proved, but bearing big, strong
+antlers with which the antlers of the living buck were
+interlocked as though riveted with iron, bolted with clamps of
+steel.  With all his strength, the living buck could barely move
+his head, dragging his adversary's body with him.  The snow marks
+showed that at first he had been able to haul the carcass many
+yards; had nibbled a little at shoots and twigs; but that was
+when he was stronger, was long before.  How long?  For days, at
+least, perhaps a week, that wretched buck was dying hopelessly a
+death that would not come. His gaunt sides, his parched and
+lolling tongue, less than a foot from the snow and yet beyond
+reach, the filmy eye, whose opaque veil of death was illumined
+again with a faint fire of fighting green as the new foe came.
+The ravens had picked the eyes out of the dead buck and eaten a
+hole in its back.  They had even begun on the living buck, but he
+had been able to use one front foot to defend his eyes; still his
+plight could scarce have been more dreadful.  It made the most
+pitiful spectacle Rolf had ever seen in wild life; yes, in all
+his life.  He was full of compassion for the poor brute.  He
+forgot it as a thing to be hunted for food; thought of it only as
+a harmless, beautiful creature in dire and horrible straits; a
+fellow-being in distress; and he at once set about being its
+helper.  With hatchet in hand he came gently in front, and
+selecting an exposed part at the base of the dead buck's antler
+he gave a sharp blow with the hatchet.  The effect on the living
+buck was surprising.  He was roused to vigorous action that
+showed him far from death as yet.  He plunged, then pulled
+backward, carrying with him the carcass and the would-be rescuer.
+Then Rolf remembered the Indian's words: "You can make strong
+medicine with your mouth." He spoke to the deer, gently, softly.
+Then came nearer, and tapped o'n the horn he wished to cut;
+softly speaking and tapping he increased his force, until at last
+he was permitted to chop seriously at that prison bar.  It took
+many blows, for the antler stuff is very thick and strong at this
+time, but the horn was loose at last.  Rolf gave it a twist and
+the strong buck was free.  Free for what?
+
+Oh, tell it not among the folk who have been the wild deer's
+friend!  Hide it from all who blindly believe that gratitude must
+always follow good-will!  With unexpected energy, with pent-up
+fury, with hellish purpose, the ingrate sprang on his deliverer,
+aiming a blow as deadly as was in his power.
+
+Wholly taken by surprise, Rolf barely had time to seize the
+murderer's horns and ward them off his vitals. The buck made a
+furious lunge.  Oh! what foul fiend was it gave him then such
+force? -- and Rolf went down. Clinging for dear life to those
+wicked, shameful horns, he yelled as he never yelled before:
+"Quonab, Quonabi help me, oh, help me!"  But he was pinned at
+once, the fierce brute above him pressing on his chest, striving
+to bring its horns to bear; his only salvation had been that
+their wide spread gave his body room between.  But the weight on
+his chest was crushing out his force, his life; he had no breath
+to call again.  How the ravens chuckled, and "haw-hawed" in the
+tree!
+
+The buck's eyes gleamed again with the emerald light of murderous
+hate, and he jerked his strong neck this way and that with the
+power of madness.  It could not last for long.  The boy's
+strength was going fast; the beast was crushing in his chest.
+
+"Oh, God, help me!" he gasped, as the antlered fiend began again
+struggling for the freedom of those murderous horns.  The brute
+was almost free, when the ravens rose with loud croaks, and out
+of the woods dashed another to join the fight.  A smaller deer?
+No; what?  Rolf knew not, nor how, but in a moment there was a
+savage growl and Skookum had the murderer by the hind leg.
+Worrying and tearing he had not the strength to throw the deer,
+but his teeth were sharp, his heart was in his work, and when he
+transferred his fierce attack to parts more tender still, the
+buck, already spent, reared, wheeled, and fell. Before he could
+recover Skookum pounced upon him by the nose and hung on like a
+vice.  The buck could swing his great neck a little, and drag the
+dog, but he could not shake him off.  Rolf saw the chance, rose
+to his tottering legs, seized his hatchet, stunned the fierce
+brute with a blow. Then finding on the snow his missing knife he
+gave the hunter stroke that spilled the red life-blood and sank
+on the ground to know no more till Quonab stood beside him.
+A Song of Praise
+
+ROLF was lying by a fire when he came to, Quonab bending over him
+with a look of grave concern. When he opened his eyes, the Indian
+smiled; such a soft, sweet smile, with long, ivory rows in its
+background.
+
+Then he brought hot tea, and Rolf revived so he could sit up and
+tell the story of the morning.
+
+"He is an evil Manito," and he looked toward the dead buck; "we
+must not eat him.  You surely made medicine to bring Skookum."
+
+"Yes, I made medicine with my mouth," was the answer,  "I called,
+I yelled, when he came at me."
+
+"It is a long way from here to the cabin," was Quonab's reply.
+"I could not hear you; Skookum could not hear you; but Cos Cob,
+my father, told me that when you send out a cry for help, you
+send medicine, too, that goes farther than the cry.  May be so; I
+do not know: my father was very wise."
+
+"Did you see Skookum come, Quonab?  "
+
+"No; he was with me hours after you left, but he was restless and
+whimpered.  Then he left me and it was a long time before I heard
+him bark.  It was the 'something- wrong' bark.  I went.  He
+brought me here."
+
+"He must have followed my track all 'round the line."
+
+After an hour they set out for the cabin.  The ravens "Ha-ha-ed"
+and "Ho-ho-ed" as they went.  Quonab took the fateful horn that
+Rolf had chopped off, and hung it on a sapling with a piece of
+tobacco and a red yam streamer     ', to appease the evil spirit
+that surely was near.  There it hung for years after, until the
+sapling grew to a tree that swallowed the horn, all but the tip,
+which rotted away.
+
+Skookum took a final sniff at his fallen enemy, gave the body the
+customary expression of a dog's contempt, then led the procession
+homeward.
+
+Not that day, not the next, but on the first day of calm, red,
+sunset sky, went Quonab to his hill of worship; and when the
+little fire that he lit sent up its thread of smoke, like a
+plumb-line from the red cloud over bim, he burnt a pinch of
+tobacco, and, with face and arms upraised in the red light, he
+sang a new song:
+
+"The evil one set a trap for my son, But the Manito saved him; In
+the form of a Skookum he saved him."
+
+
+
+The Birch-bark Vessels
+
+Rolf was sore and stiff for a week afterward; so was Skookum.
+There were times when Quonab was cold, moody, and silent for
+days.  Then some milder wind would blow in the region of his
+heart and the bleak ice surface melted into running rills of
+memory or kindly emanation.
+
+Just before the buck adventure, there had been an  unpleasant
+time of chill and aloofness.  It arose over little. Since the
+frost had come, sealing the waters outside, Quonab would wash his
+hands in the vessel that was also the bread pan.  Rolf had New
+England ideas of propriety in cooking matters, and finally he
+forgot the respect due to age and experience.  That was one
+reason why he went out alone that day.  Now, with time to think
+things over, the obvious safeguard would be to have a wash bowl;
+but where to get it?  In those days, tins were scarce and ex-
+pensive.  It was the custom to look in the woods for nearly all
+the necessaries of life; and, guided by ancient custom and
+experience, they seldom looked in vain.  Rolf had seen, and
+indeed made, watering troughs, pig troughs, sap troughs, hen
+troughs, etc., all his life, and he now set to work with the axe
+and a block of basswood to hew out a trough for a wash bowl.
+With adequate tools he might have made a good one; but, working
+with an axe and a stiff arm, the result was a very heavy, crude
+affair.  It would indeed hold water, but it was almost impossible
+to dip it into the water hole, so that a dipper was needed.
+
+When Quonab saw the plan and the result, he said: "In my father's
+lodge we had only birch bark.  See; I shall make a bowl." He took
+from the storehouse a big roll of birch bark, gathered in warm
+weather (it can scarcely be done in cold), for use in repairing
+the canoe.  Selecting a good part he cut out a square, two feet
+each way, and put it in the big pot which was full of boiling
+water.  At the same time he soaked with it a bundle of wattap, or
+long fibrous roots of the white spruce, also gathered before the
+frost came, with a view to canoe repairs in the spring.
+
+While these were softening in the hot water, he cut a couple of
+long splints of birch, as nearly as possible half an inch wide
+and an eighth of an inch thick, and put them to steep with the
+bark.  Next he made two or three straddle pins or clamps, like
+clothes pegs, by splitting the ends of some sticks which had a
+knot at one end.
+
+Now he took out the spruce roots, soft and pliant, and selecting
+a lot that were about an eighth of an inch in diameter, scraped
+off the bark and roughness, until he had a bundle of perhaps ten
+feet of soft, even, white cords.
+
+The bark was laid flat and cut as below.
+
+The rounding of A and B is necessary, for the holes of the sewing
+would tear the piece off if all were on the same line of grain.
+Each corner was now folded and doubled on itself (C), then held
+so with a straddle pin (D).  The rim was trimmed so as to be flat
+where it crossed the fibre of the bark, and arched where it ran
+along.  The pliant rods of birch were bent around this, and using
+the large awl to make holes, Quonab sewed the rim rods to the
+bark with an over-lapping stitch that made a smooth finish to the
+edge, and the birch-bark wash pan was complete. (E.) Much heavier
+bark can be used if the plan F G  be followed, but it is hard to
+make it water-tight.
+
+So now they had a wash pan and a cause of friction was removed.
+Rolf found it amusing as well as useful to make other bark
+vessels of varying sizes for dippers and dunnage. It was work
+that he could do now while he was resting and recovering and he
+became expert.  After watching a fairly successful attempt at a
+box to hold fish-hooks and tackle, Quonab said: "In my father's
+lodge these would bear quill work in colours."
+
+"That's so," said Rolf, remembering the birch-bark goods often
+sold by the Indians.  "I wish we had a  porcupine now."
+
+"Maybe Skookum could find one," said the Indian, with a smile.
+
+"Will you let me kill the next Kahk we find?"
+
+"Yes, if you use the quills and burn its whiskers."
+
+"Why burn its whiskers?"
+
+"My father said it must be so.  The smoke goes straight to the
+All-above; then the Manito knows we have killed, but we have
+remembered to kill only for use and to thank Him."
+
+It was some days before they found a porcupine, and when they
+did, it was not necessary for them to kill it.  But that belongs
+to another chapter.
+
+They saved its skin with all its spears and hung it in the
+storehouse.  The quills with the white bodies and ready- made
+needle at each end are admirable for embroidering, but they are
+white only.
+
+"How can we dye them, Quonab?
+
+"In the summer are many dyes; in winter they are hard to get.  We
+can get some."
+
+So forth he went to a hemlock tree, and cut till he could gather
+the inner pink bark, which, boiled with the quills, turned them a
+dull pink; similarly, alder bark furnished rich orange, and
+butternut bark a brown.  Oak chips, with a few bits of iron in
+the pot, dyed black.
+
+"Must wait till summer for red and green," said the Indian.  "Red
+comes only from berries; the best is the blitum.  We call it
+squaw-berry and mis-caw-wa, yellow comes from the yellow root
+(Hydrastis).
+
+But black, white, orange, pink, brown, and a dull red made by a
+double dip of orange and pink, are a good range of colour.  The
+method in using the quills is simple.  An awl to make holes in
+the bark for each; the rough parts behind are concealed afterward
+with a lining of bark stitched over them; and before the winter
+was over, Rolf had made a birch-bark box, decorated lid and all,
+with por- cupine quill work, in which he kept the sable skin that
+was meant to buy Annette's new dress, the costume she had dreamed
+of, the ideal and splendid, almost unbelievable vision of her
+young life, ninety-five cents' worth of cotton print.
+
+There was one other point of dangerous friction.  Whenever  it
+fell to Quonab to wash the dishes, he simply set them on the
+ground and let Skookum lick them off.  This economical
+arrangement was satisfactory to Quonab,  delightful to Skookum,
+and apparently justified by the finished product, but Rolf
+objected.  The Indian said: "Don't he eat the same food as we do?
+You cannot tell if you do not see."
+
+Whenever he could do so, Rolf washed the doubtful dishes over
+again, yet there were many times when this was impossible, and
+the situation became very irritating.  But he knew that the man
+who loses his temper has lost the first round of the fight, so,
+finding the general idea of uncleanness without avail, he sought
+for some purely Indian argument. As they sat by the evening fire,
+one day, he led up to talk of his mother -- of her power as a
+medicine woman, of the many evil medicines that harmed her.  "It
+was evil medicine  for her if a dog licked her hand or touched
+her food. A dog licked her hand and the dream dog came to her
+three days before she died."  After a long pause, he added, "In
+some ways I am like my mother."
+
+Two days later, Rolf chanced to see his friend behind the shanty
+give Skookum the pan to clean off after they had been frying deer
+fat.  The Indian had no idea that Rolf was near, nor did he ever
+learn the truth of it.
+
+That night, after midnight, the lad rose quietly, lighted the
+pine splints that served them for a torch, rubbed some charcoal
+around each eye to make dark rings that should supply a
+horror-stricken look.  Then he started in to pound on Quonab's
+tom-tom, singing:
+
+"Evil spirit leave me;
+Dog-face do not harm me."
+
+Quonab sat up in amazement.  Rolf paid no heed, but went on,
+bawling and drumming and staring upward into vacant space.  After
+a few minutes Skookum scratched and whined at the shanty door.
+Rolf rose, took his knife, cut a bunch of hair from Skookum's
+neck and burned it in the torch, then went on singing with horrid
+solemnity:
+
+"Evil spirit leave me;
+Dog-face do not harm me."
+
+At last he turned, and seeming to discover that Quonab was
+looking on, said:
+
+"The dream dog came to me.  I thought I saw him lick deer grease
+from the frying pan behind the shanty.  He laughed, for he knew
+that he made evil medicine for me. I am trying to drive him away,
+so he cannot harm me.  I do not know.  I am like my mother.  She
+was very wise, but she died after it."
+
+Now Quonab arose, cut some more hair from Skookum, added a pinch
+of tobacco, then, setting it ablaze, he sang in the rank odour of
+the burning weed and hair, his strongest  song to kill ill magic;
+and Rolf, as he chuckled and sweetly sank to sleep, knew that the
+fight was won.  His friend would never, never more install Skookum
+in the high and sacred post of pot-licker, dishwasher, or final polisher.
+
+
+
+Snaring Rabbits
+
+The deepening snow about the cabin was marked in all the thickets
+by the multitudinous tracks of the snowshoe rabbits or white
+hares.  Occasionally  the hunters saw them, but paid little heed.
+Why should they look at rabbits when deer were plentiful?
+
+"You catch rabbit?" asked Quonab one day when Rolf was feeling
+fit again.
+
+"I can shoot one with my bow," was the answer, "but why should I,
+when we have plenty of deer?"
+
+"My people always hunted rabbits.  Sometimes no deer were to be
+found; then the rabbits were food.  Sometimes  in the enemy's
+country it was not safe to hunt, except rabbits, with blunt
+arrows, and they were food. Sometimes only squaws and children in
+camp -- nothing to eat; no guns; then the rabbits were food."
+
+"Well, see me get one," and Rolf took his bow and arrow.  He
+found many white bunnies, but always in the thickest woods.
+Again and again he tried, but the tantalizing twigs and branches
+muffled the bow and turned the arrow.  It was hours before he
+returned with a fluffy snowshoe rabbit.
+
+"That is not our way."  Quonab led to the thicket and selecting a
+place of many tracks he cut a lot of brush and made a hedge
+across with half a dozen openings.  At each of these openings he
+made a snare of strong cord tied to a long pole, hung on a
+crotch, and so arranged that a tug at the snare would free the
+pole which in turn would hoist the snare and the creature in it
+high in the air.
+
+Next morning they went around and found that four of the snares
+had each a snow-white rabbit hanging by the neck.  As he was
+handling these, Quonab felt a lump I on the hind leg of one.  He
+carefully cut it open and turned out a curious-looking object
+about the size of an acorn, flattened, made of flesh and covered
+with hair, and nearly the shape of a large bean.  He gazed at it,
+and, turning to Rolf, said with intense meaning:
+
+"Ugh! we have found the good hunting.  This is the
+Peeto-wab-oos-once, the little medicine rabbit.  Now we have
+strong medicine in the lodge.  You shall see."
+
+He went out to the two remaining snares and passed the medicine
+rabbit through each.  An hour later, when they retumed, they
+found a rabbit taken in the first snare.
+
+"It is ever so," said the Indian.  "We can always catch rabbits
+now.  My father had the Peeto-wab-i-ush once, the little medicine
+deer, and so he never failed in hunting but twice.  Then he found
+that his papoose, Quonab, had stolen his great medcine.  He was a
+very wise papoose. He killed a chipmunk each of those days."
+
+"Hark! what is that?"  A faint sound of rustling branches, and
+some short animal noises in the woods had caught Rolf's ear, and
+Skookum's, too, for he was off like one whose life is bound up in
+a great purpose.
+
+"Yap, yap, yap," came the angry sound from Skookum. Who can say
+that animals have no language?  His merry "yip, yip, yip," for
+partridge up a tree, or his long,  hilarious, "Yow, yow, yow,"
+when despite all orders he chased some deer, were totally
+distinct from the angry "Yap, yap," he gave for the bear up the
+tree, or the  "Grrryapgrryap," with which he voiced his hatred of
+the  porcupine.
+
+But now it was the "Yap, yap," as when he had treed the bears.
+
+"Something up a tree," was the Indian's interpretation, as they
+followed the sound.  Something up a tree!  A whole menagerie it
+seemed to Rolf when they got there. Hanging by the neck in the
+remaining snare, and limp now, was a young lynx, a kit of the
+year.  In the adjoining  tree, with Skookum circling and yapping
+'round the base, was a savage old lynx.  In the crotch above her
+was another young one, and still higher was a third, all looking
+their unutterable disgust at the noisy dog below; the mother,
+indeed, expressing it in occasional hisses, but none of them
+daring to come down and face him.  The lynx is very good fur and
+very easy prey.  The Indian brought the old one down with a shot;
+then, as fast as he could reload, the others were added to the
+bag, and, with the one from the snare, they returned laden to the
+cabin.
+
+The Indian's eyes shone with a peculiar light.  "Ugh! Ugh!  My
+father told me; it is great medicine.  You see, now, it does not
+fail.
+
+
+
+Something Wrong at the Beaver Traps
+
+Once they had run the trap lines, and their store of furs
+was increasing finely. They had taken twenty-five beavers and
+counted on getting two or three each time they went to the ponds.
+But they got an unpleasant surprise in December, on going to the
+beaver grounds, to find all the traps empty and unmistakable
+signs that some man had been there and had gone off with the
+catch.  They followed the dim trail of his snowshoes, half hidden
+by a recent wind, but night came on with more snow, and all signs
+were lost.
+
+The thief had not found the line yet, for the haul of marten and
+mink was good.  But this was merely the beginning.
+
+The trapper law of the wilderness is much like all primitive
+laws; first come has first right, provided he is able to hold it.
+If a strong rival comes in, the first must fight as best he can.
+The law justifies him in anything he may do, if he succeeds.  The
+law justifies the second in anything he may do, except murder.
+That is, the defender may shoot to kill; the offender may not.
+
+But the fact of Quonab's being an Indian and Rolf supposedly one,
+would turn opinion against them in the Adirondacks, and it was
+quite likely that the rival  considered them trespassers on his
+grounds, although the fact that he robbed their traps without
+removing them, and kept out of sight, rather showed the guilty
+conscience of a self-accused  poacher.
+
+He came in from the west, obviously; probably the Racquet River
+country; was a large man, judging by his foot and stride, and
+understood trapping; but lazy, for he set no traps.  His
+principal object seemed to be to steal.
+
+And it was not long before he found their line of marten traps,
+so his depredations increased.  Primitive emotions are near the
+surface at all times, and under primitive  conditions are very
+ready to appear.  Rolf and Quonab felt that now it was war.
+
+
+
+The Pekan or Fisher
+
+There was one large track in the snow that they saw several times
+-- it was like that of a marten, but much larger.  "Pekan," said
+the Indian, "the big marten; the very strong one, that fights
+without fear."
+
+"When my father was a papoose he shot an arrow at a pekan.  He
+did not know what it was; it seemed only a big black marten.  It
+was wounded, but sprang from the tree on my father's breast.  It
+would have killed him, but for the dog; then it would have killed
+the dog, but my  grandfather was near.
+
+"He made my father eat the pekan's heart, so his heart might be
+like it.  It sought no fight, but it turned, when struck, and
+fought without fear.  That is the right way; seek peace, but
+fight without fear.  That was my father's heart and mine."  Then
+glancing toward the west he continued in a tone of menace: "That
+trap robber will find it so.  We sought no fight, but some day I
+kill him."
+
+The big track went in bounds, to be lost in a low, thick woods.
+But they met it again.
+
+They were crossing a hemlock ridge a mile farther on, when they
+came to another track which was first a long, deep furrow, some
+fifteen inches wide, and in this were the wide-spread prints of
+feet as large as those of a fisher.
+
+"Kahk," said Quonab, and Skookum said "Kahk," too, but he did it
+by growling and raising his back hair, and doubtless also by
+sadly remembering.  His discretion seemed as yet embryonic, so
+Rolf slipped his sash through the dog's collar, and they followed
+the track, for the porcupine  now stood in Rolf's mind as a sort
+of embroidery outfit.
+
+They had not followed far before another track joined on -- the
+track of the fisher-pekan; and soon after they heard in the woods
+ahead scratching sounds, as of something  climbing, and once or
+twice a faint, far, fighting snarl.
+
+Quickly tying the over-valiant Skookum to a tree, they crept
+forward, ready for anything, and arrived on the scene of a very
+peculiar action.
+
+Action it was, though it was singularly devoid of action. First,
+there was a creature, like a huge black marten or a short-legged
+black fox, standing at a safe distance, while, partly hidden
+under a log, with hind quarters and tail only exposed, was a
+large porcupine.  Both were very still, but soon the fisher
+snarled and made a forward lunge.  The porcupine, hearing the
+sounds or feeling the snow dash up on that side, struck with its
+tail; but the fisher kept out of reach.  Next a feint was made on
+the other side, with the same result; then many, as though the
+fisher were trying to tire out the tail or use up all its quills.
+
+Sometimes the assailant leaped on the log and teased the
+quill-pig to strike upward, while many white daggers already sunk
+in the bark showed that these tactics had been going on for some
+time.
+
+Now the two spectators saw by the trail that a similar battle had
+been fought at another log, and that the  porcupine trail from
+that was spotted with blood.  How the fisher had forced it out
+was not then clear, but soon became so.
+
+After feinting till the Kahk would not strike, the pekan began a
+new manceuvre.  Starting on the opposite side of the log that
+protected the spiny one's nose, he burrowed quickly through the
+snow and leaves.  The log was about three inches from the ground,
+and before the porcupine  could realize it, the fisher had a
+space cleared and seized the spiny one by its soft, unspiny nose.
+Grunting and squealing it pulled back and lashed its terrible
+tail. To what effect?  Merely to fill the log around with quills.
+With all its strength the quill-pig pulled and writhed, but the
+fisher was stronger.  His claws enlarged the hole and when the
+victim ceased from exhaustion, the fisher made a forward dash and
+changed his hold from the tender nose to the still more tender
+throat of the porcupine.  His hold was not deep enough and square
+enough to seize the windpipe,  but he held on.  For a minute or
+two the struggles of Kahk were of desperate energy and its
+lashing tail began to be short of spines, but a red stream
+trickling from the wound was sapping its strength.  Protected by
+the log, the fisher had but to hold on and play a waiting game.
+
+The heaving and backward pulling of Kahk were very feeble at
+length; the fisher had nearly finished the fight.  But he was
+impatient of further delay and backing out of the hole he mounted
+the log, displaying a much scratched nose; then reaching down
+with deft paw, near the quill-pig's shoulder, he gave a sudden
+jerk that threw the former over on its back, and before it could
+recover, the fisher's jaws closed on its ribs, and crushed and
+tore.  The nerveless, almost quilless tail could not harm him
+there.  The red blood flowed and the porcupine lay still.  Again
+and again as he uttered chesty growls the pekan ground his teeth
+into the warm flesh and shook and worried the unconquerable  one
+he had conquered.  He was licking his bloody chops for the
+twentieth time, gloating in gore, when "crack" went Quonab's gun,
+and the pekan had an  opportunity of resuming the combat with
+Kahk far away in the Happy Hunting.
+
+"Yap, yap, yap!" and in rushed Skookum, dragging the end of
+Rolf's sash which he had gnawed through in his determination to
+be in the fight, no matter what it cost; and it was entirely due
+to the fact that the porcupine was belly up, that Skookum did not
+have another hospital experience.
+
+This was Rolf's first sight of a fisher, and he examined it as
+one does any animal -- or man -- that one has so long heard
+described in superlative terms that it has become idealized into
+a semi-myth.  This was the desperado of the woods; the weird
+black cat that feared no living thing. This was the only one that
+could fight and win against Kahk.
+
+They made a fire at once, and while Rolf got the mid-day meal of
+tea and venison, Quonab skinned the fisher.  Then he cut out its
+heart and liver.  When these were cooked he gave the first to
+Rolf and the second to Skookum, saying to the one, "I give you a
+pekan heart;" and to the dog, "That will force all of the quills
+out of you if you play the fool again, as I think you will."
+
+In the skin of the fisher's neck and tail they found  several
+quills, some of them new, some of them dating  evidently from
+another fight of the same kind, but none of them had done any
+damage.  There was no inflammation or sign of poisoning.  "It is
+ever so," said Quonab, "the quills cannot hurt him."  Then,
+turning to the porcupine, he remarked, as he prepared to skin it:
+
+"Ho, Kahk! you see now it was a big mistake you did not let Nana
+Bojou sit on the dry end of that log."
+
+
+
+The Silver Fox
+
+They were returning to the cabin, one day, when Quonab stopped
+and pointed.  Away off on the snow of the far shore was a moving
+shape to be seen.
+
+"Fox, and I think silver fox; he so black.  I think he lives
+there."
+
+"Why?"   "I have seen many times a very big fox track, and they
+do not go where they do not live.  Even in winter they keep their
+own range."
+
+"He's worth ten martens, they say?" queried Rolf.
+
+"Ugh! fifty."
+
+"Can't we get him?"
+
+"Can try.  But the water set will not work in winter; we must try
+different."
+
+This was the plan, the best that Quonab could devise for the
+snow: Saving the ashes from the fire (dry sand would have
+answered), he selected six open places in the woods on the south
+of the lake, and in each made an ash bed on which he scattered
+three or four drops of the  smell-charm.  Then, twenty-five yards
+from each, on the north or west side (the side of the prevailing
+wind) he hung from some sapling a few feathers, a partridge wing
+or tail with some red yarns to it.  He left the places unvisited
+for two weeks, then returned to learn the progress of act one.
+
+Judging from past experience of fox nature and from the few signs
+that were offered by the snow, this is what had happened: A fox
+came along soon after the trappers left, followed the track a
+little way, came to the first  opening, smelled the seductive
+danger-lure, swung around it, saw the dangling feathers, took
+alarm, and went off. Another of the places had been visited by a
+marten.  He had actually scratched in the ashes.  A wolf had gone
+around another at a safe distance.
+
+Another had been shunned several times by a fox or by foxes, but
+they had come again and again and at last yielded to the
+temptation to investigate the danger-smell; finally had rolled in
+it, evidently wallowing in an abandon of delight.  So far, the
+plan was working there.
+
+The next move was to set the six strong fox traps, each
+thoroughly smoked, and chained to a fifteen-pound block of wood.
+
+Approaching the place carefully and using his blood-rubbed
+glove, Quonab set in each ash pile a trap.  Under its face he put
+a wad of white rabbit fur.  Next he buried all in the ashes,
+scattered a few bits of rabbit and a few drops of smell-charm,
+then dashed snow over the place, renewed the dangling feathers to
+lure the eye; and finally left the rest to the weather.
+
+Rolf was keen to go the next day, but the old man said: "Wah! no
+good! no trap go first night; man smell too strong."  The second
+day there was a snowfall, and the third morning Quonab said, "Now
+seem like good time."
+
+The first trap was untouched, but there was clearly the track of
+a large fox within ten yards of it.
+
+The second was gone.  Quonab said, with surprise in his voice,
+"Deer!"  Yes, truly, there was the record. A deer -- a big one --
+had come wandering past; his keen nose soon apprised him of a
+strong, queer appeal near by.  He had gone unsuspiciously toward
+it, sniffed and pawed the unaccountable and exciting nose
+medicine; then "snap!" and he had sprung a dozen feet, with that
+diabolic smell-thing hanging to his foot.  Hop, hop, hop, the
+terrified deer had gone into a slashing windfall.  Then the drag
+had caught on the logs, and, thanks to the hard and taper hoofs,
+the trap had slipped off and been left behind, while the deer had
+sought safer regions.
+
+In the next trap they found a beautiful marten dead, killed at
+once by the clutch of steel.  The last trap was gone, but the
+tracks and the marks told a tale that any one could read; a fox
+had been beguiled and had gone off, dragging the trap and log.
+Not far did they need to go; held in a thicket they found him,
+and Rolf prepared the mid-day meal while Quonab gathered the
+pelt.  After removing the skin the Indian cut deep and carefully
+into the body of the fox and removed the bladder.  Its  contents
+sprinkled near each of the traps was good medicine, he said; a
+view that was evidently shared by Skookum.
+
+More than once they saw the track of the big fox of the region,
+but never very near the snare.  He was too clever to be fooled by
+smell-spells or kidney products, no matter how temptingly
+arrayed.  The trappers did, indeed, capture three red foxes; but
+it was at cost of great labour.  It was a venture that did not
+pay.  The silver fox was there, but he took too good care of his
+precious hide.  The slightest hint of a man being near was enough
+to treble his already double wariness.  They would never have
+seen him near at hand, but for a stirring episode that told a
+tale of winter hardship.
+
+
+
+The Humiliation of Skookum
+
+If Skookum could have been interviewed by a newspaper  man, he
+would doubtless have said: "I am a very remarkable dog.  I can
+tree partridges. I'm death on porcupines.  I am pretty good in a
+dog fight; never was licked in fact: but my really marvellous
+gift is my speed; I'm a terror to run."
+
+Yes, he was very proud of his legs, and the foxes that came about
+in the winter nights gave him many opportunities  of showing what
+he could do.  Many times over he very nearly caught a fox.
+Skookum did not know that these wily ones were playing with him;
+but they were, and enjoyed it immensely.
+
+The self-sufficient cur never found this out, and never lost a
+chance of nearly catching a fox.  The men did not see those
+autumn chases because they were by night; but foxes hunt much by
+day in winter, perforce, and are often seen; and more than once
+they witnessed one of these farcical races.
+
+And now the shining white furnished background for a much more
+important affair.
+
+It was near sundown one day when a faint fox bark was heard out
+on the snow-covered ice of the lake.
+
+"That's for me," Skookum seemed to think, and jumping  up, with a
+very fierce growl, he trotted forth; the men looked first from
+the window.  Out on the snow, sitting on his haunches, was their
+friend, the big, black silver fox.
+
+Quonab reached for his gun and Rolf tried to call Skookum, but it
+was too late.  He was out to catch that fox; their business was
+to look on and applaud.  The fox sat on his haunches, grinning
+apparently, until Skookum dashed through the snow within twenty
+yards.  Then, that shining, black fox loped gently away, his huge
+tail level out behind him, and Skookum, sure of success, raced
+up, within six or seven yards.  A few more leaps now, and the
+victory would be won.  But somehow he could not close that six or
+seven yard gap.  No matter how he strained and leaped, the great
+black brush was just so far ahead.  At first they had headed for
+the shore, but the fox wheeled back to the ice and up and down.
+Skookum felt it was because escape was hopeless, and he redoubled
+his effort.  But all in vain.  He was only wearing himself out,
+panting noisily now.  The snow was deep enough to be a great
+disadvantage, more to dog than to fox, since weight counted as
+such a handicap.  Unconsciously Skookum  slowed up.  The fox
+increased his headway; then audaciously turned around and sat
+down in the snow.
+
+This was too much for the dog.  He wasted about a lungful of air
+in an angry bark, and again went after the enemy.  Again the
+chase was round and round, but very soon the dog was so wearied
+that he sat down, and now the black fox actually came back and
+barked at him.
+
+It was maddening.  Skookum's pride was touched.
+
+He was in to win or break.  His supreme effort brought him within
+five feet of that white-tipped brush.  Then, strange to tell, the
+big black fox put forth his large reserve of speed, and making
+for the woods, left Skookum far behind.  Why?  The cause was
+clear.  Quonab, after vainly watching for a chance to shoot, that
+would not endanger the dog, had, under cover, crept around the
+lake and now was awaiting in a thicket.  But the fox's keen nose
+had warned him.  He knew that the funny part was over, so ran for
+the woods and disappeared as a ball tossed up the snow behind
+him.
+
+Poor Skookum's tongue was nearly a foot long as he walked meekly
+ashore.  He looked depressed; his tail was depressed; so were his
+ears; but there was nothing to show whether he would have told
+that reporter that he "wasn't feeling up to his usual, to-day,"
+or "Didn't you see me get the best of him?"
+
+
+
+The Rarest of Pelts
+
+They saw that silver fox three or four times during the winter,
+and once found that he had had the audacity to jump from a high
+snowdrift onto the storehouse and thence to the cabin roof, where
+he had feasted on some white rabbits kept there for deadfall
+baits.  But all attempts to trap or shoot him were vain, and
+their acquaintance might have ended as it began, but for an
+accident.
+
+It proved a winter of much snow.  Heavy snow is the worst
+misfortune that can befall the wood folk in fur.  It hides their
+food beyond reach, and it checks their movements  so they can
+neither travel far in search of provender nor run fast to escape
+their enemies.  Deep snow then means fetters, starvation, and
+death.  There are two ways of meeting the problem: stilts and
+snowshoes.  The second is far the better.  The caribou, and the
+moose have stilts; the rabbit, the panther, and the lynx wear
+snowshoes.  When there are three or four feet of soft snow, the
+lynx is king of all small beasts, and little in fear of the large
+ones.  Man on his snowshoes has most wild four-foots at his
+mercy.
+
+Skookum, without either means of meeting the trouble was left
+much alone in the shanty.  Apparently, it was on one of these
+occasions that the silver fox had driven him nearly frantic by
+eating rabbits on the roof above him.
+
+The exasperating robbery of their trap line had gone on
+irregularly all winter, but the thief was clever enough or lucky
+enough to elude them.
+
+They were returning to the cabin after a three days' round, when
+they saw, far out on the white expanse of the lake, two animals,
+alternately running and fighting. "Skookum and the fox," was the
+first thought that came, but on entering the cabin Skookum
+greeted them in person.
+
+Quonab gazed intently at the two running specks and said: "One
+has no tail.  I think it is a peeshoo (lynx) and a fox."
+
+Rolf was making dinner.  From time to time he glanced over the
+lake and saw the two specks, usually running.  After dinner was
+over, he said, "Let's sneak 'round and see if we can get a shot."
+
+So, putting on their snowshoes and keeping out of sight, they
+skimmed over the deer crossing and through the woods, till at a
+point near the fighters, and there they saw something that
+recalled at once the day of Skookum's humiliation.
+
+A hundred yards away on the open snow was a huge lynx and their
+old friend, the black and shining silver fox, face to face; the
+fox desperate, showing his rows of beautiful teeth, but sinking
+belly deep in the snow as he strove to escape.  Already he was
+badly wounded.  In any case he was at the mercy of the lynx who,
+in spite of his greater weight, had such broad and perfect
+snowshoes that he skimmed on the surface, while the fox's small
+feet sank deep.  The lynx was far from fresh, and still stood in
+some awe of those rows of teeth that snapped like traps when he
+came too near.  He was minded, of course, to kill his black
+rival, but not to be hurt in doing so.  Again and again there was
+in some sort a closing fight, the wearied fox plunging
+breathlessly through the treacherous, relentless  snow.  If he
+could only get back to cover, he might find a corner to protect
+his rear and have some fighting chance for life.  But wherever he
+turned that huge cat faced him, doubly armed, and equipped as a
+fox can never be for the snow.
+
+No one could watch that plucky fight without feeling his
+sympathies go out to the beautiful silver fox.  Rolf, at least,
+was for helping him to escape, when the final onset came.  In
+another dash for the woods the fox plunged out of sight in a
+drift made soft by sedge sticking through, and before he could
+recover, the lynx's jaws closed on the back of his neck and the
+relentless claws had pierced his vitals.
+
+The justification of killing is self-preservation, and in this
+case the proof would have been the lynx making a meal of the fox.
+Did he do so?  Not at all.  He shook his fur, licked his chest
+and paws in a self-congratulatory way, then giving a final tug at
+the body, walked calmly over the snow along the shore.
+
+Quonab put the back of his hand to his mouth and made a loud
+squeaking, much like a rabbit caught in a snare. The lynx
+stopped, wheeled, and came trotting straight toward the promising
+music.  Unsuspectingly he came within twenty yards of the
+trappers.  The flint-lock banged and the lynx was kicking in the
+snow.
+
+The beautiful silver fox skin was very little injured and proved
+of value almost to double their catch so far; while the lynx skin
+was as good as another marten.
+
+They now had opportunity of studying the tracks and learned that
+the fox had been hunting rabbits in a thicket when he was set on
+by the lynx.  At first he had run around in the bushes and saved
+himself from serious  injury, for the snow was partly packed by
+the rabbits.  After perhaps an hour of this, he had wearied and
+sought to save himself by abandoning the lynx's territory, so had
+struck across the open lake.  But here the snow was too soft to
+bear him at all, and the lynx could still skim over.  So it
+proved a fatal error.  He was strong and brave.  He fought at
+least another hour here before the much stronger, heavier lynx
+had done him to death.  There was no  justification.  It was a
+clear case of tyrannical murder, but in this case vengeance was
+swift and justice came sooner than its wont.
+
+
+
+The Enemy's Fort
+
+It pays 'bout once in  a hundred times to git mad, but there
+ain't any  way o' tellin' beforehand which is the time
+- Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+It generally took two days to run the west line of traps.   At a
+convenient point they had built a rough shack for a half-way
+house.  On entering this one day, they learned that since their
+last visit it had been occupied by some one who chewed tobacco.
+Neither of them had this habit.  Quonab's face grew darker each
+time fresh evidence of the enemy was discovered, and the final
+wrong was added soon.
+
+Some trappers mark their traps; some do not bother. Rolf had
+marked all of theirs with a file, cutting notches on the iron.
+Two, one, three, was their mark, and it was a wise plan, as it
+turned out.
+
+On going around the west beaver pond they found that all six
+traps had disappeared.  In some, there was no evidence of the
+thief; in some, the tracks showed clearly that they were taken by
+the same interloper that had bothered them all along, and on a
+jagged branch was a short blue yarn.
+
+"Now will I take up his trail and kill him," said the Indian.
+
+Rolf had opposed extreme measures, and again he  remonstrated.
+To his surprise, the Indian turned fiercely and said: "You know
+it is white man.  If he was Indian would you be patient?  No!"
+
+"There is plenty of country south of the lake; maybe he was here first."
+
+"You know he was not.  You should eat many pekan hearts.  I have
+sought peace, now I fight."
+
+He shouldered his pack, grasped his gun, and his  snowshoes went
+"tssape, tssape, tssape," over the snow.
+
+Skookum was sitting by Rolf.  He rose to resume the march, and
+trotted a few steps on Quonab's trail.  Rolf did not move; he was
+dazed by the sudden and painful situation.  Mutiny is always
+worse than war.  Skookum looked back, trotted on, still Rolf sat
+staring.  Quonab's figure was lost in the distance; the dog's was
+nearly so. Rolf moved not.  All the events of the last year were
+rushing through his mind; the refuge he had found with the
+Indian; the incident of the buck fight and the tender nurse the
+red man proved.  He wavered.  Then he saw Skookum coming back on
+the trail.  The dog trotted up to the boy and dropped a glove,
+one of Quonab's.  Undoubtedly  the Indian had lost it; Skookum
+had found it on the trail and mechanically brought it to the
+nearest of his  masters.  Without that glove Quonab's hand would
+freeze.  Rolf rose and sped along the other's trail.  Having
+taken the step, he found it easy to send a long halloo, then
+another and another, till an answer came.  In a few minutes Rolf
+came up. The Indian was sitting on a log, waiting.  The glove was
+handed over in silence, and received with a grunt.
+
+After a minute or two, Rolf said "Let's get on," and started on
+the dim trail of the robber.
+
+For an hour or two they strode in silence.  Then their course
+rose as they reached a rocky range.  Among its bare, wind-swept
+ridges all sign was lost, but the Indian kept on till they were
+over and on the other side.  A far cast in the thick, windless
+woods revealed the trail again, surely the same, for the snowshoe
+was two fingers wider on every side, and a hand-breadth longer
+than Quonab's; be- sides the right frame had been broken and the
+binding of rawhide was faintly seen in the snow mark.  It was a
+mark they had seen all winter, and now it was headed as before
+for the west.
+
+When night came down, they camped in a hollow.  They were used to
+snow camps.  In the morning they went on, but wind and snow had
+hidden their tell-tale guide.
+
+What was the next move?  Rolf did not ask, but  wondered.
+
+Quonab evidently was puzzled.
+
+At length Rolf ventured: "He surely lives by some river -- that
+way -- and within a day's journey.  This track is gone, but we
+may strike a fresh one.  We'll know it when we see it."
+
+The friendly look came back to the Indian's face.  "You are
+Nibowaka."
+
+They had not gone half a mile before they found a fresh track --
+their old acquaintance.  Even Skookum showed his hostile
+recognition.  And in a few minutes it led them to a shanty.  They
+slipped off their snowshoes, and hung them in a tree.  Quonab
+opened the door without knocking.   They entered, and in a moment
+were face to face with a lanky, ill-favoured white man that all
+three, including  Skookum, recognized as Hoag, the man they had
+met at the trader's.
+
+That worthy made a quick reach for his rifle, but Quonab covered
+him and said in tones that brooked no discussion, "Sit down!"
+
+Hoag did so, sullenly, then growled: "All right; my partners will
+be here in ten minutes."
+
+Rolf was startled.  Quonab and Skookum were not.
+
+"We settled your partners up in the hills," said the former,
+knowing that one bluff was as good as another. Skookum growled
+and sniffed at the enemy's legs.  The prisoner made a quick move
+with his foot.
+
+"You kick that dog again and it's your last kick," said the Indian.
+
+"Who's kicked yer dog, and what do you mean coming here with yer
+cutthroat ways?  You'll find there's law in this country before
+yer through," was the answer.
+
+"That's what we're looking for, you trap robber, you thief.
+We're here first to find our traps; second to tell you this: the
+next time you come on our line there'll be meat for the ravens.
+Do you suppose I don't know them? and the Indian pointed to a
+large pair of snowshoes with long heels and a repair lashing on
+the right frame.  "See that blue yarn," and the Indian matched it
+with a blue sash hanging to a peg.
+
+"Yes, them belongs to Bill Hawkins; he'll be 'round in five
+minutes now."
+
+The Indian made a gesture of scorn; then turning to Rolf said:
+"look 'round for our traps." Rolf made a thorough search in and
+about the shanty and the adjoining shed. He found some traps but
+none with his mark; none of a familiar make even.
+
+"Better hunt for a squaw and papoose," sneered Hoag, who was
+utterly puzzled by the fact that now Rolf was obviously a white
+lad.
+
+But all the search was vain.  Either Hoag had not stolen the
+traps or had hidden them elsewhere.  The only large traps they
+found were two of the largest size for taking bear.
+
+Hoag's torrent of bad language had been quickly checked by the
+threat of turning Skookum loose on his legs, and he looked such a
+grovelling beast that presently the visitors decided to leave him
+with a warning.
+
+The Indian took the trapper's gun, fired it off out of doors, not
+in the least perturbed by the possibility of its being heard by
+Hoag's partners.  He knew they were imaginary.   Then changing
+his plan, he said "Ugh! You find your gun in half a mile on our
+trail.  But don't come farther and don't let me see the snowshoe
+trail on the divide again. Them ravens is awful hungry."
+
+Skookum, to his disappointment, was called off and, talking the
+trapper's gun for a time, they left it in a bush and made for
+their own country.
+
+
+
+Skookum's Panther
+
+"Why are there so few deer tracks now?"
+
+"Deer yarded for winter," replied the Indian; no travel in deep snow."
+
+"We'll soon need another," said Rolf, which unfortunately  was
+true.  They could have killed many deer in early winter, when the
+venison was in fine condition, but they had no place to store it.
+Now they must get it as they could, and of course it was thinner
+and poorer every week.
+
+They were on a high hill some days later.  There was a clear view
+and they noticed several ravens circling and swooping.
+
+"Maybe dead deer; maybe deer yard," said the Indian.
+
+It was over a thick, sheltered, and extensive cedar swamp near
+the woods where last year they had seen so many deer, and they
+were not surprised to find deer tracks in numbers, as soon as
+they got into its dense thicket.
+
+A deer yard is commonly supposed to be a place in which the deer
+have a daily "bee" at road work all winter long and deliberately
+keep the snow hammered down so they can run on a hard surface
+everywhere within its limits.  The fact is, the deer gather in a
+place where there is plenty of food and good shelter.  The snow
+does not drift here, so the deer, by continually moving about,
+soon make a network of tracks in all directions, extending them
+as they must to seek more food.  They may, of course, leave the
+yard at any time, but at once they encounter the dreaded obstacle
+of deep, soft snow in which they are helpless.
+
+Once they reached the well-worn trails, the hunters took off
+their snowshoes and went gently on these deer paths. They saw one
+or two disappearing forms, which taught them the thick cover was
+hiding many more.  They made for the sound of the ravens, and
+found that the feast of the sable birds was not a deer but the
+bodies of three, quite recently killed.
+
+Quonab made a hasty study of the signs and said, "Panther."
+
+Yes, a panther, cougar, or mountain lion also had found the deer
+yard; and here he was living, like a rat in a grocer shop with
+nothing to do but help himself whenever he felt like feasting.
+
+Pleasant for the panther, but hard on the deer; for the killer is
+wasteful and will often kill for the joy of murder.
+
+Not a quarter of the carcasses lying here did he eat; he was
+feeding at least a score of ravens, and maybe foxes, martens, and
+lynxes as well.
+
+Before killing a deer, Quonab thought it well to take a quiet
+prowl around in hopes of seeing the panther.  Skookum was turned
+loose and encouraged to display his talents.
+
+Proud as a general with an ample and obedient following, he
+dashed ahead, carrying fresh dismay among the deer, if one might
+judge from the noise.  Then he found some new smell of
+excitement, and voiced the new thrill in a new sound, one not
+unmixed with fear.  At length his barking was far away to the
+west in a rocky part of the woods.  Whatever the prey, it was
+treed, for the voice kept one place.
+
+The hunters followed quickly and found the dog yapping  furiously
+under a thick cedar.  The first thought was of porcupine; but a
+nearer view showed the game to be a huge panther on the ground,
+not greatly excited,  disdaining to climb, and taking little
+notice of the dog,  except to curl his nose and utter a hissing
+kind of snarl when the latter came too near.
+
+But the arrival of the hunters gave a new colour to the picture.
+The panther raised his head, then sprang up a large tree and
+ensconced himself on a fork, while the valorous  Skookum reared
+against the trunk, threatening loudly to come up and tear him to
+pieces.
+
+This was a rare find and a noble chance to conserve their stock
+of deer, so the hunters went around the tree seeking for a fair
+shot.  But every point of view had some serious obstacle.  It
+seemed as though the branches had been told off to guard the
+panther's vitals, for a big one always stood in the bullet's way.
+
+After vainly going around, Quonab said to Rolf: "Hit him with
+something, so he'll move."
+
+Rolf always was a good shot with stones, but he found none to
+throw.  Near where they stood, however, was an unfreezing spring,
+and the soggy snow on it was easily packed into a hard, heavy
+snowball.  Rolf threw it straight, swift, and by good luck it hit
+the panther square on the nose and startled him so that he sprang
+right out of the tree and flopped into the snow.
+
+Skookum was on him at once, but got a slap on the ear that
+changed his music, and the panther bounded away out of sight with
+the valiant Skookum ten feet behind, whooping and yelling like
+mad.
+
+It was annoyance rather than fear that made that  panther take to
+a low tree while Skookum boxed the compass, and made a beaten dog
+path all around him.  The hunters approached very carefully now,
+making little sound and keeping out of sight.  The panther was
+wholly engrossed with observing the astonishing impudence of that
+dog, when Quonab came quietly up, leaned his rifle against a tree
+and fired.  The smoke cleared to show the panther on his back,
+his legs convulsively waving in the air, and Skookum tugging
+valiantly at his tail.
+
+"My panther," he seemed to say; "whatever would you do without me?"
+
+A panther in a deer yard is much like a wolf shut up in a
+sheepfold.  He would probably have killed all the deer that
+winter, though there were ten times as many as he needed for
+food; and getting rid of him was a piece of good luck for hunters
+and deer, while his superb hide made a noble trophy that in years
+to come had unexpected places of honour.
+
+
+
+Sunday in the Woods
+
+Rolf still kept to the tradition of Sunday, and Quonab had in a
+manner accepted it.  It was a curious fact that the red man had
+far more toleration for the white man's religious ideas than the
+white man had for the red's.
+
+Quonab's songs to the sun and the spirit, or his burning of a
+tobacco pinch, or an animal's whiskers were to Rolf but harmless
+nonsense.  Had he given them other names, calling them hymns and
+incense, he would have been much nearer respecting them.  He had
+forgotten his mother's teaching: "If any man do anything
+sincerely, believing that thereby he is worshipping God, he is
+worshipping God." He disliked seeing Quonab use an axe or a gun
+on Sunday, and the Indian, realizing that such action made "evil
+medicine"  for Rolf, practically abstained.  But Rolf had not yet
+learned to respect the red yarns the Indian hung from a deer's
+skull, though he did come to understand that he must let them
+alone or produce bad feeling in camp.
+
+Sunday had become a day of rest and Quonab made it also a day of
+song and remembrance.
+
+They were sitting one Sunday night by the fire in the cabin,
+enjoying the blaze, while a storm rattled on the window and door.
+A white-footed mouse, one of a family that lived in the shanty,
+was trying how close he could come to Skookum's nose without
+being caught, while Rolf looked on.  Quonab was lying back on a
+pile of deer skins, with his pipe in his mouth, his head on the
+bunk, and his hands clasped back of his neck.
+
+There was an atmosphere of content and brotherly feeling; the
+evening was young, when Rolf broke silence:
+
+"Were you ever married, Quonab?"
+
+"Ugh," was the Indian's affirmative.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Myanos."
+
+Rolf did not venture more questions, but left the  influence of
+the hour to work.  It was a moment of delicate poise, and Rolf
+knew a touch would open the door or double bar it.  He wondered
+how he might give that touch as he wished it.  Skookum still
+slept.  Both men watched the mouse, as, with quick movements it
+crept about. Presently it approached a long birch stick that
+stood up against the wall.  High hanging was the song-drum.  Rolf
+wished Quonab would take it and let it open his heart, but he
+dared not offer it; that might have the exact wrong effect.  Now
+the mouse was behind the birch stick.  Then Rolf noticed that the
+stick if it were to fall would strike a drying line, one end of
+which was on the song-drum peg. So he made a dash at the mouse
+and displaced the stick; the jerk it gave the line sent the
+song-drum with hollow bumping to the ground.  The boy stooped to
+replace it; as he did, Quonab grunted and Rolf turned to see his
+hand stretched for the drum.  Had Rolf officiously offered it, it
+would have been refused; now the Indian took it, tapped and
+warmed it at the fire, and sang a song of the Wabanaki.  It was
+softly done, and very low, but Rolf was close, for almost the
+first time in any long rendition, and he got an entirely new
+notion of the red music.  The singer's face brightened as he
+tummed and sang with peculiar grace notes and throat warbles of
+"Kaluscap's war with the magi," and the spirit of his people,
+rising to the sweet magic of melody, came shining in his eyes.
+He sang the lovers' song, "The Bark Canoe." (See F. R. Burton's
+"American Primitive Music.)
+
+ "While the stars shine and falls the dew, I seek my love in bark canoe."
+
+And then the cradle song,
+
+"The Naked Bear Shall Never Catch Thee."
+
+When he stopped, he stared at the fire; and after a long pause
+Rolf ventured, "My mother would have loved your songs."
+
+Whether he heard or not, the warm emanation surely reached the
+Indian, and he began to answer the question of an hour before:
+
+"Her name was Gamowini, for she sang like the sweet night bird at
+Asamuk.  I brought her from her father's house at Saugatuck.  We
+lived at Myanos.  She made beautiful baskets and moccasins.  I
+fished and trapped; we had enough.  Then the baby came.  He had
+big round eyes, so we called him Wee-wees, 'our little owl,' and
+we were very happy.  When Gamowini sang to her baby, the world
+seemed full of sun.  One day when Wee-wees could walk she left
+him with me and she went to Stamford with some baskets to sell.
+A big ship was in the harbour.  A man from the ship told her that
+his sailors would buy all her baskets. She had no fear.  On the
+ship they seized her for a runaway slave, and hid her till they
+sailed away.
+
+"When she did not come back I took Wee-wees on my shoulder and
+went quickly to Stamford.  I soon found out a little, but the
+people did not know the ship, or whence she came, or where she
+went, they said.  They did not seem to care.  My heart grew
+hotter and wilder.  I wanted to fight.  I would have killed the
+men on the dock, but they were many.  They bound me and put me in
+jail for three months.  'When I came out Wee-wees was dead.  They
+did not care.  I have heard nothing since.  Then I went to live
+under the rock, so I should not see our first home. I do not
+know; she may be alive.  But I think it killed her to lose her baby."
+
+The Indian stopped; then rose quickly.  His face was hard set.
+He stepped out into the snowstorm and the night.  Rolf was left
+alone with Skookum.
+
+Sad, sad, everything seemed sad in his friend's life, and Rolf,
+brooding over it with wisdom beyond his years, could not help
+asking: "Had Quonab and Gamowini been white folk, would it have
+happened so?  Would his agony have been received with scornful
+indifference?  Alas! he knew it would not.  He realized it would
+have been a very different tale, and the sequent questions that
+would not down, were, "Will this bread cast on the waters return
+after many days?" "Is there a God of justice and retribution?"
+"On whom will the flail of vengeance fall for all these abominations?"
+
+Two hours later the Indian returned.  No word was spoken as he
+entered.  He was not cold.  He must have walked far.  Rolf
+prepared for bed.  The Indian stooped, picked up a needle from
+the dusty ground, one that had been lost the day before, silently
+handed it to his  companion, who gave only a recognizant "Hm,"
+and dropped it into the birch-bark box.
+
+
+
+The Lost Bundle of Furs
+
+There had been a significant cessation of robbery on their trap
+line after the inconclusive visit to the enemy's camp.  But a new
+and extreme exasperation  arose in the month of March, when the
+alternation  of thaw and frost had covered the snow with a hard
+crust that rendered snowshoes unnecessary and made it easy to run
+anywhere and leave no track.
+
+They had gathered up a fisher and some martens before they
+reached the beaver pond.  They had no beaver traps now, but it
+was interesting to call and see how many of the beavers were
+left, and what they were doing.
+
+Bubbling springs on the bank of the pond had made open water at
+several places, now that the winter frost was weakening.  Out of
+these the beavers often came, as was plainly seen in the tracks,
+so the trappers approached them carefully.
+
+They were scrutinizing one of them from behind a log, Quonab with
+ready gun, Rolf holding the unwilling Skookum,  when the familiar
+broad, flat head appeared.  A large beaver swam around the hole,
+sniffed and looked, then silently climbed the bank, evidently
+making for a certain aspen tree that he had already been cutting.
+He was in easy range, and the gunner was about to fire when Rolf
+pressed his arm and pointed.  Here, wandering through the wood,
+came a large lynx.  It had not seen or smelt any of the living
+creatures ahead, as yet, but speedily sighted the beaver now
+working away to cut down his tree.
+
+As a pelt, the beaver was worth more than the lynx, but the
+naturalist is strong in most hunters, and they watched to see
+what would happen.
+
+The lynx seemed to sink into the ground, and was lost to sight as
+soon as he knew of a possible prey ahead.  And now he began his
+stalk.  The hunters sighted him once as he crossed a level
+opening in the snow.  He seemed less than four inches high as he
+crawled.  Logs, ridges, trees, or twigs, afforded ample
+concealment, till his whiskers appeared in a thicket within
+fifteen feet of the beaver.
+
+All this was painfully exciting to Skookum, who, though he could
+not see, could get some thrilling whiffs, and he strained forward
+to improve his opportunities.  The sound of this slight struggle
+caught the beaver's ear.  It stopped work, wheeled, and made for
+the water hole.  The lynx sprang from his ambush, seized the
+beaver by the back, and held on; but the beaver was double the
+lynx's weight, the bank was steep and slippery, the struggling
+animals kept rolling down hill, nearer and nearer the hole.
+Then, on the very edge, the beaver gave a great plunge, and
+splashed into the water with the lynx clinging to its back. At
+once they disappeared, and the hunters rushed to the place,
+expecting them to float up and be an easy prey; but they did not
+float.  At length it was clear that the pair had gone under the
+ice, for in water the beaver was master.
+
+After five minutes it was certain that the lynx must be dead.
+Quonab cut a sapling and made a grappler.  He poked this way and
+that way under the ice, until at length he felt something soft.
+With the hatchet they cut a hole over the place and then dragged
+out the body of the lynx. The beaver, of course, escaped and was
+probably little the worse.
+
+While Quonab skinned the catch, Rolf prowled around the pond and
+soon came running back to tell of a remarkable happening.
+
+At another open hole a beaver had come out, wandered twenty yards
+to a mound which he had castorized, then passed several hard wood
+trees to find a large poplar or aspen, the favourite food tree.
+This he had begun to fell with considerable skill, but for some
+strange reason, perhaps because alone, he had made a
+miscalculation, and when the tree came crashing down, it had
+fallen across his back, killed him, and pinned him to the ground.
+
+It was an easy matter for the hunters to remove the log and
+secure his pelt, so they left the beaver pond, richer than they
+had expected.
+
+Next night, when they reached their half-way shanty, they had the
+best haul they had taken on this line since the memorable day
+wben they got six beavers.
+
+The morning dawned clear and bright.  As they breakfasted,  they
+noticed an extraordinary gathering of ravens far away to the
+north, beyond any country they had visited.  At least twenty or
+thirty of the birds were sailing  in great circles high above a
+certain place, uttering a deep, sonorous croak, from time to
+time.  Occasionally one of the ravens would dive down out of sight.
+
+"Why do they fly above that way?"
+
+"That is to let other ravens know there is food here. Their eyes
+are very good.  They can see the signal ten miles away, so all
+come to the place.  My father told me that you can gather all the
+ravens for twenty miles by leaving a carcass so they can see it
+and signal each other.  "
+
+"Seems as if we should look into that.  Maybe another panther,"
+was Rolf's remark.
+
+The Indian nodded; so leaving the bundle of furs in a safe place
+with the snowshoes, that they carried on a chance, they set out
+over the hard crust.  It was two or three miles to the ravens'
+gathering, and, as before, it proved to be over a cedar brake
+where was a deer yard.
+
+Skookum knew all about it.  He rushed into the woods, filled with
+the joy of martial glory.  But speedily came running out again as
+hard as he could, yelling "yow, yow, yowl" for help, while
+swiftly following, behind him were a couple of gray wolves.
+Quonab waited till they were within forty yards; then, seeing the
+men, the wolves slowed up and veered; Quonab fired; one of the
+wolves gave a little, doglike yelp.  Then they leaped into the
+bushes and were lost to view.
+
+A careful study of the snow showed one or two triffing traces of
+blood.  In the deer yard they found at least a dozen carcasses of
+deer killed by the wolves, but none very recent.  They saw but
+few deer and nothing more of the wolves, for the crust had made
+all the country easy, and both kinds fled before the hunters.
+
+Exploring a lower level of willow country in hopes of finding
+beaver delayed them, and it was afternoon when they returned to
+the half-way shanty, to find everything as they left it, except
+that their Pack of furs had totally  disappeared.
+
+Of course, the hard crust gave no sign of track.  Their first
+thought was of the old enemy, but, seeking far and near for
+evidence, they found pieces of an ermine skin, and a quarter mile
+farther, the rest of it, then, at another place, fragments of a
+muskrat's skin.  Those made it look like the work of the
+trapper's enemy, the wolverine, which, though rare, was surely
+found in these hills.  Yes! there was a wolverine scratch mark,
+and here another piece of the rat skin.  It was very clear who
+was the thief.
+
+"He tore up the cheapest ones of the lot anyway," said Rolf.
+
+Then the trappers stared at each other significantly -- only the
+cheap ones destroyed; why should a wolverine show such
+discrimination?  There was no positive sign of wolverine;  in
+fact, the icy snow gave no sign of anything.  There was little
+doubt that the tom furs and the scratch marks were there to
+mislead; that this was the work of a human robber, almost
+certainly Hoag.
+
+He had doubtless seen them leave in the morning, and it was
+equally sure, since he had had hours of start, he would now be
+far away.
+
+"Ugh!  Give him few days to think he safe, then I follow and
+settle all," and this time the Indian clearly meant to end the
+matter.
+
+
+
+The Subjugation of Hoag
+
+A feller as weeps for pity and never does a finger-tap to  help
+is 'bout as much use as an overcoat on a drowning man. -- Sayings
+of Si Sylvanne.
+
+SOME remarkable changes of weather made some remarkable changes
+in their plan and saved their enemy from immediate molestation.
+For two weeks it was a succession of thaws and there was much
+rain.  The lake was covered with six inches of water; the river
+had a current above the ice, that was rapidly eating, the latter
+away.  Everywhere there were slush and wet snow that put an end
+to travel and brought on the spring with a rush.
+
+Each night there was, indeed, a trifling frost, but each day's
+sun seemed stronger, and broad, bare patches of ground appeared
+on all sunny slopes.
+
+On the first crisp day the trappers set out to go the rounds,
+knowing full well that this was the end of the season.
+Henceforth for six months deadfall and snare would lie idle and
+unset.
+
+They went their accustomed line, carrying their snowshoes,  but
+rarely needing them.  Then they crossed a large track to which
+Quonab pointed, and grunted  affirmatively as Rolf said "Bear?"
+Yes! the bears were about once more; their winter sleep was over.
+Now they were fat and the fur was yet prime; in a month they
+would be thin and shedding.  Now is the time for bear hunting
+with either trap or dog.
+
+Doubtless Skookum thought the party most fortunately equipped in
+the latter respect, but no single dog is enough to bay a bear.
+There must be three or four to bother him behind, to make him
+face about and fight; one dog merely makes him run faster.
+
+They had no traps, and knowing that a spring bear is a far
+traveller, they made no attempt to follow.
+
+The deadfalls yielded two martens, but one of them was spoiled by
+the warm weather.  They learned at last that the enemy had a
+trap-line, for part of which he used their deadfalls.  He had
+been the rounds lately and had profited at least a little by
+their labours.
+
+The track, though two days old, was not hard to follow, either on
+snow or ground.  Quonab looked to the lock of his gun; his lower
+lip tightened and he strode along.
+
+"What are you going to do, Quonab?  Not shoot?"
+
+"When I get near enough," and the dangerous look in the red man's
+eye told Rolf to be quiet and follow.
+
+In three miles they passed but three of his marten traps -- very
+lazy trapping -- and then found a great triangle of logs by a
+tree with a bait and signs enough to tell the experienced eye
+that, in that corner, was hidden a huge steel trap for bear.
+
+They were almost too late in restraining the knowledge- hunger of
+Skookum.  They went on a mile or two and realized in so doing
+that, however poor a trapper the enemy might be, he was a good
+tramper and knew the country.
+
+At sundown they came to their half-way shelter and put up there
+for the night.  Once when Rolf went out to glimpse the skies
+before turning in, he heard a far tree creaking and wondered, for
+it was dead calm.  Even Skookum noticed it.  But it was not
+repeated.  Next morning they went on.
+
+There are many quaint sounds in the woods at all times, the
+rasping of trees, at least a dozen different calls by jays, twice
+as many by ravens, and occasional notes from chicadees, grouse,
+and owls.  The quadrupeds in general are more silent, but the red
+squirrel is ever about and noisy, as well as busy.
+
+Far-reaching sounds are these echoes of the woods -- some of them
+very far.  Probably there were not five minutes of the day or
+night when some weird, woodland chatter, scrape, crack, screech,
+or whistle did not reach the keen ears of that ever-alert dog.
+That is, three hundred times a day his outer ear submitted to his
+inner ear some  report of things a-doing, which same report was
+as often for many days disregarded as of no interest or value.
+But this did not mean that he missed anything; the steady tramp,
+tramp of their feet, while it dulled all sounds for the hunter,
+seemed to have no effect on Skookum.  Again the raspy squeal of
+some far tree reached his inmost brain, and his hair rose as he
+stopped and gave a low "woof."
+
+The hunters held still; the wise ones always do, when a dog says
+"Stop!" They waited.  After a few minutes it came again -- merely
+the long-drawn creak of a tree bough, wind-rubbed on its
+neighbour.
+
+And yet, "Woof, woof, woof," said Skookum, and ran ahead.
+
+"Come back, you little fool!" cried Rolf.
+
+But Skookum had a mind of his own.  He trotted ahead, then
+stopped, paused, and sniffed at something in the snow.  The
+Indian picked it up.  It was the pocket jackscrew  that every
+bear trapper carries to set the powerful trap, and without which,
+indeed, one man cannot manage the springs.
+
+He held it up with "Ugh! Hoag in trouble now."  Clearly the rival
+trapper had lost this necessary tool.
+
+But the finding was an accident.  Skookum pushed on. They came
+along a draw to a little hollow.  The dog, far forward, began
+barking and angrily baying at something.   The men hurried to the
+scene to find on the snow, fast held in one of those devilish
+engines called a bear trap -- the body of their enemy -- Hoag,
+the trapper, held by a leg, and a hand in the gin he himself had
+been setting.
+
+A fierce light played on the Indian's face.  Rolf was stricken
+with horror.  But even while they contemplated the body, the
+faint cry was heard again coming from it.
+
+"He's alive; hurry!" cried Rolf.  The Indian did not hurry, but he came.
+He had vowed vengeance at sight; why should he haste to help?
+
+The implacable iron jaws had clutched the trapper by one knee and
+the right hand.  The first thing was to free him.  How?  No man
+has power enough to force that spring.  But the jackscrew!
+
+"Quonab, help him!  For God's sake, come!" cried Rolf in agony,
+forgetting their feud and seeing only tortured, dying man.
+
+The Indian gazed a moment, then rose quickly, and put on the
+jackscrew.  Under his deft fingers the first spring went down,
+but what about the other?  They had no other screw.  The long
+buckskin line they always carried was quickly lashed round and
+round the down spring to hold it.  Then the screw was removed and
+put on the other spring; it bent, and the jaws hung loose.  The
+Indian forced them wide open, drew out the mangled limbs, a the
+trapper was free, but so near death, it seemed they were too
+late.
+
+Rolf spread his coat.  The Indian made a fire.  In fifteen
+minutes they were pouring hot tea between victim's lips.  Even as
+they did, his feeble throat gave out again the long, low moan.
+
+The weather was mild now.  The prisoner was not actually frozen,
+but numbed and racked.  Heat, hot tea, kindly rubbing, and he
+revived a little.
+
+At first they thought him dying, but in an hour recovered enough
+to talk.  In feeble accents and broken phrases they learned the
+tale:
+
+"Yest -- m-m-m.  Yesterday -- no; two or three days back --
+m-m-m-m-m -- I dunno; I was a goin' -- roun' me traps -- me bear
+traps.  Didn't have no luck m-m-m (yes, I'd like another sip; ye
+ain't got no whiskey no?) m-m-m.  Nothing in any trap, and when I
+come to this un -- oh-h - m-m; I seen - the bait was stole by
+birds, an' the pan -- m-m-m; an' the pan, m-m-m - (yes, that's
+better) -- an' the pan laid bare.  So I starts to cover it with
+-- ce-ce-dar; the ony thing I c'd get -- m-m-m-w- -- wuz leanin'
+over -- to fix tother side -- me foot slipped on -- the -- ice --
+ev'rytbing was icy -- an'-- m-m-m-m -- I lost -- me balance -- me
+knee the pan -- O Lord -- how I suffer! -- m-m-m it grabbed me --
+knee an'-- h-h-hand -"  His voice died to a whisper and ceased;
+he seemed sinking.
+
+Quonab got up to hold him.  Then, looking at Rolf, Indian shook
+his head as though to say all was over; the poor wretch had a
+woodman's constitution, and in spite of a mangled, dying body, he
+revived again.  They gave him more hot tea, and again he began in
+a whisper:
+
+"I hed one arm free an' -- an' -- an' -- I might -- a -- got out
+-- m-m -- but I hed no wrench -- I lost it some place -- m-m-m-m.
+
+"Then -- I yelled -- I dun -- no - maybe some un might hear -- it
+kin-kin-kinder eased me -- to yell m-m-m.
+
+"Say -- make that yer dog keep -- away -- will yer I dunno -- it
+seems like a week -- must a fainted some M-m-m -- I yelled --
+when I could."
+
+There was a long pause.  Rolf said, "Seems to me I heard you last
+night, when we were up there.  And dog heard you, too.  Do you
+want me to move that leg around?"
+
+"M-m-m -- yeh -- that's better -- say, you air white -- ain't ye?
+Ye won't leave me -- cos -- I done some mean things -- m-m-m.  Ye
+won't, will ye?"
+
+"No, you needn't worry -- we'll stay by ye."
+
+Then he muttered, they could not tell what.  He closed his eyes.
+After long silence he looked around wildly and began again:
+
+"Say -- I done you dirt -- but don't leave me -- don't leave me."
+Tears ran down his face and he moaned piteously.  "I'll -- make
+it -- right -- you're white, ain't ye?"
+
+Quonab rose and went for more firewood.  The trapper whispered,
+"I'm scared o' him -- now -- he'll do me -- say, I'm jest a poor
+ole man.  If I do live -- through -- this -- m-m-m-m -- I'll
+never walk again.  I'm crippled sure."
+
+It was long before he resumed.  Then he began: "Say, what day is
+it -- Friday! -- I must -- been two days in there -- m-m-m -- I
+reckoned it was a week.  When -- the -- dog came I thought it was
+wolves.  Oh -- ah, didn't care much -- m-m-m.  Say, ye won't
+leave me -- coz -- coz -- I treated -- ye mean.  I -- ain't had
+no l-l-luck."  He went off into a stupor, but presently let out a
+long, startling cry, the same as that they had heard in the
+night.  The dog growled; the men stared.  The wretch's eyes were
+rolling again.  He seemed delirious.
+
+Quonab pointed to the east, made the sun-up sign, and shook his
+head at the victim.  And Rolf understood it to mean that he would
+never see the sunrise.  But they were wrong.
+
+The long night passed in a struggle between heath and the tough
+make-up of a mountaineer.  The waiting light of dawn saw death
+defeated, retiring from the scene. As the sun rose high, the
+victim seemed to gain  considerably in strength.  There was no
+immediate danger of an end.
+
+Rolf said to Quonab: "Where shall we take him? Guess you better
+go home for the toboggan, and we'll fetch him to the shanty."
+
+But the invalid was able to take part in the conversation. "Say,
+don't take me there.  Ah -- want to go home. 'Pears like -- I'd
+be better at home.  My folks is out Moose River way.  I'd never
+get out if I went in there," and by "there" he seemed to mean the
+Indian's lake, and glanced furtively at the unchanging
+countenance of the red man.
+
+"Have you a toboggan at your shanty?" asked Rolf.
+
+"Yes -- good enough -- it's on the roof -- say," and he beckoned
+feebly to Rolf, "let him go after it -- don't leave me -- he'll
+kill me," and he wept feebly in his self pity.
+
+So Quonab started down the mountain - a sinewy man -- a striding
+form, a speck in the melting distance.
+Nursing Hoag
+
+IN TWO hours the red man reached the trapper's shanty, and at
+once, without hesitation or delicacy, set about a thorough
+examination of its contents. Of course there was the toboggan on
+the roof, and in fairly good condition for such a shiftless
+owner.
+
+There were bunches of furs hanging from the rafters, but not
+many, for fur taking is hard work; and Quonab, looking
+suspiciously over them, was 'not surprised to see the lynx skin
+he had lost, easily known by the absence of wound and the fur
+still in points as it had dried from the wetting.  In another
+bundle, he discovered the beaver that had killed itself, for
+there was the dark band across its back.
+
+The martens he could not be sure of, but he had a strong
+suspicion that most of this fur came out of his own traps.
+
+He tied Hoag's blankets on the toboggan, and hastened back to
+where he left the two on the mountain.
+
+Skookum met him long before he was near.  Skookum did not enjoy
+Hoag's company.
+
+The cripple had been talking freely to Rolf, but the  arrival of
+the Indian seemed to suppress him.
+
+With the wounded man on the toboggan, they set out, The ground
+was bare in many places, so that the going was hard; but,
+fortunately, it was all down hill, and four hours' toil brought
+them to the cabin.
+
+They put the sick man in his bunk, then Rolf set about preparing
+a meal, while Quonab cut wood.
+
+After the usual tea, bacon, and flour cakes, all were feeling
+refreshed.  Hoag seemed much more like himself. He talked freely,
+almost cheerfully, while Quonab, with Skookum at his feet, sat
+silently smoking and staring into the fire.
+
+After a long silence, the Indian turned, looked straight at the
+trapper, and, pointing with his pipestem to the furs, said, "How
+many is ours?"
+
+Hoag looked scared, then sulky, and said; "I dunno what ye mean.
+I'm a awful sick man.  You get me out to Lyons Falls all right,
+and ye can have the hull lot," and he wept.
+
+Rolf shook his head at Quonab, then turned to the sufferer and
+said: "Don't you worry; we'll get you out all right.  Have you a
+good canoe?"
+
+"Pretty fair; needs a little fixing."
+
+The night passed with one or two breaks, when the invalid asked
+for a drink of water.  In the morning he was evidently
+recovering, and they began to plan for the future.
+
+He took the first chance of wispering to Rolf, "Can't you send
+him away?  I'll be all right with you."  Rolf said nothing.
+
+"Say," he continued, "say, young feller, what's yer name?"
+
+"Rolf Kittering."
+
+"Say, Rolf, you wait a week or ten days, and the ice 'll be out;
+then I'll be fit to travel.  There ain't on'y a few carries
+between here an' Lyons Falls."
+
+After a long pause, due to Quonab's entry, he continued again:
+"Moose River's good canoeing; ye can get me out in five days; me
+folks is at Lyons Falls."  He did not say that his folks
+consisted of a wife and boy that he neglected, but whom he
+counted on to nurse him now.
+
+Rolf was puzzled by the situation.
+
+"Say!  I'll give ye all them furs if ye git me out." Rolf gave
+him a curious look -- as much as to say, "Ye mean our furs."
+
+Again the conversation was ended by the entry of Quonab.
+
+Rolf stepped out, taking the Indian with him.  They had a long
+talk, then, as Rolf reentered, the sick man began:
+
+"You stay by me, and git me out.  I'll give ye my rifle" -- then,
+after a short silence -- "an' I'll throw in all the traps an' the
+canoe."
+
+"I'll stay by you," said Rolf, "and in about two weeks we'll take
+you down to Lyons Falls.  I guess you can guide us."
+
+"Ye can have all them pelts," and again the trapper presented the
+spoils he had stolen, "an' you bet it's your rifle when ye get me out."
+
+So it was arranged.  But it was necessary for Quonab to go back
+to their own cabin.  Now what should he do? Carry the new lot of
+fur there, or bring the old lot here to dispose of all at Lyons Falls?
+
+Rolf had been thinking hard.  He had seen the evil side of many
+men, including Hoag.  To go among Hoag's people with a lot of
+stuff that Hoag might claim was running risks, so he said:
+
+"Quonab, you come back in not more than ten days. We'll take a
+few furs to Lyons Falls so we can get supplies. Leave the rest of
+them in good shape, so we can go out later to Warren's.  We'll
+get a square deal there, and we don't know what at Lyon's."
+
+So they picked out the lynx, the beaver, and a dozen martens to
+leave, and making the rest into a pack, Quonab shouldered them,
+and followed by Skookum, trudged up the mountain and was lost to
+view in the woods.
+
+The ten days went by very slowly.  Hoag was alternately
+querulous, weeping, complaining, unpleasantly fawning, or trying
+to insure good attention by presenting again and again the furs,
+the gun, and the canoe.
+
+Rolf found it pleasant to get away from the cabin when the
+weather was fine.  One day, taking Hoag's gun, he travelled up
+the nearest stream for a mile, and came on a big beaver pond.
+Round this he scouted and soon  discovered a drowned beaver, held
+in a trap which he recog- nized at once, for it had the (" ' "')
+mark on the frame. Then he found an empty trap with a beaver leg
+in it, and another, till six traps were found.  Then he gathered
+up the six and the beaver, and returned to the cabin to be
+greeted with a string of complaints:
+
+"Ye didn't ought to leave me like this.  I'm paying ye well
+enough.  I don't ax no favours," etc.
+
+"See what I got," and Rolf showed the beaver.  "An' see what I
+found;" then he showed the traps.  "Queer, ain't it," he went on,
+"we had six traps just like them, and I marked the face just like
+these, and they all  disappeared, and there was a snowshoe trail
+pointing this way.  You haven't got any crooked neighbours about
+here, have you?"
+
+The trapper looked sulky and puzzled, and grumbled, "I bet it was
+Bill Hawkins done it"; then relapsed into silence.
+
+
+
+Hoag's Home-coming
+
+When it comes to personal feelin's better let yer friends  do the
+talkin' and jedgin'.  A man can't handle his own  case any more
+than a delirious doctor kin give hisself the  right physic --
+Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+The coming of springtime in the woods is one of the gentlest,
+sweetest advents in the world. Sometimes there are heavy rains
+which fill all the little rivers with an overflood that quickly
+eats away the ice and snow, but usually the woodland streams
+open, slowly and gradually.  Very rarely is there a spate, an
+upheaval, and a cataclysmal sweep that bursts the ice and ends
+its reign in an hour or two.  That is the way of the large
+rivers, whose ice is free and floating.  The snow in the forest
+melts slowly, and when the ice is  attacked, it goes gradually,
+gently, without uproar.  The spring comes in the woods with
+swelling of buds and a lengthening of drooping catkins, with
+honking of wild geese, and cawing of crows coming up from the
+lower countries to divide with their larger cousins, the ravens,
+the spoils of winter's killing.
+
+The small birds from the South appear with a few short notes of
+spring, and the pert chicadees that have braved it all winter,
+now lead the singing with their cheery "I told you so" notes,
+till robins and blackbirds join in, and with their more ambitious
+singing make all the lesser roundelays forgot.
+
+Once the winter had taken a backward step -- spring found it easy
+to turn retreat into panic and rout; and the ten days Quonab stayed
+away were days of revolutionary change.  For in them semi-winter
+gave place to smiling spring, with all the snow-drifts gone,
+except perhaps in the shadiest hollows of the woods.
+
+It was a bright morning, and a happy one for Rolf, when he heard
+the Indian's short "Ho," outside, and a minute later had Skookum
+dancing and leaping about him.  On Hoag the effect was quite
+different.  He was well enough to be up, to hobble about painfully
+on a stick; to be exceedingly fault-finding, and to eat three
+hearty meals a day; but the moment the Indian appeared, he withdrew
+into himself, and became silent and uneasy.   Before an hour passed,
+he again presented the furs, the gun, the canoe, and the traps to Rolf,
+on condition that he should get him out to his folks.
+
+All three were glad to set out that very day on the outward trip
+to Lyons Falls.
+
+Down Little Moose River to Little Moose Lake and on to South
+Branch of Moose, then by the Main Moose, was their way.  The
+streams were flush; there was plenty of water, and this
+fortunately reduced the number of carries; for Hoag could not
+walk and would not hobble. They sweat and laboured to carry him
+over every portage; but they covered the fifty miles in three
+days, and on the evening of the third, arrived at the little
+backwoods village of Lyons Falls.
+
+The change that took place fn Hoag now was marked and unpleasant.
+He gave a number of orders, where, the day before, he would have
+made whining petitions. He told them to "land easy, and don't
+bump my canoe." He hailed the loungers about the mill with an
+effusiveness that they did not resdond to.  Their cool, "Hello,
+Jack, are you back?" was little but a passing recognition.  One
+of them was persuaded to take Rolf's place in carrying Hoag to
+his cabin.  Yes, his folks were there, but they did not seem
+overjoyed at his arrival.  He whispered to the boy, who sullenly
+went out to the river and returned with the rifle, Rolf's rifle now,
+the latter supposed, and would have taken the bundle of furs had
+not Skookum sprung on the robber and driven him away from the canoe.
+
+And now Hoag showed his true character.  "Them's my furs and my
+canoe," he said to one of the mill hands, and turning to the two
+who had saved him, he said: "An' you two dirty, cutthroat,
+redskin thieves, you can get out of town as fast as ye know how,
+or I'll have ye jugged," and all the pent-up hate of his hateful
+nature frothed out in words insulting and unprintable.
+
+"Talks like a white man," said Quonab coldly.  Rolf was speechless.
+To toil so devotedly, and to have such filthy, humiliating words
+for thanks!  He wondered if even his Uncle Mike would have shown
+so vile a spirit.
+
+Hoag gave free rein to his tongue, and found in his pal, Bill Hawkins,
+one with ready ears to hear his tale of woe. The wretch began to feel
+himself frightfully ill-used.  So, fired at last by the evermore lurid
+story of his wrongs, the "partner" brought the magistrate, so they
+could swear out a warrant, arrest the two "outlaws," and  especially
+secure the bundle of "Hoag's furs" in the canoe.
+
+Old Silas Sylvanne, the mill-owner and pioneer of the place, was
+also its magistrate.  He was tall, thin, blacklooking, a sort of
+Abe Lincoln in type, physically, and in some sort, mentally.  He
+heard the harrowing tale of terrible crime, robbery, and torture,
+inflicted on poor harmless Hoag by these two ghouls in human shape;
+he listened, at first shocked, but little by little amused.
+
+"You don't get no warrant till I hear from the other side,"
+he said.  Roff and Quonab came at call.  The old pioneer sized
+up the two, as they stood, then, addressing Rolf, said:
+
+"Air you an Injun?" "No, sir." "Air you half-breed?" "No, sir."
+"Well, let's hear about this business," and he turned his
+piercing eyes full on the lad's face.
+
+Rolf told the simple, straight story of their acquaintance with Hoag,
+from the first day at Warren's to their arrival at the Falls.
+There is never any doubt about the truth of a true story,
+if it be long enough, and this true story, presented in its
+nakedness to the shrewd and kindly old hunter, trader, mill-owner
+and magistrate, could have only one effect.
+
+"Sonny," he said, slowly and kindly, "I know that ye have told me
+the truth.  I believe every word of it.  We all know that Hoag is
+the meanest cuss and biggest liar on the river.  He's a nuisance,
+and always was.  He only promised to give ye the canoe and the
+rifle, and since he don't want to, we can't help it.  About the
+trouble in the woods, you got two witnesses to his one, and ye
+got the furs and the traps; it's just as well ye left the other
+furs behind, or ye might have had to divide 'em; so keep them and
+call the hull thing square.  We'll find ye a canoe to get out of
+this gay metropolis, and as to Hoag, ye needn't a-worry; his
+travelling days is done."
+
+A man with a bundle of high-class furs is a man of means in any
+frontier town.  The magistrate was trader, too, so they set about
+disposing of their furs and buying the supplies they needed.
+
+The day was nearly done before their new canoe was gummed and
+ready with the new supplies.  When dealing, old Sylvanne had a
+mild, quiet manner, and a peculiar way of making funny remarks
+that led some to imagine he was "easy" in business; but it was
+usual to find at the end that he had lost nothing by his manners,
+and rival traders shunned an encounter with Long Sylvanne of the
+unruffled brow.
+
+When business was done -- keen and complete -- he said: "Now,
+I'm a goin' to give each of ye a present," and handed out two
+double-bladed jackknives, new things in those days, wonderful
+things, precious treasures in their eyes, sources of endless joy;
+and even had they known that one marten skin would buy a quart of
+them, their pleasant surprise and childish joy would not have
+been in any way tempered or alloyed.
+
+"Ye better eat with me, boys, an' start in the morning." So they
+joined the miller's long, continuous family, and shared his
+evening meal.  Afterward as they sat for three hours and smoked
+on the broad porch that looked out on the river, old Sylvanne,
+who had evidently taken a fancy to Rolf, regaled them with a
+long, rambling talk on "fellers  and things," that was one of the
+most interesting Rolf had ever listened to.  At the time it was
+simply amusing; it was not till years after that the lad realized
+by its effect on himself, its insight, and its hold on his
+memory, that Si Sylvanne's talk was real wisdom.  Parts of it
+would not look well in print; but the rugged words, the uncouth
+Saxonism, the obscene phrase, were the mere oaken bucket in which
+the pure and precious waters were hauled to the surface.
+
+"Looked like he had ye pinched when that shyster got ye in to
+Lyons Falls.  Wall, there's two bad places for Jack Hoag; one is
+where they don't know him at all, an' take him on his looks; an'
+t'other is where they know him through and through for twenty
+years, like we hev. A smart rogue kin put up a false front fer a
+year or maybe two, but given twenty year to try him, for and bye,
+summer an' winter, an' I reckon a man's make is pretty well
+showed up, without no dark corners left unexplored.
+
+"Not that I want to jedge him harsh, coz I don't know what kind
+o' maggots is eatin' his innards to make him so ornery.  I'm
+bound to suppose he has 'em, or he wouldn't act so dum like it.
+So I says, go slow and gentle before puttin' a black brand on any
+feller; as my mother used to say, never say a bad thing till ye
+ask, 'Is it true, is it kind, is it necessary?'  An' I tell you,
+the older I git, the slower I jedge; when I wuz your age, I wuz a
+steel trap on a hair trigger, an' cocksure.  I tell you, there
+ain't anythin' wiser nor a sixteen-year-old boy, 'cept maybe a
+fifteen-year-old girl.
+
+"Ye'll genilly find, lad, jest when things looks about as black
+as they kin look, that's the sign of luck a-comin' your way,
+pervidin' ye hold steady, keep cool and kind; something happens
+every time to make it all easy.  There's always a way, an' the
+stout heart will find it.
+
+"Ye may be very sure o' this, boy, yer never licked till ye think
+ye air an' if ye won't think it, ye can't be licked.
+
+It's just the same as being sick.  I seen a lot o' doctorin'  in
+my day, and I'm forced to believe there ain't any sick folks
+'cept them that thinks they air sick.
+
+"The older I git, the more I'm bound to consider that most things
+is inside, anyhow, and what's outside don't count for much.
+
+"So it stands to reason when ye play the game for what's inside,
+ye win over all the outside players.  When ye done kindness to
+Hoag, ye mightn't a meant it, but ye was bracin' up the goodness
+in yerself, or bankin' it up somewher' on the trail ahead, where
+it was needed.  And he was simply chawin' his own leg off, when
+he done ye dirt.  I ain't much o' a prattlin' Christian, but I
+reckon as a cold-blooded, business proposition it pays to lend
+the neighbour a hand; not that I go much on gratitude. It's
+scarcer'n snowballs in hell -- which ain't the point; but I take
+notice there ain't any man'll hate ye more'n the feller that
+knows he's acted mean to ye.  An' there ain't any feller more
+ready to fight yer battles than the chap that by some dum
+accident has hed the luck to help ye, even if he only done it to
+spite some one else -- which 'minds me o' McCarthy's bull pup
+that saved the drowning kittens by mistake, and ever after was a
+fightin' cat protector, whereby he lost the chief joy o' his
+life, which had been cat-killin'.  An' the way they cured the cat
+o' eatin' squirrels was givin' her a litter o' squirrels to raise.
+
+"I tell ye there's a lot o' common-sense an' kindness in the
+country, only it's so dum slow to git around; while the
+cussedness and meanness always acts like they felt the hell fire
+sizzlin' their hind-end whiskers, an' knowed they had jest so
+many minutes to live an' make a record.  There's where a man's
+smart that fixes things so he kin hold out a long time, fer the
+good stuff in men's minds is what lasts; and the feller what can
+stay with it hez proved hisself by stayin'.  How'd ye happen to
+tie up with the Injun, Rolf?"
+
+"Do ye want me to tell it long or short?" was the reply. "Wall,
+short, fer a start," and Silas Sylvanne chuckled.
+
+So Rolf gave a very brief account of his early life.
+
+"Pretty good," said the miller; "now let's hear it long."
+
+And when he had finished, the miller said: "I've seen yer tried
+fer most everything that goes to make a man, Rolf, an' I hev my
+own notion of the results.  You ain't goin' to live ferever in
+them hills.  When ye've hed yer fling an' want a change, let me know."
+
+Early next day the two hunters paddled up the Moose River with a
+good canoe, an outfit of groceries, and a small supply of ready cash.
+
+"Good-bye, lad, good-bye!  Come back again and ye'll find we
+improve on acquaintance; an' don't forget I'm buying fur," was Si
+Sylvanne's last word.  And as they rounded the point, on the home
+way, Rolf turned in the canoe, faced Quonab, and said: "Ye see
+there are some good white men left;" but the Indian neither
+blinked, nor moved, nor made a sound.
+
+
+
+Rolf's Lesson in Trailing
+
+The return journey was hard paddling against strong waters, but
+otherwise uneventful.  Once over any trail is enough to fix it in
+the memory of a woodman.  They made no mistakes and their loads
+were light, so the portages were scarcely any loss of time, and
+in two days they were back at Hoag's cabin.
+
+Of this they took possession.  First, they gathered all things of
+value, and that was little since the furs and bedding were gone,
+but there were a few traps and some dishes.  The stuff was made
+in two packs; now it was an overland journey, so the canoe was
+hidden in a cedar thicket, a quarter of a mile inland.  The two
+were about to shoulder the packs, Quonab was lighting his pipe
+for a start, when Rolf said:
+
+"Say, Quonab! that fellow we saw at the Falls claimed to be
+Hoag's partner.  He may come on here and make trouble if we don't
+head him off.  Let's burn her," and he nodded toward the shanty.
+
+"Ugh!" was the reply.
+
+They gathered some dry brush and a lot of birch bark, piled them
+up against the wall inside, and threw plenty of firewood on this.
+With flint and steel Quonab made the vital spark, the birch bark
+sputtered, the dry, resinous logs were easily set ablaze, and
+soon great volumes of smoke rolled from the door, the window, and
+the chimney; and Skookum, standing afar, barked pleasantly aloud.
+
+The hunters shouldered their packs and began the long, upward
+slope.  In an hour they had reached a high, rocky ridge.  Here
+they stopped to rest, and, far below them, marked with grim joy a
+twisted, leaning column of thick black smoke.
+
+That night they camped in the woods and next day rejoiced to be
+back again at their own cabin, their own lake, their home.
+
+Several times during the march they had seen fresh deer tracks,
+and now that the need of meat was felt, Rolf proposed a deer
+hunt.
+
+Many deer die every winter; some are winter-killed; many are
+devoured by beasts of prey, or killed by hunters; their numbers
+are at low ebb in April, so that now one could not count on
+finding a deer by roaming at random. It was a case for trailing.
+
+Any one can track a deer in the snow.  It is not very hard to
+follow a deer in soft ground, when there are no other deer about.
+But it is very hard to take one deer trail and follow it over
+rocky ground and dead leaves, never losing it or changing off,
+when there are hundreds of deer tracks running in all directions.
+
+Rolf's eyes were better than Quonab's, but experience counts for
+as much as eyes, and Quonab was leading. They picked out a big
+buck track that was fresh -- no good hunter kills a doe at this
+season.  They knew it for a buck, because of its size and the
+roundness of the toes.
+
+Before long, Rolf said: "See, Quonab, I want to learn this
+business; let me do the trailing, and you set me right if I get
+off the line."
+
+Within a hundred yards, Quonab gave a grunt and shook his head.
+Rolf looked surprised, for he was on a good, fresh track.
+
+Quonab said but one word, "Doe."
+
+Yes, a closer view showed the tracks to be a little narrower,  a
+little closer together, and a little sharper than those he began
+with.
+
+Back went Rolf to the last marks that he was sure of, and plainly
+read where the buck had turned aside. For a time, things went
+along smoothly, Quonab and Skookum following Rolf.  The last was
+getting very familiar with that stub hoof on the left foot.  At
+length they came to the "fumet" or "sign"; it was all in one
+pile. That meant the deer had stood, so was unalarmed; and warm;
+that meant but a few minutes ahead.  Now, they must use every
+precaution for this was the crux of the hunt. Of this much only
+they were sure -- the deer was within range now, and to get him
+they must see him before he saw them.
+
+Skookum was leashed.  Rolf was allowed to get well ahead, and
+crawling cautiously, a step at a time, he went, setting down his
+moccasined foot only after he had tried and selected a place.
+Once or twice he threw into the air a tuft of dry grass to make
+sure that the wind was right, and by slow degrees he reached the
+edge of a little opening.
+
+Across this he peered long, without entering it.  Then he made a
+sweep with his hand and pointed, to let Quonab know the buck had
+gone across and he himself must go around.  But he lingered still
+and with his eyes swept the near woods.  Then, dim gray among the
+gray twigs, he saw a slight movement, so slight it might have
+been made by the tail of a tomtit.  But it fixed his attention,
+and out of this gray haze he slowly made out the outline of a
+deer's head, antlers, and neck.  A hundred yards away, but "take
+a chance when it comes" is hunter wisdom.  Rolf glanced at the
+sight, took steady aim, fired, and down went the buck behind a
+log.  Skookum whined and leaped high in his eagerness to see.
+Rolf restrained his impatience to rush forward, at once reloaded,
+then all three went quickly to the place.  Before they were
+within fifty yards, the deer leaped up and bounded off.  At
+seventy-five yards, it stood for a moment to gaze.  Rolf fired
+again; again the buck fell down, but jumped to its feet and
+bounded away.
+
+They went to the two places, but found no blood. Utterly puzzled,
+they gave it up for the day, as already the shades of night were
+on the woods, and in spite of Skookum's voluble offer to solve
+and settle everything, they returned to the cabin.
+
+"What do you make of it, Quonab?'
+
+The Indian shook his head, then: "Maybe touched his head and
+stunned him, first shot; second, wah!  I not know."
+
+"I know this," said Rolf.  "I touched him and I mean to get him
+in the morning."
+
+True to this resolve, he was there again at dawn, but examined
+the place in vain for a sign of blood.  The red rarely shows up
+much on leaves, grass, or dust; but there are two kinds of places
+that the hunter can rely on as  telltales -- stones and logs.
+Rolf followed the deer track, now very dim, till at a bare place
+he found a speck of blood on a pebble.  Here the trail joined
+onto a deer path, with so many tracks that it was hard to say
+which was the right one.  But Rolf passed quickly along to a log
+that crossed the runway, and on that log he found a drop of
+dried-up blood that told him what he wished to know.
+
+Now he had a straight run of a quarter of a mile, and from time
+to time he saw a peculiar scratching mark that puzzled him.  Once
+he found a speck of blood at one of these scratches but no other
+evidence that the buck was touched.
+
+A wounded deer is pretty sure to work down hill, and Quonab,
+leaving Skookum with Rolf, climbed a lookout that might show
+whither the deer was heading.
+
+After another half mile, the deer path forked; there were buck
+trails on both, and Rolf could not pick out the one he wanted.
+He went a few yards along each, studying the many marks, but was
+unable to tell which was that of the wounded buck.
+
+Now Skookum took a share in it.  He had always been forbidden to
+run deer and knew it was a contraband amusement,  but he put his
+nose to that branch of the trail that ran down hill, followed it
+for a few yards, then looked at Rolf, as much as to say: "You
+poor nose-blind creature; don't you know a fresh deer track when
+you smell it? Here it is; this is where he went."
+
+Rolf stared, then said, "I believe he means it"; and followed the
+lower trail.  Very soon he came to another scrape, and, just
+beyond it, found the new, velvet-covered antler of a buck, raw
+and bloody, and splintered at the base.
+
+From this on, the task was easier, as there were no other tracks,
+and this was pointing steadily down hill.
+
+Soon Quonab came striding along.  He had not seen the buck, but a
+couple of jays and a raven were gathered in a thicket far down by
+the stream.  The hunters quit the trail and made for that place.
+As they drew near, they found the track again, and again saw
+those curious scrapes.
+
+Every hunter knows that the bluejay dashing about a thicket means
+that hidden there is game of some kind, probably deer.  Very,
+very slowly and silently they entered that copse.  But nothing
+appeared until there was a rush in the thickest part and up
+leaped the buck.  This was too much for Skookum.  He shot forward
+like a wolf, fastened on one hind leg, and the buck went crashing
+head over heels.  Before it could rise, another shot ended its
+troubles.  And now a careful study shed the light desired. Rolf's
+first shot had hit the antler near the base, breaking it, except
+for the skin on one side, and had stunned the buck.  The second
+shot had broken a hind leg.  The scratching places he had made
+were efforts to regain the use of this limb, and at one of them
+the deer had fallen and parted the rag of skin by which the
+antler hung.
+
+It was Rolf's first important trailing on the ground; it showed
+how possible it was, and how quickly he was learning the hardest
+of all the feats of woodcraft.
+
+
+
+Rolf Gets Lost
+
+Every one who lives in the big woods gets lost at some time. Yes,
+even Daniel Boone did sometimes go astray. And whether it is to
+end as a joke or a horrible tragedy depends entirely on the way
+in which the person takes it. This is, indeed, the grand test of
+a hunter and scout, the trial of his knowledge, his muscle, and,
+above everything, his courage; and, like all supreme trials, it
+comes without warning.
+
+The wonderful flocks of wild pigeons had arrived. For a few days
+in May they were there in millions, swarming over the ground in
+long-reaching hordes, walking along, pecking and feeding, the
+rearmost flying on ahead, ever to the front. The food they sought
+so eagerly now was chiefly the seeds of the slippery elm, tiny
+nuts showered down on wings like broad-brimmed hats. And when the
+flock arose at some alarm, the sound was like that of the sea
+beach in a storm.
+
+There seemed to be most pigeons in the low country southeast of
+the lake, of course, because, being low, it had most elms. So
+Rolf took his bow and arrows, crossed in the canoe, and
+confidently set about gathering in a dozen or two for broilers.
+
+It is amazing how well the game seems to gauge the range of
+your weapon and keep the exact safe distance. It is marvellous
+how many times you may shoot an arrow into a flock of pigeons and
+never kill one. Rolf went on and on, always in sight of the long,
+straggling flocks on the ground or in the air, but rarely within
+range of them. Again and again he fired a random shot into the
+distant mass, without success for two hours. Finally a pigeon was
+touched and dropped, but it rose as he ran forward, and flew ten
+yards, to drop once more. Again he rushed at it, but it fluttered
+out of reach and so led him on and on for about half an hour's
+breathless race, until at last he stopped, took deliberate aim,
+and killed it with an arrow.
+
+Now a peculiar wailing and squealing from the woods far ahead
+attracted him. He stalked and crawled for many minutes before he
+found out, as he should have known, that it was caused by a
+mischievous bluejay.
+
+At length he came to a spring in a low hollow, and leaving his
+bow and arrows on a dry log, he went down to get a drink
+
+As he arose, he found himself face to face with a doe and a fat,
+little yearling buck, only twenty yards away. They stared at him,
+quite unalarmed, and, determining to add the yearling to his bag,
+Rolf went back quietly to his bow and arrows.
+
+~The deer were just out of range now, but inclined to take a
+curious interest in the hunter. Once when he stood still for a
+long time, they walked forward two or three steps; but whenever
+he advanced, they trotted farther away.
+
+To kill a deer with an arrow is quite a feat of woodcraft, and
+Rolf was keen to show his prowess; so he kept on with varying
+devices, and was continually within sight of the success that did
+not actually arrive.
+
+Then the deer grew wilder and loped away, as he entered another
+valley that was alive with pigeons.
+
+He was feeling hungry now, so he plucked the pigeon he had
+secured, made a fire with the flint and steel he always carried,
+then roasted the bird carefully on a stick. and having eaten it,
+felt ready for more travel.
+
+The day was cloudy, so he could not see the sun; but he knew it
+was late, and he made for camp.
+
+The country he found himself in was entirely strange to him, and
+the sun's whereabouts doubtful; but he knew the general line of
+travel and strode along rapidly toward the place where he had
+left the canoe.
+
+After two hours' tramping, he was surprised at not seeing the
+lake through the trees, and he added to his pace.
+
+Three hours passed and still no sign of the water.
+
+He began to think he had struck too far to the north; so
+corrected his course and strode along with occasional spells of
+trotting. But another hour wore away arid no lake appeared.
+
+Then Rolf knew he was off his bearings. He climbed a tree and got
+a partial view of the country. To the right was a small hill. He
+made for that. The course led him through a hollow. In this he
+recognized two huge basswood trees, that gave him a reassuring
+sense. A little farther he came on a spring, strangely like the
+one he had left some hours ago. As he stooped to drink, he saw
+deer  tracks, then a human track. He studied it. Assuredly it was
+his own track, though now it seemed on the south side instead of
+the north. He stared at the dead gray sky, hoping for sign of
+sun, but it gave no hint. He tramped off hastily toward the hill
+that promised a lookout. He went faster and faster. In half an
+hour the woods opened a little, then dipped. He hastened down,
+and at the bottom found himself standing by the same old spring,
+though again it had changed its north bearing.
+
+He was stunned by this succession of blows. He knew now he was
+lost in the woods; had been tramping in a circle.
+
+The spring whirled around him; it seemed now north and now south.
+His first impulse was to rush madly northwesterly, as he
+understood it. He looked at all the trees for guidance. Most moss
+should be on the north side. It would be so, if all trees were
+perfectly straight and evenly exposed, but alas! none are so. All
+lean one way or another, and by the moss he could prove any given
+side to be north. He looked for the hemlock top twigs. Tradition
+says they always point easterly; but now they differed among
+themselves as to which was east.
+
+Rolf got more and more worried. He was a brave boy, but grim fear
+came into his mind as he realized that he was too far from camp
+to be heard; the ground was too leafy for trailing him; without
+help he could not get away from that awful spring. His head began
+to swim, when all at once he remembered a bit of advice his guide
+had given him long ago: "Don't get scared when you're lost.
+Hunger don't kill the lost man, and it ain't cold that does it;
+it's being afraid. Don't be afraid, and everything will come out
+all right."
+
+So, instead of running, Rolf sat down to think it over.
+
+"Now," said he, "I went due southeast all day from the canoe."
+Then he stopped; like a shock it came to him that he had not seen
+the sun all day. Had he really gone southeast? It was a
+devastating thought, enough to unhinge some men; but again Rolf
+said to himself "Never mind, now; don't get scared, and it'll be
+all right. In the morning the sky will be clear."
+
+As he sat pondering, a red squirrel chippered and scolded from a
+near tree; closer and closer the impudent creature came to
+sputter at the intruder.
+
+Rolf drew his bow, and when the blunt arrow dropped to the
+ground, there also dropped the red squirrel, turned into
+acceptable meat. Rolf put this small game into his pocket,
+realizing that this was his supper.
+
+It would soon be dark now, so he prepared to spend the night.
+
+While yet he could see, he gathered a pile of dry wood into a
+sheltered hollow. Then he made a wind-break and a bed of balsam
+boughs. Flint, steel, tinder, and birch bark soon created a
+cheerful fire, and there is no better comforter that the lone
+lost man can command.
+
+The squirrel roasted in its hide proved a passable supper, and
+Rolf curled up to sleep. The night would have been pleasant and
+uneventful, but that it turned chilly, and when the fire burnt
+low, the cold awakened him, so he had a succession of naps and
+fire-buildings.
+
+Soon after dawn, he heard a tremendous roaring, and in a few
+minutes the wood was filled again with pigeons.
+
+Rolf was living on the country now, so he sallied forth with his
+bow. Luck was with him; at the first shot he downed a big, fat
+cock. At the second he winged another, and as it scrambled
+through the brush, he rushed headlong in pursuit. It fluttered
+away beyond reach, halfflying, half-running, and Rolf, in
+reckless pursuit, went sliding and tumbling down a bank to land
+at the bottom with a horrid jar. One leg was twisted under him;
+he thought it was broken, for there was a fearful pain in the
+lower part. But when he pulled himself together he found no
+broken bones, indeed, but an ankle badly sprained. Now his
+situation was truly grave, for he was crippled and incapable of
+travelling.
+
+He had secured the second bird, and crawling painfully and slowly
+back to the fire, he could not but feel more and more despondent
+and gloomy as the measure of his misfortune was realized.
+
+"There is only one thing that can shame a man, that is to be
+afraid." And again, "There's always a way out." These were the
+sayings that came ringing through his head to his heart; one was
+from Quonab, the other from old Sylvanne. Yes, there's always a
+way, and the stout heart can always find it.
+
+Rolf prepared and cooked the two birds, made a breakfast of one
+and put the other in his pocket for lunch, not realizing at the
+time that his lunch would be eaten on this same spot. More than
+once, as he sat, small flocks of ducks flew over the trees due
+northward. At length the sky, now clear, was ablaze with the
+rising sun, and when it came, it was in Rolf's western sky.
+
+Now he comprehended the duck flight. They were really heading
+southeast for their feeding grounds on the Indian Lake, and Rolf,
+had he been able to tramp, could have followed, but his foot was
+growing worse. It was badly swollen, and not likely to be of
+service for many a day - perhaps weeks -- and it took all of his
+fortitude not to lie down and weep over this last misfortune.
+
+Again came the figure of that grim, kindly, strong old pioneer,
+with the gray-blue eyes and his voice was saying: "Jest when
+things looks about as black as they can look, if ye hold steady,
+keep cool and kind, something sure happens to make it all easy.
+There's always a way and the stout heart will find it."
+
+What way was there for him? He would die of hunger and cold
+before Quonab could find him, and again came the spectre of fear.
+If only he could devise some way of letting his comrade know. He
+shouted once or twice, in the faint hope that the still air might
+carry the sound, but the silent wood was silent when he ceased.
+
+Then one of his talks with Quonab came to mind. He remembered how
+the Indian, as a little papoose, had been lost for three days.
+Though, then but ten years old, he had built a smoke fire that
+brought him help. Yes, that was the Indian way; two smokes means
+"I am lost"; "double for trouble."
+
+Fired by this new hope, Rolf crawled a little apart from his camp
+and built a bright fire, then smothered it with rotten wood and
+green leaves. The column of smoke it sent up was densely white
+and towered above the trees.
+
+Then painfully he hobbled and crawled to a place one hundred
+yards away, and made another smoke. Now all he could do was wait.
+
+A fat pigeon, strayed from its dock, sat on a bough above his
+camp, in a way to tempt Providence. Rolf drew a blunt arrow to
+the head and speedily had the pigeon in hand for some future meal.
+
+As he prepared it, he noticed that its crop was crammed with the
+winged seed of the slippery elm, so he put them all back again
+into the body when it was cleaned, knowing well that they are a
+delicious food and in this case would furnish a welcome variant
+to the bird itself.
+
+An hour crawled by. Rolf had to go out to the far fire, for it
+was nearly dead. Instinctively he sought a stout stick to help
+him; then remembered how Hoag had managed with one leg and two
+crutches. "Ho!" he exclaimed. "That is the answer -- this is the
+'way."'
+
+Now his attention was fixed on all the possible crutches. The
+trees seemed full of them, but all at impossible heights. It was
+long before he found one that he could cut with his knife.
+Certainly he was an hour working at it; then he heard a sound
+that made his blood jump.
+
+From far away in the north it came, faint but reaching;
+
+"Ye-hoo-o."
+
+Rolf dropped his knife and listened with the instinctively open
+mouth that takes all pressure from the eardrums and makes them
+keen. It came again: " Ye-hoo-o." No mistake now, and Rolf sent
+the ringing answer back:
+
+"Ye-hoo-o, ye-hoo-o."
+
+In ten minutes there was a sharp " yap, yap," and Skookum bounded
+out of the woods to leap and bark around Rolf, as though he knew
+all about it; while a few minutes later, came Quonab striding.
+
+"Ho, boy," he said, with a quiet smile, and took Rolf's hand.
+"Ugh! That was good," and he nodded to the smoke fire. "I knew
+you were in trouble."
+
+"Yes," and Rolf pointed to the swollen ankle.
+
+The Indian picked up the lad in his arms and carried him back to
+the little camp. Then, from his light pack, he took bread and tea
+and made a meal for both. And, as they ate, each heard the
+other's tale.
+
+"I was troubled when you did not come back last night, for you
+had no food or blanket. I did not sleep. At dawn I went to the
+hill, where I pray, and looked away southeast where you went in
+the canoe. I saw nothing. Then I went to a higher hill, where I
+could see the northeast, and even while I watched, I saw the two
+smokes, so I knew my son was alive."
+
+"You mean to tell me I am northeast of camp? "
+
+"About four miles. I did not come very quickly, because I had to
+go for the canoe and travel here.
+
+"How do you mean by canoe?" said Rolf, in surprise.
+
+You are only half a mile from Jesup River," was the reply. "I
+soon bring you home."
+
+It was incredible at first, but easy of proof. With the hatchet
+they made a couple of serviceable crutches and set out together.
+
+ In twenty minutes they were afloat in the canoe; in an hour they
+were safely home again.
+
+And Rolf pondered it not a little. At the very moment of blackest
+despair, the way had opened, and it had been so simple, so natural,
+so effectual. Surely, as long as he lived, he would remember it�
+"There is always a way, and the stout heart will find it."
+
+
+
+Marketing the Fur
+
+If Rolf had been at home with his mother, she would have rubbed
+his black and swollen ankle with goose grease. The medical man at
+Stamford would have rubbed it with a carefully prepared and
+secret ointment. His Indian friend sang a little crooning song
+and rubbed it with deer's fat.  All different, and all good,
+because each did something to reassure the patient, to prove that
+big things were doing on his behalf, and each helped the process
+of nature by frequent massage.
+
+Three times a day, Quonab rubbed that blackened ankle. The grease
+saved the skin from injury, and in a week Rolf had thrown his
+crutches away.
+
+The month of May was nearly gone; June was at hand; that is, the
+spring was over. !
+
+In all ages, man has had the impulse, if not the habit, of spring
+migration. Yielding to it he either migrated or made some radical
+change in his life. Most of the Adirondack men who trapped in the
+winter sought work on the log drives in spring; some who had
+families and a permanent home set about planting potatoes and
+plying the fish nets. Rolf and Quonab having neither way open,
+yet feeling the impulse, decided to go out to Warren's with the fur.
+
+Quonab wanted tobacco -- and a change.
+
+Rolf wanted a rifle, and to see the Van Trumpers -- and a change.
+
+So June Ist saw them all aboard, with Quonab steering at the
+stern, and Skookum bow-wowing at the bow, bound for the great
+centre of Warren's settlement -- one store and three houses, very
+wide apart.
+
+There was a noble flush of water in the streams, and, thanks to
+their axe work in September, they passed down Jesup's River
+without a pause, and camped on the Hudson that night, fully
+twenty-five miles from home.
+
+Long, stringing flocks of pigeons going north were the most
+numerous forms of life. But a porcupine on the bank and a bear in
+the water aroused Skookum to a pitch of frightful enthusiasm and
+vaulting ambition that he was forced to restrain.
+
+On the evening of the third day they landed at Warren's and found
+a hearty welcome from the trader, who left a group of loafers and
+came forward:
+
+"Good day to ye, boy. My, how ye have growed."
+
+So he had. Neither Rolf nor Quonab had remarked it, but now they
+were much of the same height. "Wall, an' how'd ye make out with
+yer hunt? -- Ah, that's fine!" as each of them dropped a fur pack
+on the counter. "Wall, this is fine; we must have a drink on the
+head of it," and the trader was somewhat nonplussed when both the
+trappers refused. He was disappointed, too, for that refusal
+meant that they would get much better prices for their fun But he
+concealed his chagrin and rattled on: "I reckon I'll sell you the
+finest rifle in the country this time, "and he knew by Rolf's
+face that there was business to do in that line.
+
+Now came the listing of the fur, and naturally the bargaining was
+between the shrewd Yankee boy and the trader. The Indian stood
+shyly aside, but he did not fail to help with significant grunts
+and glances.
+
+"There, now," said Warren, as the row of martens were laid out
+side by side, " thirty martens -- a leetle pale  -- worth three
+dollars and fifty cents each, or, to be generous, we'll say four
+dollars." Rolf glanced at Quonab, who, unseen by the trader shook
+his head, held his right hand out, open hollow up, then raised it
+with a jerk for two inches.
+
+Quickly Rolf caught the idea and said; "No, I don't reckon them
+pale. I call them prime dark, every one of them." Quonab spread
+his hand with all five fingers pointed up, and Rolf continued,
+"They are worth five dollars each, if they're worth a copper."
+
+"Phew!" said the trader. "you forget fur is an awful risky thing;
+what with mildew, moth, mice, and markets, we have a lot of risk.
+But I want to please you, so let her go; five each. There's a
+fine black fox; that's worth forty dollars."
+
+"I should think it is," said Rolf, as Quonab, by throwing to his
+right an imaginary pinch of sand, made the sign "refuse."
+
+They had talked over the value of that fox skin and Rolf said,
+"Why, I know of a black fox that sold for two hundred dollars."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Oh, down at Stamford."
+
+"Why, that's near New York."
+
+"Of course; don't you send your fur to New York?"
+
+"Yes, but it costs a lot to get it there.
+
+"Now," said Warren, "if you'll take it in trade, I'll meet you
+half-way and call it one hundred dollars."
+
+"Make it one hundred and twenty-five dollars and I'll take a
+rifle, anyway."
+
+"Phew!" whistled the trader. "Where do ye get such notions? "
+
+"Nothing wrong about the notion; old Si Sylvanne offered me
+pretty near that, if I'd come out his way with the stuff."
+
+This had the desired effect of showing that there were other
+traders. At last the deal was closed. Besides the fox skin, they
+had three hundred dollars' worth of fur. The exchange for the fox
+skin was enough to buy all the groceries and dry goods they
+needed. But Rolf had something else in mind.
+
+He had picked out some packages of candies, some calico prints
+and certain bright ribbons, when the trader grasped the idea. "I
+see; yer goin' visitin'. Who is it? Must be the Van Trumpers! "
+
+Rolf nodded and now he got some very intelligent guidance. He did
+not buy Annette's dress, because part of her joy was to be the
+expedition in person to pick it out; but he stocked up with some
+gorgeous pieces of jewellery that were ten cents each, and
+ribbons whose colours were as far beyond expression as were the
+joys they could create in the backwoods female heart.
+
+Proudly clutching his new rlile, and carrying in his wallet a
+memorandum of three hundred dollars for their joint credit, Rolf
+felt himself a person of no little impor- tance. As he was
+stepping out of the store, the trader said, "Ye didn't run across
+Jack Hoag agin, did ye?"
+
+"Did we? Hmph!" and Rolf told briefly of their experience with
+that creature.
+
+"Just like him, just like him; served him right; he was a dirty
+cuss. But, say; don't you be led into taking your fur out Lyons
+Falls way. They're a mean lot in there, and it stands to reason I
+can give you better prices, being a hundred miles nearer New
+York."
+
+And that lesson was not forgotten. The nearer New York the better
+the price; seventy-five dollars at Lyons Falls; one hundred and
+twenty-five dollars at Warren's; two hundred dollars at New York.
+Rolf pondered long and the idea was one which grew and bore
+fruit.
+
+
+
+Back at Van Trumper's
+
+Nibowaka" -- Quonab always said "Nibowaka" when he was impressed
+with Rolf's astuteness -- "What about the canoe and stuff?"
+
+"I think we better leave all here. Callan will lend us a canoe."
+So they shouldered the guns, Rolf clung to his, and tramped
+across the portage, reaching Callan's in less than two hours.
+
+"Why, certainly you can have the canoe, but come in and eat
+first," was the kindly backwoods greeting. However, Rolf was keen
+to push on; they launched the canoe at once and speedily were
+flashing their paddles on the lake.
+
+The place looked sweetly familiar as they drew near. The crops in
+the fields were fair; the crop of chickens at the barn was good;
+and the crop of children about the door was excellent.
+
+"Mein Hemel! mein Hemel! " shouted fat old Hendrik, as they
+walked up to the stable door. In a minute he was wringing their
+hands and smiling into great red, white, and blue smiles. "Coom
+in, coom in, lad. Hi, Marta, here be Rolf and Quonab. Mein Hemel!
+mein Hemel! what am I now so happy."
+
+"Where's Annette?" asked Rolf.
+
+"Ach, poor Annette, she fever have a little; not mooch, some,"
+and he led over to a corner where on a low cot lay Annette, thin,
+pale, and listless.
+
+She smiled faintly, in response, when Rolf stooped and kissed her.
+
+"Why, Annette, I came back to see you. I want to take you over to
+Warren's store, so you can pick out that dress. See, I brought
+you my first marten and I made this box for you; you must thank
+Skookum for the quills on it."
+
+"Poor chile; she bin sick all spring," and Marta used a bunch of
+sedge to drive away the flies and mosquitoes that, bass and
+treble, hovered around the child.
+
+"What ails her?" asked Rolf anxiously.
+
+"Dot ve do not know," was the reply.
+
+"Maybe there's some one here can tell," and Roll glanced at the Indian.
+
+"Ach, sure! Have I you that not always told all-vays -- eet is so.
+All-vays, I want sumpin bad mooch. I prays de good Lord and all-vays,
+all-vays, two times now, He it send by next boat. Ach, how I am spoil,"
+and the good Dutchman's eyes filled with tears of thankfulness.
+
+Quonab knelt by the sufferer. He felt her hot, dry hand; he
+noticed her short, quick breathing, her bright eyes, and the
+untouched bowl of mush by her bed.
+
+"Swamp fever," he said. "I bring good medicine." He passed
+quietly out into the woods. When he returned, he carried a bundle
+of snake-root which he made into tea.
+
+Annette did not wish to touch it, but her mother persuaded her to
+take a few sips from a cup held by Rolf.
+
+"Wah! this not good," and Quonab glanced about the close,
+fly-infested room. "I must make lodge." He turned up the cover of
+the bedding; three or four large, fiat brown things moved slowly
+out of the light. "Yes, I make lodge."
+
+It was night now, and all retired; the newcomers to the barn.
+They had scarcely entered, when a screaming of poultry gave a
+familiar turn to affairs. On running to the spot, it proved not a
+mink or coon, but Skookum, up to his old tricks. On the appearance
+of his masters, he fled with guilty haste, crouched beneath the post
+that he used to be, and soon again was, chained to.
+
+In the morning Quonab set about his lodge, and Rolf said: "I've
+got to go to Warren's for sugar." The sugar was part truth and
+part blind. As soon as he heard the name swamp fever, Rolf
+remembered that, in Redding, Jesuit's bark (known later as
+quinine) was the sovereign remedy. He had seen his mother
+administer it many times, and, so far as he knew, with uniform
+success. Every frontier (or backwoods, it's the same) trader
+carries a stock of medicine, and in two hours Rolf left Warren's
+counter with twenty-five pounds of maple sugar and a bottle of
+quinine extract in his pack.
+
+"You say she's bothered with the flies; why don't you take some
+of this new stuff for a curtain? " and the trader held up a web
+of mosquito gauze, the first Rolf had seen. That surely was a
+good idea, and ten yards snipped off was a most interesting
+addition to his pack. The amount was charged against him, and in
+two hours more he was back at Van Trumper's.
+
+On the cool side of the house, Quonab had built a little lodge,
+using a sheet for cover. On a low bed of pine boughs lay the
+child. Near the door was a smouldering fire of cedar, whose
+aromatic fumes on the lazy wind reached every cranny of the lodge.
+
+Sitting by the bed head, with a chicken wing to keep off the few
+mosquitoes, was the Indian. The child's eyes were closed; she was
+sleeping peacefully. Rolf crept gently forward, laid his hand on
+hers, it was cool and moist. He went into the house with his
+purchases; the mother greeted him with a happy look: Yes, Annette
+was a little better; she had slept quietly ever since she was
+taken outdoors. The mother could not understand. Why should the
+Indian want to have her surrounded by pine boughs? why
+cedar-smoke? and why that queer song? Yes, there it was again.
+Rolf went out to see and hear. Softly summing on a tin pan, with
+a mudded stick, the Indian sang a song. The words which Rolf
+learned in the after- time were:
+
+"Come, Kaluskap, drive the witches; Those who came to harm the
+dear one."
+
+Annette moved not, but softly breathed, as she slept a sweet,
+restful slumber, the first for many days.
+
+"Vouldn't she be better in de house?" whispered the anxious mother.
+
+"No, let Quonab do his own way," and Rolf wondered if any white
+man had sat by little Wee-wees to brush away the flies from his
+last bed.
+
+
+
+Annette's New Dress
+
+Deep feelin's ain't any count by themselves; work 'em off, an'
+ye're somebody; weep 'em off an' you'd be more use with a heart
+o' stone -- Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+Quonab, I am going out to get her a partridge." "Ugh, good."
+
+So Rolf went off. For a moment he was inclined to grant Skookom's
+prayer for leave to, follow, but another and better plan came in
+mind. Skookum would most likely find a mother partridge, which
+none should kill in June, and there was a simple way to find a
+cock; that was, listen. It was now the evening calm, and before
+Rolf had gone half a mile he heard the distant "Thump, thump,
+thump, thump -- rrrrrrr" of a partridge, drumming. He went
+quickly and cautiously toward the place, then waited for the next
+drumming. It was slow in coming, so he knelt down by a mossy,
+rotten log, and struck it with his hands to imitate the thump and
+roll of the partridge. At once this challenge procured response.
+
+"Thump -- thump -- thump,, thump rrrrrrrrrrrr" it came, with
+martial swing and fervour, and crawling nearer,
+
+Rolf spied the drummer, pompously strutting up and down a log
+some forty yards away. He took steady aim, not for the head --  a
+strange gun, at forty yards  -- for the body.  At the crack, the
+bird fell dead, and in Rolf's heart there swelled up a little
+gush of joy, which he believed was all for the sake of the
+invalid, but which a finer analysis might have proved to be due
+quite as much to pride in himself and his newly bought gun.
+
+Night was coming on when he got back, and he found the Dutch
+parents in some excitement. "Dot Indian he gay no bring Annette
+indoors for de night.  How she sleep outdoors -- like dog -- like
+Bigger -- like tramp? Yah it is bad, ain't it?" and poor old
+Hendrik looked sadly upset and mystified.
+
+"Hendrik, do you suppose God turns out worse air in the night
+than in the day?"
+
+"Ach, dunno."
+
+"Well, you see Quonab knows what he's doing."
+
+"Yah."
+
+"Well, let him do it. He or I'll sleep alongside the child she'll
+be all right," and Rolf thought of those horrible brown crawlers
+under the bedding indoors.
+
+Rolf had much confidence in the Indian as a doctor, but he had
+more in his own mother. He was determined to give Annette the
+quinine, yet he hesitated to interfere. At length, he said: "It
+is cool enough now; I will put these thin curtains round her
+bed."
+
+"Ugh, good!" but the red man sat there while it was being done.
+
+"You need not stay now; I'll watch her, Quonab."
+
+"Soon, give more medicine," was the reply that Rolf did not want.
+So he changed his ruse.  "I wish you'd take that partridge and
+make soup of it.  I've had my hands in poison ivy, so I dare not
+touch it."
+
+"Ach, dot shall I do. Dot kin myself do," and the fat mother,
+laying the recent baby in its cradle, made cumbrous haste to cook
+the bird.
+
+"Foiled again," was Rolf's thought, but his Yankee wit was with
+him. He laid one hand on the bowl of snake-root tea. It was
+lukewarm. "Do you give it hot or cold, Quonab?"
+
+"Hot."
+
+"I'll take it in and heat it."  He carried it off, thinking, "If
+Quonab won't let me give the bark extract, I'll make him give
+it."  In the gloom of the kitchen he had no difficulty in adding
+to the tea, quite unseen, a quarter of the extract; when heated,
+he brought it again, and the Indian himself gave the dose.
+
+As bedtime drew near, and she heard the red man say he would
+sleep there, the little one said feebly, "Mother, mother," then
+whispered in her mother's ear, "I want Rolf."
+
+Rolf spread his blanket by the cot and slept lightly. Once or
+twice he rose to look at Annette. She was moving in her sleep,
+but did not awake.  He saw to it that the mosquito bar was in
+place, and slept till morning.
+
+There was no question that the child was better.  The renewed
+interest in food was the first good symptom, and the partridge
+served the end of its creation.  The snakeroot and the quinine
+did noble work, and thenceforth her recovery was rapid.  It was
+natural for her mother to wish the child back indoors.  It was a
+matter of course that she should go.  It was accepted as an
+unavoidable evil that they should always have those brown
+crawlers about the bed.
+
+But Rolf felt differently. He knew what his mother would have
+thought and done.  It meant another visit to Warren's, and the
+remedy he brought was a strong-smelling oil, called in those days
+"rock oil" -- a crude petroleum. When all cracks in the bed and
+near wall were treated with this, it greatly mitigated, if it did
+not quite end, the nuisance of the "plague that walks in the
+dark."
+
+Meanwhile, Quonab had made good his welcome by working on the
+farm. But when a week had flown, he showed signs of restlessness.
+"We have enough money, Nibowaka, why do we stay?"
+
+Rolf was hauling a bucket of water from the well at the time.  He
+stopped with his burden on the well-sweep, gazed into the well,
+and said slowly: "I don't know." If the truth were set forth, it
+would be that this was the only home circle he knew. It was the
+clan feeling that held him, and soon it was clearly the same
+reason that was driving Quonab to roam.
+
+"I have heard," said the Indian, "that my people still dwell in
+Canada, beyond Rouse's Point.  I would see them.  I will come
+again in the Red Moon (August)."
+
+So they hired a small canoe, and one bright morning, with Skookum
+in the bow, Quonab paddled away on his voyage of 120 miles on the
+plead waters of Lakes George and Champlain.  His canoe became a
+dark spot on the water; slowly it faded till only the flashing
+paddle was seen, and that was lost around a headland.
+
+The next day Rolf was sorry he let Quonab go alone, for it was
+evident that Van Trumper needed no help for a month yet; that is,
+he could not afford to hire, and while it was well enough for
+Rolf to stay a few days and work to equalize his board, the
+arrangement would not long continue satisfactory to both.
+
+Yet there was one thing he must do before leaving, take Annette
+to pick out her dress. She was well again now, and they set off
+one morning in the canoe, she and Rolf. Neither father nor mother
+could leave the house. They had their misgivings, but what could
+they do? She was bright and happy, full of the childish joy that
+belongs to that age, and engaged on such an important errand for
+the first time in her life.
+
+There was something more than childish joy showing in her face,
+an older person would have seen that, but it was largely lost on
+Rolf. There was a tendency to blush when she laughed, a
+disposition to tease her "big brother," to tyrannize over him in
+little things.
+
+"Now, you tell me some more about 'Robinson Crusoe,'" she began,
+as soon as they were in the canoe, and Rolf resumed the ancient,
+inspiring tale to have it listened to eagerly, but criticized
+from the standpoint of a Lake George farm. "Where was his wife?"
+"How could he have a farm without hens?"  "Dried grapes must be
+nice, but I'd rather have pork than goat," etc.
+
+Rolf, of course, took the part of Robinson Crusoe, and it gave
+him a little shock to hear Quonab called his man Friday.
+
+At the west side they were to invite Mrs. Callan to join their
+shopping trip, but in any case they were to borrow a horse and
+buckboard.  Neither Mrs. Callan nor the buckboard was available,
+but they were welcome to the horse. So Annette was made
+comfortable on a bundle of blankets, and chattered incessantly
+while Rolf walked alongside with the grave interest and
+superiority of a much older brother.  So they crossed the
+five-mile portage and came to Warren's store.  Nervous and
+excited, with sparkling eyes, Annette laid down her marten skin,
+received five dollars, and set about the tremendous task of
+selecting her first dress of really, truly calico print; and Rolf
+realized that the joy he had found in his new rifle was a very
+small affair, compared with the epoch-making, soul-filling,
+life-absorbing, unspeakable, and cataclysmal bliss that a small
+girl can have in her first chance of unfettered action in choice
+of a cotton print.
+
+"Beautiful? " How can mere words do justice to masses of yellow
+corn, mixed recklessly with green and scarlet poppies on a bright
+blue ground.  No, you should have seen Annette's dress, or you
+cannot expect to get the adequate thrill. And when they found
+that there was enough cash left over to add a red cotton parasol
+to the glorious spoils, every one there beamed in a sort of
+friendly joy, and the trader, carried away by the emotions of the
+hour, contributed a set of buttons of shining brass.
+
+Warren kept a "meal house," which phrase was a ruse that saved
+him from a burdensome hospitality. Determined to do it all in the
+best style, Rolf took Annette to the meal-house table. She was
+deeply awed by the grandeur of a tablecloth and white plates, but
+every one was kind.
+
+Warren, talking to a stranger opposite, and evidently resuming a
+subject they had discussed, said:
+
+"Yes, I'd like to send the hull lot down to Albany this week, if
+I could get another man for the canoe."
+
+Rolf was interested at once and said: "What wages are you offering?"
+
+"Twenty-five dollars and board."
+
+"How will I do?"
+
+"Well," said Warren, as though thinking it over:
+"I dunno but ye would.  Could ye go to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, for one month."
+
+"All right, it's a bargain."
+
+And so Rolf took the plunge that influenced his whole life.
+
+But Annette whispered gleefully and excitedly, "May I have some
+of that, and that?" pointing to every strange food she could see,
+and got them all.
+
+After noon they set out on their return journey, An- nette
+clutching her prizes, and prattling incessantly, while Rolf
+walked alongside, thinking deeply, replying to her chatter, but
+depressed by the thought of good-bye tomorrow. He was aroused at
+length by a scraping sound overhead and a sharp reprimand, "Rolf,
+you'll tear my new parasol, if you don't lead the horse better."
+
+By two o'clock they were at Callan's. Another hour and they had
+crossed the lake, and Annette, shrill with joy, was displaying
+her treasures to the wonder and envy of her kin.
+
+Making a dress was a simple matter in those and Marta promised:
+"Yah, soom day ven I one have, shall I it sew."  Meanwhile,
+Annette was quaffing deep, soul-satisfying draughts in the mere
+contempt of the yellow, red, green, and blue glories in which was
+soon to appear in public. And when the bed came, she fell asleep
+holding the dress-goods stuff in arms, and with the red parasol
+spread above her head, tired out, but inexpressibly happy.
+Travelling to the Great City
+
+He's a bad failure that ain't king in some little corner --
+Sayings of Sylvanne Sylvanne
+
+The children were not astir when Rolf was off in the morning. He
+caught a glimpse of Annette, still asleep under the red parasol,
+but the dress goods and the brass buttons had fallen to the
+floor.  He stepped into the canoe. The dead calm of early morning
+was on the water, and the little craft went skimming and wimpling
+across.  In half an hour it was beached at Callan's.  In a little
+more than an hour's jog and stride he was at Warren's, ready for
+work.  As he marched in, strong and brisk, his colour up, his
+blue eyes kindled with the thought of seeing Albany, the trader
+could not help being struck by him, especially when he remembered
+each of their meetings -- meetings in which he discerned a keen,
+young mind of good judgment, one that could decide quickly.
+
+Gazing at the lithe, red-checked lad, he said: "Say, Rolf, air ye
+an Injun?? "
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Air ye a half-breed?"
+
+"No, I'm a Yank; my name is Kittering; born and bred in Redding,
+Connecticut."
+
+"Well, I swan, ye look it. At fust I took ye fur an Injun; ye did
+look dark (and Rolf laughed inside, as he thought of that
+butternut dye), but I'm bound to say we're glad yer white."
+
+"Here, Bill, this is Rolf, Rolf Kittering, he'll go with ye to
+Albany." Bill, a loose-jointed, middle-aged, flat-footed, large-
+handed, semi-loafer, with keen gray eyes, looked up from a bundle
+he was roping.
+
+Then Warren took Rolf aside and explained: "I'm sending down all
+my fur this trip.  There's ten bales of sixty pounds each, pretty
+near my hull fortune.  I want it took straight to Vandam's, and,
+night or day, don't leave it till ye git it there. He's close to
+the dock.  I'm telling ye this for two reasons: The river's
+swarming with pirates and sneaks.  They'd like nothing better
+than to get away with a five-hundred-dollar bundle of fur; and,
+next, while Bill is A1 on the river and true as steel, he's awful
+weak on the liquor; goes crazy, once it's in him.  And I notice
+you've always refused it here. So don't stop at Troy, an' when ye
+get to Albany go straight past there to Vandam's.  You'll have a
+letter that'll explain, and he'll supply the goods yer to bring back.
+He's a sort of a partner, and orders from him is same as from me.
+
+"I suppose I ought to go myself, but this is the time all the fur
+is coming in here, an' I must be on hand to do the dickering, and
+there's too much much to risk it any longer in the storehouse."
+
+"Suppose," said Rolf, "Bill wants to stop at Troy?"
+
+"He won't. He's all right, given he's sober.  I've give him the
+letter."
+
+"Couldn't you give me the letter, in case?"
+
+"Law, Bill'd get mad and quit."
+
+"He'll never know."
+
+"That's so; I will." So when they paddled away, Bill had an
+important letter of instructions ostentatiously tucked in his
+outer pocket.  Rolf, unknown to any one else but Warren, had a
+duplicate, wrapped in waterproof, hidden in an inside pocket.
+
+Bill was A1 on the river; a kind and gentle old woodman, much
+stronger than he looked. He knew the value of fur and the danger
+of wetting it, so he took no chances in doubtful rapids. This
+meant many portages and much hard labour.
+
+I wonder if the world realizes the hard labour of the portage or
+carry? Let any man who seeks for light, take a fifty-pound sack
+of flour on his shoulders and walk a quarter of a mile on level
+ground in cool weather. Unless he is in training, he will find it
+a heavy burden long before he is half-way.  Suppose, instead of a
+flour sack, the burden has sharp angles; the bearer is soon in
+torture.  Suppose the weight carried be double; then the strain
+is far more than doubled.  Suppose, finally, the road be not a
+quarter mile but a mile, and not on level but through swamps,
+over rocks, logs, and roots, and the weather not cool, but
+suffocating summer weather in the woods, with mosquitoes boring
+into every exposed part, while both hands are occupied, steadying
+the burden or holding on to branches for help up steep places --
+and then he will have some idea of the horror of the portage; and
+there were many of these, each one calling for six loaded and
+five light trips for each canoe-man.  What wonder that men will
+often take chances in some fierce rapid, rather than to make a
+long carry through the fly-infested woods.
+
+It was weighty evidence of Bill's fidelity that again and again
+they made a portage around rapids he had often run, because in
+the present case he was in sacred trust of that much prized
+commodity -- fur.
+
+Eighty miles they called it from Warren's to Albany, but there
+were many halts and carries which meant long delay, and a whole
+week was covered before Bill and Rolf had passed the settlements
+of Glens Falls, Fort Edward, and Schuylerville, and guided their
+heavily laden canoe on the tranquil river, past the little town
+of Troy.  Loafers hailed them from the bank, but Bill turned a
+deaf ear to all temptation; and they pushed on happy in the
+thought that now their troubles were over; the last rapid was
+past; the broad, smooth waters extended to their port.
+
+
+
+Albany
+
+Only a man who in his youth has come at last in  sight of some
+great city he had dreamed of all his life and longed to see, can
+enter into Rolf's feelings as they swept around the big bend, and
+Albany -- Albany, hove in view.  Abany, the first chartered city
+of the United States; Albany, the capital of all the Empire
+State; Albany, the thriving metropolis with nearly six thousand
+living human souls; Albany with its State House, beautiful and
+dignified, looking down the mighty Hudson highway that led to the
+open sea.
+
+Rolf knew his Bible, and now he somewhat realized the feelings of
+St. Paul on that historic day when his life-long dream came true,
+when first he neared the Eternal City -- when at last he glimpsed
+the towers of imperial, splendid Rome.
+
+The long-strung docks were massed and webbed with ship rigging;
+the water was livened with boats and canoes; the wooden
+warehouses back of the docks were overtopped by wooden houses in
+tiers, until high above them all the Capitol itself was the
+fitting climax.
+
+Rolf knew something of shipping, and amid all the massed boats
+his eyes fell on a strange, square-looking craft with a huge
+water-wheel on each side. Then, swinging into better view, he
+read her name, the Clermont, and knew that this was the famous
+Fulton steamer, the first of the steamboat age.
+
+But Bill was swamped by no such emotion. Albany, Hudson,
+Clermont, and all, were familiar stories to him and he stolidly
+headed the canoe for the dock he knew of old.
+
+Loafers roosting on the snubbing posts hailed him, at first with
+raillery; but, coming nearer, he was recognized. "Hello, Bill;
+back again? Glad to see you," and there was superabundant help to
+land the canoe.
+
+"Wall, wall, wall, so it's really you," said the touter of a fur
+house, in extremely friendly voice; "come in now and we'll hev a
+drink."
+
+"No, sir-ree," said Bill decisively, "I don't drink till business
+is done."
+
+"Wall, now, Bill, here's Van Roost's not ten steps away an' he
+hez tapped the finest bar'l in years."
+
+"No, I tell ye, I'm not drinking -- now."
+
+"Wall, all right, ye know yer own business. I thought maybe ye'd
+be glad to see us."
+
+"Well, ain't I?"
+
+"Hello, Bill," and Bill's fat brother-in-law came up. Thus does
+me good, an' yer sister is spilin' to see ye. We'll hev one on
+this."
+
+"No, Sam, I ain't drinkin'; I've got biz to tend."
+
+"Wall, hev just one to clear yer head. Then settle yer business
+and come back to us."
+
+So Bill went to have one to clear his head. "I'll be back in two
+minutes, Rolf," but Rolf saw him no more for many days.
+
+"You better come along, cub," called out a red-nosed member of
+the group. But Rolf shook his head.
+
+"Here, I'll help you git them ashore," volunteered an effusive
+stranger, with one eye.
+
+"I don't want help."
+
+"How are ye gain' to handle 'em alone?"
+
+"Well, there's one thing I'd be glad to have ye do; that is, go
+up there and bring Peter Vandam."
+
+"I'll watch yer stuff while you go."
+
+"No, I can't leave."  "Then go to blazes; d'yte take me for yer
+errand boy?" And Rolf was left alone.
+
+He was green at the business, but already he was realizing the
+power of that word fur and the importance of the peltry trade.
+Fur was the one valued product of the wilderness that only the
+hunter could bring. The merchants of the world were as greedy for
+fur as for gold, and far more so than for precious stones.
+
+It was a commodity so light that, even in those days, a hundred
+weight of fur might range in value from one hundred to five
+thousand dollars, so that a man with a pack of fine furs was a
+capitalist. The profits of the business were good for trapper,
+very large for the trader, who doubled his first gain by paying
+in trade; but they were huge for the Albany middleman, and
+colossal for the New Yorker who shipped to London.
+
+With such allurements, it was small wonder that more country was
+explored and opened for fur than for settlement or even for gold;
+and there were more serious crimes and high-handed robberies over
+the right to trade a few furs than over any other legitimate
+business. These things were new to Rolf within the year, but he
+was learn- ing the lesson, and Warren's remarks about fur stuck
+in his memory with growing value. Every incident since the trip
+began had given them new points.
+
+The morning passed without sign of Bill; so, when in the
+afternoon, some bare-legged boys came along, Rolf said to them:
+"Do any of ye know where Peter Vandam's house is?"
+
+"Yeh, that's it right there," and they pointed to a large log
+house less than a hundred yards away.
+
+"Do ye know him?"
+
+"Yeh, he's my paw," said a sun-bleached freckle-face.
+
+"If you bring him here right away, I'll give you a dime. Tell him
+I'm from Warren's with a cargo."
+
+The dusty stampede that followed was like that of a mustang herd,
+for a dime was a dime in those days. And very soon, a tall,ruddy
+man appeared at the dock. He was a Dutchman in name only.  At
+first sight he was much like the other loafers, but was bigger,
+and had a more business-like air when observed near at hand.
+
+"Are you from Warren's?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Alone? "
+
+"No, sir. I came with Bill Bymus. But he went off early this
+morning; I haven't seen him since. I'm afraid he's in trouble."
+
+"Where'd ho go?"
+
+"In there with some friends."
+
+"Ha, just like him; he's in trouble all right. He'll be no good
+for a week. Last time he came near losing all our stuff. Now
+let's see what ye've got."
+
+"Are you Mr. Peter Vandam? "
+
+"Of course I am."
+
+Still Rolf looked doubtful. There was a small group around, and
+Rolf heard several voices, "Yes, this is Peter; ye needn't
+a-worry."  But Rolf knew none of the speakers. His look of
+puzzlement at first annoyed then tickled the Dutchman, who
+exploded into a hearty guffaw.
+
+"Wall, wall, you sure think ill of us.  Here, now look at that,"
+and he drew out a bundle of letters addressed to Master Peter
+Vandam.  Then he displayed a gold watch inscribed on the back
+"Peter Vandam"; next he showed a fob seal with a scroll and an
+inscription, "Petrus Vandamus"; then he turned to a youngster and
+said, "Run, there is the Reverend Dr. Powellus, he may help us";
+so the black-garbed, knee-breached, shovel-hatted clergyman came
+and pompously said: "Yes, my young friend, without doubt you may
+rest assured that this is our very estimable parishioner, Master
+Peter Vandam; a man well accounted in the world of trade."
+
+"And now," said Peter, "with the help of my birth- register and
+marriage-certificate, which will be placed at your service with
+all possible haste, I hope I may win your recognition."  The
+situation, at first tense, had become more and more funny, and
+the bystanders laughed aloud. Rolf rose to it, and smiling said
+slowly, "I am inclined to think that you must be Master Peter
+Vandam, of
+
+Albany. If that's so, this letter is for you, also this cargo."
+And so the delivery was made.
+
+Bill Bymus has not delivered the other letter to this day.
+Presumably he went to stay with his sister, but she saw little of
+him, for his stay at Albany was, as usual, one long spree. It was
+clear that, but for Rolf, there might have been serious loss of
+fur, and Vandam showed his appreciation by taking the lad to his
+own home, where the story of the difficult identification
+furnished ground for gusty laughter and primitive jest on many an
+after day.
+
+The return cargo for Warren consisted of stores that the Vandam
+warehouse had in stock, and some stuff that took a day or more to
+collect in town.
+
+As Rolf was sorting and packing next day, a tall, thin, well-dressed
+young man walked in with the air of one much at home.
+
+"Good morrow, Peter."
+
+"Good day to ye, sir," and they talked of crops and politics.
+
+Presently Vandam said, "Rolf, come over here."
+
+He came and was presented to the tall man, who was indeed very
+thin, and looked little better than an invalid. "This," said
+Peter, "is Master Henry van Cortlandt the son of his honour, the
+governor, and a very learned barrister.  He wants to go on a long
+hunting trip for his health. I tell him that likely you are the
+man he needs."
+
+This was so unexpected that Rolf turned red and gazed on the
+ground. Van Cortlandt at once began to clear things by
+interjecting: "You see, I'm not strong. I want to live outdoors
+for three months, where I can have some hunting and be beyond
+reach of business.  I'll pay you a hundred dollars for the three
+months, to cover board and guidance. And providing I'm well
+pleased and have good hunting, I'll give you fifty dollars more
+when I get back to Albany."
+
+"I'd like much to be your guide," said Rolf, "but I have a
+partner. I must find out if he's willing."
+
+"Ye don't mean-that drunken Bill Bymus?"
+
+"No! my hunting partner; he's an Indian." Then, after a pause, he
+added, " You wouldn't go in fly-time, would you?"
+
+"No, I want to be in peace. But any time after the first of August."
+
+"I am bound to help Van Trumper with his harvest; that will take
+most of August."
+
+As he talked, the young lawyer sized him up and said to himself,
+"This is my man."
+
+And before they parted it was agreed that Rolf should come to
+Albany with Quonab as soon as he could return in August, to form
+the camping party for the governor's son.
+
+
+
+The Rescue of Bill
+
+Bales were ready and the canoe newly gummed three days after
+their arrival, but still no sign of Bill.  A messengers sent to
+the brother-in-law's home reported that he had not been seen for
+two days. In spite of the fact that Albany numbered nearly "six
+thousand living human souls," a brief search by the docksharps
+soon revealed the sinner's retreat. His worst enemy would have
+pitied him; a red-eyed wreck; a starved, sick and trembling
+weakling; conscience-stricken, for the letter intrusted to him
+was lost; the cargo stolen -- so his comforters had said -- and
+the raw country lad murdered and thrown out into the river. What
+wonder that he should shun the light of day! And when big Peter
+with Rolf in the living flesh, instead of the sheriff, stood
+before him and told him to come out of that and get into the
+canoe, he wept bitter tears of repentance and vowed that never,
+never, never, as long as he lived would he ever again let liquor
+touch his lips.  A frame of mind which lasted in strength for
+nearly one day and a half, and did not entirely varnish for three.
+
+They passed Troy without desiring to stop, and began their fight
+with the river. It was harder than when coming, for their course
+was against stream when paddling, up hill when portaging, the
+water was lower, the cargo was heavier, and Bill not so able. Ten
+days it took them to cover those eighty miles. But they came out
+safely, cargo and all, and landed at Warren's alive and well on
+the twenty-first day since leaving.
+
+Bill had recovered his usual form.  Gravely and with pride he
+marched up to Warren and handed out a large letter which read
+outside, "Bill of Lading," and when opened, read: "The bearer of
+this, Bill Bymus, is no good. Don't trust him to Albany any more.
+(Signed) Peter Vandam."
+
+Warren's eyes twinkled, but he said nothing.  He took
+
+Rolf aside and said, "Let's have it." Rolf gave him the real
+letter that, unknown to Bill, he had carried, and Warren learned
+some things that he knew before.
+
+Rolf's contract was for a month; it had ten days to run, and
+those ten days were put in weighing sugar, checking accounts,
+milking cows, and watching the buying of fur. Warren didn't want
+him to see too much of the fur business, but Rolf gathered
+quickly that these were the main principles: Fill the seller with
+liquor, if possible; "fire water for fur" was the idea; next,
+grade all fur as medium or second-class, when cash was demanded,
+but be easy as long as payment was to be in trade.  That afforded
+many loopholes between weighing, grading, charging, and
+shrinkage, and finally he noticed that Albany prices were 30 to
+50 per cent. higher than Warren prices.  Yet Warren was reckoned
+a first-class fellow, a good neighbour, and a member of the
+church. But it was understood everywhere that fur, like
+horseflesh, was a business with moral standards of its own.
+
+A few days before their contract was up, Warren said: "How'd ye
+like to renew for a month?"
+
+"Can't; I promised to help Van Trumper with his harvest."
+
+"What does he pay ye?"
+
+"Seventy-five cents a day and board."
+
+"I'll make it a dollar."
+
+"I've given my word," said Rolf, in surprise.
+
+"Hey ye signed papers?"
+
+"They're not needed. The only use of signed papers is to show ye
+have given your word," said Rolf, quoting his mother, with rising
+indignation.
+
+The trader sniffed a little contemptuously and said nothing. But
+he realized the value of a lad who was a steady, intelligent
+worker, wouldn't drink, and was absolutely bound by a promise;
+so, after awhile, he said: "Wall, if Van don't want ye now, come
+back for a couple of weeks."
+
+Early in the morning Rolf gathered the trifles he had secured for
+the little children and the book he had bought for Annette, a
+sweet story of a perfect girl who died and went to heaven, the
+front embellished with a thrilling wood-cut. Then he crossed the
+familiar five-mile portage at a pace that in an hour brought him
+to the lake.
+
+The greeting at Van's was that of a brother come home.
+
+"Vell, Rolf, it's goood to see ye back. It's choost vat I vented.
+Hi, Marta, I told it you, yah.  I say, now I hope ze good Gott
+send Rolf. Ach, how I am shpoil!"
+
+Yes, indeed. The hay was ready; the barley was changing. So Rolf
+took up his life on the farm, doing work that a year before was
+beyond his strength, for the spirit of the hills was on him, with
+its impulse of growth, its joy in effort, its glory in strength.
+And all who saw the longlegged, long-armed, flat- backed youth
+plying fork or axe or hoe, in some sort ventured a guess: "He'll
+be a good 'un some day; the kind o' chap to keep friendly with.
+
+
+
+The Sick Ox
+
+The Thunder Moon passed quickly by; the hay was in; the barley
+partly so.  Day by day the whitefaced oxen toiled at the creaking
+yoke, as the loads of hay and grain were jounced cumbrously over
+roots and stumps of the virgin fields. Everything was promising
+well, when, as usual, there came a thunderbolt out of the clear
+sky.  Buck, the off ox, fell sick.
+
+Those who know little about cattle have written much of the meek
+and patient ox.  Those who know them well tell us that the ox is
+the "most cussedest of all cussed" animals; a sneak, a bully, a
+coward, a thief, a shirk, a schemer; and when he is not in
+mischief he is thinking about it.  The wickedest pack mule that
+ever bucked his burden is a pinfeathered turtle-dove compared
+with an average ox. There are some gentle oxen, but they are
+rare; most are treacherous, some are dangerous, and these are
+best got rid of, as they mislead their yoke mates and mislay
+their drivers.  Van's two oxen, Buck and Bright, manifested the
+usual variety and contrariety of disposition.  They were all
+right when well handled, and this Rolf could do better than Van,
+for he was "raised on oxen," and Van's over voluble, sputtering,
+Dutch- English seemed ill comprehended of the massive yoke
+beasts. The simpler whip-waving and fewer orders of the Yankee
+were so obviously successful that Van had resigned the whip of
+authority and Rolf was driver.
+
+Ordinarily, an ox driver walks on the hew (nigh or left) side,
+near the head of his team, shouting "gee" (right), "haw" (left),
+"get up," "steady," or "whoa" (stop), accompanying the order with
+a waving of the whip.  Foolish drivers lash the oxen on the haw
+side when they wish them to gee -- and vice versa; but it is
+notorious that all good drivers do little lashing. Spare the lash
+or spoil your team.  So it was not long before Rolf could guide
+them from the top of the load, as they travelled from shook to
+shook in the field.  This voice of command saved his life, or at
+least his limb, one morning, for he made a misstep that tumbled
+him down between the oxen and the wagon. At once the team
+started, but his ringing "Whoa!" brought them to a dead stop, and
+saved him; whereas, had it been Van's "Whoa!" it would have set
+them off at a run, for every shout from him meant a whip lick to
+follow.
+
+Thus Rolf won the respect, if not the love, of the huge beasts;
+more and more they were his charge, and when, on that sad
+morning, in the last of the barley, Van came in, "Ach, vot shall
+I do! Vot shall I do! Dot Buck ox be nigh dead."
+
+Alas! there he lay on the ground, his head sometimes raised,
+sometimes stretched out flat, while the huge creature uttered
+short moans at times.
+
+Only four years before, Rolf had seen that same thing at Redding.
+The rolling eye, the working of the belly muscles, the straining
+and moaning. "It's colic; have you any ginger?"
+
+"No, I hat only dot soft soap."
+
+What soft soap had to do with ginger was not clear, and Rolf
+wondered if it had some rare occult medical power that had
+escaped his mother.
+
+"Do you know where there's any slippery elm?"
+
+"Yah."
+
+"Then bring a big boiling of the bark, while I get some
+peppermint."
+
+The elm bark was boiled till it made a kettleful of brown slime.
+The peppermint was dried above the stove till it could be
+powdered, and mixed with the slippery slush. Some sulphur and
+some soda were discovered and stirred in, on general principles,
+and they hastened to the huge, helpless creature in the field.
+
+Poor Buck seemed worse than ever. He was flat on his side, with
+his spine humped up, moaning and straining at intervals. But now
+relief was in sight -- so thought the men. With a tin dipper they
+tried to pour some relief into the open mouth of the sufferer,
+who had so little appreciation that he simply taxed his remaining
+strength to blow it out in their faces. Several attempts ended
+the same way. Then the brute, in what looked like temper, swung
+his muzzle and dashed the whole dipper away. Next they tried the
+usual method, mixing it with a bran mash, considered a delicacy
+in the bovine world, but Buck again took notice, under pressure
+only, to dash it away and waste it all.
+
+It occurred to them they might force it down his throat if they
+could raise his head. So they used a hand lever and a prop to
+elevate the muzzle, and were about to try another inpour, when
+Buck leaped to his feet, and behaving like one who has been
+shamming, made at full gallop for the stable, nor stopped till
+safely in his stall, where at once he dropped in all the evident
+agony of a new spasm.
+
+It is a common thing for oxen to sham sick, but this was the real
+thing, and it seemed they were going to lose the ox, which meant
+also lose a large part of the harvest.
+
+In the stable, now, they had a better chance; they tied him, then
+raised his head with a lever till his snout was high above his
+shoulders. Now it seemed easy to pour the medicine down that
+long, sloping passage. But his mouth was tightly closed, any that
+entered his nostrils was blown afar, and the suffering beast
+strained at the rope till he seemed likely to strangle.
+
+Both men and ox were worn out with the struggle; the brute was no
+better, but rather worse.
+
+"Wall," said Rolf, "I've seen a good many ornery steers, but
+that's the orneriest I ever did handle, an' I reckon we'll lose
+him if he don't get that poison into him pretty soon."
+
+Oxen never were studied as much as horses, for they were
+considered a temporary shift, and every farmer looked forward to
+replacing them with the latter. Oxen were enormously strong, and
+they could flourish without grain when the grass was good; they
+never lost their head in a swamp hole, and ploughed steadily
+among all kinds of roots and stumps; but they were exasperatingly
+slow and eternally tricky.  Bright, being the trickier of the
+two, was made the nigh ox, to be more under control.  Ordinarily
+Rolf could manage Buck easily, but the present situation seemed
+hopeless. In his memory he harked back to Redding days, and he
+recalled old Eli Gooch, the ox expert, and wondered what he would
+have done.  Then, as he sat, he caught sight of the sick ox
+reaching out its head and deftly licking up a few drops of bran
+mash that had fallen from his yoke fellow's portion. A smile
+spread over Rolf's face. "Just like you; you think nothing's good
+except it's stolen. All right; we'll see." He mixed a big dose of
+medicine, with bran, as before.  Then he tied Bright's head so
+that he could not reach the ground, and set the bucket of mash
+half way between the two oxen. "Here ye are, Bright," he said, as
+a matter of form, and walked out of the stable; but, from a
+crack, he watched. Buck saw a chance to steal Bright's bran; he
+looked around; Oh, joy! his driver was away. He reached out
+cautiously; sniffed; his long tongue shot forth for a first
+taste, when Rolf gave a shout and ran in. "Hi, you old robber!
+Let that alone; that's for Bright."
+
+The sick ox was very much in his own stall now, and stayed there
+for some time after Rolf went to resume his place at the
+peephole. But encouraged by a few minutes of silence, he again
+reached out, and hastily gulped down a mouthful of the mixture
+before Rolf shouted and rushed in armed with a switch to punish
+the thief. Poor Bright, by his efforts to reach the tempting
+mash, was unwittingly playing the game, for this was proof
+positive of its desirableness.
+
+After giving Buck a few cuts with the switch, Rolf retired, as
+before. Again the sick ox waited for silence, and reaching out
+with greedy haste, he gulped down the rest and emptied the
+bucket; seeing which, Rolf ran in and gave the rogue a final
+trouncing for the sake of consistency.
+
+Any one who knows what slippery elm, peppermint, soda, sulphur,
+colic, and ox do when thoroughly interincorporated will not be
+surprised to learn that in the morning the stable needed special
+treatment, and of all the mixture the ox was the only ingredient
+left on the active list. He was all right again, very thirsty,
+and not quite up to his usual standard, but, as Van said, after a
+careful look, "Ah, tell you vot, dot you vas a veil ox again, an'
+I t'ink I know not vot if you all tricky vas like Bright."
+Rolf and Skookum at Albany
+
+The Red Moon (August) follows the Thunder Moon, and in the early
+part of its second week Rolf and Van, hauling in the barley and
+discussing the fitness of the oats, were startled by a most
+outrageous clatter among the hens.  Horrid murder evidently was
+stalking abroad, and, hastening to the rescue, Rolf heard loud,
+angry barks; then a savage beast with a defunct "cackle party"
+appeared, but dropped the victim to bark and bound upon the
+"relief party" with ecstatic expressions of joy, in spite of
+Rolf's -- "Skookum! you little brute!"
+
+Yes! Quonab was back; that is, he was at the lake shore, and
+Skookum had made haste to plunge into the joys and gayeties of
+this social centre, without awaiting the formalities of greeting
+or even of dry-shod landing.
+
+The next scene was -- a big, high post, a long, strong chain and
+a small, sad dog.
+
+"Ho, Quonab, you found your people?  You had a good time?"
+
+"Ugh," was the answer, the whole of it, and all the light Rolf
+got for many a day on the old man's trip to the North. The
+prospect of going to Albany for Van Cortlandt was much more
+attractive to Quonab than that of the harvest field, so a
+compromise was agreed on.  Callan's barley was in the stock; if
+all three helped Callan for three days, Callan would owe them for
+nine, and so it was arranged.
+
+Again "good-bye," and Rolf, Quonab, and little dog Skookum went
+sailing down the Schroon toward the junction, where they left a
+cache of their supplies, and down the broadening Hudson toward
+Albany.
+
+Rolf had been over the road twice; Quonab never before, yet his
+nose for water was so good and the sense of rapid and portage was
+so strong in the red man, that many times he was the pilot. "This
+is the way, because it must be"; "there it is deep because so
+narrow"; "that rapid is dangerous, because there is such a
+well-beaten portage trail"; "that we can run, because I see it,"
+or, "because there is no portage trail," etc.  The eighty miles
+were covered in three sleeps, and in the mid-moon days of the Red
+Moon they landed at the dock in front of Peter Vandam's.  If
+Quonab had any especial emotions for the occasion, he cloaked
+them perfectly under a calm and copper-coloured exterior of
+absolute immobility.
+
+Their Albany experiences included a meeting with the governor and
+an encounter with a broad and burly river pirate, who, seeing a
+lone and peaceable-looking red man, went out of his way to insult
+him; and when Quonab's knife flashed out at last, it was only his
+recently established relations with the governor's son that saved
+him from some very sad results, for there were many loafers
+about.  But burly Vandam appeared in the nick of time to halt the
+small mob with the warning: "Don't you know that's Mr. Van
+Cortlandt's guide?"  With the governor and Vandam to back him,
+Quonab soon had the mob on his side, and the dock loafer's own
+friends pelted him with mud as he escaped. But not a little
+credit is due to Skookum, for at the critical moment he had
+sprung on the ruffian's bare and abundant leg with such toothsome
+effect that the owner fell promptly backward and the knife thrust
+missed.  It was quickly over and Quonab replaced his knife,
+contemptuous of the whole crowd before, during and after the
+incident.  Not at the time, but days later, he said of his foe:
+"He was a talker; he was full of fear."
+
+With the backwoods only thirty miles away, and the unbroken
+wilderness one hundred, it was hard to believe how little Henry
+van Cortlandt knew of the woods and its life.  He belonged to the
+ultra-fashionable set, and it was rather their pose to affect
+ignorance of the savage world and its ways. But he had plenty of
+common-sense to fan back on, and the inspiring example of
+Washington, equally at home in the nation's Parliament, the army
+intrenchment, the glittering ball room, or the hunting lodge of
+the Indian, was a constant reminder that the perfect man is a
+harmonious development of mind, morals, and physique.
+
+His training had been somewhat warped by the ultraclassic fashion
+of the times, so he persisted in seeing in Quonab a sort of
+discoloured, barbaric clansman of Alaric or a camp follower of
+Xenophon's host, rather than an actual living, interesting,
+native American, exemplifying in the highest degree the sinewy,
+alert woodman, and the saturated mystic and pantheist of an age
+bygone and out of date, combined with a middle-measure
+intelligence.  And Rolf, tall, blue-eyed with brown, curling
+hair, was made to pose as the youthful Achilles, rather than as a
+type of America's best young manhood, cleaner, saner, and of far
+higher ideals and traditions than ever were ascribed to Achilles
+by his most blinded worshippers.  It recalled the case of
+Wordsworth and Southey living side by side in England; Southey,
+the famous, must needs seek in ancient India for material to
+write his twelve-volume romance that no one ever looks at;
+Wordsworth, the unknown, wrote of the things of his own time,
+about his own door? and produced immortal verse.
+
+What should we think of Homer, had he sung his impressions of the
+ancient Egyptians? or of Thackeray, had he novelized the life of
+the Babylonians? It is an ancient blindness, with an ancient wall
+to bruise one's head. It is only those who seek ointment of the
+consecrated clay that gives back sight, who see the shining way
+at their feet, who beat their face against no wall, who safely
+climb the heights. Henry van Cortlandt was a man of rare parts,
+of every advantage, but still he had been taught steadfastly to
+live in the past. His eyes were yet to be opened. The living
+present was not his -- but yet to be.
+
+The young lawyer had been assembling his outfit at Vandam's
+warehouse, for, in spite of scoffing friends, he knew that Rolf
+was coming back to him.
+
+When Rolf saw the pile of stuff that was gathered for that
+outfit, he stared at it aghast, then looked at Vandam, and
+together they roared. There was everything for light housekeeping
+and heavy doctoring, even chairs, a wash stand, a mirror, a
+mortar, and a pestle.  Six canoes could scarcely have carried the
+lot.
+
+"'Tain't so much the young man as his mother," explained Big
+Pete; "at first I tried to make 'em understand, but it was no
+use; so I says, 'All right, go ahead, as long as there's room in
+the warehouse.' I reckon I'll set on the fence and have some fun
+seein' Rolf ontangle the affair."
+
+"Phew, pheeeww -- ph-e-e-e-e-w," was all Rolf could say in
+answer.  But at last, "Wall, there's always a way. I sized him up
+as pretty level headed.  We'll see."
+
+There was a way and it was easy, for, in a secret session, Rolf,
+Pete, and Van Cortlandt together sorted out the things needed. A
+small tent, blankets, extra clothes, guns, ammunition, delicate
+food for three months, a few medicines and toilet articles -- a
+pretty good load for one canoe, but a trifle compared with the
+mountain of stuff piled up on the floor.
+
+"Now, Mr. van Cortlandt," said Rolf, "will you explain to your
+mother that we are going on with this so as to travel quickly,
+and will send back for the rest as we need it?"
+
+A quiet chuckle was now heard from Big Pete. "Good! I wondered
+how he'd settle it."
+
+The governor and his lady saw them off; therefore, there was a
+crowd. The mother never before had noted what a frail and
+dangerous thing a canoe is. She cautioned her son never to
+venture out alone, and to be sure that he rubbed his chest with
+the pectoral balm she had made from such and such a famous
+receipt, the one that saved the life but not the limb of old
+Governor Stuyvesant, and come right home if you catch a cold; and
+wait at the first camp till the other things come, and (in a
+whisper) keep away from that horrid red Indian with the knife,
+and never fail to let every one know who you are, and write
+regularly, and don't forget to take your calomel Monday,
+Wednesday, and Friday, alternating with Peruvian bark Tuesday,
+Thursday, and Saturday, and squills on Sunday, except every other
+week, when he should devote Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays to
+rhubarb and catnip tea, except in the full moon, when the catnip
+was to be replaced with graveyard bergamot and the squills with
+opodeldoc in which an iron nail had been left for a week.
+
+So Henry was embraced, Rolf was hand-shaken, Quonab was nodded
+at, Skookum was wisely let alone, and the trim canoe swung from
+the dock. Amid hearty cheers, farewells, and "God speed ye's" it
+breasted the flood for the North.
+
+And on the dock, with kerchief to her eyes, stood the mother,
+weeping to think that her boy was going far, far away from his
+home and friends in dear, cultured, refined Albany, away, away,
+to that remote and barbarous inaccessible region almost to the
+shore land of Lake Champlain.
+
+
+
+Back to Indian Lake
+
+Young Van Cortlandt, six feet two in his socks and thirty- four
+inches around the chest, was, as Rolf long afterward said, "awful
+good raw material, but awful raw."  Two years out of college,
+half of which had been spent at the law, had done little but
+launch him as a physical weakling and a social star.  But his
+mental make-up was more than good; it was of large promise.  He
+lacked neither courage nor sense, and the course he now followed
+was surely the best for man-making.
+
+Rolf never realized how much a farmer-woodman-
+canoeman-hunter-camper had to know, until now he met a man who
+did not know anything, nor dreamed how many wrong ways there were
+of doing a job, till he saw his new companion try it.
+
+There is no single simple thing that is a more complete measure
+of one's woodcraft than the lighting of a fire. There are a dozen
+good ways and a thousand wrong ones. A man who can light thirty
+fires on thirty successive days with thirty matches or thirty
+sparks from flint and steel is a graduated woodman, for the feat
+presupposes experience of many years and the skill that belongs
+to a winner.
+
+When Quonab and Rolf came back from taking each a load over the
+first little portage, they found Van Cortlandt getting ready for
+a fire with a great, solid pile of small logs, most of them wet
+and green. He knew how to use flint and steel, because that was
+the established household way of the times.  Since childhood had
+he lighted the candle at home by this primitive means.  When his
+pile of soggy logs was ready, he struck his flint, caught a spark
+on the tinder that is always kept on hand, blew it to a flame,
+thrust in between two of the wet logs, waited for all to blaze
+up, and wondered why the tiny blaze went out at once, no matter
+how often he tried.
+
+When the others came back, Van Cortlandt remarked: "It doesn't
+seem to burn." The Indian turned away in silent contempt. Rolf
+had hard work to keep the forms of respect, until the thought
+came: "I suppose I looked just as big a fool in his world at
+Albany."
+
+"See," said he, "green wood and wet wood won't do, but yonder is
+some birch bark and there's a pine root." He took his axe and cut
+a few sticks from the root, then used his knife to make a
+sliver-fuzz of each; one piece, so resinous that it would not
+whittle, he smashed with the back of the axe into a lot of
+matchwood. With a handful of finely shredded birch bark he was
+now quite ready. A crack of the flint a blowing of the spark
+caught on the tinder from the box, a little flame that at once
+was magnified by the birch bark, and in a minute the pine
+splinters made a sputtering fire. Quonab did not even pay Van
+Cortlandt the compliment of using one of his logs. He cut a
+growing poplar, built a fireplace of the green logs around the
+blaze that Rolf had made, and the meal was ready in a few
+minutes.
+
+Van Cortlandt was not a fool; merely it was all new to him. But
+his attention was directed to fire-making now, and long before
+they reached their cabin he had learned this, the first of the
+woodman's arts -- he could lay and light a fire. And when, weeks
+later, he not only made the flint fire, but learned in emergency
+to make the rubbing stick spark, his cup of joy was full. He felt
+he was learning.
+
+Determined to be in everything, now he paddled all day; at first
+with vigour, then mechanically, at last feebly and painfully.
+Late in the afternoon they made the first long portage; it was a
+quarter mile. Rolf took a hundred pounds, Quonab half as much
+more, Van Cortlandt tottered slowly behind with his pill-kit and
+his paddle. That night, on his ample mattress, he slept the sleep
+of utter exhaustion. Next day he did little and said nothing. It
+came on to rain; he raised a huge umbrella and crouched under it
+till the storm was over. But the third day he began to show signs
+of new life, and before they reached the Schroon's mouth, on the
+fifth day, his young frame was already responding to the elixir
+of the hills.
+
+It was very clear that they could not take half of the stuff that
+they had cached at the Schroon's mouth, so that a new adjustment
+was needed and still a cache to await another trip.
+
+That night as they sat by their sixth camp fire, Van Cortlandt
+pondered over the recent days, and they seemed many since he had
+left home. He felt much older and stronger. He felt not only less
+strange, but positively intimate with the life, the river, the
+canoe, and his comrades; and, pleased with his winnings, he laid
+his hand on Skookum, slumbering near, only to arouse in response
+a savage growl, as that important animal arose and moved to the
+other side of the fire. Never did small dog give tall man a more
+deliberate snub. "You can't do that with Skookum; you must wait
+till he's ready," said Rolf.
+
+The journey up the Hudson with its "mean" waters and its
+"carries" was much as before. Then they came to the eagle's nest
+and the easy waters of Jesup's River, and without important
+incident they landed at the cabin. The feeling of "home again"
+spread over the camp and every one was gay.
+Van Cortlandt's Drugs
+
+AIN'T ye feelin' all right?" said Rolf, one bright, calomel
+morning, as he saw Van Cortlandt pre- paring his daily physic.
+
+"Why, yes; I'm feeling fine; I'm better every day," was the
+jovial reply.
+
+"Course I don't know, but my mother used to say: 'Med'cine's the
+stuff makes a sick man well, an' a well man sick."'
+
+"My mother and your mother would have fought at sight, as you may
+judge.  B-u-t," he added with reflective slowness, and a merry
+twinkle in his eye, "if things were to be judged by their
+product, I am afraid your mother would win easily," and he laid
+his long, thin, scrawny hand beside the broad, strong hand of the
+growing youth.
+
+"Old Sylvanne wasn't far astray when he said: 'There aren't any
+sick, 'cept them as thinks they are,"' said Rolf. "I suppose I
+ought to begin to taper off," was the reply.  But the tapering
+was very sudden.  Before a week went by, it seemed desirable to
+go back for the stuff left in cache on the Schroon, where, of
+course, it was subject to several risks.  There seemed no object
+in taking Van Cortlandt back, but they could not well leave him
+alone.  He went.  He had kept time with fair regularity --
+calomel, rhubarb; calomel, rhubarb; calomel, rhubarb, squills --
+but Rolf's remarks had sunk into his intelligence, as a red-hot
+shot will sink through shingles, letting in light and creating
+revolution.
+
+This was a rhubarb morning.  He drank his potion, then, carefully
+stoppering the bottle, he placed it with its companions in a box
+and stowed that near the middle of the canoe.   "I'll be glad
+when it's finished," he said reflectively; "I don't believe I
+need it now.  I wish sometimes I could run short of it all."
+
+That was what Rolf had been hoping for.  Without such a remark,
+he would not have dared do as he did. He threw the tent cover
+over the canoe amidships, causing the unstable craft to cant:
+"That won't do," he remarked, and took out several articles,
+including the medicine chest, put them ashore under the bushes,
+and, when he replaced them, contrived that the medicine should be
+forgotten.
+
+Next morning Van Cortlandt, rising to prepare his calomel, got a
+shock to find it not.
+
+"It strikes me," says Rolf, "the last time I saw that, it was on
+the bank when we trimmed the canoe." Yes, there could be no doubt
+of it.  Van must live his life in utter druglessness for a time.
+It gave him somewhat of a scare, much like that a young swimmer
+gets when he finds he has drifted awav from his floats; and, like
+that same beginner, it braced him to help himself. So Van found
+that he could swim without corks.
+
+They made a rapid journey down, and in a week they were back with
+the load.
+
+There was the potion chest where they had left it.  Van Cortlandt
+picked it up with a sheepish smile, and they sat down for evening
+meal.  Presently Rolf said: "I mind once I seen three little
+hawks in a nest together.  The mother was teaching them to fly.
+Two of them started off all right, and pretty soon were scooting
+among the treetops. The other was scared.  He says: 'No, mother,
+I never did fly, and I'm scared I'd get killed if I tried.' At
+last the mother got mad and shoved him over.  As soon as he felt
+he was gone, he spread out his wings to save himself.  The wings
+were all right enough, and long before he struck the ground, he
+was flying."
+
+
+
+Rolf Learns Something from Van
+
+A man can't handle his own case, any more than a delirious doctor
+kin give himself the right physic. --Saying of Si Sylvanne.
+
+However superior Rolf might feel in the canoe or the woods, there
+was one place where Van Cortlandt took the lead, and that was in
+the long talks they had by the campfire or in Van's own shanty
+which Quonab rarely entered.
+
+The most interesting subjects treated in these were ancient
+Greece and modern Albany. Van Cortlandt was a good Greek scholar,
+and, finding an intelligent listener, he told the stirring tales
+of royal Ilion, Athens, and Pergamos, with the loving enthusiasm
+of one whom the teachers found it easy to instruct in classic
+lore. And when he recited or intoned the rolling Greek heroics of
+the siege of Troy, Rolf listened with an interest that was
+strange, considering that he knew not a word of it. But he said,
+"It sounded like real talk, and the tramp of men that were all
+astir with something big a-doing."
+
+Albany and politics, too, were vital strains, and life at the
+Government House, with the struggling rings and cabals, social
+and political. These were extraordinarily funny and whimsical to
+Rolf. No doubt because Van Cortlandt presented them that way. And
+he more than once wondered how rational humans could waste their
+time in such tomfoolery and childish things as all
+conventionalities seemed to be. Van Cortlandt smiled at his
+remarks, but made no answer for long.
+
+One day, the first after the completion of Van Cortlandt's cabin,
+as the two approached, the owner opened the door and stood aside
+for Rolf to enter.
+
+"Go ahead," said Rolf.
+
+"After you," was the polite reply.
+
+"Oh, go on," rejoined the lad, in mixed amusement and impatience.
+
+Van Cortlandt touched his hat and went in.
+
+Inside, Rolf turned squarely and said: "The other day you said
+there was a reason for all kinds o' social tricks; now will you
+tell me what the dickens is the why of all these funny- do's? It
+'pears to me a free-born American didn't ought to take off his
+hat to any one but God."
+
+Van Cortlandt chuckled softly and said: "You may be very sure
+that everything that is done in the way of social usage is the
+result of common-sense, with the exception of one or two things
+that have continued after the reason for them has passed, like
+the buttons you have behind on your coat; they were put there
+originally to button the tails out of the way of your sword.
+Sword wearing and using have passed away, but still you see the
+buttons.
+
+"As to taking off your hat to no man: it depends entirely on what
+you mean by it; and, being a social custom, you must accept its
+social meaning.
+
+"In the days of knight errantry, every one meeting a stranger had
+to suppose him an enemy; ten to one he was. And the sign and
+proof of friendly intention was raising the right hand without a
+weapon in it. The hand was raised high, to be seen as far as they
+could shoot with a bow, and a further proof was added when they
+raised the vizor and exposed the face. The danger of the highway
+continued long after knights ceased to wear armour; so, with the
+same meaning, the same gesture was used, but with a lifting of
+the hat. If a man did not do it, he was either showing contempt,
+or hostility for the other, or proving himself an ignorant brute.
+So, in all civilized countries, lifting the hat is a sign of
+mutual confidence and respect."
+
+"Well! that makes it all look different. But why should you touch
+your hat when you went ahead of me just now?"
+
+"Because this is my house; you are my guest. I am supposed to
+serve you in reasonable ways and give you precedence. Had I let
+you open my door for me, it would have been putting you in the
+place of my servant; to balance that, I give you the sign of
+equality and respect."
+
+"H'm," said Rolf, "'it just shows,' as old Sylvanne sez, 'this
+yer steel-trap, hair-trigger, cocksure jedgment don't do. An' the
+more a man learns, the less sure he gits. An' things as hez
+lasted a long time ain't liable to be on a rotten foundation.'"
+
+
+
+The Charm of Song
+
+With a regular tum ta tum ta, came a weird sound from the sunrise
+rock one morning, as Van slipped out of his cabin.
+
+"Ag-aj-way-o-say
+Pem-o-say
+Gezhik-om era-bid ah-keen
+Ena-bid ah-keen"
+
+"What's he doing, Rolf?"
+
+"That's his sunrise prayer," was the answer.
+
+"Do you know what it means?"
+
+"Yes, it ain't much; jest 'Oh, thou that walkest in the sky in
+the morning, I greet thee."'
+
+"Why, I didn't know Indians had such performances; that's exactly
+like the priests of Osiris. Did any one teach him? I mean any
+white folk."
+
+"No, it's always been the Indian way. They have a song or a
+prayer for most every big event, sunrise, sunset, moonrise, good
+hunting, and another for when they're sick, or when they're going
+on a journey, or when their heart is bad."
+
+"You astonish me. I had no idea they were so human. It carries me
+back to the temple of Delphi. It is worthy of Cassandra of Ilion.
+I supposed all Indians were just savage Indians that hunted till
+their bellies were full, and slept till they were empty again."
+
+"H'm," rejoined Rolf, with a gentle laugh. "I see you also have
+been doing some 'hair-trigger, steel-trap, cocksure jedgin'.'"
+
+"I wonder if he'd like to hear some of my songs? "
+
+"It's worth trying; anyway, I would," said Rolf.
+
+That night, by the fire, Van sang the "Gay Cavalier," "The
+Hunting of John Peel," and "Bonnie Dundee." He had a fine
+baritone voice. He was most acceptable in the musical circles of
+Albany. Rolf was delighted, Skookum moaned sympathetically, and
+Quonab sat nor moved till the music was over. He said nothing,
+but Rolf felt that it was a point gained, and, trying to follow
+it up, said:
+
+"Here's your drum, Quonab; won't you sing 'The Song of the
+Wabanaki?'" But it was not well timed, and the Indian shook his
+head.
+
+"Say, Van," said Rolf, (Van Cortlandt had suggested this
+abbreviation) "you'll never stand right with Quonab till you kill
+a deer."
+
+"I've done some trying."
+
+"Well, now, we'll go out to-morrow evening and try once more.
+What do you think of the weather, Quonab? "
+
+"Storm begin noon and last three days," was the brief answer, as
+the red man walked away.
+
+"That settles it," said Rolf; "we wait."
+
+Van was surprised, and all the more so when in an hour the sky
+grew black and heavy rain set in, with squalls.
+
+"How in the name of Belshazzar's weather bugler does he tell?"
+
+"I guess you better not ask him, if you want to know. I'll find
+out and tell you later."
+
+Rolf learned, not easily or at single talk:
+
+"Yesterday the chipmunks worked hard; to-day there are none to be
+seen.
+
+"Yesterday the loons were wailing; now they are still, and no
+small birds are about.
+
+"Yesterday it was a yellow sunrise; to-day a rosy dawn.
+
+"Last night the moon changed and had a thick little ring.
+
+"It has not rained for ten days, and this is the third day of
+easterly winds.
+
+"There was no dew last night. I saw Tongue Mountain at daybreak;
+my tom-tom will not sing.
+
+"The smoke went three ways at dawn, and Skookum's nose was hot."
+
+So they rested, not knowing, but forced to believe, and it was
+not till the third day that the sky broke; the west wind began to
+pay back its borrowings from the east, and the saying was proved
+that "three days' rain will empty any sky."
+
+That evening, after their meal, Rolf and Van launched the canoe
+and paddled down the lake. A mile from camp they landed, for this
+was a favourite deer run. Very soon Rolf pointed to the ground.
+He had found a perfectly fresh track, but Van seemed not to
+comprehend. They went along it, Rolf softly and silently, Van
+with his long feet and legs making a dangerous amount of clatter.
+Rolf turned and whispered, "That won't do. You must not stand on
+dry sticks." Van endeavoured to move more cautiously and thought
+he was doing well, but Rolf found it very trying to his patience
+and began to understand how Quonab had felt about himself a year
+ago. "See," said Rolf, "lift your legs so; don't turn your feet
+out that way. Look at the place before you put it down again;
+feel with your toe to make sure there is no dead stick, then
+wriggle it down to the solid ground. Of course, you'd do better
+in moccasins. Never brush past any branches; lift them aside and
+don't let them scratch; ease them back to the place; never try to
+bend a dry branch; go around it," etc. Van had not thought of
+these things, but now he grasped them quickly, and they made a
+wonderful improvement in his way of going.
+
+They came again to the water's edge; across a little bay Rolf
+sighted at once the form of a buck, perfectly still, gazing their
+way, wondering, no doubt, what made those noises.
+
+"Here's your chance," he whispered.
+
+"Where?" was the eager query.
+
+"There; see that gray and white thing?"
+
+"I can't see him."
+
+For five minutes Rolf tried in vain to make his friend see that
+statuesque form; for five minutes it never moved. Then, sensing
+danger, the buck gave a bound and was lost to view.
+
+It was disheartening. Rolf sat down, nearly disgusted; then one
+of Sylvanne's remarks came to him: "It don't prove any one a
+fool, coz he can't play your game."
+
+Presently Rolf said, "Van, hev ye a book with ye?"
+
+"Yes, I have my Virgil."
+
+"Read me the first page."
+
+Van read it, holding the book six inches from his nose.
+
+"Let's see ye read this page there," and Rolf held it up four
+feet away.
+
+"I can't; it's nothing but a dim white spot."
+
+"Well, can ye see that loon out there?"
+
+"You mean that long, dark thing in the bay? "
+
+"No, that's a pine log close to," said Rolf, with a laugh, "away
+out half a mile."
+
+"No, I can't see anything but shimmers."
+
+"I thought so. It's no use your trying to shoot deer till ye get
+a pair of specs to fit yer eyes. You have brains enough, but you
+haven't got the eyesight of a hunter. You stay here till I go see
+if I have any luck."
+
+Rolf melted into the woods. In twenty minutes Van heard a shot
+and very soon Rolf reappeared, carrying a two-year- old buck, and
+they returned to their camp by nightfall. Quonab glanced at their
+faces as they passed carrying the little buck. They tried to look
+inscrutable. But the Indian was not deceived. He gave out nothing
+but a sizzling " Humph!"
+The Redemption of Van
+
+WHEN things is looking black as black can be, it's a sure sign of
+luck coming your way." so said Si Sylvanne, and so it proved to
+Van Cortlandt The Moon of the Falling Leaves was waning, October
+was nearly over, the day of his return to Albany was near, as he
+was to go out in time for the hunters to return in open water. He
+was wonderfully improved in strength and looks. His face was
+brown and ruddy. He had abandoned all drugs, and had gained fully
+twenty pounds in weight. He had learned to make a fire, paddle a
+canoe, and go through the woods in semi-silence. His scholarly
+talk had given him large place in Rolf's esteem, and his sweet
+singing had furnished a tiny little shelf for a modicum of
+Quonab's respect. But his attempts to get a deer were failures.
+"You come back next year with proper, farsight glasses and you'll
+all right," said Rolf; and that seemed the one ray of hope.
+
+The three days' storm had thrown so many trees that the hunters
+decided it would be worth while making a fast trip down to
+Eagle's Nest, to cut such timber as might have fallen across the
+stream, and so make an easy way for when they should have less time.
+
+The surmise was quite right. Much new-fallen timber was now
+across the channel. They chopped over twenty-five trunks before
+they reached Eagle's Nest at noon, and, leaving the river in
+better shape than ever it was, they turned, for the swift,
+straight, silent run of ten miles home.
+
+As they rounded the last point, a huge black form in the water
+loomed to view. Skookum's bristles rose. Quonab whispered, "
+Moose! Shoot quick!"  Van was the only one with a gun. The great
+black beast stood for a moment, gazing at them with wide-open
+eyes, ears, and nostrils, then shook his broad horns, wheeled,
+and dashed for the shore. Van fired and the bull went down with a
+mighty splash among the lilies. Rolf and Skookum let off a
+succession of most unhunterlike yells of triumph. But the giant
+sprang up again and reached the shore, only to fall to Van
+Cortlandt's second barrel. Yet the stop was momentary; he rose
+and dashed into the cover. Quonab turned the canoe at once and
+made for the land.
+
+A great sob came from the bushes, then others at intervals.
+Quonab showed his teeth and pointed. Rolf seized his rifle,
+Skookum sprang from the boat, and a little later was heard
+letting off his war-cry in the bushes not far away.
+
+The men rushed forward, guns in hand, but Quonab called, "Look
+out! Maybe he waiting."
+
+"If he is, he'll likely get one of us." said Rolf, with a light
+laugh, for he had some hearsay knowledge of moose.
+
+Covered each by a tree, they waited till Van had reloaded his
+double-barrelled, then cautiously approached. The great frothing
+sobs had resounded from time to time.
+
+Skookum's voice also was heard in the thicket, and when they
+neared and glimpsed the place, it was to see the monster on the
+ground, lying at full length, dinging up his head at times when
+he uttered that horrid sound of pain.
+
+The Indian sent a bullet through the moose's brain; then all was
+still, the tragedy was over.
+
+But now their attention was turned to Van Cortlandt. He reeled,
+staggered, his knees trembled, his face turned white, and, to
+save himself from falling, he sank onto a log. Here he covered
+his face with his hands, his feet beat the ground, and his
+shoulders heaved up and down.
+
+The others said nothing. They knew by the signs and the sounds
+that it was only through a mighty effort that young Van
+Cortlandt, grown man as he was, could keep himself from
+hysterical sobs and tears.
+
+Not then, but the next day it was that Quonab said: "It comes to
+some after they kill, to some before, as it came to you, Rolf; to
+me it came the day I killed my first chipmunk, that time when I
+stole my father's medicine."
+
+They had ample work for several hours now, to skin the game and
+save the meat. It was fortunate they were so near home. A
+marvellous change there was in the atmosphere of the camp. Twice
+Quonab spoke to Van Cortlandt, as the latter laboured with them
+to save and store the meat of his moose. He was rubbed, doped,
+soiled, and anointed with its flesh, hair, and blood, and that
+night, as they sat by their camp fire, Skookum arose, stretched,
+yawned, walked around deliberately, put his nose in the lawyer's
+hand. gave it a lick, then lay down by his feet. Van Cortlandt
+glanced at Rolf, a merry twinkle was in the eyes of both. "It's
+all right. You can pat Skookum now, without risk of being
+crippled. He's sized you up. You are one of us at last;" and
+Quonab looked on with two long ivory rows a-gleaming in his
+smile.
+
+
+
+Dinner at the Governor's
+
+Was ever there a brighter blazing sunrise after such a night of
+gloom? Not only a deer, but the biggest of all deer, and Van
+himself the only one of the party that had ever killed a moose.
+The skin was removed and afterward made into a hunting coat for
+the victor. The head and horns were carefully preserved to be
+carried back to Albany, where they were mounted and still hang in
+the hall of a later generation of the name. The final days at the
+camp were days of happy feeling; they passed too soon, and the
+long-legged lawyer, bronzed and healthy looking, took his place
+in their canoe for the flying trip to Albany. With an empty canoe
+and three paddles (two and one half, Van said), they flew down
+the open stretch of Jesup's River in something over two hours and
+camped that night fully thirty-five miles from their cabin. The
+next day they nearly reached the Schroon and in a week they
+rounded the great bend, and Albany hove in view.
+
+How Van's heart did beat! How he did exult to come in triumph
+home, reestablished in health and strengthened in every way.
+They were sighted and recognized. Messengers were seen running;
+a heavy gun was fired, the flag run up on the Capitol, bells set
+a-ringing, many people came running, and more flags ran up on vessels.
+
+A great crowd gathered by the dock.
+
+"There's father, and mother too!" shouted Van, waving his hat.
+
+"Hurrah," and the crowd took it up, while the bells went jingle,
+jangle, and Skookum in the bow sent back his best in answer.
+
+The canoe was dragged ashore. Van seized his mother in his arms,
+as she cried: "My boy, my boy, my darling boy! how well you look.
+Oh, why didn't you write? But, thank God, you are back again, and
+looking so healthy and strong. I know you took your squills and
+opodeldoc. Thank God for that! Oh, I'm so happy! my boy, my boy!
+There's nothing like squills and God's blessing."
+
+Rolf and Quonab were made to feel that they had a part in it all.
+The governor shook them warmly by the hand, and then a friendly
+voice was heard: "Wall, boy, here ye air agin; growed a little,
+settin' up and sassin' back, same as ever." Rolf turned to see
+the gigantic, angular form and kindly face of grizzly old Si
+Sylvanne and was still more surprised to hear him addressed
+"senator."
+
+"Yes," said the senator, "one o' them freak elections that
+sometimes hits right; great luck for Albany, wa'nt it?"
+
+"Ho," said Quonab, shaking the senator's hand, while Skookum
+looked puzzled and depressed.
+
+"Now, remember," said the governor, addressing the Indian, the
+lad, and the senator, "we expect you to dine tonight at the
+mansion; seven o'clock."
+
+Then the terror of the dragon conventionality, that guards the
+gate and hovers over the feast, loomed up in Rolf's imagination.
+He sought a private word with Van. "I'm afraid I have no fit
+clothes; I shan't know how to behave," he said.
+
+"Then I'll show you. The first thing is to be perfectly clean and
+get a shave; put on the best clothes you have, and be sure
+they're clean; then you come at exactly seven o'clock, knowing
+that every one is going to be kind to you and you're bound to
+have a good time. As to any other 'funny-do' you watch me, and
+you'll have no trouble."
+
+So when the seven o'clock assemblage came, and guests were
+ascending the steps of the governor's mansion, there also mounted
+a tall, slim youth, an easy-pacing Indian, and a prick-eared,
+yellow dog. Young Van Cortlandt was near the door, on watch to
+save them any embarrassment. But what a swell he looked,
+cleanshaven, ruddy, tall, and handsome in the uniform of an
+American captain, surrounded by friends and immensely popular.
+How different it all was from that lonely cabin by the lake.
+
+A butler who tried to remove Skookum was saved from mutilation by
+the intervention first of Quonab and next of Van; and when they
+sat down, this uncompromising four- legged child of the forest
+ensconced himself under Quonab's chair and growled whenever the
+silk stockings of the footman seemed to approach beyond the line
+of true respect.
+
+Young Van Cortlandt was chief talker at the dinner, but a pompous
+military man was prominent in the company. Once or twice Rolf was
+addressed by the governor or Lady Van Cortlandt, and had to speak
+to the whole table; his cheeks were crimson, but he knew what he
+wanted to say and stopped when it was said, so suffered no real
+embarrassment.
+
+After what seemed an interminable feast of countless dishes and
+hours' duration, an extraordinary change set in. Led by the
+hostess, all stood up, the chairs were lifted out of their way,
+and the ladies trooped into another room; the doors were closed,
+and the men sat down again at the end next the governor.
+
+Van stayed by Rolf and explained: "This is another social custom
+that began with a different meaning. One hundred years ago, every
+man got drunk at every formal dinner, and carried on in a way
+that the ladies did not care to see, so to save their own
+feelings and give the men a free rein, the ladies withdrew.
+Nowadays, men are not supposed to indulge in any such orgy, but
+the custom continues, because it gives the men a chance to smoke,
+and the ladies a chance to discuss matters that do not interest
+the men. So again you see it is backed by common sense."
+
+This proved the best part of the dinner to Rolf. There was a
+peculiar sense of over-politeness, of insincerity, almost, while
+the ladies were present; the most of the talking had been done by
+young Van Cortlandt and certain young ladies, assisted by some
+very gay young men and the general. Their chatter was funny, but
+nothing more. Now a different air was on the group; different
+subjects were discussed, and by different men, in a totally
+different manner.
+
+"We've stood just about all we can stand," said the governor,
+alluding to an incident newly told, of a British frigate boarding
+an American merchant vessel by force and carrying off half her
+crew, under presence that they were British seamen in disguise.
+"That's been going on for three years now. It's either piracy or
+war, and, in either case, it's our duty to fight."
+
+"Jersey's dead against war," said a legislator from down the river.
+
+"Jersey always was dead against everything that was for the
+national good, sir," said a red-faced, puffy, military man, with
+a husky voice, a rolling eye, and a way of ending every sentence
+in "sir."
+
+"So is Connecticut," said another; "they say, 'Look at all our
+defenceless coasts and harbour towns.'"
+
+"They're not risking as much as New York," answered the
+governor," with her harbours all the way up the Hudson and her
+back door open to invasion from Canada."
+
+"Fortunately, sir, Pennyslvania, Maryland, and the West have not
+forgotten the glories of the past. All I ask -- is a chance to
+show what we can do, sir. I long for the smell of powder once
+more, sir."
+
+"I understand that President Madison has sent several protests,
+and, in spite of Connecticut and New Jersey, will send an
+ultimatum within three months. He believes that Britain has all
+she can manage, with Napoleon and his allies battering at her
+doors, and will not risk a war.
+
+"It's my opinion," said Sylvanne; "that these English men is too
+pig-headed an' ornery to care a whoop in hell whether we get mad
+or not. They've a notion Paul Jones is dead, but I reckon we've
+got plenty of the breed only waitin' a chance. Mor'n twenty-five
+of our merchantmen wrecked each year through being stripped of
+their crews by a 'friendly power.' 'Pears to me we couldn't be
+worse off going to war, an' might be a dum sight better."
+
+"Your home an' holdings are three hundred safe miles from the
+seacoast," objected the man from Manhattan.
+
+"Yes, and right next Canada," was the reply.
+
+"The continued insults to our flag, sir, and the personal
+indignities offered to our people are even worse than the actual
+loss in ships and goods. It makes my blood fairly boil," and the
+worthy general looked the part as his purple jowl quivered over
+his white cravat.
+
+"Gosh all hemlock! the one pricks, but t'other festers. it's
+tarnal sure you steal a man's dinner and tell him he's one o'
+nature's noblemen, he's more apt to love you than if you give him
+five dollars to keep out o' your sight," said Sylvanne, with slow
+emphasis.
+
+"There's something to be said on the other side," said the timid
+one. "You surely allow that the British government is trying to
+do right, and after all we must admit that that Jilson affair
+resected very little credit on our own administration."
+
+"A man ken make one awful big mistake an' still be all right, but
+he can't go on making a little mistake every day right along an'
+be fit company for a clean crowd," retorted the new senator.
+
+At length the governor rose and led the way to the drawing-room,
+where they rejoined the ladies and the conversation took on a
+different colour and weight, by which it lost all value for those
+who knew not the art of twittering persiflage and found less joy
+in a handkerchief flirtation than in the nation's onward march.
+Rolf and Quonab enjoyed it now about as much as Skookum had done
+all the time.
+
+
+
+The Grebes and the Singing Mouse
+
+Quonab puzzled long over the amazing fact that young Van
+Cortlandt had evident high standing "in his own tribe." "He must
+be a wise counsellor, for I know he cannot fight and is a fool at
+hunting," was the ultimate decision.
+
+They had a final interview with the governor and his son before
+they left. Rolf received for himself and his partner the promised
+one hundred and fifty dollars, and the hearty thanks of all in
+the governor's home. Next, each was presented with a handsome
+hunting knife, not unlike the one young Van had carried, but
+smaller. Quonab received his with "Ho -- then, after a pause, "He
+pull out, maybe, when I need him." -- "Ho! good!" he exclaimed,
+as the keen blade appeared.
+
+"Now, Rolf," said the lawyer, "I want to come back next year and
+bring three companions, and we will pay you at the same rate per
+month for each. What do you say?"
+
+"Glad to have you again," said Rolf: "we'll come for you on
+August fifteenth; but remember you should bring your guitar and
+your spectacles."
+
+"One word," said the governor, "do you know the canoe route
+through Champlain to Canada? "
+
+"Quonab does."
+
+"Could you undertake to render scout service in that region?"
+
+The Indian nodded.
+
+"In case of war, we may need you both, so keep your ears open."
+
+And once more the canoe made for the north, with Quonab in the
+stern and Skookum in the bow.
+
+In less than a week they were home, and none too soon; for
+already the trees were bare, and they had to break the ice on the
+river before they ended their trip.
+
+Rolf had gathered many ideas the last two-months. He did not
+propose to continue all his life as a trapper. He wanted to see
+New York. He wanted to plan for the future. He needed money for
+his plans. He and Quonab had been running a hundred miles of
+traps, but some men run more than that single handed. They must
+get out two new lines at once, before the frost came. One of
+these they laid up the Hudson, above Eagle's Nest; the other
+northerly on Blue Mountain, toward Racquet River. Doing this was
+hard work, and when they came again to their cabin the robins had
+gone from the bleak and leafless woods; the grouse were making
+long night flights; the hollows had tracks of racing deer; there
+was a sense of omen, a length of gloom, for the Mad Moon was
+afloat in the shimmering sky; its wan light ghasted all the
+hills.
+
+Next day the lake was covered with thin, glare ice; on the glassy
+surface near the shore were two ducks floundering. The men went
+as near as they could, and Quonab said, " No, not duck, but
+Shingebis, divers.
+
+They cannot rise except from water. In the night the new ice
+looks like water; they come down and cannot rise. I have often
+seen it." Two days after, a harder frost came on. The ice was
+safe for a dog; the divers or grebes were still on its surface.
+So they sent Skookum. He soon returned with two beautiful grebes,
+whose shining, white breast feathers are as much prized as some
+furs.
+
+Quonab grunted as he held them up. "Ugh, it is often so in this
+Mad Moon. My father said it is because of Kaluskap's dancing."
+
+"I don't remember that one."
+
+"Yes, long ago. Kaluskap felt lazy. He wanted to eat, but did not
+wish to hunt, so he called the bluejay and said: 'Tell all the
+woods that to-morrow night Kaluskap gives a new dance and teaches
+a new song,' and he told the hoot owl to do the same, so one kept
+it up all day -- 'Kaluskap teaches a new dance to-morrow night,'
+and the other kept it up all night: 'Kaluskap teaches a new song
+at next council.'
+
+"Thus it came about that all the woods and waters sent their folk
+to the dance.
+
+"Then Kaluskap took his song-drum and said: 'When I drum and sing
+you must dance in a circle the same way as the sun, close your
+eyes tightly, and each one shout his war whoop, as I cry "new
+songs"!'
+
+"So all began, with Kaluskap drumming in the middle, singing:
+
+"'New songs from the south, brothers, Close your eyes tightly,
+brothers, Dance and learn a new song.
+
+"As they danced around, he picked out the fattest, and, reaching
+out one hand, seized them and twisted their necks, shouting out,
+'More war-cries, more poise! that's it; now you are learning!'
+
+"At length Shingebis the diver began to have his doubts and he
+cautiously opened one eye, saw the trick, and shouted: 'Fly,
+brothers, fly! Kaluskap is killing us !'
+
+"Then all was confusion. Every one tried to escape, and Kaluskap,
+in revenge, tried to kill the Shingebis. But the diver ran for
+the water and, just as he reached the edge, Kaluskap gave him a
+kick behind that sent him half a mile, but it knocked off all his
+tail feathers and twisted his shape so that ever since his legs
+have stuck out where his tail was, and he cannot rise from the
+land or the ice. I know it is so, for my father, Cos Cob, told me
+it was true, and we ourselves have seen it. It is ever so. To go
+against Kaluskap brings much evil to brood over."
+
+A few nights later, as they sat by their fire in the cabin, a
+curious squeaking was heard behind the logs. They had often heard
+it before, but never so much as now. Skookum turned his head on
+one side, set his ears at forward cock. Presently, from a hole
+'twixt logs and chimney, there appeared a small, white breasted
+mouse.
+
+Its nose and ears shivered a little; its black eyes danced in the
+firelight. It climbed up to a higher log, scratched its ribs,
+then rising on its hind legs, uttered one or two squeaks like
+those they had heard so often, but soon they became louder and
+continuous:
+
+"Peg,  peo, peo, peo, peo, peo, peo, oo. Tree, tree, tree, tree,
+trrrrrrr, Turr, turr, turr, tur, tur, Wee, wee, wee, we "--
+
+The little creature was sitting up high on its hind legs, its
+belly muscles were working, its mouth was gaping as it poured out
+its music. For fully half a minute this went on, when Skookum
+made a dash; but the mouse was quick and it flashed into the
+safety of its cranny.
+
+Rolf gazed at Quonab inquiringly.
+
+"That is Mish-a-boh-quas, the singing mouse. He always comes to
+tell of war. In a little while there will be fighting."
+A Lesson in Stalking
+
+Did you ever see any fighting, Quonab?"
+
+"Ugh! In Revolution, scouted for General Gates."
+
+"Judging by the talk, we're liable to be called on before a year.
+What will you do? "
+
+"Fight."
+
+"As soldier?"
+
+"No! scout."
+
+"They may not want us."
+
+"Always want scouts," replied the Indian.
+
+"It seems to me I ought to start training now."
+
+"You have been training."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"A scout is everything that an army is, but it's all in one man.
+An' he don't have to keep step."
+
+"I see, I see," replied Rolf, and he realized that a scout is
+merely a trained hunter who is compelled by war to hunt his
+country's foes instead of the beasts of the woods.
+
+"See that?" said the Indian, and he pointed to a buck that was
+nosing for cranberries in the open expanse across the river where
+it left the lake. "Now, I show you scouting." He glanced at the
+smoke from the fire, found it right for his plan, and said: "See!
+I take my bow. No cover, yet I will come close and kill that
+deer."
+
+Then began a performance that was new to Rolf, and showed that
+the Indian had indeed reached the highest pitch of woodcraft. He
+took his bow and three good arrows, tied a band around his head,
+and into this stuck a lot of twigs and vines, so that his head
+looked like a tussock of herbage. Then he left the shanty door,
+and, concealed by the last bushes on the edge, he reached the
+open plain. Two hundred yards off was the buck, nosing among the
+herbage, and, from time to time, raising its superb head and
+columnar neck to look around. There was no cover but creeping
+herbage. Rolf suspected that the Indian would decoy the buck by
+some whistle or challenge, for the thickness of its neck showed
+the deer to be in fighting humour.
+
+Flat on his breast the Indian lay. His knees and elbow seemed to
+develop centipedic power; his head was a mere clump of growing
+stuff. He snaked his way quietly for twenty-five yards, then came
+to the open, sloping shore, with the river forty yards wide of
+level shining ice, all in plain view of the deer; how was this to
+be covered?
+
+There is a well-known peculiarity of the white tail that the
+Indian was counting on; when its head is down grazing, even
+though not hidden, the deer does not see distant objects; before
+the head is raised, its tail is raised or shaken. Quonab knew
+that if he could keep the tail in view, he could avoid being
+viewed by the head. In a word, only an ill-timed movement or a
+whiff could betray him.
+
+The open ice was, of course, a hard test, and the hunter might
+have failed, but that his long form looked like one of the logs
+that were lying about half stranded or frozen in the stream.
+
+Watching ever the alert head and tail, he timed his approach,
+working hard and moving East when the head was down; but when
+warned by a tail-jerk he turned to a log nor moved a muscle. Once
+the ice was crossed, the danger of being seen was less, but of
+being smelt was greater, for the deer was moving about, and
+Quonab watched the smoke from the cabin for knowledge of the
+wind. So he came within fifty yards, and the buck, still sniffing
+along and eagerly champing the few red cranberries it found above
+the frozen moss, was working toward a somewhat higher cover. The
+herbage was now fully eighteen inches high, and Quonab moved a
+little faster. The buck found a large patch of berries under a
+tussock and dropped on its knees to pick them out, while Quonab
+saw the chance and gained ten yards before the tail gave warning.
+After so long a feeding-spell, the buck took an extra long
+lookout, and then walked toward the timber, whereby the Indian
+lost all he had gained. But the browser's eye was drawn by a
+shining bunch of red, then another; and now the buck swung until
+there was danger of betrayal by the wind; then down went its head
+and Quonab retreated ten yards to keep the windward. Once the
+buck raised its muzzle and sniffed with flaring nostrils, as
+though its ancient friend had brought a warning. But soon he
+seemed reassured, for the landscape showed no foe, and nosed back
+and forth, while Quonab regained the yards he had lost. The buck
+worked now to the taller cover, and again a tempting bunch of
+berries under a low, dense bush caused it to kneel for farther
+under-reaching. Quonab glided swiftly forward, reached the
+twenty-five-yard limit, rose to one knee, bent the stark cedar
+bow. Rolf saw the buck bound in air, then make for the wood with
+great, high leaps; the dash of disappointment was on him, but
+Quonab stood erect, with right hand raised, and shouted:
+
+"Ho -- ho."
+
+He knew that those bounds were unnecessarily high, and before the
+woods had swallowed up the buck, it fell  -- rose -- and fell
+again, to rise not. The arrow had pierced its heart.
+
+Then Rolf rushed up with kindled eye and exultant pride to slap
+his friend on the back, and exclaim:
+
+"I never thought it possible; the greatest feat in hunting I ever
+saw; you are a wonder!"
+
+To which the Indian softly replied, as he smiled:
+
+"Ho! it was so I got eleven British sentries in the war. They
+gave me a medal with Washington's head."
+
+"They did! how is it I never heard of it? Where is it?"
+
+The Indian's face darkened. "I threw it after the ship that stole
+my Gamowini."
+
+
+
+Rolf Meets a Canuck
+
+The winter might have been considered eventful, had not so many
+of the events been repetitions of former experience. But there
+were several that by their newness deserve a place on these
+pages, as they did in Rolf's memory.
+
+One of them happened soon after the first sharp frost. It had
+been an autumn of little rain, so that many ponds had dried up,
+with the result that hundreds of muskrats were forced out to seek
+more habitable quarters. The first time Rolf saw one of these
+stranded mariners on its overland journey, he gave heedless
+chase. At first it made awkward haste to escape; then a second
+muskrat was discovered just ahead, and a third. This added to
+Rolf's interest. In a few bounds he was among them, but it was to
+get a surprise. Finding themselves overtaken, the muskrats turned
+in desperation and attacked the common enemy with courage and
+fury. Rolf leaped over the first, but the second sprang, caught
+him by the slack of the trouser leg, and hung on. The third flung
+itself on his foot and drove its sharp teeth through the
+moccasin. Quickly the first rallied and sprang on his other leg
+with all the force of its puny paws, and powerful jaws.
+
+Meanwhile Quonab was laughing aloud and holding back Skookum,
+who, breathing fire and slaughter, was mad to be in the fight.
+
+"Ho! a good fight! good musquas! Ho, Skookum, you must not always
+take care of him, or he will not learn to go alone.
+
+"Ugh, good!" as the third muskrat gripped Rolf by the calf.
+
+There could be but one finish, and that not long delayed. A
+well-placed kick on one, the second swung by the tail, the third
+crushed under his heel, and the affair ended. Rolf had three
+muskrats and five cuts. Quonab had much joy and Skookum a sense
+of lost opportunity.
+
+"This we should paint on the wigwam," said Quonab. "Three great
+warriors attacked one Sagamore. They were very brave, but he was
+Nibowaka and very strong; he struck them down as the Thunderbird,
+Hurakan, strikes the dead pines the fire has left on the hilltop
+against the sky. Now shall you eat their hearts, for they were
+brave. My father told me a fighting muskrat's heart is great
+medicine; for he seeks peace while it is possible, then he turns
+and fights without fear."
+
+A few days later, they sighted a fox. In order to have a joke on
+Skookum, they put him on its track, and away he went, letting off
+his joy-whoops at every jump. The men sat down to wait, knowing
+full well that after an hour Skookum would come back with a long
+tongue and an air of depression. But they were favoured with an
+unexpected view of the chase. It showed a fox bounding over the
+snow, and not twenty yards behind was their energetic four-legged
+colleague.
+
+And, still more unexpected, the fox was overtaken in the next
+thicket, shaken to limpness, and dragged to be dropped at
+Quonab's feet. This glorious victory by Skookum was less
+surprising, when a closer examination showed that the fox had
+been in a bad way. Through some sad, sudden indiscretion, he had
+tackled a porcupine and paid the penalty. His mouth, jaws and
+face, neck and legs, were bristling with quills. He was sick and
+emaciated. He could not have lasted many days longer, and
+Skookum's summary lynching was a blessing in disguise.
+
+The trappers' usual routine was varied by a more important
+happening. One day of deep snow in January, when they were
+running the northern line on Racquet River, they camped for the
+night at their shelter cabin, and were somewhat surprised at dusk
+to hear a loud challenge from Skookum replied to by a human
+voice, and a short man with black whiskers appeared. He raised
+one hand in token of friendliness and was invited to come in.
+
+He was a French Canadian from La Colle Mills. He had trapped here
+for some years. The almost certainty of war between Canada and
+the States had kept his usual companions away. So he had trapped
+alone, always a dangerous business, and had gathered a lot of
+good fur, but had fallen on the ice and hurt himself inwardly, so
+that he had no strength. He could tramp out on snowshoes, but
+could not carry his pack of furs. He had long known that he had
+neighbours on the south; the camp fire smoke proved that, and he
+had come now to offer all his furs for sale.
+
+Quonab shook his head, but Rolf said, "We'll come over and see
+them."
+
+A two-hours' tramp in the morning brought them to the Frenchman's
+cabin. He opened out his furs; several otter, many sable, some
+lynx, over thirty beaver -- the whole lot for two hundred
+dollars. At Lyons Falls they were worth double that.
+
+Rolf saw a chance for a bargain. He whispered, "We can double our
+money on it, Quonab. What do ye say?"
+
+The reply was simply, "Ugh! you are Nibowaka."
+
+"We'll take your offer, if we can fix it up about payment, for I
+have no money with me and barely two hundred dollars at the
+cabin."
+
+"You half tabac and grosairs? "
+
+"Yes, plenty."
+
+"You can go 'get 'em ? Si?"
+
+Rolf paused, looked down, then straight at the Frenchman.
+
+"Will you trust me to take half the fur now; when I come back
+with the pay I can get the rest."
+
+The Frenchman looked puzzled, then, "By Gar you look de good
+look. I let um go. I tink you pretty good fellow, parbleu!"
+
+So Rolf marched away with half the furs and four days later he
+was back and paid the pale-faced but happy Frenchman the one
+hundred and fifty dollars he had received from Van Cortlandt,
+with other bills making one hundred and ninety-five dollars and
+with groceries and tobacco enough to satisfy the trapper. The
+Frenchman proved a most amiable character. He and Rolf took to
+each other greatly, and when they shook hands at parting, it was
+in the hope of an early and happier meeting.
+
+Francois la Colle turned bravely for the ninety-mile tramp over
+the snow to his home, while Rolf went south with the furs that
+were to prove a most profitable investment, shaping his life in
+several ways, and indirectly indeed of saving it on one occasion.
+
+
+
+War
+
+Eighteen hundred and twelve had passed away. President Madison,
+driven by wrongs to his countrymen and indignities that no nation
+should meekly accept, had in the midsummer declared war on Great
+Britain. Unfitted to cope with the situation and surrounded by
+unfit counsellors, his little army of heroic men led by unfit
+commanders had suffered one reverse after another.
+
+The loss of Fort Mackinaw, Chicago, Detroit, Brownstown, and the
+total destruction of the American army that attacked Queenstown
+were but poorly offset by the victory at Niagara and the
+successful defence of Ogdensburg.
+
+Rolf and Quonab had repaired to Albany as arranged, but they left
+it as United States scouts, not as guides to the four young
+sportsmen who wished to hark back to the primitive.
+
+Their first commission had been the bearing of despatches to
+Plattsburg.
+
+With a selected light canoe and a minimum of baggage they reached
+Ticonderoga in two days, and there renewed their acquaintance
+with General Hampton, who was fussing about, and digging useless
+entrenchments as though he expected a mighty siege. Rolf was
+called before him to receive other despatches for Colonel Pike at
+Plattsburg. He got the papers and learned their destination, then
+immediately made a sad mistake. " Excuse me, sir," he began, "if
+I meet with -- "
+
+"Young man," said the general, severely, "I don't want any of
+your 'ifs' or 'buts'; your orders are 'go.' 'How' and 'if' are
+matters for you to find out; that's what you are paid for."
+
+Rolf bowed; his cheeks were tingling. He was very angry at what
+he thought a most uncalled for rebuke, but he got over it, and he
+never forgot the lesson. It was Si Sylvanne that put it into
+rememberable form.
+
+"A fool horse kin follow a turnpike, but it takes a man with wits
+to climb, swim, boat, skate, run, hide, go it blind, pick a lock,
+take the long way, round, when it's the short way across, run
+away at the right time, or fight when it's wise -- all in one
+afternoon." Rolf set out for the north carrying a bombastic
+(meant to be reassuring) message from Hampton that he would
+annihilate any enemy who dared to desecrate the waters of the lake.
+
+It was on this trip that Rolf learned from Quonab the details of
+the latter's visit to his people on the St. Regis. Apparently the
+joy of meeting a few of his own kin, with whom he could talk his
+own language, was offset by meeting with a large number of his
+ancient enemies the Mohawks. There had been much discussion of
+the possible war between the British and the Yankees. The Mohawks
+announced their intention to fight for the British, which was a
+sufficient reason for Quonab as a Sinawa remaining with the
+Americans; and when he left the St. Regis reserve the Indian was
+without any desire to reenter it.
+
+At Plattsburg Rolf and Quonab met with another Albany
+acquaintance in General Wilkinson, and from him received
+despatches which they brought back to Albany, having covered the
+whole distance in eight days.
+
+When 1812 was gone Rolf had done little but carry despatches up
+and down Lake Champlain. Next season found the Americans still
+under command of Generals Wilkinson and Hampton, whose utter
+incompetence was becoming daily more evident.
+
+The year 1813 saw Rolf, eighteen years old and six feet one in
+his socks, a trained scout and despatch bearer.
+
+By a flying trip on snowshoes in January he took letters, from
+General Hampton at Ticonderoga to Sackett's Harbour and back in
+eight days, nearly three hundred miles. It made him famous as a
+runner, but the tidings that he brought were sad. Through him
+they learned in detail of the total defeat and capture of the
+American army at Frenchtown. After a brief rest he was sent
+across country on snowshoes to bear a reassuring message to
+Ogdensburg. The weather was much colder now, and the single
+blanket bed was dangerously slight; so "Flying Kittering," as
+they named him, took a toboggan and secured Quonab as his running
+mate. Skookum was given into safe keeping. Blankets, pots, cups,
+food, guns, and despatches were strapped on the toboggan, and
+they sped away at dawn from Ticonderoga on the I8th of February
+1813, headed northwestward, guided by little but the compass.
+Thirty miles that day they made in spite of piercing blasts and
+driving snow. But with the night there began a terrible storm
+with winds of zero chill. The air was filled with stinging,
+cutting snow. When they rose at daylight they were nearly buried
+in drifts, although their camp was in a dense, sheltered thicket.
+Guided wholly by the compass they travelled again, but blinded by
+the whirling white they stumbled and blundered into endless
+difficulties and made but poor headway. After dragging the
+toboggan for three hours, taking turns at breaking the way, they
+were changing places when Rolf noticed a large gray patch on
+Quonab's cheek and nose.
+
+"Quonab, your face is frozen," he said.
+
+"So is yours," was the reply.
+
+Now they turned aside, followed a hollow until they reached a
+spruce grove, where they camped and took an observation, to learn
+that the compass and they held widely different views about the
+direction of travel. It was obviously useless to face the storm.
+They rubbed out their frozen features with dry snow and rested by
+the fire.
+
+No good scout seeks for hardship; he avoids the unnecessary trial
+of strength and saves himself for the unavoidable. With zero
+weather about them and twenty-four hours to wait in the storm,
+the scouts set about making themselves thoroughly comfortable.
+
+With their snowshoes they dug away the snow in a circle a dozen
+feet across, piling it up on the outside so as to make that as
+high as possible. When they were
+
+down to the ground, the wall of snow around them was five feet
+high. Now they went forth with the hatchets, cut many small
+spruces, and piled them against the living spruces about the camp
+till there was a dense mass of evergreen foliage ten feet high
+around them, open only at the top, where was a space five feet
+across. With abundance of dry spruce wood, a thick bed of balsam
+boughs, and plenty of blankets they were in what most woodmen
+consider comfort complete.
+
+They had nothing to do now but wait. Quonab sat placidly smoking,
+Rolf was sewing a rent in his coat, the storm hissed, and the
+wind-driven ice needles rattled through the trees to vary the
+crackle of the fire with a "siss" as they fell on the embers. The
+low monotony of sound was lulling in its evenness, when a faint
+crunch of a foot on the snow was heard. Rolf reached for his gun,
+the fir tree screen was shaken a little, and a minute later there
+bounded in upon them the snow covered form of little dog Skookum,
+expressing his good-will by excessive sign talk in which every
+limb and member had a part. They had left him behind, indeed, but
+not with his consent, so the bargain was incomplete.
+
+There was no need to ask now, What shall we do with him? Skookum
+had settled that, and why or how he never attempted to explain.
+
+He was wise who made it law that "as was his share who went forth
+to battle, so shall his be that abode with the stuff," for the
+hardest of all is the waiting. In the morning there was less
+doing in the elemental strife. There were even occasional periods
+of calm and at length it grew so light that surely the veil was
+breaking.
+
+Quonab returned from a brief reconnoitre to say, " Ugh! -- good
+going."
+
+The clouds were broken and flying, the sun came out at times, but
+the wind was high, the cold intense, and the snow still drifting.
+Poor Skookum had it harder than the men, for they wore snowshoes;
+but he kept his troubles to himself and bravely trudged along
+behind. Had he been capable of such reflection he might have
+said, "What delightful weather, it keeps the fleas so quiet."
+
+That day there was little to note but the intense cold, and again
+both men had their cheeks frost-bitten on the north side. A nook
+under an overhanging rock gave a good camp that night. Next day
+the bad weather resumed, but, anxious to push on they faced it,
+guided chiefly by the wind. It was northwest, and as long as they
+felt this fierce, burning cold mercilessly gnawing on their
+hapless tender right cheek bones, they knew they were keeping
+their proper main course.
+
+They were glad indeed to rest at dusk and thaw their frozen
+faces. Next day at dawn they were off; at first it was calm, but
+the surging of the snow waves soon began again, and the air was
+filled with the spray of their lashing till it was hard to see
+fifty yards in any direction. They were making very bad time. The
+fourth day should have brought them to Ogdensburg, but they were
+still far off; how far they could only guess, for they had not
+come across a house or a settler.
+Ogdensburg
+
+The same blizzard was raging on the next day when Skookum gave
+unequivocal sign talk that he smelled something.
+
+It is always well to find out what stirs your dog. Quonab looked
+hard at Skookum. That sagacious mongrel was sniffing vigorously,
+up in the air, not on the ground; his mane was not bristling, and
+the patch of dark hair that every gray or yellow dog has at the
+base of his tail, was not lifted.
+
+"He smells smoke," was the Indian's quick diagnosis. Rolf pointed
+Up the wind and made the sign-talk query. Quonab nodded.
+
+It was their obvious duty to find out who was their smoky
+neighbour. They were now not so far from the St. Lawrence; there
+was a small chance of the smoke being from a party of the enemy;
+there was a large chance of it being from friends; and the
+largest chance was that it came from some settler's cabin where
+they could get necessary guidance.
+
+They turned aside. The wind now, instead of on the right cheek,
+was square in their faces. Rolf went forward increasing his pace
+till he was as far ahead as was possible without being out of
+sight. After a mile their way led downward, the timber was
+thicker, the wind less, and the air no more befogged with flying
+snow. Rolf came to a long, deep trench that wound among the
+trees; the snow at the bottom of it was very hard. This was what
+he expected; the trail muffled under new, soft snow, but still a
+fresh trail and leading to the camp that Skookum had winded.
+
+He turned and made the sign for them to halt and wait. Then
+strode cautiously along the winding guide line.
+
+In twenty minutes the indications of a settlement increased, and
+the scout at length was peering from the woods across the open
+down to a broad stream on whose bank was a saw mill, with the
+usual wilderness of ramshackle shanties, sheds, and lumber piles
+about.
+
+There was no work going on, which was a puzzle till Rolf
+remembered it was Sunday. He went boldly up and asked for the
+boss. His whole appearance was that of a hunter and as such the
+boss received him.
+
+He was coming through from the other side and had missed his way
+in the storm, he explained.
+
+"What are ye by trade?"
+
+"A trapper."
+
+"Where are ye bound now?"
+
+"Well, I'll head for the nearest big settlement, whatever that
+is."
+
+"It's just above an even thing between Alexandria Bay and
+Ogdensburg."
+
+So Rolf inquired fully about the trail to Alexandria Bay that he
+did not want to go to. Why should he be so careful? The mill
+owner was clearly a good American, but the scout had no right to
+let any outsider know his business. This mill owner might be
+safe, but he might be unwise and blab to some one who was not all
+right.
+
+Then in a casual way he learned that this was the Oswegatchie
+River and thirty miles down he would find the town of Ogdensburg.
+
+No great recent events did he hear of, but evidently the British
+troops across the river were only awaiting the springtime before
+taking offensive measures.
+
+For the looks of it, Rolf bought some tea and pork, but the
+hospitable mill man refused to take payment and, leaving in the
+direction of Alexandria Bay, Rolf presently circled back and
+rejoined his friends in the woods.
+
+A long detour took them past the mill. It was too cold for
+outdoor idling. Every window was curtained with frost, and not a
+soul saw them as they tramped along past the place and down to
+continue on the ice of the Oswegatchie.
+
+Pounded by the ceaseless wind, the snow on the ice was harder,
+travel was easier, and the same tireless blizzard wiped out the
+trail as soon as it was behind them.
+
+Crooked is the river trail, but good the footing, and good time
+was made. When there was a north reach, the snow was extra hard
+or the ice clear and the scouts slipped off their snow shoes, and
+trotted at a good six-mile gait. Three times they halted for tea
+and rest, but the fact that they were the bearers of precious
+despatches, the bringers of inspiring good news, and their goal
+ever nearer, spurred them on and on. It was ten o'clock that
+morning when they left the mill, some thirty miles from
+Ogdensburg. It was now near sundown, but still they figured that
+by an effort they could reach the goal that night. It was their
+best day's travel, but they were nerved to it by the sense of
+triumph as they trotted; and the prospective joy of marching up
+to the commandant and handing over the eagerly looked for,
+reassuring documents, gave them new strength and ambition. Yes!
+they must push on at any price that night. Day was over now; Rolf
+was leading at a steady trot. In his hand he held the long trace
+of his toboggan, ten feet behind was Quonab with the short trace,
+while Skookum trotted before, beside, or behind, as was dictated
+by his general sense of responsibility.
+
+It was quite dark now. There was no moon, the wooded shore was
+black. Their only guide was the broad, wide reach of the river,
+sometimes swept bare of snow by the wind, but good travelling at
+all times. They were trotting and walking in spells, going five
+miles an hour; Quonab was suffering, but Rolf was young and eager
+to finish. They rounded another reach, they were now on the last
+big bend, they were reeling off the miles; only ten more, and
+Rolf was so stirred that, instead of dropping to the usual walk
+on signal at the next one hundred yards spell, he added to his
+trot. Quonab, taken unawares, slipped and lost his hold of the
+trace. Rolf shot ahead and a moment later there was the crash of
+a breaking air-hole, and Rolf went through the ice, clutched at
+the broken edge and disappeared, while the toboggan was dragged
+to the hole.
+
+Quonab sprung to his feet, and then to the lower side of the
+hole. The toboggan had swung to the same place and the long trace
+was tight; without a moment's delay the Indian hauled at it
+steadily, heavily, and in a few seconds the head of his companion
+reappeared; still clutching that long trace he was safely dragged
+from the ice-cold flood, blowing and gasping, shivering and
+sopping, but otherwise unhurt.
+
+Now here a new danger presented itself. The zero wind would soon
+turn his clothes to boards. They stiffened in a few minutes, and
+the Indian knew that frozen hands and feet were all too easy in
+frozen clothes.
+
+He made at once for the shore, and, seeking the heart of a spruce
+thicket, lost no time in building two roaring fires between which
+Rolf stood while the Indian made the bed, in which, as soon as he
+could be stripped, the lad was glad to hide. Warm tea and warm
+blankets made him warm, but it would take an hour or two to dry
+his clothes. There is nothing more damaging than drying them too
+quickly. Quonab made racks of poles and spent the next two hours
+in regulating the fire, watching the clothes, and working the
+moccasins.
+
+It was midnight when they were ready and any question of going on
+at once was settled by Quonab. "Ogdensburg is under arms," he
+said. "It is not wise to approach by night."
+
+At six in the morning they were once more going, stiff with
+travel, sore-footed, face-frozen, and chafed by delay; but, swift
+and keen, trotting and walking, they went. They passed several
+settlements, but avoided them. At seven-thirty they had a distant
+glimpse of Ogdensburg and heard the inspiring roll of drums, and
+a few minutes later from the top of a hill they had a complete
+view of the heroic little town to see -- yes! plainly enough --
+that the British flag was flying from the flag pole.
+Saving the Despatches
+
+Oh, the sickening shock of it! Rolf did not know till now how
+tired he was, how eager to deliver the heartening message, and to
+relax a little from the strain. He felt weak through and through.
+There could be no doubt that a disaster had befallen his
+country's arms.
+
+His first care was to get out of sight with his sled and those
+precious despatches.
+
+Now what should he do? Nothing till he had fuller information. He
+sent Quonab back with the sled, instructing him to go to a
+certain place two miles off, there camp out of sight and wait.
+
+Then he went in alone. Again and again he was stung by the
+thought, "If I had come sooner they might have held out."
+
+A number of teams gathered at the largest of a group of houses on
+the bank suggested a tavern. He went in and found many men
+sitting down to breakfast. He had no need to ask questions. It
+was the talk of the table. Ogdensburg had been captured the day
+before. The story is well known. Colonel MacDonnell with his
+Glengarry Highlanders at Prescott went to drill daily on the ice
+of the St. Lawrence opposite Ogdensburg. Sometimes they marched
+past just out of range, sometimes they charged and wheeled before
+coming too near. The few Americans that held the place watched
+these harmless exercises and often cheered some clever manceuvre.
+They felt quite safe behind their fortification. By an unwritten
+agreement both parties refrained from firing random shots at each
+other. There was little to suggest enemies entrenched; indeed,
+many men in each party had friends in the other, and the British
+had several times trotted past within easy range, without
+provoking a shot.
+
+On February 22d, the day when Rolf and Quonab struck the
+Oswegatchie, the British colonel directed his men as usual,
+swinging them ever nearer the American fort, and then, at the
+nearest point, executed a very pretty charge. The Americans
+watched it as it neared, but instead of wheeling at the brink the
+little army scrambled up with merry shouts, and before the
+garrison could realize that this was war, they were overpowered
+and Ogdensburg was taken.
+
+The American commander was captured. Captain Forsyth, the second
+in command, had been off on a snowshoe trip, so had escaped. All
+the rest were prisoners, and what to do with the despatches or
+how to get official instructions was now a deep problem. "When
+you don't know a thing to do, don't do a thing," was one of Si
+Sylvanne's axioms; also, "In case of doubt lay low and say
+nothing." Rolf hung around the town all day waiting for light.
+About noon a tall, straight, alert man in a buffalo coat drove up
+with a cutter. He had a hasty meal in an inside room. Rolf sized
+him up for an American officer, but there was a possibility of
+his being a Canadian. Rolf tried in vain to get light on him but
+the inner door was kept closed; the landlord was evidently in the
+secret. When he came out he was again swaddled in the buffalo
+coat. Rolf brushed past him -- here was something hard and long
+in the right pocket of the big coat.
+
+The landlord, the guest, and the driver had a whispered
+conference. Rolf went as near as he dared, but got only a
+searching look. The driver spoke to another driver and Rolf heard
+the words "Black Lake." Yes, that was what he suspected. Black
+Lake was on the inland sleigh route to Alexandria Bay and
+Sackett's Harbour.
+
+The driver, a fresh young fellow, was evidently interested in the
+landlord's daughter; the stranger was talking with the landlord.
+As soon as they had parted, Rolf went to the latter and remarked
+quietly: "The captain is in a hurry." The only reply was a cold
+look and: "Guess that's his business." So it was the captain. The
+driver's mitts were on the line back of the stove. Rolf shook
+them so that they fell in a dark corner. The driver missed his
+mitts, and glad of a chance went back in, leaving the officer
+alone. "Captain Forsyth," whispered Rolf, "don't go till I have
+talked with you. I'll meet you a mile down the road."
+
+"Who are you and what do you want?" was the curt and hostile
+reply, evidently admitting the identification correct however.
+
+Rolf opened his coat and showed his scout badge.
+
+"Why not talk now if you have any news -- come in side." So the
+two went to the inner room. "Who is this?" asked Rolf cautiously
+as the landlord came in.
+
+"He's all right. This is Titus Flack, the landlord."
+
+"How am I to know that?"
+
+"Haven't you heard him called by name all day?" said the captain.
+
+Flack smiled, went out and returned with his license to sell
+liquor, and his commission as a magistrate of New York State. The
+latter bore his own signature. He took a pen and reproduced it.
+Now the captain threw back his overcoat and stood in the full
+uniform of an army officer. He opened his satchel and took out a
+paper, but Rolf caught sight of another packet addressed to
+General Hampton. The small one was merely a map. "I think that
+packet in there is meant for me," remarked Rolf.
+
+"We haven't seen your credentials yet," said the officer. "I have
+them two miles back there," and Rolf pointed to the woods.
+
+"Let's go," said the captain and they arose. Kittering had a way
+of inspiring confidence, but in the short, silent ride of two
+miles the captain began to have his doubts. The scout badge might
+have been stolen; Canadians often pass for Americans, etc. At
+length they stopped the sleigh, and Rolf led into the woods.
+Before a hundred yards the officer said, "Stop," and Rolf stopped
+to find a pistol pointed at his head. "Now, young fellow, you've
+played it pretty slick, and I don't know yet what to make of it.
+But I know this; at the very first sign of treachery I'll blow
+your brains out anyway." It gave Rolf a jolt. This was the first
+time he had looked down a pistol barrel levelled at him. He used
+to think a pistol a little thing, an inch through and a foot
+long, but he found now it seemed as big as a flour barrel and
+long enough to reach eternity. He changed colour but quickly
+recovered, smiled, and said: "Don't worry; in five minutes you
+will know it's all right."
+
+Very soon a sharp bark was heard in challenge, and the two
+stepped into camp to meet Quonab and little dog Skookum.
+
+"Doesn't look much like a trap," thought the captain after he had
+cast his eyes about and made sure that no other person was in the
+camp; then aloud, "Now what have you to show me? "
+
+"Excuse me, captain, but how am I to know you are Captain
+Forsyth? It is possible for a couple of spies to give all the
+proof you two gave me."
+
+The captain opened his bag and showed first his instructions
+given before he left Ogdensburg four days ago; he bared his arm
+and showed a tattooed U. S. A., a relic of Academy days, then his
+linen marked J. F., and a signet ring with similar initials, and
+last the great packet of papers addressed to General Hampton.
+Then he said: "When you hand over your despatches to me I will
+give mine to you and we shall have good guarantee each of the other."
+
+Rolf rose, produced his bundle of papers, and exchanged them for
+those held by Forsyth; each felt that the other was safe. They
+soon grew friendly, and Rolf heard of some stirring doings on the
+lake and preparations for a great campaign in the spring.
+
+After half an hour the tall, handsome captain left them and
+strode away, a picture of manly vigour. Three hours later they
+were preparing their evening meal when Skookum gave notice of a
+stranger approaching. This was time of war; Rolf held his rifle
+ready, and a moment later in burst the young man who had been
+Captain Forsyth's driver.
+
+His face was white; blood dripped from his left arm, and in his
+other hand was the despatch bag. He glanced keenly at Rolf. "Are
+you General Hampton's scout?" Rolf nodded and showed the badge on
+his breast. "Captain Forsyth sent this back," he gasped. "His
+last words were, 'Burn the despatches rather than let the British
+get them.' They got him -- a foraging party -- there was a spy at
+the hotel. I got away, but my tracks are easy to follow unless it
+drifts. Don't wait."
+
+Poor boy, his arm was broken, but he carried out the dead
+officer's command, then left them to seek for relief in the
+settlement.
+
+Night was near, but Rolf broke camp at once and started eastward
+with the double packet. He did not know it then, but learned
+afterward that these despatches made clear the weakness of
+Oswego, Rochester, and Sackett's Harbour, their urgent need of
+help, and gave the whole plan for an American counter attack on
+Montreal. But he knew they were valuable, and they must at once
+be taken to General Hampton.
+
+It was rough, hard going in the thick woods and swamps away from
+the river, for he did not dare take the ice route now, but they
+pushed on for three hours, then, in the gloom, made a miserable
+camp in a cedar swamp.
+
+At dawn they were off again. To their disgust the weather now was
+dead calm; there was no drift to hide their tracks; the trail was
+as plain as a highway wherever they went. They came to a beaten
+road, followed that for half a mile, then struck off on the true
+line. But they had no idea that they were followed until, after
+an hour of travel, the sun came up and on a far distant slope,
+full two miles away, they saw a thin black line of many spots, at
+least a dozen British soldiers in pursuit.
+
+The enemy was on snowshoes, and without baggage evidently, for
+they travelled fast. Rolf and Quonab burdened with the sled were
+making a losing race. But they pushed on as fast as possible --
+toiling and sweating at that precious load. Rolf was pondering
+whether the time had not yet come to stop and burn the packet,
+when, glancing back from a high ridge that gave an outlook, he
+glimpsed a row of heads that dropped behind some rocks half a
+mile away, and a scheme came into his mind. He marched boldly
+across the twenty feet opening that was in the enemy's view,
+dropped behind the spruce thickets, called Quonab to follow, ran
+around the thicket, and again crossed the open view. So he and
+Quonab continued for five minutes, as fast as they could go,
+knowing perfectly well that they were watched. Round and round
+that bush they went, sometimes close together, carrying the guns,
+sometimes dragging the sled, sometimes with blankets on their
+shoulders, sometimes with a short bag or even a large cake of
+snow on their backs. They did everything they could to vary the
+scene, and before five minutes the British officer in charge had
+counted fifty-six armed Americans marching in single file up the
+bank with ample stores, accompanied by five yellow dogs. Had
+Skookum been allowed to carry out his ideas, there would have
+been fifty or sixty yellow dogs, so thoroughly did he enter into
+the spirit of the game.
+
+The track gave no hint of such a troop, but of course not, how
+could it? since the toboggan left all smooth after they had
+passed, or maybe this was a reinforcement arriving. What could he
+do with his ten men against fifty of the enemy? He thanked his
+stars that he had so cleverly evaded the trap, and without
+further attempt to gauge the enemy's strength, he turned and made
+all possible haste back to the shelter of Ogdensburg.
+Sackett's Harbour
+
+It was hours before Rolf was sure that he had stopped the
+pursuit, and the thing that finally set his mind at rest was the
+rising wind that soon was a raging and drifting snow storm. "Oh,
+blessed storm!" he said in his heart, as he marked all trail
+disappear within a few seconds of its being made. And he thought:
+"How I cursed the wind that held me back -- really from being
+made prisoner. How vexed I was at that ducking in the river, that
+really saved my despatches from the enemy. How thankful I am now
+for the storm that a little while back seemed so bitterly cruel."
+
+That forenoon they struck the big bend of the river and now did
+not hesitate to use the easy travel on the ice as far as
+Rensselaer Falls, where, having got their bearings from a
+settler, they struck across the country through the storm, and at
+night were encamped some forty miles from Ogdensburg.
+
+Marvellously few signs of game had they seen in this hard trip;
+everything that could hide away was avoiding the weather. But in
+a cedar bottom land near Cranberry Lake they found a "yard" that
+seemed to be the winter home of hundreds of deer. It extended two
+or three miles one way a half a mile the other; in spite of the
+deep snow this was nearly all in beaten paths. The scouts saw at
+least fifty deer in going through, so, of course, had no
+difficulty in selecting a young buck for table use.
+
+The going from there on was of little interest.  It was the same
+old daily battle with the frost, but less rigorous than before,
+for now the cold winds were behind, and on the 27th of February,
+nine days after leaving, they trotted into Ticonderoga and
+reported at the commandant's headquarters.
+
+The general was still digging entrenchments and threatening to
+annihilate all Canada. But the contents of the despatches gave
+him new topics for thought and speech. The part he must play in
+the proposed descent on Montreal was flattering, but it made the
+Ticonderoga entrenchments ridiculous.
+
+For three days Rolf was kept cutting wood, then he went with
+despatches to Albany.
+
+Many minor labours, from hog-killing to stable-cleaning and
+trenching, varied the month of March. Then came the uncertain
+time of April when it was neither canoeing nor snow-shoeing and
+all communication from the north was cut off.
+
+But May, great, glorious May came on, with its inspiring airs and
+livening influence. Canoes were afloat, the woods were brown
+beneath and gold above.
+
+Rolf felt like a young stag in his strength. He was spoiling for
+a run and volunteered eagerly to carry despatches to Sackett's
+Harbour. He would go alone, for now one blanket was sufficient
+bed, and a couple of pounds of dry meat was enough food for each
+day. A small hatchet would be useful, but his rifle seemed too
+heavy to carry; as he halted in doubt, a junior officer offered
+him a pistol instead, and he gladly stuck it in his belt.
+
+Taller than ever, considerably over six feet now, somewhat lanky,
+but supple of joint and square of shoulder, he strode with the
+easy stride of a strong traveller. His colour was up, his
+blue-gray eyes ablaze as he took the long trail in a crow line
+across country for Sackett's Harbour. The sentry saluted, and the
+officer of the day, struck by his figure and his glowing face as
+much as by the nature of his errand, stopped to shake hands and
+say, "Well, good luck, Kittering, and may you bring us better
+news than the last two times."
+
+Rolf knew how to travel now; he began softly. At a long, easy
+stride he went for half an hour, then at a swinging trot for a
+mile or two. Five miles an hour he could make, but there was one
+great obstacle to speed at this season -- every stream was at
+flood, all were difficult to cross. The brooks he could wade or
+sometimes could fell a tree across them, but the rivers were too
+wide to bridge, too cold and dangerous to swim. In nearly every
+case he had to make a raft. A good scout takes no chances. A
+slight raft means a risky passage; a good one, a safe crossing
+but loss of time in preparations. Fifteen good rafts did Rolf
+make in that cross-country journey of three days: dry spruce logs
+he found each time and bound them together with leather-wood and
+withes of willow. It meant a delay of at least an hour each time;
+that is five hours each day. But the time was wisely spent. The
+days were lengthening; he could travel much at dusk. Soon he was
+among settlements. Rumours he got at a settler's cabin of Sir
+George Prevost's attack on Sackett's Harbour and the gallant
+repulse and at morning of the fourth day he came on the hill
+above Sackett's Harbour -- the same hill where he had stood three
+months before. It was with something like a clutching of his
+breath that he gazed; his past experiences suggested dreadful
+thoughts but no -- thank God, "Old Glory" floated from the pole.
+He identified himself to the sentinels and the guard, entered the
+fort at a trot, and reported at headquarters.
+
+There was joy on every side. At last the tide had turned.
+Commodore Chauncey, after sweeping Lake Ontario, had made a
+sudden descent on York (Toronto now) the capital of Upper Canada,
+had seized and destroyed it. Sir George Prevost, taking advantage
+of Chauncey's being away, had attacked Sackett's Harbour, but, in
+spite of the absence of the fleet, the resistance had been so
+vigorous that in a few days the siege was abandoned.
+
+There were shot holes in walls and roofs, there were a few
+wounded in the hospital, the green embankments were torn, and the
+flag-pole splintered; but the enemy was gone, the starry flag was
+floating on the wind, and the sturdy little garrison filled with
+a spirit that grows only in heroes fighting for their homes.
+
+How joyfully different from Ogdensburg.
+Scouting Across Country
+
+That very night, Rolf turned again with the latest news and the
+commandant's reports.
+
+He was learning the country well now, and, with the wonderful
+place-memory of a woodman, he was able to follow his exact back
+trail. It might not have been the best way, but it gave him this
+advantage -- in nearly every case he was able to use again the
+raft he had made in coming, and thereby saved many hours of
+precious time.
+
+On the way out he had seen a good many deer and one bear, and had
+heard the howling of wolves every night; but always at a
+distance. On the second night, in the very heart of the
+wilderness, the wolves were noisy and seemed very near. Rolf was
+camping in the darkness. He made a small fire with such stuff as
+he could find by groping, then, when the fire blazed, he
+discovered by its light a dead spruce some twenty yards away.
+Taking his hatchet he went toward this, and, as he did so, a wolf
+rose up, with its forefeet on a log, only five yards beyond the
+tree and gazed curiously at him. Others were heard calling;
+presently this wolf raised its muzzle and uttered a long smooth
+howl.
+
+Rolf had left his pistol back at the fire; he dared not throw his
+hatchet, as that would have left him unarmed. He stooped, picked
+up a stick, and threw that; the wolf ducked so that it passed
+over, then, stepping back from the log, stood gazing without
+obvious fear or menace. The others were howling; Rolf felt
+afraid. He backed cautiously to the fire, got his pistol and came
+again to the place, but nothing more did he see of the wolf,
+though he heard them all night and kept up two great fires for a
+protection.
+
+In the morning he started as usual, and before half an hour he
+was aware of a wolf, and later of two, trotting along his trail,
+a few hundred yards behind. They did not try to overtake him;
+indeed, when he stopped, they did the same; and when he trotted,
+they, true to their dog-like nature, ran more rapidly in pursuit.
+How Rolf did wish for his long rifle; but they gave no
+opportunity for a shot with the pistol. They acted, indeed, as
+though they knew their safe distance and the exact range of the
+junior gun. The scout made a trap for them by stealing back after
+he had crossed a ridge, and hiding near his own trail. But the
+wind conveyed a warning, and the wolves merely sat down and
+waited till he came out and went on. All day long these two
+strange ban dogs followed him and gave no sign of hunger or
+malice; then, after he crossed a river, at three in the
+afternoon, he saw no more of them. Years after, when Rolf knew
+them better, he believed they followed him out of mild curiosity,
+or possibly in the hope that he would kill a deer in which they
+might share. And when they left him, it was because they were
+near the edge of their own home region; they had seen him off
+their hunting grounds.
+
+That night he camped sixty miles from Ticonderoga, but he was
+resolved to cover the distance in one day. Had he not promised to
+be back in a week? The older hands had shaken their heads
+incredulously, and he, in the pride of his legs, was determined
+to be as good as his promise. He scarcely dared sleep lest he
+should oversleep. At ten he lay down. At eleven the moon was due
+to rise; as soon as that was three hours high there would be
+light enough, and he proposed to go on. At least half a dozen
+times he woke with a start, fearing he had overslept, but
+reassured by a glance at the low-hung moon, he had slumbered
+again.
+
+At last the moon was four hours high, and the woods were plain in
+the soft light. A horned owl "hoo-hoo-ed," and a far- off wolf
+uttered a drawn-out, soft, melancholy cry, as Rolf finished his
+dried meat, tightened his belt, and set out on a long, hard run
+that, in the days of Greece, would have furnished the theme of
+many a noble epic poem.
+
+No need to consult his compass. The blazing lamp of the dark sky
+was his guide, straight east his course, varied a little by hills
+and lakes, but nearly the crow-flight line. At first his pace was
+a steady, swinging stride; then after a mile he came to an open
+lake shore down which he went at a six-mile trot; and then an
+alder thicket through which his progress was very slow; but that
+soon passed, and for half a mile he splashed through swamps with
+water a foot deep: nor was he surprised at length to see it open
+into a little lake with a dozen beaver huts in view. "Splash,
+prong" their builders went at his approach, but he made for the
+hillside; the woods were open, the moonlight brilliant now, and
+here he trotted at full swing as long as the way was level or
+down, but always walked on the uphill. A sudden noise ahead was
+followed by a tremendous crashing and crackling of the brush. For
+a moment it continued, and what it meant, Rolf never knew or
+guessed.
+
+"Trot, trot," he went, reeling off six miles in the open, two or
+perhaps three in the thickets, but on and on, ever eastward. Hill
+after hill, swamp after swamp, he crossed, lake after lake he
+skirted round, and, when he reached some little stream, he sought
+a log bridge or prodded with a pole till he found a ford and
+crossed, then ran a mile or two to make up loss of time.
+
+Tramp, tramp, tramp, and his steady breath and his steady heart
+kept unremitting rhythm.
+
+
+
+Rolf Makes a Record
+
+Twelve miles were gone when the foreglow -- the first cold
+dawn-light showed, and shining across his path ahead was a mighty
+rolling stream. Guided by the now familiar form of Goodenow Peak
+he made for this, the Hudson's lordly flood. There was his raft
+securely held, with paddle and pole near by, and he pushed off
+with all the force of his young vigour. Jumping and careening
+with the stream in its freshet flood, the raft and its hardy
+pilot were served with many a whirl and some round spins, but the
+long pole found bottom nearly everywhere, and not ten minutes
+passed before the traveller sprang ashore, tied up his craft,
+then swung and tramped and swung.
+
+Over the hills of Vanderwhacker, under the woods of Boreas.
+Tramp, tramp, splash, tramp, wringing and sopping, but strong and
+hot, tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp. The partridge whirred from his
+path, the gray deer snorted, and the panther sneaked aside.
+Tramp, tramp, trot, trot, and the Washburn Ridge was blue against
+the sunrise. Trot, trot, over the low, level, mile-long slope he
+went, and when the Day- god burnt the upper hill-rim he was by
+brown Tahawus flood and had covered eighteen miles.
+
+By the stream he stopped to drink. A partridge cock, in the pride
+of spring, strutted arrogantly on a log. Rolf drew his pistol,
+fired, then hung the headless body while he made a camper's
+blaze: an oatcake, the partridge, and river water were his meal.
+His impulse was to go on at once. His reason, said "go slow." So
+he waited for fifteen minutes. Then again, beginning with a slow
+walk, he ere long added to his pace. In half an hour he was
+striding and in an hour the steady "trot, trot," that slackened
+only for the hills or swamps. In an hour more he was on the
+Washburn Ridge, and far away in the east saw Schroon Lake that
+empties in the river Schroon; and as he strode along, exulting in
+his strength, he sang in his heart for joy. Again a gray wolf
+cantered on his trail, and the runner laughed, without a thought
+of fear. He seemed to know the creature better now; knew it as a
+brother, for it gave no hostile sound, but only seemed to trot,
+trot, for the small joy of running with a runner, as a swallow or
+an antelope will skim along by a speeding train. For an hour or
+more it matched his pace, then left as though its pleasant stroll
+was done, and Rolf kept on and on and on.
+
+The spring sun soared on high, the day grew warm at noon. Schroon
+River just above the lake was in his path, and here he stopped to
+rest. Here, with the last of his oatcake and a little tea, he
+made his final meal; thirty eight miles had he covered since he
+rose; his clothes were torn, his moccasins worn, but his legs
+were strong, his purpose sure; only twenty-two miles now, and his
+duty would be done; his honours won. What should he do, push on
+at once? No, he meant to rest an hour. He made a good fire by a
+little pool, and using a great mass of caribou moss as a sponge,
+he had a thorough rub-down. He got out his ever- ready needle and
+put his moccasins in good shape; he dried his clothes and lay on
+his back till the hour was nearly gone. Then he girded himself
+for this the final run. He was weary, indeed, but he was far from
+spent, and the iron will that had yearly grown in force was there
+with its unconquerable support.
+
+Slowly at start, soon striding, and at last in the famous jog
+trot of the scout he went. The sky was blackened with clouds at
+length, and the jealous, howling east wind rolled up in rain; the
+spindrift blurred the way; the heavy showers of spring came down
+and drenched him; but his pack was safe and he trotted on and on.
+Then long, deep swamps of alder barred his path, and, guided only
+by the compass, Rolf pushed in and through and ever east. Barely
+a mile an hour in the thickest part he made, but lagged not;
+drenched and footsore, warm and torn, but doggedly, steadily on.
+At three he had made a scant seven miles; then the level, open
+wood of Thunderbolt was reached and his stride became a run;
+trot, trot, trot, at six-mile gait, for but fifteen miles
+remained. Sustained, inspired, the bringer of good news, he
+halted not and faltered not, but on and on.
+
+Tramp tramp, tramp tramp -- endless, tireless, hour by hour. At
+five he was on Thunder Creek, scarce eight miles more to the
+goal; his limbs were sore, his feet were sore; bone tired was he,
+but his heart was filled with joy
+
+"News of battle, news of victory" he was bringing, and the
+thought lent strength; the five mires passed, the way was plain
+with good roads now, but the runner was so weary. He was
+striding, his running was done, the sun was low in the west, his
+feet were bleeding, the courier was brain worn and leg worn, but
+he strode and strode. He passed by homes but heeded them not.
+
+"Come in and rest," called one who saw nothing but a weary
+traveller. Rolf shook his head, but gave no word and strode
+along. A mile -- a short mile now; he must hold out; if he sat
+down he feared he could not rise. He came at last in sight of the
+fort; then, gathering all his force, he broke into a trot, weak,
+so weak that had he fallen, he could scarcely have got up, and
+slow, but faster than a walk: and so, as the red sun sank, he
+passed the gate. He had no right to give tidings to any but the
+general, yet they read it in his eyes. The guard broke into a
+cheer, and trotting still, though reeling, Rolf had kept his
+word, had made his run, had brought the news, and had safely
+reached his goal.
+
+
+
+Van Trumper's Again
+
+Why should the scout bringing good news be differently received
+from the one that brings the ill? He did not make, the news, he
+simply did his duty; the same in both cases. He is merely the
+telegraph instrument. Yet it is so ever. King Pharaoh slew the
+bearer of ill-tidings; that was human nature. And General Hampton
+brought in the tall stripling to his table, to honour him, to get
+the fullest details, to glory in every item as though it all were
+due to himself. Rolf's wonderful journey was dilated on, and in
+the reports to Albany he was honourably mentioned for
+exceptionally meritorious service as a bearer of despatches.
+
+For three days Flying Kittering was hero of the post; then other
+runners came with other news and life went on.
+
+Hitherto the scouts had worn no uniform, but the execution of one
+of their number, who was captured by the British and treated as a
+spy, resulted in orders that all be formally enlisted and put in
+uniform.
+
+Not a few withdrew from the service; some, like Quonab,
+reluctantly consented, but Rolf was developing the fighting
+spirit, and was proud to wear the colours.
+
+The drill was tedious enough, but it was of short duration for
+him. Despatches were to go to Albany. The general, partly to
+honour Rolf, selected him.
+
+"Are you ready for another run, Kittering?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then prepare to start as soon as possible for Fort George and
+Albany. Do you want a mate?"
+
+"I should like a paddler as far as Fort George."
+
+"Well, pick your man."
+
+"Quonab."
+
+And when they set out, for the first time Rolf was in the stern,
+the post of guidance and command. So once more the two were
+travelling again with Skookum in the bow. It was afternoon when
+they started and the four-mile passage of the creek was slow, but
+down the long, glorious vista of the noble George they went at
+full canoe-flight, five miles an hour, and twenty-five miles of
+the great fair-way were reeled and past when they lighted their
+nightly fire.
+
+At dawn-cry of the hawk they sped away, and in spite of a rising
+wind they made six miles in two hours.
+
+As they approached the familiar landing of Van Trumper's farm,
+Skookum began to show a most zestful interest that recalled the
+blackened pages of his past. "Quonab, better use that," and Rolf
+handed a line with which Skookum was secured and thus led to make
+a new record, for this was the first time in his life that he
+landed at Van Trumper's without sacrificing a chicken in honour
+of the joyful occasion.
+
+They entered the house as the family were sitting down to
+breakfast.
+
+"Mein Hemel! mein Hemel! It is Rolf and Quonab; and vere is dot
+tam dog? Marta, vere is de chickens? Vy, Rolf, you bin now a
+giant, yah. Mein Gott, it is I am glad! I did tink der cannibals
+you had eat; is it dem Canadian or cannibal? I tink it all one
+the same, yah!"
+
+Marta was actually crying, the little ones were climbing over
+Rolf's knee, and Annette, tall and sixteen now, stood shyly by,
+awaiting a chance to shake hands.  Home is the abiding place of
+those we love; it may be a castle or a cave, a shanty or a
+chateau, a moving van, a tepee, or a canal boat, a fortress or
+the shady side of a bush, but it is home, if there indeed we meet
+the faces that are ever in the heart, and find the hands whose
+touch conveys the friendly glow. Was there any other spot on
+earth where he could sit by the fire and feel that "hereabout are
+mine own, the people I love?" Rolf knew it now -- Van Trumper's
+was his home.
+
+Talks of the war, of disasters by land, and of glorious victories
+on the sea, where England, long the unquestioned mistress of the
+waves, had been humbled again and again by the dauntless seamen
+of her Western blood; talks of big doings by the nation, and, yet
+more interesting, small doings by the travellers, and the
+breakfast passed all too soon. The young scout rose, for he was
+on-duty, but the long rollers on the lake forbade the going
+forth. Van's was a pleasant place to wait, but he chafed at the
+delay; his pride would have him make a record on every journey.
+But wait he must. Skookum tied safely to his purgatorial post
+whined indignantly -- and with head cocked on one side, picked
+out the very hen he would like to utilize -- as soon as released
+from his temporary embarrassment. Quonab went out on a rock to
+bum some tobacco and pray for calm, and Rolf, ever active,
+followed Van to look over the stock and buildings, and hear of
+minor troubles. The chimney was unaccountably given to smoking
+this year. Rolf took an axe and with two blows cut down a
+vigorous growth shrubbery that stood above the chimney on the
+west, and the smoking ceased. Buck ox had a lame foot and would
+allow no one even to examine it. But a skilful ox- handler easily
+hobbles an ox, throws him near some small tree, and then, by
+binding the lame foot to the tree, can have a free hand. It
+proved a simple matter, a deep-sunk, rusty nail. And when the
+nail was drawn and the place washed clean with hot brine, kind
+nature was left in confidence to do the rest. They drifted back
+to the house now. Tomas met them shouting out a mixture of Dutch
+and English and holding by the cover Annette's book of the "Good
+Girl." But its rightful owner rescued the precious volume and put
+it on the shelf.
+
+"Have you read it through, Annette?"
+
+"Yes," was the reply, for she had learned to read before they
+left Schuylerville.
+
+"How do you like it?"
+
+"Didn't like it a bit; I like 'Robinson Crusoe'," was the candid
+reply.
+
+The noon hour came, still the white rollers were pounding the
+shore.
+
+"If it does not calm by one o'clock I'll go on afoot."
+
+So off he went with the packet, leaving Quonab to follow and
+await his return at Fort George. In Schuyler settlement he spent
+the night and at noon next day was in Albany.
+
+How it stirred his soul to see the busy interest, the marching of
+men, the sailing of vessels, and above all to hear of more
+victories on the high seas. What mattered a few frontier defeats
+in the north, when the arrogant foe that had spurned and insulted
+them before the world had now been humbled again and again.
+
+Young Van Cortlandt was away, but the governor's reception of him
+reflected the electric atmosphere -- the country's pride in her sons.
+
+Rolf had a matter of his own to settle. At the bookseller's he
+asked for and actually secured a copy of the great book --
+"Robinson Crusoe." It was with a thrilling feeling of triumph
+that he wrote Annette's name in it and stowed it in his bag.
+
+He left Albany next day in the gray dawn. Thanks to his uniform,
+he got a twenty-five mile lift with a traveller who drove a fast
+team, and the blue water was glinting back the stars when he
+joined Quonab at Fort George, some sixty miles away.
+
+In the calm betwixt star-peep and sun-up they were afloat. It was
+a great temptation to stop at Hendrik's for a spell, but
+breakfast was over, the water was calm, and duty called him. He
+hallooed, then they drew near enough to hand the book ashore.
+Skookum growled, probably at the hens, and the family waved their
+aprons as he sped on. Thirty miles of lake and four miles of
+Ticonderoga Creek they passed and the packet was delivered in
+four days and three hours since leaving.
+
+The general smiled and his short but amply sufficient praise was
+merely, "You're a good 'un."
+
+
+
+Scouting in Canada
+
+"Thar is two things," said Si Sylvanne to the senate, "that every
+national crisis is bound to show up: first, a lot o' dum fools in
+command; second a lot o great commanders in the ranks. An'
+fortunately before the crisis is over the hull thing is sure set
+right, and the men is where they oughter be."
+
+How true this was the nation was just beginning to learn. The
+fools in command were already demonstrated, and the summer of
+1813 was replete with additional evidence. May, June, and July
+passed with many journeyings for Rolf and many times with sad
+news. The disasters at Stony Creek, Beaver Dam, and Niagara were
+severe blows to the army on the western frontier. In June on Lake
+Champlain the brave but reckless Lieutenant Sidney Smith had run
+his two sloops into a trap. Thus the Growler and the Eagle were
+lost to the Americans, and strengthened by that much the British
+navy on the lake.
+
+Encouraged by these successes, the British north of Lake
+Champlain made raid after raid into American territory,
+destroying what they could not carry off.
+
+Rolf and Quonab were sent to scout in that country and if
+possible give timely notice of raiders in force.
+
+The Americans were averse to employing Indians in warfare; the
+British entertained no such scruples and had many red-skinned
+allies. Quonab's case, however, was unusual, since he was
+guaranteed by his white partner, and now he did good service, for
+he knew a little French and could prowl among the settlers
+without anyone suspecting him of being an American scout.
+
+Thus he went alone and travelled far. He knew the country nearly
+to Montreal and late in July was lurking about Odletown, when he
+overheard scattered words of a conversation that made hin eager
+for more. "Colonel Murray - - twelve hundred men -- four hundred
+men --"
+
+Meanwhile Rolf was hiding in the woods about La Colle Mill.
+Company after company of soldiers he saw enter, until at least
+five hundred were there. When night came down, he decided to risk
+a scarer approach. He left the woods and walked cautiously across
+the open lands about.
+
+The hay had been cut and most of it drawn in, but there was in
+the middle of the field a hay-cock. Rolf was near this when he
+heard sounds of soldiers from the mill. Soon large numbers came
+out, carrying their blankets. Evidently there was not room for
+them in the mill, and they were to camp on the field.
+
+The scout began to retreat when sounds behind showed that another
+body of soldiers was approaching from that direction and he was
+caught between the two. There was only one place to hide and that
+was beneath the haycock. He lifted its edge and crawled under,
+but it was full of thistles and brambles; indeed, that was why it
+was left, and he had the benefit of all the spines about him.
+
+His heart beat fast as he heard the clank of arms and the
+trampling; they came nearer, then the voices became more
+distinct. He heard unmistakable evidence too that both bodies
+were camping for the night, and that he was nearly surrounded.
+Not knowing what move was best he kept quiet. The men were
+talking aloud, then they began preparing their beds and he heard
+some one say, "There's a hay-cock; bring some of that."
+
+A soldier approached to get an armful of the hay, but sputtered
+out a chapter of malediction as his bare hands touched the masses
+of thistle and briers. His companions laughed at his mishap. He
+went to the fire and vowed he'd stick a brand in it and back he
+came with a burning stick.
+
+Rolf was all ready to make a dash for his life as soon as the
+cover should take fire, and he peered up into the soldier's face
+as the latter blew on the brand; but the flame had died, the
+thistles were not dry, and the fire was a failure; so, growling
+again, the soldier threw down the smoking stick and went away. As
+soon as he was safely afar, Rolf gathered a handful of soil and
+covered the red embers.
+
+It was a critical moment and his waiting alone had saved him.
+
+Two soldiers came with their blankets and spread them near. For a
+time they smoked and talked. One of them was short of tobacco;
+the other said, "Never mind, we'll get plenty in Plattsburg," and
+they guffawed.
+
+Then he heard, "As soon as the colonel" and other broken phrases.
+
+It was a most difficult place for Rolf; he was tormented with
+thistles in his face and down his neck; he dared not change his
+position; and how long he must stay was a problem. He would try
+to escape when all was still.
+
+The nearer soldiers settled to rest now. All was very quiet when
+Rolf cautiously peeped forth to see two dreadful things: first, a
+couple of sentries pacing up and down the edges of the camp;
+second, a broad, brilliant, rising moon. How horrible that lovely
+orb could be Rolf never before knew.
+
+Now, what next? He was trapped in the middle of a military camp
+and undoubtedly La Colle Mill was the rendezvous for some
+important expedition.
+
+He had ample time to think it all over. Unless he could get away
+before day he would surely be discovered. His uniform might save
+his life, but soldiers have an awkward, hasty way of dealing
+summarily with a spy -- then discovering too late that he was in
+uniform.
+
+From time to time he peered forth, but the scene was unchanged --
+the sleeping regiment, the pacing sentries, the ever-brightening
+moon. Then the guard was changed, and the sentries relieved
+selected of all places for their beds, the bank beside the
+hay-cock. Again one of them went to help himself to some hay for
+a couch; and again the comic anger as he discovered it to be a
+bed of thorns. How thankful Rolf was for those annoying things
+that pricked his face and neck.
+
+He was now hemmed in on every side and, not knowing what to do,
+did nothing. For a couple of hours he lay still, then actually
+fell asleep. He was awakened by a faint rustling near his head
+and peered forth to see a couple of field mice playing about.
+
+The moon was very bright now, and the movements of the mice were
+plain; they were feeding on the seeds of plants in the hay-cock,
+and from time to time dashed under - the hay. Then they gambolled
+farther off and were making merry over a pod of wild peas when a
+light form came skimming noiselessly over the field. There was a
+flash, a hurried rush, a clutch, a faint squeak, and one of the
+mice was borne away in the claws of its feathered foe. The
+survivor scrambled under the hay over Rolf's face and somewhere
+into hiding.
+
+The night passed in many short naps. The bugle sounded at
+daybreak and the soldiers arose to make breakfast. Again one
+approached to use a handful of hay for fire-kindler, and again
+the friendly thistles did their part. More and more now his ear
+caught suggestive words and sounds -- "Plattsburg" -- "the
+colonel" -- etc.
+
+The breakfast smelt wonderfully captivating -- poor Rolf was
+famished. The alluring aroma of coffee permeated the hay-cock. He
+had his dried meat, but his need was water; he was tormented with
+thirst, and stiff and tortured; he was making the hardest fight
+of his life. It seemed long, though doubtless it was less than
+half an hour before the meal was finished, and to Rolf's relief
+there were sounds of marching and the noises were drowned in the
+distance.
+
+By keeping his head covered with hay and slowly raising it, he
+was safe to take a look around. It was a bright, sunny morning.
+The hay-cock, or thistle-cock, was one of several that had been
+rejected. It was a quarter-mile from cover; the soldiers were at
+work cutting timber and building a stockade around the mill; and,
+most dreadful to relate, a small dog was prowling about, looking
+for scraps on the scene of the soldiers' breakfast. If that dog
+came near his hiding-place, he knew the game was up. At such
+close quarters, you can fool a man but not a dog.
+
+Fortunately the breakfast tailings proved abundant, and the dog
+went off to assist a friend of his in making sundry interesting
+smell analyses along the gate posts of the stockade.
+
+
+
+The Duel
+
+This was temporary relief, but left no suggestion of complete
+escape. He lay there till nearly noon suffering more and more
+from the cramped position and thirst, and utterly puzzled as to
+the next move.
+
+"When ye don't like whar ye air, git up without any fuss, and go
+whar ye want to be," was what Sylvanne once said to him, and it
+came to Rolf with something like a comic shock. The soldiers were
+busy in the woods and around the forges. In half an hour it would
+be noon and they might come back to eat.
+
+Rolf rose without attempting any further concealment, then
+stopped, made a bundle of the stuff that had sheltered him and,
+carrying this on his shoulder, strode boldly across the field
+toward the woods.
+
+His scout uniform was inconspicuous; the scouts on duty at the
+mill saw only one of themselves taking a bundle of hay round to
+the stables.
+
+He reached the woods absolutely unchallenged. After a few yards
+in its friendly shade, he dropped the thorny bundle and strode
+swiftly toward his own camp. He had not gone a hundred yards
+before a voice of French type cried "'Alt," and he was face to
+face with a sentry whose musket was levelled at him.
+
+A quick glance interchanged, and each gasped out the other's
+name.
+
+"Francois la Colle!"
+
+"Rolf Kittering! Mon Dieu! I ought to shoot you, Rolf; I cannot,
+I cannot! But run, run! I'll shoot over your head," and his
+kindly eyes filled with tears.
+
+Rolf needed no second hint; he ran like a deer, and the musket
+ball rattled the branches above his shoulders.
+
+In a few minutes other soldiers came running and from La Colle
+they heard of the hostile spy in camp.
+
+"I shoot; I t'ink maybe I not hit eem; maybe some brood dere? No,
+dat netting."
+
+There were both runners and trackers in camp. They were like
+bloodhounds and they took up the trail of the fugitive. But Rolf
+was playing his own game now; he was "Flying Kittering." A
+crooked trail is hard to follow, and, going at the long stride
+that had made his success, he left many a crook and turn. Before
+two miles I they gave it up and the fugitive coming to the river
+drank  a deep and cooling draught, the first he had had that day.
+Five miles through is the dense forest that lies between La Colle
+and the border. He struck a creek affluent of the Richelieu River and
+followed to its forks, which was the place of rendezvous with Quonab.
+
+It was evening as he drew near and after long, attentive
+listening he gave the cry of the barred owl:
+
+The answer came: a repetition of the last line, and a minute
+later the two scouts were together.
+
+As they stood, they were startled by a new, sudden answer, an
+exact repetition of the first call. Rolf had recovered his rifle
+from its hiding place and instantly both made ready for some
+hostile prowler; then after a long silence he gave the final wail
+line "hoooo-aw" and that in the woods means, "Who are you?"
+
+Promptly the reply came:
+
+"Wa wah wa wah Wa wah wa hoooo-aw."
+
+But this was the wrong reply. It should have been only the last
+half. The imitation was perfect, except, perhaps, on the last
+note, which was a trifle too human. But the signal was well done;
+it was an expert calling, either an Indian or some thoroughly
+seasoned scout; yet Quonab was not deceived into thinking it an
+owl. He touched his cheek and his coat, which, in the scout sign
+language, means "red coat," i. e., Britisher.
+
+Rolf and his partner got silently out of sight, each with his
+rlile cocked and ready to make a hole in any red uniform or badge
+that might show itself. Then commenced a very peculiar duel, for
+evidently the enemy was as clever as themselves and equally
+anxious to draw them out of cover.
+
+Wa-wah-wa hooo-aw called the stranger, giving the right answer in
+the wrong place. He was barely a hundred yards off, and, as the
+two strained their senses to locate him, they heard a faint click
+that told of his approach.
+
+Rolf turned his head and behind a tree uttered again the Wa-wah
+-a - hoo which muffled by his position would convince the foe
+that he was retreating. The answer came promptly and much nearer:
+
+Wa - wah - wa - hoooo-aw.
+
+Good! the medicine was working. So Rolf softened his voice still
+more, while Quonab got ready to shoot.
+
+The Wa - wa - hooo-aw that came in answer this time was
+startlingly clear and loud and nearly perfect in intonation, but
+again betrayed by the human timbre of the aw. A minute or two
+more and they would reach a climax.
+
+After another wait, Rolf muffled his voice and gave the single
+hooo-aw, and a great broad-winged owl came swooping through the
+forest, alighted on a tree overhead, peered about, then thrilled
+them with his weird:
+
+Wa - hoo - wa - boo
+
+Wa - hoo -wa - hooooooooo-aw, the last note with the singular
+human quality that had so completely set them astray.
+Why Plattsburg Was Raided
+
+The owl's hull reputation for wisdom is built up on lookin' wise
+and keepin' mum.  -- Sayings of St Sylvanne
+
+THE owl incident was one of the comedies of their life, now they
+had business on hand. The scraps of news brought by Quonab pieced
+out with those secured by Rolf, spelt clearly this: that Colonel
+Murray with about a thousand men was planning a raid on
+Plattsburg.
+
+Their duty was to notify General Hampton without delay.
+
+Burlington, forty miles away, was headquarters. Plattsburg,
+twenty miles away, was marked for spoil.
+
+One more item they must add: Was the raid to baby land or water?
+If the latter, then they must know what preparations were being
+made at the British naval station, Isle au Noix. They travelled
+all night through the dark woods, to get there, though it was but
+seven miles away, and in the first full light they saw the
+gallant array of two warships, three gunboats, and about fifty
+long boats, all ready, undoubtedly waiting only for a change in
+the wind, which at this season blew on Champlain almost steadily
+form the south.
+
+A three-hour, ten-mile tramp through ways now familiar brought
+Rolf and his partner to the north of the Big Chazy where the
+canoe was hidden, and without loss of time they pushed off for
+Burlington, thirty miles away. The wind was head on, and when
+four hours later they stopped for noon, they had made not more
+than a dozen miles.
+
+All that afternoon they had to fight a heavy sea; this meant they
+must keep near shore in case of an upset, and so lengthened the
+course; but it also meant that the enemy would not move so long
+as this wind kept up.
+
+It was six at night before the scouts ran into Burlington Harbour
+and made for Hampton's headquarters.
+
+His aide received them and, after learning that they had news,
+went in to the general. From the inner room now they heard in
+unnecessarily loud tones the great man's orders to, "Bring them
+in, sah."
+
+The bottles on the table, his purple visage, and thick tongued
+speech told how well-founded were the current whispers.
+
+"Raid on Plattsburg? Ha! I hope so. I only hope so. Gentlemen,"
+and he turned to his staff, "all I ask is a chance to get at them
+-- Ha, Ha! Here, help yourself, Macomb," and the general pushed
+the decanter to a grave young officer who was standing by.
+
+"No, thank you, sir," was the only reply.
+
+The general waved his hand, the scouts went out, puzzled and
+ashamed. Was this the brains of the army? No wonder our men are
+slaughtered.
+
+Now Macomb ventured to suggest: "Have you any orders, sir? These
+scouts are considered quite reliable. I understand from them that
+the British await only a change of wind. They have between one
+thousand and two thousand men."
+
+"Plenty of time in the morning, sah. Plattsburg will be the bait
+of my trap, not one of them shall return alive," and the general
+dismissed his staff that he might fortify himself against a
+threatened cold.
+
+Another young man, Lieut. Thomas MacDonough, the naval
+commandant, now endeavoured to stir him by a sense of danger.
+First he announced that his long boats, and gunboats were ready
+and in six hours he could transfer three thousand troops from
+Burlington to Plattsburg. Then he ventured to urge the necessity
+for action.
+
+Champlain is a lake of two winds. It had brown from the south for
+two weeks; now a north wind was likely to begin any day.
+MacDonough urged this point, but all in vain, and, shocked and
+humiliated, the young man obeyed the order "to wait till his
+advice was asked."
+
+The next day Hampton ordered a review, not an embarkation, and
+was not well enough to appear in person.
+
+The whole army knew now of the situation of affairs, and the
+militia in particular were not backward in expressing their minds.
+
+Next day, July 30th, the wind changed. Hampton did nothing. On
+the morning of July 3Ist they heard the booming of guns in the
+north, and at night their scouts came with the news that the raid
+was on. Plattsburg was taken and pillaged by a force less than
+one third of those held at Burlington.
+
+There were bitter, burning words on the lips of the rank and
+file, and perfunctory rebukes on the lips of the young officers
+when they chanced to overhear. The law was surely working out as
+set forth by Si Sylvanne: "The fools in command, the leaders in
+the ranks."
+
+And now came news of fresh disasters -- the battles of Beaverdam,
+Stony Creek, and Niagara River. It was the same story in nearly
+every case -- brave fighting men, ill-drilled, but dead shots,
+led into traps by incompetent commanders.
+
+In September Lieutenant Macomb was appointed to command at
+Plattsburg. This proved as happy an omen as it was a wise move.
+Immediately after, in all this gloom, came the news of Perry's
+famous victory on Lake Erie, marking a new era for the American
+cause, followed by the destruction of Moraviantown and the
+British army which held it.
+
+Stirred at last to action General Wilkinson sent despatches to
+Hampton to arrange an attack on Montreal. There was no
+possibility of failure, he said, for the sole defence of Montreal
+was 600 marines. His army consisted of 8000 men. Hampton's
+consisted of 4000. By a union of these at the mouth of Chateaugay
+River, they would form an invincible array.
+
+So it seemed. Rolf had not yet seen any actual fighting and began
+to long for the front. But his powers as a courier kept him ever
+busy bearing despatches. The road to Sackett's Harbour and thence
+to Ogdensburg and Covington, and back to Plattsburg he knew
+thoroughly, and in his canoe he had visited every port on Lakes
+Champlain and George.
+
+He was absent at Albany in the latter half of October and first
+of November, but the ill news travelled fast. Hampton requested
+MacDonough to "swoop down on Isle au Noix" -- an insane request,
+compliance with which would have meant certain destruction to the
+American fleet. MacDonough's general instructions were:
+"Cooperate with the army, but at any price retain supremacy of
+the lake," and he declined to receive Hampton's order.
+
+Threatening court-martials and vengeance on his return, Hampton
+now set out by land; but at Chateaugay he was met by a much
+smaller force of Canadians who resisted him so successfully that
+he ordered a retreat and his army retired to Plattsburg.
+
+Meanwhile General Wilkinson had done even worse. His army
+numbered 8000. Of these the rear guard were 2500. A body of 800
+Canadians harassed their line of march. Turning to brush away
+this annoyance, the Americans were wholly defeated at Chrystler's
+farm and, giving up the attack on Montreal, Wilkinson crossed the
+St. Lawrence and settled for the winter at Chateaugay.
+
+In December, America scored an important advance by relieving
+Hampton of his command.
+
+As the spring drew near, it was clearly Wilkinson's first play to
+capture La Colle Mill, which had been turned into a fortress of
+considerable strength and a base for attack on the American
+border, some five miles away.
+
+Of all the scouts Rolf best knew that region, yet he was the one
+left out of consideration and despatched with papers to
+Plattsburg. The attack was bungled from first to last, and when
+Wilkinson was finally repulsed, it was due to Macomb that the
+retreat was not a rout.
+
+But good came out of this evil, for Wilkinson was recalled and
+the law was nearly fulfilled -- the incompetents were gone.
+General Macomb was in command of the land force and MacDonough of
+the Lake.
+
+
+
+Rumours and Papers
+
+MacDonough's orders were to hold control of the Lake. How he did
+it will be seen. The British fleet at Isle au Noix was slightly
+stronger than his own, therefore he established a navy yard at
+Vergennes, in Vermont, seven miles up the Otter River, and at the
+mouth erected earthworks and batteries. He sent for Brown (of the
+firm of Adam and Noah Brown) a famous New York shipbuilder. Brown
+agreed to launch a ship of twenty-four guns in sixty days. The
+trees were standing in the forest on March 2d the keel was laid
+March 7th, and on April 11th the Saratoga was launched -- forty
+days after the timbers were green standing trees on the hills.
+
+Other vessels were begun and pushed as expeditiously. And now
+MacDonough's wisdom in choice of the navy yard was seen, for a
+British squadron was sent to destroy his infant fleet, or at
+least sink stone-boats across the exit so as to bottle it up.
+
+But their attempts were baffled by the batteries which the
+far-seeing American had placed at the river's mouth.
+
+The American victory at Chippewa was followed by the defeat at
+Lundy's Lane, and on August 25th the city of Washington was
+captured by the British and its public buildings destroyed. These
+calamities, instead of dampening the spirits of the army, roused
+the whole nation at last to a realization of the fact that they
+were at war. Fresh troops and plentiful supplies were voted, the
+deadwood commanders were retired, and the real men revealed by
+the two campaigns were given place and power.
+
+At the same time, Great Britain, having crushed Napoleon, was in
+a position to greatly reinforce her American army, and troops
+seasoned in Continental campaigns were poured into Canada.
+
+All summer Rolf was busied bearing despatches. During the winter
+he and Quonab had built a birch canoe on special lines for speed;
+it would carry two men but no baggage.
+
+With this he could make fully six miles an hour for a short time,
+and average five on smooth water. In this he had crossed and
+recrossed Champlain, and paddled its length, till he knew every
+bay and headland. The overland way to Sackett's Harbour he had
+traversed several times; the trail from Plattsburg to Covington
+he knew in all weathers, and had repeatedly covered its sixty
+miles in less than twenty-four hours on foot.  The route he
+picked and followed was in later years the line selected for the
+military highway between these two camps.
+
+But the chief scene of his activities was the Canadian wilderness
+at the north end of Lake Champlain. Chazy, Champlain, Odelltown,
+La Colle Mill, Isle au Noix, and Richelieu River he knew
+intimately and had also acquired a good deal of French in
+learning their country.
+
+It was characteristic of General Wilkinson to ignore the scout
+who knew and equally characteristic of his successors, Izard and
+Macomb, to seek and rely on the best man.
+
+The news that he brought in many different forms was that the
+British were again concentrating an army to strike at Plattsburg
+and Albany.
+
+Izard on the land at Plattsburg and Champlain, and Macomb at
+Burlington strained all their resources to meet the invader at
+fair terms. Izard had 4000 men assembled, when an extraordinary
+and devastating order from Washington compelled him to abandon
+the battle front at Champlain and lead his troops to Sackett's
+Harbour where all was peace. He protested like a statesman, then
+obeyed like a soldier, leaving Macomb in command of the land
+forces of Lake Champlain, with, all told, some 3400 men.  On the
+day that Izard left Champlain, the British troops, under
+Brisbane, advanced and occupied his camp.
+
+As soon as Rolf had seen them arrive, and had gauged their
+number, he sent Quonab back to report, and later retired by night
+ten miles up the road to Chazy. He was well known to many of the
+settlers and was welcome where ever known, not only because he
+was a patriot fighting his country's battles, but for his own
+sake, for he was developing into a handsome, alert, rather silent
+youth. It is notorious that in the drawing-room, given equal
+opportunity, the hunter has the advantage over the farmer. He has
+less self-consciousness, more calm poise. He is not troubled
+about what to do with his feet and hands, and is more convinced
+of his native dignity and claims to respect. In the drawin-room
+Rolf was a hunter: the leading inhabitants of the region around
+received him gladly and honoured him. He was guest at Judge
+Hubbell's in Chazy, in September of 1814. Every day he scouted in
+the neighbourhood and at night returned to the hospitable home of
+the judge.
+
+On the 12th of September, from the top of a tall tree on a
+distant wooded hill, he estimated the force at Champlain to be
+10,000 to 15,000 men. Already their bodyguard was advancing on
+Chazy.
+
+Judge Hubbell and anxious neighbours hastily assembled now,
+discussed with Rolf the situation and above all, "What shall we
+do with our families?" One man broke into a storm of hate and
+vituperation against the British. "Remember the burning of
+Washington and the way they treated the women at Bladensburg."
+
+"All of which about the women was utterly disproved, except in
+one case, and in that the criminal was shot by order of his own
+commander," retorted Hubbell.
+
+At Plattsburg others maintained that the British had harmed no
+one. Colonel Murray had given strict orders that all private
+property be absolutely respected. Nothing but government property
+was destroyed and only that which could be construed into war
+stores and buildings. What further damage was done was the result
+of accident or error. Officers were indeed quartered on the
+inhabitants, but they paid for what they got, and even a carpet
+destroyed by accident was replaced months afterward by a British
+officer who had not the means at the time.
+
+So it was agreed that Hubbell with Rolf and the village fathers
+and brothers should join their country's army, leaving wives and
+children behind.
+
+There were wet bearded cheeks among the strong, rugged men as
+they kissed their wives and little ones and prepared to go, then
+stopped, as horrible misgivings rose within. "This was war, and
+yet again, 'We have had proofs that the British harmed no woman
+or child'." So they dashed away the tears, suppressed the choking
+in their throats, shouldered their guns, and marched away to the
+front, commending their dear ones to the mercy of God and the
+British invaders.
+
+None had any cause to regret this trust. Under pain of death, Sir
+George Prevost enforced his order that the persons of women and
+children and all private property be held inviolate. As on the
+previous raid, no damage was done to non-combatants, and the only
+hardships endured were by the few who, knowing nothing, feared
+much, and sought the precarious safety of life among the hills.
+
+Sir George Prevost and his staff of ten officers were quartered
+in Judge Hubbell's house. Mrs. Hubbell was hard put to furnish
+them with meals, but they treated her with perfect respect, and
+every night, not knowing how long they might stay, they left on
+the table the price of their board and lodging.
+
+For three days they waited, then all was ready for the advance.
+
+"Now for Plattsburg this week and Albany next, so good-bye,
+madam" they said politely, and turned to ride away. a gay and
+splendid group.
+
+"Good-bye, sirs, for a very little while, but I know you'll soon
+be back and hanging your heads as you come," was the retort.
+
+Sir George replied: "If a man had said that, I would call him
+out; but since it is a fair lady that has been our charming
+hostess, I reply that when your prophecy comes true, every
+officer here shall throw his purse on your door step as he
+passes."
+
+So they rode away, 13,000 trained men with nothing between them
+and Albany but 2000 troops, double as many raw militia, and --
+MacDonough of the Lake.
+
+Ten times did Rolf cover that highway north of Plattsburg in the
+week that followed, and each day his tidings were the same -- the
+British steadily advance.
+
+
+
+McGlassin's Exploit
+
+There was a wonderful spirit on everything in Plattsburg, and the
+earthly tabernacle in which it dwelt, was the tall, grave young
+man who had protested against Hampton's behaviour at Burlington
+-- Captain, now General Macomb. Nothing was neglected, every
+emergency was planned for, every available man was under arms.
+Personally tireless, he was ever alert and seemed to know every
+man in his command and every man of it had implicit confidence in
+the leader. We have heard of soldiers escaping from a besieged
+fortress by night; but such was the inspiring power of this
+commander that there was a steady leaking in of men from the
+hills, undrilled and raw, but of superb physique and dead shots
+with the ride.
+
+A typical case was that of a sturdy old farmer who was marching
+through the woods that morning to take his place with those who
+manned the breastworks and was overheard to address his visibly
+trembling legs: "Shake, damn you, shake; and if ye knew where I
+was leading you, you'd be ten times worse."
+
+His mind was more valiant than his body, and his mind kept
+control -- this is true courage.
+
+No one had a better comprehension of all this than Macomb. He
+knew that all these men needed was a little training to make of
+them the best soldiers on earth. To supply that training he mixed
+them with veterans, and arranged a series of unimportant
+skirmishes as coolly and easily as though he were laying out a
+programme for an evening's entertainment.
+
+The first of these was at Culver's Hill. Here a barricade was
+thrown up along the highway, a gun was mounted, and several
+hundred riflemen were posted under leaders skilled in the arts of
+harrying a foe and giving him no chance to strike back.
+
+Among the men appointed for the barricade's defence was Rolf and
+near him Quonab. The latter had been seasoned in the Revolution,
+but it was the former's first experience at the battle front, and
+he felt as most men do when the enemy in brave array comes
+marching up. As soon as they were within long range, his leader
+gave the order "Fire!" The rifles rattled and the return fire
+came at once. Balls pattered on the barricade or whistled above.
+The man next to him was struck and dropped with a groan; another
+fell back dead. The horror and roar were overmuch. Rolf was
+nervous enough when he entered the fight. Now he was unstrung,
+almost stunned, his hands and knees were shaking, he was nearly
+panic-stricken and could not resist the temptation to duck, as
+the balls hissed murder over his head. He was blazing away,
+without aiming, when an old soldier, noting his white face and
+shaking form, laid a hand on his shoulder and, in kindly tones,
+said: "Steady, boy, steady; yer losing yer head; see, this is
+how," and he calmly took aim, then, without firing, moved the gun
+again and put a little stick to raise the muzzle and make a
+better rest, then fired as though at target practice. "Now rest
+for a minute. Look at Quonab there; you can see he's been through
+it before. He is making a hit with every shot."
+
+Rolf did as he was told, and in a few minutes his colour came
+back, his hand was steady, and thenceforth he began to forget the
+danger and thought only of doing his work.
+
+When at length it was seen that the British were preparing to
+charge, the Americans withdrew quickly and safely to Halsey's
+Corner, where was another barricade and a fresh lot of recruits
+awaiting to receive their baptism of fire. And the scene was
+repeated. Little damage was done to the foe but enormous benefit
+was gained by the Americans, because it took only one or two of
+these skirmishes to turn a lot of shaky-kneed volunteers into a
+band of steady soldiers -- for they had it all inside. Thus their
+powder terror died.
+
+That night the British occupied the part of the town that was
+north of the Saranac, and began a desultory bombardment of the
+fortification opposite. Not a very serious one, for they
+considered they could take the town at any time, but preferred to
+await the arrival of their fleet under Downie.
+
+The fight for the northern half of the town was not serious,
+merely part of Macomb's prearranged training course; but when the
+Americans retired across the Saranac, the planks of the bridges
+were torn up, loop-holed barricades were built along the southern
+bank, and no effort spared to prepare for a desperate resistance.
+
+Every man that could hold up a gun was posted on the lines of
+Plattsburg. The school-boys, even, to the number of five hundred
+formed a brigade, and were assigned to places where their
+squirrel-hunting experiences could be made of service to their
+country.
+
+Meanwhile the British had established a battery opposite Fort
+Brown. It was in a position to do some material and enormous
+moral damage. On the ninth it was nearly ready for bloody work,
+and would probably begin next morning. That night, however, an
+extraordinary event took place, and showed how far from
+terror-palsy were the motley troops in Plattsburg. A sturdy
+Vermonter, named Captain McGlassin, got permission of Ma. comb to
+attempt a very Spartan sortie.
+
+He called for fifty volunteers to go on a most hazardous
+enterprise. He got one thousand at once. Then he ordered all over
+twenty-five and under eighteen to retire. This reduced the number
+to three hundred. Then, all married men were retired, and thus
+again they were halved. Next he ordered away all who smoked --
+Ah, deep philosopher that he was! -- and from the remnant he
+selected his fifty. Among them was Rolf. Then he divulged his
+plan. It was nothing less than a dash on the new-made fort to
+spike those awful guns -- fifty men to dash into a camp of
+thirteen thousand.
+
+Again he announced, "Any who wish to withdraw now may do so." Not
+a man stirred.
+
+Twenty of those known to be expert with tools were provided with
+hammers and spikes for the guns, and Rolf was proud to be one of
+them.
+
+In a night of storm and blackness they crossed the Saranac;
+dividing in two bodies they crawled unseen, one on each side of
+the battery. Three hundred British soldiers were sleeping near,
+only the sentries peered into the storm-sleet.
+
+All was ready when McGlassin's tremendous voice was heard,
+"Charge front and rear!" Yelling, pounding, making all the noise
+they could, the American boys rushed forth. The British were
+completely surprised, the sentries were struck down, and the rest
+assured that Macomb's army was on them recoiled for a few
+minutes. The sharp click, click, click of the hammers was heard.
+An iron spike was driven into every touch hole; the guns were
+made harmless as logs and quickly wheeling, to avoid the return
+attack, these bold Yankee boys leaped from the muzzled redoubt
+and reached their own camp without losing one of their number.
+The Bloody Saranac
+
+Sir george Prevost had had no intention of taking Plattsburg,
+till Plattsburg's navy was captured. But the moral effect of
+McGlassin's exploit must be offset at once. He decided to carry
+the city by storm -- a matter probably of three hours' work.
+
+He apportioned a regiment to each bridge, another to each ford
+near the town, another to cross the river at Pike's Cantonment,
+and yet another to cross twenty miles above, where they were to
+harry the fragments of the American as it fled.
+
+That morning Plattsburg was wakened by a renewal of the
+bombardment. The heavy firing killed a few men knocked down a few
+walls and chimneys, but did little damage to the earthworks.
+
+It was surprising to all how soon the defenders lost their
+gun-shyness. The very school-boys and their sisters went calmly
+about their business, with cannon and musket balls whistling
+overhead, striking the walls and windows, or, on rare occasions,
+dropping some rifleman who was over-rash as he worked or walked
+on the ramparts.
+
+There were big things doing in the British camp -- regiments
+marching and taking their places -- storms of rifle and cannon
+balls raging fiercely. By ten o'clock there was a lull. The
+Americans, from the grandfathers to the school- boys, were
+posted, each with his rifle and his pouch full of balls; there
+were pale faces among the youngsters, and nervous fingers, but
+there was no giving way. Many a man there was, no doubt, who,
+under the impulse of patriotism, rushed with his gun to join the
+ranks, and when the bloody front was reached, he wished in his
+heart he was safe at home. But they did not go. Something kept
+them staunch.
+
+Although the lines were complete all along the ramparts, there
+were four places where the men were massed. These were on the
+embankments opposite the bridges and the fords. Here the best
+shots were placed and among them was Rolf, with others of
+McGlassin's band.
+
+The plank of the bridges had been torn up and used with earth to
+form breastworks; but the stringers of the bridges were there,
+and a body of red-coats approaching, each of them showed plainly
+what their plan was.
+
+The farthest effective range of rifle fire in those days was
+reckoned at a hundred yards. The Americans were ordered to hold
+their fire till the enemy reached the oaks, a grove one hundred
+yards from the main bridge -- on the other bank.
+
+The British came on in perfect review-day style. Now a hush fell
+on all. The British officer in command was heard clearly giving
+his orders. How strange it must have been to the veterans of wars
+in Spain, France, and the Rhine, to advance against a force with
+whom they needed no interpreter.
+
+McGlassin's deep voice now rang along the defences, "Don't fire
+till I give the order."
+
+The red-coats came on at a trot, they reached the hundred-
+yard-mark.
+
+"Now, aim low and fire!" from McGlassin, and the rattle of the
+Yankee guns was followed by reeling ranks of red in the oaks.
+
+"Charge!" shouted the British officer and the red-coats charged
+to the bridge, but the fire from the embankment was incessant;
+the trail of the charging men was cluttered with those who fell.
+
+"Forward!" and the gallant British captain leaped on the central
+stringer of the bridge and, waving his sword, led on. Instantly
+three lines of men were formed, one on each stringer.
+
+They were only fifty yards from the barricade, with five hundred
+rifles, all concentrated on these stringers. The first to fall
+was the captain, shot through the heart, and the river bore him
+away. But on and on came the three ranks into the whistling,
+withering fire of lead. It was like slaughtering sheep. Yet on
+and on they marched steadily for half an hour. Not a man held
+back or turned, though all knew they were marching to their
+certain death. Not one of them ever reached the centre of the
+span, and those who dropped, not dead, were swallowed by the
+swollen stream. How many hundred brave men were sacrificed that
+day, no one ever knew. He who gave the word to charge was dead
+with his second and third in command and before another could
+come to change the order, the river ran red -- the bloody Saranac
+they call it ever since.
+
+The regiment was wrecked, and the assault for the time was over.
+
+Rolf had plied his rifle with the rest, but it sickened him to
+see the horrible waste of human valour. It was such ghastly work
+that he was glad indeed when a messenger came to say he was
+needed at headquarters. And in an hour he was crossing the lake
+with news and instructions for the officer in command at Burlington.
+
+
+
+The Battle of Plattsburg
+
+In broad daylight he skimmed away in his one man canoe.
+
+For five hours he paddled, and at star-peep he reached the dock
+at Burlington. The howl of a lost dog caught his ear; and when he
+traced the sound, there, on the outmost plank, with his nose to
+the skies, was the familiar form of Skookum, wailing and sadly
+alone.
+
+What a change he showed when Rolf landed; he barked, leaped,
+growled, tail-wagged, head-wagged, feet-wagged, body-wagged,
+wig-wagged and zigzagged for joy; he raced in circles, looking
+for a sacrificial hen, and finally uttered a long and
+conversational whine that doubtless was full of information for
+those who could get it out.
+
+Rolf delivered his budget at once. It was good news, but not
+conclusive. Everything depended now on MacDonough. In the morning
+all available troops should hurry to the defence of Plattsburg;
+not less than fifteen hundred men were ready to embark at daylight.
+
+That night Rolf slept with Skookum in the barracks. At daybreak,
+much to the latter's disgust, he was locked up in a cellar, and
+the troops embarked for the front.
+
+It was a brisk north wind they had to face in crossing and
+passing down the lake. There were many sturdy oarsmen at the
+sweeps, but they could not hope to reach their goal in less than
+five hours.
+
+When they were half way over, they heard the cannon roar; the
+booming became incessant; without question, a great naval battle
+was on, for this north wind was what the British had been
+awaiting.  The rowers bent to their task and added to the speed.
+Their brothers were hard pressed; they knew it, they must make
+haste. The long boats flew. In an hour they could see the masts,
+the sails, the smoke of the battle, but nothing gather of the
+portentous result. Albany and New York, as well as Plattsburg,
+were in the balance, and the oarsmen rowed and rowed and rowed.
+
+The cannon roared louder and louder, though less continuously, as
+another hour passed. Now they could see the vessels only four
+miles away. The jets of smoke were intermittent from the guns;
+masts went down. They could see it plainly. The rowers only set
+their lips and rowed and rowed and rowed.
+
+Sir George had reckoned on but one obstacle in his march to
+Albany, an obstruction named MacDonough; but he now found there
+was another called Macomb.
+
+It was obviously a waste of men to take Plattsburg by front
+assault, when he could easily force a passage of the river higher
+up and take it on the rear; and it was equally clear that when
+his fleet arrived and crushed the American fleet, it would be a
+simple matter for the war vessels to blow the town to pieces,
+without risking a man.
+
+Already a favouring wind had made it possible for Downie to leave
+Isle au Noix and sail down the lake with his gallant crew, under
+gallant canvas clouds.
+
+Tried men and true in control of every ship, out- numbering
+MacDonough, outweighing him, outpointing him in everything but
+seamanship, they came on, sure of success.
+
+Three chief moves were in MacDonough's strategy. He anchored to
+the northward of the bay, so that any fleet coming down the lake
+would have to beat up against the wind to reach him; so close to
+land that any fleet trying to flank him would come within range
+of the forts; and left only one apparent gap that a foe might try
+to use, a gap in front of which was a dangerous sunken reef. This
+was indeed a baited trap. Finally he put out cables, kedges,
+anchors, and springs, so that with the capstan he could turn his
+vessels and bring either side to bear on the foe.
+
+All was ready, that morning of September the 11th as the British
+fleet, ably handled, swung around the Cumberland Head.
+
+The young commander of the Yankee fleet now kneeled bareheaded
+with his crew and prayed to the God of Battles as only those
+going into battle pray. The gallant foe came on, and who that
+knows him doubts that he, too, raised his heart in reverent
+prayer? The first broadside from the British broke open a chicken
+coop on the Saratoga from which a game-cock flew, and, perching
+on a gun, flapped his wings and crowed; so all the seamen cheered
+at such a happy omen.
+
+Then followed the fighting, with its bravery and its horrors --
+its brutish wickedness broke loose.
+
+Early in the action, the British sloop, Finch, fell into
+MacDonough's trap and grounded on the reef.
+
+The British commander was killed, with many of his officers.
+Still, the heavy fire of the guns would have given them the
+victory, but for MacDonough's foresight in providing for swinging
+his ships. When one broadside was entirely out of action, he used
+his cables, kedges and springs, and brought the other batteries
+to bear.
+
+It was one of the most desperate naval fights the world has ever
+seen. Of the three hundred men on the British flag- ship not more
+than five, we are told, escaped uninjured; and at the close there
+was not left on any one of the eight vessels a mast that could
+carry sail, or a sail that could render service. In less than two
+hours and a half the fight was won, and the British fleet
+destroyed.
+
+To the God of Battles each had committed his cause: and the God
+of Battles had spoken.
+
+Far away to the southward in the boats were the Vermont troops
+with their general and Rolf in the foremost. Every sign of the
+fight they had watched as men whose country's fate is being tried.
+
+It was a quarter after eleven when the thunder died away; and the
+Vermonters were headed on shore, for a hasty landing, if need be,
+when down from the peak of the British flag-ship went the Union
+Jack, and the Stars and Stripes was hauled to take its place.
+
+"Thank God!" a soft, murmuring sigh ran through all the boats and
+many a bronzed and bearded cheek was wet with tears. Each man
+clasped hands with his neighbour; all were deeply moved, and even
+as an audience melted renders no applause, so none felt any wish
+to vent his deep emotion in a cheer.
+Scouting for Macomb
+
+General Macomb knew that Sir George Prevost was a cautious and
+experienced commander. The loss of his fleet would certainly make
+a radical change in his plans, but what change? Would he make a
+flank move and dash on to Albany, or retreat to Canada, or
+entrench himself to await reinforcements at Plattsburg, or try to
+retrieve his laurels by an overwhelming assault on the town?
+
+Whatever his plan, he would set about it quickly, and Macomb
+studied the enemy's camp with a keen, discerning eye, but nothing
+suggesting a change was visible when the sun sank in the rainy west.
+
+It was vital that he know it at once when an important move was
+begun, and as soon as the night came down, a score of the
+swiftest scouts were called for. All were young men; most of them
+had been in McGlassin's band. Rolf was conspicuous among them for
+his tall figure, but there was a Vermont boy named Seymour, who
+had the reputation of being the swiftest runner of them all.
+
+They had two duties laid before them: first, to find whether
+Prevost's army was really retreating; second, what of the
+regiment he sent up the Saranac to perform the flank movement.
+
+Each was given the country he knew best. Some went westerly, some
+followed up the river. Rolf, Seymour, and Fiske, another
+Vermonter, skimmed out of Plattsburg harbour in the dusk, rounded
+Cumberland Bend, and at nine o'clock landed at Point au Roche, at
+the north side of Treadwell's Bay.
+
+Here they hid the canoe and agreeing to meet again at midnight,
+set off in three different westerly directions to strike the
+highway at different points. Seymour, as the fast racer, was
+given the northmost route; Rolf took the middle. Their signals
+were arranged -- in the woods the barred-owl cry, by the water
+the loon; and they parted.
+
+The woods seemed very solemn to Rolf that historic September
+night, as he strode along at speed, stopping now and again when
+he thought he heard some signal, and opened wide his mouth to
+relieve his ear-drums of the heart-beat or to still the rushing
+of his breath.
+
+In half an hour he reached the high-road. It was deserted. Then
+he heard a cry of the barred owl:
+
+Wa -- wah -- wa -- wah Wa - wah -- wa -- hooooo-aw.
+
+He replied with the last line, and the answer came a repeat of
+the whole chant, showing that it might be owl, it might be man;
+but it was not the right man, for the final response should have
+been the hooooo-aw. Rolf never knew whence it came, but gave no
+further heed.
+
+For a long time he sat in a dark corner, where he could watch the
+road. There were sounds of stir in the direction of Plattsburg.
+Then later, and much nearer, a couple of shots were fired. He
+learned afterward that those shots were meant for one of his
+friends. At length there was a faint tump ta tump ta. He drew his
+knife, stuck it deep in the ground, then held the handle in his
+teeth. This acted like a magnifier, for now he heard it plainly
+enough -- the sound of a horse at full gallop -- but so far away
+that it was five minutes before he could clearly hear it while
+standing. As the sound neared, he heard the clank of arms, and
+when it passed, Rolf knew that this was a mounted British
+officer. But why, and whither?
+
+In order to learn the rider's route, Rolf followed at a trot for
+a mile. This brought him to a hilltop, whither in the silent
+night, that fateful north wind carried still the sound
+
+te -- rump te -- rump te -- rump.
+
+As it was nearly lost, Rolf used his knife again; that brought
+the rider back within a mile it seemed, and again the hoof beat
+faded,  te -- rump te -- rump.
+
+"Bound for Canada all right," Rolf chuckled to himself. But there
+was nothing to show whether this was a mere despatch rider, or an
+advance scout, or a call for reinforcements.
+
+So again he had a long wait. About half-past ten a new and larger
+sound came from the south. The knife in the ground increased but
+did not explain it. The night was moonless, dark now, and it was
+safe to sit very near the road. In twenty minutes the sound was
+near at hand in five, a dark mass was passing along the road.
+There is no mistaking the language of drivers. There is never any
+question about such and such a voice being that of an English
+officer. There can be no doubt about the clank of heavy wheels --
+a rich, tangy voice from some one in advance said: "Oui. Parbleu,
+tows ce que je sais, c'est par la." A body of about one hundred
+Britishers, two or three wagons, guns, and a Frenchman for guide.
+Rolf thought he knew that voice; yes, he was almost sure it was
+the voice of Francios la Colle.
+
+This was important but far from conclusive. It was now eleven. He
+was due at the canoe by midnight. He made for the place as fast
+as he could go, which, on such a night, was slow, but guided by
+occasional glimpses of the stars he reached the lake, and pausing
+a furlong from the landing, he gave the rolling, quivering loon call:
+
+Ho-o-o-o-ooo-o Ho-o-o-o-ooo-o. Hooo-ooo.
+
+After ten seconds the answer came:
+
+Ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o Hoo-ooo.
+
+And again after ten seconds Rolf's reply:
+
+Hoo-ooo.
+
+Both his friends were there; Fiske with a bullet-hole through his
+arm. It seemed their duty to go back at once to headquarters with
+the meagre information and their wounded comrade. But Fiske made
+light of his trouble -- it was a mere scratch -- and reminded
+them that their orders were to make sure of the enemy's
+movements. Therefore, it was arranged that Seymour take back
+Fiske and what news they had, while Rolf went on to complete his scouting.
+
+By one o'clock he was again on the hill where he had marked the
+horseman's outward flight and the escorted guns. Now, as he
+waited, there were sounds in the north that faded, and in the
+south were similar sounds that grew. Within an hour he was
+viewing a still larger body of troops with drivers and wheels
+that clanked. There were only two explanations possible: Either
+the British were concentrating on Chazy Landing, where, protected
+from MacDonough by the north wind, they could bring enough stores
+and forces from the north to march overland independent of the
+ships, or else they were in full retreat for Canada. There was
+but one point where this could be made sure, namely, at the forks
+of the road in Chazy village. So he set out at a jog trot for
+Chazy, six miles away.
+
+The troops ahead were going three miles an hour. Rolf could go five.
+In twenty minutes he overtook them and now was embarrassed
+by their slowness. What should he do? It was nearly impossible to
+make speed through the woods in the darkness, so as to pass them.
+He was forced to content himself by marching a few yards in their rear.
+
+Once or twice when a group fell back, he was uncomfortably close
+and heard scraps of their talk.
+
+These left little doubt that the army was in retreat. Still this
+was the mere chatter of the ranks. He curbed his impatience and
+trudged with the troop. Once a man dropped back to light his
+pipe. He almost touched Rolf, and seeing a marching figure, asked
+in unmistakable accents "Oi soi matey, 'ave ye a loight?"
+
+Rolf assumed the low south country English dialect, already
+familiar through talking with prisoners, and replied: "Naow, oi
+oin't a-smowking," then gradually dropped out of sight.
+
+They were nearly two hours in reaching Chazy where they passed
+the Forks, going straight on north. Without doubt, now, the army
+was bound for Canada! Rolf sat on a fence near by as their
+footsteps went tramp, tramp, tramp -- with the wagons, clank,
+clank, clank, and were lost in the northern distance.
+
+He had seen perhaps three hundred men; there were thirteen
+thousand to account for, and he sat and waited. He did not have
+long to wait; within half an hour a much larger body of troops
+evidently was approaching from the south; several lanterns
+gleamed ahead of them, so Rolf got over the fence, but it was low
+and its pickets offered poor shelter. Farther back was Judge
+Hubbell's familiar abode with dense shrubbery. He hastened to it
+and in a minute was hidden where he could see something of the
+approaching troops. They were much like those that had gone
+before, but much more numerous, at least a regiment, and as they
+filled the village way, an officer cried "Halt!" and gave new
+orders. Evidently they were about to bivouac for the night. A
+soldier approached the picket fence to use it for firewood, but
+an officer rebuked him. Other fuel, chiefly fence rails, was
+found, and a score or more of fires were lighted on the highway
+and in the adjoining pasture. Rolf found himself in something
+like a trap, for in less than two hours now would be the dawn.
+
+The simplest way out was to go in; he crawled quietly round the
+house to the window of Mrs. Hubbell's room. These were times of
+nervous tension, and three or four taps on the pane were enough
+to arouse the good lady. Her husband had come that way more than once.
+
+"Who is it?" she demanded, through a small opening of the sash.
+
+"Rolf Kittering," he whispered, "the place is surrounded by
+soldiers; can't you hide me?"
+
+Could she? Imagine an American woman saying "No" at such a time.
+
+He slipped in quietly.
+
+"What news?" she said. "They say that MacDonough has won
+on the Lake, but Plattsburg is taken."
+
+"No, indeed; Plattsburgh is safe; MacDonough has captured the fleet.
+I am nearly sure that the whole British army is retiring to Canada."
+
+"Thank God, thank God," she said fervently, "I knew it must be
+so; the women have met here and prayed together every day,
+morning and night. But hush!" she laid a warning finger on her
+lips and pointed up toward one of the rooms -- "British officer."
+
+She brought two blankets from a press and led up to the garret.
+At the lowest part of the roof was a tiny door to a lumber
+closet. In this Rolf spread his blankets, stretched his weary
+limbs, and soon was sound asleep.
+
+At dawn the bugles blew, the camp was astir. The officer in the
+house arose and took his post on the porch. He was there on guard
+to protect the house. His brother officers joined him. Mrs.
+Hubbell prepared breakfast. It was eaten silently, so far as Rolf
+could learn. They paid for it and, heading their regiment, went
+away northward, leaving the officer still on the porch.
+
+Presently Rolf heard a stealthy step in his garret, the closed
+door was pushed open, and Mrs. Hubbell's calm, handsome face
+appeared, as, with a reassuring nod, she set down a mug of
+coffee, some bread, and a bowl of mush and milk. And only those
+who have travelled and fasted for twelve hours when they were
+nineteen know how good it tasted.
+
+From a tiny window ventilator Rolf had a view of the road in
+front. A growing din of men prepared him for more troops, but
+still he was surprised to see ten regiments march past with all
+their stores -- a brave army, but no one could mistake their
+looks; they wore the despondent air of an army in full retreat.
+
+
+
+The Last of Sir George Prevost
+
+The battle was over at Plattsburg town, though it had not been
+fought; for the spirit of MacDonough was on land and water, and
+it was felt by the British general, as well as the Yankee
+riflemen, as soon as the Union Jack had been hauled from the mast
+of the Confiance.
+
+Now Sir George Prevost had to face a momentous decision: He could
+force the passage of the Saranac and march on to Albany, but his
+communications would be cut, and he must rely on a hostile
+country for supplies. Every day drew fresh bands of riflemen from
+the hills. Before he could get to Albany their number might
+exceed his, and then what? Unless Great Britain could send a new
+army or a fleet to support him, he must meet the fate of
+Burgoyne. Prevost proposed to take no such chances and the night
+of the 11th eight hours after MacDonough's victory, he gave the
+order "Retire to Canada."
+
+To hide the move as long as possible, no change was made till
+after sundown; no hint was given to the beleaguered town; they
+must have no opportunity to reap the enormous advantages, moral
+and material, of harrying a retreating foe. They must arise in
+the morning to find the enemy safely over the border. The plan
+was perfect, and would have been literally carried out, had not
+he had to deal with a foe as clever as himself.
+
+How eagerly Rolf took in the scene on Chazy Road; how much it
+meant! how he longed to fly at his fastest famous speed with the
+stirring news. In two hours and a half he could surely let his
+leader know. And he gazed with a sort of superior pride at the
+martial pomp and bravery of the invaders driven forth.
+
+Near the last was a gallant array of gentlemen in gorgeous
+uniforms of scarlet and gold; how warlike they looked, how
+splendid beside the ill-clad riflemen of Vermont and the rude
+hunters of the Adirondacks. How much more beautiful is an iron
+sword with jewels, than a sword of plain gray steel.
+
+Dame Hubbell stood in her door as they went by. Each and all
+saluted politely; her guard was ordered to join his regiment. The
+lady waved her sun-bonnet in response to their courteous
+good-bye, and could not refrain from calling out:
+
+"How about my prophecy, Sir George, and those purses?"
+
+Rolf could not see his hostess, but he heard her voice, and he
+saw the astonishing effect:
+
+The British general reined in his horse. "A gentleman's word is
+his bond, madam," he said. "Let every officer now throw his purse
+at the lady's feet," and he set the example. A dozen rattling
+thuds were heard and a dozen officers saluting, purseless, rode
+away.
+
+A round thousand dollars in gold the lady gathered on her porch
+that morning, and to this day her grand-kin tell the tale.
+Rolf Unmasks the Ambush
+
+Rolf's information was complete now, and all that remained was to
+report at Plattsburg. Ten regiments he had counted from his peep
+hole. The rear guard passed at ten o'clock. At eleven Mrs.
+Hubbell did a little scouting and reported that all was quiet as
+far as she could see both ways, and no enemy in sight anywhere.
+
+With a grateful hand shake he left the house to cover the
+fourteen miles that lay between Chazy and Plattsburg.
+
+Refreshed and fed, young and strong, the representative of a just
+and victorious cause, how he exulted in that run, rejoicing in
+his youth, his country, his strength, his legs, his fame as a
+runner. Starting at a stride he soon was trotting; then, when the
+noon hour came, he had covered a good six miles. Now he heard
+faint, far shots, and going more slowly was soon conscious that a
+running fight was on between his own people and the body of
+British sent westward to hold the upper Saranac.
+
+True to the instinct of the scout, his first business was to find
+out exactly what and where they were. From a thick tree top he
+saw the red-coats spotting an opening of the distant country.
+Then they were lost sight of in the woods. The desultory firing
+became volley firing, once or twice. Then there was an interval
+of silence. At length a mass of red-coats appeared on the highway
+within half a mile. They were travelling very fast, in full
+retreat, and were coming his way. On the crest of the hill over
+which the road ran, Rolf saw them suddenly drop to the ground and
+take up position to form a most dangerous ambuscade, and half a
+mile away, straggling through the woods, running or striding,
+were the men in the colours he loved. They had swept the enemy
+before them, so far, but trained troops speedily recover from a
+panic, if they have a leader of nerve, and seeing a noble chance
+in the angle of this deep-sunk road, the British fugitives turned
+like boars at bay. Not a sign of them was visible to the
+Americans. The latter were suffering from too much success. Their
+usual caution seemed to have deserted them, and trotting in a
+body they came along the narrow road, hemmed in by a forest and
+soon to be hedged with cliffs of clay. They were heading for a
+death-trap. At any price he must warn them. He slid down the
+tree, and keeping cover ran as fast as possible toward the
+ambush. It was the only hill near -- Beekman's Rise, they call
+it. As far as possible from the red-coats, but still on the hill
+that gave a view, he leaped on to a high stump and yelled as he
+never did before: "Go back, go back! A trap! A trap!" And lifting
+high his outspread hands he flung their palms toward his friends,
+the old-time signal for "go back."
+
+Not twice did they need warning. Like hunted wolves they flashed
+from view in the nearest cover. A harmless volley from the
+baffled ambush rattled amongst them, and leaping from his stump
+Rolf ran for life.
+
+Furious at their failure, a score of red-coats, reloading as they
+ran, came hot-footed after him. Down into cover of an alder swamp
+he plunged, and confident of his speed, ran on, dashing through
+thickets and mudholes. He knew that the red- coats would not
+follow far in such a place, and his comrades were near. But the
+alder thicket ended at a field. He heard the bushes crashing
+close at hand, and dashed down a little ravine at whose lower
+edge the friendly forest recommenced. That was his fatal mistake.
+The moment he took to the open there was a rattle of rifles from
+the hill above, and Rolf fell on his face as dead.
+
+It was after noontide when he fell; he must have lain unconscious
+for an hour; when he came to himself he was lying still in that
+hollow, absolutely alone. The red-coats doubtless had continued
+their flight with the Yankee boys behind them. His face was
+covered with blood. His coat was torn and bloody; his trousers
+showed a ragged rent that was reddened and sopping. His head was
+aching, and in his leg was the pain of a cripplement. He knew it
+as soon as he tried to move; his right leg was shattered below
+the knee. The other shots had grazed his arm and head; the latter
+had stunned him for a time, but did no deeper damage.
+
+He lay still for a long time, in hopes that some of his friends
+might come. He tried to raise his voice, but had no strength.
+Then he remembered the smoke signal that had saved him when he
+was lost in the woods. In spite of his wounded arm, he got out
+his flint and steel, and prepared to make a fire. But all the
+small wood he could reach was wet with recent rains. An old pine
+stump was on the bank not far away; he might cut kindling-wood
+from that to start his fire, and he reached for his knife. Alas!
+its case was empty. Had Rolf been four years younger, he might
+have broken down and wept at this. It did seem such an
+unnecessary accumulation of disasters. Without gun or knife, how
+was he to call his friends?
+
+He straightened his mangled limb in the position of least pain
+and lay for a while. The September sun fell on his back and
+warmed him. He was parched with thirst, but only thirty yards
+away was a little rill. With a long and fearful crawling on his
+breast, he dragged himself to the stream and drank till he could
+drink no more, then rested, washed his head and hands, 'and tried
+to crawl again to the warm place. But the sun had dropped behind
+the river bank, the little ravine was in shadow, and the chill of
+the grave was on the young man's pain-racked frame.
+
+Shadows crossed his brain, among them Si Sylvanne with his quaint
+sayings, and one above all was clear:
+
+"Trouble is only sent to make ye do yer best. When ye hev done
+yer best, keep calm and wait. Things is comin' all right." Yes,
+that was what he said, and the mockery of it hurt him now.
+
+The sunset slowly ended; the night wind blew; the dragging hours
+brought gloom that entered in. This seemed indeed the direst
+strait of his lot. Crippled, dying of cold, helpless, nothing to
+do but wait and die, and from his groaning lips there came the
+half-forgotten prayer his mother taught him long ago, "O God,
+have mercy on me!" and then he forgot.
+
+When he awoke, the stars were shining; he was numb with cold, but
+his mind was clear.
+
+"This is war," he thought, "and God knows we never sought it."
+And again the thought: "When I offered to serve my country, I
+offered my life. I am willing to die, but this is not a way of my
+choosing," and a blessed, forgetfulness came upon him again.
+
+But his was a stubborn-fibred race; his spark of life was not so
+quickly quenched; its blazing torch might waver, wane, and wax
+again. In the chill, dark hour when the life- lamp flickers most,
+he wakened to hear the sweet, sweet music of a dog's loud bark;
+in a minute he heard it nearer, and yet again at hand, and
+Skookum, erratic, unruly, faithful Skookum, was bounding around
+and barking madly at the calm, unblinking stars.
+
+A human "halloo" rang not far away; then others, and Skookum
+barked and barked.
+
+Now the bushes rustled near, a man came out, kneeled down, laid
+hand on the dying soldier's brow, and his heart. He opened his
+eyes, the man bent over him and softly said, "Nibowaka! it's Quonab."
+
+That night when  the victorious rangers had returned to
+Plattsburg it was a town of glad, thankful hearts, and human love
+ran strong. The thrilling stories of the day were told, the
+crucial moment, the providential way in which at every hopeless
+pass, some easy, natural miracle took place to fight their battle
+and back their country's cause. The harrying of the flying
+rear-guard, the ambuscade over the hill, the appearance of an
+American scout at the nick of time to warn them -- the shooting,
+and his disappearance -- all were discussed.
+
+Then rollicking Seymour and silent Fiske told of their scouting
+on the trail of the beaten foe; and all asked, "Where is
+Kittering?" So talk was rife, and there was one who showed a
+knife he had picked up near the ambuscade with R. K. on the
+shaft.
+
+Now a dark-faced scout rose up, stared at the knife, and quickly
+left the room. In three minutes he stood before General Macomb,
+his words were few, but from his heart:
+
+"It is my boy, Nibowaka; it is Rolf; my heart tells me. Let me go.
+I feel him praying for me to come. Let me go, general. I must go."
+
+It takes a great man to gauge the heart of a man who seldom speaks.
+"You may go, but how can you find him tonight?"
+
+"Ugh, I find him," and the Indian pointed to a little,
+prick-eared, yellow cur that sneaked at his heels.
+
+"Success to you; he was one of the best we had," said the
+general, as the Indian left, then added: "Take a couple of men
+along, and, here, take this," and he held out a flask.
+
+Thus it was that the dawning saw Rolf on a stretcher carried by
+his three scouting partners, while Skookum trotted ahead, looking
+this way and that -- they should surely not be ambushed this time.
+
+And thus the crowning misfortune, the culminating apes of
+disaster -- the loss of his knife -- the thing of all others that
+roused in Rolf the spirit of rebellion, was the way of life,
+his dungeon's key, the golden chain that haled him from the pit.
+
+
+
+The Hospital, the Prisoners, and Home
+
+There were wagons and buckboards to be had, but the road was
+rough, so the three changed off as litter-bearers and brought him
+to the lake where the swift and smooth canoe was ready, and two
+hours later they carried him into the hospital at Plattsburg.
+
+The leg was set at once, his wounds were dressed, he was warmed,
+cleaned, and fed; and when the morning sun shone in the room, it
+was a room of calm and peace.
+
+The general came and sat beside him for a time, and the words he
+spoke were ample, joyful compensation for his wounds. MacDonough,
+too, passed through the ward, and the warm vibrations of his
+presence drove death from many a bed whose inmate's force ebbed
+low, whose soul was walking on the brink, was near surrender.
+
+Rolf did not fully realize it then, but long afterward it was
+clear that this was the meaning of the well-worn words, "He
+filled them with a new spirit."
+
+There was not a man in the town but believed the war was over;
+there was not a man in the town who doubted that his country's
+cause was won.
+
+Three weeks is a long time to a youth near manhood, but there was
+much of joy to while away the hours. The mothers of the town came
+and read and talked. There was news from the front. There were
+victories on the high seas. His comrades came to sit beside him;
+Seymour, the sprinter, as merry a soul as ever hankered for the
+stage and the red cups of life; Fiske, the silent, and McGlassin,
+too, with his dry, humorous talk; these were the bright and funny
+hours. There were others. There came a bright-checked Vermont
+mother whose three sons had died in service at MacDonough's guns;
+and she told of it in a calm voice, as one who speaks of her
+proudest honour. Yes, she rejoiced that God had given her three
+such sons, and had taken again His gifts in such a day of glory.
+Had England's rulers only known, that this was the spirit of the
+land that spoke, how well they might have asked: "What boots it
+if we win a few battles, and burn a few towns; it is a little
+gain and passing; for there is one thing that no armies, ships,
+or laws, or power on earth, or hell itself can down or crush --
+that alone is the thing that counts or endures -- the thing that
+permeates these men, that finds its focal centre in such souls as
+that of the Vermont mother, steadfast, proud, and rejoicing in
+her bereavement.
+
+But these were forms that came and went; there were two that
+seldom were away -- the tall and supple one of the dark face and
+the easy tread, and his yellow shadow -- the ever unpopular,
+snappish, prick-eared cur, that held by force of arms all
+territories at floor level contiguous to, under, comprised, and
+bounded by, the four square legs and corners of the bed.
+
+Quonab's nightly couch was a blanket not far away, and his daily,
+self-given task to watch the wounded and try by devious ways and
+plots to trick him into eating ever larger meals.
+
+Garrison duty was light now, so Quonab sought the woods where the
+flocks of partridge swarmed, with Skookum as his aid. It was the
+latter's joyful duty to find and tree the birds, and "yap" below,
+till Quonab came up quietly with bow and blunt arrows, to fill
+his game-bag; and thus the best of fare was ever by the invalid's
+bed.
+
+Rolf's was easily a winning fight from the first, and in a week
+he was eating well, sleeping well, and growing visibly daily
+stronger.
+
+Then on a fleckless dawn that heralded a sun triumphant, the
+Indian borrowed a drum from the bandsman, and, standing on the
+highest breastwork, he gazed across the dark waters to the
+whitening hills. There on a tiny fire he laid tobacco and
+kinnikinnik, as Gisiss the Shining One burnt the rugged world rim
+at Vermont, and, tapping softly with one stick, he gazed upward,
+after the sacrificial thread of smoke, and sang in his own tongue:
+
+"Father, I burn tobacco, I smoke to Thee. I sing for my heart is singing."
+
+Pleasant chatter of the East was current by Rolf's bedside.
+Stories of homes in the hills he heard, tales of hearths by far
+away lakes and streams, memories of golden haired children
+waiting for father's or brother's return from the wars. Wives
+came to claim their husbands, mothers to bring away their boys,
+to gain again their strength at home. And his own heart went
+back, and ever back, to the rugged farm on the shores of the
+noble George.
+
+In two weeks he was able to sit up. In three he could hobble, and
+he moved about the town when the days were warm.
+
+And now he made the acquaintance of the prisoners. They were
+closely guarded and numbered over a hundred. It gave him a
+peculiar sensation to see them there. It seemed un- American to
+hold a human captive; but he realized that it was necessary to
+keep them for use as hostages and exchanges.
+
+Some of them he found to be sullen brutes, but many were kind and
+friendly, and proved to be jolly good fellows.
+
+On the occasion of his second visit, a familiar voice saluted him
+with, "Well, Rolf! Comment ca va?" and he had the painful joy of
+greeting Francois la Colle.
+
+"You'll help me get away, Rolf, won't you?" and the little
+Frenchman whispered and winked. "I have seven little ones now on
+La Riviere, dat have no flour, and tinks dere pa is dead."
+
+"I'll do all I can, Francois," and the picture of the desolate
+home, brought a husk in his voice and a choke in his throat. He
+remembered too the musket ball that by intent had whistled
+harmless overhead. "But," he added in a shaky voice, "I cannot
+help my country's enemy to escape."
+
+Then Rolf took counsel with McGlassin, told him all about the
+affair at the mill, and McGlassin with a heart worthy of his
+mighty shoulders, entered into the spirit of the situation, went
+to General Macomb presenting such a tale and petition that six
+hours later Francis bearing a passport through the lines was
+trudging away to Canada, paroled for the rest of the war.
+
+There was another face that Rolf recognized -- hollow- cheeked,
+flabby-jowled and purplish-gray. The man was one of the oldest of
+the prisoners. He wore a white beard end moustache. He did not
+recognize Rolf, but Rolf knew him, for this was Micky Kittering.
+How he escaped from jail and joined the enemy was an episode of
+the war's first year. Rolf was shocked to see what a miserable
+wreck his uncle was. He could not do him any good. To identify
+him would have resulted in his being treated as a renegade, so on
+the plea that he was an old man, Rolf saw that the prisoner had
+extra accommodation and out of his own pocket kept him abundantly
+supplied with tobacco. Then in his heart he forgave him, and kept
+away. They never met again.
+
+The bulk of the militia had been disbanded after the great
+battle. A few of the scouts and enough men to garrison the fort
+and guard the prisoners were retained. Each day there were joyful
+partings -- the men with homes, going home. And the thought that
+ever waxed in Rolf came on in strength. He hobbled to headquarters.
+"General, can I get leave -- to go -- he hesitated -- "home?"
+
+"Why, Kittering, I didn't know you had a home. But, certainly,
+I'll give you a month's leave and pay to date."
+
+Champlain is the lake of the two winds; the north wind blows for
+six months with a few variations, and the south wind for the
+other six months with trifling.
+
+Next morning a bark canoe was seen skimming southward before as
+much north wind as it could stand, with Rolf reclining in the
+middle, Quonab at the stern, and Skookum in the bow.
+
+In two days they were at Ticonderoga. Here help was easily got at
+the portage and on the evening of the third day, Quonab put a
+rope on Skookum's neck and they landed at Hendrik's farm.
+
+The hickory logs were blazing bright, and the evening pot was
+reeking as they opened the door and found the family gathered for
+the meal.
+
+"I didn't know you had a home," the general had said. He should
+have been present now to see the wanderer's welcome. If war
+breeds such a spirit in the land, it is as much a blessing as a
+curse. The air was full of it, and the Van Trumpers, when they
+saw their hero hobble in, were melted. Love, pity, pride, and
+tenderness were surging in storms through every heart that knew.
+"Their brother, their son come back, wounded, but proven and
+glorious." Yes, Rolf had a home, and in that intoxicating
+realization he kissed them all, even Annette of the glowing
+cheeks and eyes; though in truth he paid for it, for it conjured
+up in her a shy aloofness that lasted many days.
+
+Old Hendrik sputtered around. "Och, I am smile; dis is goood,
+yah. Vere is that tam dog? Yah! tie him not, he shall dis time
+von chicken have for joy."
+
+"Marta," said Rolf, "you told me to come here if I got hurt.
+Well, I've come, and I've brought a boat-load of stuff in case I
+cannot do my share in the fields."
+
+"Press you, my poy you didn't oughter brung dot stuff; you know
+we loff you here, and effery time it is you coom I get gladsomer,
+and dot Annette she just cried ven you vent to de war."
+
+"Oh, mother, I did not; it was you and little Hendrick!" and
+Annette turned her scarlet cheeks away.
+
+October, with its trees of flame and gold, was on the hills;
+purple and orange, the oaks and the birches; blue blocked with
+white was the sky above, and the blue, bright lake was limpid.
+
+"Oh, God of my fathers," Quonab used to pray, "when I reach the
+Happy Hunting, let it be ever the Leaf-falling Moon, for that is
+the only perfect time." And in that unmarred month of sunny sky
+and woodlands purged of every plague, there is but one menace in
+the vales. For who can bring the glowing coal to the dry-leafed
+woods without these two begetting the dread red fury that
+devastates the hills?
+
+Who can bring the fire in touch with tow and wonder at the blaze?
+Who, indeed? And would any but a dreamer expect young manhood in
+its growing strength, and girlhood just across the blush-line, to
+meet in daily meals and talk and still keep up the brother and
+sister play? It needs only a Virginia on the sea-girt island to
+turn the comrade into Paul.
+
+"Marta, I tink dot Rolf an Annette don't quarrel bad, ain't it? "
+
+"Hendrik, you vas von blind old bat-mole," said Marta, "I fink
+dat farm next ours purty good, but Rolf he say 'No Lake George no
+good.' Better he like all his folk move over on dat Hudson."
+
+
+
+Memory's Harp and the Indian Drum
+
+In early morning, or in dew time, before using
+his tom-tom, Quonab would tune it by warming
+it over the fire.   On wet days it was so relaxed
+that he would tighten the back thongs.  One day, after a
+thong tightening and warming, it sang so shrilly that Rolf
+turned to inquire, when crack! and the skin split open.
+
+"It was old; I make a new one," was all its owner said.
+That morning Rolf saw how it was made.  A six-foot
+length of a four-inch hickory sapling was split and trimmed
+down to a long strip three inches wide and an inch thick
+in the middle, thin at the edges, rounded on one side,
+flat on the other.  Then, flat side in, it was bent into a
+large hoop, and after treatment with hot water and
+steam to keep it from breaking, the hoop was reduced to
+fifteen inches across, and the ends, when thinned down.
+were lashed in place with some thongs cut from a rawhide
+and soaked in water till soft.
+
+Raw buckskin is best for a tom-tom head, but having
+none, Quonab took an old calfskin from his storehouse
+under the rock.  After this was softened by soaking over
+night in the pond, he covered the hairy side with a cream
+of quicklime and water.  Next morning the hair was
+easily scraped off; then, after all fat and loose ends were
+removed from the hide, the hoop was set on it, and a circle
+cut out about five inches larger on all sides; a strong
+thong of rawhide was laced through the edge of this, and
+used as a puckering string when the looseflap was brought
+together on the upper side of the hoop.  Now thongs were
+passed tightly across the back in four different places, so
+that they crossed in the centre, making eight rows of
+spokes.  A final thong passed over and under these, in the
+centre, round and round, stretched the skin as much as
+desired.  As soon as it dried out, the tension became very
+marked, and the sound of the ever-hardening rawhide
+took on almost a metallic character.
+
+As the Indian tummed it Rolf felt strangely influenced.
+What was it in his nature that responded?  He did not
+know, any more than the soldier knows, or the Salvationist
+knows, what power to sway the soul there is in the rhythmic,
+vibrant "tum-ta-tum-ta" of the big drum.  But
+the power is there, and the wise halt not to seek the
+reason, but accept its help to make good their sway --
+the king who rules the army, the preacher who leads the
+Salvationists, and the medicine-man who would shape
+the red man's life.
+
+Quonab sang at length his song of the long ago when his
+people, the Wabanaki, the Men of the Day-dawn, came
+westward, fighting their way, till they possessed all the
+country to the great Shatemuk, which white men call the
+Hudson.  And, singing, he stirred his memory, till it
+opened up his heart.  The silent Indian, like King William
+the Silent, got his reputation because of his behaviour at
+certain times.  To strangers Indians are silent, reserved,
+and shy.  Among themselves they are very human, some
+of them very talkative; and Rolf found that silent Quonab
+could, in the intimacy of camp life, become very outspoken
+when the right cord was touched in the very right way.
+
+The song of the Wabanaki led Rolf to ask, "Did your
+people always live right here?" And then, in fragments,
+he got a history.
+
+Long before the white man came, the Sinawa won and
+held this land from Quinnuhtekut to Shatemuk; then came
+the white men, Dutchmen from Manhattan and Englishmen
+from Massachusetts.  First they made treaties;
+then, in time of peace, they gathered an army, and taking
+advantage of the truce and of the mid-winter festival
+that gathered all the tribe in the walled town of
+Petuquapen, the soldiers surrounded the place, and when the
+flames of their burning homes drove out the folk, they
+were slaughtered like deer in the snow-drifts.
+
+"There stood the great village of my fathers," and the
+Indian pointed a quarter mile away to the level place next
+the rock ridge that lies along the west of Strickland's Plain.
+
+"There stood the house of the mighty Amogerone, who was
+so honest that he thought all men were to be trusted, so
+trusted even the whites.  That road away from the north
+was the moccasin trail, and where it forks to go to Cos Cob
+and Myanos, it ran ankle deep in blood that night; from
+that low mount to this the snow was black with bodies.
+
+"How many perished?  A thousand, mostly women and children.
+How many of the attack were killed?  None, not one.
+Why should they?  It was a time of peace.  Our people
+were unprepared - were without guns.  The enemy was in ambush.
+
+"Only the brave Mayn Mayano escaped; he who bitterly
+opposed the Chief when the treaty was made --
+the 'Fighting Sagamore,' the English called him.  Now
+all was open war for him.  Many and many a scalp he
+took.  He never feared to face double odds, and won and
+won, till he grew reckless.  'One Indian Sagamore is
+better than three white men,' he boldly proclaimed, and
+proved it again and again.  But on an evil day, when armed
+only with a tomahawk, he attacked three soldiers wearing
+armour and bearing guns and pistols.  The first he killed,
+the second disabled, but the third, a captain in a steel
+helmet that turned the tomahawk, had little ado to
+stand ten feet aside and shoot the brave Mayn Mayano
+through the heart.  Yonder by that hill, on the highway
+to Stamford where he fell, his widow buried him.  On
+the river that bears his name the remnant of his people
+lived, till all were gone but my father's lodge.
+
+"Here Cos Cob, my father, brought me when a child,
+even as his grandfather once brought him, and showed me
+the place of our Royal Petuquapen.  There along the
+plain it stretched, and there is the trail that ran so deep
+in blood.  Here in the little swampy woods, where the
+ground was soft, the butchers piled our dead; close under
+that rocky hill beside the Asamuk, lie the murdered
+tribe.  Our children used to come in the Wild Goose
+Moon to the top of that hill, because there, first of all,
+the little blue-eyes of spring used to show.   I often come
+to find them, and as I sit I seem to hear the cry that rang
+in the night from the burning town, of mothers, of babies,
+killed like rabbits.
+
+"But I remember, too, the brave Mayn Mayano.  His
+spirit comes to help me as I sit and sing the songs of my
+people -- not the war songs, but the songs of another
+land.  I alone am left.  A little while, and I shall be
+with them.  Here have I dwelt, and here I would die."
+The Indian ceased and again became the silent one.
+
+Late that day he took his new song-drum from its peg,
+went quietly to the top of the great rock, where he prayed,
+and the words of the song that he sang were:
+
+
+"Father, we walk in darkness;
+ Father we do not understand;
+Walking darkly, we bow the head."
+
+
+
+
+
+ End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Rolf In The Woods, by Seton
+
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+***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Rolf In The Woods, by Seton***
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+Rolf In The Woods
+
+Ernest Thompson Seton
+
+October, 1997  [Etext #1088]
+
+
+***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Rolf In The Woods, by Seton***
+******This file should be named rolfw11.txt or rolfw11.zip******
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+This etext was prepared by Ted Soldan and anonymous volunteers.
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+
+
+
+Preface
+
+In this story I have endeavoured to realize some of the
+influences that surrounded the youth of America a hundred years
+ago, and made of them, first, good citizens, and, later, in the
+day of peril, heroes that won the battles of Lake Erie,
+Plattsburg, and New Orleans, and the great sea fights of Porter,
+Bainbridge, Decatur, Lawrence, Perry, and MacDonough.
+
+I have especially dwelt in detail on the woodland and peace
+scouting in the hope that I may thus help other boys to follow
+the hard-climbing trail that leads to the higher uplands.
+
+For the historical events of 1812-14, I have consulted among
+books chiefly, Theodore Roosevelt's "Naval War of 1812," Peter S.
+Palmer's "History of Lake Champlain," and Walter Hill Crockett's
+"A History of Lake Champlain," 1909.  But I found another and
+more personal mine of information.  Through the kindness of my
+friend, Edmund Seymour, a native of the Champlain region, now a
+resident of New York, I went over all the historical ground with
+several unpublished manuscripts for guides, and heard from the
+children of the sturdy frontiersmen new tales of the war; and in
+getting more light and vivid personal memories, I was glad,
+indeed, to realize that not only were there valour and heroism on
+both sides, but also gentleness and courtesy.  Histories written
+by either party at the time should be laid aside.  They breathe
+the rancourous hate of the writers of the age --the fighters felt
+not so --and the many incidents given here of chivalry and
+consideration were actual happenings, related to me by the
+descendants of those who experienced them; and all assure me that
+these were a true reflex of the feelings of the day.
+
+I am much indebted to Miss Katherine Palmer, of Plattsburg, for
+kindly allowing me to see the unpublished manuscript memoir of
+her grandfather, Peter Sailly, who was Collector of the Port of
+Plattsburg at the time of the war.
+
+Another purpose in this story was to picture the real Indian with
+his message for good or for evil.
+
+Those who know nothing of the race will scoff and say they never
+heard of such a thing as a singing and religious red man. Those
+who know him well will say, "Yes, but you have given to your
+eastern Indian songs and ceremonies which belong to the western
+tribes, and which are of different epochs.  "To the latter I
+reply:
+
+"You know that the western Inidians sang and prayed in this way.
+How do you know that the eastern ones did not?  We have no
+records, except those by critics, savagely hostile, and
+contemptuous of all religious observances but their own.  The
+Ghost Dance Song belonged to a much more recent time, no doubt,
+but it was purely Indian, and it is generally admitted that the
+races of continental North America were of one stock, and had no
+fundamentally different customs or modes of thought."
+
+The Sunrise Song was given me by Frederick R. Burton, author of
+"American Primitive Music." It is still in use among the Ojibwa.
+
+The songs of the Wabanaki may be read in C. G. Le- land's "
+Kuloskap the Master."
+
+The Ghost Dance Song was fumished by Alice C. Fletcher, whose
+"Indian Song and Story" will prove a revelation to those who wish
+to follow further.
+
+ERNEST THOMPSON SETON.
+
+
+
+Chapter 1.  The Wigwam Under the Rock
+
+The early springtime sunrise was near at hand as
+Quonab, the last of the Myanos Sinawa, stepped
+from his sheltered wigwam under the cliff that
+borders the Asamuk easterly, and, mounting to the lofty
+brow of the great rock that is its highest pinnacle, he
+stood in silence, awaiting the first ray of the sun over
+the sea water that stretches between Connecticut and
+Seawanaky.
+
+His silent prayer to the Great Spirit was ended as a
+golden beam shot from a long, low cloud-bank over the
+sea, and Quonab sang a weird Indian song for the rising
+sun, an invocation to the Day God:
+
+"O thou that risest from the low cloud
+To burn in the all above;
+I greet thee!  I adore thee!"
+
+Again and again he sang to the tumming of a small
+tom-tom, till the great refulgent one had cleared the cloud,
+and the red miracle of the sunrise was complete.
+Back to his wigwam went the red man, down to his home
+tucked dosed under the sheltering rock, and, after washing
+his hands in a basswood bowl, began to prepare his simple
+meal.
+
+A tin-lined copper pot hanging over the fire was partly
+filled with water; then, when it was boiling, some samp or
+powdered corn and some clams were stirred in.  While
+these were cooking, he took his smooth-bore flint-lock,
+crawled gently over the ridge that screened his wigwam
+from the northwest wind, and peered with hawk-like
+eyes across the broad sheet of water that, held by a high
+beaver-dam, filled the little valley of Asamuk Brook.
+
+The winter ice was still on the pond, but in all the warming
+shallows there was open water, on which were likely
+to be ducks.  None were to be seen, but by the edge of the
+ice was a round object which, although so far away, he
+knew at a glance for a muskrat.
+
+By crawling around the pond, the Indian could easily
+have come within shot, but he returned at once to his
+wigwam, where he exchanged his gun for the weapons of
+his fathers, a bow and arrows, and a long fish-line.  A
+short, quick stalk, and the muskrat, still eating a flagroot,
+was within thirty feet.  The fish-line was coiled on the
+ground and then attached to an arrow, the bow bent -- zip
+-- the arrow picked up the line, coil after coil, and trans-
+fixed the muskrat.  Splash! and the animal was gone under
+the ice.
+
+But the cord was in the hands of the hunter; a little
+gentle pulling and the rat came to view, to be despatched
+with a stick and secured.  Had he shot it with a gun, it
+had surely been lost.
+
+He returned to his camp, ate his frugal breakfast, and fed a
+small, wolfish-looking yellow dog that was tied in the lodge.
+
+He skinned the muskrat carefully, first cutting a
+slit across the rear and then turning the skin back like a
+glove, till it was off to the snout; a bent stick thrust into
+this held it stretched, till in a day, it was dry and ready for
+market.  The body, carefully cleaned, he hung in the
+shade to furnish another meal.
+
+As he worked, there were sounds of trampling in the
+woods, and presently a tall, rough-looking man, with a
+red nose and a curling white moustache, came striding
+through brush and leaves.  He stopped when he saw the
+Indian, stared contemptuously at the quarry of the morning
+chase, made a scornful remark about "rat-eater," and went
+on toward the wigwam, probably to peer in, but the
+Indian's slow, clear, "keep away!" changed his plan.  He
+grumbled something about "copper-coloured tramp,"
+and started away in the direction of the nearest farmhouse.
+
+
+
+Chapter 2.  Rolf Kittering and the Soldier Uncle
+
+A feller that chatters all the time is bound to talk a certain
+amount of drivel. -- The Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+This was the Crow Moon, the white man's March.
+The Grass Moon was at hand, and already the
+arrow bands of black-necked honkers were passing
+northward from the coast, sending down as they flew
+the glad tidings that the Hunger Moon was gone, that
+spring was come, yea, even now was in the land.  And the
+flicker clucked from a high, dry bough, the spotted
+woodwale drummed on his chosen branch, the partridge
+drummed in the pine woods, and in the sky the wild
+ducks, winging, drummed their way.  What wonder that
+the soul of the Indian should seek expression in the drum
+and the drum song of his race?
+
+Presently, as though remembering something, he went
+quietly to the southward under the ridge, just where it
+breaks to let the brook go by, along the edge of Strickland's
+Plain, and on that hill of sliding stone he found, as
+he always had, the blue-eyed liver-leaf smiling, the first
+sweet flower of spring!  He did not gather it, he only sat
+down and looked at it.  He did not smile, or sing, or
+utter words, or give it a name, but he sat beside it and
+looked hard at it, and, in the first place, he went there
+knowingly to find it.  Who shall say that its beauty did
+not reach his soul?
+
+He took out his pipe and tobacco bag, but was reminded
+of something lacking -- the bag was empty.  He returned
+to his wigwam, and from their safe hanger or swinging
+shelf overhead, he took the row of stretched skins, ten
+muskrats and one mink, and set out along a path which
+led southward through the woods to the broad, open place
+called Strickland's Plain, across that, and over the next
+rock ridge to the little town and port of Myanos.
+
+SILAS PECK
+Trading Store
+
+was the sign over the door he entered.  Men and women
+were buying and selling, but the Indian stood aside shyly
+until all were served, and Master Peck cried out:
+
+"Ho, Quonab! what have ye got for trade to-day?"
+
+Quonab produced his furs.  The dealer looked at them
+narrowly and said:
+
+"They are too late in the season for primes; I cannot
+allow you more than seven cents each for the rats and
+seventy-five cents for the mink, all trade."
+
+The Indian gathered up the bundle with an air of "that
+settles it," when Silas called out:
+
+"Come now, I'll make it ten cents for the rats."
+
+"Ten cents for rats, one dollar for mink, all cash, then
+I buy what I like," was the reply.
+
+It was very necessary to Silas's peace that no customer
+of his should cross the street to the sign,
+
+SILAS MEAD
+Trading Store
+
+So the bargain, a fair one now, was made, and the Indian
+went off with a stock of tobacco, tea, and sugar.
+
+His way lay up the Myanos River, as he had one or two
+traps set along the banks for muskrats, although in constant
+danger of having them robbed or stolen by boys, who
+considered this an encroachment on their trapping grounds.
+
+After an hour he came to Dumpling Pond, then set out
+for his home, straight through the woods, till he reached
+the Catrock line, and following that came to the farm and
+ramshackle house of Micky Kittering.  He had been told
+that the man at this farm had a fresh deer hide for sale,
+and hoping to secure it, Quonab walked up toward the
+house.  Micky was coming from the barn when he saw
+the Indian.  They recognized each other at a glance.
+That was enough for Quonab; he turned away.  The
+farmer remembered that he had been "insulted." He
+vomited a few oaths, and strode after the Indian, "To
+take it out of his hide"; his purpose was very clear.  The
+Indian turned quickly, stood, and looked calmly at Michael.
+
+Some men do not know the difference between shyness
+and cowardice, but they are apt to find it out unexpectedly
+Something told the white man, "Beware! this red man is
+dangerous." He muttered something about, "Get out
+of that, or I'll send for a constable." The Indian stood
+gazing coldly, till the farmer backed off out of sight, then
+he himself turned away to the woods.
+
+Kittering was not a lovely character.  He claimed to
+have been a soldier.  He certainly looked the part, for
+his fierce white moustache was curled up like horns on his
+purple face, at each side of his red nose, in a most milita
+style.  His shoulders were square and his gait was
+swaggering, beside which, he had an array of swear words that
+was new and tremendously impressive in Connecticut.  He
+had married late in life a woman who would have made him
+a good wife, had he allowed her.  But, a drunkard himself
+he set deliberately about bringing his wife to his own ways
+and with most lamentable success.  They had had no
+children, but some months before a brother's child,
+fifteen-year-old lad, had become a charge on their hands
+and, with any measure of good management, would have
+been a blessing to all.  But Micky had gone too far.  His
+original weak good-nature was foundered in rum.  Always
+blustery and frothy, he divided the world in two --
+superior officers, before whom he grovelled, and inferiors
+to whom he was a mouthy, foul-tongued, contemptible
+bully, in spite of a certain lingering kindness of heart that
+showed itself at such rare times when he was neither
+roaring drunk nor crucified by black reaction.  His
+brother's child, fortunately, had inherited little of the
+paternal family traits, but in both body and brain favoured
+his mother, the daughter of a learned divine who had spent
+unusual pains on her book education, but had left her
+penniless and incapable of changing that condition.
+
+Her purely mental powers and peculiarities were such
+that, a hundred years before, she might have been burned
+for a witch, and fifty years later might have been honoured
+as a prophetess.  But she missed the crest of the wave
+both ways and fell in the trough; her views on religious
+matters procured neither a witch's grave nor a prophet's
+crown, but a sort of village contempt.
+
+The Bible was her standard -- so far so good -- but
+she emphasized the wrong parts of it.  Instead of
+magnifying the damnation of those who follow not the truth (as
+the village understood it), she was content to semi-quote:
+
+"Those that are not against me are with me," and
+"A kind heart is the mark of His chosen." And then
+she made a final utterance, an echo really of her father:
+"If any man do anything sincerely, believing that thereby
+he is worshipping God, he is worshipping God."
+
+Then her fate was sealed, and all who marked the blazing
+eyes, the hollow cheeks, the yet more hollow chest and
+cough, saw in it all the hand of an offended God destroying
+a blasphemer, and shook their heads knowingly when
+the end came.
+
+So Rolf was left alone in life, with a common school
+education, a thorough knowledge of the Bible and of
+"Robinson Crusoe," a vague tradition of God everywhere,
+and a deep distrust of those who should have been his
+own people.
+
+The day of the little funeral he left the village of Redding
+to tramp over the unknown road to the unknown south
+where his almost unknown Uncle Michael had a farm and,
+possibly, a home for him.
+
+Fifteen miles that day, a night's rest in a barn, twenty-
+five miles the next day, and Rolf had found his future
+home.
+
+"Come in, lad," was the not unfriendly reception, for
+his arrival was happily fallen on a brief spell of good
+humour, and a strong, fifteen-year-old boy is a distinct
+asset on a farm.
+
+
+
+Chapter 3.  Rolf Catches a Coon and Finds a Friend
+
+Aunt Prue, sharp-eyed and red-nosed, was
+actually shy at first, but all formality vanished
+as Rolf was taught the mysteries of pig-feeding,
+hen-feeding, calf-feeding, cow-milking, and launched by list
+only in a vast number of duties familiar to him from his
+babyhood.  What a list there was.  An outsider might
+have wondered if Aunt Prue was saving anything for herself,
+but Rolf was used to toil.  He worked without ceasing
+and did his best, only to learn in time that the best could
+win no praise, only avert punishment.  The spells of good
+nature arrived more seldom in his uncle's heart.  His
+aunt was a drunken shrew and soon Rolf looked on the
+days of starving and physical misery with his mother as
+the days of his happy youth gone by.
+
+He was usually too tired at night and too sleepy in the
+morning to say his prayers, and gradually he gave it up
+as a daily habit.  The more he saw of his kinsfolk, the
+more wickedness came to view; and yet it was with a
+shock that he one day realized that some fowls his uncle
+brought home by night were there without the owner's
+knowledge or consent.  Micky made a jest of it, and
+intimated that Rolf would have to "learn to do night work
+very soon."  This was only one of the many things that
+showed how evil a place was now the orphan's home.
+
+At first it was not clear to the valiant uncle whether the
+silent boy was a superior to be feared, or an inferior to be
+held in fear, but Mick's courage grew with non-resistance,
+and blows became frequent; although not harder to bear
+than the perpetual fault-finding and scolding of his aunt,
+and all the good his mother had implanted was being
+shrivelled by the fires of his daily life.
+
+Rolf had no chance to seek for companions at the
+village store, but an accident brought one to him.
+Before sunrise one spring morning he went, as usual,
+to the wood lot pasture for the cow, and was surprised to
+find a stranger, who beckoned him to come.  On going
+near he saw a tall man with dark skin and straight black
+hair that was streaked with gray -- undoubtedly an Indian.
+He held up a bag and said, "I got coon in that hole.  You
+hold bag there, I poke him in."  Rolf took the sack
+readily and held it over the hole, while the Indian climbed
+the tree to a higher opening, then poked in this with a long
+pole, till all at once there was a scrambling noise and the
+bag bulged full and heavy.  Rolf closed its mouth
+triumphantly.  The Indian laughed lightly, then swung to the
+ground.
+
+"Now, what will you do with him?" asked Rolf.
+
+"Train coon dog," was the answer.
+
+"Where?"
+
+The Indian pointed toward the Asamuk Pond.
+
+"Are you the singing Indian that lives under Ab's Rock?
+
+"Ugh!* Some call me that.  My name is Quonab."
+
+"Wait for an hour and then I will come and help,"
+volunteered Rolf impulsively, for the hunting instinct was
+strong in him.
+
+The Indian nodded.  "Give three yelps if you no find
+me;" then he shouldered a short stick, from one end of
+which, at a safe distance from his back, hung the bag with
+the coon.  And Rolf went home with the cow.
+
+He had acted on hasty impulse in offering to come, but
+now, in the normal storm state of the household, the
+difficulties of the course appeared.  He cudgelled his brain for
+some plan to account for his absence, and finally took
+refuge unwittingly in ancient wisdom: "When you don't
+know a thing to do, don't do a thing."  Also, "If you can't
+find the delicate way, go the blunt way."
+
+So having fed the horses, cleaned the stable, and milked
+the cow, fed the pigs, the hens, the calf, harnessed the
+horses, cut and brought in wood for the woodshed, turned
+out the sheep, hitched the horses to the wagon, set the milk
+out in the creaming pans, put more corn to soak for the
+swill barrel, ground the house knife, helped to clear the
+breakfast things, replaced the fallen rails of a fence,
+brought up potatoes from the root cellar, all to the
+maddening music of a scolding tongue, he set out to take the cow
+back to the wood lot, sullenly resolved to return when ready.
+
+
+*Ugh (yes) and wah (no) are Indianisms that continue no matter
+how well the English has been acquired.
+
+
+
+Chapter 4.  The Coon Hunt Makes Trouble for Rolf
+
+Not one hour, but nearly three, had passed before
+Rolf sighted the Pipestave Pond, as it was called.
+He had never been there before, but three short
+whoops, as arranged, brought answer and guidance.
+Quonab was standing on the high rock.  When Rolf came
+he led down to the wigwam on its south side.  It was like
+stepping into a new life.  Several of the old neighbours at
+Redding were hunters who knew the wild Indians and had
+told him tales that glorified at least the wonderful
+woodcraft of the red man. Once or twice Rolf had seen Indians
+travelling through, and he had been repelled by their sordid
+squalour.  But here was something of a different kind;
+not the Champlain ideal, indeed, for the Indian wore clothes
+like any poor farmer, except on his head and his feet; his
+head was bare, and his feet were covered with moccasins
+that sparkled with beads on the arch.  The wigwam was
+of canvas, but it had one or two of the sacred symbols
+painted on it.  The pot hung over the fire was tin-lined
+copper, of the kind long made in England for Indian trade,
+but the smaller dishes were of birch bark and basswood.
+The gun and the hunting knife were of white man's make,
+but the bow, arrows, snowshoes, tom-tom, and a quill-
+covered gun case were of Indian art, fashioned of the things
+that grow in the woods about.
+
+The Indian led into the wigwam.  The dog, although
+not fully grown, growled savagely as it smelled the hated
+white man odour.  Quonab gave the puppy a slap on the
+head, which is Indian for, "Be quiet; he's all right;" loosed
+the rope, and led the dog out.  "Bring that," and the
+Indian pointed to the bag which hung from a stick between
+two trees.  The dog sniffed suspiciously in the direction
+of the bag and growled, but he was not allowed to come
+near it.  Rolf tried to make friends with the dog, but
+without success and Quonab said, "Better let Skookum* alone.
+He make friends when he ready -- maybe never."
+
+The two hunters now set out for the open plain, two or
+three hundred yards to the southward.  Here the raccoon
+was dumped out of the sack, and the dog held at a little
+distance, until the coon had pulled itself together and
+began to run.  Now the dog was released and chivvied on.
+With a tremendous barking he rushed at the coon, only to
+get a nip that made him recoil, yelping.  The coon ran
+as hard as it could, the dog and hunters came after it;
+again it was overtaken, and, turning with a fierce snarl, it
+taught the dog a second lesson.  Thus, running, dodging,
+and turning to fight, the coon got back to the woods, and
+there made a final stand under a small, thick tree; and,
+when the dog was again repulsed, climbed quickly up into
+the branches.
+
+The hunters did all they could to excite the dog, until he
+was jumping about, tryng to  climb the tree, and barking
+uproariously.  This was exactly what they wanted.
+Skookum's first lesson was learned -- the duty of chasing
+the big animal of that particular smell, then barking up
+the tree it had climbed.
+
+Quonab, armed with a forked stick and a cord noose,
+now went up the tree.  After much trouble he got the
+noose around the coon's neck, then, with some rather
+rough handling, the animal was dragged down, maneuvered
+into the sack, and carried back to camp, where it was
+chained up to serve in future lessons; the next two or three
+being to tree the coon, as before; in the next, the coon
+was to be freed and allowed to get out of sight, so that the
+dog might find it by trailing, and the last, in which the
+coon was to be trailed, treed, and shot out of the tree,
+so that the dog should have the final joy of killing a
+crippled coon, and the reward of a coon-meat feast.  But
+the last was not to be, for the night before it should have
+taken place the coon managed to slip its bonds, and nothing
+but the empty collar and idle chain were found in the
+captive's place next morning.
+
+These things were in the future however.  Rolf was
+intensely excited over all he had seen that day.  His hunting
+instincts were aroused.  There had been no very obvious
+or repellant cruelty; the dog alone had suffered, but
+he seemed happy.  The whole affair was so exactly in the
+line of his tastes that the boy was in a sort of ecstatic
+uplift, and already anticipating a real coon hunt, when
+the dog should be properly trained.  The episode so
+contrasted with the sordid life he had left an hour before that
+he was spellbound.  The very animal smell of the coon
+seemed to make his fibre tingle.  His eyes were glowing
+with a wild light.  He was so absorbed that he did not
+notice a third party attracted by the unusual noise of the
+chase, but the dog did.  A sudden, loud challenge called
+all attention to a stranger on the ridge behind the camp.
+There was no mistaking the bloated face and white
+moustache of Rolf's uncle.
+
+"So, you young scut! that is how you waste your time.
+I'll larn ye a lesson."
+
+The dog was tied, the Indian looked harmless, and the
+boy was cowed, so the uncle's courage mounted high.  He
+had been teaming in the nearby woods, and the blacksnake
+whip was in his hands.  In a minute its thong was
+lapped, like a tongue of flame, around Rolf's legs.  The
+boy gave a shriek and ran, but the man followed and
+furiously plied the whip.  The Indian, supposing it was Rolf's
+father, marvelled at his method of showing affection, but
+said nothing, for the Fifth Commandment is a large one
+in the wigwam.  Rolf dodged some of the cruel blows, but
+was driven into a corner of the rock.  One end of the lash
+crossed his face like a red-hot wire.
+
+"Now I've got you!" growled the bully.
+
+Rolf was desperate.  He seized two heavy stones and
+hurled the first with deadly intent at his uncle's head.
+Mick dodged in time, but the second, thrown lower, hit
+him on the thigh.  Mick gave a roar of pain.  Rolf
+hastily seized more stones and shrieked out, "You come on
+one step and I'll kill you!"
+
+Then that purple visage turned a sort of ashen hue.
+Its owner mouthed in speechless rage.  He "knew it was
+the Indian had put Rolf up to it.  He'd see to it later," and
+muttering, blasting, frothing, the hoary-headed sinner
+went limping off to his loaded wagon.
+
+
+*"Skookum" or "Skookum Chuck," in Chinook means "Troubled waters."
+
+
+
+Chapter 5.  Good-bye to Uncle Mike
+
+For counsel comes with the night, and action comes with the day;
+But the gray half light, neither dark nor bright, is a time to
+hide away.
+
+
+Rolf had learned one thing at least -- his uncle was a coward.
+But he also knew that he himself was in the wrong, for he was
+neglecting his work and he decided to go back at once and face
+the worst.  He made little reply to the storm of scolding that
+met him. He would have been disappointed if it had not come.  He
+was used to it; it made him feel at home once more.  He worked
+hard and silently.
+
+Mick did not return till late.  He had been drawing wood for
+Horton that day, which was the reason he happened in Quonab's
+neighbourhood; but his road lay by the tavern, and when he
+arrived home he was too helpless to do more than mutter.
+
+The next day there was an air of suspended thunder. Rolf
+overheard his uncle cursing "that ungrateful young scut - not
+worth his salt."  But nothing further was said or done.  His aunt
+did not strike at him once for two days.  The third night Micky
+disappeared.  On the next he returned with another man; they had
+a crate of fowls, and Rolf was told to keep away from "that there
+little barn."
+
+So he did all morning, but he peeped in from the hayloft when a
+chance came, and saw a beautiful horse.  Next day the "little
+barn" was open and empty as before.
+
+That night this worthy couple had a jollification with some
+callers, who were strangers to Rolf.  As he lay awake, listening
+to the carouse, he overheard many disjointed allusions that he
+did not understand, and some that he could guess at: "Night work
+pays better than day work any time," etc.  Then he heard his own
+name and a voice, "Let's go up and settle it with him now."
+Whatever their plan, it was clear that the drunken crowd,
+inspired by the old ruffian, were intent on doing him bodily
+harm.  He heard them stumbling and reeling up the steep stairs.
+He heard, "Here, gimme that whip," and knew he was in peril,
+maybe of his life, for they were whiskey-mad.  He rose quickly,
+locked the door, rolled up an old rag carpet, and put it in his
+bed.  Then he gathered his clothes on his arm, opened the window,
+and lowered himself till his head only was above the sill, and
+his foot found a resting place.  Thus he awaited.  The raucous
+breathing of the revellers was loud on the stairs; then the door
+was tried; there was some muttering; then the door was burst open
+and in rushed two, or perhaps three, figures.  Rolf could barely
+see in the gloom, but he knew that his uncle was one of them.
+The attack they made with whip and stick on that roll of rags in
+the bed would have broken his bones and left him shapeless, had
+he been in its place. The men were laughing and took it all as a
+joke, but Rolf had seen enough; he slipped to the ground and
+hurried away, realizing perfectly well now that this was
+"good-bye."
+
+Which way?  How naturally his steps turned northward toward
+Redding, the only other place he knew.  But he had not gone a
+mile before he stopped.  The yapping of a coon dog came to him
+from the near woods that lay to the westward along Asamuk.  He
+tramped toward it. To find the dog is one thing, to find the
+owner another; but they drew near at last.  Rolf gave the three
+yelps and Quonab responded.
+
+"I am done with that crowd," said the boy.  "They tried to kill
+me tonight.  Have you got room for me in your wigwam for a couple
+of days?"
+
+"Ugh, come," said the Indian.
+
+That night, for the first time, Rolf slept in the outdoor air of
+a wigwam.  He slept late, and knew nothing of the world about him
+till Quonab called him to breakfast.
+
+
+
+Chapter 6.  Skookum Accepts Rolf at Last
+
+Rolf expected that Micky would soon hear of his hiding place and
+come within a few days, backed by a constable, to claim his
+runaway ward.  But a week went by and Quonab, passing through
+Myanos, learned, first, that Rolf had been seen tramping
+northward on the road to Dumpling Pond, and was now supposed to
+be back in Redding; second, that Micky Kittering was lodged in
+jail under charge of horse-stealing and would certainly get a
+long sentence; third, that his wife had gone back to her own
+folks at Norwalk, and the house was held by strangers.
+
+All other doors were closed now, and each day that drifted by
+made it the more clear that Rolf and Quonab were to continue
+together.  What boy would not exult at the thought of it?  Here
+was freedom from a brutal tyranny that was crushing out his young
+life; here was a dream of the wild world coming true, with
+gratification of all the hunter instincts that he had held in his
+heart for years, and nurtured in that single, ragged volume of
+"Robinson Crusoe." The plunge was not a plunge, except it be one
+when an eagle, pinion-bound, is freed and springs from a cliff of
+the mountain to ride the mountain wind.
+
+The memory of that fateful cooning day was deep and lasting.
+Never afterward did smell of coon fail to bring it back; in spite
+of the many evil incidents it was a smell of joy.
+
+"Where are you going, Quonab?" he asked one morning, as he saw
+the Indian rise at dawn and go forth with his song drum, after
+warming it at the fire.  He pointed up to the rock, and for the
+first time Rolf heard the chant for the sunrise.  Later he heard
+the Indian's song for "Good Hunting," and another for "When His
+Heart Was Bad." They were prayers or praise, all addressed to the
+Great Spirit, or the Great Father, and it gave Rolf an entirely
+new idea of the red man, and a startling light on himself. Here
+was the Indian, whom no one considered anything but a hopeless
+pagan, praying to God for guidance at each step in life, while he
+himself, supposed to be a Christian, had not prayed regularly for
+months -- was in danger of forgetting how.
+
+Yet there was one religious observance that Rolf never forgot --
+that was to keep the Sabbath, and on that day each week he did
+occasionally say a little prayer his mother had taught him.  He
+avoided being seen at such times and did not speak of kindred
+doings.  Whereas Quonab neither hid nor advertised his religious
+practices, and it was only after many Sundays had gone that
+Quonab remarked:
+
+"Does your God come only one day of the week?  Does He sneak in
+after dark?  Why is He ashamed that you only whisper to Him?
+Mine is here all the time. I can always reach Him with my song;
+all days are my Sunday."
+
+The evil memories of his late life were dimming quickly, and the
+joys of the new one growing.  Rolf learned early that, although
+one may talk of the hardy savage, no Indian seeks for hardship.
+Everything is done that he knows to make life pleasant, and of
+nothing is he more careful than the comfort of his couch.  On the
+second day, under guidance of his host, Rolf set about making his
+own bed.  Two logs, each four inches thick and three feet long,
+were cut.  Then two strong poles, each six feet long, were laid
+into notches at the ends of the short logs.  About seventy-five
+straight sticks of willow were cut and woven with willow bark
+into a lattice, three feet wide and six feet long.  This, laid on
+the poles, furnished a spring mattress, on which a couple of
+blankets made a most comfortable couch, dry, warm, and off the
+ground.  In addition to the lodge cover, each bed had a dew cloth
+which gave perfect protection, no matter how the storm might rage
+outdoors.  There was no hardship in it, only a new-found
+pleasure, to sleep and breathe the pure night air of the woods.
+
+The Grass Moon - April - had passed, and the Song Moon was
+waxing, with its hosts of small birds, and one of Rolf's early
+discoveries was that many of these love to sing by night.  Again
+and again the familiar voice of the song sparrow came from the
+dark shore of Asamuk, or the field sparrow trilled from the top
+of some cedar, occasionally the painted one, Aunakeu, the
+partridge, drummed in the upper woods, and nightly there was the
+persistent chant of Muckawis, the whippoorwill, the myriad voices
+of the little frogs called spring-peepers, and the peculiar,
+"peent, peent," from the sky, followed by a twittering, that
+Quonab told him was the love song of the swamp bird -- the big
+snipe, with the fantail and long, soft bill, and eyes like a
+deer.
+
+"Do you mean the woodcock?"   
+"Ugh, that's the name; Pah-dash-ka-anja we call it."
+
+The waning of the moon brought new songsters, with many a
+nightingale among them.  A low bush near the plain was vocal
+during the full moon with the sweet but disconnected music of the
+yellow-breasted chat.  The forest rang again and again with a
+wild, torrential strain of music that seemed to come from the
+stars.  It sent peculiar thrill into Rolf's heart, and gave him a
+lump his throat as he listened.
+
+"What is that, Quonab?"
+
+"The Indian shook his head.  Then, later, when it ended, he said:
+"That is the mystery song of some one I never saw him."
+
+There was a long silence, then the lad began, "There's no good
+hunting here now, Quonab.  Why don't you go to the north woods,
+where deer are plentiful?"
+
+The Indian gave a short shake of his head, and then to prevent
+further talk, "Put up your dew cloth; the sea wind blows
+to-night."
+
+He finished; both stood for a moment gazing into the fire.  Then
+Rolf felt something wet and cold thrust into his hand.  It was
+Skookum's nose.  At last the little dog had made up his mind to
+accept the white boy as a friend.
+
+
+
+Chapter 7. Rolf Works Out with Many Results
+
+He is the dumbest kind of a dumb fool that ain't king in
+some little corner. -- Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+The man who has wronged you will never forgive you,
+and he who has helped you will be forever grateful.
+Yes, there is nothing that draws you to a man so much
+as the knowledge that you have helped him.
+
+Quonab helped Rolf, and so was more drawn to him
+than to many of the neighbours that he had known for
+years; he was ready to like him.  Their coming together
+was accidental, but it was soon very clear that a friendship
+was springing up between them.  Rolf was too much
+of a child to think about the remote future; and so was
+Quonab.  Most Indians are merely tall children.
+
+But there was one thing that Rolf did think of -- he
+had no right to live in Quonab's lodge without contributing
+a fair share of the things needful.  Quonab got his living
+partly by hunting, partly by fishing, partly by selling
+baskets, and partly by doing odd jobs for the neighbours.
+Rolf's training as a loafer had been wholly neglected, and
+when he realized that he might be all summer with Quonab
+he said bluntly:
+
+"You let me stay here a couple of months.  I'll work
+out odd days, and buy enough stuff to keep myself any
+way."  Quonab said nothing, but their eyes met, and the
+boy knew it was agreed to.
+
+Rolf went that very day to the farm of Obadiah Timpany,
+and offered to work by the day, hoeing corn and root
+crops.  What farmer is not glad of help in planting time
+or in harvest?  It was only a question of what did he know
+and how much did he want?  The first was soon made
+clear; two dollars a week was the usual thing for boys in
+those times, and when he offered to take it half in trade,
+he was really getting three dollars a week and his board.
+Food was as low as wages, and at the end of a week, Rolf
+brought back to camp a sack of oatmeal, a sack of cornmeal,
+a bushel of potatoes, a lot of apples, and one dollar
+cash.  The dollar went for tea and sugar, and the total
+product was enough to last them both a month; so Rolf
+could share the wigwam with a good conscience.
+
+Of course, it was impossible to keep the gossipy little
+town of Myanos from knowing, first, that the Indian had
+a white boy for partner; and, later, that that boy was Rolf.
+This gave rise to great diversity of opinion in the
+neighbourhood.  Some thought it should not be allowed, but
+Horton, who owned the land on which Quonab was camped, could
+not see any reason for interfering.
+
+Ketchura Peck, spinster, however, did see many most
+excellent reasons.  She was a maid with a mission, and
+maintained it to be an outrage that a Christian boy should
+be brought up by a godless pagan.  She worried over it
+almost as much as she did over the heathen in Central
+Africa, where there are no Sunday schools, and clothes
+are as scarce as churches.  Failing to move Parson Peck
+and Elder Knapp in the matter, and despairing of an early
+answer to her personal prayers, she resolved on a bold move,
+"An' it was only after many a sleepless, prayerful night,"
+namely, to carry the Bible into the heathen's stronghold.
+
+Thus it was that one bright morning in June she might
+have been seen, prim and proper -- almost glorified, she
+felt, as she set her lips just right in the mirror -- making
+for the Pipestave Pond, Bible in hand and spectacles clean
+wiped, ready to read appropriate selections to the unregenerate.
+
+She was full of the missionary spirit when she left Myanos,
+and partly full when she reached the Orchard Street Trail;
+but the spirit was leaking badly, and the woods did appear
+so wild and lonely that she wondered if women had any
+right to be missionaries.  When she came in sight of the
+pond, the place seemed unpleasantly different from Myanos
+and where was the Indian camp?   She did not dare to
+shout; indeed, she began to wish she were home again,
+but the sense of duty carried her fully fifty yards along the
+pond, and then she came to an impassable rock, a sheer
+bank that plainly said, "Stop!"  Now she must go back
+or up the bank.  Her Yankee pertinacity said, "Try first
+up the bank," and she began a long, toilsome ascent,
+that did not end until she came out on a bigh, open rock
+which, on its farther side, had a sheer drop and gave a
+view of the village and of the sea.
+
+Whatever joy she had on again seeing her bome was
+speedily queued in the fearsome discovery that she was
+right over the Indian camp, and the two inmates looked so
+utterly, dreadfully savage that she was thankful they had
+not seen her.  At once she shrank back; but on recovering
+sufficiently to again peer down, she saw something roasting
+before the fire -- "a tiny arm with a hand that bore
+five fmgers," as she afterward said, and "a sickening
+horror came over her.  " Yes, she had heard of such things.
+If she could only get home in safety!  Why had she
+tempted Providence thus?  She backed softly and prayed
+only to escape.  What, and never even deliver the Bible?
+"It would be wicked to return with it!"  In a cleft of
+the rock she placed it, and then, to prevent the wind
+blowing off loose leaves, she placed a stone on top, and
+fled from the dreadful place.
+
+That night, when Quonab and Rolf had finished their
+meal of corn and roasted coon, the old man climbed the
+rock to look at the sky.  The book caught his eye at once,
+evidently hidden there carefully, and therefore in cache.
+A cache is a sacred thing to an Indian.  He disturbed it
+not, but later asked Rolf, "That yours?"
+
+"No."
+
+It was doubtless the property of some one who meant
+to return for it, so they left it untouched.  It rested
+there for many months, till the winter storms came down,
+dismantling the covers, dissolving the pages, but leaving
+such traces as, in the long afterward, served to identify
+the book and give the rock the other name, the one it
+bears to-day - "Bible Rock, where Quonab, the son of
+Cos Cob, used to live."
+
+
+
+Chapter 8. The Law of Property Among Our Four-Footed Kin
+
+Night came down on the Asamuk woods, and the two in the wigwam
+were eating their supper of pork, beans, and tea, for the Indian
+did not, by any means object to the white man's luxuries, when a
+strange "yap-yurr" was heard out toward the plain. The dog was up
+at once with a growl.  Rolf looked inquiringly, and Quonab said,
+"Fox," then bade the dog be still.
+
+"Yap-yurr, yap-yurr," and then, "yurr, yeow," it came again and
+again.  "Can we get him?" said the eager young hunter.  The
+Indian shook his head.
+
+"Fur no good now.  An' that's a she-one, with young ones on the
+hillside."
+
+"How do you know?" was the amazed inquiry. "I know it's a
+she-one, 'cause she says:
+
+"Yap-yurr" (high pitched)
+
+If it was a he-one he'd say:
+
+"Yap-yurr" (low pitched)
+
+"And she has cubs, 'cause all have at this season.  And they are
+on that hillside, because that's the nearest place where any fox
+den is, and they keep pretty much to their own hunting grounds.
+If another fox should come hunting on the beat of this pair, he'd
+have to fight for it.  That is the way of the wild animals; each
+has his own run, and for that he will fight an outsider that he
+would be afraid of at any other place.  One knows he is right --
+that braces him up; the other knows he is wrong -- and that
+weakens him."  Those were the Indian's views, expressed much less
+connectedly than here given, and they led Rolf on to a train of
+thought.  He remembered a case that was much to the point.
+
+Their little dog Skookum several times had been worsted by the
+dog on the Horton farm, when, following his master, he had come
+into the house yard.  There was no question that the Horton dog
+was stronger.  But Skookum had buried a bone under some brushes
+by the plain and next day the hated Horton dog appeared.  Skookum
+watched him with suspicion and fear, until it was no longer
+doubtful that the enemy had smelled the hidden food and was going
+for it.  Then Skookum, braced up by some instinctive feeling,
+rushed forward with bristling mane and gleaming teeth, stood over
+his cache, and said in plainest dog, "You can't touch that while
+I live!"
+
+And the Horton dog -- accustomed to domineer over the small
+yellow cur -- growled contemptuously, scratched with his hind
+feet, smelled around an adjoining bush, and pretending not to see
+or notice, went off in another direction.
+
+What was it that robbed him of his courage, but the knowledge
+that he was in the wrong?
+
+Continuing with his host Rolf said, "Do you think they have any
+idea that it is wrong to steal?"
+
+"Yes, so long as it is one of their own tribe.  A fox will take
+all he can get from a bird or a rabbit or a woodchuck, but he
+won't go far on the hunting grounds of another fox.  He won't go
+into another fox's den or touch one of its young ones, and if he
+finds a cache of food with another fox's mark on it, he won't
+touch it unless he is near dead of hunger."
+
+"How do you mean they cache food and how do they mark it?"
+
+"Generally they bury it under the leaves and soft earth, and the
+only mark is to leave their body scent. But that is strong
+enough, and every fox knows it."
+
+"Do wolves make food caches?"
+
+"Yes, wolves, cougars, weasels, squirrels, bluejays, crows, owls,
+mice, all do, and all have their own way of marking a place."
+
+"Suppose a fox finds a wolf cache, will he steal from it?"
+
+"Yes, always.  There is no law between fox and wolf. They are
+always at war with each other.  There is law only between fox and
+fox, or wolf and wolf."
+
+"That is like ourselves, ain't it?  We say, 'Thou shalt not
+steal,' and then when we steal the Indian's land or the
+Frenchman's ships, we say, 'Oh, that don't mean not steal from
+our enemies; they are fair game.'"
+
+Quonab rose to throw some sticks on the fire, then went out to
+turn the smoke flap of the wigwam, for the wind was changed and
+another set was needed to draw the smoke. They heard several
+times again the high-pitched "yap yurr," and once the deeper
+notes, which told that the dog fox, too, was near the camp, and
+was doubtless seeking food to carry home.
+
+
+
+Chapter 9. Where the Bow Is Better Than the Gun
+
+Of all popular errors about the Indians, the hardest to down is
+the idea that their women do all the work.  They do the
+housework, it is true, but all the heavy labour beyond their
+strength is done by the men.  Examples of this are seen in the
+frightful toil of hunting, canoeing, and portaging, besides a
+multitude of kindred small tasks, such as making snowshoes, bows,
+arrows, and canoes.
+
+Each warrior usually makes his own bow and arrows, and if, as
+often happens, one of them proves more skilful and turns out
+better weapons, it is a common thing for others to offer their
+own specialty in exchange.
+
+The advantages of the bow over the gun are chiefly its
+noiselessness, its cheapness, and the fact that one can make its
+ammunition anywhere.  As the gun chiefly used in Quonab's time
+was the old-fashioned, smooth-bore flint-lock, there was not much
+difference in the accuracy of the two weapons.  Quonab had always
+made a highclass bow, as well as high-class arrows, and was a
+high- class shot.  He could set up ten clam shells at ten paces
+and break all in ten shots.  For at least half of his hunting he
+preferred the bow; the gun was useful to him chiefly when flocks
+of wild pigeons or ducks were about, and a single charge of
+scattering shot might bring down a dozen birds.
+
+But there is a law in all shooting -- to be expert, you must
+practise continually -- and when Rolf saw his host shoot nearly
+every day at some mark, he tried to join in the sport.
+
+It took not many trys to show that the bow was far too strong for
+him to use, and Quonab was persuaded at length to make an outfit
+for his visitor.
+
+From the dry store hole under the rock, he produced a piece of
+common red cedar.  Some use hickory; it is less liable to break
+and will stand more abuse, but it has not the sharp, clean action
+of cedar.  The latter will send the arrow much farther, and so
+swiftly does it leave the string that it baffles the eye.  But
+the cedar bow must be cared for like a delicate machine;
+overstring it, and it breaks; twang it without an arrow, and it
+sunders the cords; scratch it, and it may splinter; wet it, and
+it is dead; let it lie on the ground, even, and it is weakened.
+But guard it and it will serve you as a matchless servant, and as
+can no other timber in these woods.
+
+Just where the red heart and the white sap woods join is the
+bowman's choice.  A piece that reached from Rolf's chin to the
+ground was shaved down till it was flat on the white side and
+round on the red side, tapering from the middle, where it was one
+inch wide and one inch thick to the ends, where it was three
+fourths of an inch wide and five eighths of an inch thick, the
+red and white wood equal in all parts.
+
+The string was made of sinew from the back of a cow, split from
+the long, broad sheath that lies on each side the spine, and the
+bow strung for trial.  Now, on drawing it (flat or white side in
+front), it was found that one arm bent more than the other, so a
+little more scraping was done on the strong side, till both bent
+alike.
+
+Quonab's arrows would answer, but Rolf needed a supply of his
+own.  Again there was great choice of material. The long,
+straight shoots ol' the arrowwood (Viburnuin dentatum) supplied
+the ancient Indians, but Quonab had adopted a better way, since
+the possession of an axe made it possible.  A 25-inch block of
+straight-grained ash was split and split until it yielded enough
+pieces.  These were shaved down to one fourth of an inch tbick,
+round, smooth, and perfectly straight.  Each was notched deeply
+at one end; three pieces of split goose feather were lashed on
+the notched end, and three different kinds of arrows were made.
+All were alike in shaft and in feathering, but differed in the
+head.  First, the target arrows: these were merely sharpened, and
+the points hardened by roasting to a brown colour.  They would
+have been better with conical points of steel, but none of these
+were to be had.  Second, the ordinary hunting arrows with barbed
+steel heads, usuauy bought ready-made, or filed out of a hoop:
+these were for use in securing such creatures as muskrats, ducks
+close at hand, or deer.  Third, the bird bolts: these were left
+with a large, round, wooden head.  They were intended for quail,
+partridges, rabbits, and squirrels, but also served very often,
+and most admirably, in punishing dogs, either the Indian's own
+when he was not living up to the rules and was too far off for a
+cuff or kick, or a farmer's dog that was threatening an attack.
+
+Now the outfit was complete, Rolf thought, but one other touch
+was necessary.  Quonab painted the feather part of the shaft
+bright red, and Rolf learned why.  Not for ornament, not as an
+owner's mark, but as a finding mark.  Many a time that brilliant
+red, with the white feather next it, was the means of saving the
+arrow from loss.  An uncoloured arrow among the sticks and leaves
+of the woods was usually hidden, but the bright-coloured shaft
+could catch the eye ioo yards away.
+
+It was very necessary to keep the bow and arrows from the wet.
+For this, every hunter provides a case, usually of buckskin, but
+failing that they made a good quiver of birch bark laced with
+spruce roots for the arrows, and for the bow itself a long cover
+of tarpaulin.
+
+Now came the slow drilling in archery; the arrow held and the bow
+drawn with three fingers on the cord - the thumb and little
+finger doing nothing.  The target was a bag of hay set at twenty
+feet, until the beginner could hit it every time: then by degrees
+it was moved away until at the standard distance of forty yards
+he could do fair shooting, although of course he never shot as
+well as the Indian, who had practised since he was a baby.
+
+There are three different kinds of archery tests: the first for
+aim: Can you shoot so truly as to hit a three-inch mark, ten
+times in succession, at ten paces?
+
+Next for speed: Can you shoot so quickly and so far up, as to
+have five arrows in the air at once?  If so, you are good: Can
+you keep up six?  Then you are very good.  Seven is wonderful.
+The record is said to be eight. Last for power: Can you pull so
+strong a bow and let the arrow go so clean that it will fly for
+250 yards or will pass through a deer at ten paces?  There is a
+record of a Sioux who sent an arrow through three antelopes at
+one shot, and it was not unusual to pierce the huge buffalo
+through and through; on one occasion a warrior with one shot
+pierced the buffalo and killed her calf running at the other
+side.
+
+If you excel in these three things, you can down your partridge
+and squirrel every time; you can get five or six out of each
+flock of birds; you can kill your deer at twenty- five yards, and
+so need never starve in the woods where there is game.
+
+Of course, Rolf was keen to go forth and try in the real chase,
+but it was many a shot he missed and many an arrow lost or
+broken, before he brought in even a red squirrel, and he got, at
+least, a higher appreciation of the skill of those who could
+count on the bow for their food.
+
+For those, then, who think themselves hunters and woodmen,
+let this be a test and standard: Can you go forth alone into
+the wilderness where there is game, take only a bow and arrows for
+weapons, and travel afoot 250 miles, living on the country as you go?
+
+
+
+Chapter 10. Rolf Works Out with Many Results
+
+He is the dumbest kind of a dumb fool that ain't king in some little
+corner. -- Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+THE man who has wronged you will never forgive you, and he who has
+helped you will be forever grateful.  Yes, there is nothing that
+draws you to a man so much as the knowledge that you have helped him.
+
+Quonab helped Rolf, and so was more drawn to him than to many of the
+neighbours that he had known for years; he was ready to like him.
+Their coming together was accidental, but it was soon very clear
+that a friendship was springing up between them.  Rolf was too much
+of a child to think about the remote future; and so was Quonab.  Most
+Indians are merely tall children.
+
+But there was one thing that Rolf did think of -- he had no right to
+live in Quonab's lodge without contributing a fair share of the things
+needful.  Quonab got his living partly by hunting, partly by fishing,
+partly by selling baskets, and partly by doing odd jobs for the
+neighbours. Rolf's training as a loafer had been wholly neglected,
+and when he realized that he might be all summer with Quonab he said
+bluntly:
+
+"You let me stay here a couple of months.  I'll work out odd days,
+and buy enough stuff to keep myself any way."  Quonab said nothing,
+but their eyes met, and the boy knew it was agreed to.
+
+Rolf went that very day to the farm of Obadiah Timpany, and offered
+to work by the day, hoeing corn and root crops.  What farmer is not
+glad of help in planting time or in harvest?  It was only a question
+of what did he know and how much did he want?  The first was soon made
+clear; two dollars a week was the usual thing for boys in those times,
+and when he offered to take it half in trade, he was really getting
+three dollars a week and his board. Food was as low as wages, and at
+the end of a week, Rolf brought back to camp a sack of oatmeal, a sack
+of cornmeal, a bushel of potatoes, a lot of apples, and one dollar cash.
+The dollar went for tea and sugar, and the total product was enough to
+last them both a month; so Rolf could share the wigwam with a good
+conscience.
+
+Of course, it was impossible to keep the gossipy little town of Myanos
+from knowing, first, that the Indian had a white boy for partner; and,
+later, that that boy was Rolf. This gave rise to great diversity of
+opinion in the neighbourhood.  Some thought it should not be allowed,
+but Horton, who owned the land on which Quonab was camped, could not
+see any reason for interfering.
+
+Ketchura Peck, spinster, however, did see many most excellent reasons.
+She was a maid with a mission, and maintained it to be an outrage that
+a Christian boy should be brought up by a godless pagan.  She worried
+over it almost as much as she did over the heathen in Central Africa,
+where there are no Sunday schools, and clothes are as scarce as churches.
+Failing to move Parson Peck and Elder Knapp in the matter, and despairing
+of an early answer to her personal prayers, she resolved on a bold move,
+"An' it was only after many a sleepless, prayerful night," namely, to
+carry the Bible into the heathen's stronghold.
+
+Thus it was that one bright morning in June she might have been seen,
+prim and proper -- almost glorified, she felt, as she set her lips just
+right in the mirror -- making for the Pipestave Pond, Bible in hand and
+spectacles clean wiped, ready to read appropriate selections to the
+unregenerate.
+
+She was full of the missionary spirit when she left Myanos, and partly
+full when she reached the Orchard Street Trail; but the spirit was
+leaking badly, and the woods did appear so wild and lonely that she
+wondered if women had any right to be missionaries.  When she came
+in sight of the pond, the place seemed unpleasantly different from
+Myanos and where was the Indian camp?   She did not dare to shout;
+indeed, she began to wish she were home again, but the sense of duty
+carried her fully fifty yards along the pond, and then she came to an
+impassable rock, a sheer bank that plainly said, "Stop!"  Now she must
+go back or up the bank.  Her Yankee pertinacity said, "Try first up the
+bank," and she began a long, toilsome ascent, that did not end until
+she came out on a bigh, open rock which, on its farther side, had a
+sheer drop and gave a view of the village and of the sea.
+
+Whatever joy she had on again seeing her bome was speedily queued in
+the fearsome discovery that she was right over the Indian camp, and
+the two inmates looked so utterly, dreadfully savage that she was
+thankful they had not seen her.  At once she shrank back; but on
+recovering sufficiently to again peer down, she saw something roasting
+before the fire -- "a tiny arm with a hand that bore five fmgers," as
+she afterward said, and "a sickening horror came over her.  " Yes, she
+had heard of such things. If she could only get home in safety!  Why
+had she tempted Providence thus?  She backed softly and prayed only to
+escape.  What, and never even deliver the Bible? "It would be wicked
+to return with it!"  In a cleft of the rock she placed it, and then,
+to prevent the wind blowing off loose leaves, she placed a stone on
+top, and fled from the dreadful place.
+
+That night, when Quonab and Rolf had finished their meal of corn and
+roasted coon, the old man climbed the rock to look at the sky.  The
+book caught his eye at once, evidently hidden there carefully, and
+therefore in cache. A cache is a sacred thing to an Indian.  He disturbed
+it not, but later asked Rolf, "That yours?"
+
+"No."
+
+It was doubtless the property of some one who meant to return for it,
+so they left it untouched.  It rested there for many months, till the
+winter storms came down, dismantling the covers, dissolving the pages,
+but leaving such traces as, in the long afterward, served to identify
+the book and give the rock the other name, the one it bears to-day -
+"Bible Rock, where Quonab, the son of Cos Cob, used to live."
+
+
+
+Chapter 11. The Thunder-storm and the Fire Sticks
+
+When first Rolf noticed the wigwam's place, he wondered that
+Quonab had not set it somewhere facing the lake, but he soon
+learned that it is best to have the morning sun, the afternoon
+shade, and shelter from the north and west winds.
+
+The first two points were illustrated nearly every day; but it
+was two weeks before the last was made clear.
+
+That day the sun came up in a red sky, but soon was lost to view
+in a heavy cloud-bank.  There was no wind, and, as the morning
+passed, the day grew hotter and closer.  Quonab prepared for a
+storm; but it came with unexpected force, and a gale of wind from
+the northwest that would indeed have wrecked the lodge, but for
+the great sheltering rock.  Under its lea there was hardy a
+breeze; but not fifty yards away were two trees that rubbed
+together, and in the storm they rasped so violently that fine
+shreds of smoking wood were dropped and, but for the rain, would
+surely have made a blaze. The thunder was loud and lasted long,
+and the water poured down in torrents.  They were ready for rain,
+but not for the flood that rushed over the face of the cliff ,
+soaking everything in the lodge except the beds, which, being
+four inches off the ground, were safe; and lying on them the two
+campers waited patiently, or impatiently, while the weather raged
+for two drenching hours.  And then the pouring became a
+pattering; the roaring, a swishing; the storm, a shower which
+died away, leaving changing patches of blue in the lumpy sky, and
+all nature calm and pleased, but oh, so wet!  Of course the fire
+was out in the lodge and nearly all the wood was wet.  Now Quonab
+drew from a small cave some dry cedar and got down his tinder-box
+with flint and steel to light up; but a serious difficulty
+appeared at once -- the tinder was wet and useless.
+
+These were the days before matches were invented. Every one counted
+on flint and steel for their fire, but the tinder was an essential,
+and now a fire seemed hopeless; at least Rolf thought so.
+
+"Nana Bojou was dancing that time," said the Indian.
+
+"Did you see him make fire with those two rubbing trees? So he
+taught our fathers, and so make we fire when the tricks of the
+white man fail us."
+
+Quonab now cut two pieces of dry cedar, one three fourths of an
+inch thick and eighteen inches long, round, and pointed at both
+ends; the other five eighths of an inch thick and flat.  In the
+flat one he cut a notch and at the end of the notch a little pit.
+Next he made a bow of a stiff, curved stick, and a buckskin
+thong: a small pine knot was selected and a little pit made in it
+with the point of a knife.  These were the fare-making sticks,
+but it was necessary to prepare the firewood, lay the fire, and
+make some fibre for tinder.  A lot of fine cedar shavings,
+pounded up with cedar bark and rolled into a two-inch ball, made
+good tinder, and all was ready.  Quonab put the bow thong once
+around the long stick, then held its point in the pit of the flat
+stick, and the pine knot on the. top to steady it.  Now he drew
+the bow back and forth, slowly, steadily, till the long stick or
+drill revolving ground smoking black dust out of the notch.  Then
+faster, until the smoke was very strong and the powder filled the
+notch.  Then he lifted the flat stick, fanning the powder with
+his hands till a glowing coal appeared.  Over this he put the
+cedar tinder and blew gently, till it flamed, and soon the wigwam
+was aglow.
+
+The whole time taken, from lifting the sticks to the blazing
+fire, was less than one minute.
+
+This is the ancient way of the Indian; Rolf had often heard of it
+as a sort of semi-myth; never before had he seen it, and so far
+as he could learn from the books, it took an hour or two of hard
+work, not a few deft touches and a few seconds of time.
+
+He soon learned to do it himself, and in the years which
+followed, he had the curious experience of showing it to many
+Indians who had forgotten how, thanks to the greater portability
+of the white man's flint and steel.
+
+As they walked in the woods that day, they saw three trees that
+had been struck by lightning during the recent storm; all three
+were oaks.  Then it occurred to Rolf that he had never seen any
+but an oak struck by lightning.
+
+"Is it so, Quonab?"
+
+"No, there are many others; the lightning strikes the oaks most
+of all, but it will strike the pine, the ash, the hemlock, the
+basswood, and many more.  Only two trees have I never seen
+struck, the balsam and the birch."
+
+"Why do they escape?"
+
+"My father told me when I was a little boy it was because they
+sheltered and warmed the Star-girl, who was the sister of the
+Thunder-bird."
+
+"I never heard that; tell me about it."
+
+"Sometime maybe, not now."
+
+
+
+Chapter 12. Hunting the Woodchucks
+
+Cornmeal and potatoes, with tea and apples, three times a day,
+are apt to lose their charm. Even fish did not entirely satisfy
+the craving for flesh meat.  So Quonab and Rolf set out one
+morning on a regular hunt for food.  The days of big game were
+over on the Asamuk, but there were still many small kinds and
+none more abundant than the woodchuck, hated of farmers.  Not
+without reason.  Each woodchuck hole in the field was a menace to
+the horses' legs.  Tradition, at least, said that horses' legs
+and riders' necks had been broken by the steed setting foot in
+one of these dangerous pitfalls: besides which, each chuck den
+was the hub centre of an area of desolation whenever located, as
+mostly it was, in the cultivated fields.  Undoubtedly the damage
+was greatly exaggerated, but the farmers generally agreed that
+the woodchuck was a pest.
+
+Whatever resentment the tiller of the soil might feel against the
+Indian's hunting quail on his land, he always welcomed him as a
+killer of woodchucks.
+
+And the Indian looked on this animal as fair game and most
+excellent eating.
+
+Rolf watched eagerly when Quonab, taking his bow and arrows, said
+they were going out for a meat hunt. Although there were several
+fields with woodchucks resident, they passed cautiously from one
+to another, scanning the green expanse for the dark-brown spots
+that meant woodchucks out foraging.  At length they found one,
+with a large and two small moving brown things among the clover.
+The large one stood up on its hind legs from time to time, ever
+alert for danger.  It was a broad, open field, without cover; but
+close to the cleared place in which, doubtless, was the den,
+there was a ridge that Quonab judged would help him to approach.
+
+Rolf was instructed to stay in hiding and make some Indian signs
+that the hunter could follow when he should lose sight of the
+prey.  First, "Come on" (beckoning); and, second, "Stop," (hand
+raised, palm forward); "All right" (hand drawn across level and
+waist high); forefinger moved forward, level, then curved
+straight down, meant "gone in hole." But Rolf was not to sign
+anything or move, unless Quonab asked him by making the question
+sign (that is waving his hand with palm forward and spread
+fingers).
+
+Quonab went back into the woods, then behind the stone walls to
+get around to the side next the ridge, and crawling so flat on
+his breast in the clover that, although it was but a foot high,
+he was quite invisible to any one not placed much above him.
+
+In this way he came to the little ridge back of the woodchuck
+den, quite unknown to its occupants.  But now he was in a
+difficulty.  He could not see any of them.
+
+They were certainly beyond range of his bow, and it was difficult
+to make them seek the den without their rushing into it.  But he
+was equal to the occasion.  He raised one hand and made the query
+sign, and watching Rolf he got answer, "All well; they are there."
+(A level sweep of the flat hand and a finger pointing steadily.)
+Then he waited a few seconds and made exactly the same sign,
+getting the same answer.
+
+He knew that the movement of the distant man would catch the eye
+of the old woodchuck; she would sit up high to see what it was,
+and when it came a second time she would, without being exactly
+alarmed, move toward the den and call the young ones to follow.
+
+The hunter had not long to wait.  He heard her shrill, warning
+whistle, then the big chuck trotted and waddled into sight,
+stopping occasionally to nibble or look around. Close behind her
+were the two fat cubs.  Arrived near the den their confidence was
+restored, and again they began to feed, the young ones close to
+the den.  Then Quonab put a blunt bird dart in his bow and laid
+two others ready.  Rising as little as possible, he drew the bow.
+'Tsip! the blunt arrow hit the young chuck on the nose and turned
+him over.  The other jumped in surprise and stood up.  So did the
+mother.  'Tsip! another bolt and the second chuck was kicking.
+But the old one dashed like a flash into the underground safety
+of her den.  Quonab knew that she had seen nothing of him and
+would likely come forth very soon.  He waited for some time; then
+the gray-brown muzzle of the fat old clover-stealer came partly
+to view; but it was not enough for a shot, and she seemed to have
+no idea of coming farther.  The Indian waited what seemed like a
+long time, then played an ancient trick.  He began to whistle a
+soft, low air.  Whether the chuck thinks it is another woodchuck
+calling, or merely a pleasant sound, is not known, but she soon
+did as her kind always does, came out of the hole slowly and ever
+higher, till she was half out and sitting up, peering about.
+
+This was Quonab's chance.  He now drew a barbed hunting arrow to
+the head and aimed it behind her shoulders. 'Tsip! and the chuck
+was transfixed by a shaft that ended her life a minute later, and
+immediately pre- vented that instinctive scramble into the hole,
+by which so many chucks elude the hunter, even when mortally
+wounded.
+
+Now Quonab stood up without further concealment, and beckoned to
+Rolf, who came running.  Three fat woodchucks meant abundance of
+the finest fresh meat for a week; and those who have not tried it
+have no idea what a delicacy is a young, fat, clover-fed
+woodchuck, pan-roasted, with potatoes, and served at a blazing
+campfire to a hunter who is young, strong, and exceedingly hungry.
+
+
+
+Chapter 13. The Fight with the Demon of the Deep
+
+One morning, as they passed the trail that skirts the pond,
+Quonab pointed to the near water. There was someting afloat like
+a small, round leaf, with two beads well apart, on it.  Then Rolf
+noticed, two feet away, a larger floating leaf, and now he knew
+that the first was the head and eyes, the last the back, of a
+huge snapping turtle.  A moment more and it quickly sank from
+view.  Turtles of three different kinds were common, and snappers
+were well known to Rolf; but never before had he seen such a huge
+and sinister-looking monster of the deep.
+
+"That is Bosikado.  I know him; he knows me," said the red man.
+"There has long been war between us; some day we will settle it.
+I saw him here first three years ago.  I had shot a duck; it
+floated on the water.  Before I could get to it something pulled
+it under, and that was the last of it.  Then a summer duck came
+with young ones. One by one he took them, and at last got her.
+He drives all ducks away, so I set many night lines for him.  I
+got some little snappers, eight and ten pounds each.  They were
+good to eat, and three times already I took Bosikado on the
+hooks, but each time when I pulled him up to the canoe, he broke
+my biggest line and went down.  He was as broad as the canoe; his
+claws broke through the canoe skin; he made it bulge and tremble.
+He looked like the devil of the lake.  I was afraid!
+
+"But my father taught me there is only one thing that can shame a
+man -- that is to be afraid, and I said I will never let fear be
+my guide.  I will seek a fair fight with Bosikado.  He is my
+enemy.  He made me afraid once; I will make him much afraid.  For
+three years we have been watching each other.  For three years he
+has kept all summer ducks away, and robbed my fish-lines, my
+nets, and my muskrat traps.  Not often do I see him -- mostly
+like today.
+
+"Before Skookum I had a little dog, Nindai.  He was a good little
+dog.  He could tree a coon, catch a rabbit, or bring out a duck,
+although he was very small.  We were very good friends.  One time
+I shot a duck; it fell into the lake; I called Nindai.  He jumped
+into the water and swam to the duck.  Then that duck that I
+thought dead got up and flew away, so I called Nindai.  He came
+across the water to me.  By and by, over that deep place, he
+howled and splashed.  Then he yelled, like he wanted me. I ran
+for the canoe and paddled quick; I saw my little dog Nindai go
+down.  Then I knew it was that Bosikado again.  I worked a long
+time with a pole, but found nothing; only five days later one of
+Nindai's paws floated down the stream.  Some day I will tear open
+that Bosikado!
+
+"Once I saw him on the bank.  He rolled down like a big stone to
+the water.  He looked at me before he dived, and as we looked in
+each other's eyes I knew he was a Manito; but he is evil, and my
+father said, 'When an evil Manito comes to trouble you, you must
+kill him.'
+
+"One day, when I swam after a dead duck, he took me by the toe,
+but I reached shallow water and escaped him; and once I drove my
+fish-spear in his back, but it was not strong enough to hold him.
+Once he caught Skookum's tail, but the hair came out; the dog has
+not since swum across the pond.
+
+"Twice I have seen him like today and might have killed him with
+the gun, but I want to meet him fighting. Many a time I have sat
+on the bank and sung to him the 'Coward's Song,' and dared him to
+come and fight in the shallow water where we are equals.  He
+hears me.  He does not come.
+
+"I know he made me sick last winter; even now he is making
+trouble with his evil magic.  But my magic must prevail, and some
+day we shall meet.  He made me afraid once.  I uill make him much
+afraid, and will meet him in the water."
+
+Not many days were to pass before the meeting.  Rolf had gone for
+water at the well, which was a hole dug ten feet from the shore
+of the lake.  He had learned the hunter's cautious trick of going
+silently and peering about, before he left cover.  On a mud bank
+in a shallow bay, some fifty yards off, he described a peculiar
+gray and greenish form that he slowly made out to be a huge
+turtle, sunning itself.  The more he looked and gauged it with
+things about, the bigger it seemed.  So he slunk back quickly and
+silently to Quonab.  "He is out sunning himself -- Bosikado -- on
+the bank!"
+
+The Indian rose quickly, took his tomahawk and a strong line.
+Rolf reached for the gun, but Quonab shook his head.  They went
+to the lake.  Yes!  There was the great, goggle-eyed monster,
+like a mud-coloured log.  The bank behind him was without cover.
+It would be impossible to approach the watchful creature within
+striking distance before he could dive.  Quonab would not use the
+gun; in this case he felt he must atone by making an equal fight.
+He quickly formed a plan; he fastened the tomahawk and the coiled
+rope to his belt, then boldly and silently slipped into the lake,
+to approach the snapper from the water side -- quite the easiest
+in this case, not only because the snapper would naturally watch
+on the land side, but because there was a thick clump of rushes
+behind which the swimmer could approach.
+
+Then, as instructed, Rolf went back into the woods, and came
+silently to a place whence he could watch the snapper from a
+distance of twenty yards.
+
+The boy's heart beat fast as he watched the bold swimmer and the
+savage reptile.  There could be little doubt that the creature
+weighed a hundred pounds.  It is the strongest for its size and
+the fiercest of all reptiles.  Its jaws, though toothless, have
+cutting edges, a sharp beak, and power to the crushing of bones.
+Its armour makes it invulnerable to birds and beasts of prey.
+Like a log it lay on the beach, with its long alligator tail
+stretched up the bank and its serpentine head and tiny wicked
+eyes vigilantly watching the shore.  Its shell, broad and
+ancient, was fringed with green moss, and its scaly armpits
+exposed, were decked with leeches, at which a couple of peetweets
+pecked with eager interest, apparently to the monster's
+satisfaction.  Its huge limbs and claws were in marked contrast
+to the small, red eyes.  But the latter it was that gave the
+thrill of unnervement.
+
+Sunk down nearly out of sight, the Indian slowly reached the
+reeds.  Here he found bottom, and pausing, he took the rope in
+one hand, the tomahawk in the other, and dived, and when he
+reappeared he was within ten yards of the enemy, and in water but
+four feet deep.
+
+With a sudden rush the reptile splashed into the pond and out of
+sight, avoiding the rope noose.  But Quonab clutched deep in the
+water as it passed, and seized the monster's rugged tail.  Then
+it showed its strength.  In a twinkling that mighty tail was
+swung sidewise, crushing the hand with terrible force against the
+sharp-edged points of the back armour.  It took all the Indian's
+grit to hold on to that knife-edged war club.  He dropped his
+tomahawk, then with his other hand swung the rope to catch the
+turtle's head, but it lurched so quickly that the rope missed
+again, slipped over the shell, and, as they struggled, encircled
+one huge paw.  The Indian jerked it tight, and they were bound
+together.  But now his only weapon was down at the bottom and the
+water all muddied.  He could not see, but plunged to grope for
+the tomahawk. The snapper gave a great lurch to escape, releasing
+the injured hand, but jerking the man off his legs.  Then,
+finding itself held by a forepaw, it turned with gaping, hissing
+jaws, and sprang on the foe that struggled in bottom of the
+water.
+
+The snapper has the bulldog habit to seize and hold till the
+piece tears out.  In the muddy water it had to seize in the dark,
+and fending first the left arm of its foe, fastened on with
+fierce beak and desperate strength.  At this moment Quonab
+recovered his tomahawk; rising into the air he dragged up the
+hanging snapper, and swung the weapon with all the force of his
+free arm.  The blow sank through the monster's shell, deep into
+its back, without any visible effect, except to rob the Indian of
+his weapon as he could not draw it out.
+
+Then Rolf rushed into the water to help.  But Quonab gasped, "No,
+no, go back -- I'm alone."
+
+The creature's jaws were locked on his arm, but its front claws,
+tearing downward and outward, were demolishing the coat that had
+protected it, and long lines of mingled blood were floating on
+the waves.
+
+After a desperate plunge toward shallow water, Quonab gave
+another wrench to the tomahawk - it moved, loosed; another, and
+it was free.  Then "chop, chop, chop," and that long, serpentine
+neck was severed; the body, waving its great scaly legs and
+lashing its alligator tail, went swimming downward, but the huge
+head, blinking its bleary, red eyes and streaming with blood, was
+clinched on his arm.  The Indian made for the bank hauling the
+rope that held the living body, and fastened it to a tree, then
+drew his knife to cut the jaw muscles of the head that ground its
+beak into his flesh.  But the muscles were protected by armour
+plates and bone; he could not deal a stab to end their power.  In
+vain he fumbled and slashed, until in a spasmodic quiver the jaws
+gaped wide and the bloody head fell to the ground.  Again it
+snapped, but a tree branch bore the brunt; on this the strong
+jaws clinched, and so remained.
+
+For over an hour the headless body crawled, or tried to crawl,
+always toward the lake.  And now they could look at the enemy.
+Not his size so much as his weight surprised them.  Although
+barely four feet long, he was so heavy that Rolf could not lift
+him.  Quonab's scratches were many but slight; only the deep bill
+wound made his arm and the bruises of the jaws were at all
+serious and of these he made light.  Headed by Skookum in full
+'yap,' they carried the victim's body to camp; the head, still
+dutching the stick, was decorated with three feathers, then set
+on a pole near the wigwam.  And the burden of the red man's song
+when next he sang was:
+
+"Bosikado, mine enemy was mighty, But I went into his country And
+made him afraid!"
+
+
+
+Chapter 14. Selectman Horton Appears at the Rock
+
+Summer was at its height on the Asamuk.  The woodthrush was
+nearing the end of its song; a vast concourse of young robins in
+their speckled plumage joined chattering every night in the
+thickest cedars; and one or two broods of young ducks were seen
+on the Pipestave Pond.
+
+Rolf had grown wonderfully well into his wigwam life. He knew now
+exactly how to set the flap so as to draw out all the smoke, no
+matter which way the wind blew; he had learned the sunset signs,
+which tell what change of wind the night might bring.  He knew
+without going to the shore whether the tide was a little ebb,
+with poor chances, or a mighty outflow that would expose the
+fattest oyster beds.  His practiced fingers told at a touch
+whether it was a turtle or a big fish on his night line; and by
+the tone of the tom-tom he knew when a rainstorm was at hand.
+
+Being trained in industry, he had made many improvements in their
+camp, not the least of which was to clean up and burn all the
+rubbish and garbage that attracted hordes of flies.  He had
+fitted into the camp partly by changing it to fit himself, and he
+no longer felt that his stay there was a temporary shift.  When
+it was to end, he neither knew nor cared.  He realized only that
+he was enjoying life as he never had done before.  His canoe had
+passed a lot of rapids and was now in a steady, unbroken stream
+-- but it was the swift shoot before the fall. A lull in the
+clamour does not mean the end of war, but a new onset preparing;
+and, of course, it came in the way least looked for.
+
+Selectman Horton stood well with the community; he was a man of
+good judgment, good position, and kind heart.  He was owner of
+all the woods along the Asamuk, and thus the Indian's landlord on
+the Indian's ancestral land.  Both Rolf and Quonab had worked for
+Horton, and so they knew him well, and liked him for his
+goodness.
+
+It was Wednesday morning, late in July, when Selectman Horton,
+clean-shaven and large, appeared at the wigwam under the rock.
+
+"Good morrow to ye both!" Then without wasting time he plunged
+in.  "There's been some controversy and much criticism of the
+selectmen for allowing a white lad, the child of Christian
+parents, the grandson of a clergyman, to leave all Christian folk
+and folds, and herd with a pagan, to become, as it were, a mere
+barbarian.  I hold not, indeed, with those that out of hand would
+condemn as godless a good fellow like Quonab, who, in my certain
+knowledge and according to his poor light, doth indeed maintain
+in some kind a daily worship of a sort.  Nevertheless, the
+selectmen, the magistrates, the clergy, the people generally, and
+above all the Missionary Society, are deeply moved in the matter.
+It hath even been made a personal charge against myself, and with
+much bitterness I am held up as unzealous for allowing such a
+nefarious stronghold of Satan to continue on mine own demesne,
+and harbour one, escaped, as it were, from grace.  Acting,
+therefore, not according to my heart, but as spokesman of the
+Town Council, the Synod of Elders, and the Society for the
+Promulgation of Godliness among the Heathen, I am to state that
+you, Rolf Kittering, being without kinsfolk and under age, are in
+verity a ward of the parish, and as such, it hath been arranged
+that you become a member of the household of the most worthy
+Elder Ezekiel Peck, a household filled with the spirit of
+estimable piety and true doctrine; a man, indeed, who,
+notwithstanding his exterior coldness and severity, is very sound
+in all matters regarding the Communion of Saints, and, I may even
+say in a measure a man of fame for some most excellent remarks he
+hath passed on the shorter catechism, beside which he hath gained
+much approval for having pointed out two hidden meanings in the
+27th verse of the 12th chapter of Hebrews; one whose very
+presence, therefore, is a guarantee against levity, laxity, and
+false preachment.
+
+"There, now, my good lad, look not so like a colt that feels the
+whip for the first time.  You will have a good home, imbued with
+the spirit of a most excellent piety that will be ever about
+you."
+
+"Like a colt feeling the whip," indeed!  Rolf reeled like a
+stricken deer.  To go back as a chore-boy drudge was possible,
+but not alluring; to leave Quonab, just as the wood world was
+opening to him, was devastating; but to exchange it all for
+bondage in the pious household of Old Peck, whose cold cruelty
+had driven off all his own children, was an accumulation of
+disasters that aroused him.
+
+"I won't go!" he blurted out, and gazed defiantly at the broad
+and benevolent selectman.
+
+"Come now, Rolf, such language is unbecoming.  Let not a hasty
+tongue betray you into sin.  This is what your mother would have
+wished.  Be sensible; you will soon find it was all for the best.
+I have ever liked you, and will ever be a friend you can count
+on.
+
+"Acting, not according to my instructions, but according to my
+heart, I will say further that you need not come now, you need
+not even give answer now, but think it over.  Nevertheless,
+remember that on or before Monday morning next, you will be
+expected to appear at Elder Peck's, and I fear that, in case you
+fail, the messenger next arriving will be one much less friendly
+than myself. Come now, Rolf, be a good lad, and remember that in
+your new home you will at least be living for the glory of God."
+
+Then, with a friendly nod, but an expression of sorrow, the
+large, black messenger turned and tramped away.
+
+Rolf slowly, limply, sank down on a rock and stared at the fire.
+After awhile Quonab got up and began to prepare the mid-day meal.
+Usually Rolf helped him.  Now he did nothing but sullenly glare
+at the glowing coals.  In half an hour the food was ready.  He
+ate little; then went away in the woods by himself.  Quonab saw
+him lying on a flat rock, looking at the pond, and throwing
+pebbles into it.  Later Quonab went to Myanos.  On his return he
+found that Rolf had cut up a great pile of wood, but not a word
+passed between them.  The look of sullen anger and rebellion on
+Rolf's face was changing to one of stony despair.  What was
+passing in each mind the other could not divine.
+
+The evening meal was eaten in silence; then Quonab smoked for an
+hour, both staring into the fire.  A barred owl hooted and
+laughed over their heads, causing the dog to jump up and bark at
+the sound that ordinarily he would have heeded not at all.  Then
+silence was restored, and the red man's hidden train of thought
+was in a flash revealed.
+
+"Rolf, let's go to the North Woods!"
+
+It was another astounding idea.  Rolf had realized more and more
+how much this valley meant to Quonab, who worshipped the memory
+of his people.
+
+"And leave all this?" he replied, making a sweep with his hand
+toward the rock, the Indian trail, the site of bygone Petuquapen,
+and the graves of the tribe.
+
+For reply their eyes met, and from the Indian's deep chest came
+the single word, "Ugh."  One syllable, deep and descending, but
+what a tale it told of the slowly engendered and strong-grown
+partiality, of a struggle that had continued since the morning
+when the selectman came with words of doom, and of friendship's
+victory won.
+
+Rolf realized this, and it gave him a momentary choking in his
+throat, and, "I'm ready if you really mean it."
+
+"Ugh I go, but some day come back."
+
+There was a long silence, then Rolf, "When shall we start?" and
+the answer, "To-morrow night,"
+
+
+
+Chapter 15. Bound for the North Woods
+
+When Quonab left camp in the morning he went heavy laden, and the
+trail he took led to Myanos. There was nothing surprising in it
+when he appeared at Silas Peck's counter and offered for sale a
+pair of snowshoes, a bundle of traps, some dishes of birch bark
+and basswood, and a tom-tom, receiving in exchange some tea,
+tobacco, gunpowder, and two dollars in cash. He turned without
+comment, and soon was back in camp. He now took the kettle into
+the woods and brought it back filled with bark, fresh chipped
+from a butternut tree.  Water was added, and the whole boiled
+till it made a deep brown liquid.  When this was cooled he poured
+it into a flat dish, then said to Rolf: "Come now, I make you a
+Sinawa."
+
+With a soft rag the colour was laid on.  Face, head, neck, and
+hands were all at first intended, but Rolf said, "May as well do
+the whole thing." So he stripped off; the yellow brown juice on
+his white skin turned it a rich copper colour, and he was changed
+into an Indian lad that none would have taken for Rolf Kittering.
+The stains soon dried, and Rolf, re-clothed, felt that already he
+had burned a bridge.
+
+Two portions of the wigwam cover were taken off; and two packs
+were made of the bedding.  The tomahawk, bows, arrows, and gun,
+with the few precious food pounds in the copper pot, were divided
+between them and arranged into packs with shoulder straps; then
+all was ready. But there was one thing more for Quonab; he went
+up alone to the rock.  Rolf knew what he went for, and judged it
+best not to follow.
+
+The Indian lighted his pipe, blew the four smokes to the four
+winds, beginning with the west, then he sat in silence for a
+time.  Presently the prayer for good hunting came from the rock:
+
+"Father lead us!
+Father, help us!
+Father, guide us to the good hunting."
+
+And when that ceased a barred owl hooted in the woods,
+away to the north.
+
+"Ugh! good," was all he said as he rejoined Rolf; and they set
+out, as the sun went down, on their long journey due northward,
+Quonab, Rolf, and Skookum.  They had not gone a hundred yards
+before the dog turned back, raced to a place where he had a bone
+in cache and rejoining there trotted along with his bone.
+
+The high road would have been the easier travelling, but it was
+very necessary to be unobserved, so they took the trail up the
+brook Asamuk, and after an hour's tramp came out by the Cat-Rock
+road that runs westerly.  Again they were tempted by the easy
+path, but again Quonab decided on keeping to the woods.  Half an
+hour later they were halted by Skookum treeing a coon.  After
+they had secured the dog, they tramped on through the woods for
+two hours more, and then, some eight miles from the Pipestave,
+they halted, Rolf, at least, tired out.  It was now midnight.
+They made a hasty double bed of the canvas cover over a pole
+above them, and slept till morning, cheered, as they closed their
+drowsy eyes, by the "Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, yah, hoo," of their
+friend, the barred owl, still to the northward.
+
+The sun was high, and Quonab had breakfast ready before Rolf
+awoke.  He was so stiff with the tramp and the heavy pack that it
+was with secret joy he learned that they were to rest, concealed
+in the woods, that day, and travel only by night, until in a
+different region, where none knew or were likely to stop them.
+They were now in York State, but that did not by any means imply
+that they were beyond pursuit.
+
+As the sun rose high, Rolf went forth with his bow and blunt
+arrows, and then, thanks largely to Skookum, he succeeded in
+knocking over a couple of squirrels, which, skinned and roasted,
+made their dinner that day.  At night they set out as before,
+making about ten miles.  The third night they did better, and the
+next day being Sunday, they kept out of sight.  But Monday
+morning, bright and clear, although it was the first morning when
+they were sure of being missed, they started to tramp openly
+along the highway, with a sense of elation that they had not
+hitherto known on the joumey.  Two things impressed Rolf by their
+novelty: the curious stare of the country folk whose houses and
+teams they passed, and the violent antagonism of the dogs.
+Usually the latter could be quelled by shaking a stick at them,
+or by pretending to pick up a stone, but one huge and savage
+brindled mastiff kept following and barking just out of stick
+range, and managed to give Skookum a mauling, until Quonab drew
+his bow and let fly a blunt arrow that took the brute on the end
+of the nose, and sent him howl- ing homeward, while Skookum got a
+few highly satisfactory nips at the enemy's rear.  Twenty miles
+they made that day and twenty-five the next, for now they were on
+good roads, and their packs were lighter.  More than once they
+found kind farmer folk who gave them a meal. But many times
+Skookum made trouble for them.  The farmers did not like the way
+he behaved among their hens.  Skookum never could be made to
+grasp the fine zoological distinction between partridges which
+are large birds and fair game, and hens which are large birds,
+but not fair game.  Such hair splitting was obviously unworthy of
+study, much less of acceptance.
+
+Soon it was clearly better for Rolf, approaching a house, to go
+alone, while Quonab held Skookum.  The dogs seemed less excited
+by Rolf's smell, and remembering his own attitude when tramps
+came to one or another of his ancient homes, he always asked if
+they would let him work for a meal, and soon remarked that his
+success was better when he sought first the women of the house,
+and then, smiling to show his very white teeth, spoke in clear
+and un-Indian English, which had the more effect coming from an
+evident Indian.
+
+"Since I am to be an Indian, Quonab, you must give me an Indian
+name," he said after one of these episodes.
+
+"Ugh! Good!  That's easy!  You are 'Nibowaka,' the wise one." For
+the Indian had not missed any of the points, and so he was named.
+
+Twenty or thirty miles a day they went now, avoiding the
+settlements along the river.  Thus they saw nothing of Albany,
+but on the tenth day they reached Fort Edward, and for the first
+time viewed the great Hudson.  Here they stayed as short a time
+as might be, pushed on by Glen's Falls, and on the eleventh night
+of the journey they passed the old, abandoned fort, and sighted
+the long stretch of Lake George, with its wooded shore, and
+glimpses of the mountains farther north.
+
+Now a new thought possessed them -- "If only the had the canoe
+that they had abandoned on the Pipestave." It came to them both
+at the sight of the limit less water, and especially when Rolf
+remembered that Lake George joined with Champlain, which again
+was the highway to all the wilderness.
+
+They camped now as they had fifty times before, and made their
+meal.  The bright blue water dancing near was alluring,
+inspiring; as they sought the shore Quonab pointed to a track and
+said, "Deer." He did not show much excitement, but Rolf did, and
+they returned to the camp fire with a new feeling of elation -
+they had reached the Promised Land.  Now they must prepare for
+the serious work of finding a hunting ground that was not already
+claimed.
+
+Quonab, remembering the ancient law of the woods, that parcels
+off the valleys, each to the hunter first arriving, or succeeding
+the one who had, was following his own line of thought.  Rolf was
+puzzling over means to get an outfit, canoe, traps, axes, and
+provisions.  The boy broke silence.
+
+"Quonab, we must have money to get an outfit; this is the
+beginning of harvest; we can easily get work for a month.  That
+will feed us and give us money enough to live on, and a chance to
+learn something about the country."
+
+The reply was simple, "You are Nibowaka."
+
+The farms were few and scattered here, but there were one or two
+along the lake.  To the nearest one with standing grain Rolf led
+the way.  But their reception, from the first brush with the dog
+to the final tilt with the farmer, was unpleasant -- "He didn't
+want any darn red-skins around there.  He had had two St. Regis
+Indians last year, and they were a couple of drunken good-
+for-nothings."
+
+The next was the house of a fat Dutchman, who was just wondering
+how he should meet the compounded accumulated emergencies of late
+hay, early oats, weedy potatoes, lost cattle, and a prospective
+increase of his family, when two angels of relief appeared at his
+door, in copper-coloured skins.
+
+"Cahn yo work putty goood?
+
+"Yes, I have always lived on a farm," and Rolf showed his hands,
+broad and heavy for his years.
+
+"Cahn yo mebby find my lost cows, which I haf not find, already
+yet?"
+
+Could they! it would be fun to try.
+
+"I giff yo two dollars you pring dem putty kvick."
+
+So Quonab took the trail to the woods, and Rolf started into the
+potatoes with a hoe, but he was stopped by a sudden outcry of
+poultry.  Alas!  It was Skookum on an ill-judged partridge hunt.
+A minute later he was ignominiously chained to a penitential
+post, nor left it during the travellers' sojourn.
+
+In the afternoon Quonab returned with the cattle, and as he told
+Rolf he saw five deer, there was an unmisakable hunter gleam in
+his eye.
+
+Three cows in milk, and which had not been milked for two days,
+was a serious matter, needing immediate attention.  Rolf had
+milked five cows twice a day for five years, and a glance showed
+old Van Trumper that the boy was an expert.
+
+"Good, good! I go now make feed swine."
+
+He went into the outhouse, but a tow-topped, redcheeked girl ran
+after him.  "Father, father, mother says --" and the  rest was
+lost.
+
+"Myn Hemel! Myn Hemel! I thought it not so soon," and the fat
+Dutchman followed the child. A moment later he reappeared, his
+jolly face clouded with a look of grave concern. "Hi yo big
+Injun, yo cahn paddle canoe?"  Quonab nodded. "Den coom.
+Annette, pring Tomas und Hendrik."  So the father carried
+two-year-old Hendrik, while the Indian carried six-year-old
+Tomas, and twelve-year-old Annette followed in vague,
+uncomprehended alarm.  Arrived at the shore the children were
+placed in the canoe, and then the difficulties came fully to the
+father's mind -- he could not leave his wife.  He must send the
+children with the messenger -- In a sort of desperation, "Cahn
+you dem childen take to de house across de lake, and pring back
+Mrs. Callan?  Tell her Marta Van Trumper need her right now mooch
+very kvick."  The Indian nodded.  Then the father hesitated, but
+a glance at the Indian was enough.  Something said, "He is safe,"
+and in spite of sundry wails from the little ones left with a
+dark stranger, he pushed off the canoe: "Yo take care for my
+babies," and turned his brimming eyes away.
+
+The farmhouse was only two miles off, and the evening calm; no
+time was lost: what woman will not instantly drop all work and
+all interests, to come to the help of another in the trial time
+of motherhood?
+
+Within an hour the neighbour's wife was holding hands with the
+mother of the banished tow-heads.  He who tempers the wind and
+appoints the season of the wild deer hinds had not forgotten the
+womanhood beyond the reach of skilful human help, and with the
+hard and lonesome life had conjoined a sweet and blessed
+compensation. What would not her sister of the city give for such
+immunity; and long before that dark, dread hour of night that
+brings the ebbing life force low, the wonderful miracle was
+complete; there was another tow-top in the settler's home, and
+all was well.
+
+
+
+Chapter 16. Life with the Dutch Settler
+
+The Indians slept in the luxuriant barn of logs, with blankets,
+plenty of hay, and a roof.  They were more than content, for now,
+on the edge of the wilderness, they were very close to wild life.
+Not a day or a night passed without bringing proof of that.
+
+One end of the barn was portioned off for poultry.  In this the
+working staff of a dozen hens were doing their duty, which, on
+that first night of the "brown angels' visit," consisted of
+silent slumber, when all at once the hens and the new hands were
+aroused by a clamorous cackling, which speedily stopped.  It
+sounded like a hen falling in a bad dream, then regaining her
+perch to go to sleep again.  But next morning the body of one of
+these highly esteemed branches of the egg-plant was found in the
+corner, partly devoured.  Quonab examined the headless hen, the
+dust around, and uttered the word, "Mink."
+
+Rolf said, "Why not skunk?"
+
+"Skunk could not climb to the perch."
+
+"Weasel then."
+
+"Weasel would only suck the blood, and would kill three or four."
+
+"Coon would carry him away, so would fox or wildcat, and a marten
+would not come into the building by night."
+
+There was no question, first, that it was a mink, and, second,
+that he was hiding about the barn until the hunger pang should
+send him again to the hen house.  Quonab covered the hen's body
+with two or three large stones so that there was only one
+approach.  In the way of this approach he buried a "number one"
+trap.
+
+That night they were aroused again; this time by a frightful
+screeching, and a sympathetic, inquiring cackle from the fowls.
+
+Arising, quickly they entered with a lantem.  Rolf then saw a
+sight that gave him a prickling in his hair.  The mink, a large
+male, was caught by one front paw.  He was writhing and foaming,
+tearing, sometimes at the trap, sometimes at the dead hen, and
+sometimes at his own imprisoned foot, pausing now and then to
+utter the most ear-piercing shrieks, then falling again in crazy
+animal fury on the trap, splintering his sharp white teeth,
+grinding the cruel metal with bruised and bloody jaws, frothing,
+snarling, raving mad.  As his foemen entered he turned on them a
+hideous visage of inexpressible fear and hate, rage and horror.
+His eyes glanced back green fire in the lantern light; he
+strained in renewed efforts to escape; the air was rank with his
+musky smell.  The impotent fury of his struggle made a picture
+that continued in Rolf's mind.  Quonab took a stick and with a
+single blow put an end to the scene, but never did Rolf forget
+it, and never afterward was he a willing partner when the
+trapping was done with those relentless jaws of steel.
+
+A week later another hen was missing, and the door of the hen
+house left open.  After a careful examination of the dust, inside
+and out of the building, Quonab said, "Coon." It is very unusual
+for coons to raid a hen house. Usually it is some individual with
+abnormal tastes, and once he begins, he is sure to come back.
+The Indian judged that he might be back the next night, so
+prepared a trap.  A rope was passed from the door latch to a
+tree; on this rope a weight was hung, so that the door was
+selfshutting, and to make it self-locking he leaned a long pole
+against it inside.  Now he propped it open with a single
+platform, so set that the coon must walk on it once he was
+inside, and so release the door.  The trappers thought they would
+hear in the night when the door closed, but they were sleepy;
+they knew nothing until next morning. Then they found that the
+self-shutter had shut, and inside, crouched in one of the nesting
+boxes, was a tough, old fighting coon.  Strange to tell, he had
+not touched a second hen.  As soon as he found himself a prisoner
+he had experienced a change of heart, and presently his skin was
+nailed on the end of the barn and his meat was hanging in the
+larder.
+
+"Is this a marten," asked little Annette.  And when told not, her
+disappointment elicited the information that old Warren, the
+storekeeper, had promised her a blue cotton dress for a marten
+skin.
+
+"You shall have the first one I catch," said Rolf.
+
+Life in Van Trumper's was not unpleasant.  The mother was going
+about again in a week.  Annette took charge of the baby, as well
+as of the previous arrivals.  Hendrik senior was gradually
+overcoming his difficulties, thanks to the unexpected help, and a
+kindly spirit made the hard work not so very hard.  The shyness
+that was at first felt toward the Indians wore off, especially in
+the case of Rolf, he was found so companionable; and the
+Dutchman, after puzzling over the combination of brown skin and
+blue eyes, decided that Rolf was a half-breed.
+
+August wore on not unpleasantly for the boy, but Quonab was
+getting decidedly restless.  He could work for a week as hard as
+any white man, but his race had not risen to the dignity of
+patient, unremitting, life-long toil.
+
+"How much money have we now, Nibowaka?" was one of the mid-August
+indications of restlessness.  Rolf reckoned up; half a month for
+Quonab, $15.00; for himself, $10.00; for finding the cows $2.00
+-- $27.00 in all.  Not enough.
+
+Three days later Quonab reckoned up again.  Next day he said: "We
+need two months' open water to find a good country and build a
+shanty."  Then did Rolf do the wise thing; he went to fat Hendrik
+and told him all about it.  They wanted to get a canoe and an
+outfit, and seek for a trapping or hunting ground that would not
+encroach on those already possessed, for the trapping law is
+rigid; even the death penalty is not considered too high in
+certain cases of trespass, provided the injured party is ready to
+be judge, jury, and executioner.  Van Trumper was able to help
+them not a little in the matter of location -- there was no use
+trying on the Vermont side, nor anywhere near Lake Champlain, nor
+near Lake George; neither was it worth while going to the far
+North, as the Frenchmen came in there, and they were keen
+hunters, so that Hamilton County was more promising than any
+other, but it was almost inaccessible, remote from all the great
+waterways, and of course without roads; its inaccessibility was
+the reason why it was little known. So far so good; but happy
+Hendrik was unpleasantly surprised to learn that the new help
+were for leaving at once. Finally he made this offer: If they
+would stay till September first, and so leave all in "good shape
+fer der vinter," he would, besides the wages agreed, give them
+the canoe, one axe, six mink traps, and a fox trap now hanging in
+the barn, and carry them in his wagon as far as the Five- mile
+portage from Lake George to Schroon River, down which they could
+go to its junction with the upper Hudson, which, followed up
+through forty miles of rapids and hard portages, would bring them
+to a swampy river that enters from the southwest, and ten miles
+up this would bring them to Jesup's Lake, which is two miles wide
+and twelve miles long.  This country abounded with game, but was
+so hard to enter that after Jesup's death it was deserted.
+
+There was only one possible answer to such an offer -- they stayed.
+
+In spare moments Quonab brought the canoe up to the barn,
+stripped off some weighty patches of bark and canvas and some
+massive timber thwarts, repaired the ribs, and when dry and
+gummed, its weight was below one hundred pounds; a saving of at
+least forty pounds on the soggy thing he crossed the lake in that
+first day on the farm.
+
+September came.  Early in the morning Quonab went alone to the
+lakeside; there on a hill top he sat, looking toward the sunrise,
+and sang a song of the new dawn, beating, not with a tom-tom --
+he had none -- but with one stick on another.  And when the
+sunrise possessed the earth he sang again the hunter's song:
+
+"Father, guide our feet, Lead us to the good hunting."
+
+Then he danced to the sound, his face skyward, his eyes closed,
+his feet barely raised, but rythmically moved. So went he three
+times round to the chant in three sun circles, dancing a sacred
+measure, as royal David might have done that day when he danced
+around the Ark of the Covenant on its homeward joumey.  His face
+was illumined, and no man could have seen him then without
+knowing that this was a true heart's worship of a true God, who
+is in all things He has made.
+
+
+
+Chapter 17. Canoeing on the Upper Hudson
+
+There is only one kind of a man I can't size up; that's the
+faller that shets up and says nothing. -Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+A settler named Hulett had a scow that was borrowed by the
+neighbours whenever needed to take a team across the lake.  On
+the morning of their journey, the Dutchman's team and wagon, the
+canoe and the men, were aboard the scow, Skookum took his proper
+place at the prow, and all was ready for "Goodbye." Rolf found it
+a hard word to say.  The good old Dutch mother had won his heart,
+and the children were like his brothers and sisters.
+
+"Coom again, lad; coom and see us kvick."  She kissed him, he
+kissed Annette and the three later issues. They boarded the scow
+to ply the poles till the deep water was reached, then the oars.
+An east wind springing up gave them a chance to profit by a
+wagon-cover rigged as a sail, and two hours later the scow was
+safely landed at West Side, where was a country store, and the
+head of the wagon road to the Schroon River.
+
+As they approached the door, they saw a rough-looking man
+slouching against the building, his hands in his pockets, his
+blear eyes taking in the new-comers with a look of contemptuous
+hostility.  As they passed, he spat tobacco juice on the dog and
+across the feet of the men.
+
+Old Warren who kept the store was not partial to Indians, but he
+was a good friend of Hendrik and very keen to trade for fur, so
+the new trappers were well received; and now came the settling of
+accounts.  Flour, oatmeal, pork, potatoes, tea, tobacco, sugar,
+salt, powder, ball, shot, clothes, lines, an inch-auger, nails,
+knives, awls, needles, files, another axe, some tin plates, and a
+frying pan were selected and added to Hendrik's account.
+
+"If I was you, I'd take a windy-sash; you'll find it mighty
+convenient in cold weather." The store keeper led them into an
+outhouse where was a pile of six-lighted window-frames all
+complete.  So the awkward thing was added to their load.
+
+"Can't I sell you a fine rifle?" and he took down a new, elegant
+small bore of the latest pattern.  "Only twenty- five dollars."
+Rolf shook his head; "part down, and I'll take the rest in fur
+next spring." Rolf was sorely tempted; however, he had an early
+instilled horror of debt.  He steadfastly said: "No." But many
+times he regretted it afterward!  The small balance remaining was
+settled in cash.
+
+As they were arranging and selecting, they heard a most hideous
+yelping outdoors, and a minnute later Skookum limped in, crying
+as if half-killed.  Quonab was out in a moment.
+
+"Did you kick my dog?"
+
+The brutal loafer changed countenance as he caught the red man's
+eye.  "Naw! never touched him; hurted himself on that rake."
+
+It was obviously a lie, but better to let it pass, and Quonab
+came in again.
+
+Then the rough stranger appeared at the door and growled: "Say,
+Warren! ain't you going to let me have that rifle?  I guess my
+word's as good as the next man's."
+
+"No," said Warren; "I told you, no!"
+
+"Then you can go to blazes, and you'll never see a cent's worth
+of fur from the stuff I got last year."
+
+"I don't expect to," was the reply; "I've learned what your
+word's worth." And the stranger slouched away.
+
+"Who vas he?" asked Hendrik.
+
+"I only know that his name is Jack Hoag; he's a little bit of a
+trapper and a big bit of a bum; stuck me last year. He doesn't
+come out this way; they say he goes out by the west side of the
+mountains."
+
+New light on their course was secured from Warren, and above all,
+the important information that the mouth of Jesup's River was
+marked by an eagle's nest in a dead pine.  "Up to that point keep
+the main stream, and don't forget next spring I'm buying fur."
+
+The drive across Five-mile portage was slow.  It took over two
+hours to cover it, but late that day they reached the Schroon.
+
+Here the Dutchman said "Good-bye: Coom again some noder time."
+Skookum saluted the farmer with a final growl, then Rolf and
+Quonab were left alone in the wilderness.
+
+It was after sundown, so they set about camping for the night.  A
+wise camper always prepares bed and shelter in daylight, if
+possible.  While Rolf made a fire and hung the kettle, Quonab
+selected a level, dry place between two trees, and covered it
+with spruce boughs to make the beds, and last a low tent was made
+by putting the lodge cover over a pole between the trees.  The
+ends of the covers were held down by loose green logs quickly cut
+for the purpose, and now they were safe against weather.
+
+Tea, potatoes, and fried pork, with maple syrup and hard-tack,
+made their meal of the time, after which there was a long smoke.
+Quonab took a stick of red willow, picked up-in the daytime, and
+began shaving it toward one end, leaving the curling shreds still
+on the stick.  When these were bunched in a fuzzy mop, he held
+them over the fire until they were roasted brown; then, grinding
+all up in his palm with some tobacco, and filling his pipe he
+soon was enveloped in that odour of woodsy smoke called the
+"Indian smell," by many who do not know whence or how it comes.
+Rolf did not smoke.  He had promised his mother that he would not
+until he was a man, and something brought her back home now with
+overwhehning force; that was the beds they had made of fragrant
+balsam boughs.  "Cho-ko- tung or blister tree" as Quonab called
+it.  His mother had a little sofa pillow, brought from the North
+-- a "northern pine" pillow they called it, for it was stuffed
+with pine needles of a kind not growing in Connecticut.  Many a
+time had Rolf as a baby pushed his little round nose into that
+bag to inhale the delicious odour it gave forth, and so it became
+the hallowed smell of all that was dear in his babyhood, and it
+never lost its potency.  Smell never does. Oh, mighty aura! that,
+in marching by the nostrils, can reach and move the soul; how
+wise the church that makes this power its handmaid, and through
+its incense overwhelms all alien thought when the worshipper,
+wandering, doubting, comes again to see if it be true, that here
+doubt dies.  Oh, queen of memory that is master of the soul! how
+fearful should we be of letting evil thought associated grow with
+some recurrent odour that we love.  Happy, indeed, are they that
+find some ten times pure and consecrated fragrance, like the
+pine, which entering in is master of their moods, and yet through
+linking thoughts has all its power, uplifting, full of sweetness
+and blessed peace.  So came to Rolf his medicine tree.
+
+The balsam fir was his tree of hallowed memory.  Its odour never
+failed, and he slept that night with its influence all about him.
+
+Starting in the morning was no easy matter.  There was so much to
+be adjusted that first day.  Packs divided in two, new
+combinations to trim the canoe, or to raise such and such a
+package above a possible leak.  The heavy things, like axes and
+pans, had to be fastened to the canoe or to packages that would
+float in case of an upset.  The canoe itself had to be gummed in
+one or two places; but they got away after three hours, and began
+the voyage down the Schroon.
+
+This was Rolf's first water journey.  He had indeed essayed the
+canoe on the Pipestave Pond, but that was a mere ferry.  This was
+real travel.  He marvelled at the sensitiveness of the frail
+craft; the delicacy of its balance; its quick response to the
+paddle; the way it seemed to shrink from the rocks; and the
+unpleasantly suggestive bend-up of the ribs when the bottom
+grounded upon a log. It was a new world for him.  Quonab taught
+him never to enter the canoe except when she was afloat; never to
+rise in her or move along without hold of the gunwale; never to
+make a sudden move; and he also learned that it was easier to
+paddle when there were six feet of water underneath than when
+only six inches.
+
+In an hour they had covered the five miles that brought them to
+the Hudson, and here the real labour began, paddling up stream.
+Before long they came to a shallow stretch with barely enough
+water to float the canoe. Here they jumped out and waded in the
+stream, occasionally lifting a stone to one side, till they
+reached the upper stretch of deep water and again went merrily
+paddling. Soon they came to an impassable rapid, and Rolf had his
+first taste of a real carry or portage.  Quonab's eye was
+watching the bank as soon as the fierce waters appeared; for the
+first question was, where shall we land? and the next, how far do
+we carry?  There are no rapids on important rivers in temperate
+America that have not been portaged more or less for ages.  No
+canoe man portages without considering most carefully when,
+where, and how to land.  His selection of the place, then, is the
+result of careful study.  He cannot help leaving some mark at the
+place, slight though it be, and the next man looks for that mark
+to save himself time and trouble.
+
+"Ugh" was the only sound that Rolf heard from his companion, and
+the canoe headed for a flat rock in the pool below the rapids.
+After landing, they found traces of an old camp fire.  It was
+near noon now, so Rolf prepared the meal while Quonab took a
+light pack and went on to learn the trail.  It was not well
+marked; had not been used for a year or two, evidently, but there
+are certain rules that guide one.  The trail keeps near the
+water, unless there is some great natural barrier, and it is
+usually the easiest way in sight.  Quonab kept one eye on the
+river, for navigable water was the main thing, and in about one
+hundred yards he was again on the stream's edge, at a good
+landing above the rapid.
+
+After the meal was finished and the Indian had smoked, they set
+to work.  In a few loads each, the stuff was portaged across, and
+the canoe was carried over and moored to the bank.
+
+The cargo replaced, they went on again, but in half an hour after
+passing more shoal water, saw another rapid, not steep, but too
+shallow to float the canoe, even with both men wading.  Here
+Quonab made what the Frenchmen call a demi-charge.  He carried
+half the stuff to the bank; then, wading, one at each end, they
+hauled the canoe up the portage and reloaded her above.  Another
+strip of good going was succeeded by a long stretch of very swift
+water that was two or three feet deep and between shores that
+were densely grown with alders.  The Indian landed, cut two
+light, strong poles, and now, one at the bow, the other at the
+stern, they worked their way foot by foot up the fierce current
+until safely on the upper level.
+
+Yet one more style of canoe propulsion was forced on them.  They
+came to a long stretch of smooth, deep, very swift water, almost
+a rapid-one of the kind that is a joy when you are coming down
+stream.  It differed from the last in having shores that were not
+alder-hidden, but open gravel banks.  Now did Quonab take a long,
+strong line from his war sack.  One end he fastened, not to the
+bow, but to the forward part of the canoe, the other to a
+buckskin band which he put across his breast.  Then, with Rolf in
+the stern to steer and the Indian hauling on the bank, the canoe
+was safely "tracked" up the "strong waters."
+
+Thus they fought their way up the hard river, day after day,
+making sometimes only five miles after twelve hours' toilsome
+travel.  Rapids, shoals, portages, strong waters, abounded, and
+before they had covered the fifty miles to the forks of Jesup's
+River, they knew right well why the region was so little entered.
+
+It made a hardened canoe man of Rolf, and when, on the evening of
+the fifth day, they saw a huge eagle's nest in a dead pine tree
+that stood on the edge of a long swamp, both felt they had
+reached their own country, and were glad.
+
+
+
+Chapter 18. Animal Life Along the River
+
+It must not be supposed that, because it has been duly mentioned,
+they saw no wild life along the river.  The silent canoe man has
+the best of opportunities.  There were plenty of deer tracks
+about the first camp, and that morning, as they turned up the
+Hudson, Rolf saw his first deer.  They had rounded a point in
+rather swift water when Quonab gave two taps on the gunwale, the
+usual sign, "Look out," and pointed to the shore.  There, fifty
+yards away on bank, gazing at them, was a deer.  Stock still he
+stood like a red statue, for he was yet in the red coat.  With
+three or four strong strokes, Quonab gave a long and mighty
+forward spurt; then reached for his gun.  But the deer's white
+flag went up.  It turned and bounded away, the white flag the
+last thing to disappear.  Rolf sat spellbound.  It was so sudden;
+so easy; it soon melted into the woods again.  He trembled after
+it was gone.
+
+Many a time in the evening they saw muskrats in the eddies, and
+once they glimpsed a black, shiny something like a monstrous
+leech rolling up and down as it travelled in the stream.  Quonab
+whispered, "Otter," and made ready his gun, but it dived and
+showed itself no more. At one of the camps they were awakened by
+an extraordinary tattoo in the middle of the night -- a harsh
+rattle close by their heads; and they got up to find that a
+porcupine was rattling his teeth on the frying-pan in an effort
+to increase the amount of salt that he could taste on it.
+Skookum, tied to a tree, was vainly protesting against the
+intrusion and volunteered to make a public example of the
+invader.  The campers did not finally get rid of the spiny one
+till all their kitchen stuff was hung beyond his reach.
+
+Once they heard the sharp, short bark of a fox, and twice or
+thrice the soft, sweet, moaning call of the gray wolf out to
+hunt.  Wild fowl abounded, and their diet was varied by the ducks
+that one or other of the hunters secured at nearly every camp.
+
+On the second day they saw three deer, and on the third morning
+Quonab loaded his gun with buckshot, to be ready, then sallied
+forth at dawn.  Rolf was following, but the Indian shook his
+head, then said: "Don't make fire for half an hour."
+
+In twenty minutes Rolf heard the gun, then later the Indian
+returned with a haunch of venison, and when they left that camp
+they stopped a mile up the river to add the rest of the venison
+to their cargo.  Seven other deer were seen, but no more killed;
+yet Rolf was burning to try his hand as a hunter.  Many other
+opportunities he had, and improved some of them.  On one wood
+portage he, or rather Skookum, put up a number of ruffed grouse.
+These perched in the trees above their heads and the travellers
+stopped.  While the dog held their attention Rolf with blunt
+arrows knocked over five that proved most acceptable as food.
+But his thoughts were now on deer, and his ambition was to go out
+alone and return with a load of venison.
+
+Another and more thrilling experience followed quickly. Rounding
+a bend in the early dawn they sighted a black bear and two cubs
+rambling along the gravelly bank and stopping now and then to eat
+something that turned out to be crayfish.
+
+Quonab had not seen a bear since childhood, when he and his
+father hunted along the hardwood ridges back of Myanos, and now
+he was excited.  He stopped paddling, warned Rolf to do the same,
+and let the canoe drift backward until out of sight; then made
+for the land. Quickly tying up the canoe he took his gun and Rolf
+his hunting arrows, and, holding Skookum in a leash, they dashed
+into the woods.  Then, keeping out of sight, they ran as fast and
+as silently as possible in the direction of the bears.  Of
+course, the wind was toward the hunters, or they never could have
+got so near.  Now they were opposite the family group and needed
+only a chance for a fair shot.  Sneaking forward with the utmost
+caution, they were surely within twenty-five yards, but still the
+bushes screened the crab-eaters.  As the hunters sneaked, the old
+bear stopped and sniffed suspiciously; the wind changed, she got
+an unmistakable whiff; then gave a loud warning "Koff! Koff!
+Koff! Koff!" and ran as fast as she could.  The hunters knowing
+they were discovered rushed out, yelling as loudly as possible,
+in hopes of making the bears tree.  The old bear ran like a horse
+with Skookum yapping bravely in her rear.  The young ones, left
+behind, lost sight of her, and, utterly bewildered by the noise,
+made for a tree conveniently near and scrambled up into the
+branches.  "Now," Rolf thought, judging by certain tales he had
+heard, "that old bear will come back and there will be a fight."
+
+"Is she coming back?" he asked nervously.
+
+The Indian laughed.  "No, she is running yet.  Black bear always
+a coward; they never fight when they can run away."
+
+The little ones up the tree were, of course, at the mercy of the
+hunters, and in this case it was not a broken straw they depended
+on, but an ample salvation.  "We don't need the meat and can't
+carry it with us; let's leave them," said Rolf, but added, "Will
+they find their mother?"
+
+"Yes, bime-by; they come down and squall all over woods.  She
+will hang round half a mile away and by night all will be
+together."
+
+Their first bear hunt was over.  Not a shot fired, not a bear
+wounded, not a mile travelled, and not an hour lost.  And yet it
+seemed much more full of interesting thrills than did any one of
+the many stirring bear hunts that Rolf and Quonab shared together
+in the days that were to come.
+
+
+
+Chapter 19. The Footprint on the Shore
+
+Jesup's River was a tranquil stream that came from a region of
+swamps, and would have been easy canoeing but for the fallen
+trees.  Some of these had been cut years ago, showing that the
+old trapper had used this route.  Once they were unpleasantly
+surprised by seeing a fresh chopping on the bank, but their
+mourning was changed into joy when they found it was beaver-work.
+
+Ten miles they made that day.  In the evening they camped on the
+shore of Jesup's Lake, proud and happy in the belief that they
+were the rightful owners of it all. That night they heard again
+and again the howling of wolves, but it seemed on the far side of
+the lake.  In the morning they went out on foot to explore, and
+at once had the joy of seeing five deer, while tracks showed on
+every side.  It was evidently a paradise for deer, and there were
+in less degree the tracks of other animals -- mink in fair
+abundance, one or two otters, a mountain lion, and a cow moose
+with her calf.  It was thrilling to see such a feast of
+possibilities.  The hunters were led on and on, revelling in the
+prospect of many joys before them, when all at once they came on
+something that turned their joy to grief -- the track of a man;
+the fresh imprint of a cowhide boot.  It was maddening.  At first
+blush, it meant some other trapper ahead of them with a prior
+claim to the valley; a claim that the unwritten law would allow.
+They followed it a mile.  It went striding along the shore at a
+great pace, sometimes running, and keeping down the west shore.
+Then they found a place where he had sat down and broken a lot of
+clam shells, and again had hastened on.  But there was no mark of
+gunstock or other weapon where he sat; and why was he wearing
+boots? The hunters rarely did.
+
+For two miles the Indian followed with Rolf, and sometimes found
+that the hated stranger had been running hard.  Then they turned
+back, terribly disappointed.  At first it seemed a crushing blow.
+They had three courses open to them - to seek a location farther
+north, to assume that one side of the lake was theirs, or to find
+out exactly who and what the stranger was.  They decided on the
+last. The canoe was launched and loaded, and they set out to look
+for what they hoped they would not find, a trapper's shanty on
+the lake.
+
+After skirting the shore for four or five miles and disturbing
+one or two deer, as well as hosts of ducks, the voyagers landed
+and there still they found that fateful bootmark steadily
+tramping southward.  By noon they had reached the south end of
+the west inlet that leads to another lake, and again an
+examination of the shore showed the footmarks, here leaving the
+lake and going southerly. Now the travellers retired to the main
+lake and by noon had reached the south end.  At no point had they
+seen any sign of a cabin, though both sides of the lake were in
+plain view all day.  The travelling stranger was a mystery, but
+he did not live here and there was no good reason why they should
+not settle.
+
+Where?  The country seemed equally good at all points, but it is
+usually best to camp on an outlet.  Then when a storm comes up,
+the big waves do not threaten your canoe, or compel you to stay
+on land.  It is a favourite crossing for animals avoiding the
+lake, and other trappers coming in are sure to see your cabin
+before they enter.
+
+Which side of the outlet?  Quonab settled that -- the west.  He
+wanted to see the sun rise, and, not far back from the water, was
+a hill with a jutting, rocky pinnade. He pointed to this and
+uttered the one word, "Idaho." Here, then, on the west side,
+where the lake enters the river, they began to clear the ground
+for their home.
+
+
+
+Chapter 20. The Trappers' Cabin
+
+It's a smart fellow that knows what he can't do. -Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+I suppose every trapper that ever lived, on first building a
+cabin, said, "Oh, any little thing will do, so long as it has a
+roof and is big enough to lie down in."  And every trapper has
+realized before spring that he made a sad mistake in not having
+it big enough to live in and store goods in.  Quonab and Rolf
+were new at the business, and made the usual mistake. They
+planned their cabin far too small; 10 X 12 ft., instead of 12 X
+20 ft. they made it, and 6-ft. walls, instead of 8-ft. walls.
+Both were expert axemen.  Spruce was plentiful and the cabin rose
+quickly.  In one day the walls were up. An important thing was
+the roof.  What should it be? Overlapping basswood troughs, split
+shingles, also called shakes, or clay?  By far the easiest to
+make, the warmest in winter and coolest in summer, is the clay
+roof.  It has three disadvantages: It leaks in long-continued wet
+weather; it drops down dust and dirt in dry weather; and is so
+heavy that it usually ends by crushing in the log rafters and
+beams, unless they are further supported on posts, which are much
+in the way.  But its advantages were so obvious that the builders
+did not hesitate.  A clay roof it was to be.
+
+When the walls were five feet high, the doorway and window were
+cut through the logs, but leaving in each case one half of the
+log at the bottom of the needed opening. The top log was now
+placed, then rolled over bottom up, wlile half of its thickness
+was cut away to fit over the door: a similar cut out was made
+over the window.  Two flat pieces of spruce were prepared for
+door jambs and two shorter ones for window jambs.  Auger holes
+were put through, so as to allow an oak pin to be driven through
+the jamb into each log, and the doorway and window opening were done.
+
+In one corner they planned a small fireplace, built of clay and
+stone.  Not stone from the lake, as Rolf would have had it, but
+from the hillside; and why?  Quonab said that the lake stone was
+of the water spirits, and would not live near fire, but would
+burst open; while the hillside stone was of the sun and fire
+spirit, and in the fire would add its heat.
+
+The facts are that lake stone explodes when greatly heated and
+hill stone does not; and since no one has been able to improve
+upon Quonab's explanation, it must stand for the present.
+
+The plan of the fireplace was simple.  Rolf had been present at
+the building of several, and the main point was to have the
+chimney large enough, and the narrowest point just above the fire.
+
+The eaves logs, end logs, and ridge logs were soon in place; then
+came the cutting of small poles, spruce and tamarack, long enough
+to reach from ridge to eaves, and in sufficient number to
+completely cover the roof.  A rank sedge meadow near by afforded
+plenty of coarse grass with which the poles were covered deeply;
+and lastly clay dug out with a couple of hand-made, axe-hewn
+wooden spades was thrown evenly on the grass to a depth of six
+inches; this, when trampled flat, made a roof that served them well.
+
+The chinks of the logs when large were filled with split pieces
+of wood; when small they were plugged with moss. A door was made
+of hewn planks, and hinged very simply on two pins; one made by
+letting the plank project as a point, the other by nailing on a
+pin after the door was placed; both pins fitting, of course, into
+inch auger holes.
+
+A floor was not needed, but bed bunks were, and in making these
+they began already to realize that the cabin was too small.  But
+now after a week's work it was done. It had a sweet fragrance of
+wood and moss, and the pleasure it gave to Rolf at least was
+something he never again could expect to find in equal measure
+about any other dwelling he might make.
+
+Quonab laid the fire carefully, then lighted his pipe, sang a
+little crooning song about the "home spirits," which we call
+"household gods," walked around the shanty, offering the pipestem
+to each of the four winds in turn, then entering lighted the flre
+from his pipe, threw some tobacco and deer hair on the blaze, and
+the house-warming was ended.
+
+Nevertheless, they continued to sleep in the tent they had used
+all along, for Quonab loved not the indoors, and Rolf was growing
+daily more of his mind.
+
+
+
+Chapter 21. Rolf's First Deer
+
+Anxious to lose no fine day they had worked steadily on the
+shanty, not even going after the deer that were seen occasionally
+over the lake, so that now they were out of fresh meat, and Rolf
+saw a chance he long had looked for.  "Quonab, I want to go out
+alone and get a deer, and I want your gun.
+
+"Ugh! you shall go.  To-night is good."
+
+"To-night" meant evening, so Rolf set out alone as soon as the
+sun was low, for during the heat of the day the deer are commonly
+lying in some thicket.  In general, he knew enough to travel up
+wind, and to go as silently as possible.  The southwest wind was
+blowing softly, and so he quickened his steps southwesterly which
+meant along the lake.  Tracks and signs abounded; it was
+impossible to follow any one trail.  His plan was to keep on
+silently, trusting to luck, nor did he have long to wait.  Across
+a little opening of the woods to the west he saw a movement in
+the bushes, but it ceased, and he was in doubt whether the
+creature, presumably a deer, was standing there or had gone on.
+"Never quit till you are sure," was one of Quonab's wise adages.
+Rolf was bound to know what it was that had moved.  So he stood
+still and waited.  A minute passed; another; many; a long time;
+and still he waited, but got no further sign of life from the
+bush. Then he began to think he was mistaken; yet it was good
+huntercraft to find out what that was.  He tried the wind several
+times, first by wetting his finger, which test said "southwest";
+second, by tossing up some handfuls of dried grass, which said
+"yes, southwest, but veering southerly in this glade." So he knew
+he might crawl silentlv to the north side of that bush.  He
+looked to the priming of his gun and began a slow and stealthy
+stalk, selecting such openings as might be passed without effort
+or movement of bushes or likelihood of sound.  He worked his way
+step by step; each time his foot was lifted he set it down again
+only after trying the footing.  At each step he paused to look
+and listen.  It was only one hundred yards to the interesting
+spot, but Rolf was fifteen minutes in covering the distance, and
+more than once, he got a great start as a chicadee flew out or a
+woodpecker tapped.  His heart beat louder and louder, so it
+seemed everything near must hear; but he kept on his careful
+stalk, and at last had reached the thicket that had given him
+such thrills and hopes.  Here he stood and watched for a full
+minute.  Again he tried the wind, and proceeded to circle slowly
+to the west of the place.
+
+After a long, tense crawl of twenty yards he came on the track
+and sign of a big buck, perfectly fresh, and again his heart
+worked harder; it seemed to be pumping his neck full of blood, so
+he was choking.  He judged it best to follow this hot trail for a
+time, and holding his gun ready cocked he stepped softly onward.
+A bluejay cried out, "jay, jay!" with startling loudness, and
+seemingly enjoyed his pent-up excitement.  A few steps forward at
+slow, careful stalk, and then behind him he heard a loud
+whistling hiss.  Instantly turning he found himself face to face
+with a great, splendid buck in the short blue coat.  There not
+thirty yards away he stood, the creature he had been stalking so
+long, in plain view now, broadside on.  They gazed each at the
+other, perfectly still for a few seconds, then Rolf without undue
+movement brought the gun to bear, and still the buck stood
+gazing.  The gun was up, but oh, how disgustingly it wabbled and
+shook! and the steadier Rolf tried to bold it, the more it
+trembled, until from that wretched gun the palsy spread all over
+his body; his breath came tremulously, his legs and arms were
+shaking, and at last, as the deer moved its head to get a better
+view and raised its tail, the lad, making an effort at
+selfcontrol, pulled the trigger.  Bang! and the buck went lightly
+bounding out of sight.
+
+Poor Rolf; how disgusted he felt; positively sick with
+self-contempt.   Thirty yards, standing, broadside on, full
+daylight, a big buck, a clean miss.  Yes, there was the bullet
+hole in a tree, five feet above the deer's head. "I'm no good;
+I'll never be a hunter," he groaned, then turned and slowly
+tramped back to camp.  Quonab looked inquiringly, for, of course,
+he heard the shot.  He saw a glum and sorry-looking youth, who in
+response to his inquiring look gave merely a head-shake, and hung
+up the gun with a vicious bang.
+
+Quonab took down the gun, wiped it out, reloaded it, then turning
+to the boy said: "Nibowaka, you feel pretty sick.  Ugh! You know
+why?  You got a good chance, but you got buck fever.  It is
+always so, every one the first time.  You go again to-morrow and
+you get your deer."
+
+Rolf made no reply.  So Quonab ventured, "You want me to go?"
+That settled it for Rolf; his pride was touched.
+
+"No; I'll go again in the morning."
+
+In the dew time he was away once more on the hunting  trail.
+There was no wind, but the southwest was the likeliest to spring
+up.  So he went nearly over his last night's track.  He found it
+much easier to go silently now when all the world was dew wet,
+and travelled quickly. Past the fateful glade he went, noted
+again the tree torn several feet too high up, and on.  Then the
+cry of a bluejay rang out; this is often a notification of deer
+at hand.  It always is warning of something doing, and no wise
+hunter ignores it.
+
+Rolf stood for a moment listening and peering.  He thought he
+heard a scraping sound; then again the bluejay, but the former
+ceased and the jay-note died in the distance.  He crept
+cautiously on again for a few minutes; another opening appeared.
+He studied this from a hiding place; then far across he saw a
+little flash near the ground. His heart gave a jump; he studied
+the place, saw again the flash and then made out the head of a
+deer, a doe that was lying in the long grass.  The flash was made
+by its ear shaking off a fly.  Rolf looked to his priming, braced
+himself, got fully ready, then gave a short, sharp whistle;
+instantly the doe rose to her feet; then another appeared, a
+sinal one; then a young buck; all stood gazing his way.
+
+Up went the gun, but again its muzzle began to wabble. Rolf
+lowered it, said grimly and savagely to himself, "I will not
+shake this time."  The deer stretched themselves and began slowly
+walking toward the lake.  All had disappeared but the buck.  Rolf
+gave another whistle that turned the antler-bearer to a statue.
+Controlling himself with a strong "I will," he raised the gun,
+held it steadily, and fired.  The buck gave a gathering spasm, a
+bound, and disappeared.  Rolf felt sick again with disgust, but
+he reloaded, then hastily went forward.
+
+There was the deep imprint showing where the buck had bounded at
+the shot, but no blood.  He followed, and a dozen feet away found
+the next hoof marks and on them a bright-red stain; on and
+another splash; and more and shortening bounds, till one hundred
+yards away - yes, there it lay; the round, gray form, quite dead,
+shot through the heart.                       I
+
+Rolf gave a long, rolling war cry and got an answer from a point
+that was startlingly near, and Quonab stepped from behind a tree.
+
+"I got him," shouted Rolf.
+
+The Indian smiled.  "I knew you would, so I followed; last night
+I knew you must have your shakes, so let you go it alone."
+
+Very carefully that deer was skinned, and Rolf learned the reason
+for many little modes of procedure.
+
+After the hide was removed from the body (not the hand or legs),
+Quonab carefully cut out the-broad sheath of tendon that cover
+the muscles, beginning at the hip bones on the back and extending
+up to the shoulders; this is the sewing sinew.  Then he cut out
+the two long fillets of meat that lie on each side of the spine
+outside (the loin) and the two smaller ones inside (the
+tenderloin).
+
+These, with the four quarters, the heart, and the kidneys, were
+put into the hide.  The entrails, head, neck, legs, feet, he left
+for the foxes, but the hip bone or sacrum he hung in a tree with
+three little red yarns from them, so that the Great Spirit would
+be pleased and send good hunting.  Then addressing the head he
+said: "Little brother, forgive us.  We are sorry to kill you.
+Behold! we give you the honour of red streamers."  Then bearing
+the rest they tramped back to camp.
+
+The meat wrapped in sacks to keep off the flies was hung in the
+shade, but the hide he buried in the warm mud of a swamp hole,
+and three days later, when the hair began to slip, he scraped it
+clean.  A broad ash wood hoop he had made ready and when the
+green rawhide was strained on it again the Indian had an Indian
+drum.
+
+It was not truly dry for two or three days and as it tightened on
+its frame it gave forth little sounds of click and shrinkage that
+told of the strain the tensioned rawhide made.  Quonab tried it
+that night as he sat by the fire softly singing:
+
+"Ho da ho-he da he."
+
+But the next day before sunrise he climbed the hill and sitting
+on the sun-up rock he hailed the Day God with the invocation, as
+he had not sung it since the day they left the great rock above
+the Asalnuk, and followed with the song:
+
+"Father, we thank thee; We have found the good hunting. There is
+meat in the wigwam."
+
+
+
+Chapter 22. The Line of Traps
+
+Now that they had the cabin for winter, and food for the present,
+they must set about the serious business of trapping and lay a
+line of deadfalls for use in the coming cold weather.  They were
+a little ahead of time, but it was very desirable to get their
+lines blazed through the woods in all proposed directions in case
+of any other trapper coming in.  Most fur-bearing animals are to
+be found along the little valleys of the stream: beaver, otter,
+mink, muskrat, coon, are examples. Those that do not actually
+live by the water seek these places because of their sheltered
+character and because their prey lives there; of this class are
+the lynx, fox, fisher, and marten that feed on rabbits and mice.
+Therefore a line of traps is usually along some valley and over
+the divide and down some other valley back to the point of
+beginning.
+
+So, late in September, Rolf and Quonab, with their bedding, a
+pot, food for four days, and two axes, alternately followed and
+led by Skookum, set out along a stream that entered the lake near
+their cabin.  A quarter mile up they built their first deadfall
+for martens.  It took them one hour and was left unset.  The
+place was under a huge tree on a neck of land around which the
+stream made a loop.  This tree they blazed on three sides.  Two
+hundred yards up another good spot was found and a deadfall made.
+At one place across a neck of land was a narrow trail evidently
+worn by otters.  "Good place for steel trap, bime-by," was
+Quonab's remark.
+
+From time to time they disturbed deer, and in a muddy place where
+a deer path crossed the creek, they found, among the numerous
+small hoof prints, the track of wolves, bears, and a mountain
+lion, or panther.  At these little Skookum sniffed fearsomely,
+and showed by his bristly mane that he was at least much
+impressed.
+
+After five hours' travel and work they came to another stream
+joining on, and near the angle of the two little valleys they
+found a small tree that was chewed and scratched in a remarkable
+manner for three to six feet up. "Bear tree," said Quonab, and by
+degrees Rolf got the facts about it.
+
+The bears, and indeed most animals, have a way of marking the
+range that they consider their own.  Usually this is done by
+leaving their personal odour at various points, covering the
+country claimed, but in some cases visible marks are added.  Thus
+the beaver leaves a little dab of mud, the wolf scratches with
+his hind feet, and the bear tears the signal tree with tooth and
+claw.  Since this is done from time to time, when the bear
+happens to be near the tree, it is kept fresh as long as the
+region is claimed. But it is especially done in midsummer when
+the bears are pairing, and helps them to find suitable
+companions, nor all are then roaming the woods seeking mates; all
+call and leave their mark on the sign post, so the next bear,
+thanks to his exquisite nose, can tell at once the sex of the
+bear that called last and by its track tell which way it
+travelled afterward.
+
+In this case it was a bear's register, but before long Quonab
+showed Rolf a place where two long logs joined at an angle by a
+tree that was rubbed and smelly, and showed a few marten hairs,
+indicating that this was the sign post of a marten and a good
+place to make a deadfall.
+
+Yet a third was found in an open, grassy glade, a large, white
+stone on which were pellets left by foxes.  The Indian explained:
+
+"Every fox that travels near will come and smell the stone to see
+who of his kind is around, so this is a good place for a
+fox-trap; a steel trap, of course, for no fox will go into a
+deadfall."
+
+And slowly Rolf learned that these habits are seen in some
+measure in all animals; yes, down to the mice and shrews.  We see
+little of it because our senses are blunt and our attention
+untrained; but the naturalist and the hunter always know where to
+look for the four-footed inhabitants and by them can tell whether
+or not the land is possessed by such and such a furtive tribe.
+Chapter 23. The Beaver Pond
+
+AT THE noon halt they were about ten miles from home and had made
+fifteen deadfalls for marten, for practice was greatly reducing
+the time needed for each.
+
+In the afternoon they went on, but the creek had become a mere
+rill and they were now high up in a more level stretch of country
+that was more or less swampy. As they followed the main course of
+the dwindling stream, looking ever for signs of fur-bearers, they
+crossed and recrossed the water.  At length Quonab stopped,
+stared, and pointed at the rill, no longer clear but clouded with
+mud.  His eyes shone as he jerked his head up stream and uttered
+the magic word, "Beaver."
+
+They tramped westerly for a hundred yards through a dense swamp
+of alders, and came at last to an irregular pond that spread out
+among the willow bushes and was lost in the swampy thickets.
+Following the stream they soon came to a beaver dam, a long,
+curving bank of willow branches and mud, tumbling through the top
+of which were a dozen tiny streams that reunited their waters
+below to form the rivulet they had been following.
+
+Red-winged blackbirds were sailing in flocks about the pond; a
+number of ducks were to be seen, and on a dead tree, killed by
+the backed up water, a great blue heron stood.  Many smaller
+creatures moved or flitted in the lively scene, while far out
+near the middle rose a dome-like pile of sticks, a beaver lodge,
+and farther three more were discovered.  No beaver were seen, but
+the fresh cut sticks, the floating branches peeled of all the
+bark, and the long, strong dam in good repair were enough to tell
+a practised eye that here was a large colony of beavers in
+undisturbed possession.
+
+In those days beaver was one of the most valued furs. The
+creature is very easy to trap; so the discovery of the pond was
+like the finding of a bag of gold.  They skirted its uncertain
+edges and Quonab pointed out the many landing places of the
+beaver; little docks they seemed, built up with mud and stones
+with deep water plunge holes alongside.  Here and there on the
+shore was a dome-shaped ant's nest with a pathway to it from the
+pond, showing, as the Indian said, that here the beaver came on
+sunny days to lie on the hill and let the swarming ants come
+forth and pick the vermin from their fur. At one high point
+projecting into the still water they found a little mud pie with
+a very strong smell; this, the Indian said, was a "castor cache,"
+the sign that, among beavers, answers the same purpose as the
+bear tree among bears.
+
+Although the pond seemed small they had to tramp a quarter of a
+mile before reaching the upper end and here they found another
+dam, with its pond.  This was at a slightly higher level and
+contained a single lodge; after this they found others, a dozen
+ponds in a dozen successive rises, the first or largest and the
+second only having lodges, but all were evidently part of the
+thriving colony, for fresh cut trees were seen on every side.
+"Ugh, good; we get maybe fifty beaver," said the Indian, and they
+knew they had reached the Promised Land.
+
+Rolf would gladly have spent the rest of the day exploring the
+pond and trying for a beaver, when the eventide should call them
+to come forth, but Quonab said, "Only twenty deadfall; we should
+have one hundred and fifty."  So making for a fine sugar bush on
+the dry ground west of the ponds they blazed a big tree, left a
+deadfall there, and sought the easiest way over the rough hills
+that lay to the east, in hopes of reaching the next stream
+leading down to their lake.
+
+
+
+Chapter 24. The Porcupine
+
+Skookum was a partly trained little dog; he would stay in camp
+when told, if it suited him; and would not hesitate to follow or
+lead his master, when he felt that human wisdom was inferior to
+the ripe product of canine experience covering more than thirteen
+moons of recollection.  But he was now living a life in which his
+previous experience must often fail him as a guide.  A faint
+rustling on the leafy ground had sent him ahead at a run, and his
+sharp, angry bark showed that some hostile creature of the woods
+had been discovered.  Again and again the angry yelping was
+changed into a sort of yowl, half anger, half distress. The
+hunters hurried forward to find the little fool charging again
+and again a huge porcupine that was crouched with its head under
+a log, its hindquarters exposed but bristling with spines; and
+its tail lashing about, left a new array of quills in the dog's
+mouth and face each time he charged. Skookum was a plucky
+fighter, but plainly he was nearly sick of it.  The pain of the
+quills would, of course, increase every minute and with each
+movement.  Quonab took a stout stick and threw the porcupine out
+of its retreat, (Rolf supposed to kill it when the head was
+exposed,) but the spiny one, finding a new and stronger enemy,
+wasted no time in galloping at its slow lumbering pace to the
+nearest small spruce tree and up that it scrambled to a safe
+place in the high branches.
+
+Now the hunters called the dog.  He was a sorry-looking object,
+pawing at his muzzle, first with one foot, then another, trying
+to unswallow the quills in his tongue, blinking hard, uttering
+little painful grunts and whines as he rubbed his head upon the
+ground or on his forelegs.  Rolf held him while Quonab, with a
+sharp jerk, brought out quill after quill.  Thirty or forty of
+the poisonous little daggers were plucked from his trembling
+legs, head, face, and nostrils, but the dreadful ones were those
+in his lips and tongue.  Already they were deeply sunk in the
+soft, quivering flesh.  One by one those in the lips were with-
+drawn by the strong fingers of the red man, and Skookum whimpered
+a little, but he shrieked outright when those in the tongue were
+removed.  Rolf had hard work to hold him, and any one not knowing
+the case might have thought that the two men were deliberately
+holding the dog to administer the most cruel torture.
+
+But none of the quills had sunk very deep.  All were got out at
+last and the little dog set free.
+
+Now Rolf thought of vengeance on the quill-pig snugly sitting in
+the tree near by.
+
+Ammunition was too predous to waste, but Rolf was getting ready
+to climb when Quonab said: "No, no; you must not.  Once I saw
+white man climb after the Kahk; it waited till he was near, then
+backed down, lashing its tail. He put up his arm to save his
+face.  It speared his arm in fifty places and he could not save
+his face, so he tried to get down, but the Kahk came faster,
+lashing him; then he lost his hold and dropped.  His leg was
+broken and his arm was swelled up for half a year.  They are very
+poisonous. He nearly died."
+
+"Well, I can at least chop him down," and Rolf took the axe.
+
+"Wah!" Quonab said, "no; my father said you must not kill the
+Kahk, except you make sacrifice and use his quills for household
+work.  It is bad medicine to kill the Kahk."
+
+So the spiny one was left alone in the place he had so ably
+fought for.  But Skookum, what of him?  He was set free at last.
+To be wiser?  Alas, no! before one hour he met with another
+porcupine and remembering only his hate of the creature repeated
+the same sad mistake, and again had to have the painful help,
+without which he must certainly have died.  Before night,
+however, he began to feel his real punishment and next morning no
+one would have known the pudding-headed thing that sadly followed
+the hunters, for the bright little dog that a day before had run
+so joyously through the woods.  It was many a long day before he
+fully recovered and at one time his life was in the balance; and
+yet to the last of his days he never fully realized the folly of
+his insensate attacks on the creature that fights with its tail.
+
+"It is ever so," said the Indian.  "The lynx, the panther, the
+wolf, the fox, the eagle, all that attack the Kahk must die.
+Once my father saw a bear that was killed by the quills.  He had
+tried to bite the Kahk; it filled his mouth with quills that he
+could not spit out.  They sunk deeper and his jaws swelled so he
+could not open or shut his mouth to eat; then he starved.  My
+people found him near a fish pond below a rapid.  There were many
+fish.  The bear could kill them with his paw but not eat, so with
+his mouth wide open and plenty about him he died of starvation in
+that pool.
+
+"There is but one creature that can kill the Kahk that is the
+Ojeeg the big fisher weasel.  He is a devil.  He makes very
+strong medicine; the Kahk cannot harm him. He turns it on its
+back and tears open its smooth belly. It is ever so.  We not
+know, but my, father said, that it is because when in the flood
+Nana Bojou was floating on the log with Kahk and Ojeeg, Kahk was
+insolent and wanted the highest place, but Ojeeg was respectful
+to Nana Bojou, he bit the Kahk to teach him a lesson and got
+lashed with the tail of many stings.  But the Manito drew out the
+quills and said: 'It shall be ever thus; the Ojeeg shall conquer
+the Kahk and the quills of Kahk shall never do Ojeeg any harm.'"
+
+
+
+Chapter 25. The Otter Slide
+
+It was late now and the hunters camped in the high cool woods.
+Skookum whined in his sleep so loudly as to waken them once or
+twice.  Near dawn they heard the howling of wolves and the
+curiously similar hooting of a horned owl.  There is, indeed,
+almost no differece between the short opening howl of a she-wolf
+and the long hoot of the owl.  As he listened, half awake, Rolf
+heard a whirr of wings which stopped overhead, then a familiar
+chuckle.  He sat up and saw Skookum sadly lift his misshapen head
+to gaze at a row of black-breasted grouse partridge on a branch
+above, but the poor doggie was feeling too sick to take any
+active interest.  They were not ruffed grouse, but a kindred
+kind, new to Rolf.  As he gazed at the perchers, he saw Quonab
+rise gently, go to nearest willow and cut a long slender rod at
+least two feet long; on the top of this he made a short noose of
+cord. Then he went cautiously under the watching grouse, the
+spruce partridges, and reaching up slipped the noose over the
+neck of the first one; a sharp jerk then tightened noose, and
+brought the grouse tumbling out of the tree while its companions
+merely clucked their puzzlement, made no effort to escape.
+
+A short, sharp blow put the captive out of pain.  The rod was
+reached again and a second, the lowest always, was jerked down,
+and the trick repeated till three grouse were secured.  Then only
+did it dawn on the others that they were in a most perilous
+neighbourhood, so they took flight.
+
+Rolf sat up in amazement.  Quonab dropped the three birds by the
+fire and set about preparing breakfast.
+
+"These are fool hens," he explained.  "You can mostly get them
+this way; sure, if you have a dog to help, but ruffed grouse is
+no such fool."
+
+Rolf dressed the birds and as usual threw the entrails Skookum.
+Poor little dog! he was, indeed, a sorry sight. He looked sadly
+out of his bulging eyes, feebly moved swollen jaws, but did not
+touch the food he once would have pounced on.  He did not eat
+because he could not open his mouth.
+
+At camp the trappers made a log trap and continued the line with
+blazes and deadfalls, until, after a mile, they came to a broad
+tamarack swamp, and, skirting its edge, found a small, outflowing
+stream that brought them to an eastward-facing hollow.
+Everywhere there were signs game, but they were not prepared for
+the scene that opened as they cautiously pushed through the
+thickets into a high, hardwood bush.  A deer rose out of the
+grass and stared curiously at them; then another and another
+until nearly a dozen were in sight; still farther many others
+appeared; to the left were more, and movements told of yet others
+to the right. Then their white flags went up and all loped gently
+away on the slope that rose to the north. There may have been
+twenty or thirty deer in sight, but the general effect of all
+their white tails, bobbing away, was that the woods were full of
+deer.  They seemed to be there by the hundreds and the joy of
+seeing so many beautiful live things was helped in the hunters by
+the feeling that this was their own hunting-ground.  They had,
+indeed, reached the land of plenty.
+
+The stream increased as they marched; many springs and some
+important rivulets joined on.  They found some old beaver signs
+but none new; and they left their deadfalls every quarter mile or less.
+
+The stream began to descend more quickly until it was in a long,
+narrow valley with steep clay sides and many pools.  Here they
+saw again and again the tracks and signs of otter and coming
+quietly round a turn that opened a new reach they heard a deep
+splash, then another and another.
+
+The hunters' first thought was to tie up Skookum, but a glance
+showed that this was unnecessary.  They softly dropped the packs
+and the sick dog lay meekly down beside them.  Then they crept
+forward with hunter caution, favoured by an easterly breeze.
+Their first thought was of beaver, but they had seen no recent
+sign, nor was there anything that looked like a beaver pond. The
+measured splash, splash, splash -- was not so far ahead. It might
+be a bear snatching fish, or -- no, that was too unpleasant -- a
+man baling out a canoe.  Still the slow splash, splash, went on
+at intervals, not quite regular.
+
+Now it seemed but thirty yards ahead and in the creek.
+
+With the utmost care they crawled to the edge of the clay and
+opposite they saw a sight but rarely glimpsed by man.  Here were
+six otters; two evidently full-grown, and four seeming young of
+the pair, engaged in a most hilarious and human game of tobogganing
+down a steep clay hill to plump into a deep part at its foot.
+
+Plump went the largest, presumably the father; down he went, to
+reappear at the edge, scramble out and up an easy slope to the
+top of the twenty-foot bank.  Splash, splash, splash, came three
+of the young ones; splash, splash, the mother and one of the cubs
+almost together.
+
+"Scoot" went the big male again, and the wet furslopping and
+rubbing on the long clay chute made it greasier and slipperier
+every time.
+
+Splash, plump, splash -- splash, plump, splash, went the otter
+family gleefully, running up the bank again,  eager each to be
+first, it seemed, and to do the chute the oftenest.
+
+The gambolling grace, the obvious good humour, the animal
+hilarity of it all, was absorbingly amusing.  The trappers gazed
+with pleasure that showed how near akin are naturalist and
+hunter.  Of course, they had some covetous thought connected with
+those glossy hides, but this was September still, and even otter
+were not yet prime. Shoot, plump, splash, went the happy crew
+with apparently  unabated joy and hilarity.  The slide improved
+with use and the otters seemed tireless; when all at once a loud
+but muffled yelp was heard and Skookum, forgetting all caution,
+came leaping down the bank to take a hand.
+
+With a succession of shrill, birdy chirps the old otters warned
+their young.  Plump, plump, plump, all shot into the pool, but to
+reappear, swimming with heads out, for they were but slightly
+alarmed.  This was too much for Quonob; he levelled his flintlock;
+snap, bang, it went, pointed at the old male, but he dived at the
+snap and escaped.  Down the bank now rushed the hunters,
+joined by Skookum, to attack the otters in the pool, for it was
+small and shallow; unless a burrow led from it, they were  trapped.
+
+But the otters realized the peril.  All six dashed out of the
+pool, down the open, gravelly stream the old ones uttering loud
+chirps that rang like screams.  Under the fallen logs and brush
+they glided, dodging beneath roots and over banks, pursued by the
+hunters, each armed with a club and by Skookum not armed at all.
+
+The otters seemed to know where they were going and distanced all
+but the dog.  Forgetting his own condition Skookum had almost
+overtaken one of the otter cubs when the mother wheeled about
+and, hissing and snarling, charged.  Skookum was lucky to get off
+with a slight nip, for the otter is a dangerous fighter.  But the
+unlucky dog was sent howling back to the two packs that he never
+should have left.
+
+The hunters now found an open stretch of woods through which
+Quonab could run ahead and intercept the otters as they bounded
+on down the stream bed, pursued by Rolf, who vainly tried to deal
+a blow with his club.  In a few seconds the family party was up
+to Quonab, trapped it seemed, but there is no more desperate
+assailant than an otter fighting for its young.  So far from
+being cowed the two old ones made a simultaneous, furious rush at
+the Indian.  Wholly taken by surprise, he missed with his club,
+and sprang aside to escape their jaws.   The family dashed around
+then past him, and, urged by the continuous chirps of the mother,
+they plunged under a succession of log jams and into a willow
+swamp that spread out into an ancient beaver lake and were
+swallowed up in the silent wilderness.
+
+
+
+Chapter 26. Back to the Cabin
+
+The far end of the long swamp the stream emerged, now much
+larger, and the trappers kept on with their work.  When night
+fell they had completed fifty traps, all told, and again they
+camped without shelter overhead.
+
+Next day Skookum was so much worse that they began to fear for
+his life.  He had eaten nothing since the sad encounter.  He
+could drink a little, so Rolf made a pot of soup, and when it was
+cool the poor doggie managed to swallow some of the liquid after
+half an hour's patient endeavour.
+
+They were now on the home line; from a hill top they got a
+distant view of their lake, though it was at least five miles
+away.  Down the creek they went, still making their deadfalls at
+likely places and still seeing game tracks at the muddy spots.
+The creek came at length to an extensive,  open, hardwood bush,
+and here it was joined by another  stream that came from the
+south, the two making a small river.  From then on they seemed in
+a land of game; trails of deer were seen on the ground
+everywhere, and every few minutes they started one or two deer.
+The shady oak wood itself was flanked and varied with dense cedar
+swamps such as the deer love to winter in, and after they had
+tramped through two miles of it, the Indian said, "Good! now we
+know where to come in winter when we need meat."
+
+At a broad, muddy ford they passed an amazing number of tracks,
+mostly deer, but a few of panther, lynx, fisher, wolf, otter, and
+mink.
+
+In the afternoon they reached the lake.  The stream, quite a
+broad one here, emptied in about four miles south of the camp.
+Leaving a deadfall near its mouth they followed the shore and
+made a log trap every quarter mile just above the high water
+mark.
+
+When they reached the place of Rolf's first deer they turned
+aside to see it.  The gray jays had picked a good deal of the
+loose meat.  No large animal had troubled it, and yet in the
+neighbourhood they found the tracks of both wolves and foxes;
+
+"Ugh," said Quonab, "they smell it and come near, but they know
+that a man has been here; they are not very hungry, so keep away.
+This is good for trap."
+
+So they made two deadfalls with the carrion half way between
+them.  Then one or two more traps and they reached home, arriving
+at the camp just as darkness and a heavy rainfall began.
+
+"Good," said Quonab, "our deadfalls are ready; we have done all
+the work our fingers could not do when the weather is very cold,
+and the ground too hard for stakes to be driven.  Now the traps
+can get weathered before we go round and set them.  Yet we need
+some strong medicine, some trapper charm."
+
+Next morning he went forth with fish-line and fish-spear; he soon
+returned with a pickerel.  He filled a bottle with cut-up shreds
+of this, corked it up, and hung it on the warm, sunny side of the
+shanty.  "That will make a charm that every bear will come to, "
+he said, and left it to the action of the sun.
+
+
+
+Chapter 27. Sick Dog Skookum
+
+Getting home is always a joy; but walking about the place in the
+morning they noticed several little things that were wrong.
+Quonab's lodge was down, the paddles that stood against the
+shanty were scattered on the ground, and a bag of venison hung
+high at the ridge was opened and empty.
+
+Quonab studied the tracks and announced "a bad old black bear; he
+has rollicked round for mischief, upsetting things.  But the
+venison he could not reach; that was a marten that ripped open
+the bag."
+
+"Then that tells what we should do; build a storehouse at the end
+of the shanty, " said Rolf, adding, "it must be tight and it must
+be cool."
+
+"Maybe! sometime before winter," said the Indian; "but now we
+should make another line of traps while the weather is fine."
+
+"No," replied the lad, "Skookum is not fit to travel now.  We
+can't leave him behind, and we can make a storehouse in three
+days."
+
+The unhappy little dog was worse than ever.  He could scarcely
+breathe, much less eat or drink, and the case was settled.
+
+First they bathed the invalid's head in water as hot as he could
+stand it.  This seemed to help him so much that he swallowed
+eagerly some soup that they poured into his mouth.  A bed was
+made for him in a sunny place and the hunters set about the new
+building.
+
+In three days the storehouse was done, excepting the chinking.
+It was October now, and a sharp night frost warned them of the
+hard white moons to come.  Quonab, as he broke the ice in a tin
+cup and glanced at the low-hung sun, said: "The leaves are
+falling fast; snow comes soon; we need another line of traps."
+
+He stopped suddenly; stared across the lake.  Rolf looked, and
+here came three deer, two bucks and a doe, trotting, walking, or
+lightly clearing obstacles, the doe in advance; the others, rival
+followers.  As they kept along the shore, they came nearer the
+cabin.  Rolf glanced at Quonab, who nodded, then slipped in, got
+down the gun, and quickly glided unseen to the river where the
+deer path landed.  The bucks did not actually fight, for the
+season was not yet on, but their horns were clean, their necks
+were swelling, and they threatened each other as they trotted
+after the leader.  They made for the ford as for some familiar
+path, and splashed through, almost without swimming.  As they
+landed, Rolf waited a clear view, then gave a short sharp "Hist!"
+It was like a word of magic, for it turned the three moving deer
+to three stony-still statues.  Rolf's sights were turned on the
+smaller buck, and when the great cloud following the bang had
+deared away, the two were gone and the lesser buck was kicking on
+the ground some fifty yards away.
+
+"We have found the good hunting; the deer walk into camp," said
+Quonab; and the product of the chase was quickly stored, the
+first of the supplies to be hung in the new storehouse.
+
+The entrails were piled up and covered with brush and stones.
+"That will keep off ravens and jays; then in winter the foxes
+will come and we can take their coats."
+
+Now they must decide for the morning.  Skookum was somewhat
+better, but still very sick, and Rolf suggested: "Quonab, you
+take the gun and axe and lay a new line.  I will stay behind and
+finish up the cabin for the winter and look after the dog."  So
+it was agreed.  The Indian left the camp alone this time and
+crossed to the east shore of the lake; there to follow up another
+stream as before and to return in three or four days to the cabin.
+
+
+
+Chapter 28. Alone in the Wilderness
+
+Rolf began the day by giving Skookum a bath as hot as he could
+stand it, and later his soup. For the first he whined feebly and
+for the second faintly wagged his tail; but clearly he was on the
+mend.
+
+Now the chinking and moss-plugging of the new cabin required all
+attention.  That took a day and looked like the biggest job on
+hand, but Rolf had been thinking hard about the winter.  In
+Connecticut the wiser settlers used to bank their houses for the
+cold weather; in the Adiron- dacks he knew it was far, far
+colder, and he soon decided to bank the two shanties as deeply as
+possible with earth. A good spade made of white oak, with its
+edge hardened by roasting it brown, was his first necessity, and
+after two days of digging he had the cabin with its annex buried
+up to "the eyes" in fresh, clean earth.
+
+A stock of new, dry wood for wet weather helped to show how much
+too small the cabin was; and now the heavier work was done, and
+Rolf had plenty of time to think.
+
+Which of us that has been left alone in the wilderness does not
+remember the sensations of the first day!  The feeling of
+self-dependency, not unmixed with unrestraint; the ending of
+civilized thought; the total reversion to the primitive; the
+nearness of the wood-folk; a sense of intimacy;  a recurrent
+feeling of awe at the silent inexorability of all around; and a
+sweet pervading sense of mastery in the very freedom.  These were
+among the feelings that swept in waves through Rolf, and when the
+first night came, he found such comfort -- yes, he had to confess
+it -- in the company of the helpless little dog whose bed was by
+his own.
+
+But these were sensations that come not often; in the four days
+and nights that he was alone they lost all force.
+
+The hunter proverb about "strange beasts when you have no gun"
+was amply illustrated now that Quonab had gone with their only
+firearm.  The second night before turning in (he slept in the
+shanty now), he was taking a last look at the stars, when a
+large, dark form glided among the tree trunks between him and the
+shimmering lake; stopped, gazed at him, then silently disappeared
+along the shore.  No wonder that he kept the shanty door closed
+that night, and next morning when he studied the sandy ridges he
+read plainly that his night visitor had been not a lynx or a fox,
+but a prowling cougar or panther.
+
+On the third morning as he went forth in the still early dawn he
+heard a snort, and looking toward the spruce woods, was amazed to
+see towering up, statuesque, almost grotesque, with its mulish
+ears and antediluvian horns, a large bull moose.
+
+Rolf was no coward, but the sight of that monster so close to him
+set his scalp a-prickling.  He felt so  helpless without any
+firearms.  He stepped into the cabin, took down his bow and
+arrows, then gave a contemptuous  "Humph; all right for partridge
+and squirrels, but give me a rifle for the woods!"  He went out
+again; there was the moose standing as before.  The lad rushed
+toward it a few steps, shouting; it stared unmoved.  But Rolf was
+moved, and he retreated to the cabin.  Then remembering the
+potency of fire he started a blaze on the hearth.  The thick
+smoke curled up on the still air, hung low, made swishes through
+the grove, until a faint air current took a wreath of it to the
+moose.  The great nostrils drank in a draught that conveyed
+terror to the creature's soul, and wheeling it started at its
+best pace to the distant swamp, to be seen no more.
+
+Five times, during these four days, did deer come by and behave
+as though they knew perfectly well that this young human was
+harmless, entirely without the power of the far-killing mystery.
+
+How intensely Rolf wished for a gun.  How vividly came back the
+scene in the trader's store, -- when last month he had been
+offered a beautiful rifle for twenty-five dollars, to be paid for
+in fur next spring, and savagely he blamed himself for not
+realizing what a chance it was.  Then and there he made resolve
+to be the owner of a gun as soon as another chance came, and to
+make that chance come right soon.
+
+One little victory he had in that time.  The creature that had
+torn open the venison bag was still around the camp; that was
+plain by the further damage on the bag hung in the storehouse,
+the walls of which were not chinked. Mindful of Quonab's remark,
+he set two marten traps, one on the roof, near the hole that had
+been used as entry; the other on a log along which the creature
+must climb to reach the meat.  The method of setting is simple; a
+hollow is made, large enough to receive the trap as it lies open;
+on the pan of the trap some grass is laid smoothly; on each side
+of the trap a piece of prickly brush is placed, so that in
+leaping over these the creature will land on the lurking snare.
+The chain was made fast to a small log.
+
+Although so seldom seen there is no doubt that the marten comes
+out chiefly by day.  That night the trap remained unsprung; next
+morning as Rolf went at silent dawn to bring water from the lake,
+he noticed a long, dark line that proved to be ducks.  As he sat
+gazing he heard a sound in the tree beyond the cabin.  It was
+like the scratching of a squirrel climbing about.  Then he saw
+the creature, a large, dark squirrel, it seemed.  It darted up
+this tree and down that, over logs and under brush, with the
+lightning speed of a lightning squirrel, and from time to time it
+stopped still as a bump while it gazed at some far and suspicious
+object.  Up one trunk it went like a brown flash, and a moment
+later, out,  cackling from its top, flew two partridges.  Down to
+the ground, sinuous, graceful, incessantly active flashed the
+marten.  Along a log it raced in undulating leaps; in the middle
+it stopped as though frozen, to gaze intently into a bed of
+sedge; with three billowy bounds its sleek form reached the
+sedge, flashed in and out again with a mouse in its snarling
+jaws; a side leap now, and another squeaker was squeakless, and
+another.  The three were slain, then thrown aside, as the brown
+terror scanned a flight of ducks passing over.  Into a thicket of
+willow it disap- peared and out again like an eel going through
+the mud, then up a tall stub where woodpecker holes were to be
+seen. Into the largest it went so quickly Rolf could scarcely see
+how it entered, and out in a few seconds bearing a flying
+squirrel whose skull it had crushed.  Dropping the squirrel  it
+leaped after it, and pounced again on the quivering form with a
+fearsome growl; then shook it savagely, tore it apart, cast it
+aside.  Over the ground it now undulated, its shining yellow
+breast like a target of gold.  Again it stopped.  Now in pose
+like a pointer, exquisitely graceful, but oh, so wicked!  Then
+the snaky neck swung the cobra head in the breeze and the brown
+one sniffed and sniffed, advanced a few steps, tried the wind and
+the ground. Still farther and the concentrated interest showed in
+its outstretched neck and quivering tail.  Bounding into a
+thicket it went, when out of the other side there leaped a
+snowshoe rabbit, away and away for dear life. Jump, jump, jump;
+twelve feet at every stride, and faster than the eye could
+follow, with the marten close behind.  What a race it was, and
+how they twinkled through the brush! The rabbit is, indeed,
+faster, but courage counts for much, and his was low; but luck
+and his good stars urged him round to the deer trail crossing of
+the stream; once there he could not turn.  There was only one
+course.  He sprang into the open river and swam for his life.
+And the marten - why should it go in?  It hated the water; it was
+not hungry; it was out for sport, and water sport is not to its
+liking.  It braced its sinewy legs and halted at the very brink,
+while bunny crossed to the safe woods.
+
+Back now came Wahpestan, the brown death, over the logs like a
+winged snake, skimming the ground like a sinister shadow, and
+heading for the cabin as the cabin's owner watched.  Passing the
+body of the squirrel it paused to rend it again, then diving into
+the brush came out so far away and so soon that the watcher
+supposed at first that this was another marten.  Up the shanty
+corner it flashed, hardly appearing to climb, swung that yellow
+throat and dark-brown muzzle for a second, then made toward the entry.
+
+Rolf sat with staring eyes as the beautiful demon, elegantly
+spurning the roof sods, went at easy, measured bounds toward the
+open chink -- toward its doom.  One, two, three -- clearing the
+prickly cedar bush, its forefeet fell on the hidden trap; clutch,
+a savage shriek, a flashing, -- a struggle baffling the eyes to
+follow, and the master of the squirrels was himself under
+mastery.
+
+Rolf rushed forward now.  The little demon in the trap was
+frothing with rage and hate; it ground the iron with its teeth;
+it shrieked at the human foeman coming.
+
+The scene must end, the quicker the better, and even as the
+marten itself had served the flying squirrel and the mice, and as
+Quonab served the mink, so Rolf served the marten and the woods
+was still.
+
+
+
+Chapter 29. Snowshoes
+
+That's for Annette," said Rolf, remembering his promise as he
+hung the stretched marten skin to dry.
+
+"Yi!  Yi!  Yi!" came three yelps, just as he had heard them the
+day he first met Quonab, and crossing the narrow lake he saw his
+partner's canoe.
+
+"We have found the good hunting," he said, as Rolf steadied the
+canoe at the landing and Skookum, nearly well again, wagged his
+entire ulterior person to welcome the wanderer home.  The first
+thing to catch the boy's eye was a great, splendid beaver skin
+stretched on a willow hoop.
+
+"Ho, ho!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Ugh; found another pond."
+
+"Good, good," said Rolf as he stroked the flrst beaver skin he
+had ever seen in the woods.
+
+"This is better," said Quonab, and held up the two barkstones,
+castors, or smell-glands that are found in every beaver and which
+for some hid reason have an irresistible attraction for all wild
+animals.  To us the odour is slight, but they have the power of
+intensifying, perpetuating, and projecting such odorous
+substances as may be mixed with them.  No trapper considers his
+bait to be perfect without a little of the mysterious castor.  So
+that that most  stenchable thing they had already concocted of
+fish-oil,  putrescence, sewer-gas, and sunlight, when commingled
+and multiplied with the dried-up powder of a castor, was
+intensified into a rich, rancid, gas-exhaling hell-broth as
+rapturously bewitching to our furry brothers as it is
+poisonously nauseating to ourselves -- seductive afar like the
+sweetest music, inexorable as fate, insidious as laughing-gas,
+soothing and numbing as absinthe -- this, the lure and
+caution-luller, is the fellest trick in all the trappers' code.
+As deadly as inexplicable, not a few of the states have classed
+it with black magic and declared its use a crime.
+
+But no such sentiment prevailed in the high hills of Quonab's
+time, and their preparations for a successful trapping season
+were nearly perfect.  Thirty deadfalls made by Quonab, with the
+sixty made on the first trip and a dozen steel traps, were surely
+promise of a good haul.  It was nearly November now; the fur was
+prime; then why not begin?  Because the weather was too fine.
+You must have frosty weather or the creatures taken in the
+deadfalls are spoiled before the trapper can get around.
+
+Already a good, big pile of wood was cut; both shanty and
+storeroom were chinked, plugged, and banked for the winter.  It
+was not safe yet to shoot and store a number of deer, but there
+was something they could do.  Snowshoes would soon be a necessary
+of life; and the more of this finger work they did while the
+weather was warm, the better.
+
+Birch and ash are used for frames; the former is less liable to
+split, but harder to work.  White ash was plentiful on the near
+flat, and a small ten-foot log was soon cut and split into a lot
+of long laths.  Quonab of course took charge; but Rolf followed
+in everything.  Each took a lath and shaved it down evenly until
+an inch wide and three quarters of an inch thick.  The exact
+middle was marked, and for ten inches at each side of that it was
+shaved down to half an inch in thickness.  Two flat crossbars,
+ten and twelve inches long, were needed and holes to receive
+these made half through the frame.  The pot was ready boiling and
+by using a cord from end to end of each lath they easily bent it
+in the middle and brought the wood into touch with the boiling
+water.  Before an hour the steam had so softened the wood, and
+robbed it of spring, that it was easy to make it into any desired
+shape.  Each lath was cautiously bent round; the crossbars
+slipped into their prepared sockets; a temporary lashing of cord
+kept all in place; then finally the frames were set on a level
+place with the fore end raised two inches and a heavy log put on
+the frame to give the upturn to the toe.
+
+Here they were left to dry and the Indian set about  preparing
+the necessary thongs.  A buckskin rolled in wet, hard wood ashes
+had been left in the mud hole.  Now after a week the hair was
+easily scraped off and the hide, cleaned and trimmed of all loose
+ends and tags, was spread out -- soft, white, and supple.
+Beginning outside, and following round and round the edge, Quonab
+cut a thong of rawhide as nearly as possible a quarter inch wide.
+This he carried on till there were many yards of it, and the hide
+was all used up. The second deer skin was much smaller and
+thinner. He sharpened his knife and cut it much finer, at least
+half the width of the other.    Now they were ready to lace the
+shoes, the finer for the fore and back parts, the heavy for the
+middle on which the wearer treads.  An expert squaw would have
+laughed at the rude snowshoes that were finished that day, but
+they were strong and serviceable.
+
+Naturally the snowshoes suggested a toboggan.  That was easily
+made by splitting four thin boards of ash, each six inches wide
+and ten feet long.  An up-curl was steamed on the prow of each,
+and rawhide lashings held all to the crossbars.
+
+
+
+Chapter 30. Catching a Fox
+
+As to wisdom, a man ain't a spring; he's a tank, an' gives out
+only what he gathers" -- Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+Quonab would not quit his nightly couch in the canvas lodge so
+Rolf and Skookum stayed with him.  The dog was himself again, and
+more than once in the hours of gloom dashed forth in noisy chase
+of something which morning study of the tracks showed to have
+been foxes.  They were attracted partly by the carrion of the
+deer, partly by the general suitability of the sandy beach for a
+gambolling place, and partly by a foxy curiosity concerning the
+cabin, the hunters, and their dog.
+
+One morning after several night arousings and many raids by
+Skookum, Rolf said: "Fox is good now; why shouldn't I add some
+fox pelts to that?" and he pointed with some pride to the marten
+skin.
+
+"Ugh, good; go ahead; you will learn," was the reply.
+
+So getting out the two fox traps Rolf set to work.   Noting where
+chiefly the foxes ran or played he chose two beaten pathways and
+hid the traps carefully, exactly as he did for the marten; then
+selecting a couple of small cedar branches he cut these and laid
+them across the path, one on each side of the trap, assuming that
+the foxes  following the usual route would leap over the boughs
+and land in disaster.  To make doubly sure he put a piece of meat
+by each trap and half-way between them set a large piece on a
+stone.
+
+Then he sprinkled fresh earth over the pathways and around each
+trap and bait so he should have a record of the tracks.
+
+Foxes came that night, as he learned by the footprints along the
+beach, but never one went near his traps.  He studied the marks;
+they slowly told him all the main facts. The foxes had come as
+usual, and frolicked about.  They had discovered the bait and the
+traps at once -- how could such sharp noses miss them -- and as
+quickly noted that the traps were suspicious-smelling iron
+things, that  manscent, hand, foot, and body, were very evident
+all about; that the only inducement to go forward was some meat
+which was coarse and cold, not for a moment to be  compared with
+the hot juicy mouse meat that abounded in every meadow.  The
+foxes were well fed and unhungry. Why should they venture into
+such evident danger?  In a word, walls of stone could not have
+more completely protected the ground and the meat from the foxes
+than did the obvious nature of the traps; not a track was near,
+and many afar showed how quickly they had veered off.
+
+"Ugh, it is always so," said Quonab.  "Will you try again?  "
+
+"Yes, I will, " replied Rolf, remembering now that he had omitted
+to deodorize his traps and his boots.
+
+He made a fire of cedar and smoked his traps, chains, and all.
+Then taking a piece of raw venison he rubbed it on his leather
+gloves and on the soles of his boots,  wondering how he had
+expected to succeed the night before with all these man-scent
+killers left out.  He put fine, soft moss under the pan of each
+trap, then removed the cedar brush, and gently sprinkled all with
+fine, dry earth.  The set was perfect; no human eye could have
+told that there was any trap in the place.  It seemed a foregone
+success.
+
+"Fox don't go by eye, " was all the Indian said, for he reckoned
+it best to let the learner work it out.
+
+In the morning Rolf was up eager to see the results. There was
+nothing at all.  A fox had indeed, come within ten feet at one
+place, but behaved then as though  positively amused at the
+childishness of the whole smelly affair.  Had a man been there on
+guard with a club, he could not have kept the spot more wholly
+clear of foxes. Rolf turned away baffled and utterly puzzled.  He
+had not gone far before he heard a most terrific yelping from
+Skookum, and turned to see that trouble-seeking pup caught by the
+leg in the first trap.  It was more the horrible surprise than
+the pain, but he did howl.
+
+The hunters came quickly to the rescue and at once he was freed,
+none the worse, for the traps have no teeth; they merely hold.
+It is the long struggle and the  starvation chiefly that are
+cruel, and these every trapper  should cut short by going often
+around his line.
+
+Now Quonab took part.  "That is a good setting for some things.
+It would catch a coon, a mink, or a marten, -- or a dog -- but
+not a fox or a wolf.  They are very clever.  You shall see."
+
+The Indian got out a pair of thick leather gloves, smoked them in
+cedar, also the traps.  Next he rubbed his moccasin  soles with
+raw meat and selecting a little bay in the shore he threw a long
+pole on the sand, from the line of high, dry shingle across to
+the water's edge.  In his hand he carried a rough stake.  Walking
+carefully on the pole and standing on it, he drove the stake in
+at about four feet from the shore; then split it, and stuffed
+some soft moss into the split.  On this he poured three or four
+drops of the "smell-charm." Now he put a lump of spruce gum on
+the pan of the trap, holding a torch under it till the gum was
+fused, and into this he pressed a small, flat stone. The chain of
+the trap he fastened to a ten-pound stone of convenient shape,
+and sank the stone in the water half-way between the stake and
+the shore.  Last he placed the trap on this stone, so that when
+open everything would be under water except the flat stone on the
+pan.  Now he returned along the pole and dragged it away with
+him.
+
+Thus there was now no track or scent of human near the place.
+
+The setting was a perfect one, but even then the foxes did not go
+near it the following night; they must become used to it.  In
+their code, " A strange thing is always dangerous."  In the
+morning Rolf was inclined to scoff. But Quonab said: "Wah!  No
+trap goes first night."
+
+They did not need to wait for the second morning.  In the middle
+of the night Skookum rushed forth barking, and they followed to
+see a wild struggle, the fox leaping to escape and fast to his
+foot was the trap with its anchor stone a-dragging.
+
+Then was repeated the scene that ended the struggle of mink and
+marten.  The creature's hind feet were tied together and his body
+hung from a peg in the shanty. In the morning they gloated over
+his splendid fur and added his coat to their store of trophies.
+
+
+
+Chapter 31. Following the Trap Line
+
+That night the moon changed.  Next day came on with a strong
+north wind. By noon the wild ducks had left the lake.  Many long
+strings of geese passed southeastward, honking as they flew.
+Colder and colder blew the strong wind, and soon the frost was
+showing on the smaller ponds.  It snowed a little, but this
+ceased.  With the clearing sky the wind fell and the frost grew
+keener.
+
+At daybreak, when the hunters rose, it was very cold. Everything
+but the open lake was frozen over, and they knew that winter was
+come; the time of trapping was at hand.  Quonab went at once to
+the pinnacle on the hill, made a little fire, then chanting the
+"Hunter's Prayer," he cast into the fire the whiskers of the fox
+and the marten, some of the beaver castor, and some tobacco.
+Then descended to prepare for the trail -- blankets, beaver
+traps, weapons, and food for two days, besides the smell-charm
+and some fish for bait.
+
+Quickly the deadfalls were baited and set; last the Indian threw
+into the trap chamber a piece of moss on which was a drop of the
+"smell," and wiped another drop on each of his moccasins.
+"Phew," said Rolf.
+
+"That make a trail the marten follow for a month," was the
+explanation.  Skookum seemed to think so too, and if he did not
+say "phew," it was because he did not know how.
+
+Very soon the little dog treed a flock of partridge and Rolf with
+blunt arrows secured three.  The breasts were saved for the
+hunters' table, but the rest with the offal and feathers made the
+best of marten baits and served for all the traps, till at noon
+they reached the beaver pond.  It was covered with ice too thin
+to bear, but the freshly used landing places were easily
+selected.  At each they set a strong, steel beaver-trap,
+concealing it amid some dry grass, and placing in a split stick a
+foot away a piece of moss in which were a few drops of the magic
+lure.  The ring on the trap chain was slipped over a long, thin,
+smooth pole which was driven deep in the mud, the top pointing
+away from the deep water.  The plan was old and proven.  The
+beaver, eager to investigate that semifriendly  smell, sets foot
+in the trap; instinctively when in danger he dives for the deep
+water; the ring slips along the pole till at the bottom and there
+it jams so that the beaver cannot rise again and is drowned."
+
+In an hour the six traps were set for the beavers; presently the
+hunters, skirmishing for more partridges, had much trouble to
+save Skookum from another porcupine disaster.
+
+They got some more grouse, baited the traps for a couple of
+miles, then camped for the night.
+
+Before morning it came on to snow and it was three inches deep
+when they arose.  There is no place on earth where the first snow
+is more beautiful than in the Adirondacks.   In early autumn
+nature seems to prepare for it. Green leaves are cleared away to
+expose the berry bunches in red; rushbeds mass their groups, turn
+golden brown and bow their heads to meet the silver load; the low
+hills and the lines of various Christmas trees are arrayed for
+the finest effect: the setting is perfect and the scene, but it
+lacks the lime light yet.  It needs must have the lavish blaze of
+white.  And when it comes like the veil on a bride, the silver
+mountings on a charger's trappings, or the golden fire in a
+sunset, the shining crystal robe is the finishing, the crowning
+glory, without which all the rest must fail, could have no bright
+completeness.  Its beauty stirred the hunters though it found no
+better expression than Rolf's simple words, "Ain't it fine,"
+while the Indian gazed in silence.
+
+There is no other place in the eastern woods where the snow has
+such manifold tales to tell, and the hunters that day tramping
+found themselves dowered over night with the wonderful power of
+the hound to whom each trail is a plain record of every living
+creature that has passed within many hours.  And though the first
+day after a storm has less to tell than the second, just as the
+second has less than the third, there was no lack of story in the
+snow.  Here sped some antlered buck, trotting along while yet the
+white was flying.  There went a fox, sneaking across the line of
+march, and eying distrustfully that deadfall.  This broad trail
+with many large tracks not far apart was made by one of Skookum's
+friends, a knight of many spears.  That bounding along was a
+marten. See how he quartered that thicket like a hound, here he
+struck our odour trail.  Mark, how he paused and whiffed it; now
+away he goes; yes, straight to our trap.
+
+"It's down; hurrah!" Rolf shouted, for there, dead under the log,
+was an exquisite marten, dark, almost black, with a great, broad,
+shining breast of gold.
+
+They were going back now toward the beaver lake. The next trap
+was sprung and empty; the next held the body of a red squirrel, a
+nuisance always and good only to rebait the trap he springs.  But
+the next held a marten, and the next a white weasel.  Others were
+unsprung, but they had two good pelts when they reached the
+beaver lake.  They were in high spirits with their good luck, but
+not prepared for the marvellous haul that now was theirs.  Each
+of the six traps held a big beaver, dead, drowned, and safe.
+Each skin was worth five dollars, and the hunters felt rich.  The
+incident had, moreover, this pleasing significance: It showed
+that these beavers were unsophisticated, so had not been hunted.
+Fifty pelts might easily be taken from these ponds.
+
+The trappers reset the traps; then dividing the load, sought a
+remote place to camp, for it does not do to light a fire near
+your beaver pond.  One hundred and fifty pounds of beaver, in
+addition, to their packs, was not a load to be taken miles away;
+within half a mile on a lower level they selected a warm place,
+made a fire, and skinned their catch.  The bodies they opened and
+hung in a tree with a view to future use, but the pelts and tails
+they carried on.
+
+They made a long, hard tramp that day, baiting all the traps and
+reached home late in the night.
+
+
+
+Chapter 32. The Antler-bound Bucks
+
+IN THE man-world, November is the month of gloom, despair, and
+many suicides. In the wild world, November is the Mad Moon. Many
+and diverse the madnesses of the time, but none more insane than
+the rut of the white-tailed deer.  Like some disease it appears,
+first in the swollen necks of the antler-bearers, and then in the
+feverish habits of all. Long and obstinate combats between the
+bucks now, characterize the time; neglecting even to eat, they
+spend their days and nights in rushing about and seeking to kill.
+
+Their horns, growing steadily since spring, are now of full size,
+sharp, heavy, and cleaned of the velvet; in perfection.  For
+what?  Has Nature made them to pierce, wound, and destroy?
+Strange as it may seem, these weapons of offence are used for
+little but defence; less as spears than as bucklers they serve
+the deer in  battles with its kind.  And the long, hard combats
+are little more than wrestling and pushing bouts; almost never do
+they end fatally.  When a mortal thrust is given, it is rarely a
+gaping wound, but a sudden springing and locking of the antlers,
+whereby the two deer are bound together, inextricably,
+hopelessly, and so suffer death by starvation.  The records of
+deer killed by their rivals and left on the duel-ground are few;
+very few and far between.  The records of those killed by
+interlocking are numbered by the scores.
+
+There were hundreds of deer in this country that Rolf and Quonab
+claimed.  Half of them were bucks, and at least half of these
+engaged in combat some times or many times a day, all through
+November; that is to say, probably  a thousand duels were fought
+that month within ten miles of the cabin.  It was not surprising
+that Rolf should witness some of them, and hear many more in the
+distance.
+
+They were living in the cabin now, and during the still, frosty
+nights, when he took a last look at the stars, before turning in,
+Rolf formed the habit of listening  intently for the voices of
+the gloom.  Sometimes it was the "hoo-hoo" of the horned-owl,
+once or twice it was the long, smooth howl of the wolf; but many
+times it was the rattle of antlers that told of two bucks far up
+in the hardwoods, trying out the all-important question, "Which
+is the better buck?"
+
+One morning he heard still an occasional rattle at the same place
+as the night before.  He set out alone, after breakfast, and
+coming cautiously near, peered into a little, open space to see
+two bucks with heads joined, slowly, feebly pushing this way and
+that.  Their tongues were out; they seemed almost exhausted, and
+the trampled snow for an acre about plainly showed that they had
+been fighting for hours; that indeed these were the ones he had
+heard in the night.  Still they were evenly matched, and the
+green light in their eyes told of the ferocious spirit in each of
+these gentle-looking deer.
+
+Rolf had no difficulty in walking quite near.  If they saw him,
+they gave slight heed to the testimony of their eyes, for the
+unenergetic struggle went on until, again pausing for breath,
+they separated, raised their heads a little, sniffed, then
+trotted away from the dreaded enemy so near.  Fifty yards off,
+they turned, shook their horns, seemed in doubt whether to run
+away, join battle again, or attack the man.  Fortunately the
+first was their choice, and Rolf returned to the cabin.
+
+Quonab listened to his account, then said: "You might have been
+killed.  Every buck is crazy now.  Often they attack man.  My
+father's brother was killed by a Mad Moon buck.  They found only
+his body, torn to rags.  He had got a little way up a tree, but
+the buck had pinned him.  There were the marks, and in the snow
+they could see how he held on to the deer's horns and was dragged
+about till his strength gave out.  He had no gun.  The buck went
+off.  That was all they knew.  I would rather trust a bear than a
+deer."
+
+The Indian's words were few, but they drew a picture all too
+realistic.  The next time Rolf heard the far sound of a deer
+fight, it brought back the horror of that hopeless fight in the
+snow, and gave him a new and different feel- ing for the
+antler-bearer of the changing mood.
+
+It was two weeks after this, when he was coming in from a trip
+alone on part of the line, when his ear caught some strange
+sounds in the woods ahead; deep, sonorous, semi-human they were.
+Strange and weird wood-notes in winter are nearly sure to be
+those of a raven or a jay; if deep, they are likely to come from
+a raven.
+
+"Quok, quok, ha, ha, ha-hreww, hrrr, hooop, hooop," the diabolic
+noises came, and Rolf, coming gently forward, caught a glimpse of
+sable pinions  swooping through the lower pines.
+
+"Ho, ho, ho yah - hew - w - w - w" came the demon laughter of the
+death birds, and Rolf soon glimpsed a dozen of them in the
+branches, hopping or sometimes flying to the ground.  One
+alighted on a brown bump.  Then the bump began to move a little.
+The raven was pecking away, but again the brown bump heaved and
+the raven leaped to a near perch.  "Wah -- wah -- wah - wo - hoo
+-- yow - wow -- rrrrrr-rrrr-rrrr" -- and the other ravens joined
+in.
+
+Rolf had no weapons but his bow, his pocket knife, and a hatchet.
+He took the latter in his hand and walked gently forward; the
+hollow-voiced ravens "haw - hawed," then flew to safe perches
+where they chuckled like ghouls over some extra-ghoulish joke.
+
+The lad, coming closer, witnessed a scene that stirred him with
+mingled horror and pity.  A great, strong buck -- once strong, at
+least -- was standing, staggering, kneeling there; sometimes on
+his hind legs, spasmodically heaving and tugging at a long gray
+form on the ground, the body of another buck, his rival, dead
+now, with a broken neck, as it proved, but bearing big, strong
+antlers with which the antlers of the living buck were
+interlocked as though riveted with iron, bolted with clamps of
+steel.  With all his strength, the living buck could barely move
+his head, dragging his adversary's body with him.  The snow marks
+showed that at first he had been able to haul the carcass many
+yards; had nibbled a little at shoots and twigs; but that was
+when he was stronger, was long before.  How long?  For days, at
+least, perhaps a week, that wretched buck was dying hopelessly a
+death that would not come. His gaunt sides, his parched and
+lolling tongue, less than a foot from the snow and yet beyond
+reach, the filmy eye, whose opaque veil of death was illumined
+again with a faint fire of fighting green as the new foe came.
+The ravens had picked the eyes out of the dead buck and eaten a
+hole in its back.  They had even begun on the living buck, but he
+had been able to use one front foot to defend his eyes; still his
+plight could scarce have been more dreadful.  It made the most
+pitiful spectacle Rolf had ever seen in wild life; yes, in all
+his life.  He was full of compassion for the poor brute.  He
+forgot it as a thing to be hunted for food; thought of it only as
+a harmless, beautiful creature in dire and horrible straits; a
+fellow-being in distress; and he at once set about being its
+helper.  With hatchet in hand he came gently in front, and
+selecting an exposed part at the base of the dead buck's antler
+he gave a sharp blow with the hatchet.  The effect on the living
+buck was surprising.  He was roused to vigorous action that
+showed him far from death as yet.  He plunged, then pulled
+backward, carrying with him the carcass and the would-be rescuer.
+Then Rolf remembered the Indian's words: "You can make strong
+medicine with your mouth." He spoke to the deer, gently, softly.
+Then came nearer, and tapped o'n the horn he wished to cut;
+softly speaking and tapping he increased his force, until at last
+he was permitted to chop seriously at that prison bar.  It took
+many blows, for the antler stuff is very thick and strong at this
+time, but the horn was loose at last.  Rolf gave it a twist and
+the strong buck was free.  Free for what?
+
+Oh, tell it not among the folk who have been the wild deer's
+friend!  Hide it from all who blindly believe that gratitude must
+always follow good-will!  With unexpected energy, with pent-up
+fury, with hellish purpose, the ingrate sprang on his deliverer,
+aiming a blow as deadly as was in his power.
+
+Wholly taken by surprise, Rolf barely had time to seize the
+murderer's horns and ward them off his vitals. The buck made a
+furious lunge.  Oh! what foul fiend was it gave him then such
+force? -- and Rolf went down. Clinging for dear life to those
+wicked, shameful horns, he yelled as he never yelled before:
+"Quonab, Quonabi help me, oh, help me!"  But he was pinned at
+once, the fierce brute above him pressing on his chest, striving
+to bring its horns to bear; his only salvation had been that
+their wide spread gave his body room between.  But the weight on
+his chest was crushing out his force, his life; he had no breath
+to call again.  How the ravens chuckled, and "haw-hawed" in the
+tree!
+
+The buck's eyes gleamed again with the emerald light of murderous
+hate, and he jerked his strong neck this way and that with the
+power of madness.  It could not last for long.  The boy's
+strength was going fast; the beast was crushing in his chest.
+
+"Oh, God, help me!" he gasped, as the antlered fiend began again
+struggling for the freedom of those murderous horns.  The brute
+was almost free, when the ravens rose with loud croaks, and out
+of the woods dashed another to join the fight.  A smaller deer?
+No; what?  Rolf knew not, nor how, but in a moment there was a
+savage growl and Skookum had the murderer by the hind leg.
+Worrying and tearing he had not the strength to throw the deer,
+but his teeth were sharp, his heart was in his work, and when he
+transferred his fierce attack to parts more tender still, the
+buck, already spent, reared, wheeled, and fell. Before he could
+recover Skookum pounced upon him by the nose and hung on like a
+vice.  The buck could swing his great neck a little, and drag the
+dog, but he could not shake him off.  Rolf saw the chance, rose
+to his tottering legs, seized his hatchet, stunned the fierce
+brute with a blow. Then finding on the snow his missing knife he
+gave the hunter stroke that spilled the red life-blood and sank
+on the ground to know no more till Quonab stood beside him.
+
+
+
+Chapter 33. A Song of Praise
+
+ROLF was lying by a fire when he came to, Quonab bending over him
+with a look of grave concern. When he opened his eyes, the Indian
+smiled; such a soft, sweet smile, with long, ivory rows in its
+background.
+
+Then he brought hot tea, and Rolf revived so he could sit up and
+tell the story of the morning.
+
+"He is an evil Manito," and he looked toward the dead buck; "we
+must not eat him.  You surely made medicine to bring Skookum."
+
+"Yes, I made medicine with my mouth," was the answer,  "I called,
+I yelled, when he came at me."
+
+"It is a long way from here to the cabin," was Quonab's reply.
+"I could not hear you; Skookum could not hear you; but Cos Cob,
+my father, told me that when you send out a cry for help, you
+send medicine, too, that goes farther than the cry.  May be so; I
+do not know: my father was very wise."
+
+"Did you see Skookum come, Quonab?  "
+
+"No; he was with me hours after you left, but he was restless and
+whimpered.  Then he left me and it was a long time before I heard
+him bark.  It was the 'something- wrong' bark.  I went.  He
+brought me here."
+
+"He must have followed my track all 'round the line."
+
+After an hour they set out for the cabin.  The ravens "Ha-ha-ed"
+and "Ho-ho-ed" as they went.  Quonab took the fateful horn that
+Rolf had chopped off, and hung it on a sapling with a piece of
+tobacco and a red yam streamer     ', to appease the evil spirit
+that surely was near.  There it hung for years after, until the
+sapling grew to a tree that swallowed the horn, all but the tip,
+which rotted away.
+
+Skookum took a final sniff at his fallen enemy, gave the body the
+customary expression of a dog's contempt, then led the procession
+homeward.
+
+Not that day, not the next, but on the first day of calm, red,
+sunset sky, went Quonab to his hill of worship; and when the
+little fire that he lit sent up its thread of smoke, like a
+plumb-line from the red cloud over bim, he burnt a pinch of
+tobacco, and, with face and arms upraised in the red light, he
+sang a new song:
+
+"The evil one set a trap for my son, But the Manito saved him; In
+the form of a Skookum he saved him."
+
+
+
+Chapter 34. The Birch-bark Vessels
+
+Rolf was sore and stiff for a week afterward; so was Skookum.
+There were times when Quonab was cold, moody, and silent for
+days.  Then some milder wind would blow in the region of his
+heart and the bleak ice surface melted into running rills of
+memory or kindly emanation.
+
+Just before the buck adventure, there had been an  unpleasant
+time of chill and aloofness.  It arose over little. Since the
+frost had come, sealing the waters outside, Quonab would wash his
+hands in the vessel that was also the bread pan.  Rolf had New
+England ideas of propriety in cooking matters, and finally he
+forgot the respect due to age and experience.  That was one
+reason why he went out alone that day.  Now, with time to think
+things over, the obvious safeguard would be to have a wash bowl;
+but where to get it?  In those days, tins were scarce and ex-
+pensive.  It was the custom to look in the woods for nearly all
+the necessaries of life; and, guided by ancient custom and
+experience, they seldom looked in vain.  Rolf had seen, and
+indeed made, watering troughs, pig troughs, sap troughs, hen
+troughs, etc., all his life, and he now set to work with the axe
+and a block of basswood to hew out a trough for a wash bowl.
+With adequate tools he might have made a good one; but, working
+with an axe and a stiff arm, the result was a very heavy, crude
+affair.  It would indeed hold water, but it was almost impossible
+to dip it into the water hole, so that a dipper was needed.
+
+When Quonab saw the plan and the result, he said: "In my father's
+lodge we had only birch bark.  See; I shall make a bowl." He took
+from the storehouse a big roll of birch bark, gathered in warm
+weather (it can scarcely be done in cold), for use in repairing
+the canoe.  Selecting a good part he cut out a square, two feet
+each way, and put it in the big pot which was full of boiling
+water.  At the same time he soaked with it a bundle of wattap, or
+long fibrous roots of the white spruce, also gathered before the
+frost came, with a view to canoe repairs in the spring.
+
+While these were softening in the hot water, he cut a couple of
+long splints of birch, as nearly as possible half an inch wide
+and an eighth of an inch thick, and put them to steep with the
+bark.  Next he made two or three straddle pins or clamps, like
+clothes pegs, by splitting the ends of some sticks which had a
+knot at one end.
+
+Now he took out the spruce roots, soft and pliant, and selecting
+a lot that were about an eighth of an inch in diameter, scraped
+off the bark and roughness, until he had a bundle of perhaps ten
+feet of soft, even, white cords.
+
+The bark was laid flat and cut as below.
+
+The rounding of A and B is necessary, for the holes of the sewing
+would tear the piece off if all were on the same line of grain.
+Each corner was now folded and doubled on itself (C), then held
+so with a straddle pin (D).  The rim was trimmed so as to be flat
+where it crossed the fibre of the bark, and arched where it ran
+along.  The pliant rods of birch were bent around this, and using
+the large awl to make holes, Quonab sewed the rim rods to the
+bark with an over-lapping stitch that made a smooth finish to the
+edge, and the birch-bark wash pan was complete. (E.) Much heavier
+bark can be used if the plan F G  be followed, but it is hard to
+make it water-tight.
+
+So now they had a wash pan and a cause of friction was removed.
+Rolf found it amusing as well as useful to make other bark
+vessels of varying sizes for dippers and dunnage. It was work
+that he could do now while he was resting and recovering and he
+became expert.  After watching a fairly successful attempt at a
+box to hold fish-hooks and tackle, Quonab said: "In my father's
+lodge these would bear quill work in colours."
+
+"That's so," said Rolf, remembering the birch-bark goods often
+sold by the Indians.  "I wish we had a  porcupine now."
+
+"Maybe Skookum could find one," said the Indian, with a smile.
+
+"Will you let me kill the next Kahk we find?"
+
+"Yes, if you use the quills and burn its whiskers."
+
+"Why burn its whiskers?"
+
+"My father said it must be so.  The smoke goes straight to the
+All-above; then the Manito knows we have killed, but we have
+remembered to kill only for use and to thank Him."
+
+It was some days before they found a porcupine, and when they
+did, it was not necessary for them to kill it.  But that belongs
+to another chapter.
+
+They saved its skin with all its spears and hung it in the
+storehouse.  The quills with the white bodies and ready- made
+needle at each end are admirable for embroidering, but they are
+white only.
+
+"How can we dye them, Quonab?
+
+"In the summer are many dyes; in winter they are hard to get.  We
+can get some."
+
+So forth he went to a hemlock tree, and cut till he could gather
+the inner pink bark, which, boiled with the quills, turned them a
+dull pink; similarly, alder bark furnished rich orange, and
+butternut bark a brown.  Oak chips, with a few bits of iron in
+the pot, dyed black.
+
+"Must wait till summer for red and green," said the Indian.  "Red
+comes only from berries; the best is the blitum.  We call it
+squaw-berry and mis-caw-wa, yellow comes from the yellow root
+(Hydrastis).
+
+But black, white, orange, pink, brown, and a dull red made by a
+double dip of orange and pink, are a good range of colour.  The
+method in using the quills is simple.  An awl to make holes in
+the bark for each; the rough parts behind are concealed afterward
+with a lining of bark stitched over them; and before the winter
+was over, Rolf had made a birch-bark box, decorated lid and all,
+with por- cupine quill work, in which he kept the sable skin that
+was meant to buy Annette's new dress, the costume she had dreamed
+of, the ideal and splendid, almost unbelievable vision of her
+young life, ninety-five cents' worth of cotton print.
+
+There was one other point of dangerous friction.  Whenever  it
+fell to Quonab to wash the dishes, he simply set them on the
+ground and let Skookum lick them off.  This economical
+arrangement was satisfactory to Quonab,  delightful to Skookum,
+and apparently justified by the finished product, but Rolf
+objected.  The Indian said: "Don't he eat the same food as we do?
+You cannot tell if you do not see."
+
+Whenever he could do so, Rolf washed the doubtful dishes over
+again, yet there were many times when this was impossible, and
+the situation became very irritating.  But he knew that the man
+who loses his temper has lost the first round of the fight, so,
+finding the general idea of uncleanness without avail, he sought
+for some purely Indian argument. As they sat by the evening fire,
+one day, he led up to talk of his mother -- of her power as a
+medicine woman, of the many evil medicines that harmed her.  "It
+was evil medicine  for her if a dog licked her hand or touched
+her food. A dog licked her hand and the dream dog came to her
+three days before she died."  After a long pause, he added, "In
+some ways I am like my mother."
+
+Two days later, Rolf chanced to see his friend behind the shanty
+give Skookum the pan to clean off after they had been frying deer
+fat.  The Indian had no idea that Rolf was near, nor did he ever
+learn the truth of it.
+
+That night, after midnight, the lad rose quietly, lighted the
+pine splints that served them for a torch, rubbed some charcoal
+around each eye to make dark rings that should supply a
+horror-stricken look.  Then he started in to pound on Quonab's
+tom-tom, singing:
+
+"Evil spirit leave me;
+Dog-face do not harm me."
+
+Quonab sat up in amazement.  Rolf paid no heed, but went on,
+bawling and drumming and staring upward into vacant space.  After
+a few minutes Skookum scratched and whined at the shanty door.
+Rolf rose, took his knife, cut a bunch of hair from Skookum's
+neck and burned it in the torch, then went on singing with horrid
+solemnity:
+
+"Evil spirit leave me;
+Dog-face do not harm me."
+
+At last he turned, and seeming to discover that Quonab was
+looking on, said:
+
+"The dream dog came to me.  I thought I saw him lick deer grease
+from the frying pan behind the shanty.  He laughed, for he knew
+that he made evil medicine for me. I am trying to drive him away,
+so he cannot harm me.  I do not know.  I am like my mother.  She
+was very wise, but she died after it."
+
+Now Quonab arose, cut some more hair from Skookum, added a pinch
+of tobacco, then, setting it ablaze, he sang in the rank odour of
+the burning weed and hair, his strongest  song to kill ill magic;
+and Rolf, as he chuckled and sweetly sank to sleep, knew that the
+fight was won.  His friend would never, never more install Skookum
+in the high and sacred post of pot-licker, dishwasher, or final polisher.
+
+
+
+Chapter 35. Snaring Rabbits
+
+The deepening snow about the cabin was marked in all the thickets
+by the multitudinous tracks of the snowshoe rabbits or white
+hares.  Occasionally  the hunters saw them, but paid little heed.
+Why should they look at rabbits when deer were plentiful?
+
+"You catch rabbit?" asked Quonab one day when Rolf was feeling
+fit again.
+
+"I can shoot one with my bow," was the answer, "but why should I,
+when we have plenty of deer?"
+
+"My people always hunted rabbits.  Sometimes no deer were to be
+found; then the rabbits were food.  Sometimes  in the enemy's
+country it was not safe to hunt, except rabbits, with blunt
+arrows, and they were food. Sometimes only squaws and children in
+camp -- nothing to eat; no guns; then the rabbits were food."
+
+"Well, see me get one," and Rolf took his bow and arrow.  He
+found many white bunnies, but always in the thickest woods.
+Again and again he tried, but the tantalizing twigs and branches
+muffled the bow and turned the arrow.  It was hours before he
+returned with a fluffy snowshoe rabbit.
+
+"That is not our way."  Quonab led to the thicket and selecting a
+place of many tracks he cut a lot of brush and made a hedge
+across with half a dozen openings.  At each of these openings he
+made a snare of strong cord tied to a long pole, hung on a
+crotch, and so arranged that a tug at the snare would free the
+pole which in turn would hoist the snare and the creature in it
+high in the air.
+
+Next morning they went around and found that four of the snares
+had each a snow-white rabbit hanging by the neck.  As he was
+handling these, Quonab felt a lump I on the hind leg of one.  He
+carefully cut it open and turned out a curious-looking object
+about the size of an acorn, flattened, made of flesh and covered
+with hair, and nearly the shape of a large bean.  He gazed at it,
+and, turning to Rolf, said with intense meaning:
+
+"Ugh! we have found the good hunting.  This is the
+Peeto-wab-oos-once, the little medicine rabbit.  Now we have
+strong medicine in the lodge.  You shall see."
+
+He went out to the two remaining snares and passed the medicine
+rabbit through each.  An hour later, when they retumed, they
+found a rabbit taken in the first snare.
+
+"It is ever so," said the Indian.  "We can always catch rabbits
+now.  My father had the Peeto-wab-i-ush once, the little medicine
+deer, and so he never failed in hunting but twice.  Then he found
+that his papoose, Quonab, had stolen his great medcine.  He was a
+very wise papoose. He killed a chipmunk each of those days."
+
+"Hark! what is that?"  A faint sound of rustling branches, and
+some short animal noises in the woods had caught Rolf's ear, and
+Skookum's, too, for he was off like one whose life is bound up in
+a great purpose.
+
+"Yap, yap, yap," came the angry sound from Skookum. Who can say
+that animals have no language?  His merry "yip, yip, yip," for
+partridge up a tree, or his long,  hilarious, "Yow, yow, yow,"
+when despite all orders he chased some deer, were totally
+distinct from the angry "Yap, yap," he gave for the bear up the
+tree, or the  "Grrryapgrryap," with which he voiced his hatred of
+the  porcupine.
+
+But now it was the "Yap, yap," as when he had treed the bears.
+
+"Something up a tree," was the Indian's interpretation, as they
+followed the sound.  Something up a tree!  A whole menagerie it
+seemed to Rolf when they got there. Hanging by the neck in the
+remaining snare, and limp now, was a young lynx, a kit of the
+year.  In the adjoining  tree, with Skookum circling and yapping
+'round the base, was a savage old lynx.  In the crotch above her
+was another young one, and still higher was a third, all looking
+their unutterable disgust at the noisy dog below; the mother,
+indeed, expressing it in occasional hisses, but none of them
+daring to come down and face him.  The lynx is very good fur and
+very easy prey.  The Indian brought the old one down with a shot;
+then, as fast as he could reload, the others were added to the
+bag, and, with the one from the snare, they returned laden to the
+cabin.
+
+The Indian's eyes shone with a peculiar light.  "Ugh! Ugh!  My
+father told me; it is great medicine.  You see, now, it does not
+fail.
+
+
+
+Chapter 36. Something Wrong at the Beaver Traps
+
+Once they had run the trap lines, and their store of furs
+was increasing finely. They had taken twenty-five beavers and
+counted on getting two or three each time they went to the ponds.
+But they got an unpleasant surprise in December, on going to the
+beaver grounds, to find all the traps empty and unmistakable
+signs that some man had been there and had gone off with the
+catch.  They followed the dim trail of his snowshoes, half hidden
+by a recent wind, but night came on with more snow, and all signs
+were lost.
+
+The thief had not found the line yet, for the haul of marten and
+mink was good.  But this was merely the beginning.
+
+The trapper law of the wilderness is much like all primitive
+laws; first come has first right, provided he is able to hold it.
+If a strong rival comes in, the first must fight as best he can.
+The law justifies him in anything he may do, if he succeeds.  The
+law justifies the second in anything he may do, except murder.
+That is, the defender may shoot to kill; the offender may not.
+
+But the fact of Quonab's being an Indian and Rolf supposedly one,
+would turn opinion against them in the Adirondacks, and it was
+quite likely that the rival  considered them trespassers on his
+grounds, although the fact that he robbed their traps without
+removing them, and kept out of sight, rather showed the guilty
+conscience of a self-accused  poacher.
+
+He came in from the west, obviously; probably the Racquet River
+country; was a large man, judging by his foot and stride, and
+understood trapping; but lazy, for he set no traps.  His
+principal object seemed to be to steal.
+
+And it was not long before he found their line of marten traps,
+so his depredations increased.  Primitive emotions are near the
+surface at all times, and under primitive  conditions are very
+ready to appear.  Rolf and Quonab felt that now it was war.
+
+
+
+Chapter 37. The Pekan or Fisher
+
+There was one large track in the snow that they saw several times
+-- it was like that of a marten, but much larger.  "Pekan," said
+the Indian, "the big marten; the very strong one, that fights
+without fear."
+
+"When my father was a papoose he shot an arrow at a pekan.  He
+did not know what it was; it seemed only a big black marten.  It
+was wounded, but sprang from the tree on my father's breast.  It
+would have killed him, but for the dog; then it would have killed
+the dog, but my  grandfather was near.
+
+"He made my father eat the pekan's heart, so his heart might be
+like it.  It sought no fight, but it turned, when struck, and
+fought without fear.  That is the right way; seek peace, but
+fight without fear.  That was my father's heart and mine."  Then
+glancing toward the west he continued in a tone of menace: "That
+trap robber will find it so.  We sought no fight, but some day I
+kill him."
+
+The big track went in bounds, to be lost in a low, thick woods.
+But they met it again.
+
+They were crossing a hemlock ridge a mile farther on, when they
+came to another track which was first a long, deep furrow, some
+fifteen inches wide, and in this were the wide-spread prints of
+feet as large as those of a fisher.
+
+"Kahk," said Quonab, and Skookum said "Kahk," too, but he did it
+by growling and raising his back hair, and doubtless also by
+sadly remembering.  His discretion seemed as yet embryonic, so
+Rolf slipped his sash through the dog's collar, and they followed
+the track, for the porcupine  now stood in Rolf's mind as a sort
+of embroidery outfit.
+
+They had not followed far before another track joined on -- the
+track of the fisher-pekan; and soon after they heard in the woods
+ahead scratching sounds, as of something  climbing, and once or
+twice a faint, far, fighting snarl.
+
+Quickly tying the over-valiant Skookum to a tree, they crept
+forward, ready for anything, and arrived on the scene of a very
+peculiar action.
+
+Action it was, though it was singularly devoid of action. First,
+there was a creature, like a huge black marten or a short-legged
+black fox, standing at a safe distance, while, partly hidden
+under a log, with hind quarters and tail only exposed, was a
+large porcupine.  Both were very still, but soon the fisher
+snarled and made a forward lunge.  The porcupine, hearing the
+sounds or feeling the snow dash up on that side, struck with its
+tail; but the fisher kept out of reach.  Next a feint was made on
+the other side, with the same result; then many, as though the
+fisher were trying to tire out the tail or use up all its quills.
+
+Sometimes the assailant leaped on the log and teased the
+quill-pig to strike upward, while many white daggers already sunk
+in the bark showed that these tactics had been going on for some
+time.
+
+Now the two spectators saw by the trail that a similar battle had
+been fought at another log, and that the  porcupine trail from
+that was spotted with blood.  How the fisher had forced it out
+was not then clear, but soon became so.
+
+After feinting till the Kahk would not strike, the pekan began a
+new manceuvre.  Starting on the opposite side of the log that
+protected the spiny one's nose, he burrowed quickly through the
+snow and leaves.  The log was about three inches from the ground,
+and before the porcupine  could realize it, the fisher had a
+space cleared and seized the spiny one by its soft, unspiny nose.
+Grunting and squealing it pulled back and lashed its terrible
+tail. To what effect?  Merely to fill the log around with quills.
+With all its strength the quill-pig pulled and writhed, but the
+fisher was stronger.  His claws enlarged the hole and when the
+victim ceased from exhaustion, the fisher made a forward dash and
+changed his hold from the tender nose to the still more tender
+throat of the porcupine.  His hold was not deep enough and square
+enough to seize the windpipe,  but he held on.  For a minute or
+two the struggles of Kahk were of desperate energy and its
+lashing tail began to be short of spines, but a red stream
+trickling from the wound was sapping its strength.  Protected by
+the log, the fisher had but to hold on and play a waiting game.
+
+The heaving and backward pulling of Kahk were very feeble at
+length; the fisher had nearly finished the fight.  But he was
+impatient of further delay and backing out of the hole he mounted
+the log, displaying a much scratched nose; then reaching down
+with deft paw, near the quill-pig's shoulder, he gave a sudden
+jerk that threw the former over on its back, and before it could
+recover, the fisher's jaws closed on its ribs, and crushed and
+tore.  The nerveless, almost quilless tail could not harm him
+there.  The red blood flowed and the porcupine lay still.  Again
+and again as he uttered chesty growls the pekan ground his teeth
+into the warm flesh and shook and worried the unconquerable  one
+he had conquered.  He was licking his bloody chops for the
+twentieth time, gloating in gore, when "crack" went Quonab's gun,
+and the pekan had an  opportunity of resuming the combat with
+Kahk far away in the Happy Hunting.
+
+"Yap, yap, yap!" and in rushed Skookum, dragging the end of
+Rolf's sash which he had gnawed through in his determination to
+be in the fight, no matter what it cost; and it was entirely due
+to the fact that the porcupine was belly up, that Skookum did not
+have another hospital experience.
+
+This was Rolf's first sight of a fisher, and he examined it as
+one does any animal -- or man -- that one has so long heard
+described in superlative terms that it has become idealized into
+a semi-myth.  This was the desperado of the woods; the weird
+black cat that feared no living thing. This was the only one that
+could fight and win against Kahk.
+
+They made a fire at once, and while Rolf got the mid-day meal of
+tea and venison, Quonab skinned the fisher.  Then he cut out its
+heart and liver.  When these were cooked he gave the first to
+Rolf and the second to Skookum, saying to the one, "I give you a
+pekan heart;" and to the dog, "That will force all of the quills
+out of you if you play the fool again, as I think you will."
+
+In the skin of the fisher's neck and tail they found  several
+quills, some of them new, some of them dating  evidently from
+another fight of the same kind, but none of them had done any
+damage.  There was no inflammation or sign of poisoning.  "It is
+ever so," said Quonab, "the quills cannot hurt him."  Then,
+turning to the porcupine, he remarked, as he prepared to skin it:
+
+"Ho, Kahk! you see now it was a big mistake you did not let Nana
+Bojou sit on the dry end of that log."
+
+
+
+Chapter 38. The Silver Fox
+
+They were returning to the cabin, one day, when Quonab stopped
+and pointed.  Away off on the snow of the far shore was a moving
+shape to be seen.
+
+"Fox, and I think silver fox; he so black.  I think he lives
+there."
+
+"Why?"   "I have seen many times a very big fox track, and they
+do not go where they do not live.  Even in winter they keep their
+own range."
+
+"He's worth ten martens, they say?" queried Rolf.
+
+"Ugh! fifty."
+
+"Can't we get him?"
+
+"Can try.  But the water set will not work in winter; we must try
+different."
+
+This was the plan, the best that Quonab could devise for the
+snow: Saving the ashes from the fire (dry sand would have
+answered), he selected six open places in the woods on the south
+of the lake, and in each made an ash bed on which he scattered
+three or four drops of the  smell-charm.  Then, twenty-five yards
+from each, on the north or west side (the side of the prevailing
+wind) he hung from some sapling a few feathers, a partridge wing
+or tail with some red yarns to it.  He left the places unvisited
+for two weeks, then returned to learn the progress of act one.
+
+Judging from past experience of fox nature and from the few signs
+that were offered by the snow, this is what had happened: A fox
+came along soon after the trappers left, followed the track a
+little way, came to the first  opening, smelled the seductive
+danger-lure, swung around it, saw the dangling feathers, took
+alarm, and went off. Another of the places had been visited by a
+marten.  He had actually scratched in the ashes.  A wolf had gone
+around another at a safe distance.
+
+Another had been shunned several times by a fox or by foxes, but
+they had come again and again and at last yielded to the
+temptation to investigate the danger-smell; finally had rolled in
+it, evidently wallowing in an abandon of delight.  So far, the
+plan was working there.
+
+The next move was to set the six strong fox traps, each
+thoroughly smoked, and chained to a fifteen-pound block of wood.
+
+Approaching the place carefully and using his blood-rubbed
+glove, Quonab set in each ash pile a trap.  Under its face he put
+a wad of white rabbit fur.  Next he buried all in the ashes,
+scattered a few bits of rabbit and a few drops of smell-charm,
+then dashed snow over the place, renewed the dangling feathers to
+lure the eye; and finally left the rest to the weather.
+
+Rolf was keen to go the next day, but the old man said: "Wah! no
+good! no trap go first night; man smell too strong."  The second
+day there was a snowfall, and the third morning Quonab said, "Now
+seem like good time."
+
+The first trap was untouched, but there was clearly the track of
+a large fox within ten yards of it.
+
+The second was gone.  Quonab said, with surprise in his voice,
+"Deer!"  Yes, truly, there was the record. A deer -- a big one --
+had come wandering past; his keen nose soon apprised him of a
+strong, queer appeal near by.  He had gone unsuspiciously toward
+it, sniffed and pawed the unaccountable and exciting nose
+medicine; then "snap!" and he had sprung a dozen feet, with that
+diabolic smell-thing hanging to his foot.  Hop, hop, hop, the
+terrified deer had gone into a slashing windfall.  Then the drag
+had caught on the logs, and, thanks to the hard and taper hoofs,
+the trap had slipped off and been left behind, while the deer had
+sought safer regions.
+
+In the next trap they found a beautiful marten dead, killed at
+once by the clutch of steel.  The last trap was gone, but the
+tracks and the marks told a tale that any one could read; a fox
+had been beguiled and had gone off, dragging the trap and log.
+Not far did they need to go; held in a thicket they found him,
+and Rolf prepared the mid-day meal while Quonab gathered the
+pelt.  After removing the skin the Indian cut deep and carefully
+into the body of the fox and removed the bladder.  Its  contents
+sprinkled near each of the traps was good medicine, he said; a
+view that was evidently shared by Skookum.
+
+More than once they saw the track of the big fox of the region,
+but never very near the snare.  He was too clever to be fooled by
+smell-spells or kidney products, no matter how temptingly
+arrayed.  The trappers did, indeed, capture three red foxes; but
+it was at cost of great labour.  It was a venture that did not
+pay.  The silver fox was there, but he took too good care of his
+precious hide.  The slightest hint of a man being near was enough
+to treble his already double wariness.  They would never have
+seen him near at hand, but for a stirring episode that told a
+tale of winter hardship.
+
+
+
+Chapter 39. The Humiliation of Skookum
+
+If Skookum could have been interviewed by a newspaper man, he
+would doubtless have said: "I am a very remarkable dog.  I can
+tree partridges. I'm death on porcupines.  I am pretty good in a
+dog fight; never was licked in fact: but my really marvellous
+gift is my speed; I'm a terror to run."
+
+Yes, he was very proud of his legs, and the foxes that came about
+in the winter nights gave him many opportunities  of showing what
+he could do.  Many times over he very nearly caught a fox.
+Skookum did not know that these wily ones were playing with him;
+but they were, and enjoyed it immensely.
+
+The self-sufficient cur never found this out, and never lost a
+chance of nearly catching a fox.  The men did not see those
+autumn chases because they were by night; but foxes hunt much by
+day in winter, perforce, and are often seen; and more than once
+they witnessed one of these farcical races.
+
+And now the shining white furnished background for a much more
+important affair.
+
+It was near sundown one day when a faint fox bark was heard out
+on the snow-covered ice of the lake.
+
+"That's for me," Skookum seemed to think, and jumping  up, with a
+very fierce growl, he trotted forth; the men looked first from
+the window.  Out on the snow, sitting on his haunches, was their
+friend, the big, black silver fox.
+
+Quonab reached for his gun and Rolf tried to call Skookum, but it
+was too late.  He was out to catch that fox; their business was
+to look on and applaud.  The fox sat on his haunches, grinning
+apparently, until Skookum dashed through the snow within twenty
+yards.  Then, that shining, black fox loped gently away, his huge
+tail level out behind him, and Skookum, sure of success, raced
+up, within six or seven yards.  A few more leaps now, and the
+victory would be won.  But somehow he could not close that six or
+seven yard gap.  No matter how he strained and leaped, the great
+black brush was just so far ahead.  At first they had headed for
+the shore, but the fox wheeled back to the ice and up and down.
+Skookum felt it was because escape was hopeless, and he redoubled
+his effort.  But all in vain.  He was only wearing himself out,
+panting noisily now.  The snow was deep enough to be a great
+disadvantage, more to dog than to fox, since weight counted as
+such a handicap.  Unconsciously Skookum  slowed up.  The fox
+increased his headway; then audaciously turned around and sat
+down in the snow.
+
+This was too much for the dog.  He wasted about a lungful of air
+in an angry bark, and again went after the enemy.  Again the
+chase was round and round, but very soon the dog was so wearied
+that he sat down, and now the black fox actually came back and
+barked at him.
+
+It was maddening.  Skookum's pride was touched.
+
+He was in to win or break.  His supreme effort brought him within
+five feet of that white-tipped brush.  Then, strange to tell, the
+big black fox put forth his large reserve of speed, and making
+for the woods, left Skookum far behind.  Why?  The cause was
+clear.  Quonab, after vainly watching for a chance to shoot, that
+would not endanger the dog, had, under cover, crept around the
+lake and now was awaiting in a thicket.  But the fox's keen nose
+had warned him.  He knew that the funny part was over, so ran for
+the woods and disappeared as a ball tossed up the snow behind
+him.
+
+Poor Skookum's tongue was nearly a foot long as he walked meekly
+ashore.  He looked depressed; his tail was depressed; so were his
+ears; but there was nothing to show whether he would have told
+that reporter that he "wasn't feeling up to his usual, to-day,"
+or "Didn't you see me get the best of him?"
+
+
+
+Chapter 40. The Rarest of Pelts
+
+They saw that silver fox three or four times during the winter,
+and once found that he had had the audacity to jump from a high
+snowdrift onto the storehouse and thence to the cabin roof, where
+he had feasted on some white rabbits kept there for deadfall
+baits.  But all attempts to trap or shoot him were vain, and
+their acquaintance might have ended as it began, but for an
+accident.
+
+It proved a winter of much snow.  Heavy snow is the worst
+misfortune that can befall the wood folk in fur.  It hides their
+food beyond reach, and it checks their movements  so they can
+neither travel far in search of provender nor run fast to escape
+their enemies.  Deep snow then means fetters, starvation, and
+death.  There are two ways of meeting the problem: stilts and
+snowshoes.  The second is far the better.  The caribou, and the
+moose have stilts; the rabbit, the panther, and the lynx wear
+snowshoes.  When there are three or four feet of soft snow, the
+lynx is king of all small beasts, and little in fear of the large
+ones.  Man on his snowshoes has most wild four-foots at his
+mercy.
+
+Skookum, without either means of meeting the trouble was left
+much alone in the shanty.  Apparently, it was on one of these
+occasions that the silver fox had driven him nearly frantic by
+eating rabbits on the roof above him.
+
+The exasperating robbery of their trap line had gone on
+irregularly all winter, but the thief was clever enough or lucky
+enough to elude them.
+
+They were returning to the cabin after a three days' round, when
+they saw, far out on the white expanse of the lake, two animals,
+alternately running and fighting. "Skookum and the fox," was the
+first thought that came, but on entering the cabin Skookum
+greeted them in person.
+
+Quonab gazed intently at the two running specks and said: "One
+has no tail.  I think it is a peeshoo (lynx) and a fox."
+
+Rolf was making dinner.  From time to time he glanced over the
+lake and saw the two specks, usually running.  After dinner was
+over, he said, "Let's sneak 'round and see if we can get a shot."
+
+So, putting on their snowshoes and keeping out of sight, they
+skimmed over the deer crossing and through the woods, till at a
+point near the fighters, and there they saw something that
+recalled at once the day of Skookum's humiliation.
+
+A hundred yards away on the open snow was a huge lynx and their
+old friend, the black and shining silver fox, face to face; the
+fox desperate, showing his rows of beautiful teeth, but sinking
+belly deep in the snow as he strove to escape.  Already he was
+badly wounded.  In any case he was at the mercy of the lynx who,
+in spite of his greater weight, had such broad and perfect
+snowshoes that he skimmed on the surface, while the fox's small
+feet sank deep.  The lynx was far from fresh, and still stood in
+some awe of those rows of teeth that snapped like traps when he
+came too near.  He was minded, of course, to kill his black
+rival, but not to be hurt in doing so.  Again and again there was
+in some sort a closing fight, the wearied fox plunging
+breathlessly through the treacherous, relentless  snow.  If he
+could only get back to cover, he might find a corner to protect
+his rear and have some fighting chance for life.  But wherever he
+turned that huge cat faced him, doubly armed, and equipped as a
+fox can never be for the snow.
+
+No one could watch that plucky fight without feeling his
+sympathies go out to the beautiful silver fox.  Rolf, at least,
+was for helping him to escape, when the final onset came.  In
+another dash for the woods the fox plunged out of sight in a
+drift made soft by sedge sticking through, and before he could
+recover, the lynx's jaws closed on the back of his neck and the
+relentless claws had pierced his vitals.
+
+The justification of killing is self-preservation, and in this
+case the proof would have been the lynx making a meal of the fox.
+Did he do so?  Not at all.  He shook his fur, licked his chest
+and paws in a self-congratulatory way, then giving a final tug at
+the body, walked calmly over the snow along the shore.
+
+Quonab put the back of his hand to his mouth and made a loud
+squeaking, much like a rabbit caught in a snare. The lynx
+stopped, wheeled, and came trotting straight toward the promising
+music.  Unsuspectingly he came within twenty yards of the
+trappers.  The flint-lock banged and the lynx was kicking in the
+snow.
+
+The beautiful silver fox skin was very little injured and proved
+of value almost to double their catch so far; while the lynx skin
+was as good as another marten.
+
+They now had opportunity of studying the tracks and learned that
+the fox had been hunting rabbits in a thicket when he was set on
+by the lynx.  At first he had run around in the bushes and saved
+himself from serious  injury, for the snow was partly packed by
+the rabbits.  After perhaps an hour of this, he had wearied and
+sought to save himself by abandoning the lynx's territory, so had
+struck across the open lake.  But here the snow was too soft to
+bear him at all, and the lynx could still skim over.  So it
+proved a fatal error.  He was strong and brave.  He fought at
+least another hour here before the much stronger, heavier lynx
+had done him to death.  There was no  justification.  It was a
+clear case of tyrannical murder, but in this case vengeance was
+swift and justice came sooner than its wont.
+
+
+
+Chapter 41. The Enemy's Fort
+
+It pays 'bout once in  a hundred times to git mad, but there
+ain't any  way o' tellin' beforehand which is the time
+- Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+It generally took two days to run the west line of traps.   At a
+convenient point they had built a rough shack for a half-way
+house.  On entering this one day, they learned that since their
+last visit it had been occupied by some one who chewed tobacco.
+Neither of them had this habit.  Quonab's face grew darker each
+time fresh evidence of the enemy was discovered, and the final
+wrong was added soon.
+
+Some trappers mark their traps; some do not bother. Rolf had
+marked all of theirs with a file, cutting notches on the iron.
+Two, one, three, was their mark, and it was a wise plan, as it
+turned out.
+
+On going around the west beaver pond they found that all six
+traps had disappeared.  In some, there was no evidence of the
+thief; in some, the tracks showed clearly that they were taken by
+the same interloper that had bothered them all along, and on a
+jagged branch was a short blue yarn.
+
+"Now will I take up his trail and kill him," said the Indian.
+
+Rolf had opposed extreme measures, and again he  remonstrated.
+To his surprise, the Indian turned fiercely and said: "You know
+it is white man.  If he was Indian would you be patient?  No!"
+
+"There is plenty of country south of the lake; maybe he was here first."
+
+"You know he was not.  You should eat many pekan hearts.  I have
+sought peace, now I fight."
+
+He shouldered his pack, grasped his gun, and his  snowshoes went
+"tssape, tssape, tssape," over the snow.
+
+Skookum was sitting by Rolf.  He rose to resume the march, and
+trotted a few steps on Quonab's trail.  Rolf did not move; he was
+dazed by the sudden and painful situation.  Mutiny is always
+worse than war.  Skookum looked back, trotted on, still Rolf sat
+staring.  Quonab's figure was lost in the distance; the dog's was
+nearly so. Rolf moved not.  All the events of the last year were
+rushing through his mind; the refuge he had found with the
+Indian; the incident of the buck fight and the tender nurse the
+red man proved.  He wavered.  Then he saw Skookum coming back on
+the trail.  The dog trotted up to the boy and dropped a glove,
+one of Quonab's.  Undoubtedly  the Indian had lost it; Skookum
+had found it on the trail and mechanically brought it to the
+nearest of his  masters.  Without that glove Quonab's hand would
+freeze.  Rolf rose and sped along the other's trail.  Having
+taken the step, he found it easy to send a long halloo, then
+another and another, till an answer came.  In a few minutes Rolf
+came up. The Indian was sitting on a log, waiting.  The glove was
+handed over in silence, and received with a grunt.
+
+After a minute or two, Rolf said "Let's get on," and started on
+the dim trail of the robber.
+
+For an hour or two they strode in silence.  Then their course
+rose as they reached a rocky range.  Among its bare, wind-swept
+ridges all sign was lost, but the Indian kept on till they were
+over and on the other side.  A far cast in the thick, windless
+woods revealed the trail again, surely the same, for the snowshoe
+was two fingers wider on every side, and a hand-breadth longer
+than Quonab's; be- sides the right frame had been broken and the
+binding of rawhide was faintly seen in the snow mark.  It was a
+mark they had seen all winter, and now it was headed as before
+for the west.
+
+When night came down, they camped in a hollow.  They were used to
+snow camps.  In the morning they went on, but wind and snow had
+hidden their tell-tale guide.
+
+What was the next move?  Rolf did not ask, but  wondered.
+
+Quonab evidently was puzzled.
+
+At length Rolf ventured: "He surely lives by some river -- that
+way -- and within a day's journey.  This track is gone, but we
+may strike a fresh one.  We'll know it when we see it."
+
+The friendly look came back to the Indian's face.  "You are
+Nibowaka."
+
+They had not gone half a mile before they found a fresh track --
+their old acquaintance.  Even Skookum showed his hostile
+recognition.  And in a few minutes it led them to a shanty.  They
+slipped off their snowshoes, and hung them in a tree.  Quonab
+opened the door without knocking.   They entered, and in a moment
+were face to face with a lanky, ill-favoured white man that all
+three, including  Skookum, recognized as Hoag, the man they had
+met at the trader's.
+
+That worthy made a quick reach for his rifle, but Quonab covered
+him and said in tones that brooked no discussion, "Sit down!"
+
+Hoag did so, sullenly, then growled: "All right; my partners will
+be here in ten minutes."
+
+Rolf was startled.  Quonab and Skookum were not.
+
+"We settled your partners up in the hills," said the former,
+knowing that one bluff was as good as another. Skookum growled
+and sniffed at the enemy's legs.  The prisoner made a quick move
+with his foot.
+
+"You kick that dog again and it's your last kick," said the Indian.
+
+"Who's kicked yer dog, and what do you mean coming here with yer
+cutthroat ways?  You'll find there's law in this country before
+yer through," was the answer.
+
+"That's what we're looking for, you trap robber, you thief.
+We're here first to find our traps; second to tell you this: the
+next time you come on our line there'll be meat for the ravens.
+Do you suppose I don't know them? and the Indian pointed to a
+large pair of snowshoes with long heels and a repair lashing on
+the right frame.  "See that blue yarn," and the Indian matched it
+with a blue sash hanging to a peg.
+
+"Yes, them belongs to Bill Hawkins; he'll be 'round in five
+minutes now."
+
+The Indian made a gesture of scorn; then turning to Rolf said:
+"look 'round for our traps." Rolf made a thorough search in and
+about the shanty and the adjoining shed. He found some traps but
+none with his mark; none of a familiar make even.
+
+"Better hunt for a squaw and papoose," sneered Hoag, who was
+utterly puzzled by the fact that now Rolf was obviously a white
+lad.
+
+But all the search was vain.  Either Hoag had not stolen the
+traps or had hidden them elsewhere.  The only large traps they
+found were two of the largest size for taking bear.
+
+Hoag's torrent of bad language had been quickly checked by the
+threat of turning Skookum loose on his legs, and he looked such a
+grovelling beast that presently the visitors decided to leave him
+with a warning.
+
+The Indian took the trapper's gun, fired it off out of doors, not
+in the least perturbed by the possibility of its being heard by
+Hoag's partners.  He knew they were imaginary.   Then changing
+his plan, he said "Ugh! You find your gun in half a mile on our
+trail.  But don't come farther and don't let me see the snowshoe
+trail on the divide again. Them ravens is awful hungry."
+
+Skookum, to his disappointment, was called off and, talking the
+trapper's gun for a time, they left it in a bush and made for
+their own country.
+
+
+
+Chapter 42. Skookum's Panther
+
+"Why are there so few deer tracks now?"
+
+"Deer yarded for winter," replied the Indian; no travel in deep snow."
+
+"We'll soon need another," said Rolf, which unfortunately  was
+true.  They could have killed many deer in early winter, when the
+venison was in fine condition, but they had no place to store it.
+Now they must get it as they could, and of course it was thinner
+and poorer every week.
+
+They were on a high hill some days later.  There was a clear view
+and they noticed several ravens circling and swooping.
+
+"Maybe dead deer; maybe deer yard," said the Indian.
+
+It was over a thick, sheltered, and extensive cedar swamp near
+the woods where last year they had seen so many deer, and they
+were not surprised to find deer tracks in numbers, as soon as
+they got into its dense thicket.
+
+A deer yard is commonly supposed to be a place in which the deer
+have a daily "bee" at road work all winter long and deliberately
+keep the snow hammered down so they can run on a hard surface
+everywhere within its limits.  The fact is, the deer gather in a
+place where there is plenty of food and good shelter.  The snow
+does not drift here, so the deer, by continually moving about,
+soon make a network of tracks in all directions, extending them
+as they must to seek more food.  They may, of course, leave the
+yard at any time, but at once they encounter the dreaded obstacle
+of deep, soft snow in which they are helpless.
+
+Once they reached the well-worn trails, the hunters took off
+their snowshoes and went gently on these deer paths. They saw one
+or two disappearing forms, which taught them the thick cover was
+hiding many more.  They made for the sound of the ravens, and
+found that the feast of the sable birds was not a deer but the
+bodies of three, quite recently killed.
+
+Quonab made a hasty study of the signs and said, "Panther."
+
+Yes, a panther, cougar, or mountain lion also had found the deer
+yard; and here he was living, like a rat in a grocer shop with
+nothing to do but help himself whenever he felt like feasting.
+
+Pleasant for the panther, but hard on the deer; for the killer is
+wasteful and will often kill for the joy of murder.
+
+Not a quarter of the carcasses lying here did he eat; he was
+feeding at least a score of ravens, and maybe foxes, martens, and
+lynxes as well.
+
+Before killing a deer, Quonab thought it well to take a quiet
+prowl around in hopes of seeing the panther.  Skookum was turned
+loose and encouraged to display his talents.
+
+Proud as a general with an ample and obedient following, he
+dashed ahead, carrying fresh dismay among the deer, if one might
+judge from the noise.  Then he found some new smell of
+excitement, and voiced the new thrill in a new sound, one not
+unmixed with fear.  At length his barking was far away to the
+west in a rocky part of the woods.  Whatever the prey, it was
+treed, for the voice kept one place.
+
+The hunters followed quickly and found the dog yapping  furiously
+under a thick cedar.  The first thought was of porcupine; but a
+nearer view showed the game to be a huge panther on the ground,
+not greatly excited,  disdaining to climb, and taking little
+notice of the dog,  except to curl his nose and utter a hissing
+kind of snarl when the latter came too near.
+
+But the arrival of the hunters gave a new colour to the picture.
+The panther raised his head, then sprang up a large tree and
+ensconced himself on a fork, while the valorous  Skookum reared
+against the trunk, threatening loudly to come up and tear him to
+pieces.
+
+This was a rare find and a noble chance to conserve their stock
+of deer, so the hunters went around the tree seeking for a fair
+shot.  But every point of view had some serious obstacle.  It
+seemed as though the branches had been told off to guard the
+panther's vitals, for a big one always stood in the bullet's way.
+
+After vainly going around, Quonab said to Rolf: "Hit him with
+something, so he'll move."
+
+Rolf always was a good shot with stones, but he found none to
+throw.  Near where they stood, however, was an unfreezing spring,
+and the soggy snow on it was easily packed into a hard, heavy
+snowball.  Rolf threw it straight, swift, and by good luck it hit
+the panther square on the nose and startled him so that he sprang
+right out of the tree and flopped into the snow.
+
+Skookum was on him at once, but got a slap on the ear that
+changed his music, and the panther bounded away out of sight with
+the valiant Skookum ten feet behind, whooping and yelling like
+mad.
+
+It was annoyance rather than fear that made that  panther take to
+a low tree while Skookum boxed the compass, and made a beaten dog
+path all around him.  The hunters approached very carefully now,
+making little sound and keeping out of sight.  The panther was
+wholly engrossed with observing the astonishing impudence of that
+dog, when Quonab came quietly up, leaned his rifle against a tree
+and fired.  The smoke cleared to show the panther on his back,
+his legs convulsively waving in the air, and Skookum tugging
+valiantly at his tail.
+
+"My panther," he seemed to say; "whatever would you do without me?"
+
+A panther in a deer yard is much like a wolf shut up in a
+sheepfold.  He would probably have killed all the deer that
+winter, though there were ten times as many as he needed for
+food; and getting rid of him was a piece of good luck for hunters
+and deer, while his superb hide made a noble trophy that in years
+to come had unexpected places of honour.
+
+
+
+Chapter 43. Sunday in the Woods
+
+Rolf still kept to the tradition of Sunday, and Quonab had in a
+manner accepted it.  It was a curious fact that the red man had
+far more toleration for the white man's religious ideas than the
+white man had for the red's.
+
+Quonab's songs to the sun and the spirit, or his burning of a
+tobacco pinch, or an animal's whiskers were to Rolf but harmless
+nonsense.  Had he given them other names, calling them hymns and
+incense, he would have been much nearer respecting them.  He had
+forgotten his mother's teaching: "If any man do anything
+sincerely, believing that thereby he is worshipping God, he is
+worshipping God." He disliked seeing Quonab use an axe or a gun
+on Sunday, and the Indian, realizing that such action made "evil
+medicine"  for Rolf, practically abstained.  But Rolf had not yet
+learned to respect the red yarns the Indian hung from a deer's
+skull, though he did come to understand that he must let them
+alone or produce bad feeling in camp.
+
+Sunday had become a day of rest and Quonab made it also a day of
+song and remembrance.
+
+They were sitting one Sunday night by the fire in the cabin,
+enjoying the blaze, while a storm rattled on the window and door.
+A white-footed mouse, one of a family that lived in the shanty,
+was trying how close he could come to Skookum's nose without
+being caught, while Rolf looked on.  Quonab was lying back on a
+pile of deer skins, with his pipe in his mouth, his head on the
+bunk, and his hands clasped back of his neck.
+
+There was an atmosphere of content and brotherly feeling; the
+evening was young, when Rolf broke silence:
+
+"Were you ever married, Quonab?"
+
+"Ugh," was the Indian's affirmative.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Myanos."
+
+Rolf did not venture more questions, but left the  influence of
+the hour to work.  It was a moment of delicate poise, and Rolf
+knew a touch would open the door or double bar it.  He wondered
+how he might give that touch as he wished it.  Skookum still
+slept.  Both men watched the mouse, as, with quick movements it
+crept about. Presently it approached a long birch stick that
+stood up against the wall.  High hanging was the song-drum.  Rolf
+wished Quonab would take it and let it open his heart, but he
+dared not offer it; that might have the exact wrong effect.  Now
+the mouse was behind the birch stick.  Then Rolf noticed that the
+stick if it were to fall would strike a drying line, one end of
+which was on the song-drum peg. So he made a dash at the mouse
+and displaced the stick; the jerk it gave the line sent the
+song-drum with hollow bumping to the ground.  The boy stooped to
+replace it; as he did, Quonab grunted and Rolf turned to see his
+hand stretched for the drum.  Had Rolf officiously offered it, it
+would have been refused; now the Indian took it, tapped and
+warmed it at the fire, and sang a song of the Wabanaki.  It was
+softly done, and very low, but Rolf was close, for almost the
+first time in any long rendition, and he got an entirely new
+notion of the red music.  The singer's face brightened as he
+tummed and sang with peculiar grace notes and throat warbles of
+"Kaluscap's war with the magi," and the spirit of his people,
+rising to the sweet magic of melody, came shining in his eyes.
+He sang the lovers' song, "The Bark Canoe." (See F. R. Burton's
+"American Primitive Music.)
+
+"While the stars shine and falls the dew, I seek my love in bark canoe."
+
+And then the cradle song,
+
+"The Naked Bear Shall Never Catch Thee."
+
+When he stopped, he stared at the fire; and after a long pause
+Rolf ventured, "My mother would have loved your songs."
+
+Whether he heard or not, the warm emanation surely reached the
+Indian, and he began to answer the question of an hour before:
+
+"Her name was Gamowini, for she sang like the sweet night bird at
+Asamuk.  I brought her from her father's house at Saugatuck.  We
+lived at Myanos.  She made beautiful baskets and moccasins.  I
+fished and trapped; we had enough.  Then the baby came.  He had
+big round eyes, so we called him Wee-wees, 'our little owl,' and
+we were very happy.  When Gamowini sang to her baby, the world
+seemed full of sun.  One day when Wee-wees could walk she left
+him with me and she went to Stamford with some baskets to sell.
+A big ship was in the harbour.  A man from the ship told her that
+his sailors would buy all her baskets. She had no fear.  On the
+ship they seized her for a runaway slave, and hid her till they
+sailed away.
+
+"When she did not come back I took Wee-wees on my shoulder and
+went quickly to Stamford.  I soon found out a little, but the
+people did not know the ship, or whence she came, or where she
+went, they said.  They did not seem to care.  My heart grew
+hotter and wilder.  I wanted to fight.  I would have killed the
+men on the dock, but they were many.  They bound me and put me in
+jail for three months.  'When I came out Wee-wees was dead.  They
+did not care.  I have heard nothing since.  Then I went to live
+under the rock, so I should not see our first home. I do not
+know; she may be alive.  But I think it killed her to lose her baby."
+
+The Indian stopped; then rose quickly.  His face was hard set.
+He stepped out into the snowstorm and the night.  Rolf was left
+alone with Skookum.
+
+Sad, sad, everything seemed sad in his friend's life, and Rolf,
+brooding over it with wisdom beyond his years, could not help
+asking: "Had Quonab and Gamowini been white folk, would it have
+happened so?  Would his agony have been received with scornful
+indifference?  Alas! he knew it would not.  He realized it would
+have been a very different tale, and the sequent questions that
+would not down, were, "Will this bread cast on the waters return
+after many days?" "Is there a God of justice and retribution?"
+"On whom will the flail of vengeance fall for all these abominations?"
+
+Two hours later the Indian returned.  No word was spoken as he
+entered.  He was not cold.  He must have walked far.  Rolf
+prepared for bed.  The Indian stooped, picked up a needle from
+the dusty ground, one that had been lost the day before, silently
+handed it to his  companion, who gave only a recognizant "Hm,"
+and dropped it into the birch-bark box.
+
+
+
+Chapter 44. The Lost Bundle of Furs
+
+There had been a significant cessation of robbery on their trap
+line after the inconclusive visit to the enemy's camp.  But a new
+and extreme exasperation  arose in the month of March, when the
+alternation  of thaw and frost had covered the snow with a hard
+crust that rendered snowshoes unnecessary and made it easy to run
+anywhere and leave no track.
+
+They had gathered up a fisher and some martens before they
+reached the beaver pond.  They had no beaver traps now, but it
+was interesting to call and see how many of the beavers were
+left, and what they were doing.
+
+Bubbling springs on the bank of the pond had made open water at
+several places, now that the winter frost was weakening.  Out of
+these the beavers often came, as was plainly seen in the tracks,
+so the trappers approached them carefully.
+
+They were scrutinizing one of them from behind a log, Quonab with
+ready gun, Rolf holding the unwilling Skookum,  when the familiar
+broad, flat head appeared.  A large beaver swam around the hole,
+sniffed and looked, then silently climbed the bank, evidently
+making for a certain aspen tree that he had already been cutting.
+He was in easy range, and the gunner was about to fire when Rolf
+pressed his arm and pointed.  Here, wandering through the wood,
+came a large lynx.  It had not seen or smelt any of the living
+creatures ahead, as yet, but speedily sighted the beaver now
+working away to cut down his tree.
+
+As a pelt, the beaver was worth more than the lynx, but the
+naturalist is strong in most hunters, and they watched to see
+what would happen.
+
+The lynx seemed to sink into the ground, and was lost to sight as
+soon as he knew of a possible prey ahead.  And now he began his
+stalk.  The hunters sighted him once as he crossed a level
+opening in the snow.  He seemed less than four inches high as he
+crawled.  Logs, ridges, trees, or twigs, afforded ample
+concealment, till his whiskers appeared in a thicket within
+fifteen feet of the beaver.
+
+All this was painfully exciting to Skookum, who, though he could
+not see, could get some thrilling whiffs, and he strained forward
+to improve his opportunities.  The sound of this slight struggle
+caught the beaver's ear.  It stopped work, wheeled, and made for
+the water hole.  The lynx sprang from his ambush, seized the
+beaver by the back, and held on; but the beaver was double the
+lynx's weight, the bank was steep and slippery, the struggling
+animals kept rolling down hill, nearer and nearer the hole.
+Then, on the very edge, the beaver gave a great plunge, and
+splashed into the water with the lynx clinging to its back. At
+once they disappeared, and the hunters rushed to the place,
+expecting them to float up and be an easy prey; but they did not
+float.  At length it was clear that the pair had gone under the
+ice, for in water the beaver was master.
+
+After five minutes it was certain that the lynx must be dead.
+Quonab cut a sapling and made a grappler.  He poked this way and
+that way under the ice, until at length he felt something soft.
+With the hatchet they cut a hole over the place and then dragged
+out the body of the lynx. The beaver, of course, escaped and was
+probably little the worse.
+
+While Quonab skinned the catch, Rolf prowled around the pond and
+soon came running back to tell of a remarkable happening.
+
+At another open hole a beaver had come out, wandered twenty yards
+to a mound which he had castorized, then passed several hard wood
+trees to find a large poplar or aspen, the favourite food tree.
+This he had begun to fell with considerable skill, but for some
+strange reason, perhaps because alone, he had made a
+miscalculation, and when the tree came crashing down, it had
+fallen across his back, killed him, and pinned him to the ground.
+
+It was an easy matter for the hunters to remove the log and
+secure his pelt, so they left the beaver pond, richer than they
+had expected.
+
+Next night, when they reached their half-way shanty, they had the
+best haul they had taken on this line since the memorable day
+wben they got six beavers.
+
+The morning dawned clear and bright.  As they breakfasted,  they
+noticed an extraordinary gathering of ravens far away to the
+north, beyond any country they had visited.  At least twenty or
+thirty of the birds were sailing  in great circles high above a
+certain place, uttering a deep, sonorous croak, from time to
+time.  Occasionally one of the ravens would dive down out of sight.
+
+"Why do they fly above that way?"
+
+"That is to let other ravens know there is food here. Their eyes
+are very good.  They can see the signal ten miles away, so all
+come to the place.  My father told me that you can gather all the
+ravens for twenty miles by leaving a carcass so they can see it
+and signal each other.  "
+
+"Seems as if we should look into that.  Maybe another panther,"
+was Rolf's remark.
+
+The Indian nodded; so leaving the bundle of furs in a safe place
+with the snowshoes, that they carried on a chance, they set out
+over the hard crust.  It was two or three miles to the ravens'
+gathering, and, as before, it proved to be over a cedar brake
+where was a deer yard.
+
+Skookum knew all about it.  He rushed into the woods, filled with
+the joy of martial glory.  But speedily came running out again as
+hard as he could, yelling "yow, yow, yowl" for help, while
+swiftly following, behind him were a couple of gray wolves.
+Quonab waited till they were within forty yards; then, seeing the
+men, the wolves slowed up and veered; Quonab fired; one of the
+wolves gave a little, doglike yelp.  Then they leaped into the
+bushes and were lost to view.
+
+A careful study of the snow showed one or two triffing traces of
+blood.  In the deer yard they found at least a dozen carcasses of
+deer killed by the wolves, but none very recent.  They saw but
+few deer and nothing more of the wolves, for the crust had made
+all the country easy, and both kinds fled before the hunters.
+
+Exploring a lower level of willow country in hopes of finding
+beaver delayed them, and it was afternoon when they returned to
+the half-way shanty, to find everything as they left it, except
+that their Pack of furs had totally  disappeared.
+
+Of course, the hard crust gave no sign of track.  Their first
+thought was of the old enemy, but, seeking far and near for
+evidence, they found pieces of an ermine skin, and a quarter mile
+farther, the rest of it, then, at another place, fragments of a
+muskrat's skin.  Those made it look like the work of the
+trapper's enemy, the wolverine, which, though rare, was surely
+found in these hills.  Yes! there was a wolverine scratch mark,
+and here another piece of the rat skin.  It was very clear who
+was the thief.
+
+"He tore up the cheapest ones of the lot anyway," said Rolf.
+
+Then the trappers stared at each other significantly -- only the
+cheap ones destroyed; why should a wolverine show such
+discrimination?  There was no positive sign of wolverine;  in
+fact, the icy snow gave no sign of anything.  There was little
+doubt that the tom furs and the scratch marks were there to
+mislead; that this was the work of a human robber, almost
+certainly Hoag.
+
+He had doubtless seen them leave in the morning, and it was
+equally sure, since he had had hours of start, he would now be
+far away.
+
+"Ugh!  Give him few days to think he safe, then I follow and
+settle all," and this time the Indian clearly meant to end the
+matter.
+
+
+
+Chapter 45. The Subjugation of Hoag
+
+A feller as weeps for pity and never does a finger-tap to  help
+is 'bout as much use as an overcoat on a drowning man. -- Sayings
+of Si Sylvanne.
+
+SOME remarkable changes of weather made some remarkable changes
+in their plan and saved their enemy from immediate molestation.
+For two weeks it was a succession of thaws and there was much
+rain.  The lake was covered with six inches of water; the river
+had a current above the ice, that was rapidly eating, the latter
+away.  Everywhere there were slush and wet snow that put an end
+to travel and brought on the spring with a rush.
+
+Each night there was, indeed, a trifling frost, but each day's
+sun seemed stronger, and broad, bare patches of ground appeared
+on all sunny slopes.
+
+On the first crisp day the trappers set out to go the rounds,
+knowing full well that this was the end of the season.
+Henceforth for six months deadfall and snare would lie idle and
+unset.
+
+They went their accustomed line, carrying their snowshoes,  but
+rarely needing them.  Then they crossed a large track to which
+Quonab pointed, and grunted  affirmatively as Rolf said "Bear?"
+Yes! the bears were about once more; their winter sleep was over.
+Now they were fat and the fur was yet prime; in a month they
+would be thin and shedding.  Now is the time for bear hunting
+with either trap or dog.
+
+Doubtless Skookum thought the party most fortunately equipped in
+the latter respect, but no single dog is enough to bay a bear.
+There must be three or four to bother him behind, to make him
+face about and fight; one dog merely makes him run faster.
+
+They had no traps, and knowing that a spring bear is a far
+traveller, they made no attempt to follow.
+
+The deadfalls yielded two martens, but one of them was spoiled by
+the warm weather.  They learned at last that the enemy had a
+trap-line, for part of which he used their deadfalls.  He had
+been the rounds lately and had profited at least a little by
+their labours.
+
+The track, though two days old, was not hard to follow, either on
+snow or ground.  Quonab looked to the lock of his gun; his lower
+lip tightened and he strode along.
+
+"What are you going to do, Quonab?  Not shoot?"
+
+"When I get near enough," and the dangerous look in the red man's
+eye told Rolf to be quiet and follow.
+
+In three miles they passed but three of his marten traps -- very
+lazy trapping -- and then found a great triangle of logs by a
+tree with a bait and signs enough to tell the experienced eye
+that, in that corner, was hidden a huge steel trap for bear.
+
+They were almost too late in restraining the knowledge- hunger of
+Skookum.  They went on a mile or two and realized in so doing
+that, however poor a trapper the enemy might be, he was a good
+tramper and knew the country.
+
+At sundown they came to their half-way shelter and put up there
+for the night.  Once when Rolf went out to glimpse the skies
+before turning in, he heard a far tree creaking and wondered, for
+it was dead calm.  Even Skookum noticed it.  But it was not
+repeated.  Next morning they went on.
+
+There are many quaint sounds in the woods at all times, the
+rasping of trees, at least a dozen different calls by jays, twice
+as many by ravens, and occasional notes from chicadees, grouse,
+and owls.  The quadrupeds in general are more silent, but the red
+squirrel is ever about and noisy, as well as busy.
+
+Far-reaching sounds are these echoes of the woods -- some of them
+very far.  Probably there were not five minutes of the day or
+night when some weird, woodland chatter, scrape, crack, screech,
+or whistle did not reach the keen ears of that ever-alert dog.
+That is, three hundred times a day his outer ear submitted to his
+inner ear some  report of things a-doing, which same report was
+as often for many days disregarded as of no interest or value.
+But this did not mean that he missed anything; the steady tramp,
+tramp of their feet, while it dulled all sounds for the hunter,
+seemed to have no effect on Skookum.  Again the raspy squeal of
+some far tree reached his inmost brain, and his hair rose as he
+stopped and gave a low "woof."
+
+The hunters held still; the wise ones always do, when a dog says
+"Stop!" They waited.  After a few minutes it came again -- merely
+the long-drawn creak of a tree bough, wind-rubbed on its
+neighbour.
+
+And yet, "Woof, woof, woof," said Skookum, and ran ahead.
+
+"Come back, you little fool!" cried Rolf.
+
+But Skookum had a mind of his own.  He trotted ahead, then
+stopped, paused, and sniffed at something in the snow.  The
+Indian picked it up.  It was the pocket jackscrew  that every
+bear trapper carries to set the powerful trap, and without which,
+indeed, one man cannot manage the springs.
+
+He held it up with "Ugh! Hoag in trouble now."  Clearly the rival
+trapper had lost this necessary tool.
+
+But the finding was an accident.  Skookum pushed on. They came
+along a draw to a little hollow.  The dog, far forward, began
+barking and angrily baying at something.   The men hurried to the
+scene to find on the snow, fast held in one of those devilish
+engines called a bear trap -- the body of their enemy -- Hoag,
+the trapper, held by a leg, and a hand in the gin he himself had
+been setting.
+
+A fierce light played on the Indian's face.  Rolf was stricken
+with horror.  But even while they contemplated the body, the
+faint cry was heard again coming from it.
+
+"He's alive; hurry!" cried Rolf.  The Indian did not hurry, but he came.
+He had vowed vengeance at sight; why should he haste to help?
+
+The implacable iron jaws had clutched the trapper by one knee and
+the right hand.  The first thing was to free him.  How?  No man
+has power enough to force that spring.  But the jackscrew!
+
+"Quonab, help him!  For God's sake, come!" cried Rolf in agony,
+forgetting their feud and seeing only tortured, dying man.
+
+The Indian gazed a moment, then rose quickly, and put on the
+jackscrew.  Under his deft fingers the first spring went down,
+but what about the other?  They had no other screw.  The long
+buckskin line they always carried was quickly lashed round and
+round the down spring to hold it.  Then the screw was removed and
+put on the other spring; it bent, and the jaws hung loose.  The
+Indian forced them wide open, drew out the mangled limbs, a the
+trapper was free, but so near death, it seemed they were too
+late.
+
+Rolf spread his coat.  The Indian made a fire.  In fifteen
+minutes they were pouring hot tea between victim's lips.  Even as
+they did, his feeble throat gave out again the long, low moan.
+
+The weather was mild now.  The prisoner was not actually frozen,
+but numbed and racked.  Heat, hot tea, kindly rubbing, and he
+revived a little.
+
+At first they thought him dying, but in an hour recovered enough
+to talk.  In feeble accents and broken phrases they learned the
+tale:
+
+"Yest -- m-m-m.  Yesterday -- no; two or three days back --
+m-m-m-m-m -- I dunno; I was a goin' -- roun' me traps -- me bear
+traps.  Didn't have no luck m-m-m (yes, I'd like another sip; ye
+ain't got no whiskey no?) m-m-m.  Nothing in any trap, and when I
+come to this un -- oh-h - m-m; I seen - the bait was stole by
+birds, an' the pan -- m-m-m; an' the pan, m-m-m - (yes, that's
+better) -- an' the pan laid bare.  So I starts to cover it with
+-- ce-ce-dar; the ony thing I c'd get -- m-m-m-w- -- wuz leanin'
+over -- to fix tother side -- me foot slipped on -- the -- ice --
+ev'rytbing was icy -- an'-- m-m-m-m -- I lost -- me balance -- me
+knee the pan -- O Lord -- how I suffer! -- m-m-m it grabbed me --
+knee an'-- h-h-hand -"  His voice died to a whisper and ceased;
+he seemed sinking.
+
+Quonab got up to hold him.  Then, looking at Rolf, Indian shook
+his head as though to say all was over; the poor wretch had a
+woodman's constitution, and in spite of a mangled, dying body, he
+revived again.  They gave him more hot tea, and again he began in
+a whisper:
+
+"I hed one arm free an' -- an' -- an' -- I might -- a -- got out
+-- m-m -- but I hed no wrench -- I lost it some place -- m-m-m-m.
+
+"Then -- I yelled -- I dun -- no - maybe some un might hear -- it
+kin-kin-kinder eased me -- to yell m-m-m.
+
+"Say -- make that yer dog keep -- away -- will yer I dunno -- it
+seems like a week -- must a fainted some M-m-m -- I yelled --
+when I could."
+
+There was a long pause.  Rolf said, "Seems to me I heard you last
+night, when we were up there.  And dog heard you, too.  Do you
+want me to move that leg around?"
+
+"M-m-m -- yeh -- that's better -- say, you air white -- ain't ye?
+Ye won't leave me -- cos -- I done some mean things -- m-m-m.  Ye
+won't, will ye?"
+
+"No, you needn't worry -- we'll stay by ye."
+
+Then he muttered, they could not tell what.  He closed his eyes.
+After long silence he looked around wildly and began again:
+
+"Say -- I done you dirt -- but don't leave me -- don't leave me."
+Tears ran down his face and he moaned piteously.  "I'll -- make
+it -- right -- you're white, ain't ye?"
+
+Quonab rose and went for more firewood.  The trapper whispered,
+"I'm scared o' him -- now -- he'll do me -- say, I'm jest a poor
+ole man.  If I do live -- through -- this -- m-m-m-m -- I'll
+never walk again.  I'm crippled sure."
+
+It was long before he resumed.  Then he began: "Say, what day is
+it -- Friday! -- I must -- been two days in there -- m-m-m -- I
+reckoned it was a week.  When -- the -- dog came I thought it was
+wolves.  Oh -- ah, didn't care much -- m-m-m.  Say, ye won't
+leave me -- coz -- coz -- I treated -- ye mean.  I -- ain't had
+no l-l-luck."  He went off into a stupor, but presently let out a
+long, startling cry, the same as that they had heard in the
+night.  The dog growled; the men stared.  The wretch's eyes were
+rolling again.  He seemed delirious.
+
+Quonab pointed to the east, made the sun-up sign, and shook his
+head at the victim.  And Rolf understood it to mean that he would
+never see the sunrise.  But they were wrong.
+
+The long night passed in a struggle between heath and the tough
+make-up of a mountaineer.  The waiting light of dawn saw death
+defeated, retiring from the scene. As the sun rose high, the
+victim seemed to gain  considerably in strength.  There was no
+immediate danger of an end.
+
+Rolf said to Quonab: "Where shall we take him? Guess you better
+go home for the toboggan, and we'll fetch him to the shanty."
+
+But the invalid was able to take part in the conversation. "Say,
+don't take me there.  Ah -- want to go home. 'Pears like -- I'd
+be better at home.  My folks is out Moose River way.  I'd never
+get out if I went in there," and by "there" he seemed to mean the
+Indian's lake, and glanced furtively at the unchanging
+countenance of the red man.
+
+"Have you a toboggan at your shanty?" asked Rolf.
+
+"Yes -- good enough -- it's on the roof -- say," and he beckoned
+feebly to Rolf, "let him go after it -- don't leave me -- he'll
+kill me," and he wept feebly in his self pity.
+
+So Quonab started down the mountain - a sinewy man -- a striding
+form, a speck in the melting distance.
+
+
+
+Chapter 46. Nursing Hoag
+
+In two hours the red man reached the trapper's shanty, and at
+once, without hesitation or delicacy, set about a thorough
+examination of its contents. Of course there was the toboggan on
+the roof, and in fairly good condition for such a shiftless
+owner.
+
+There were bunches of furs hanging from the rafters, but not
+many, for fur taking is hard work; and Quonab, looking
+suspiciously over them, was 'not surprised to see the lynx skin
+he had lost, easily known by the absence of wound and the fur
+still in points as it had dried from the wetting.  In another
+bundle, he discovered the beaver that had killed itself, for
+there was the dark band across its back.
+
+The martens he could not be sure of, but he had a strong
+suspicion that most of this fur came out of his own traps.
+
+He tied Hoag's blankets on the toboggan, and hastened back to
+where he left the two on the mountain.
+
+Skookum met him long before he was near.  Skookum did not enjoy
+Hoag's company.
+
+The cripple had been talking freely to Rolf, but the  arrival of
+the Indian seemed to suppress him.
+
+With the wounded man on the toboggan, they set out, The ground
+was bare in many places, so that the going was hard; but,
+fortunately, it was all down hill, and four hours' toil brought
+them to the cabin.
+
+They put the sick man in his bunk, then Rolf set about preparing
+a meal, while Quonab cut wood.
+
+After the usual tea, bacon, and flour cakes, all were feeling
+refreshed.  Hoag seemed much more like himself. He talked freely,
+almost cheerfully, while Quonab, with Skookum at his feet, sat
+silently smoking and staring into the fire.
+
+After a long silence, the Indian turned, looked straight at the
+trapper, and, pointing with his pipestem to the furs, said, "How
+many is ours?"
+
+Hoag looked scared, then sulky, and said; "I dunno what ye mean.
+I'm a awful sick man.  You get me out to Lyons Falls all right,
+and ye can have the hull lot," and he wept.
+
+Rolf shook his head at Quonab, then turned to the sufferer and
+said: "Don't you worry; we'll get you out all right.  Have you a
+good canoe?"
+
+"Pretty fair; needs a little fixing."
+
+The night passed with one or two breaks, when the invalid asked
+for a drink of water.  In the morning he was evidently
+recovering, and they began to plan for the future.
+
+He took the first chance of wispering to Rolf, "Can't you send
+him away?  I'll be all right with you."  Rolf said nothing.
+
+"Say," he continued, "say, young feller, what's yer name?"
+
+"Rolf Kittering."
+
+"Say, Rolf, you wait a week or ten days, and the ice 'll be out;
+then I'll be fit to travel.  There ain't on'y a few carries
+between here an' Lyons Falls."
+
+After a long pause, due to Quonab's entry, he continued again:
+"Moose River's good canoeing; ye can get me out in five days; me
+folks is at Lyons Falls."  He did not say that his folks
+consisted of a wife and boy that he neglected, but whom he
+counted on to nurse him now.
+
+Rolf was puzzled by the situation.
+
+"Say!  I'll give ye all them furs if ye git me out." Rolf gave
+him a curious look -- as much as to say, "Ye mean our furs."
+
+Again the conversation was ended by the entry of Quonab.
+
+Rolf stepped out, taking the Indian with him.  They had a long
+talk, then, as Rolf reentered, the sick man began:
+
+"You stay by me, and git me out.  I'll give ye my rifle" -- then,
+after a short silence -- "an' I'll throw in all the traps an' the
+canoe."
+
+"I'll stay by you," said Rolf, "and in about two weeks we'll take
+you down to Lyons Falls.  I guess you can guide us."
+
+"Ye can have all them pelts," and again the trapper presented the
+spoils he had stolen, "an' you bet it's your rifle when ye get me out."
+
+So it was arranged.  But it was necessary for Quonab to go back
+to their own cabin.  Now what should he do? Carry the new lot of
+fur there, or bring the old lot here to dispose of all at Lyons Falls?
+
+Rolf had been thinking hard.  He had seen the evil side of many
+men, including Hoag.  To go among Hoag's people with a lot of
+stuff that Hoag might claim was running risks, so he said:
+
+"Quonab, you come back in not more than ten days. We'll take a
+few furs to Lyons Falls so we can get supplies. Leave the rest of
+them in good shape, so we can go out later to Warren's.  We'll
+get a square deal there, and we don't know what at Lyon's."
+
+So they picked out the lynx, the beaver, and a dozen martens to
+leave, and making the rest into a pack, Quonab shouldered them,
+and followed by Skookum, trudged up the mountain and was lost to
+view in the woods.
+
+The ten days went by very slowly.  Hoag was alternately
+querulous, weeping, complaining, unpleasantly fawning, or trying
+to insure good attention by presenting again and again the furs,
+the gun, and the canoe.
+
+Rolf found it pleasant to get away from the cabin when the
+weather was fine.  One day, taking Hoag's gun, he travelled up
+the nearest stream for a mile, and came on a big beaver pond.
+Round this he scouted and soon  discovered a drowned beaver, held
+in a trap which he recog- nized at once, for it had the (" ' "')
+mark on the frame. Then he found an empty trap with a beaver leg
+in it, and another, till six traps were found.  Then he gathered
+up the six and the beaver, and returned to the cabin to be
+greeted with a string of complaints:
+
+"Ye didn't ought to leave me like this.  I'm paying ye well
+enough.  I don't ax no favours," etc.
+
+"See what I got," and Rolf showed the beaver.  "An' see what I
+found;" then he showed the traps.  "Queer, ain't it," he went on,
+"we had six traps just like them, and I marked the face just like
+these, and they all  disappeared, and there was a snowshoe trail
+pointing this way.  You haven't got any crooked neighbours about
+here, have you?"
+
+The trapper looked sulky and puzzled, and grumbled, "I bet it was
+Bill Hawkins done it"; then relapsed into silence.
+
+
+
+Chapter 47. Hoag's Home-coming
+
+When it comes to personal feelin's better let yer friends  do the
+talkin' and jedgin'.  A man can't handle his own  case any more
+than a delirious doctor kin give hisself the  right physic --
+Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+The coming of springtime in the woods is one of the gentlest,
+sweetest advents in the world. Sometimes there are heavy rains
+which fill all the little rivers with an overflood that quickly
+eats away the ice and snow, but usually the woodland streams
+open, slowly and gradually.  Very rarely is there a spate, an
+upheaval, and a cataclysmal sweep that bursts the ice and ends
+its reign in an hour or two.  That is the way of the large
+rivers, whose ice is free and floating.  The snow in the forest
+melts slowly, and when the ice is  attacked, it goes gradually,
+gently, without uproar.  The spring comes in the woods with
+swelling of buds and a lengthening of drooping catkins, with
+honking of wild geese, and cawing of crows coming up from the
+lower countries to divide with their larger cousins, the ravens,
+the spoils of winter's killing.
+
+The small birds from the South appear with a few short notes of
+spring, and the pert chicadees that have braved it all winter,
+now lead the singing with their cheery "I told you so" notes,
+till robins and blackbirds join in, and with their more ambitious
+singing make all the lesser roundelays forgot.
+
+Once the winter had taken a backward step -- spring found it easy
+to turn retreat into panic and rout; and the ten days Quonab stayed
+away were days of revolutionary change.  For in them semi-winter
+gave place to smiling spring, with all the snow-drifts gone,
+except perhaps in the shadiest hollows of the woods.
+
+It was a bright morning, and a happy one for Rolf, when he heard
+the Indian's short "Ho," outside, and a minute later had Skookum
+dancing and leaping about him.  On Hoag the effect was quite
+different.  He was well enough to be up, to hobble about painfully
+on a stick; to be exceedingly fault-finding, and to eat three
+hearty meals a day; but the moment the Indian appeared, he withdrew
+into himself, and became silent and uneasy.   Before an hour passed,
+he again presented the furs, the gun, the canoe, and the traps to Rolf,
+on condition that he should get him out to his folks.
+
+All three were glad to set out that very day on the outward trip
+to Lyons Falls.
+
+Down Little Moose River to Little Moose Lake and on to South
+Branch of Moose, then by the Main Moose, was their way.  The
+streams were flush; there was plenty of water, and this
+fortunately reduced the number of carries; for Hoag could not
+walk and would not hobble. They sweat and laboured to carry him
+over every portage; but they covered the fifty miles in three
+days, and on the evening of the third, arrived at the little
+backwoods village of Lyons Falls.
+
+The change that took place fn Hoag now was marked and unpleasant.
+He gave a number of orders, where, the day before, he would have
+made whining petitions. He told them to "land easy, and don't
+bump my canoe." He hailed the loungers about the mill with an
+effusiveness that they did not resdond to.  Their cool, "Hello,
+Jack, are you back?" was little but a passing recognition.  One
+of them was persuaded to take Rolf's place in carrying Hoag to
+his cabin.  Yes, his folks were there, but they did not seem
+overjoyed at his arrival.  He whispered to the boy, who sullenly
+went out to the river and returned with the rifle, Rolf's rifle now,
+the latter supposed, and would have taken the bundle of furs had
+not Skookum sprung on the robber and driven him away from the canoe.
+
+And now Hoag showed his true character.  "Them's my furs and my
+canoe," he said to one of the mill hands, and turning to the two
+who had saved him, he said: "An' you two dirty, cutthroat,
+redskin thieves, you can get out of town as fast as ye know how,
+or I'll have ye jugged," and all the pent-up hate of his hateful
+nature frothed out in words insulting and unprintable.
+
+"Talks like a white man," said Quonab coldly.  Rolf was speechless.
+To toil so devotedly, and to have such filthy, humiliating words
+for thanks!  He wondered if even his Uncle Mike would have shown
+so vile a spirit.
+
+Hoag gave free rein to his tongue, and found in his pal, Bill Hawkins,
+one with ready ears to hear his tale of woe. The wretch began to feel
+himself frightfully ill-used.  So, fired at last by the evermore lurid
+story of his wrongs, the "partner" brought the magistrate, so they
+could swear out a warrant, arrest the two "outlaws," and  especially
+secure the bundle of "Hoag's furs" in the canoe.
+
+Old Silas Sylvanne, the mill-owner and pioneer of the place, was
+also its magistrate.  He was tall, thin, blacklooking, a sort of
+Abe Lincoln in type, physically, and in some sort, mentally.  He
+heard the harrowing tale of terrible crime, robbery, and torture,
+inflicted on poor harmless Hoag by these two ghouls in human shape;
+he listened, at first shocked, but little by little amused.
+
+"You don't get no warrant till I hear from the other side,"
+he said.  Roff and Quonab came at call.  The old pioneer sized
+up the two, as they stood, then, addressing Rolf, said:
+
+"Air you an Injun?" "No, sir." "Air you half-breed?" "No, sir."
+"Well, let's hear about this business," and he turned his
+piercing eyes full on the lad's face.
+
+Rolf told the simple, straight story of their acquaintance with Hoag,
+from the first day at Warren's to their arrival at the Falls.
+There is never any doubt about the truth of a true story,
+if it be long enough, and this true story, presented in its
+nakedness to the shrewd and kindly old hunter, trader, mill-owner
+and magistrate, could have only one effect.
+
+"Sonny," he said, slowly and kindly, "I know that ye have told me
+the truth.  I believe every word of it.  We all know that Hoag is
+the meanest cuss and biggest liar on the river.  He's a nuisance,
+and always was.  He only promised to give ye the canoe and the
+rifle, and since he don't want to, we can't help it.  About the
+trouble in the woods, you got two witnesses to his one, and ye
+got the furs and the traps; it's just as well ye left the other
+furs behind, or ye might have had to divide 'em; so keep them and
+call the hull thing square.  We'll find ye a canoe to get out of
+this gay metropolis, and as to Hoag, ye needn't a-worry; his
+travelling days is done."
+
+A man with a bundle of high-class furs is a man of means in any
+frontier town.  The magistrate was trader, too, so they set about
+disposing of their furs and buying the supplies they needed.
+
+The day was nearly done before their new canoe was gummed and
+ready with the new supplies.  When dealing, old Sylvanne had a
+mild, quiet manner, and a peculiar way of making funny remarks
+that led some to imagine he was "easy" in business; but it was
+usual to find at the end that he had lost nothing by his manners,
+and rival traders shunned an encounter with Long Sylvanne of the
+unruffled brow.
+
+When business was done -- keen and complete -- he said: "Now,
+I'm a goin' to give each of ye a present," and handed out two
+double-bladed jackknives, new things in those days, wonderful
+things, precious treasures in their eyes, sources of endless joy;
+and even had they known that one marten skin would buy a quart of
+them, their pleasant surprise and childish joy would not have
+been in any way tempered or alloyed.
+
+"Ye better eat with me, boys, an' start in the morning." So they
+joined the miller's long, continuous family, and shared his
+evening meal.  Afterward as they sat for three hours and smoked
+on the broad porch that looked out on the river, old Sylvanne,
+who had evidently taken a fancy to Rolf, regaled them with a
+long, rambling talk on "fellers  and things," that was one of the
+most interesting Rolf had ever listened to.  At the time it was
+simply amusing; it was not till years after that the lad realized
+by its effect on himself, its insight, and its hold on his
+memory, that Si Sylvanne's talk was real wisdom.  Parts of it
+would not look well in print; but the rugged words, the uncouth
+Saxonism, the obscene phrase, were the mere oaken bucket in which
+the pure and precious waters were hauled to the surface.
+
+"Looked like he had ye pinched when that shyster got ye in to
+Lyons Falls.  Wall, there's two bad places for Jack Hoag; one is
+where they don't know him at all, an' take him on his looks; an'
+t'other is where they know him through and through for twenty
+years, like we hev. A smart rogue kin put up a false front fer a
+year or maybe two, but given twenty year to try him, for and bye,
+summer an' winter, an' I reckon a man's make is pretty well
+showed up, without no dark corners left unexplored.
+
+"Not that I want to jedge him harsh, coz I don't know what kind
+o' maggots is eatin' his innards to make him so ornery.  I'm
+bound to suppose he has 'em, or he wouldn't act so dum like it.
+So I says, go slow and gentle before puttin' a black brand on any
+feller; as my mother used to say, never say a bad thing till ye
+ask, 'Is it true, is it kind, is it necessary?'  An' I tell you,
+the older I git, the slower I jedge; when I wuz your age, I wuz a
+steel trap on a hair trigger, an' cocksure.  I tell you, there
+ain't anythin' wiser nor a sixteen-year-old boy, 'cept maybe a
+fifteen-year-old girl.
+
+"Ye'll genilly find, lad, jest when things looks about as black
+as they kin look, that's the sign of luck a-comin' your way,
+pervidin' ye hold steady, keep cool and kind; something happens
+every time to make it all easy.  There's always a way, an' the
+stout heart will find it.
+
+"Ye may be very sure o' this, boy, yer never licked till ye think
+ye air an' if ye won't think it, ye can't be licked.
+
+It's just the same as being sick.  I seen a lot o' doctorin'  in
+my day, and I'm forced to believe there ain't any sick folks
+'cept them that thinks they air sick.
+
+"The older I git, the more I'm bound to consider that most things
+is inside, anyhow, and what's outside don't count for much.
+
+"So it stands to reason when ye play the game for what's inside,
+ye win over all the outside players.  When ye done kindness to
+Hoag, ye mightn't a meant it, but ye was bracin' up the goodness
+in yerself, or bankin' it up somewher' on the trail ahead, where
+it was needed.  And he was simply chawin' his own leg off, when
+he done ye dirt.  I ain't much o' a prattlin' Christian, but I
+reckon as a cold-blooded, business proposition it pays to lend
+the neighbour a hand; not that I go much on gratitude. It's
+scarcer'n snowballs in hell -- which ain't the point; but I take
+notice there ain't any man'll hate ye more'n the feller that
+knows he's acted mean to ye.  An' there ain't any feller more
+ready to fight yer battles than the chap that by some dum
+accident has hed the luck to help ye, even if he only done it to
+spite some one else -- which 'minds me o' McCarthy's bull pup
+that saved the drowning kittens by mistake, and ever after was a
+fightin' cat protector, whereby he lost the chief joy o' his
+life, which had been cat-killin'.  An' the way they cured the cat
+o' eatin' squirrels was givin' her a litter o' squirrels to raise.
+
+"I tell ye there's a lot o' common-sense an' kindness in the
+country, only it's so dum slow to git around; while the
+cussedness and meanness always acts like they felt the hell fire
+sizzlin' their hind-end whiskers, an' knowed they had jest so
+many minutes to live an' make a record.  There's where a man's
+smart that fixes things so he kin hold out a long time, fer the
+good stuff in men's minds is what lasts; and the feller what can
+stay with it hez proved hisself by stayin'.  How'd ye happen to
+tie up with the Injun, Rolf?"
+
+"Do ye want me to tell it long or short?" was the reply. "Wall,
+short, fer a start," and Silas Sylvanne chuckled.
+
+So Rolf gave a very brief account of his early life.
+
+"Pretty good," said the miller; "now let's hear it long."
+
+And when he had finished, the miller said: "I've seen yer tried
+fer most everything that goes to make a man, Rolf, an' I hev my
+own notion of the results.  You ain't goin' to live ferever in
+them hills.  When ye've hed yer fling an' want a change, let me know."
+
+Early next day the two hunters paddled up the Moose River with a
+good canoe, an outfit of groceries, and a small supply of ready cash.
+
+"Good-bye, lad, good-bye!  Come back again and ye'll find we
+improve on acquaintance; an' don't forget I'm buying fur," was Si
+Sylvanne's last word.  And as they rounded the point, on the home
+way, Rolf turned in the canoe, faced Quonab, and said: "Ye see
+there are some good white men left;" but the Indian neither
+blinked, nor moved, nor made a sound.
+
+
+
+Chapter 48. Rolf's Lesson in Trailing
+
+The return journey was hard paddling against strong waters, but
+otherwise uneventful.  Once over any trail is enough to fix it in
+the memory of a woodman.  They made no mistakes and their loads
+were light, so the portages were scarcely any loss of time, and
+in two days they were back at Hoag's cabin.
+
+Of this they took possession.  First, they gathered all things of
+value, and that was little since the furs and bedding were gone,
+but there were a few traps and some dishes.  The stuff was made
+in two packs; now it was an overland journey, so the canoe was
+hidden in a cedar thicket, a quarter of a mile inland.  The two
+were about to shoulder the packs, Quonab was lighting his pipe
+for a start, when Rolf said:
+
+"Say, Quonab! that fellow we saw at the Falls claimed to be
+Hoag's partner.  He may come on here and make trouble if we don't
+head him off.  Let's burn her," and he nodded toward the shanty.
+
+"Ugh!" was the reply.
+
+They gathered some dry brush and a lot of birch bark, piled them
+up against the wall inside, and threw plenty of firewood on this.
+With flint and steel Quonab made the vital spark, the birch bark
+sputtered, the dry, resinous logs were easily set ablaze, and
+soon great volumes of smoke rolled from the door, the window, and
+the chimney; and Skookum, standing afar, barked pleasantly aloud.
+
+The hunters shouldered their packs and began the long, upward
+slope.  In an hour they had reached a high, rocky ridge.  Here
+they stopped to rest, and, far below them, marked with grim joy a
+twisted, leaning column of thick black smoke.
+
+That night they camped in the woods and next day rejoiced to be
+back again at their own cabin, their own lake, their home.
+
+Several times during the march they had seen fresh deer tracks,
+and now that the need of meat was felt, Rolf proposed a deer
+hunt.
+
+Many deer die every winter; some are winter-killed; many are
+devoured by beasts of prey, or killed by hunters; their numbers
+are at low ebb in April, so that now one could not count on
+finding a deer by roaming at random. It was a case for trailing.
+
+Any one can track a deer in the snow.  It is not very hard to
+follow a deer in soft ground, when there are no other deer about.
+But it is very hard to take one deer trail and follow it over
+rocky ground and dead leaves, never losing it or changing off,
+when there are hundreds of deer tracks running in all directions.
+
+Rolf's eyes were better than Quonab's, but experience counts for
+as much as eyes, and Quonab was leading. They picked out a big
+buck track that was fresh -- no good hunter kills a doe at this
+season.  They knew it for a buck, because of its size and the
+roundness of the toes.
+
+Before long, Rolf said: "See, Quonab, I want to learn this
+business; let me do the trailing, and you set me right if I get
+off the line."
+
+Within a hundred yards, Quonab gave a grunt and shook his head.
+Rolf looked surprised, for he was on a good, fresh track.
+
+Quonab said but one word, "Doe."
+
+Yes, a closer view showed the tracks to be a little narrower,  a
+little closer together, and a little sharper than those he began
+with.
+
+Back went Rolf to the last marks that he was sure of, and plainly
+read where the buck had turned aside. For a time, things went
+along smoothly, Quonab and Skookum following Rolf.  The last was
+getting very familiar with that stub hoof on the left foot.  At
+length they came to the "fumet" or "sign"; it was all in one
+pile. That meant the deer had stood, so was unalarmed; and warm;
+that meant but a few minutes ahead.  Now, they must use every
+precaution for this was the crux of the hunt. Of this much only
+they were sure -- the deer was within range now, and to get him
+they must see him before he saw them.
+
+Skookum was leashed.  Rolf was allowed to get well ahead, and
+crawling cautiously, a step at a time, he went, setting down his
+moccasined foot only after he had tried and selected a place.
+Once or twice he threw into the air a tuft of dry grass to make
+sure that the wind was right, and by slow degrees he reached the
+edge of a little opening.
+
+Across this he peered long, without entering it.  Then he made a
+sweep with his hand and pointed, to let Quonab know the buck had
+gone across and he himself must go around.  But he lingered still
+and with his eyes swept the near woods.  Then, dim gray among the
+gray twigs, he saw a slight movement, so slight it might have
+been made by the tail of a tomtit.  But it fixed his attention,
+and out of this gray haze he slowly made out the outline of a
+deer's head, antlers, and neck.  A hundred yards away, but "take
+a chance when it comes" is hunter wisdom.  Rolf glanced at the
+sight, took steady aim, fired, and down went the buck behind a
+log.  Skookum whined and leaped high in his eagerness to see.
+Rolf restrained his impatience to rush forward, at once reloaded,
+then all three went quickly to the place.  Before they were
+within fifty yards, the deer leaped up and bounded off.  At
+seventy-five yards, it stood for a moment to gaze.  Rolf fired
+again; again the buck fell down, but jumped to its feet and
+bounded away.
+
+They went to the two places, but found no blood. Utterly puzzled,
+they gave it up for the day, as already the shades of night were
+on the woods, and in spite of Skookum's voluble offer to solve
+and settle everything, they returned to the cabin.
+
+"What do you make of it, Quonab?'
+
+The Indian shook his head, then: "Maybe touched his head and
+stunned him, first shot; second, wah!  I not know."
+
+"I know this," said Rolf.  "I touched him and I mean to get him
+in the morning."
+
+True to this resolve, he was there again at dawn, but examined
+the place in vain for a sign of blood.  The red rarely shows up
+much on leaves, grass, or dust; but there are two kinds of places
+that the hunter can rely on as  telltales -- stones and logs.
+Rolf followed the deer track, now very dim, till at a bare place
+he found a speck of blood on a pebble.  Here the trail joined
+onto a deer path, with so many tracks that it was hard to say
+which was the right one.  But Rolf passed quickly along to a log
+that crossed the runway, and on that log he found a drop of
+dried-up blood that told him what he wished to know.
+
+Now he had a straight run of a quarter of a mile, and from time
+to time he saw a peculiar scratching mark that puzzled him.  Once
+he found a speck of blood at one of these scratches but no other
+evidence that the buck was touched.
+
+A wounded deer is pretty sure to work down hill, and Quonab,
+leaving Skookum with Rolf, climbed a lookout that might show
+whither the deer was heading.
+
+After another half mile, the deer path forked; there were buck
+trails on both, and Rolf could not pick out the one he wanted.
+He went a few yards along each, studying the many marks, but was
+unable to tell which was that of the wounded buck.
+
+Now Skookum took a share in it.  He had always been forbidden to
+run deer and knew it was a contraband amusement,  but he put his
+nose to that branch of the trail that ran down hill, followed it
+for a few yards, then looked at Rolf, as much as to say: "You
+poor nose-blind creature; don't you know a fresh deer track when
+you smell it? Here it is; this is where he went."
+
+Rolf stared, then said, "I believe he means it"; and followed the
+lower trail.  Very soon he came to another scrape, and, just
+beyond it, found the new, velvet-covered antler of a buck, raw
+and bloody, and splintered at the base.
+
+From this on, the task was easier, as there were no other tracks,
+and this was pointing steadily down hill.
+
+Soon Quonab came striding along.  He had not seen the buck, but a
+couple of jays and a raven were gathered in a thicket far down by
+the stream.  The hunters quit the trail and made for that place.
+As they drew near, they found the track again, and again saw
+those curious scrapes.
+
+Every hunter knows that the bluejay dashing about a thicket means
+that hidden there is game of some kind, probably deer.  Very,
+very slowly and silently they entered that copse.  But nothing
+appeared until there was a rush in the thickest part and up
+leaped the buck.  This was too much for Skookum.  He shot forward
+like a wolf, fastened on one hind leg, and the buck went crashing
+head over heels.  Before it could rise, another shot ended its
+troubles.  And now a careful study shed the light desired. Rolf's
+first shot had hit the antler near the base, breaking it, except
+for the skin on one side, and had stunned the buck.  The second
+shot had broken a hind leg.  The scratching places he had made
+were efforts to regain the use of this limb, and at one of them
+the deer had fallen and parted the rag of skin by which the
+antler hung.
+
+It was Rolf's first important trailing on the ground; it showed
+how possible it was, and how quickly he was learning the hardest
+of all the feats of woodcraft.
+
+
+
+Chapter 49. Rolf Gets Lost
+
+Every one who lives in the big woods gets lost at some time. Yes,
+even Daniel Boone did sometimes go astray. And whether it is to
+end as a joke or a horrible tragedy depends entirely on the way
+in which the person takes it. This is, indeed, the grand test of
+a hunter and scout, the trial of his knowledge, his muscle, and,
+above everything, his courage; and, like all supreme trials, it
+comes without warning.
+
+The wonderful flocks of wild pigeons had arrived. For a few days
+in May they were there in millions, swarming over the ground in
+long-reaching hordes, walking along, pecking and feeding, the
+rearmost flying on ahead, ever to the front. The food they sought
+so eagerly now was chiefly the seeds of the slippery elm, tiny
+nuts showered down on wings like broad-brimmed hats. And when the
+flock arose at some alarm, the sound was like that of the sea
+beach in a storm.
+
+There seemed to be most pigeons in the low country southeast of
+the lake, of course, because, being low, it had most elms. So
+Rolf took his bow and arrows, crossed in the canoe, and
+confidently set about gathering in a dozen or two for broilers.
+
+It is amazing how well the game seems to gauge the range of
+your weapon and keep the exact safe distance. It is marvellous
+how many times you may shoot an arrow into a flock of pigeons and
+never kill one. Rolf went on and on, always in sight of the long,
+straggling flocks on the ground or in the air, but rarely within
+range of them. Again and again he fired a random shot into the
+distant mass, without success for two hours. Finally a pigeon was
+touched and dropped, but it rose as he ran forward, and flew ten
+yards, to drop once more. Again he rushed at it, but it fluttered
+out of reach and so led him on and on for about half an hour's
+breathless race, until at last he stopped, took deliberate aim,
+and killed it with an arrow.
+
+Now a peculiar wailing and squealing from the woods far ahead
+attracted him. He stalked and crawled for many minutes before he
+found out, as he should have known, that it was caused by a
+mischievous bluejay.
+
+At length he came to a spring in a low hollow, and leaving his
+bow and arrows on a dry log, he went down to get a drink
+
+As he arose, he found himself face to face with a doe and a fat,
+little yearling buck, only twenty yards away. They stared at him,
+quite unalarmed, and, determining to add the yearling to his bag,
+Rolf went back quietly to his bow and arrows.
+
+~The deer were just out of range now, but inclined to take a
+curious interest in the hunter. Once when he stood still for a
+long time, they walked forward two or three steps; but whenever
+he advanced, they trotted farther away.
+
+To kill a deer with an arrow is quite a feat of woodcraft, and
+Rolf was keen to show his prowess; so he kept on with varying
+devices, and was continually within sight of the success that did
+not actually arrive.
+
+Then the deer grew wilder and loped away, as he entered another
+valley that was alive with pigeons.
+
+He was feeling hungry now, so he plucked the pigeon he had
+secured, made a fire with the flint and steel he always carried,
+then roasted the bird carefully on a stick. and having eaten it,
+felt ready for more travel.
+
+The day was cloudy, so he could not see the sun; but he knew it
+was late, and he made for camp.
+
+The country he found himself in was entirely strange to him, and
+the sun's whereabouts doubtful; but he knew the general line of
+travel and strode along rapidly toward the place where he had
+left the canoe.
+
+After two hours' tramping, he was surprised at not seeing the
+lake through the trees, and he added to his pace.
+
+Three hours passed and still no sign of the water.
+
+He began to think he had struck too far to the north; so
+corrected his course and strode along with occasional spells of
+trotting. But another hour wore away arid no lake appeared.
+
+Then Rolf knew he was off his bearings. He climbed a tree and got
+a partial view of the country. To the right was a small hill. He
+made for that. The course led him through a hollow. In this he
+recognized two huge basswood trees, that gave him a reassuring
+sense. A little farther he came on a spring, strangely like the
+one he had left some hours ago. As he stooped to drink, he saw
+deer  tracks, then a human track. He studied it. Assuredly it was
+his own track, though now it seemed on the south side instead of
+the north. He stared at the dead gray sky, hoping for sign of
+sun, but it gave no hint. He tramped off hastily toward the hill
+that promised a lookout. He went faster and faster. In half an
+hour the woods opened a little, then dipped. He hastened down,
+and at the bottom found himself standing by the same old spring,
+though again it had changed its north bearing.
+
+He was stunned by this succession of blows. He knew now he was
+lost in the woods; had been tramping in a circle.
+
+The spring whirled around him; it seemed now north and now south.
+His first impulse was to rush madly northwesterly, as he
+understood it. He looked at all the trees for guidance. Most moss
+should be on the north side. It would be so, if all trees were
+perfectly straight and evenly exposed, but alas! none are so. All
+lean one way or another, and by the moss he could prove any given
+side to be north. He looked for the hemlock top twigs. Tradition
+says they always point easterly; but now they differed among
+themselves as to which was east.
+
+Rolf got more and more worried. He was a brave boy, but grim fear
+came into his mind as he realized that he was too far from camp
+to be heard; the ground was too leafy for trailing him; without
+help he could not get away from that awful spring. His head began
+to swim, when all at once he remembered a bit of advice his guide
+had given him long ago: "Don't get scared when you're lost.
+Hunger don't kill the lost man, and it ain't cold that does it;
+it's being afraid. Don't be afraid, and everything will come out
+all right."
+
+So, instead of running, Rolf sat down to think it over.
+
+"Now," said he, "I went due southeast all day from the canoe."
+Then he stopped; like a shock it came to him that he had not seen
+the sun all day. Had he really gone southeast? It was a
+devastating thought, enough to unhinge some men; but again Rolf
+said to himself "Never mind, now; don't get scared, and it'll be
+all right. In the morning the sky will be clear."
+
+As he sat pondering, a red squirrel chippered and scolded from a
+near tree; closer and closer the impudent creature came to
+sputter at the intruder.
+
+Rolf drew his bow, and when the blunt arrow dropped to the
+ground, there also dropped the red squirrel, turned into
+acceptable meat. Rolf put this small game into his pocket,
+realizing that this was his supper.
+
+It would soon be dark now, so he prepared to spend the night.
+
+While yet he could see, he gathered a pile of dry wood into a
+sheltered hollow. Then he made a wind-break and a bed of balsam
+boughs. Flint, steel, tinder, and birch bark soon created a
+cheerful fire, and there is no better comforter that the lone
+lost man can command.
+
+The squirrel roasted in its hide proved a passable supper, and
+Rolf curled up to sleep. The night would have been pleasant and
+uneventful, but that it turned chilly, and when the fire burnt
+low, the cold awakened him, so he had a succession of naps and
+fire-buildings.
+
+Soon after dawn, he heard a tremendous roaring, and in a few
+minutes the wood was filled again with pigeons.
+
+Rolf was living on the country now, so he sallied forth with his
+bow. Luck was with him; at the first shot he downed a big, fat
+cock. At the second he winged another, and as it scrambled
+through the brush, he rushed headlong in pursuit. It fluttered
+away beyond reach, halfflying, half-running, and Rolf, in
+reckless pursuit, went sliding and tumbling down a bank to land
+at the bottom with a horrid jar. One leg was twisted under him;
+he thought it was broken, for there was a fearful pain in the
+lower part. But when he pulled himself together he found no
+broken bones, indeed, but an ankle badly sprained. Now his
+situation was truly grave, for he was crippled and incapable of
+travelling.
+
+He had secured the second bird, and crawling painfully and slowly
+back to the fire, he could not but feel more and more despondent
+and gloomy as the measure of his misfortune was realized.
+
+"There is only one thing that can shame a man, that is to be
+afraid." And again, "There's always a way out." These were the
+sayings that came ringing through his head to his heart; one was
+from Quonab, the other from old Sylvanne. Yes, there's always a
+way, and the stout heart can always find it.
+
+Rolf prepared and cooked the two birds, made a breakfast of one
+and put the other in his pocket for lunch, not realizing at the
+time that his lunch would be eaten on this same spot. More than
+once, as he sat, small flocks of ducks flew over the trees due
+northward. At length the sky, now clear, was ablaze with the
+rising sun, and when it came, it was in Rolf's western sky.
+
+Now he comprehended the duck flight. They were really heading
+southeast for their feeding grounds on the Indian Lake, and Rolf,
+had he been able to tramp, could have followed, but his foot was
+growing worse. It was badly swollen, and not likely to be of
+service for many a day - perhaps weeks -- and it took all of his
+fortitude not to lie down and weep over this last misfortune.
+
+Again came the figure of that grim, kindly, strong old pioneer,
+with the gray-blue eyes and his voice was saying: "Jest when
+things looks about as black as they can look, if ye hold steady,
+keep cool and kind, something sure happens to make it all easy.
+There's always a way and the stout heart will find it."
+
+What way was there for him? He would die of hunger and cold
+before Quonab could find him, and again came the spectre of fear.
+If only he could devise some way of letting his comrade know. He
+shouted once or twice, in the faint hope that the still air might
+carry the sound, but the silent wood was silent when he ceased.
+
+Then one of his talks with Quonab came to mind. He remembered how
+the Indian, as a little papoose, had been lost for three days.
+Though, then but ten years old, he had built a smoke fire that
+brought him help. Yes, that was the Indian way; two smokes means
+"I am lost"; "double for trouble."
+
+Fired by this new hope, Rolf crawled a little apart from his camp
+and built a bright fire, then smothered it with rotten wood and
+green leaves. The column of smoke it sent up was densely white
+and towered above the trees.
+
+Then painfully he hobbled and crawled to a place one hundred
+yards away, and made another smoke. Now all he could do was wait.
+
+A fat pigeon, strayed from its dock, sat on a bough above his
+camp, in a way to tempt Providence. Rolf drew a blunt arrow to
+the head and speedily had the pigeon in hand for some future meal.
+
+As he prepared it, he noticed that its crop was crammed with the
+winged seed of the slippery elm, so he put them all back again
+into the body when it was cleaned, knowing well that they are a
+delicious food and in this case would furnish a welcome variant
+to the bird itself.
+
+An hour crawled by. Rolf had to go out to the far fire, for it
+was nearly dead. Instinctively he sought a stout stick to help
+him; then remembered how Hoag had managed with one leg and two
+crutches. "Ho!" he exclaimed. "That is the answer -- this is the
+'way."'
+
+Now his attention was fixed on all the possible crutches. The
+trees seemed full of them, but all at impossible heights. It was
+long before he found one that he could cut with his knife.
+Certainly he was an hour working at it; then he heard a sound
+that made his blood jump.
+
+From far away in the north it came, faint but reaching;
+
+"Ye-hoo-o."
+
+Rolf dropped his knife and listened with the instinctively open
+mouth that takes all pressure from the eardrums and makes them
+keen. It came again: " Ye-hoo-o." No mistake now, and Rolf sent
+the ringing answer back:
+
+"Ye-hoo-o, ye-hoo-o."
+
+In ten minutes there was a sharp " yap, yap," and Skookum bounded
+out of the woods to leap and bark around Rolf, as though he knew
+all about it; while a few minutes later, came Quonab striding.
+
+"Ho, boy," he said, with a quiet smile, and took Rolf's hand.
+"Ugh! That was good," and he nodded to the smoke fire. "I knew
+you were in trouble."
+
+"Yes," and Rolf pointed to the swollen ankle.
+
+The Indian picked up the lad in his arms and carried him back to
+the little camp. Then, from his light pack, he took bread and tea
+and made a meal for both. And, as they ate, each heard the
+other's tale.
+
+"I was troubled when you did not come back last night, for you
+had no food or blanket. I did not sleep. At dawn I went to the
+hill, where I pray, and looked away southeast where you went in
+the canoe. I saw nothing. Then I went to a higher hill, where I
+could see the northeast, and even while I watched, I saw the two
+smokes, so I knew my son was alive."
+
+"You mean to tell me I am northeast of camp? "
+
+"About four miles. I did not come very quickly, because I had to
+go for the canoe and travel here.
+
+"How do you mean by canoe?" said Rolf, in surprise.
+
+You are only half a mile from Jesup River," was the reply. "I
+soon bring you home."
+
+It was incredible at first, but easy of proof. With the hatchet
+they made a couple of serviceable crutches and set out together.
+
+ In twenty minutes they were afloat in the canoe; in an hour they
+were safely home again.
+
+And Rolf pondered it not a little. At the very moment of blackest
+despair, the way had opened, and it had been so simple, so natural,
+so effectual. Surely, as long as he lived, he would remember it�
+"There is always a way, and the stout heart will find it."
+
+
+
+Chapter 50. Marketing the Fur
+
+If Rolf had been at home with his mother, she would have rubbed
+his black and swollen ankle with goose grease. The medical man at
+Stamford would have rubbed it with a carefully prepared and
+secret ointment. His Indian friend sang a little crooning song
+and rubbed it with deer's fat.  All different, and all good,
+because each did something to reassure the patient, to prove that
+big things were doing on his behalf, and each helped the process
+of nature by frequent massage.
+
+Three times a day, Quonab rubbed that blackened ankle. The grease
+saved the skin from injury, and in a week Rolf had thrown his
+crutches away.
+
+The month of May was nearly gone; June was at hand; that is, the
+spring was over. !
+
+In all ages, man has had the impulse, if not the habit, of spring
+migration. Yielding to it he either migrated or made some radical
+change in his life. Most of the Adirondack men who trapped in the
+winter sought work on the log drives in spring; some who had
+families and a permanent home set about planting potatoes and
+plying the fish nets. Rolf and Quonab having neither way open,
+yet feeling the impulse, decided to go out to Warren's with the fur.
+
+Quonab wanted tobacco -- and a change.
+
+Rolf wanted a rifle, and to see the Van Trumpers -- and a change.
+
+So June Ist saw them all aboard, with Quonab steering at the
+stern, and Skookum bow-wowing at the bow, bound for the great
+centre of Warren's settlement -- one store and three houses, very
+wide apart.
+
+There was a noble flush of water in the streams, and, thanks to
+their axe work in September, they passed down Jesup's River
+without a pause, and camped on the Hudson that night, fully
+twenty-five miles from home.
+
+Long, stringing flocks of pigeons going north were the most
+numerous forms of life. But a porcupine on the bank and a bear in
+the water aroused Skookum to a pitch of frightful enthusiasm and
+vaulting ambition that he was forced to restrain.
+
+On the evening of the third day they landed at Warren's and found
+a hearty welcome from the trader, who left a group of loafers and
+came forward:
+
+"Good day to ye, boy. My, how ye have growed."
+
+So he had. Neither Rolf nor Quonab had remarked it, but now they
+were much of the same height. "Wall, an' how'd ye make out with
+yer hunt? -- Ah, that's fine!" as each of them dropped a fur pack
+on the counter. "Wall, this is fine; we must have a drink on the
+head of it," and the trader was somewhat nonplussed when both the
+trappers refused. He was disappointed, too, for that refusal
+meant that they would get much better prices for their fun But he
+concealed his chagrin and rattled on: "I reckon I'll sell you the
+finest rifle in the country this time, "and he knew by Rolf's
+face that there was business to do in that line.
+
+Now came the listing of the fur, and naturally the bargaining was
+between the shrewd Yankee boy and the trader. The Indian stood
+shyly aside, but he did not fail to help with significant grunts
+and glances.
+
+"There, now," said Warren, as the row of martens were laid out
+side by side, " thirty martens -- a leetle pale  -- worth three
+dollars and fifty cents each, or, to be generous, we'll say four
+dollars." Rolf glanced at Quonab, who, unseen by the trader shook
+his head, held his right hand out, open hollow up, then raised it
+with a jerk for two inches.
+
+Quickly Rolf caught the idea and said; "No, I don't reckon them
+pale. I call them prime dark, every one of them." Quonab spread
+his hand with all five fingers pointed up, and Rolf continued,
+"They are worth five dollars each, if they're worth a copper."
+
+"Phew!" said the trader. "you forget fur is an awful risky thing;
+what with mildew, moth, mice, and markets, we have a lot of risk.
+But I want to please you, so let her go; five each. There's a
+fine black fox; that's worth forty dollars."
+
+"I should think it is," said Rolf, as Quonab, by throwing to his
+right an imaginary pinch of sand, made the sign "refuse."
+
+They had talked over the value of that fox skin and Rolf said,
+"Why, I know of a black fox that sold for two hundred dollars."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Oh, down at Stamford."
+
+"Why, that's near New York."
+
+"Of course; don't you send your fur to New York?"
+
+"Yes, but it costs a lot to get it there.
+
+"Now," said Warren, "if you'll take it in trade, I'll meet you
+half-way and call it one hundred dollars."
+
+"Make it one hundred and twenty-five dollars and I'll take a
+rifle, anyway."
+
+"Phew!" whistled the trader. "Where do ye get such notions? "
+
+"Nothing wrong about the notion; old Si Sylvanne offered me
+pretty near that, if I'd come out his way with the stuff."
+
+This had the desired effect of showing that there were other
+traders. At last the deal was closed. Besides the fox skin, they
+had three hundred dollars' worth of fur. The exchange for the fox
+skin was enough to buy all the groceries and dry goods they
+needed. But Rolf had something else in mind.
+
+He had picked out some packages of candies, some calico prints
+and certain bright ribbons, when the trader grasped the idea. "I
+see; yer goin' visitin'. Who is it? Must be the Van Trumpers! "
+
+Rolf nodded and now he got some very intelligent guidance. He did
+not buy Annette's dress, because part of her joy was to be the
+expedition in person to pick it out; but he stocked up with some
+gorgeous pieces of jewellery that were ten cents each, and
+ribbons whose colours were as far beyond expression as were the
+joys they could create in the backwoods female heart.
+
+Proudly clutching his new rlile, and carrying in his wallet a
+memorandum of three hundred dollars for their joint credit, Rolf
+felt himself a person of no little impor- tance. As he was
+stepping out of the store, the trader said, "Ye didn't run across
+Jack Hoag agin, did ye?"
+
+"Did we? Hmph!" and Rolf told briefly of their experience with
+that creature.
+
+"Just like him, just like him; served him right; he was a dirty
+cuss. But, say; don't you be led into taking your fur out Lyons
+Falls way. They're a mean lot in there, and it stands to reason I
+can give you better prices, being a hundred miles nearer New
+York."
+
+And that lesson was not forgotten. The nearer New York the better
+the price; seventy-five dollars at Lyons Falls; one hundred and
+twenty-five dollars at Warren's; two hundred dollars at New York.
+Rolf pondered long and the idea was one which grew and bore
+fruit.
+
+
+
+Chapter 51. Back at Van Trumper's
+
+Nibowaka" -- Quonab always said "Nibowaka" when he was impressed
+with Rolf's astuteness -- "What about the canoe and stuff?"
+
+"I think we better leave all here. Callan will lend us a canoe."
+So they shouldered the guns, Rolf clung to his, and tramped
+across the portage, reaching Callan's in less than two hours.
+
+"Why, certainly you can have the canoe, but come in and eat
+first," was the kindly backwoods greeting. However, Rolf was keen
+to push on; they launched the canoe at once and speedily were
+flashing their paddles on the lake.
+
+The place looked sweetly familiar as they drew near. The crops in
+the fields were fair; the crop of chickens at the barn was good;
+and the crop of children about the door was excellent.
+
+"Mein Hemel! mein Hemel! " shouted fat old Hendrik, as they
+walked up to the stable door. In a minute he was wringing their
+hands and smiling into great red, white, and blue smiles. "Coom
+in, coom in, lad. Hi, Marta, here be Rolf and Quonab. Mein Hemel!
+mein Hemel! what am I now so happy."
+
+"Where's Annette?" asked Rolf.
+
+"Ach, poor Annette, she fever have a little; not mooch, some,"
+and he led over to a corner where on a low cot lay Annette, thin,
+pale, and listless.
+
+She smiled faintly, in response, when Rolf stooped and kissed her.
+
+"Why, Annette, I came back to see you. I want to take you over to
+Warren's store, so you can pick out that dress. See, I brought
+you my first marten and I made this box for you; you must thank
+Skookum for the quills on it."
+
+"Poor chile; she bin sick all spring," and Marta used a bunch of
+sedge to drive away the flies and mosquitoes that, bass and
+treble, hovered around the child.
+
+"What ails her?" asked Rolf anxiously.
+
+"Dot ve do not know," was the reply.
+
+"Maybe there's some one here can tell," and Roll glanced at the Indian.
+
+"Ach, sure! Have I you that not always told all-vays -- eet is so.
+All-vays, I want sumpin bad mooch. I prays de good Lord and all-vays,
+all-vays, two times now, He it send by next boat. Ach, how I am spoil,"
+and the good Dutchman's eyes filled with tears of thankfulness.
+
+Quonab knelt by the sufferer. He felt her hot, dry hand; he
+noticed her short, quick breathing, her bright eyes, and the
+untouched bowl of mush by her bed.
+
+"Swamp fever," he said. "I bring good medicine." He passed
+quietly out into the woods. When he returned, he carried a bundle
+of snake-root which he made into tea.
+
+Annette did not wish to touch it, but her mother persuaded her to
+take a few sips from a cup held by Rolf.
+
+"Wah! this not good," and Quonab glanced about the close,
+fly-infested room. "I must make lodge." He turned up the cover of
+the bedding; three or four large, fiat brown things moved slowly
+out of the light. "Yes, I make lodge."
+
+It was night now, and all retired; the newcomers to the barn.
+They had scarcely entered, when a screaming of poultry gave a
+familiar turn to affairs. On running to the spot, it proved not a
+mink or coon, but Skookum, up to his old tricks. On the appearance
+of his masters, he fled with guilty haste, crouched beneath the post
+that he used to be, and soon again was, chained to.
+
+In the morning Quonab set about his lodge, and Rolf said: "I've
+got to go to Warren's for sugar." The sugar was part truth and
+part blind. As soon as he heard the name swamp fever, Rolf
+remembered that, in Redding, Jesuit's bark (known later as
+quinine) was the sovereign remedy. He had seen his mother
+administer it many times, and, so far as he knew, with uniform
+success. Every frontier (or backwoods, it's the same) trader
+carries a stock of medicine, and in two hours Rolf left Warren's
+counter with twenty-five pounds of maple sugar and a bottle of
+quinine extract in his pack.
+
+"You say she's bothered with the flies; why don't you take some
+of this new stuff for a curtain? " and the trader held up a web
+of mosquito gauze, the first Rolf had seen. That surely was a
+good idea, and ten yards snipped off was a most interesting
+addition to his pack. The amount was charged against him, and in
+two hours more he was back at Van Trumper's.
+
+On the cool side of the house, Quonab had built a little lodge,
+using a sheet for cover. On a low bed of pine boughs lay the
+child. Near the door was a smouldering fire of cedar, whose
+aromatic fumes on the lazy wind reached every cranny of the lodge.
+
+Sitting by the bed head, with a chicken wing to keep off the few
+mosquitoes, was the Indian. The child's eyes were closed; she was
+sleeping peacefully. Rolf crept gently forward, laid his hand on
+hers, it was cool and moist. He went into the house with his
+purchases; the mother greeted him with a happy look: Yes, Annette
+was a little better; she had slept quietly ever since she was
+taken outdoors. The mother could not understand. Why should the
+Indian want to have her surrounded by pine boughs? why
+cedar-smoke? and why that queer song? Yes, there it was again.
+Rolf went out to see and hear. Softly summing on a tin pan, with
+a mudded stick, the Indian sang a song. The words which Rolf
+learned in the after- time were:
+
+"Come, Kaluskap, drive the witches; Those who came to harm the
+dear one."
+
+Annette moved not, but softly breathed, as she slept a sweet,
+restful slumber, the first for many days.
+
+"Vouldn't she be better in de house?" whispered the anxious mother.
+
+"No, let Quonab do his own way," and Rolf wondered if any white
+man had sat by little Wee-wees to brush away the flies from his
+last bed.
+
+
+
+Chapter 52. Annette's New Dress
+
+Deep feelin's ain't any count by themselves; work 'em off, an'
+ye're somebody; weep 'em off an' you'd be more use with a heart
+o' stone -- Sayings of Si Sylvanne.
+
+Quonab, I am going out to get her a partridge." "Ugh, good."
+
+So Rolf went off. For a moment he was inclined to grant Skookom's
+prayer for leave to, follow, but another and better plan came in
+mind. Skookum would most likely find a mother partridge, which
+none should kill in June, and there was a simple way to find a
+cock; that was, listen. It was now the evening calm, and before
+Rolf had gone half a mile he heard the distant "Thump, thump,
+thump, thump -- rrrrrrr" of a partridge, drumming. He went
+quickly and cautiously toward the place, then waited for the next
+drumming. It was slow in coming, so he knelt down by a mossy,
+rotten log, and struck it with his hands to imitate the thump and
+roll of the partridge. At once this challenge procured response.
+
+"Thump -- thump -- thump,, thump rrrrrrrrrrrr" it came, with
+martial swing and fervour, and crawling nearer,
+
+Rolf spied the drummer, pompously strutting up and down a log
+some forty yards away. He took steady aim, not for the head --  a
+strange gun, at forty yards  -- for the body.  At the crack, the
+bird fell dead, and in Rolf's heart there swelled up a little
+gush of joy, which he believed was all for the sake of the
+invalid, but which a finer analysis might have proved to be due
+quite as much to pride in himself and his newly bought gun.
+
+Night was coming on when he got back, and he found the Dutch
+parents in some excitement. "Dot Indian he gay no bring Annette
+indoors for de night.  How she sleep outdoors -- like dog -- like
+Bigger -- like tramp? Yah it is bad, ain't it?" and poor old
+Hendrik looked sadly upset and mystified.
+
+"Hendrik, do you suppose God turns out worse air in the night
+than in the day?"
+
+"Ach, dunno."
+
+"Well, you see Quonab knows what he's doing."
+
+"Yah."
+
+"Well, let him do it. He or I'll sleep alongside the child she'll
+be all right," and Rolf thought of those horrible brown crawlers
+under the bedding indoors.
+
+Rolf had much confidence in the Indian as a doctor, but he had
+more in his own mother. He was determined to give Annette the
+quinine, yet he hesitated to interfere. At length, he said: "It
+is cool enough now; I will put these thin curtains round her
+bed."
+
+"Ugh, good!" but the red man sat there while it was being done.
+
+"You need not stay now; I'll watch her, Quonab."
+
+"Soon, give more medicine," was the reply that Rolf did not want.
+So he changed his ruse.  "I wish you'd take that partridge and
+make soup of it.  I've had my hands in poison ivy, so I dare not
+touch it."
+
+"Ach, dot shall I do. Dot kin myself do," and the fat mother,
+laying the recent baby in its cradle, made cumbrous haste to cook
+the bird.
+
+"Foiled again," was Rolf's thought, but his Yankee wit was with
+him. He laid one hand on the bowl of snake-root tea. It was
+lukewarm. "Do you give it hot or cold, Quonab?"
+
+"Hot."
+
+"I'll take it in and heat it."  He carried it off, thinking, "If
+Quonab won't let me give the bark extract, I'll make him give
+it."  In the gloom of the kitchen he had no difficulty in adding
+to the tea, quite unseen, a quarter of the extract; when heated,
+he brought it again, and the Indian himself gave the dose.
+
+As bedtime drew near, and she heard the red man say he would
+sleep there, the little one said feebly, "Mother, mother," then
+whispered in her mother's ear, "I want Rolf."
+
+Rolf spread his blanket by the cot and slept lightly. Once or
+twice he rose to look at Annette. She was moving in her sleep,
+but did not awake.  He saw to it that the mosquito bar was in
+place, and slept till morning.
+
+There was no question that the child was better.  The renewed
+interest in food was the first good symptom, and the partridge
+served the end of its creation.  The snakeroot and the quinine
+did noble work, and thenceforth her recovery was rapid.  It was
+natural for her mother to wish the child back indoors.  It was a
+matter of course that she should go.  It was accepted as an
+unavoidable evil that they should always have those brown
+crawlers about the bed.
+
+But Rolf felt differently. He knew what his mother would have
+thought and done.  It meant another visit to Warren's, and the
+remedy he brought was a strong-smelling oil, called in those days
+"rock oil" -- a crude petroleum. When all cracks in the bed and
+near wall were treated with this, it greatly mitigated, if it did
+not quite end, the nuisance of the "plague that walks in the
+dark."
+
+Meanwhile, Quonab had made good his welcome by working on the
+farm. But when a week had flown, he showed signs of restlessness.
+"We have enough money, Nibowaka, why do we stay?"
+
+Rolf was hauling a bucket of water from the well at the time.  He
+stopped with his burden on the well-sweep, gazed into the well,
+and said slowly: "I don't know." If the truth were set forth, it
+would be that this was the only home circle he knew. It was the
+clan feeling that held him, and soon it was clearly the same
+reason that was driving Quonab to roam.
+
+"I have heard," said the Indian, "that my people still dwell in
+Canada, beyond Rouse's Point.  I would see them.  I will come
+again in the Red Moon (August)."
+
+So they hired a small canoe, and one bright morning, with Skookum
+in the bow, Quonab paddled away on his voyage of 120 miles on the
+plead waters of Lakes George and Champlain.  His canoe became a
+dark spot on the water; slowly it faded till only the flashing
+paddle was seen, and that was lost around a headland.
+
+The next day Rolf was sorry he let Quonab go alone, for it was
+evident that Van Trumper needed no help for a month yet; that is,
+he could not afford to hire, and while it was well enough for
+Rolf to stay a few days and work to equalize his board, the
+arrangement would not long continue satisfactory to both.
+
+Yet there was one thing he must do before leaving, take Annette
+to pick out her dress. She was well again now, and they set off
+one morning in the canoe, she and Rolf. Neither father nor mother
+could leave the house. They had their misgivings, but what could
+they do? She was bright and happy, full of the childish joy that
+belongs to that age, and engaged on such an important errand for
+the first time in her life.
+
+There was something more than childish joy showing in her face,
+an older person would have seen that, but it was largely lost on
+Rolf. There was a tendency to blush when she laughed, a
+disposition to tease her "big brother," to tyrannize over him in
+little things.
+
+"Now, you tell me some more about 'Robinson Crusoe,'" she began,
+as soon as they were in the canoe, and Rolf resumed the ancient,
+inspiring tale to have it listened to eagerly, but criticized
+from the standpoint of a Lake George farm. "Where was his wife?"
+"How could he have a farm without hens?"  "Dried grapes must be
+nice, but I'd rather have pork than goat," etc.
+
+Rolf, of course, took the part of Robinson Crusoe, and it gave
+him a little shock to hear Quonab called his man Friday.
+
+At the west side they were to invite Mrs. Callan to join their
+shopping trip, but in any case they were to borrow a horse and
+buckboard.  Neither Mrs. Callan nor the buckboard was available,
+but they were welcome to the horse. So Annette was made
+comfortable on a bundle of blankets, and chattered incessantly
+while Rolf walked alongside with the grave interest and
+superiority of a much older brother.  So they crossed the
+five-mile portage and came to Warren's store.  Nervous and
+excited, with sparkling eyes, Annette laid down her marten skin,
+received five dollars, and set about the tremendous task of
+selecting her first dress of really, truly calico print; and Rolf
+realized that the joy he had found in his new rifle was a very
+small affair, compared with the epoch-making, soul-filling,
+life-absorbing, unspeakable, and cataclysmal bliss that a small
+girl can have in her first chance of unfettered action in choice
+of a cotton print.
+
+"Beautiful?" How can mere words do justice to masses of yellow
+corn, mixed recklessly with green and scarlet poppies on a bright
+blue ground.  No, you should have seen Annette's dress, or you
+cannot expect to get the adequate thrill. And when they found
+that there was enough cash left over to add a red cotton parasol
+to the glorious spoils, every one there beamed in a sort of
+friendly joy, and the trader, carried away by the emotions of the
+hour, contributed a set of buttons of shining brass.
+
+Warren kept a "meal house," which phrase was a ruse that saved
+him from a burdensome hospitality. Determined to do it all in the
+best style, Rolf took Annette to the meal-house table. She was
+deeply awed by the grandeur of a tablecloth and white plates, but
+every one was kind.
+
+Warren, talking to a stranger opposite, and evidently resuming a
+subject they had discussed, said:
+
+"Yes, I'd like to send the hull lot down to Albany this week, if
+I could get another man for the canoe."
+
+Rolf was interested at once and said: "What wages are you offering?"
+
+"Twenty-five dollars and board."
+
+"How will I do?"
+
+"Well," said Warren, as though thinking it over:
+"I dunno but ye would.  Could ye go to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, for one month."
+
+"All right, it's a bargain."
+
+And so Rolf took the plunge that influenced his whole life.
+
+But Annette whispered gleefully and excitedly, "May I have some
+of that, and that?" pointing to every strange food she could see,
+and got them all.
+
+After noon they set out on their return journey, An- nette
+clutching her prizes, and prattling incessantly, while Rolf
+walked alongside, thinking deeply, replying to her chatter, but
+depressed by the thought of good-bye tomorrow. He was aroused at
+length by a scraping sound overhead and a sharp reprimand, "Rolf,
+you'll tear my new parasol, if you don't lead the horse better."
+
+By two o'clock they were at Callan's. Another hour and they had
+crossed the lake, and Annette, shrill with joy, was displaying
+her treasures to the wonder and envy of her kin.
+
+Making a dress was a simple matter in those and Marta promised:
+"Yah, soom day ven I one have, shall I it sew."  Meanwhile,
+Annette was quaffing deep, soul-satisfying draughts in the mere
+contempt of the yellow, red, green, and blue glories in which was
+soon to appear in public. And when the bed came, she fell asleep
+holding the dress-goods stuff in arms, and with the red parasol
+spread above her head, tired out, but inexpressibly happy.
+
+
+
+Chapter 53. Travelling to the Great City
+
+He's a bad failure that ain't king in some little corner --
+Sayings of Sylvanne Sylvanne
+
+The children were not astir when Rolf was off in the morning. He
+caught a glimpse of Annette, still asleep under the red parasol,
+but the dress goods and the brass buttons had fallen to the
+floor.  He stepped into the canoe. The dead calm of early morning
+was on the water, and the little craft went skimming and wimpling
+across.  In half an hour it was beached at Callan's.  In a little
+more than an hour's jog and stride he was at Warren's, ready for
+work.  As he marched in, strong and brisk, his colour up, his
+blue eyes kindled with the thought of seeing Albany, the trader
+could not help being struck by him, especially when he remembered
+each of their meetings -- meetings in which he discerned a keen,
+young mind of good judgment, one that could decide quickly.
+
+Gazing at the lithe, red-checked lad, he said: "Say, Rolf, air ye
+an Injun?? "
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Air ye a half-breed?"
+
+"No, I'm a Yank; my name is Kittering; born and bred in Redding,
+Connecticut."
+
+"Well, I swan, ye look it. At fust I took ye fur an Injun; ye did
+look dark (and Rolf laughed inside, as he thought of that
+butternut dye), but I'm bound to say we're glad yer white."
+
+"Here, Bill, this is Rolf, Rolf Kittering, he'll go with ye to
+Albany." Bill, a loose-jointed, middle-aged, flat-footed, large-
+handed, semi-loafer, with keen gray eyes, looked up from a bundle
+he was roping.
+
+Then Warren took Rolf aside and explained: "I'm sending down all
+my fur this trip.  There's ten bales of sixty pounds each, pretty
+near my hull fortune.  I want it took straight to Vandam's, and,
+night or day, don't leave it till ye git it there. He's close to
+the dock.  I'm telling ye this for two reasons: The river's
+swarming with pirates and sneaks.  They'd like nothing better
+than to get away with a five-hundred-dollar bundle of fur; and,
+next, while Bill is A1 on the river and true as steel, he's awful
+weak on the liquor; goes crazy, once it's in him.  And I notice
+you've always refused it here. So don't stop at Troy, an' when ye
+get to Albany go straight past there to Vandam's.  You'll have a
+letter that'll explain, and he'll supply the goods yer to bring back.
+He's a sort of a partner, and orders from him is same as from me.
+
+"I suppose I ought to go myself, but this is the time all the fur
+is coming in here, an' I must be on hand to do the dickering, and
+there's too much much to risk it any longer in the storehouse."
+
+"Suppose," said Rolf, "Bill wants to stop at Troy?"
+
+"He won't. He's all right, given he's sober.  I've give him the
+letter."
+
+"Couldn't you give me the letter, in case?"
+
+"Law, Bill'd get mad and quit."
+
+"He'll never know."
+
+"That's so; I will." So when they paddled away, Bill had an
+important letter of instructions ostentatiously tucked in his
+outer pocket.  Rolf, unknown to any one else but Warren, had a
+duplicate, wrapped in waterproof, hidden in an inside pocket.
+
+Bill was A1 on the river; a kind and gentle old woodman, much
+stronger than he looked. He knew the value of fur and the danger
+of wetting it, so he took no chances in doubtful rapids. This
+meant many portages and much hard labour.
+
+I wonder if the world realizes the hard labour of the portage or
+carry? Let any man who seeks for light, take a fifty-pound sack
+of flour on his shoulders and walk a quarter of a mile on level
+ground in cool weather. Unless he is in training, he will find it
+a heavy burden long before he is half-way.  Suppose, instead of a
+flour sack, the burden has sharp angles; the bearer is soon in
+torture.  Suppose the weight carried be double; then the strain
+is far more than doubled.  Suppose, finally, the road be not a
+quarter mile but a mile, and not on level but through swamps,
+over rocks, logs, and roots, and the weather not cool, but
+suffocating summer weather in the woods, with mosquitoes boring
+into every exposed part, while both hands are occupied, steadying
+the burden or holding on to branches for help up steep places --
+and then he will have some idea of the horror of the portage; and
+there were many of these, each one calling for six loaded and
+five light trips for each canoe-man.  What wonder that men will
+often take chances in some fierce rapid, rather than to make a
+long carry through the fly-infested woods.
+
+It was weighty evidence of Bill's fidelity that again and again
+they made a portage around rapids he had often run, because in
+the present case he was in sacred trust of that much prized
+commodity -- fur.
+
+Eighty miles they called it from Warren's to Albany, but there
+were many halts and carries which meant long delay, and a whole
+week was covered before Bill and Rolf had passed the settlements
+of Glens Falls, Fort Edward, and Schuylerville, and guided their
+heavily laden canoe on the tranquil river, past the little town
+of Troy.  Loafers hailed them from the bank, but Bill turned a
+deaf ear to all temptation; and they pushed on happy in the
+thought that now their troubles were over; the last rapid was
+past; the broad, smooth waters extended to their port.
+
+
+
+Chapter 54. Albany
+
+Only a man who in his youth has come at last in  sight of some
+great city he had dreamed of all his life and longed to see, can
+enter into Rolf's feelings as they swept around the big bend, and
+Albany -- Albany, hove in view.  Abany, the first chartered city
+of the United States; Albany, the capital of all the Empire
+State; Albany, the thriving metropolis with nearly six thousand
+living human souls; Albany with its State House, beautiful and
+dignified, looking down the mighty Hudson highway that led to the
+open sea.
+
+Rolf knew his Bible, and now he somewhat realized the feelings of
+St. Paul on that historic day when his life-long dream came true,
+when first he neared the Eternal City -- when at last he glimpsed
+the towers of imperial, splendid Rome.
+
+The long-strung docks were massed and webbed with ship rigging;
+the water was livened with boats and canoes; the wooden
+warehouses back of the docks were overtopped by wooden houses in
+tiers, until high above them all the Capitol itself was the
+fitting climax.
+
+Rolf knew something of shipping, and amid all the massed boats
+his eyes fell on a strange, square-looking craft with a huge
+water-wheel on each side. Then, swinging into better view, he
+read her name, the Clermont, and knew that this was the famous
+Fulton steamer, the first of the steamboat age.
+
+But Bill was swamped by no such emotion. Albany, Hudson,
+Clermont, and all, were familiar stories to him and he stolidly
+headed the canoe for the dock he knew of old.
+
+Loafers roosting on the snubbing posts hailed him, at first with
+raillery; but, coming nearer, he was recognized. "Hello, Bill;
+back again? Glad to see you," and there was superabundant help to
+land the canoe.
+
+"Wall, wall, wall, so it's really you," said the touter of a fur
+house, in extremely friendly voice; "come in now and we'll hev a
+drink."
+
+"No, sir-ree," said Bill decisively, "I don't drink till business
+is done."
+
+"Wall, now, Bill, here's Van Roost's not ten steps away an' he
+hez tapped the finest bar'l in years."
+
+"No, I tell ye, I'm not drinking -- now."
+
+"Wall, all right, ye know yer own business. I thought maybe ye'd
+be glad to see us."
+
+"Well, ain't I?"
+
+"Hello, Bill," and Bill's fat brother-in-law came up. Thus does
+me good, an' yer sister is spilin' to see ye. We'll hev one on
+this."
+
+"No, Sam, I ain't drinkin'; I've got biz to tend."
+
+"Wall, hev just one to clear yer head. Then settle yer business
+and come back to us."
+
+So Bill went to have one to clear his head. "I'll be back in two
+minutes, Rolf," but Rolf saw him no more for many days.
+
+"You better come along, cub," called out a red-nosed member of
+the group. But Rolf shook his head.
+
+"Here, I'll help you git them ashore," volunteered an effusive
+stranger, with one eye.
+
+"I don't want help."
+
+"How are ye gain' to handle 'em alone?"
+
+"Well, there's one thing I'd be glad to have ye do; that is, go
+up there and bring Peter Vandam."
+
+"I'll watch yer stuff while you go."
+
+"No, I can't leave."  "Then go to blazes; d'yte take me for yer
+errand boy?" And Rolf was left alone.
+
+He was green at the business, but already he was realizing the
+power of that word fur and the importance of the peltry trade.
+Fur was the one valued product of the wilderness that only the
+hunter could bring. The merchants of the world were as greedy for
+fur as for gold, and far more so than for precious stones.
+
+It was a commodity so light that, even in those days, a hundred
+weight of fur might range in value from one hundred to five
+thousand dollars, so that a man with a pack of fine furs was a
+capitalist. The profits of the business were good for trapper,
+very large for the trader, who doubled his first gain by paying
+in trade; but they were huge for the Albany middleman, and
+colossal for the New Yorker who shipped to London.
+
+With such allurements, it was small wonder that more country was
+explored and opened for fur than for settlement or even for gold;
+and there were more serious crimes and high-handed robberies over
+the right to trade a few furs than over any other legitimate
+business. These things were new to Rolf within the year, but he
+was learn- ing the lesson, and Warren's remarks about fur stuck
+in his memory with growing value. Every incident since the trip
+began had given them new points.
+
+The morning passed without sign of Bill; so, when in the
+afternoon, some bare-legged boys came along, Rolf said to them:
+"Do any of ye know where Peter Vandam's house is?"
+
+"Yeh, that's it right there," and they pointed to a large log
+house less than a hundred yards away.
+
+"Do ye know him?"
+
+"Yeh, he's my paw," said a sun-bleached freckle-face.
+
+"If you bring him here right away, I'll give you a dime. Tell him
+I'm from Warren's with a cargo."
+
+The dusty stampede that followed was like that of a mustang herd,
+for a dime was a dime in those days. And very soon, a tall,ruddy
+man appeared at the dock. He was a Dutchman in name only.  At
+first sight he was much like the other loafers, but was bigger,
+and had a more business-like air when observed near at hand.
+
+"Are you from Warren's?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Alone? "
+
+"No, sir. I came with Bill Bymus. But he went off early this
+morning; I haven't seen him since. I'm afraid he's in trouble."
+
+"Where'd ho go?"
+
+"In there with some friends."
+
+"Ha, just like him; he's in trouble all right. He'll be no good
+for a week. Last time he came near losing all our stuff. Now
+let's see what ye've got."
+
+"Are you Mr. Peter Vandam? "
+
+"Of course I am."
+
+Still Rolf looked doubtful. There was a small group around, and
+Rolf heard several voices, "Yes, this is Peter; ye needn't
+a-worry."  But Rolf knew none of the speakers. His look of
+puzzlement at first annoyed then tickled the Dutchman, who
+exploded into a hearty guffaw.
+
+"Wall, wall, you sure think ill of us.  Here, now look at that,"
+and he drew out a bundle of letters addressed to Master Peter
+Vandam.  Then he displayed a gold watch inscribed on the back
+"Peter Vandam"; next he showed a fob seal with a scroll and an
+inscription, "Petrus Vandamus"; then he turned to a youngster and
+said, "Run, there is the Reverend Dr. Powellus, he may help us";
+so the black-garbed, knee-breached, shovel-hatted clergyman came
+and pompously said: "Yes, my young friend, without doubt you may
+rest assured that this is our very estimable parishioner, Master
+Peter Vandam; a man well accounted in the world of trade."
+
+"And now," said Peter, "with the help of my birth- register and
+marriage-certificate, which will be placed at your service with
+all possible haste, I hope I may win your recognition."  The
+situation, at first tense, had become more and more funny, and
+the bystanders laughed aloud. Rolf rose to it, and smiling said
+slowly, "I am inclined to think that you must be Master Peter
+Vandam, of
+
+Albany. If that's so, this letter is for you, also this cargo."
+And so the delivery was made.
+
+Bill Bymus has not delivered the other letter to this day.
+Presumably he went to stay with his sister, but she saw little of
+him, for his stay at Albany was, as usual, one long spree. It was
+clear that, but for Rolf, there might have been serious loss of
+fur, and Vandam showed his appreciation by taking the lad to his
+own home, where the story of the difficult identification
+furnished ground for gusty laughter and primitive jest on many an
+after day.
+
+The return cargo for Warren consisted of stores that the Vandam
+warehouse had in stock, and some stuff that took a day or more to
+collect in town.
+
+As Rolf was sorting and packing next day, a tall, thin, well-dressed
+young man walked in with the air of one much at home.
+
+"Good morrow, Peter."
+
+"Good day to ye, sir," and they talked of crops and politics.
+
+Presently Vandam said, "Rolf, come over here."
+
+He came and was presented to the tall man, who was indeed very
+thin, and looked little better than an invalid. "This," said
+Peter, "is Master Henry van Cortlandt the son of his honour, the
+governor, and a very learned barrister.  He wants to go on a long
+hunting trip for his health. I tell him that likely you are the
+man he needs."
+
+This was so unexpected that Rolf turned red and gazed on the
+ground. Van Cortlandt at once began to clear things by
+interjecting: "You see, I'm not strong. I want to live outdoors
+for three months, where I can have some hunting and be beyond
+reach of business.  I'll pay you a hundred dollars for the three
+months, to cover board and guidance. And providing I'm well
+pleased and have good hunting, I'll give you fifty dollars more
+when I get back to Albany."
+
+"I'd like much to be your guide," said Rolf, "but I have a
+partner. I must find out if he's willing."
+
+"Ye don't mean-that drunken Bill Bymus?"
+
+"No! my hunting partner; he's an Indian." Then, after a pause, he
+added, " You wouldn't go in fly-time, would you?"
+
+"No, I want to be in peace. But any time after the first of August."
+
+"I am bound to help Van Trumper with his harvest; that will take
+most of August."
+
+As he talked, the young lawyer sized him up and said to himself,
+"This is my man."
+
+And before they parted it was agreed that Rolf should come to
+Albany with Quonab as soon as he could return in August, to form
+the camping party for the governor's son.
+
+
+
+Chapter 55. The Rescue of Bill
+
+Bales were ready and the canoe newly gummed three days after
+their arrival, but still no sign of Bill.  A messengers sent to
+the brother-in-law's home reported that he had not been seen for
+two days. In spite of the fact that Albany numbered nearly "six
+thousand living human souls," a brief search by the docksharps
+soon revealed the sinner's retreat. His worst enemy would have
+pitied him; a red-eyed wreck; a starved, sick and trembling
+weakling; conscience-stricken, for the letter intrusted to him
+was lost; the cargo stolen -- so his comforters had said -- and
+the raw country lad murdered and thrown out into the river. What
+wonder that he should shun the light of day! And when big Peter
+with Rolf in the living flesh, instead of the sheriff, stood
+before him and told him to come out of that and get into the
+canoe, he wept bitter tears of repentance and vowed that never,
+never, never, as long as he lived would he ever again let liquor
+touch his lips.  A frame of mind which lasted in strength for
+nearly one day and a half, and did not entirely varnish for three.
+
+They passed Troy without desiring to stop, and began their fight
+with the river. It was harder than when coming, for their course
+was against stream when paddling, up hill when portaging, the
+water was lower, the cargo was heavier, and Bill not so able. Ten
+days it took them to cover those eighty miles. But they came out
+safely, cargo and all, and landed at Warren's alive and well on
+the twenty-first day since leaving.
+
+Bill had recovered his usual form.  Gravely and with pride he
+marched up to Warren and handed out a large letter which read
+outside, "Bill of Lading," and when opened, read: "The bearer of
+this, Bill Bymus, is no good. Don't trust him to Albany any more.
+(Signed) Peter Vandam."
+
+Warren's eyes twinkled, but he said nothing.  He took
+
+Rolf aside and said, "Let's have it." Rolf gave him the real
+letter that, unknown to Bill, he had carried, and Warren learned
+some things that he knew before.
+
+Rolf's contract was for a month; it had ten days to run, and
+those ten days were put in weighing sugar, checking accounts,
+milking cows, and watching the buying of fur. Warren didn't want
+him to see too much of the fur business, but Rolf gathered
+quickly that these were the main principles: Fill the seller with
+liquor, if possible; "fire water for fur" was the idea; next,
+grade all fur as medium or second-class, when cash was demanded,
+but be easy as long as payment was to be in trade.  That afforded
+many loopholes between weighing, grading, charging, and
+shrinkage, and finally he noticed that Albany prices were 30 to
+50 per cent. higher than Warren prices.  Yet Warren was reckoned
+a first-class fellow, a good neighbour, and a member of the
+church. But it was understood everywhere that fur, like
+horseflesh, was a business with moral standards of its own.
+
+A few days before their contract was up, Warren said: "How'd ye
+like to renew for a month?"
+
+"Can't; I promised to help Van Trumper with his harvest."
+
+"What does he pay ye?"
+
+"Seventy-five cents a day and board."
+
+"I'll make it a dollar."
+
+"I've given my word," said Rolf, in surprise.
+
+"Hey ye signed papers?"
+
+"They're not needed. The only use of signed papers is to show ye
+have given your word," said Rolf, quoting his mother, with rising
+indignation.
+
+The trader sniffed a little contemptuously and said nothing. But
+he realized the value of a lad who was a steady, intelligent
+worker, wouldn't drink, and was absolutely bound by a promise;
+so, after awhile, he said: "Wall, if Van don't want ye now, come
+back for a couple of weeks."
+
+Early in the morning Rolf gathered the trifles he had secured for
+the little children and the book he had bought for Annette, a
+sweet story of a perfect girl who died and went to heaven, the
+front embellished with a thrilling wood-cut. Then he crossed the
+familiar five-mile portage at a pace that in an hour brought him
+to the lake.
+
+The greeting at Van's was that of a brother come home.
+
+"Vell, Rolf, it's goood to see ye back. It's choost vat I vented.
+Hi, Marta, I told it you, yah.  I say, now I hope ze good Gott
+send Rolf. Ach, how I am shpoil!"
+
+Yes, indeed. The hay was ready; the barley was changing. So Rolf
+took up his life on the farm, doing work that a year before was
+beyond his strength, for the spirit of the hills was on him, with
+its impulse of growth, its joy in effort, its glory in strength.
+And all who saw the longlegged, long-armed, flat- backed youth
+plying fork or axe or hoe, in some sort ventured a guess: "He'll
+be a good 'un some day; the kind o' chap to keep friendly with.
+
+
+
+Chapter 56. The Sick Ox
+
+The Thunder Moon passed quickly by; the hay was in; the barley
+partly so.  Day by day the whitefaced oxen toiled at the creaking
+yoke, as the loads of hay and grain were jounced cumbrously over
+roots and stumps of the virgin fields. Everything was promising
+well, when, as usual, there came a thunderbolt out of the clear
+sky.  Buck, the off ox, fell sick.
+
+Those who know little about cattle have written much of the meek
+and patient ox.  Those who know them well tell us that the ox is
+the "most cussedest of all cussed" animals; a sneak, a bully, a
+coward, a thief, a shirk, a schemer; and when he is not in
+mischief he is thinking about it.  The wickedest pack mule that
+ever bucked his burden is a pinfeathered turtle-dove compared
+with an average ox. There are some gentle oxen, but they are
+rare; most are treacherous, some are dangerous, and these are
+best got rid of, as they mislead their yoke mates and mislay
+their drivers.  Van's two oxen, Buck and Bright, manifested the
+usual variety and contrariety of disposition.  They were all
+right when well handled, and this Rolf could do better than Van,
+for he was "raised on oxen," and Van's over voluble, sputtering,
+Dutch- English seemed ill comprehended of the massive yoke
+beasts. The simpler whip-waving and fewer orders of the Yankee
+were so obviously successful that Van had resigned the whip of
+authority and Rolf was driver.
+
+Ordinarily, an ox driver walks on the hew (nigh or left) side,
+near the head of his team, shouting "gee" (right), "haw" (left),
+"get up," "steady," or "whoa" (stop), accompanying the order with
+a waving of the whip.  Foolish drivers lash the oxen on the haw
+side when they wish them to gee -- and vice versa; but it is
+notorious that all good drivers do little lashing. Spare the lash
+or spoil your team.  So it was not long before Rolf could guide
+them from the top of the load, as they travelled from shook to
+shook in the field.  This voice of command saved his life, or at
+least his limb, one morning, for he made a misstep that tumbled
+him down between the oxen and the wagon. At once the team
+started, but his ringing "Whoa!" brought them to a dead stop, and
+saved him; whereas, had it been Van's "Whoa!" it would have set
+them off at a run, for every shout from him meant a whip lick to
+follow.
+
+Thus Rolf won the respect, if not the love, of the huge beasts;
+more and more they were his charge, and when, on that sad
+morning, in the last of the barley, Van came in, "Ach, vot shall
+I do! Vot shall I do! Dot Buck ox be nigh dead."
+
+Alas! there he lay on the ground, his head sometimes raised,
+sometimes stretched out flat, while the huge creature uttered
+short moans at times.
+
+Only four years before, Rolf had seen that same thing at Redding.
+The rolling eye, the working of the belly muscles, the straining
+and moaning. "It's colic; have you any ginger?"
+
+"No, I hat only dot soft soap."
+
+What soft soap had to do with ginger was not clear, and Rolf
+wondered if it had some rare occult medical power that had
+escaped his mother.
+
+"Do you know where there's any slippery elm?"
+
+"Yah."
+
+"Then bring a big boiling of the bark, while I get some
+peppermint."
+
+The elm bark was boiled till it made a kettleful of brown slime.
+The peppermint was dried above the stove till it could be
+powdered, and mixed with the slippery slush. Some sulphur and
+some soda were discovered and stirred in, on general principles,
+and they hastened to the huge, helpless creature in the field.
+
+Poor Buck seemed worse than ever. He was flat on his side, with
+his spine humped up, moaning and straining at intervals. But now
+relief was in sight -- so thought the men. With a tin dipper they
+tried to pour some relief into the open mouth of the sufferer,
+who had so little appreciation that he simply taxed his remaining
+strength to blow it out in their faces. Several attempts ended
+the same way. Then the brute, in what looked like temper, swung
+his muzzle and dashed the whole dipper away. Next they tried the
+usual method, mixing it with a bran mash, considered a delicacy
+in the bovine world, but Buck again took notice, under pressure
+only, to dash it away and waste it all.
+
+It occurred to them they might force it down his throat if they
+could raise his head. So they used a hand lever and a prop to
+elevate the muzzle, and were about to try another inpour, when
+Buck leaped to his feet, and behaving like one who has been
+shamming, made at full gallop for the stable, nor stopped till
+safely in his stall, where at once he dropped in all the evident
+agony of a new spasm.
+
+It is a common thing for oxen to sham sick, but this was the real
+thing, and it seemed they were going to lose the ox, which meant
+also lose a large part of the harvest.
+
+In the stable, now, they had a better chance; they tied him, then
+raised his head with a lever till his snout was high above his
+shoulders. Now it seemed easy to pour the medicine down that
+long, sloping passage. But his mouth was tightly closed, any that
+entered his nostrils was blown afar, and the suffering beast
+strained at the rope till he seemed likely to strangle.
+
+Both men and ox were worn out with the struggle; the brute was no
+better, but rather worse.
+
+"Wall," said Rolf, "I've seen a good many ornery steers, but
+that's the orneriest I ever did handle, an' I reckon we'll lose
+him if he don't get that poison into him pretty soon."
+
+Oxen never were studied as much as horses, for they were
+considered a temporary shift, and every farmer looked forward to
+replacing them with the latter. Oxen were enormously strong, and
+they could flourish without grain when the grass was good; they
+never lost their head in a swamp hole, and ploughed steadily
+among all kinds of roots and stumps; but they were exasperatingly
+slow and eternally tricky.  Bright, being the trickier of the
+two, was made the nigh ox, to be more under control.  Ordinarily
+Rolf could manage Buck easily, but the present situation seemed
+hopeless. In his memory he harked back to Redding days, and he
+recalled old Eli Gooch, the ox expert, and wondered what he would
+have done.  Then, as he sat, he caught sight of the sick ox
+reaching out its head and deftly licking up a few drops of bran
+mash that had fallen from his yoke fellow's portion. A smile
+spread over Rolf's face. "Just like you; you think nothing's good
+except it's stolen. All right; we'll see." He mixed a big dose of
+medicine, with bran, as before.  Then he tied Bright's head so
+that he could not reach the ground, and set the bucket of mash
+half way between the two oxen. "Here ye are, Bright," he said, as
+a matter of form, and walked out of the stable; but, from a
+crack, he watched. Buck saw a chance to steal Bright's bran; he
+looked around; Oh, joy! his driver was away. He reached out
+cautiously; sniffed; his long tongue shot forth for a first
+taste, when Rolf gave a shout and ran in. "Hi, you old robber!
+Let that alone; that's for Bright."
+
+The sick ox was very much in his own stall now, and stayed there
+for some time after Rolf went to resume his place at the
+peephole. But encouraged by a few minutes of silence, he again
+reached out, and hastily gulped down a mouthful of the mixture
+before Rolf shouted and rushed in armed with a switch to punish
+the thief. Poor Bright, by his efforts to reach the tempting
+mash, was unwittingly playing the game, for this was proof
+positive of its desirableness.
+
+After giving Buck a few cuts with the switch, Rolf retired, as
+before. Again the sick ox waited for silence, and reaching out
+with greedy haste, he gulped down the rest and emptied the
+bucket; seeing which, Rolf ran in and gave the rogue a final
+trouncing for the sake of consistency.
+
+Any one who knows what slippery elm, peppermint, soda, sulphur,
+colic, and ox do when thoroughly interincorporated will not be
+surprised to learn that in the morning the stable needed special
+treatment, and of all the mixture the ox was the only ingredient
+left on the active list. He was all right again, very thirsty,
+and not quite up to his usual standard, but, as Van said, after a
+careful look, "Ah, tell you vot, dot you vas a veil ox again, an'
+I t'ink I know not vot if you all tricky vas like Bright."
+
+
+
+Chapter 57. Rolf and Skookum at Albany
+
+The Red Moon (August) follows the Thunder Moon, and in the early
+part of its second week Rolf and Van, hauling in the barley and
+discussing the fitness of the oats, were startled by a most
+outrageous clatter among the hens.  Horrid murder evidently was
+stalking abroad, and, hastening to the rescue, Rolf heard loud,
+angry barks; then a savage beast with a defunct "cackle party"
+appeared, but dropped the victim to bark and bound upon the
+"relief party" with ecstatic expressions of joy, in spite of
+Rolf's -- "Skookum! you little brute!"
+
+Yes! Quonab was back; that is, he was at the lake shore, and
+Skookum had made haste to plunge into the joys and gayeties of
+this social centre, without awaiting the formalities of greeting
+or even of dry-shod landing.
+
+The next scene was -- a big, high post, a long, strong chain and
+a small, sad dog.
+
+"Ho, Quonab, you found your people?  You had a good time?"
+
+"Ugh," was the answer, the whole of it, and all the light Rolf
+got for many a day on the old man's trip to the North. The
+prospect of going to Albany for Van Cortlandt was much more
+attractive to Quonab than that of the harvest field, so a
+compromise was agreed on.  Callan's barley was in the stock; if
+all three helped Callan for three days, Callan would owe them for
+nine, and so it was arranged.
+
+Again "good-bye," and Rolf, Quonab, and little dog Skookum went
+sailing down the Schroon toward the junction, where they left a
+cache of their supplies, and down the broadening Hudson toward
+Albany.
+
+Rolf had been over the road twice; Quonab never before, yet his
+nose for water was so good and the sense of rapid and portage was
+so strong in the red man, that many times he was the pilot. "This
+is the way, because it must be"; "there it is deep because so
+narrow"; "that rapid is dangerous, because there is such a
+well-beaten portage trail"; "that we can run, because I see it,"
+or, "because there is no portage trail," etc.  The eighty miles
+were covered in three sleeps, and in the mid-moon days of the Red
+Moon they landed at the dock in front of Peter Vandam's.  If
+Quonab had any especial emotions for the occasion, he cloaked
+them perfectly under a calm and copper-coloured exterior of
+absolute immobility.
+
+Their Albany experiences included a meeting with the governor and
+an encounter with a broad and burly river pirate, who, seeing a
+lone and peaceable-looking red man, went out of his way to insult
+him; and when Quonab's knife flashed out at last, it was only his
+recently established relations with the governor's son that saved
+him from some very sad results, for there were many loafers
+about.  But burly Vandam appeared in the nick of time to halt the
+small mob with the warning: "Don't you know that's Mr. Van
+Cortlandt's guide?"  With the governor and Vandam to back him,
+Quonab soon had the mob on his side, and the dock loafer's own
+friends pelted him with mud as he escaped. But not a little
+credit is due to Skookum, for at the critical moment he had
+sprung on the ruffian's bare and abundant leg with such toothsome
+effect that the owner fell promptly backward and the knife thrust
+missed.  It was quickly over and Quonab replaced his knife,
+contemptuous of the whole crowd before, during and after the
+incident.  Not at the time, but days later, he said of his foe:
+"He was a talker; he was full of fear."
+
+With the backwoods only thirty miles away, and the unbroken
+wilderness one hundred, it was hard to believe how little Henry
+van Cortlandt knew of the woods and its life.  He belonged to the
+ultra-fashionable set, and it was rather their pose to affect
+ignorance of the savage world and its ways. But he had plenty of
+common-sense to fan back on, and the inspiring example of
+Washington, equally at home in the nation's Parliament, the army
+intrenchment, the glittering ball room, or the hunting lodge of
+the Indian, was a constant reminder that the perfect man is a
+harmonious development of mind, morals, and physique.
+
+His training had been somewhat warped by the ultraclassic fashion
+of the times, so he persisted in seeing in Quonab a sort of
+discoloured, barbaric clansman of Alaric or a camp follower of
+Xenophon's host, rather than an actual living, interesting,
+native American, exemplifying in the highest degree the sinewy,
+alert woodman, and the saturated mystic and pantheist of an age
+bygone and out of date, combined with a middle-measure
+intelligence.  And Rolf, tall, blue-eyed with brown, curling
+hair, was made to pose as the youthful Achilles, rather than as a
+type of America's best young manhood, cleaner, saner, and of far
+higher ideals and traditions than ever were ascribed to Achilles
+by his most blinded worshippers.  It recalled the case of
+Wordsworth and Southey living side by side in England; Southey,
+the famous, must needs seek in ancient India for material to
+write his twelve-volume romance that no one ever looks at;
+Wordsworth, the unknown, wrote of the things of his own time,
+about his own door? and produced immortal verse.
+
+What should we think of Homer, had he sung his impressions of the
+ancient Egyptians? or of Thackeray, had he novelized the life of
+the Babylonians? It is an ancient blindness, with an ancient wall
+to bruise one's head. It is only those who seek ointment of the
+consecrated clay that gives back sight, who see the shining way
+at their feet, who beat their face against no wall, who safely
+climb the heights. Henry van Cortlandt was a man of rare parts,
+of every advantage, but still he had been taught steadfastly to
+live in the past. His eyes were yet to be opened. The living
+present was not his -- but yet to be.
+
+The young lawyer had been assembling his outfit at Vandam's
+warehouse, for, in spite of scoffing friends, he knew that Rolf
+was coming back to him.
+
+When Rolf saw the pile of stuff that was gathered for that
+outfit, he stared at it aghast, then looked at Vandam, and
+together they roared. There was everything for light housekeeping
+and heavy doctoring, even chairs, a wash stand, a mirror, a
+mortar, and a pestle.  Six canoes could scarcely have carried the
+lot.
+
+"'Tain't so much the young man as his mother," explained Big
+Pete; "at first I tried to make 'em understand, but it was no
+use; so I says, 'All right, go ahead, as long as there's room in
+the warehouse.' I reckon I'll set on the fence and have some fun
+seein' Rolf ontangle the affair."
+
+"Phew, pheeeww -- ph-e-e-e-e-w," was all Rolf could say in
+answer.  But at last, "Wall, there's always a way. I sized him up
+as pretty level headed.  We'll see."
+
+There was a way and it was easy, for, in a secret session, Rolf,
+Pete, and Van Cortlandt together sorted out the things needed. A
+small tent, blankets, extra clothes, guns, ammunition, delicate
+food for three months, a few medicines and toilet articles -- a
+pretty good load for one canoe, but a trifle compared with the
+mountain of stuff piled up on the floor.
+
+"Now, Mr. van Cortlandt," said Rolf, "will you explain to your
+mother that we are going on with this so as to travel quickly,
+and will send back for the rest as we need it?"
+
+A quiet chuckle was now heard from Big Pete. "Good! I wondered
+how he'd settle it."
+
+The governor and his lady saw them off; therefore, there was a
+crowd. The mother never before had noted what a frail and
+dangerous thing a canoe is. She cautioned her son never to
+venture out alone, and to be sure that he rubbed his chest with
+the pectoral balm she had made from such and such a famous
+receipt, the one that saved the life but not the limb of old
+Governor Stuyvesant, and come right home if you catch a cold; and
+wait at the first camp till the other things come, and (in a
+whisper) keep away from that horrid red Indian with the knife,
+and never fail to let every one know who you are, and write
+regularly, and don't forget to take your calomel Monday,
+Wednesday, and Friday, alternating with Peruvian bark Tuesday,
+Thursday, and Saturday, and squills on Sunday, except every other
+week, when he should devote Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays to
+rhubarb and catnip tea, except in the full moon, when the catnip
+was to be replaced with graveyard bergamot and the squills with
+opodeldoc in which an iron nail had been left for a week.
+
+So Henry was embraced, Rolf was hand-shaken, Quonab was nodded
+at, Skookum was wisely let alone, and the trim canoe swung from
+the dock. Amid hearty cheers, farewells, and "God speed ye's" it
+breasted the flood for the North.
+
+And on the dock, with kerchief to her eyes, stood the mother,
+weeping to think that her boy was going far, far away from his
+home and friends in dear, cultured, refined Albany, away, away,
+to that remote and barbarous inaccessible region almost to the
+shore land of Lake Champlain.
+
+
+
+Chapter 58. Back to Indian Lake
+
+Young Van Cortlandt, six feet two in his socks and thirty- four
+inches around the chest, was, as Rolf long afterward said, "awful
+good raw material, but awful raw."  Two years out of college,
+half of which had been spent at the law, had done little but
+launch him as a physical weakling and a social star.  But his
+mental make-up was more than good; it was of large promise.  He
+lacked neither courage nor sense, and the course he now followed
+was surely the best for man-making.
+
+Rolf never realized how much a farmer-woodman-
+canoeman-hunter-camper had to know, until now he met a man who
+did not know anything, nor dreamed how many wrong ways there were
+of doing a job, till he saw his new companion try it.
+
+There is no single simple thing that is a more complete measure
+of one's woodcraft than the lighting of a fire. There are a dozen
+good ways and a thousand wrong ones. A man who can light thirty
+fires on thirty successive days with thirty matches or thirty
+sparks from flint and steel is a graduated woodman, for the feat
+presupposes experience of many years and the skill that belongs
+to a winner.
+
+When Quonab and Rolf came back from taking each a load over the
+first little portage, they found Van Cortlandt getting ready for
+a fire with a great, solid pile of small logs, most of them wet
+and green. He knew how to use flint and steel, because that was
+the established household way of the times.  Since childhood had
+he lighted the candle at home by this primitive means.  When his
+pile of soggy logs was ready, he struck his flint, caught a spark
+on the tinder that is always kept on hand, blew it to a flame,
+thrust in between two of the wet logs, waited for all to blaze
+up, and wondered why the tiny blaze went out at once, no matter
+how often he tried.
+
+When the others came back, Van Cortlandt remarked: "It doesn't
+seem to burn." The Indian turned away in silent contempt. Rolf
+had hard work to keep the forms of respect, until the thought
+came: "I suppose I looked just as big a fool in his world at
+Albany."
+
+"See," said he, "green wood and wet wood won't do, but yonder is
+some birch bark and there's a pine root." He took his axe and cut
+a few sticks from the root, then used his knife to make a
+sliver-fuzz of each; one piece, so resinous that it would not
+whittle, he smashed with the back of the axe into a lot of
+matchwood. With a handful of finely shredded birch bark he was
+now quite ready. A crack of the flint a blowing of the spark
+caught on the tinder from the box, a little flame that at once
+was magnified by the birch bark, and in a minute the pine
+splinters made a sputtering fire. Quonab did not even pay Van
+Cortlandt the compliment of using one of his logs. He cut a
+growing poplar, built a fireplace of the green logs around the
+blaze that Rolf had made, and the meal was ready in a few
+minutes.
+
+Van Cortlandt was not a fool; merely it was all new to him. But
+his attention was directed to fire-making now, and long before
+they reached their cabin he had learned this, the first of the
+woodman's arts -- he could lay and light a fire. And when, weeks
+later, he not only made the flint fire, but learned in emergency
+to make the rubbing stick spark, his cup of joy was full. He felt
+he was learning.
+
+Determined to be in everything, now he paddled all day; at first
+with vigour, then mechanically, at last feebly and painfully.
+Late in the afternoon they made the first long portage; it was a
+quarter mile. Rolf took a hundred pounds, Quonab half as much
+more, Van Cortlandt tottered slowly behind with his pill-kit and
+his paddle. That night, on his ample mattress, he slept the sleep
+of utter exhaustion. Next day he did little and said nothing. It
+came on to rain; he raised a huge umbrella and crouched under it
+till the storm was over. But the third day he began to show signs
+of new life, and before they reached the Schroon's mouth, on the
+fifth day, his young frame was already responding to the elixir
+of the hills.
+
+It was very clear that they could not take half of the stuff that
+they had cached at the Schroon's mouth, so that a new adjustment
+was needed and still a cache to await another trip.
+
+That night as they sat by their sixth camp fire, Van Cortlandt
+pondered over the recent days, and they seemed many since he had
+left home. He felt much older and stronger. He felt not only less
+strange, but positively intimate with the life, the river, the
+canoe, and his comrades; and, pleased with his winnings, he laid
+his hand on Skookum, slumbering near, only to arouse in response
+a savage growl, as that important animal arose and moved to the
+other side of the fire. Never did small dog give tall man a more
+deliberate snub. "You can't do that with Skookum; you must wait
+till he's ready," said Rolf.
+
+The journey up the Hudson with its "mean" waters and its
+"carries" was much as before. Then they came to the eagle's nest
+and the easy waters of Jesup's River, and without important
+incident they landed at the cabin. The feeling of "home again"
+spread over the camp and every one was gay.
+
+
+
+Chapter 59. Van Cortlandt's Drugs
+
+AIN'T ye feelin' all right?" said Rolf, one bright, calomel
+morning, as he saw Van Cortlandt pre- paring his daily physic.
+
+"Why, yes; I'm feeling fine; I'm better every day," was the
+jovial reply.
+
+"Course I don't know, but my mother used to say: 'Med'cine's the
+stuff makes a sick man well, an' a well man sick."'
+
+"My mother and your mother would have fought at sight, as you may
+judge.  B-u-t," he added with reflective slowness, and a merry
+twinkle in his eye, "if things were to be judged by their
+product, I am afraid your mother would win easily," and he laid
+his long, thin, scrawny hand beside the broad, strong hand of the
+growing youth.
+
+"Old Sylvanne wasn't far astray when he said: 'There aren't any
+sick, 'cept them as thinks they are,"' said Rolf. "I suppose I
+ought to begin to taper off," was the reply.  But the tapering
+was very sudden.  Before a week went by, it seemed desirable to
+go back for the stuff left in cache on the Schroon, where, of
+course, it was subject to several risks.  There seemed no object
+in taking Van Cortlandt back, but they could not well leave him
+alone.  He went.  He had kept time with fair regularity --
+calomel, rhubarb; calomel, rhubarb; calomel, rhubarb, squills --
+but Rolf's remarks had sunk into his intelligence, as a red-hot
+shot will sink through shingles, letting in light and creating
+revolution.
+
+This was a rhubarb morning.  He drank his potion, then, carefully
+stoppering the bottle, he placed it with its companions in a box
+and stowed that near the middle of the canoe.   "I'll be glad
+when it's finished," he said reflectively; "I don't believe I
+need it now.  I wish sometimes I could run short of it all."
+
+That was what Rolf had been hoping for.  Without such a remark,
+he would not have dared do as he did. He threw the tent cover
+over the canoe amidships, causing the unstable craft to cant:
+"That won't do," he remarked, and took out several articles,
+including the medicine chest, put them ashore under the bushes,
+and, when he replaced them, contrived that the medicine should be
+forgotten.
+
+Next morning Van Cortlandt, rising to prepare his calomel, got a
+shock to find it not.
+
+"It strikes me," says Rolf, "the last time I saw that, it was on
+the bank when we trimmed the canoe." Yes, there could be no doubt
+of it.  Van must live his life in utter druglessness for a time.
+It gave him somewhat of a scare, much like that a young swimmer
+gets when he finds he has drifted awav from his floats; and, like
+that same beginner, it braced him to help himself. So Van found
+that he could swim without corks.
+
+They made a rapid journey down, and in a week they were back with
+the load.
+
+There was the potion chest where they had left it.  Van Cortlandt
+picked it up with a sheepish smile, and they sat down for evening
+meal.  Presently Rolf said: "I mind once I seen three little
+hawks in a nest together.  The mother was teaching them to fly.
+Two of them started off all right, and pretty soon were scooting
+among the treetops. The other was scared.  He says: 'No, mother,
+I never did fly, and I'm scared I'd get killed if I tried.' At
+last the mother got mad and shoved him over.  As soon as he felt
+he was gone, he spread out his wings to save himself.  The wings
+were all right enough, and long before he struck the ground, he
+was flying."
+
+
+
+Chapter 61. Rolf Learns Something from Van
+
+A man can't handle his own case, any more than a delirious doctor
+kin give himself the right physic. --Saying of Si Sylvanne.
+
+However superior Rolf might feel in the canoe or the woods, there
+was one place where Van Cortlandt took the lead, and that was in
+the long talks they had by the campfire or in Van's own shanty
+which Quonab rarely entered.
+
+The most interesting subjects treated in these were ancient
+Greece and modern Albany. Van Cortlandt was a good Greek scholar,
+and, finding an intelligent listener, he told the stirring tales
+of royal Ilion, Athens, and Pergamos, with the loving enthusiasm
+of one whom the teachers found it easy to instruct in classic
+lore. And when he recited or intoned the rolling Greek heroics of
+the siege of Troy, Rolf listened with an interest that was
+strange, considering that he knew not a word of it. But he said,
+"It sounded like real talk, and the tramp of men that were all
+astir with something big a-doing."
+
+Albany and politics, too, were vital strains, and life at the
+Government House, with the struggling rings and cabals, social
+and political. These were extraordinarily funny and whimsical to
+Rolf. No doubt because Van Cortlandt presented them that way. And
+he more than once wondered how rational humans could waste their
+time in such tomfoolery and childish things as all
+conventionalities seemed to be. Van Cortlandt smiled at his
+remarks, but made no answer for long.
+
+One day, the first after the completion of Van Cortlandt's cabin,
+as the two approached, the owner opened the door and stood aside
+for Rolf to enter.
+
+"Go ahead," said Rolf.
+
+"After you," was the polite reply.
+
+"Oh, go on," rejoined the lad, in mixed amusement and impatience.
+
+Van Cortlandt touched his hat and went in.
+
+Inside, Rolf turned squarely and said: "The other day you said
+there was a reason for all kinds o' social tricks; now will you
+tell me what the dickens is the why of all these funny- do's? It
+'pears to me a free-born American didn't ought to take off his
+hat to any one but God."
+
+Van Cortlandt chuckled softly and said: "You may be very sure
+that everything that is done in the way of social usage is the
+result of common-sense, with the exception of one or two things
+that have continued after the reason for them has passed, like
+the buttons you have behind on your coat; they were put there
+originally to button the tails out of the way of your sword.
+Sword wearing and using have passed away, but still you see the
+buttons.
+
+"As to taking off your hat to no man: it depends entirely on what
+you mean by it; and, being a social custom, you must accept its
+social meaning.
+
+"In the days of knight errantry, every one meeting a stranger had
+to suppose him an enemy; ten to one he was. And the sign and
+proof of friendly intention was raising the right hand without a
+weapon in it. The hand was raised high, to be seen as far as they
+could shoot with a bow, and a further proof was added when they
+raised the vizor and exposed the face. The danger of the highway
+continued long after knights ceased to wear armour; so, with the
+same meaning, the same gesture was used, but with a lifting of
+the hat. If a man did not do it, he was either showing contempt,
+or hostility for the other, or proving himself an ignorant brute.
+So, in all civilized countries, lifting the hat is a sign of
+mutual confidence and respect."
+
+"Well! that makes it all look different. But why should you touch
+your hat when you went ahead of me just now?"
+
+"Because this is my house; you are my guest. I am supposed to
+serve you in reasonable ways and give you precedence. Had I let
+you open my door for me, it would have been putting you in the
+place of my servant; to balance that, I give you the sign of
+equality and respect."
+
+"H'm," said Rolf, "'it just shows,' as old Sylvanne sez, 'this
+yer steel-trap, hair-trigger, cocksure jedgment don't do. An' the
+more a man learns, the less sure he gits. An' things as hez
+lasted a long time ain't liable to be on a rotten foundation.'"
+
+
+
+Chapter 62. The Charm of Song
+
+With a regular tum ta tum ta, came a weird sound from the sunrise
+rock one morning, as Van slipped out of his cabin.
+
+"Ag-aj-way-o-say
+Pem-o-say
+Gezhik-om era-bid ah-keen
+Ena-bid ah-keen"
+
+"What's he doing, Rolf?"
+
+"That's his sunrise prayer," was the answer.
+
+"Do you know what it means?"
+
+"Yes, it ain't much; jest 'Oh, thou that walkest in the sky in
+the morning, I greet thee."'
+
+"Why, I didn't know Indians had such performances; that's exactly
+like the priests of Osiris. Did any one teach him? I mean any
+white folk."
+
+"No, it's always been the Indian way. They have a song or a
+prayer for most every big event, sunrise, sunset, moonrise, good
+hunting, and another for when they're sick, or when they're going
+on a journey, or when their heart is bad."
+
+"You astonish me. I had no idea they were so human. It carries me
+back to the temple of Delphi. It is worthy of Cassandra of Ilion.
+I supposed all Indians were just savage Indians that hunted till
+their bellies were full, and slept till they were empty again."
+
+"H'm," rejoined Rolf, with a gentle laugh. "I see you also have
+been doing some 'hair-trigger, steel-trap, cocksure jedgin'.'"
+
+"I wonder if he'd like to hear some of my songs? "
+
+"It's worth trying; anyway, I would," said Rolf.
+
+That night, by the fire, Van sang the "Gay Cavalier," "The
+Hunting of John Peel," and "Bonnie Dundee." He had a fine
+baritone voice. He was most acceptable in the musical circles of
+Albany. Rolf was delighted, Skookum moaned sympathetically, and
+Quonab sat nor moved till the music was over. He said nothing,
+but Rolf felt that it was a point gained, and, trying to follow
+it up, said:
+
+"Here's your drum, Quonab; won't you sing 'The Song of the
+Wabanaki?'" But it was not well timed, and the Indian shook his
+head.
+
+"Say, Van," said Rolf, (Van Cortlandt had suggested this
+abbreviation) "you'll never stand right with Quonab till you kill
+a deer."
+
+"I've done some trying."
+
+"Well, now, we'll go out to-morrow evening and try once more.
+What do you think of the weather, Quonab? "
+
+"Storm begin noon and last three days," was the brief answer, as
+the red man walked away.
+
+"That settles it," said Rolf; "we wait."
+
+Van was surprised, and all the more so when in an hour the sky
+grew black and heavy rain set in, with squalls.
+
+"How in the name of Belshazzar's weather bugler does he tell?"
+
+"I guess you better not ask him, if you want to know. I'll find
+out and tell you later."
+
+Rolf learned, not easily or at single talk:
+
+"Yesterday the chipmunks worked hard; to-day there are none to be
+seen.
+
+"Yesterday the loons were wailing; now they are still, and no
+small birds are about.
+
+"Yesterday it was a yellow sunrise; to-day a rosy dawn.
+
+"Last night the moon changed and had a thick little ring.
+
+"It has not rained for ten days, and this is the third day of
+easterly winds.
+
+"There was no dew last night. I saw Tongue Mountain at daybreak;
+my tom-tom will not sing.
+
+"The smoke went three ways at dawn, and Skookum's nose was hot."
+
+So they rested, not knowing, but forced to believe, and it was
+not till the third day that the sky broke; the west wind began to
+pay back its borrowings from the east, and the saying was proved
+that "three days' rain will empty any sky."
+
+That evening, after their meal, Rolf and Van launched the canoe
+and paddled down the lake. A mile from camp they landed, for this
+was a favourite deer run. Very soon Rolf pointed to the ground.
+He had found a perfectly fresh track, but Van seemed not to
+comprehend. They went along it, Rolf softly and silently, Van
+with his long feet and legs making a dangerous amount of clatter.
+Rolf turned and whispered, "That won't do. You must not stand on
+dry sticks." Van endeavoured to move more cautiously and thought
+he was doing well, but Rolf found it very trying to his patience
+and began to understand how Quonab had felt about himself a year
+ago. "See," said Rolf, "lift your legs so; don't turn your feet
+out that way. Look at the place before you put it down again;
+feel with your toe to make sure there is no dead stick, then
+wriggle it down to the solid ground. Of course, you'd do better
+in moccasins. Never brush past any branches; lift them aside and
+don't let them scratch; ease them back to the place; never try to
+bend a dry branch; go around it," etc. Van had not thought of
+these things, but now he grasped them quickly, and they made a
+wonderful improvement in his way of going.
+
+They came again to the water's edge; across a little bay Rolf
+sighted at once the form of a buck, perfectly still, gazing their
+way, wondering, no doubt, what made those noises.
+
+"Here's your chance," he whispered.
+
+"Where?" was the eager query.
+
+"There; see that gray and white thing?"
+
+"I can't see him."
+
+For five minutes Rolf tried in vain to make his friend see that
+statuesque form; for five minutes it never moved. Then, sensing
+danger, the buck gave a bound and was lost to view.
+
+It was disheartening. Rolf sat down, nearly disgusted; then one
+of Sylvanne's remarks came to him: "It don't prove any one a
+fool, coz he can't play your game."
+
+Presently Rolf said, "Van, hev ye a book with ye?"
+
+"Yes, I have my Virgil."
+
+"Read me the first page."
+
+Van read it, holding the book six inches from his nose.
+
+"Let's see ye read this page there," and Rolf held it up four
+feet away.
+
+"I can't; it's nothing but a dim white spot."
+
+"Well, can ye see that loon out there?"
+
+"You mean that long, dark thing in the bay? "
+
+"No, that's a pine log close to," said Rolf, with a laugh, "away
+out half a mile."
+
+"No, I can't see anything but shimmers."
+
+"I thought so. It's no use your trying to shoot deer till ye get
+a pair of specs to fit yer eyes. You have brains enough, but you
+haven't got the eyesight of a hunter. You stay here till I go see
+if I have any luck."
+
+Rolf melted into the woods. In twenty minutes Van heard a shot
+and very soon Rolf reappeared, carrying a two-year- old buck, and
+they returned to their camp by nightfall. Quonab glanced at their
+faces as they passed carrying the little buck. They tried to look
+inscrutable. But the Indian was not deceived. He gave out nothing
+but a sizzling " Humph!"
+
+
+
+Chapter 63. The Redemption of Van
+
+WHEN things is looking black as black can be, it's a sure sign of
+luck coming your way." so said Si Sylvanne, and so it proved to
+Van Cortlandt The Moon of the Falling Leaves was waning, October
+was nearly over, the day of his return to Albany was near, as he
+was to go out in time for the hunters to return in open water. He
+was wonderfully improved in strength and looks. His face was
+brown and ruddy. He had abandoned all drugs, and had gained fully
+twenty pounds in weight. He had learned to make a fire, paddle a
+canoe, and go through the woods in semi-silence. His scholarly
+talk had given him large place in Rolf's esteem, and his sweet
+singing had furnished a tiny little shelf for a modicum of
+Quonab's respect. But his attempts to get a deer were failures.
+"You come back next year with proper, farsight glasses and you'll
+all right," said Rolf; and that seemed the one ray of hope.
+
+The three days' storm had thrown so many trees that the hunters
+decided it would be worth while making a fast trip down to
+Eagle's Nest, to cut such timber as might have fallen across the
+stream, and so make an easy way for when they should have less time.
+
+The surmise was quite right. Much new-fallen timber was now
+across the channel. They chopped over twenty-five trunks before
+they reached Eagle's Nest at noon, and, leaving the river in
+better shape than ever it was, they turned, for the swift,
+straight, silent run of ten miles home.
+
+As they rounded the last point, a huge black form in the water
+loomed to view. Skookum's bristles rose. Quonab whispered, "
+Moose! Shoot quick!"  Van was the only one with a gun. The great
+black beast stood for a moment, gazing at them with wide-open
+eyes, ears, and nostrils, then shook his broad horns, wheeled,
+and dashed for the shore. Van fired and the bull went down with a
+mighty splash among the lilies. Rolf and Skookum let off a
+succession of most unhunterlike yells of triumph. But the giant
+sprang up again and reached the shore, only to fall to Van
+Cortlandt's second barrel. Yet the stop was momentary; he rose
+and dashed into the cover. Quonab turned the canoe at once and
+made for the land.
+
+A great sob came from the bushes, then others at intervals.
+Quonab showed his teeth and pointed. Rolf seized his rifle,
+Skookum sprang from the boat, and a little later was heard
+letting off his war-cry in the bushes not far away.
+
+The men rushed forward, guns in hand, but Quonab called, "Look
+out! Maybe he waiting."
+
+"If he is, he'll likely get one of us." said Rolf, with a light
+laugh, for he had some hearsay knowledge of moose.
+
+Covered each by a tree, they waited till Van had reloaded his
+double-barrelled, then cautiously approached. The great frothing
+sobs had resounded from time to time.
+
+Skookum's voice also was heard in the thicket, and when they
+neared and glimpsed the place, it was to see the monster on the
+ground, lying at full length, dinging up his head at times when
+he uttered that horrid sound of pain.
+
+The Indian sent a bullet through the moose's brain; then all was
+still, the tragedy was over.
+
+But now their attention was turned to Van Cortlandt. He reeled,
+staggered, his knees trembled, his face turned white, and, to
+save himself from falling, he sank onto a log. Here he covered
+his face with his hands, his feet beat the ground, and his
+shoulders heaved up and down.
+
+The others said nothing. They knew by the signs and the sounds
+that it was only through a mighty effort that young Van
+Cortlandt, grown man as he was, could keep himself from
+hysterical sobs and tears.
+
+Not then, but the next day it was that Quonab said: "It comes to
+some after they kill, to some before, as it came to you, Rolf; to
+me it came the day I killed my first chipmunk, that time when I
+stole my father's medicine."
+
+They had ample work for several hours now, to skin the game and
+save the meat. It was fortunate they were so near home. A
+marvellous change there was in the atmosphere of the camp. Twice
+Quonab spoke to Van Cortlandt, as the latter laboured with them
+to save and store the meat of his moose. He was rubbed, doped,
+soiled, and anointed with its flesh, hair, and blood, and that
+night, as they sat by their camp fire, Skookum arose, stretched,
+yawned, walked around deliberately, put his nose in the lawyer's
+hand. gave it a lick, then lay down by his feet. Van Cortlandt
+glanced at Rolf, a merry twinkle was in the eyes of both. "It's
+all right. You can pat Skookum now, without risk of being
+crippled. He's sized you up. You are one of us at last;" and
+Quonab looked on with two long ivory rows a-gleaming in his
+smile.
+
+
+
+Chapter 64. Dinner at the Governor's
+
+Was ever there a brighter blazing sunrise after such a night of
+gloom? Not only a deer, but the biggest of all deer, and Van
+himself the only one of the party that had ever killed a moose.
+The skin was removed and afterward made into a hunting coat for
+the victor. The head and horns were carefully preserved to be
+carried back to Albany, where they were mounted and still hang in
+the hall of a later generation of the name. The final days at the
+camp were days of happy feeling; they passed too soon, and the
+long-legged lawyer, bronzed and healthy looking, took his place
+in their canoe for the flying trip to Albany. With an empty canoe
+and three paddles (two and one half, Van said), they flew down
+the open stretch of Jesup's River in something over two hours and
+camped that night fully thirty-five miles from their cabin. The
+next day they nearly reached the Schroon and in a week they
+rounded the great bend, and Albany hove in view.
+
+How Van's heart did beat! How he did exult to come in triumph
+home, reestablished in health and strengthened in every way.
+They were sighted and recognized. Messengers were seen running;
+a heavy gun was fired, the flag run up on the Capitol, bells set
+a-ringing, many people came running, and more flags ran up on vessels.
+
+A great crowd gathered by the dock.
+
+"There's father, and mother too!" shouted Van, waving his hat.
+
+"Hurrah," and the crowd took it up, while the bells went jingle,
+jangle, and Skookum in the bow sent back his best in answer.
+
+The canoe was dragged ashore. Van seized his mother in his arms,
+as she cried: "My boy, my boy, my darling boy! how well you look.
+Oh, why didn't you write? But, thank God, you are back again, and
+looking so healthy and strong. I know you took your squills and
+opodeldoc. Thank God for that! Oh, I'm so happy! my boy, my boy!
+There's nothing like squills and God's blessing."
+
+Rolf and Quonab were made to feel that they had a part in it all.
+The governor shook them warmly by the hand, and then a friendly
+voice was heard: "Wall, boy, here ye air agin; growed a little,
+settin' up and sassin' back, same as ever." Rolf turned to see
+the gigantic, angular form and kindly face of grizzly old Si
+Sylvanne and was still more surprised to hear him addressed
+"senator."
+
+"Yes," said the senator, "one o' them freak elections that
+sometimes hits right; great luck for Albany, wa'nt it?"
+
+"Ho," said Quonab, shaking the senator's hand, while Skookum
+looked puzzled and depressed.
+
+"Now, remember," said the governor, addressing the Indian, the
+lad, and the senator, "we expect you to dine tonight at the
+mansion; seven o'clock."
+
+Then the terror of the dragon conventionality, that guards the
+gate and hovers over the feast, loomed up in Rolf's imagination.
+He sought a private word with Van. "I'm afraid I have no fit
+clothes; I shan't know how to behave," he said.
+
+"Then I'll show you. The first thing is to be perfectly clean and
+get a shave; put on the best clothes you have, and be sure
+they're clean; then you come at exactly seven o'clock, knowing
+that every one is going to be kind to you and you're bound to
+have a good time. As to any other 'funny-do' you watch me, and
+you'll have no trouble."
+
+So when the seven o'clock assemblage came, and guests were
+ascending the steps of the governor's mansion, there also mounted
+a tall, slim youth, an easy-pacing Indian, and a prick-eared,
+yellow dog. Young Van Cortlandt was near the door, on watch to
+save them any embarrassment. But what a swell he looked,
+cleanshaven, ruddy, tall, and handsome in the uniform of an
+American captain, surrounded by friends and immensely popular.
+How different it all was from that lonely cabin by the lake.
+
+A butler who tried to remove Skookum was saved from mutilation by
+the intervention first of Quonab and next of Van; and when they
+sat down, this uncompromising four- legged child of the forest
+ensconced himself under Quonab's chair and growled whenever the
+silk stockings of the footman seemed to approach beyond the line
+of true respect.
+
+Young Van Cortlandt was chief talker at the dinner, but a pompous
+military man was prominent in the company. Once or twice Rolf was
+addressed by the governor or Lady Van Cortlandt, and had to speak
+to the whole table; his cheeks were crimson, but he knew what he
+wanted to say and stopped when it was said, so suffered no real
+embarrassment.
+
+After what seemed an interminable feast of countless dishes and
+hours' duration, an extraordinary change set in. Led by the
+hostess, all stood up, the chairs were lifted out of their way,
+and the ladies trooped into another room; the doors were closed,
+and the men sat down again at the end next the governor.
+
+Van stayed by Rolf and explained: "This is another social custom
+that began with a different meaning. One hundred years ago, every
+man got drunk at every formal dinner, and carried on in a way
+that the ladies did not care to see, so to save their own
+feelings and give the men a free rein, the ladies withdrew.
+Nowadays, men are not supposed to indulge in any such orgy, but
+the custom continues, because it gives the men a chance to smoke,
+and the ladies a chance to discuss matters that do not interest
+the men. So again you see it is backed by common sense."
+
+This proved the best part of the dinner to Rolf. There was a
+peculiar sense of over-politeness, of insincerity, almost, while
+the ladies were present; the most of the talking had been done by
+young Van Cortlandt and certain young ladies, assisted by some
+very gay young men and the general. Their chatter was funny, but
+nothing more. Now a different air was on the group; different
+subjects were discussed, and by different men, in a totally
+different manner.
+
+"We've stood just about all we can stand," said the governor,
+alluding to an incident newly told, of a British frigate boarding
+an American merchant vessel by force and carrying off half her
+crew, under presence that they were British seamen in disguise.
+"That's been going on for three years now. It's either piracy or
+war, and, in either case, it's our duty to fight."
+
+"Jersey's dead against war," said a legislator from down the river.
+
+"Jersey always was dead against everything that was for the
+national good, sir," said a red-faced, puffy, military man, with
+a husky voice, a rolling eye, and a way of ending every sentence
+in "sir."
+
+"So is Connecticut," said another; "they say, 'Look at all our
+defenceless coasts and harbour towns.'"
+
+"They're not risking as much as New York," answered the
+governor," with her harbours all the way up the Hudson and her
+back door open to invasion from Canada."
+
+"Fortunately, sir, Pennyslvania, Maryland, and the West have not
+forgotten the glories of the past. All I ask -- is a chance to
+show what we can do, sir. I long for the smell of powder once
+more, sir."
+
+"I understand that President Madison has sent several protests,
+and, in spite of Connecticut and New Jersey, will send an
+ultimatum within three months. He believes that Britain has all
+she can manage, with Napoleon and his allies battering at her
+doors, and will not risk a war.
+
+"It's my opinion," said Sylvanne; "that these English men is too
+pig-headed an' ornery to care a whoop in hell whether we get mad
+or not. They've a notion Paul Jones is dead, but I reckon we've
+got plenty of the breed only waitin' a chance. Mor'n twenty-five
+of our merchantmen wrecked each year through being stripped of
+their crews by a 'friendly power.' 'Pears to me we couldn't be
+worse off going to war, an' might be a dum sight better."
+
+"Your home an' holdings are three hundred safe miles from the
+seacoast," objected the man from Manhattan.
+
+"Yes, and right next Canada," was the reply.
+
+"The continued insults to our flag, sir, and the personal
+indignities offered to our people are even worse than the actual
+loss in ships and goods. It makes my blood fairly boil," and the
+worthy general looked the part as his purple jowl quivered over
+his white cravat.
+
+"Gosh all hemlock! the one pricks, but t'other festers. it's
+tarnal sure you steal a man's dinner and tell him he's one o'
+nature's noblemen, he's more apt to love you than if you give him
+five dollars to keep out o' your sight," said Sylvanne, with slow
+emphasis.
+
+"There's something to be said on the other side," said the timid
+one. "You surely allow that the British government is trying to
+do right, and after all we must admit that that Jilson affair
+resected very little credit on our own administration."
+
+"A man ken make one awful big mistake an' still be all right, but
+he can't go on making a little mistake every day right along an'
+be fit company for a clean crowd," retorted the new senator.
+
+At length the governor rose and led the way to the drawing-room,
+where they rejoined the ladies and the conversation took on a
+different colour and weight, by which it lost all value for those
+who knew not the art of twittering persiflage and found less joy
+in a handkerchief flirtation than in the nation's onward march.
+Rolf and Quonab enjoyed it now about as much as Skookum had done
+all the time.
+
+
+
+Chapter 65. The Grebes and the Singing Mouse
+
+Quonab puzzled long over the amazing fact that young Van
+Cortlandt had evident high standing "in his own tribe." "He must
+be a wise counsellor, for I know he cannot fight and is a fool at
+hunting," was the ultimate decision.
+
+They had a final interview with the governor and his son before
+they left. Rolf received for himself and his partner the promised
+one hundred and fifty dollars, and the hearty thanks of all in
+the governor's home. Next, each was presented with a handsome
+hunting knife, not unlike the one young Van had carried, but
+smaller. Quonab received his with "Ho -- then, after a pause, "He
+pull out, maybe, when I need him." -- "Ho! good!" he exclaimed,
+as the keen blade appeared.
+
+"Now, Rolf," said the lawyer, "I want to come back next year and
+bring three companions, and we will pay you at the same rate per
+month for each. What do you say?"
+
+"Glad to have you again," said Rolf: "we'll come for you on
+August fifteenth; but remember you should bring your guitar and
+your spectacles."
+
+"One word," said the governor, "do you know the canoe route
+through Champlain to Canada? "
+
+"Quonab does."
+
+"Could you undertake to render scout service in that region?"
+
+The Indian nodded.
+
+"In case of war, we may need you both, so keep your ears open."
+
+And once more the canoe made for the north, with Quonab in the
+stern and Skookum in the bow.
+
+In less than a week they were home, and none too soon; for
+already the trees were bare, and they had to break the ice on the
+river before they ended their trip.
+
+Rolf had gathered many ideas the last two-months. He did not
+propose to continue all his life as a trapper. He wanted to see
+New York. He wanted to plan for the future. He needed money for
+his plans. He and Quonab had been running a hundred miles of
+traps, but some men run more than that single handed. They must
+get out two new lines at once, before the frost came. One of
+these they laid up the Hudson, above Eagle's Nest; the other
+northerly on Blue Mountain, toward Racquet River. Doing this was
+hard work, and when they came again to their cabin the robins had
+gone from the bleak and leafless woods; the grouse were making
+long night flights; the hollows had tracks of racing deer; there
+was a sense of omen, a length of gloom, for the Mad Moon was
+afloat in the shimmering sky; its wan light ghasted all the
+hills.
+
+Next day the lake was covered with thin, glare ice; on the glassy
+surface near the shore were two ducks floundering. The men went
+as near as they could, and Quonab said, " No, not duck, but
+Shingebis, divers.
+
+They cannot rise except from water. In the night the new ice
+looks like water; they come down and cannot rise. I have often
+seen it." Two days after, a harder frost came on. The ice was
+safe for a dog; the divers or grebes were still on its surface.
+So they sent Skookum. He soon returned with two beautiful grebes,
+whose shining, white breast feathers are as much prized as some
+furs.
+
+Quonab grunted as he held them up. "Ugh, it is often so in this
+Mad Moon. My father said it is because of Kaluskap's dancing."
+
+"I don't remember that one."
+
+"Yes, long ago. Kaluskap felt lazy. He wanted to eat, but did not
+wish to hunt, so he called the bluejay and said: 'Tell all the
+woods that to-morrow night Kaluskap gives a new dance and teaches
+a new song,' and he told the hoot owl to do the same, so one kept
+it up all day -- 'Kaluskap teaches a new dance to-morrow night,'
+and the other kept it up all night: 'Kaluskap teaches a new song
+at next council.'
+
+"Thus it came about that all the woods and waters sent their folk
+to the dance.
+
+"Then Kaluskap took his song-drum and said: 'When I drum and sing
+you must dance in a circle the same way as the sun, close your
+eyes tightly, and each one shout his war whoop, as I cry "new
+songs"!'
+
+"So all began, with Kaluskap drumming in the middle, singing:
+
+"'New songs from the south, brothers, Close your eyes tightly,
+brothers, Dance and learn a new song.
+
+"As they danced around, he picked out the fattest, and, reaching
+out one hand, seized them and twisted their necks, shouting out,
+'More war-cries, more poise! that's it; now you are learning!'
+
+"At length Shingebis the diver began to have his doubts and he
+cautiously opened one eye, saw the trick, and shouted: 'Fly,
+brothers, fly! Kaluskap is killing us !'
+
+"Then all was confusion. Every one tried to escape, and Kaluskap,
+in revenge, tried to kill the Shingebis. But the diver ran for
+the water and, just as he reached the edge, Kaluskap gave him a
+kick behind that sent him half a mile, but it knocked off all his
+tail feathers and twisted his shape so that ever since his legs
+have stuck out where his tail was, and he cannot rise from the
+land or the ice. I know it is so, for my father, Cos Cob, told me
+it was true, and we ourselves have seen it. It is ever so. To go
+against Kaluskap brings much evil to brood over."
+
+A few nights later, as they sat by their fire in the cabin, a
+curious squeaking was heard behind the logs. They had often heard
+it before, but never so much as now. Skookum turned his head on
+one side, set his ears at forward cock. Presently, from a hole
+'twixt logs and chimney, there appeared a small, white breasted
+mouse.
+
+Its nose and ears shivered a little; its black eyes danced in the
+firelight. It climbed up to a higher log, scratched its ribs,
+then rising on its hind legs, uttered one or two squeaks like
+those they had heard so often, but soon they became louder and
+continuous:
+
+"Peg,  peo, peo, peo, peo, peo, peo, oo. Tree, tree, tree, tree,
+trrrrrrr, Turr, turr, turr, tur, tur, Wee, wee, wee, we "--
+
+The little creature was sitting up high on its hind legs, its
+belly muscles were working, its mouth was gaping as it poured out
+its music. For fully half a minute this went on, when Skookum
+made a dash; but the mouse was quick and it flashed into the
+safety of its cranny.
+
+Rolf gazed at Quonab inquiringly.
+
+"That is Mish-a-boh-quas, the singing mouse. He always comes to
+tell of war. In a little while there will be fighting."
+
+
+
+Chapter 66. A Lesson in Stalking
+
+Did you ever see any fighting, Quonab?"
+
+"Ugh! In Revolution, scouted for General Gates."
+
+"Judging by the talk, we're liable to be called on before a year.
+What will you do? "
+
+"Fight."
+
+"As soldier?"
+
+"No! scout."
+
+"They may not want us."
+
+"Always want scouts," replied the Indian.
+
+"It seems to me I ought to start training now."
+
+"You have been training."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"A scout is everything that an army is, but it's all in one man.
+An' he don't have to keep step."
+
+"I see, I see," replied Rolf, and he realized that a scout is
+merely a trained hunter who is compelled by war to hunt his
+country's foes instead of the beasts of the woods.
+
+"See that?" said the Indian, and he pointed to a buck that was
+nosing for cranberries in the open expanse across the river where
+it left the lake. "Now, I show you scouting." He glanced at the
+smoke from the fire, found it right for his plan, and said: "See!
+I take my bow. No cover, yet I will come close and kill that
+deer."
+
+Then began a performance that was new to Rolf, and showed that
+the Indian had indeed reached the highest pitch of woodcraft. He
+took his bow and three good arrows, tied a band around his head,
+and into this stuck a lot of twigs and vines, so that his head
+looked like a tussock of herbage. Then he left the shanty door,
+and, concealed by the last bushes on the edge, he reached the
+open plain. Two hundred yards off was the buck, nosing among the
+herbage, and, from time to time, raising its superb head and
+columnar neck to look around. There was no cover but creeping
+herbage. Rolf suspected that the Indian would decoy the buck by
+some whistle or challenge, for the thickness of its neck showed
+the deer to be in fighting humour.
+
+Flat on his breast the Indian lay. His knees and elbow seemed to
+develop centipedic power; his head was a mere clump of growing
+stuff. He snaked his way quietly for twenty-five yards, then came
+to the open, sloping shore, with the river forty yards wide of
+level shining ice, all in plain view of the deer; how was this to
+be covered?
+
+There is a well-known peculiarity of the white tail that the
+Indian was counting on; when its head is down grazing, even
+though not hidden, the deer does not see distant objects; before
+the head is raised, its tail is raised or shaken. Quonab knew
+that if he could keep the tail in view, he could avoid being
+viewed by the head. In a word, only an ill-timed movement or a
+whiff could betray him.
+
+The open ice was, of course, a hard test, and the hunter might
+have failed, but that his long form looked like one of the logs
+that were lying about half stranded or frozen in the stream.
+
+Watching ever the alert head and tail, he timed his approach,
+working hard and moving East when the head was down; but when
+warned by a tail-jerk he turned to a log nor moved a muscle. Once
+the ice was crossed, the danger of being seen was less, but of
+being smelt was greater, for the deer was moving about, and
+Quonab watched the smoke from the cabin for knowledge of the
+wind. So he came within fifty yards, and the buck, still sniffing
+along and eagerly champing the few red cranberries it found above
+the frozen moss, was working toward a somewhat higher cover. The
+herbage was now fully eighteen inches high, and Quonab moved a
+little faster. The buck found a large patch of berries under a
+tussock and dropped on its knees to pick them out, while Quonab
+saw the chance and gained ten yards before the tail gave warning.
+After so long a feeding-spell, the buck took an extra long
+lookout, and then walked toward the timber, whereby the Indian
+lost all he had gained. But the browser's eye was drawn by a
+shining bunch of red, then another; and now the buck swung until
+there was danger of betrayal by the wind; then down went its head
+and Quonab retreated ten yards to keep the windward. Once the
+buck raised its muzzle and sniffed with flaring nostrils, as
+though its ancient friend had brought a warning. But soon he
+seemed reassured, for the landscape showed no foe, and nosed back
+and forth, while Quonab regained the yards he had lost. The buck
+worked now to the taller cover, and again a tempting bunch of
+berries under a low, dense bush caused it to kneel for farther
+under-reaching. Quonab glided swiftly forward, reached the
+twenty-five-yard limit, rose to one knee, bent the stark cedar
+bow. Rolf saw the buck bound in air, then make for the wood with
+great, high leaps; the dash of disappointment was on him, but
+Quonab stood erect, with right hand raised, and shouted:
+
+"Ho -- ho."
+
+He knew that those bounds were unnecessarily high, and before the
+woods had swallowed up the buck, it fell  -- rose -- and fell
+again, to rise not. The arrow had pierced its heart.
+
+Then Rolf rushed up with kindled eye and exultant pride to slap
+his friend on the back, and exclaim:
+
+"I never thought it possible; the greatest feat in hunting I ever
+saw; you are a wonder!"
+
+To which the Indian softly replied, as he smiled:
+
+"Ho! it was so I got eleven British sentries in the war. They
+gave me a medal with Washington's head."
+
+"They did! how is it I never heard of it? Where is it?"
+
+The Indian's face darkened. "I threw it after the ship that stole
+my Gamowini."
+
+
+
+Chapter 67. Rolf Meets a Canuck
+
+The winter might have been considered eventful, had not so many
+of the events been repetitions of former experience. But there
+were several that by their newness deserve a place on these
+pages, as they did in Rolf's memory.
+
+One of them happened soon after the first sharp frost. It had
+been an autumn of little rain, so that many ponds had dried up,
+with the result that hundreds of muskrats were forced out to seek
+more habitable quarters. The first time Rolf saw one of these
+stranded mariners on its overland journey, he gave heedless
+chase. At first it made awkward haste to escape; then a second
+muskrat was discovered just ahead, and a third. This added to
+Rolf's interest. In a few bounds he was among them, but it was to
+get a surprise. Finding themselves overtaken, the muskrats turned
+in desperation and attacked the common enemy with courage and
+fury. Rolf leaped over the first, but the second sprang, caught
+him by the slack of the trouser leg, and hung on. The third flung
+itself on his foot and drove its sharp teeth through the
+moccasin. Quickly the first rallied and sprang on his other leg
+with all the force of its puny paws, and powerful jaws.
+
+Meanwhile Quonab was laughing aloud and holding back Skookum,
+who, breathing fire and slaughter, was mad to be in the fight.
+
+"Ho! a good fight! good musquas! Ho, Skookum, you must not always
+take care of him, or he will not learn to go alone.
+
+"Ugh, good!" as the third muskrat gripped Rolf by the calf.
+
+There could be but one finish, and that not long delayed. A
+well-placed kick on one, the second swung by the tail, the third
+crushed under his heel, and the affair ended. Rolf had three
+muskrats and five cuts. Quonab had much joy and Skookum a sense
+of lost opportunity.
+
+"This we should paint on the wigwam," said Quonab. "Three great
+warriors attacked one Sagamore. They were very brave, but he was
+Nibowaka and very strong; he struck them down as the Thunderbird,
+Hurakan, strikes the dead pines the fire has left on the hilltop
+against the sky. Now shall you eat their hearts, for they were
+brave. My father told me a fighting muskrat's heart is great
+medicine; for he seeks peace while it is possible, then he turns
+and fights without fear."
+
+A few days later, they sighted a fox. In order to have a joke on
+Skookum, they put him on its track, and away he went, letting off
+his joy-whoops at every jump. The men sat down to wait, knowing
+full well that after an hour Skookum would come back with a long
+tongue and an air of depression. But they were favoured with an
+unexpected view of the chase. It showed a fox bounding over the
+snow, and not twenty yards behind was their energetic four-legged
+colleague.
+
+And, still more unexpected, the fox was overtaken in the next
+thicket, shaken to limpness, and dragged to be dropped at
+Quonab's feet. This glorious victory by Skookum was less
+surprising, when a closer examination showed that the fox had
+been in a bad way. Through some sad, sudden indiscretion, he had
+tackled a porcupine and paid the penalty. His mouth, jaws and
+face, neck and legs, were bristling with quills. He was sick and
+emaciated. He could not have lasted many days longer, and
+Skookum's summary lynching was a blessing in disguise.
+
+The trappers' usual routine was varied by a more important
+happening. One day of deep snow in January, when they were
+running the northern line on Racquet River, they camped for the
+night at their shelter cabin, and were somewhat surprised at dusk
+to hear a loud challenge from Skookum replied to by a human
+voice, and a short man with black whiskers appeared. He raised
+one hand in token of friendliness and was invited to come in.
+
+He was a French Canadian from La Colle Mills. He had trapped here
+for some years. The almost certainty of war between Canada and
+the States had kept his usual companions away. So he had trapped
+alone, always a dangerous business, and had gathered a lot of
+good fur, but had fallen on the ice and hurt himself inwardly, so
+that he had no strength. He could tramp out on snowshoes, but
+could not carry his pack of furs. He had long known that he had
+neighbours on the south; the camp fire smoke proved that, and he
+had come now to offer all his furs for sale.
+
+Quonab shook his head, but Rolf said, "We'll come over and see
+them."
+
+A two-hours' tramp in the morning brought them to the Frenchman's
+cabin. He opened out his furs; several otter, many sable, some
+lynx, over thirty beaver -- the whole lot for two hundred
+dollars. At Lyons Falls they were worth double that.
+
+Rolf saw a chance for a bargain. He whispered, "We can double our
+money on it, Quonab. What do ye say?"
+
+The reply was simply, "Ugh! you are Nibowaka."
+
+"We'll take your offer, if we can fix it up about payment, for I
+have no money with me and barely two hundred dollars at the
+cabin."
+
+"You half tabac and grosairs? "
+
+"Yes, plenty."
+
+"You can go 'get 'em ? Si?"
+
+Rolf paused, looked down, then straight at the Frenchman.
+
+"Will you trust me to take half the fur now; when I come back
+with the pay I can get the rest."
+
+The Frenchman looked puzzled, then, "By Gar you look de good
+look. I let um go. I tink you pretty good fellow, parbleu!"
+
+So Rolf marched away with half the furs and four days later he
+was back and paid the pale-faced but happy Frenchman the one
+hundred and fifty dollars he had received from Van Cortlandt,
+with other bills making one hundred and ninety-five dollars and
+with groceries and tobacco enough to satisfy the trapper. The
+Frenchman proved a most amiable character. He and Rolf took to
+each other greatly, and when they shook hands at parting, it was
+in the hope of an early and happier meeting.
+
+Francois la Colle turned bravely for the ninety-mile tramp over
+the snow to his home, while Rolf went south with the furs that
+were to prove a most profitable investment, shaping his life in
+several ways, and indirectly indeed of saving it on one occasion.
+
+
+
+Chapter 68. War
+
+Eighteen hundred and twelve had passed away. President Madison,
+driven by wrongs to his countrymen and indignities that no nation
+should meekly accept, had in the midsummer declared war on Great
+Britain. Unfitted to cope with the situation and surrounded by
+unfit counsellors, his little army of heroic men led by unfit
+commanders had suffered one reverse after another.
+
+The loss of Fort Mackinaw, Chicago, Detroit, Brownstown, and the
+total destruction of the American army that attacked Queenstown
+were but poorly offset by the victory at Niagara and the
+successful defence of Ogdensburg.
+
+Rolf and Quonab had repaired to Albany as arranged, but they left
+it as United States scouts, not as guides to the four young
+sportsmen who wished to hark back to the primitive.
+
+Their first commission had been the bearing of despatches to
+Plattsburg.
+
+With a selected light canoe and a minimum of baggage they reached
+Ticonderoga in two days, and there renewed their acquaintance
+with General Hampton, who was fussing about, and digging useless
+entrenchments as though he expected a mighty siege. Rolf was
+called before him to receive other despatches for Colonel Pike at
+Plattsburg. He got the papers and learned their destination, then
+immediately made a sad mistake. " Excuse me, sir," he began, "if
+I meet with -- "
+
+"Young man," said the general, severely, "I don't want any of
+your 'ifs' or 'buts'; your orders are 'go.' 'How' and 'if' are
+matters for you to find out; that's what you are paid for."
+
+Rolf bowed; his cheeks were tingling. He was very angry at what
+he thought a most uncalled for rebuke, but he got over it, and he
+never forgot the lesson. It was Si Sylvanne that put it into
+rememberable form.
+
+"A fool horse kin follow a turnpike, but it takes a man with wits
+to climb, swim, boat, skate, run, hide, go it blind, pick a lock,
+take the long way, round, when it's the short way across, run
+away at the right time, or fight when it's wise -- all in one
+afternoon." Rolf set out for the north carrying a bombastic
+(meant to be reassuring) message from Hampton that he would
+annihilate any enemy who dared to desecrate the waters of the lake.
+
+It was on this trip that Rolf learned from Quonab the details of
+the latter's visit to his people on the St. Regis. Apparently the
+joy of meeting a few of his own kin, with whom he could talk his
+own language, was offset by meeting with a large number of his
+ancient enemies the Mohawks. There had been much discussion of
+the possible war between the British and the Yankees. The Mohawks
+announced their intention to fight for the British, which was a
+sufficient reason for Quonab as a Sinawa remaining with the
+Americans; and when he left the St. Regis reserve the Indian was
+without any desire to reenter it.
+
+At Plattsburg Rolf and Quonab met with another Albany
+acquaintance in General Wilkinson, and from him received
+despatches which they brought back to Albany, having covered the
+whole distance in eight days.
+
+When 1812 was gone Rolf had done little but carry despatches up
+and down Lake Champlain. Next season found the Americans still
+under command of Generals Wilkinson and Hampton, whose utter
+incompetence was becoming daily more evident.
+
+The year 1813 saw Rolf, eighteen years old and six feet one in
+his socks, a trained scout and despatch bearer.
+
+By a flying trip on snowshoes in January he took letters, from
+General Hampton at Ticonderoga to Sackett's Harbour and back in
+eight days, nearly three hundred miles. It made him famous as a
+runner, but the tidings that he brought were sad. Through him
+they learned in detail of the total defeat and capture of the
+American army at Frenchtown. After a brief rest he was sent
+across country on snowshoes to bear a reassuring message to
+Ogdensburg. The weather was much colder now, and the single
+blanket bed was dangerously slight; so "Flying Kittering," as
+they named him, took a toboggan and secured Quonab as his running
+mate. Skookum was given into safe keeping. Blankets, pots, cups,
+food, guns, and despatches were strapped on the toboggan, and
+they sped away at dawn from Ticonderoga on the I8th of February
+1813, headed northwestward, guided by little but the compass.
+Thirty miles that day they made in spite of piercing blasts and
+driving snow. But with the night there began a terrible storm
+with winds of zero chill. The air was filled with stinging,
+cutting snow. When they rose at daylight they were nearly buried
+in drifts, although their camp was in a dense, sheltered thicket.
+Guided wholly by the compass they travelled again, but blinded by
+the whirling white they stumbled and blundered into endless
+difficulties and made but poor headway. After dragging the
+toboggan for three hours, taking turns at breaking the way, they
+were changing places when Rolf noticed a large gray patch on
+Quonab's cheek and nose.
+
+"Quonab, your face is frozen," he said.
+
+"So is yours," was the reply.
+
+Now they turned aside, followed a hollow until they reached a
+spruce grove, where they camped and took an observation, to learn
+that the compass and they held widely different views about the
+direction of travel. It was obviously useless to face the storm.
+They rubbed out their frozen features with dry snow and rested by
+the fire.
+
+No good scout seeks for hardship; he avoids the unnecessary trial
+of strength and saves himself for the unavoidable. With zero
+weather about them and twenty-four hours to wait in the storm,
+the scouts set about making themselves thoroughly comfortable.
+
+With their snowshoes they dug away the snow in a circle a dozen
+feet across, piling it up on the outside so as to make that as
+high as possible. When they were
+
+down to the ground, the wall of snow around them was five feet
+high. Now they went forth with the hatchets, cut many small
+spruces, and piled them against the living spruces about the camp
+till there was a dense mass of evergreen foliage ten feet high
+around them, open only at the top, where was a space five feet
+across. With abundance of dry spruce wood, a thick bed of balsam
+boughs, and plenty of blankets they were in what most woodmen
+consider comfort complete.
+
+They had nothing to do now but wait. Quonab sat placidly smoking,
+Rolf was sewing a rent in his coat, the storm hissed, and the
+wind-driven ice needles rattled through the trees to vary the
+crackle of the fire with a "siss" as they fell on the embers. The
+low monotony of sound was lulling in its evenness, when a faint
+crunch of a foot on the snow was heard. Rolf reached for his gun,
+the fir tree screen was shaken a little, and a minute later there
+bounded in upon them the snow covered form of little dog Skookum,
+expressing his good-will by excessive sign talk in which every
+limb and member had a part. They had left him behind, indeed, but
+not with his consent, so the bargain was incomplete.
+
+There was no need to ask now, What shall we do with him? Skookum
+had settled that, and why or how he never attempted to explain.
+
+He was wise who made it law that "as was his share who went forth
+to battle, so shall his be that abode with the stuff," for the
+hardest of all is the waiting. In the morning there was less
+doing in the elemental strife. There were even occasional periods
+of calm and at length it grew so light that surely the veil was
+breaking.
+
+Quonab returned from a brief reconnoitre to say, " Ugh! -- good
+going."
+
+The clouds were broken and flying, the sun came out at times, but
+the wind was high, the cold intense, and the snow still drifting.
+Poor Skookum had it harder than the men, for they wore snowshoes;
+but he kept his troubles to himself and bravely trudged along
+behind. Had he been capable of such reflection he might have
+said, "What delightful weather, it keeps the fleas so quiet."
+
+That day there was little to note but the intense cold, and again
+both men had their cheeks frost-bitten on the north side. A nook
+under an overhanging rock gave a good camp that night. Next day
+the bad weather resumed, but, anxious to push on they faced it,
+guided chiefly by the wind. It was northwest, and as long as they
+felt this fierce, burning cold mercilessly gnawing on their
+hapless tender right cheek bones, they knew they were keeping
+their proper main course.
+
+They were glad indeed to rest at dusk and thaw their frozen
+faces. Next day at dawn they were off; at first it was calm, but
+the surging of the snow waves soon began again, and the air was
+filled with the spray of their lashing till it was hard to see
+fifty yards in any direction. They were making very bad time. The
+fourth day should have brought them to Ogdensburg, but they were
+still far off; how far they could only guess, for they had not
+come across a house or a settler.
+
+
+
+Chapter 69. Ogdensburg
+
+The same blizzard was raging on the next day when Skookum gave
+unequivocal sign talk that he smelled something.
+
+It is always well to find out what stirs your dog. Quonab looked
+hard at Skookum. That sagacious mongrel was sniffing vigorously,
+up in the air, not on the ground; his mane was not bristling, and
+the patch of dark hair that every gray or yellow dog has at the
+base of his tail, was not lifted.
+
+"He smells smoke," was the Indian's quick diagnosis. Rolf pointed
+Up the wind and made the sign-talk query. Quonab nodded.
+
+It was their obvious duty to find out who was their smoky
+neighbour. They were now not so far from the St. Lawrence; there
+was a small chance of the smoke being from a party of the enemy;
+there was a large chance of it being from friends; and the
+largest chance was that it came from some settler's cabin where
+they could get necessary guidance.
+
+They turned aside. The wind now, instead of on the right cheek,
+was square in their faces. Rolf went forward increasing his pace
+till he was as far ahead as was possible without being out of
+sight. After a mile their way led downward, the timber was
+thicker, the wind less, and the air no more befogged with flying
+snow. Rolf came to a long, deep trench that wound among the
+trees; the snow at the bottom of it was very hard. This was what
+he expected; the trail muffled under new, soft snow, but still a
+fresh trail and leading to the camp that Skookum had winded.
+
+He turned and made the sign for them to halt and wait. Then
+strode cautiously along the winding guide line.
+
+In twenty minutes the indications of a settlement increased, and
+the scout at length was peering from the woods across the open
+down to a broad stream on whose bank was a saw mill, with the
+usual wilderness of ramshackle shanties, sheds, and lumber piles
+about.
+
+There was no work going on, which was a puzzle till Rolf
+remembered it was Sunday. He went boldly up and asked for the
+boss. His whole appearance was that of a hunter and as such the
+boss received him.
+
+He was coming through from the other side and had missed his way
+in the storm, he explained.
+
+"What are ye by trade?"
+
+"A trapper."
+
+"Where are ye bound now?"
+
+"Well, I'll head for the nearest big settlement, whatever that
+is."
+
+"It's just above an even thing between Alexandria Bay and
+Ogdensburg."
+
+So Rolf inquired fully about the trail to Alexandria Bay that he
+did not want to go to. Why should he be so careful? The mill
+owner was clearly a good American, but the scout had no right to
+let any outsider know his business. This mill owner might be
+safe, but he might be unwise and blab to some one who was not all
+right.
+
+Then in a casual way he learned that this was the Oswegatchie
+River and thirty miles down he would find the town of Ogdensburg.
+
+No great recent events did he hear of, but evidently the British
+troops across the river were only awaiting the springtime before
+taking offensive measures.
+
+For the looks of it, Rolf bought some tea and pork, but the
+hospitable mill man refused to take payment and, leaving in the
+direction of Alexandria Bay, Rolf presently circled back and
+rejoined his friends in the woods.
+
+A long detour took them past the mill. It was too cold for
+outdoor idling. Every window was curtained with frost, and not a
+soul saw them as they tramped along past the place and down to
+continue on the ice of the Oswegatchie.
+
+Pounded by the ceaseless wind, the snow on the ice was harder,
+travel was easier, and the same tireless blizzard wiped out the
+trail as soon as it was behind them.
+
+Crooked is the river trail, but good the footing, and good time
+was made. When there was a north reach, the snow was extra hard
+or the ice clear and the scouts slipped off their snow shoes, and
+trotted at a good six-mile gait. Three times they halted for tea
+and rest, but the fact that they were the bearers of precious
+despatches, the bringers of inspiring good news, and their goal
+ever nearer, spurred them on and on. It was ten o'clock that
+morning when they left the mill, some thirty miles from
+Ogdensburg. It was now near sundown, but still they figured that
+by an effort they could reach the goal that night. It was their
+best day's travel, but they were nerved to it by the sense of
+triumph as they trotted; and the prospective joy of marching up
+to the commandant and handing over the eagerly looked for,
+reassuring documents, gave them new strength and ambition. Yes!
+they must push on at any price that night. Day was over now; Rolf
+was leading at a steady trot. In his hand he held the long trace
+of his toboggan, ten feet behind was Quonab with the short trace,
+while Skookum trotted before, beside, or behind, as was dictated
+by his general sense of responsibility.
+
+It was quite dark now. There was no moon, the wooded shore was
+black. Their only guide was the broad, wide reach of the river,
+sometimes swept bare of snow by the wind, but good travelling at
+all times. They were trotting and walking in spells, going five
+miles an hour; Quonab was suffering, but Rolf was young and eager
+to finish. They rounded another reach, they were now on the last
+big bend, they were reeling off the miles; only ten more, and
+Rolf was so stirred that, instead of dropping to the usual walk
+on signal at the next one hundred yards spell, he added to his
+trot. Quonab, taken unawares, slipped and lost his hold of the
+trace. Rolf shot ahead and a moment later there was the crash of
+a breaking air-hole, and Rolf went through the ice, clutched at
+the broken edge and disappeared, while the toboggan was dragged
+to the hole.
+
+Quonab sprung to his feet, and then to the lower side of the
+hole. The toboggan had swung to the same place and the long trace
+was tight; without a moment's delay the Indian hauled at it
+steadily, heavily, and in a few seconds the head of his companion
+reappeared; still clutching that long trace he was safely dragged
+from the ice-cold flood, blowing and gasping, shivering and
+sopping, but otherwise unhurt.
+
+Now here a new danger presented itself. The zero wind would soon
+turn his clothes to boards. They stiffened in a few minutes, and
+the Indian knew that frozen hands and feet were all too easy in
+frozen clothes.
+
+He made at once for the shore, and, seeking the heart of a spruce
+thicket, lost no time in building two roaring fires between which
+Rolf stood while the Indian made the bed, in which, as soon as he
+could be stripped, the lad was glad to hide. Warm tea and warm
+blankets made him warm, but it would take an hour or two to dry
+his clothes. There is nothing more damaging than drying them too
+quickly. Quonab made racks of poles and spent the next two hours
+in regulating the fire, watching the clothes, and working the
+moccasins.
+
+It was midnight when they were ready and any question of going on
+at once was settled by Quonab. "Ogdensburg is under arms," he
+said. "It is not wise to approach by night."
+
+At six in the morning they were once more going, stiff with
+travel, sore-footed, face-frozen, and chafed by delay; but, swift
+and keen, trotting and walking, they went. They passed several
+settlements, but avoided them. At seven-thirty they had a distant
+glimpse of Ogdensburg and heard the inspiring roll of drums, and
+a few minutes later from the top of a hill they had a complete
+view of the heroic little town to see -- yes! plainly enough --
+that the British flag was flying from the flag pole.
+
+
+
+Chapter 70. Saving the Despatches
+
+Oh, the sickening shock of it! Rolf did not know till now how
+tired he was, how eager to deliver the heartening message, and to
+relax a little from the strain. He felt weak through and through.
+There could be no doubt that a disaster had befallen his
+country's arms.
+
+His first care was to get out of sight with his sled and those
+precious despatches.
+
+Now what should he do? Nothing till he had fuller information. He
+sent Quonab back with the sled, instructing him to go to a
+certain place two miles off, there camp out of sight and wait.
+
+Then he went in alone. Again and again he was stung by the
+thought, "If I had come sooner they might have held out."
+
+A number of teams gathered at the largest of a group of houses on
+the bank suggested a tavern. He went in and found many men
+sitting down to breakfast. He had no need to ask questions. It
+was the talk of the table. Ogdensburg had been captured the day
+before. The story is well known. Colonel MacDonnell with his
+Glengarry Highlanders at Prescott went to drill daily on the ice
+of the St. Lawrence opposite Ogdensburg. Sometimes they marched
+past just out of range, sometimes they charged and wheeled before
+coming too near. The few Americans that held the place watched
+these harmless exercises and often cheered some clever manceuvre.
+They felt quite safe behind their fortification. By an unwritten
+agreement both parties refrained from firing random shots at each
+other. There was little to suggest enemies entrenched; indeed,
+many men in each party had friends in the other, and the British
+had several times trotted past within easy range, without
+provoking a shot.
+
+On February 22d, the day when Rolf and Quonab struck the
+Oswegatchie, the British colonel directed his men as usual,
+swinging them ever nearer the American fort, and then, at the
+nearest point, executed a very pretty charge. The Americans
+watched it as it neared, but instead of wheeling at the brink the
+little army scrambled up with merry shouts, and before the
+garrison could realize that this was war, they were overpowered
+and Ogdensburg was taken.
+
+The American commander was captured. Captain Forsyth, the second
+in command, had been off on a snowshoe trip, so had escaped. All
+the rest were prisoners, and what to do with the despatches or
+how to get official instructions was now a deep problem. "When
+you don't know a thing to do, don't do a thing," was one of Si
+Sylvanne's axioms; also, "In case of doubt lay low and say
+nothing." Rolf hung around the town all day waiting for light.
+About noon a tall, straight, alert man in a buffalo coat drove up
+with a cutter. He had a hasty meal in an inside room. Rolf sized
+him up for an American officer, but there was a possibility of
+his being a Canadian. Rolf tried in vain to get light on him but
+the inner door was kept closed; the landlord was evidently in the
+secret. When he came out he was again swaddled in the buffalo
+coat. Rolf brushed past him -- here was something hard and long
+in the right pocket of the big coat.
+
+The landlord, the guest, and the driver had a whispered
+conference. Rolf went as near as he dared, but got only a
+searching look. The driver spoke to another driver and Rolf heard
+the words "Black Lake." Yes, that was what he suspected. Black
+Lake was on the inland sleigh route to Alexandria Bay and
+Sackett's Harbour.
+
+The driver, a fresh young fellow, was evidently interested in the
+landlord's daughter; the stranger was talking with the landlord.
+As soon as they had parted, Rolf went to the latter and remarked
+quietly: "The captain is in a hurry." The only reply was a cold
+look and: "Guess that's his business." So it was the captain. The
+driver's mitts were on the line back of the stove. Rolf shook
+them so that they fell in a dark corner. The driver missed his
+mitts, and glad of a chance went back in, leaving the officer
+alone. "Captain Forsyth," whispered Rolf, "don't go till I have
+talked with you. I'll meet you a mile down the road."
+
+"Who are you and what do you want?" was the curt and hostile
+reply, evidently admitting the identification correct however.
+
+Rolf opened his coat and showed his scout badge.
+
+"Why not talk now if you have any news -- come in side." So the
+two went to the inner room. "Who is this?" asked Rolf cautiously
+as the landlord came in.
+
+"He's all right. This is Titus Flack, the landlord."
+
+"How am I to know that?"
+
+"Haven't you heard him called by name all day?" said the captain.
+
+Flack smiled, went out and returned with his license to sell
+liquor, and his commission as a magistrate of New York State. The
+latter bore his own signature. He took a pen and reproduced it.
+Now the captain threw back his overcoat and stood in the full
+uniform of an army officer. He opened his satchel and took out a
+paper, but Rolf caught sight of another packet addressed to
+General Hampton. The small one was merely a map. "I think that
+packet in there is meant for me," remarked Rolf.
+
+"We haven't seen your credentials yet," said the officer. "I have
+them two miles back there," and Rolf pointed to the woods.
+
+"Let's go," said the captain and they arose. Kittering had a way
+of inspiring confidence, but in the short, silent ride of two
+miles the captain began to have his doubts. The scout badge might
+have been stolen; Canadians often pass for Americans, etc. At
+length they stopped the sleigh, and Rolf led into the woods.
+Before a hundred yards the officer said, "Stop," and Rolf stopped
+to find a pistol pointed at his head. "Now, young fellow, you've
+played it pretty slick, and I don't know yet what to make of it.
+But I know this; at the very first sign of treachery I'll blow
+your brains out anyway." It gave Rolf a jolt. This was the first
+time he had looked down a pistol barrel levelled at him. He used
+to think a pistol a little thing, an inch through and a foot
+long, but he found now it seemed as big as a flour barrel and
+long enough to reach eternity. He changed colour but quickly
+recovered, smiled, and said: "Don't worry; in five minutes you
+will know it's all right."
+
+Very soon a sharp bark was heard in challenge, and the two
+stepped into camp to meet Quonab and little dog Skookum.
+
+"Doesn't look much like a trap," thought the captain after he had
+cast his eyes about and made sure that no other person was in the
+camp; then aloud, "Now what have you to show me? "
+
+"Excuse me, captain, but how am I to know you are Captain
+Forsyth? It is possible for a couple of spies to give all the
+proof you two gave me."
+
+The captain opened his bag and showed first his instructions
+given before he left Ogdensburg four days ago; he bared his arm
+and showed a tattooed U. S. A., a relic of Academy days, then his
+linen marked J. F., and a signet ring with similar initials, and
+last the great packet of papers addressed to General Hampton.
+Then he said: "When you hand over your despatches to me I will
+give mine to you and we shall have good guarantee each of the other."
+
+Rolf rose, produced his bundle of papers, and exchanged them for
+those held by Forsyth; each felt that the other was safe. They
+soon grew friendly, and Rolf heard of some stirring doings on the
+lake and preparations for a great campaign in the spring.
+
+After half an hour the tall, handsome captain left them and
+strode away, a picture of manly vigour. Three hours later they
+were preparing their evening meal when Skookum gave notice of a
+stranger approaching. This was time of war; Rolf held his rifle
+ready, and a moment later in burst the young man who had been
+Captain Forsyth's driver.
+
+His face was white; blood dripped from his left arm, and in his
+other hand was the despatch bag. He glanced keenly at Rolf. "Are
+you General Hampton's scout?" Rolf nodded and showed the badge on
+his breast. "Captain Forsyth sent this back," he gasped. "His
+last words were, 'Burn the despatches rather than let the British
+get them.' They got him -- a foraging party -- there was a spy at
+the hotel. I got away, but my tracks are easy to follow unless it
+drifts. Don't wait."
+
+Poor boy, his arm was broken, but he carried out the dead
+officer's command, then left them to seek for relief in the
+settlement.
+
+Night was near, but Rolf broke camp at once and started eastward
+with the double packet. He did not know it then, but learned
+afterward that these despatches made clear the weakness of
+Oswego, Rochester, and Sackett's Harbour, their urgent need of
+help, and gave the whole plan for an American counter attack on
+Montreal. But he knew they were valuable, and they must at once
+be taken to General Hampton.
+
+It was rough, hard going in the thick woods and swamps away from
+the river, for he did not dare take the ice route now, but they
+pushed on for three hours, then, in the gloom, made a miserable
+camp in a cedar swamp.
+
+At dawn they were off again. To their disgust the weather now was
+dead calm; there was no drift to hide their tracks; the trail was
+as plain as a highway wherever they went. They came to a beaten
+road, followed that for half a mile, then struck off on the true
+line. But they had no idea that they were followed until, after
+an hour of travel, the sun came up and on a far distant slope,
+full two miles away, they saw a thin black line of many spots, at
+least a dozen British soldiers in pursuit.
+
+The enemy was on snowshoes, and without baggage evidently, for
+they travelled fast. Rolf and Quonab burdened with the sled were
+making a losing race. But they pushed on as fast as possible --
+toiling and sweating at that precious load. Rolf was pondering
+whether the time had not yet come to stop and burn the packet,
+when, glancing back from a high ridge that gave an outlook, he
+glimpsed a row of heads that dropped behind some rocks half a
+mile away, and a scheme came into his mind. He marched boldly
+across the twenty feet opening that was in the enemy's view,
+dropped behind the spruce thickets, called Quonab to follow, ran
+around the thicket, and again crossed the open view. So he and
+Quonab continued for five minutes, as fast as they could go,
+knowing perfectly well that they were watched. Round and round
+that bush they went, sometimes close together, carrying the guns,
+sometimes dragging the sled, sometimes with blankets on their
+shoulders, sometimes with a short bag or even a large cake of
+snow on their backs. They did everything they could to vary the
+scene, and before five minutes the British officer in charge had
+counted fifty-six armed Americans marching in single file up the
+bank with ample stores, accompanied by five yellow dogs. Had
+Skookum been allowed to carry out his ideas, there would have
+been fifty or sixty yellow dogs, so thoroughly did he enter into
+the spirit of the game.
+
+The track gave no hint of such a troop, but of course not, how
+could it? since the toboggan left all smooth after they had
+passed, or maybe this was a reinforcement arriving. What could he
+do with his ten men against fifty of the enemy? He thanked his
+stars that he had so cleverly evaded the trap, and without
+further attempt to gauge the enemy's strength, he turned and made
+all possible haste back to the shelter of Ogdensburg.
+
+
+
+Chapter 71. Sackett's Harbour
+
+It was hours before Rolf was sure that he had stopped the
+pursuit, and the thing that finally set his mind at rest was the
+rising wind that soon was a raging and drifting snow storm. "Oh,
+blessed storm!" he said in his heart, as he marked all trail
+disappear within a few seconds of its being made. And he thought:
+"How I cursed the wind that held me back -- really from being
+made prisoner. How vexed I was at that ducking in the river, that
+really saved my despatches from the enemy. How thankful I am now
+for the storm that a little while back seemed so bitterly cruel."
+
+That forenoon they struck the big bend of the river and now did
+not hesitate to use the easy travel on the ice as far as
+Rensselaer Falls, where, having got their bearings from a
+settler, they struck across the country through the storm, and at
+night were encamped some forty miles from Ogdensburg.
+
+Marvellously few signs of game had they seen in this hard trip;
+everything that could hide away was avoiding the weather. But in
+a cedar bottom land near Cranberry Lake they found a "yard" that
+seemed to be the winter home of hundreds of deer. It extended two
+or three miles one way a half a mile the other; in spite of the
+deep snow this was nearly all in beaten paths. The scouts saw at
+least fifty deer in going through, so, of course, had no
+difficulty in selecting a young buck for table use.
+
+The going from there on was of little interest.  It was the same
+old daily battle with the frost, but less rigorous than before,
+for now the cold winds were behind, and on the 27th of February,
+nine days after leaving, they trotted into Ticonderoga and
+reported at the commandant's headquarters.
+
+The general was still digging entrenchments and threatening to
+annihilate all Canada. But the contents of the despatches gave
+him new topics for thought and speech. The part he must play in
+the proposed descent on Montreal was flattering, but it made the
+Ticonderoga entrenchments ridiculous.
+
+For three days Rolf was kept cutting wood, then he went with
+despatches to Albany.
+
+Many minor labours, from hog-killing to stable-cleaning and
+trenching, varied the month of March. Then came the uncertain
+time of April when it was neither canoeing nor snow-shoeing and
+all communication from the north was cut off.
+
+But May, great, glorious May came on, with its inspiring airs and
+livening influence. Canoes were afloat, the woods were brown
+beneath and gold above.
+
+Rolf felt like a young stag in his strength. He was spoiling for
+a run and volunteered eagerly to carry despatches to Sackett's
+Harbour. He would go alone, for now one blanket was sufficient
+bed, and a couple of pounds of dry meat was enough food for each
+day. A small hatchet would be useful, but his rifle seemed too
+heavy to carry; as he halted in doubt, a junior officer offered
+him a pistol instead, and he gladly stuck it in his belt.
+
+Taller than ever, considerably over six feet now, somewhat lanky,
+but supple of joint and square of shoulder, he strode with the
+easy stride of a strong traveller. His colour was up, his
+blue-gray eyes ablaze as he took the long trail in a crow line
+across country for Sackett's Harbour. The sentry saluted, and the
+officer of the day, struck by his figure and his glowing face as
+much as by the nature of his errand, stopped to shake hands and
+say, "Well, good luck, Kittering, and may you bring us better
+news than the last two times."
+
+Rolf knew how to travel now; he began softly. At a long, easy
+stride he went for half an hour, then at a swinging trot for a
+mile or two. Five miles an hour he could make, but there was one
+great obstacle to speed at this season -- every stream was at
+flood, all were difficult to cross. The brooks he could wade or
+sometimes could fell a tree across them, but the rivers were too
+wide to bridge, too cold and dangerous to swim. In nearly every
+case he had to make a raft. A good scout takes no chances. A
+slight raft means a risky passage; a good one, a safe crossing
+but loss of time in preparations. Fifteen good rafts did Rolf
+make in that cross-country journey of three days: dry spruce logs
+he found each time and bound them together with leather-wood and
+withes of willow. It meant a delay of at least an hour each time;
+that is five hours each day. But the time was wisely spent. The
+days were lengthening; he could travel much at dusk. Soon he was
+among settlements. Rumours he got at a settler's cabin of Sir
+George Prevost's attack on Sackett's Harbour and the gallant
+repulse and at morning of the fourth day he came on the hill
+above Sackett's Harbour -- the same hill where he had stood three
+months before. It was with something like a clutching of his
+breath that he gazed; his past experiences suggested dreadful
+thoughts but no -- thank God, "Old Glory" floated from the pole.
+He identified himself to the sentinels and the guard, entered the
+fort at a trot, and reported at headquarters.
+
+There was joy on every side. At last the tide had turned.
+Commodore Chauncey, after sweeping Lake Ontario, had made a
+sudden descent on York (Toronto now) the capital of Upper Canada,
+had seized and destroyed it. Sir George Prevost, taking advantage
+of Chauncey's being away, had attacked Sackett's Harbour, but, in
+spite of the absence of the fleet, the resistance had been so
+vigorous that in a few days the siege was abandoned.
+
+There were shot holes in walls and roofs, there were a few
+wounded in the hospital, the green embankments were torn, and the
+flag-pole splintered; but the enemy was gone, the starry flag was
+floating on the wind, and the sturdy little garrison filled with
+a spirit that grows only in heroes fighting for their homes.
+
+How joyfully different from Ogdensburg.
+
+
+
+Chapter 72. Scouting Across Country
+
+That very night, Rolf turned again with the latest news and the
+commandant's reports.
+
+He was learning the country well now, and, with the wonderful
+place-memory of a woodman, he was able to follow his exact back
+trail. It might not have been the best way, but it gave him this
+advantage -- in nearly every case he was able to use again the
+raft he had made in coming, and thereby saved many hours of
+precious time.
+
+On the way out he had seen a good many deer and one bear, and had
+heard the howling of wolves every night; but always at a
+distance. On the second night, in the very heart of the
+wilderness, the wolves were noisy and seemed very near. Rolf was
+camping in the darkness. He made a small fire with such stuff as
+he could find by groping, then, when the fire blazed, he
+discovered by its light a dead spruce some twenty yards away.
+Taking his hatchet he went toward this, and, as he did so, a wolf
+rose up, with its forefeet on a log, only five yards beyond the
+tree and gazed curiously at him. Others were heard calling;
+presently this wolf raised its muzzle and uttered a long smooth
+howl.
+
+Rolf had left his pistol back at the fire; he dared not throw his
+hatchet, as that would have left him unarmed. He stooped, picked
+up a stick, and threw that; the wolf ducked so that it passed
+over, then, stepping back from the log, stood gazing without
+obvious fear or menace. The others were howling; Rolf felt
+afraid. He backed cautiously to the fire, got his pistol and came
+again to the place, but nothing more did he see of the wolf,
+though he heard them all night and kept up two great fires for a
+protection.
+
+In the morning he started as usual, and before half an hour he
+was aware of a wolf, and later of two, trotting along his trail,
+a few hundred yards behind. They did not try to overtake him;
+indeed, when he stopped, they did the same; and when he trotted,
+they, true to their dog-like nature, ran more rapidly in pursuit.
+How Rolf did wish for his long rifle; but they gave no
+opportunity for a shot with the pistol. They acted, indeed, as
+though they knew their safe distance and the exact range of the
+junior gun. The scout made a trap for them by stealing back after
+he had crossed a ridge, and hiding near his own trail. But the
+wind conveyed a warning, and the wolves merely sat down and
+waited till he came out and went on. All day long these two
+strange ban dogs followed him and gave no sign of hunger or
+malice; then, after he crossed a river, at three in the
+afternoon, he saw no more of them. Years after, when Rolf knew
+them better, he believed they followed him out of mild curiosity,
+or possibly in the hope that he would kill a deer in which they
+might share. And when they left him, it was because they were
+near the edge of their own home region; they had seen him off
+their hunting grounds.
+
+That night he camped sixty miles from Ticonderoga, but he was
+resolved to cover the distance in one day. Had he not promised to
+be back in a week? The older hands had shaken their heads
+incredulously, and he, in the pride of his legs, was determined
+to be as good as his promise. He scarcely dared sleep lest he
+should oversleep. At ten he lay down. At eleven the moon was due
+to rise; as soon as that was three hours high there would be
+light enough, and he proposed to go on. At least half a dozen
+times he woke with a start, fearing he had overslept, but
+reassured by a glance at the low-hung moon, he had slumbered
+again.
+
+At last the moon was four hours high, and the woods were plain in
+the soft light. A horned owl "hoo-hoo-ed," and a far- off wolf
+uttered a drawn-out, soft, melancholy cry, as Rolf finished his
+dried meat, tightened his belt, and set out on a long, hard run
+that, in the days of Greece, would have furnished the theme of
+many a noble epic poem.
+
+No need to consult his compass. The blazing lamp of the dark sky
+was his guide, straight east his course, varied a little by hills
+and lakes, but nearly the crow-flight line. At first his pace was
+a steady, swinging stride; then after a mile he came to an open
+lake shore down which he went at a six-mile trot; and then an
+alder thicket through which his progress was very slow; but that
+soon passed, and for half a mile he splashed through swamps with
+water a foot deep: nor was he surprised at length to see it open
+into a little lake with a dozen beaver huts in view. "Splash,
+prong" their builders went at his approach, but he made for the
+hillside; the woods were open, the moonlight brilliant now, and
+here he trotted at full swing as long as the way was level or
+down, but always walked on the uphill. A sudden noise ahead was
+followed by a tremendous crashing and crackling of the brush. For
+a moment it continued, and what it meant, Rolf never knew or
+guessed.
+
+"Trot, trot," he went, reeling off six miles in the open, two or
+perhaps three in the thickets, but on and on, ever eastward. Hill
+after hill, swamp after swamp, he crossed, lake after lake he
+skirted round, and, when he reached some little stream, he sought
+a log bridge or prodded with a pole till he found a ford and
+crossed, then ran a mile or two to make up loss of time.
+
+Tramp, tramp, tramp, and his steady breath and his steady heart
+kept unremitting rhythm.
+
+
+
+Chapter 73. Rolf Makes a Record
+
+Twelve miles were gone when the foreglow -- the first cold
+dawn-light showed, and shining across his path ahead was a mighty
+rolling stream. Guided by the now familiar form of Goodenow Peak
+he made for this, the Hudson's lordly flood. There was his raft
+securely held, with paddle and pole near by, and he pushed off
+with all the force of his young vigour. Jumping and careening
+with the stream in its freshet flood, the raft and its hardy
+pilot were served with many a whirl and some round spins, but the
+long pole found bottom nearly everywhere, and not ten minutes
+passed before the traveller sprang ashore, tied up his craft,
+then swung and tramped and swung.
+
+Over the hills of Vanderwhacker, under the woods of Boreas.
+Tramp, tramp, splash, tramp, wringing and sopping, but strong and
+hot, tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp. The partridge whirred from his
+path, the gray deer snorted, and the panther sneaked aside.
+Tramp, tramp, trot, trot, and the Washburn Ridge was blue against
+the sunrise. Trot, trot, over the low, level, mile-long slope he
+went, and when the Day- god burnt the upper hill-rim he was by
+brown Tahawus flood and had covered eighteen miles.
+
+By the stream he stopped to drink. A partridge cock, in the pride
+of spring, strutted arrogantly on a log. Rolf drew his pistol,
+fired, then hung the headless body while he made a camper's
+blaze: an oatcake, the partridge, and river water were his meal.
+His impulse was to go on at once. His reason, said "go slow." So
+he waited for fifteen minutes. Then again, beginning with a slow
+walk, he ere long added to his pace. In half an hour he was
+striding and in an hour the steady "trot, trot," that slackened
+only for the hills or swamps. In an hour more he was on the
+Washburn Ridge, and far away in the east saw Schroon Lake that
+empties in the river Schroon; and as he strode along, exulting in
+his strength, he sang in his heart for joy. Again a gray wolf
+cantered on his trail, and the runner laughed, without a thought
+of fear. He seemed to know the creature better now; knew it as a
+brother, for it gave no hostile sound, but only seemed to trot,
+trot, for the small joy of running with a runner, as a swallow or
+an antelope will skim along by a speeding train. For an hour or
+more it matched his pace, then left as though its pleasant stroll
+was done, and Rolf kept on and on and on.
+
+The spring sun soared on high, the day grew warm at noon. Schroon
+River just above the lake was in his path, and here he stopped to
+rest. Here, with the last of his oatcake and a little tea, he
+made his final meal; thirty eight miles had he covered since he
+rose; his clothes were torn, his moccasins worn, but his legs
+were strong, his purpose sure; only twenty-two miles now, and his
+duty would be done; his honours won. What should he do, push on
+at once? No, he meant to rest an hour. He made a good fire by a
+little pool, and using a great mass of caribou moss as a sponge,
+he had a thorough rub-down. He got out his ever- ready needle and
+put his moccasins in good shape; he dried his clothes and lay on
+his back till the hour was nearly gone. Then he girded himself
+for this the final run. He was weary, indeed, but he was far from
+spent, and the iron will that had yearly grown in force was there
+with its unconquerable support.
+
+Slowly at start, soon striding, and at last in the famous jog
+trot of the scout he went. The sky was blackened with clouds at
+length, and the jealous, howling east wind rolled up in rain; the
+spindrift blurred the way; the heavy showers of spring came down
+and drenched him; but his pack was safe and he trotted on and on.
+Then long, deep swamps of alder barred his path, and, guided only
+by the compass, Rolf pushed in and through and ever east. Barely
+a mile an hour in the thickest part he made, but lagged not;
+drenched and footsore, warm and torn, but doggedly, steadily on.
+At three he had made a scant seven miles; then the level, open
+wood of Thunderbolt was reached and his stride became a run;
+trot, trot, trot, at six-mile gait, for but fifteen miles
+remained. Sustained, inspired, the bringer of good news, he
+halted not and faltered not, but on and on.
+
+Tramp tramp, tramp tramp -- endless, tireless, hour by hour. At
+five he was on Thunder Creek, scarce eight miles more to the
+goal; his limbs were sore, his feet were sore; bone tired was he,
+but his heart was filled with joy
+
+"News of battle, news of victory" he was bringing, and the
+thought lent strength; the five mires passed, the way was plain
+with good roads now, but the runner was so weary. He was
+striding, his running was done, the sun was low in the west, his
+feet were bleeding, the courier was brain worn and leg worn, but
+he strode and strode. He passed by homes but heeded them not.
+
+"Come in and rest," called one who saw nothing but a weary
+traveller. Rolf shook his head, but gave no word and strode
+along. A mile -- a short mile now; he must hold out; if he sat
+down he feared he could not rise. He came at last in sight of the
+fort; then, gathering all his force, he broke into a trot, weak,
+so weak that had he fallen, he could scarcely have got up, and
+slow, but faster than a walk: and so, as the red sun sank, he
+passed the gate. He had no right to give tidings to any but the
+general, yet they read it in his eyes. The guard broke into a
+cheer, and trotting still, though reeling, Rolf had kept his
+word, had made his run, had brought the news, and had safely
+reached his goal.
+
+
+
+Chapter 74. Van Trumper's Again
+
+Why should the scout bringing good news be differently received
+from the one that brings the ill? He did not make, the news, he
+simply did his duty; the same in both cases. He is merely the
+telegraph instrument. Yet it is so ever. King Pharaoh slew the
+bearer of ill-tidings; that was human nature. And General Hampton
+brought in the tall stripling to his table, to honour him, to get
+the fullest details, to glory in every item as though it all were
+due to himself. Rolf's wonderful journey was dilated on, and in
+the reports to Albany he was honourably mentioned for
+exceptionally meritorious service as a bearer of despatches.
+
+For three days Flying Kittering was hero of the post; then other
+runners came with other news and life went on.
+
+Hitherto the scouts had worn no uniform, but the execution of one
+of their number, who was captured by the British and treated as a
+spy, resulted in orders that all be formally enlisted and put in
+uniform.
+
+Not a few withdrew from the service; some, like Quonab,
+reluctantly consented, but Rolf was developing the fighting
+spirit, and was proud to wear the colours.
+
+The drill was tedious enough, but it was of short duration for
+him. Despatches were to go to Albany. The general, partly to
+honour Rolf, selected him.
+
+"Are you ready for another run, Kittering?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then prepare to start as soon as possible for Fort George and
+Albany. Do you want a mate?"
+
+"I should like a paddler as far as Fort George."
+
+"Well, pick your man."
+
+"Quonab."
+
+And when they set out, for the first time Rolf was in the stern,
+the post of guidance and command. So once more the two were
+travelling again with Skookum in the bow. It was afternoon when
+they started and the four-mile passage of the creek was slow, but
+down the long, glorious vista of the noble George they went at
+full canoe-flight, five miles an hour, and twenty-five miles of
+the great fair-way were reeled and past when they lighted their
+nightly fire.
+
+At dawn-cry of the hawk they sped away, and in spite of a rising
+wind they made six miles in two hours.
+
+As they approached the familiar landing of Van Trumper's farm,
+Skookum began to show a most zestful interest that recalled the
+blackened pages of his past. "Quonab, better use that," and Rolf
+handed a line with which Skookum was secured and thus led to make
+a new record, for this was the first time in his life that he
+landed at Van Trumper's without sacrificing a chicken in honour
+of the joyful occasion.
+
+They entered the house as the family were sitting down to
+breakfast.
+
+"Mein Hemel! mein Hemel! It is Rolf and Quonab; and vere is dot
+tam dog? Marta, vere is de chickens? Vy, Rolf, you bin now a
+giant, yah. Mein Gott, it is I am glad! I did tink der cannibals
+you had eat; is it dem Canadian or cannibal? I tink it all one
+the same, yah!"
+
+Marta was actually crying, the little ones were climbing over
+Rolf's knee, and Annette, tall and sixteen now, stood shyly by,
+awaiting a chance to shake hands.  Home is the abiding place of
+those we love; it may be a castle or a cave, a shanty or a
+chateau, a moving van, a tepee, or a canal boat, a fortress or
+the shady side of a bush, but it is home, if there indeed we meet
+the faces that are ever in the heart, and find the hands whose
+touch conveys the friendly glow. Was there any other spot on
+earth where he could sit by the fire and feel that "hereabout are
+mine own, the people I love?" Rolf knew it now -- Van Trumper's
+was his home.
+
+Talks of the war, of disasters by land, and of glorious victories
+on the sea, where England, long the unquestioned mistress of the
+waves, had been humbled again and again by the dauntless seamen
+of her Western blood; talks of big doings by the nation, and, yet
+more interesting, small doings by the travellers, and the
+breakfast passed all too soon. The young scout rose, for he was
+on-duty, but the long rollers on the lake forbade the going
+forth. Van's was a pleasant place to wait, but he chafed at the
+delay; his pride would have him make a record on every journey.
+But wait he must. Skookum tied safely to his purgatorial post
+whined indignantly -- and with head cocked on one side, picked
+out the very hen he would like to utilize -- as soon as released
+from his temporary embarrassment. Quonab went out on a rock to
+bum some tobacco and pray for calm, and Rolf, ever active,
+followed Van to look over the stock and buildings, and hear of
+minor troubles. The chimney was unaccountably given to smoking
+this year. Rolf took an axe and with two blows cut down a
+vigorous growth shrubbery that stood above the chimney on the
+west, and the smoking ceased. Buck ox had a lame foot and would
+allow no one even to examine it. But a skilful ox- handler easily
+hobbles an ox, throws him near some small tree, and then, by
+binding the lame foot to the tree, can have a free hand. It
+proved a simple matter, a deep-sunk, rusty nail. And when the
+nail was drawn and the place washed clean with hot brine, kind
+nature was left in confidence to do the rest. They drifted back
+to the house now. Tomas met them shouting out a mixture of Dutch
+and English and holding by the cover Annette's book of the "Good
+Girl." But its rightful owner rescued the precious volume and put
+it on the shelf.
+
+"Have you read it through, Annette?"
+
+"Yes," was the reply, for she had learned to read before they
+left Schuylerville.
+
+"How do you like it?"
+
+"Didn't like it a bit; I like 'Robinson Crusoe'," was the candid
+reply.
+
+The noon hour came, still the white rollers were pounding the
+shore.
+
+"If it does not calm by one o'clock I'll go on afoot."
+
+So off he went with the packet, leaving Quonab to follow and
+await his return at Fort George. In Schuyler settlement he spent
+the night and at noon next day was in Albany.
+
+How it stirred his soul to see the busy interest, the marching of
+men, the sailing of vessels, and above all to hear of more
+victories on the high seas. What mattered a few frontier defeats
+in the north, when the arrogant foe that had spurned and insulted
+them before the world had now been humbled again and again.
+
+Young Van Cortlandt was away, but the governor's reception of him
+reflected the electric atmosphere -- the country's pride in her sons.
+
+Rolf had a matter of his own to settle. At the bookseller's he
+asked for and actually secured a copy of the great book --
+"Robinson Crusoe." It was with a thrilling feeling of triumph
+that he wrote Annette's name in it and stowed it in his bag.
+
+He left Albany next day in the gray dawn. Thanks to his uniform,
+he got a twenty-five mile lift with a traveller who drove a fast
+team, and the blue water was glinting back the stars when he
+joined Quonab at Fort George, some sixty miles away.
+
+In the calm betwixt star-peep and sun-up they were afloat. It was
+a great temptation to stop at Hendrik's for a spell, but
+breakfast was over, the water was calm, and duty called him. He
+hallooed, then they drew near enough to hand the book ashore.
+Skookum growled, probably at the hens, and the family waved their
+aprons as he sped on. Thirty miles of lake and four miles of
+Ticonderoga Creek they passed and the packet was delivered in
+four days and three hours since leaving.
+
+The general smiled and his short but amply sufficient praise was
+merely, "You're a good 'un."
+
+
+
+Chapter 75. Scouting in Canada
+
+"Thar is two things," said Si Sylvanne to the senate, "that every
+national crisis is bound to show up: first, a lot o' dum fools in
+command; second a lot o great commanders in the ranks. An'
+fortunately before the crisis is over the hull thing is sure set
+right, and the men is where they oughter be."
+
+How true this was the nation was just beginning to learn. The
+fools in command were already demonstrated, and the summer of
+1813 was replete with additional evidence. May, June, and July
+passed with many journeyings for Rolf and many times with sad
+news. The disasters at Stony Creek, Beaver Dam, and Niagara were
+severe blows to the army on the western frontier. In June on Lake
+Champlain the brave but reckless Lieutenant Sidney Smith had run
+his two sloops into a trap. Thus the Growler and the Eagle were
+lost to the Americans, and strengthened by that much the British
+navy on the lake.
+
+Encouraged by these successes, the British north of Lake
+Champlain made raid after raid into American territory,
+destroying what they could not carry off.
+
+Rolf and Quonab were sent to scout in that country and if
+possible give timely notice of raiders in force.
+
+The Americans were averse to employing Indians in warfare; the
+British entertained no such scruples and had many red-skinned
+allies. Quonab's case, however, was unusual, since he was
+guaranteed by his white partner, and now he did good service, for
+he knew a little French and could prowl among the settlers
+without anyone suspecting him of being an American scout.
+
+Thus he went alone and travelled far. He knew the country nearly
+to Montreal and late in July was lurking about Odletown, when he
+overheard scattered words of a conversation that made hin eager
+for more. "Colonel Murray - - twelve hundred men -- four hundred
+men --"
+
+Meanwhile Rolf was hiding in the woods about La Colle Mill.
+Company after company of soldiers he saw enter, until at least
+five hundred were there. When night came down, he decided to risk
+a scarer approach. He left the woods and walked cautiously across
+the open lands about.
+
+The hay had been cut and most of it drawn in, but there was in
+the middle of the field a hay-cock. Rolf was near this when he
+heard sounds of soldiers from the mill. Soon large numbers came
+out, carrying their blankets. Evidently there was not room for
+them in the mill, and they were to camp on the field.
+
+The scout began to retreat when sounds behind showed that another
+body of soldiers was approaching from that direction and he was
+caught between the two. There was only one place to hide and that
+was beneath the haycock. He lifted its edge and crawled under,
+but it was full of thistles and brambles; indeed, that was why it
+was left, and he had the benefit of all the spines about him.
+
+His heart beat fast as he heard the clank of arms and the
+trampling; they came nearer, then the voices became more
+distinct. He heard unmistakable evidence too that both bodies
+were camping for the night, and that he was nearly surrounded.
+Not knowing what move was best he kept quiet. The men were
+talking aloud, then they began preparing their beds and he heard
+some one say, "There's a hay-cock; bring some of that."
+
+A soldier approached to get an armful of the hay, but sputtered
+out a chapter of malediction as his bare hands touched the masses
+of thistle and briers. His companions laughed at his mishap. He
+went to the fire and vowed he'd stick a brand in it and back he
+came with a burning stick.
+
+Rolf was all ready to make a dash for his life as soon as the
+cover should take fire, and he peered up into the soldier's face
+as the latter blew on the brand; but the flame had died, the
+thistles were not dry, and the fire was a failure; so, growling
+again, the soldier threw down the smoking stick and went away. As
+soon as he was safely afar, Rolf gathered a handful of soil and
+covered the red embers.
+
+It was a critical moment and his waiting alone had saved him.
+
+Two soldiers came with their blankets and spread them near. For a
+time they smoked and talked. One of them was short of tobacco;
+the other said, "Never mind, we'll get plenty in Plattsburg," and
+they guffawed.
+
+Then he heard, "As soon as the colonel" and other broken phrases.
+
+It was a most difficult place for Rolf; he was tormented with
+thistles in his face and down his neck; he dared not change his
+position; and how long he must stay was a problem. He would try
+to escape when all was still.
+
+The nearer soldiers settled to rest now. All was very quiet when
+Rolf cautiously peeped forth to see two dreadful things: first, a
+couple of sentries pacing up and down the edges of the camp;
+second, a broad, brilliant, rising moon. How horrible that lovely
+orb could be Rolf never before knew.
+
+Now, what next? He was trapped in the middle of a military camp
+and undoubtedly La Colle Mill was the rendezvous for some
+important expedition.
+
+He had ample time to think it all over. Unless he could get away
+before day he would surely be discovered. His uniform might save
+his life, but soldiers have an awkward, hasty way of dealing
+summarily with a spy -- then discovering too late that he was in
+uniform.
+
+From time to time he peered forth, but the scene was unchanged --
+the sleeping regiment, the pacing sentries, the ever-brightening
+moon. Then the guard was changed, and the sentries relieved
+selected of all places for their beds, the bank beside the
+hay-cock. Again one of them went to help himself to some hay for
+a couch; and again the comic anger as he discovered it to be a
+bed of thorns. How thankful Rolf was for those annoying things
+that pricked his face and neck.
+
+He was now hemmed in on every side and, not knowing what to do,
+did nothing. For a couple of hours he lay still, then actually
+fell asleep. He was awakened by a faint rustling near his head
+and peered forth to see a couple of field mice playing about.
+
+The moon was very bright now, and the movements of the mice were
+plain; they were feeding on the seeds of plants in the hay-cock,
+and from time to time dashed under - the hay. Then they gambolled
+farther off and were making merry over a pod of wild peas when a
+light form came skimming noiselessly over the field. There was a
+flash, a hurried rush, a clutch, a faint squeak, and one of the
+mice was borne away in the claws of its feathered foe. The
+survivor scrambled under the hay over Rolf's face and somewhere
+into hiding.
+
+The night passed in many short naps. The bugle sounded at
+daybreak and the soldiers arose to make breakfast. Again one
+approached to use a handful of hay for fire-kindler, and again
+the friendly thistles did their part. More and more now his ear
+caught suggestive words and sounds -- "Plattsburg" -- "the
+colonel" -- etc.
+
+The breakfast smelt wonderfully captivating -- poor Rolf was
+famished. The alluring aroma of coffee permeated the hay-cock. He
+had his dried meat, but his need was water; he was tormented with
+thirst, and stiff and tortured; he was making the hardest fight
+of his life. It seemed long, though doubtless it was less than
+half an hour before the meal was finished, and to Rolf's relief
+there were sounds of marching and the noises were drowned in the
+distance.
+
+By keeping his head covered with hay and slowly raising it, he
+was safe to take a look around. It was a bright, sunny morning.
+The hay-cock, or thistle-cock, was one of several that had been
+rejected. It was a quarter-mile from cover; the soldiers were at
+work cutting timber and building a stockade around the mill; and,
+most dreadful to relate, a small dog was prowling about, looking
+for scraps on the scene of the soldiers' breakfast. If that dog
+came near his hiding-place, he knew the game was up. At such
+close quarters, you can fool a man but not a dog.
+
+Fortunately the breakfast tailings proved abundant, and the dog
+went off to assist a friend of his in making sundry interesting
+smell analyses along the gate posts of the stockade.
+
+
+
+Chapter 76. The Duel
+
+This was temporary relief, but left no suggestion of complete
+escape. He lay there till nearly noon suffering more and more
+from the cramped position and thirst, and utterly puzzled as to
+the next move.
+
+"When ye don't like whar ye air, git up without any fuss, and go
+whar ye want to be," was what Sylvanne once said to him, and it
+came to Rolf with something like a comic shock. The soldiers were
+busy in the woods and around the forges. In half an hour it would
+be noon and they might come back to eat.
+
+Rolf rose without attempting any further concealment, then
+stopped, made a bundle of the stuff that had sheltered him and,
+carrying this on his shoulder, strode boldly across the field
+toward the woods.
+
+His scout uniform was inconspicuous; the scouts on duty at the
+mill saw only one of themselves taking a bundle of hay round to
+the stables.
+
+He reached the woods absolutely unchallenged. After a few yards
+in its friendly shade, he dropped the thorny bundle and strode
+swiftly toward his own camp. He had not gone a hundred yards
+before a voice of French type cried "'Alt," and he was face to
+face with a sentry whose musket was levelled at him.
+
+A quick glance interchanged, and each gasped out the other's
+name.
+
+"Francois la Colle!"
+
+"Rolf Kittering! Mon Dieu! I ought to shoot you, Rolf; I cannot,
+I cannot! But run, run! I'll shoot over your head," and his
+kindly eyes filled with tears.
+
+Rolf needed no second hint; he ran like a deer, and the musket
+ball rattled the branches above his shoulders.
+
+In a few minutes other soldiers came running and from La Colle
+they heard of the hostile spy in camp.
+
+"I shoot; I t'ink maybe I not hit eem; maybe some brood dere? No,
+dat netting."
+
+There were both runners and trackers in camp. They were like
+bloodhounds and they took up the trail of the fugitive. But Rolf
+was playing his own game now; he was "Flying Kittering." A
+crooked trail is hard to follow, and, going at the long stride
+that had made his success, he left many a crook and turn. Before
+two miles I they gave it up and the fugitive coming to the river
+drank  a deep and cooling draught, the first he had had that day.
+Five miles through is the dense forest that lies between La Colle
+and the border. He struck a creek affluent of the Richelieu River and
+followed to its forks, which was the place of rendezvous with Quonab.
+
+It was evening as he drew near and after long, attentive
+listening he gave the cry of the barred owl:
+
+The answer came: a repetition of the last line, and a minute
+later the two scouts were together.
+
+As they stood, they were startled by a new, sudden answer, an
+exact repetition of the first call. Rolf had recovered his rifle
+from its hiding place and instantly both made ready for some
+hostile prowler; then after a long silence he gave the final wail
+line "hoooo-aw" and that in the woods means, "Who are you?"
+
+Promptly the reply came:
+
+"Wa wah wa wah Wa wah wa hoooo-aw."
+
+But this was the wrong reply. It should have been only the last
+half. The imitation was perfect, except, perhaps, on the last
+note, which was a trifle too human. But the signal was well done;
+it was an expert calling, either an Indian or some thoroughly
+seasoned scout; yet Quonab was not deceived into thinking it an
+owl. He touched his cheek and his coat, which, in the scout sign
+language, means "red coat," i. e., Britisher.
+
+Rolf and his partner got silently out of sight, each with his
+rlile cocked and ready to make a hole in any red uniform or badge
+that might show itself. Then commenced a very peculiar duel, for
+evidently the enemy was as clever as themselves and equally
+anxious to draw them out of cover.
+
+Wa-wah-wa hooo-aw called the stranger, giving the right answer in
+the wrong place. He was barely a hundred yards off, and, as the
+two strained their senses to locate him, they heard a faint click
+that told of his approach.
+
+Rolf turned his head and behind a tree uttered again the Wa-wah
+-a - hoo which muffled by his position would convince the foe
+that he was retreating. The answer came promptly and much nearer:
+
+Wa - wah - wa - hoooo-aw.
+
+Good! the medicine was working. So Rolf softened his voice still
+more, while Quonab got ready to shoot.
+
+The Wa - wa - hooo-aw that came in answer this time was
+startlingly clear and loud and nearly perfect in intonation, but
+again betrayed by the human timbre of the aw. A minute or two
+more and they would reach a climax.
+
+After another wait, Rolf muffled his voice and gave the single
+hooo-aw, and a great broad-winged owl came swooping through the
+forest, alighted on a tree overhead, peered about, then thrilled
+them with his weird:
+
+Wa - hoo - wa - boo
+
+Wa - hoo -wa - hooooooooo-aw, the last note with the singular
+human quality that had so completely set them astray.
+
+
+
+Chapter 77. Why Plattsburg Was Raided
+
+The owl's hull reputation for wisdom is built up on lookin' wise
+and keepin' mum.  -- Sayings of St Sylvanne
+
+THE owl incident was one of the comedies of their life, now they
+had business on hand. The scraps of news brought by Quonab pieced
+out with those secured by Rolf, spelt clearly this: that Colonel
+Murray with about a thousand men was planning a raid on
+Plattsburg.
+
+Their duty was to notify General Hampton without delay.
+
+Burlington, forty miles away, was headquarters. Plattsburg,
+twenty miles away, was marked for spoil.
+
+One more item they must add: Was the raid to baby land or water?
+If the latter, then they must know what preparations were being
+made at the British naval station, Isle au Noix. They travelled
+all night through the dark woods, to get there, though it was but
+seven miles away, and in the first full light they saw the
+gallant array of two warships, three gunboats, and about fifty
+long boats, all ready, undoubtedly waiting only for a change in
+the wind, which at this season blew on Champlain almost steadily
+form the south.
+
+A three-hour, ten-mile tramp through ways now familiar brought
+Rolf and his partner to the north of the Big Chazy where the
+canoe was hidden, and without loss of time they pushed off for
+Burlington, thirty miles away. The wind was head on, and when
+four hours later they stopped for noon, they had made not more
+than a dozen miles.
+
+All that afternoon they had to fight a heavy sea; this meant they
+must keep near shore in case of an upset, and so lengthened the
+course; but it also meant that the enemy would not move so long
+as this wind kept up.
+
+It was six at night before the scouts ran into Burlington Harbour
+and made for Hampton's headquarters.
+
+His aide received them and, after learning that they had news,
+went in to the general. From the inner room now they heard in
+unnecessarily loud tones the great man's orders to, "Bring them
+in, sah."
+
+The bottles on the table, his purple visage, and thick tongued
+speech told how well-founded were the current whispers.
+
+"Raid on Plattsburg? Ha! I hope so. I only hope so. Gentlemen,"
+and he turned to his staff, "all I ask is a chance to get at them
+-- Ha, Ha! Here, help yourself, Macomb," and the general pushed
+the decanter to a grave young officer who was standing by.
+
+"No, thank you, sir," was the only reply.
+
+The general waved his hand, the scouts went out, puzzled and
+ashamed. Was this the brains of the army? No wonder our men are
+slaughtered.
+
+Now Macomb ventured to suggest: "Have you any orders, sir? These
+scouts are considered quite reliable. I understand from them that
+the British await only a change of wind. They have between one
+thousand and two thousand men."
+
+"Plenty of time in the morning, sah. Plattsburg will be the bait
+of my trap, not one of them shall return alive," and the general
+dismissed his staff that he might fortify himself against a
+threatened cold.
+
+Another young man, Lieut. Thomas MacDonough, the naval
+commandant, now endeavoured to stir him by a sense of danger.
+First he announced that his long boats, and gunboats were ready
+and in six hours he could transfer three thousand troops from
+Burlington to Plattsburg. Then he ventured to urge the necessity
+for action.
+
+Champlain is a lake of two winds. It had brown from the south for
+two weeks; now a north wind was likely to begin any day.
+MacDonough urged this point, but all in vain, and, shocked and
+humiliated, the young man obeyed the order "to wait till his
+advice was asked."
+
+The next day Hampton ordered a review, not an embarkation, and
+was not well enough to appear in person.
+
+The whole army knew now of the situation of affairs, and the
+militia in particular were not backward in expressing their minds.
+
+Next day, July 30th, the wind changed. Hampton did nothing. On
+the morning of July 3Ist they heard the booming of guns in the
+north, and at night their scouts came with the news that the raid
+was on. Plattsburg was taken and pillaged by a force less than
+one third of those held at Burlington.
+
+There were bitter, burning words on the lips of the rank and
+file, and perfunctory rebukes on the lips of the young officers
+when they chanced to overhear. The law was surely working out as
+set forth by Si Sylvanne: "The fools in command, the leaders in
+the ranks."
+
+And now came news of fresh disasters -- the battles of Beaverdam,
+Stony Creek, and Niagara River. It was the same story in nearly
+every case -- brave fighting men, ill-drilled, but dead shots,
+led into traps by incompetent commanders.
+
+In September Lieutenant Macomb was appointed to command at
+Plattsburg. This proved as happy an omen as it was a wise move.
+Immediately after, in all this gloom, came the news of Perry's
+famous victory on Lake Erie, marking a new era for the American
+cause, followed by the destruction of Moraviantown and the
+British army which held it.
+
+Stirred at last to action General Wilkinson sent despatches to
+Hampton to arrange an attack on Montreal. There was no
+possibility of failure, he said, for the sole defence of Montreal
+was 600 marines. His army consisted of 8000 men. Hampton's
+consisted of 4000. By a union of these at the mouth of Chateaugay
+River, they would form an invincible array.
+
+So it seemed. Rolf had not yet seen any actual fighting and began
+to long for the front. But his powers as a courier kept him ever
+busy bearing despatches. The road to Sackett's Harbour and thence
+to Ogdensburg and Covington, and back to Plattsburg he knew
+thoroughly, and in his canoe he had visited every port on Lakes
+Champlain and George.
+
+He was absent at Albany in the latter half of October and first
+of November, but the ill news travelled fast. Hampton requested
+MacDonough to "swoop down on Isle au Noix" -- an insane request,
+compliance with which would have meant certain destruction to the
+American fleet. MacDonough's general instructions were:
+"Cooperate with the army, but at any price retain supremacy of
+the lake," and he declined to receive Hampton's order.
+
+Threatening court-martials and vengeance on his return, Hampton
+now set out by land; but at Chateaugay he was met by a much
+smaller force of Canadians who resisted him so successfully that
+he ordered a retreat and his army retired to Plattsburg.
+
+Meanwhile General Wilkinson had done even worse. His army
+numbered 8000. Of these the rear guard were 2500. A body of 800
+Canadians harassed their line of march. Turning to brush away
+this annoyance, the Americans were wholly defeated at Chrystler's
+farm and, giving up the attack on Montreal, Wilkinson crossed the
+St. Lawrence and settled for the winter at Chateaugay.
+
+In December, America scored an important advance by relieving
+Hampton of his command.
+
+As the spring drew near, it was clearly Wilkinson's first play to
+capture La Colle Mill, which had been turned into a fortress of
+considerable strength and a base for attack on the American
+border, some five miles away.
+
+Of all the scouts Rolf best knew that region, yet he was the one
+left out of consideration and despatched with papers to
+Plattsburg. The attack was bungled from first to last, and when
+Wilkinson was finally repulsed, it was due to Macomb that the
+retreat was not a rout.
+
+But good came out of this evil, for Wilkinson was recalled and
+the law was nearly fulfilled -- the incompetents were gone.
+General Macomb was in command of the land force and MacDonough of
+the Lake.
+
+
+
+Chapter 78. Rumours and Papers
+
+MacDonough's orders were to hold control of the Lake. How he did
+it will be seen. The British fleet at Isle au Noix was slightly
+stronger than his own, therefore he established a navy yard at
+Vergennes, in Vermont, seven miles up the Otter River, and at the
+mouth erected earthworks and batteries. He sent for Brown (of the
+firm of Adam and Noah Brown) a famous New York shipbuilder. Brown
+agreed to launch a ship of twenty-four guns in sixty days. The
+trees were standing in the forest on March 2d the keel was laid
+March 7th, and on April 11th the Saratoga was launched -- forty
+days after the timbers were green standing trees on the hills.
+
+Other vessels were begun and pushed as expeditiously. And now
+MacDonough's wisdom in choice of the navy yard was seen, for a
+British squadron was sent to destroy his infant fleet, or at
+least sink stone-boats across the exit so as to bottle it up.
+
+But their attempts were baffled by the batteries which the
+far-seeing American had placed at the river's mouth.
+
+The American victory at Chippewa was followed by the defeat at
+Lundy's Lane, and on August 25th the city of Washington was
+captured by the British and its public buildings destroyed. These
+calamities, instead of dampening the spirits of the army, roused
+the whole nation at last to a realization of the fact that they
+were at war. Fresh troops and plentiful supplies were voted, the
+deadwood commanders were retired, and the real men revealed by
+the two campaigns were given place and power.
+
+At the same time, Great Britain, having crushed Napoleon, was in
+a position to greatly reinforce her American army, and troops
+seasoned in Continental campaigns were poured into Canada.
+
+All summer Rolf was busied bearing despatches. During the winter
+he and Quonab had built a birch canoe on special lines for speed;
+it would carry two men but no baggage.
+
+With this he could make fully six miles an hour for a short time,
+and average five on smooth water. In this he had crossed and
+recrossed Champlain, and paddled its length, till he knew every
+bay and headland. The overland way to Sackett's Harbour he had
+traversed several times; the trail from Plattsburg to Covington
+he knew in all weathers, and had repeatedly covered its sixty
+miles in less than twenty-four hours on foot.  The route he
+picked and followed was in later years the line selected for the
+military highway between these two camps.
+
+But the chief scene of his activities was the Canadian wilderness
+at the north end of Lake Champlain. Chazy, Champlain, Odelltown,
+La Colle Mill, Isle au Noix, and Richelieu River he knew
+intimately and had also acquired a good deal of French in
+learning their country.
+
+It was characteristic of General Wilkinson to ignore the scout
+who knew and equally characteristic of his successors, Izard and
+Macomb, to seek and rely on the best man.
+
+The news that he brought in many different forms was that the
+British were again concentrating an army to strike at Plattsburg
+and Albany.
+
+Izard on the land at Plattsburg and Champlain, and Macomb at
+Burlington strained all their resources to meet the invader at
+fair terms. Izard had 4000 men assembled, when an extraordinary
+and devastating order from Washington compelled him to abandon
+the battle front at Champlain and lead his troops to Sackett's
+Harbour where all was peace. He protested like a statesman, then
+obeyed like a soldier, leaving Macomb in command of the land
+forces of Lake Champlain, with, all told, some 3400 men.  On the
+day that Izard left Champlain, the British troops, under
+Brisbane, advanced and occupied his camp.
+
+As soon as Rolf had seen them arrive, and had gauged their
+number, he sent Quonab back to report, and later retired by night
+ten miles up the road to Chazy. He was well known to many of the
+settlers and was welcome where ever known, not only because he
+was a patriot fighting his country's battles, but for his own
+sake, for he was developing into a handsome, alert, rather silent
+youth. It is notorious that in the drawing-room, given equal
+opportunity, the hunter has the advantage over the farmer. He has
+less self-consciousness, more calm poise. He is not troubled
+about what to do with his feet and hands, and is more convinced
+of his native dignity and claims to respect. In the drawin-room
+Rolf was a hunter: the leading inhabitants of the region around
+received him gladly and honoured him. He was guest at Judge
+Hubbell's in Chazy, in September of 1814. Every day he scouted in
+the neighbourhood and at night returned to the hospitable home of
+the judge.
+
+On the 12th of September, from the top of a tall tree on a
+distant wooded hill, he estimated the force at Champlain to be
+10,000 to 15,000 men. Already their bodyguard was advancing on
+Chazy.
+
+Judge Hubbell and anxious neighbours hastily assembled now,
+discussed with Rolf the situation and above all, "What shall we
+do with our families?" One man broke into a storm of hate and
+vituperation against the British. "Remember the burning of
+Washington and the way they treated the women at Bladensburg."
+
+"All of which about the women was utterly disproved, except in
+one case, and in that the criminal was shot by order of his own
+commander," retorted Hubbell.
+
+At Plattsburg others maintained that the British had harmed no
+one. Colonel Murray had given strict orders that all private
+property be absolutely respected. Nothing but government property
+was destroyed and only that which could be construed into war
+stores and buildings. What further damage was done was the result
+of accident or error. Officers were indeed quartered on the
+inhabitants, but they paid for what they got, and even a carpet
+destroyed by accident was replaced months afterward by a British
+officer who had not the means at the time.
+
+So it was agreed that Hubbell with Rolf and the village fathers
+and brothers should join their country's army, leaving wives and
+children behind.
+
+There were wet bearded cheeks among the strong, rugged men as
+they kissed their wives and little ones and prepared to go, then
+stopped, as horrible misgivings rose within. "This was war, and
+yet again, 'We have had proofs that the British harmed no woman
+or child'." So they dashed away the tears, suppressed the choking
+in their throats, shouldered their guns, and marched away to the
+front, commending their dear ones to the mercy of God and the
+British invaders.
+
+None had any cause to regret this trust. Under pain of death, Sir
+George Prevost enforced his order that the persons of women and
+children and all private property be held inviolate. As on the
+previous raid, no damage was done to non-combatants, and the only
+hardships endured were by the few who, knowing nothing, feared
+much, and sought the precarious safety of life among the hills.
+
+Sir George Prevost and his staff of ten officers were quartered
+in Judge Hubbell's house. Mrs. Hubbell was hard put to furnish
+them with meals, but they treated her with perfect respect, and
+every night, not knowing how long they might stay, they left on
+the table the price of their board and lodging.
+
+For three days they waited, then all was ready for the advance.
+
+"Now for Plattsburg this week and Albany next, so good-bye,
+madam" they said politely, and turned to ride away. a gay and
+splendid group.
+
+"Good-bye, sirs, for a very little while, but I know you'll soon
+be back and hanging your heads as you come," was the retort.
+
+Sir George replied: "If a man had said that, I would call him
+out; but since it is a fair lady that has been our charming
+hostess, I reply that when your prophecy comes true, every
+officer here shall throw his purse on your door step as he
+passes."
+
+So they rode away, 13,000 trained men with nothing between them
+and Albany but 2000 troops, double as many raw militia, and --
+MacDonough of the Lake.
+
+Ten times did Rolf cover that highway north of Plattsburg in the
+week that followed, and each day his tidings were the same -- the
+British steadily advance.
+
+
+
+Chapter 79. McGlassin's Exploit
+
+There was a wonderful spirit on everything in Plattsburg, and the
+earthly tabernacle in which it dwelt, was the tall, grave young
+man who had protested against Hampton's behaviour at Burlington
+-- Captain, now General Macomb. Nothing was neglected, every
+emergency was planned for, every available man was under arms.
+Personally tireless, he was ever alert and seemed to know every
+man in his command and every man of it had implicit confidence in
+the leader. We have heard of soldiers escaping from a besieged
+fortress by night; but such was the inspiring power of this
+commander that there was a steady leaking in of men from the
+hills, undrilled and raw, but of superb physique and dead shots
+with the ride.
+
+A typical case was that of a sturdy old farmer who was marching
+through the woods that morning to take his place with those who
+manned the breastworks and was overheard to address his visibly
+trembling legs: "Shake, damn you, shake; and if ye knew where I
+was leading you, you'd be ten times worse."
+
+His mind was more valiant than his body, and his mind kept
+control -- this is true courage.
+
+No one had a better comprehension of all this than Macomb. He
+knew that all these men needed was a little training to make of
+them the best soldiers on earth. To supply that training he mixed
+them with veterans, and arranged a series of unimportant
+skirmishes as coolly and easily as though he were laying out a
+programme for an evening's entertainment.
+
+The first of these was at Culver's Hill. Here a barricade was
+thrown up along the highway, a gun was mounted, and several
+hundred riflemen were posted under leaders skilled in the arts of
+harrying a foe and giving him no chance to strike back.
+
+Among the men appointed for the barricade's defence was Rolf and
+near him Quonab. The latter had been seasoned in the Revolution,
+but it was the former's first experience at the battle front, and
+he felt as most men do when the enemy in brave array comes
+marching up. As soon as they were within long range, his leader
+gave the order "Fire!" The rifles rattled and the return fire
+came at once. Balls pattered on the barricade or whistled above.
+The man next to him was struck and dropped with a groan; another
+fell back dead. The horror and roar were overmuch. Rolf was
+nervous enough when he entered the fight. Now he was unstrung,
+almost stunned, his hands and knees were shaking, he was nearly
+panic-stricken and could not resist the temptation to duck, as
+the balls hissed murder over his head. He was blazing away,
+without aiming, when an old soldier, noting his white face and
+shaking form, laid a hand on his shoulder and, in kindly tones,
+said: "Steady, boy, steady; yer losing yer head; see, this is
+how," and he calmly took aim, then, without firing, moved the gun
+again and put a little stick to raise the muzzle and make a
+better rest, then fired as though at target practice. "Now rest
+for a minute. Look at Quonab there; you can see he's been through
+it before. He is making a hit with every shot."
+
+Rolf did as he was told, and in a few minutes his colour came
+back, his hand was steady, and thenceforth he began to forget the
+danger and thought only of doing his work.
+
+When at length it was seen that the British were preparing to
+charge, the Americans withdrew quickly and safely to Halsey's
+Corner, where was another barricade and a fresh lot of recruits
+awaiting to receive their baptism of fire. And the scene was
+repeated. Little damage was done to the foe but enormous benefit
+was gained by the Americans, because it took only one or two of
+these skirmishes to turn a lot of shaky-kneed volunteers into a
+band of steady soldiers -- for they had it all inside. Thus their
+powder terror died.
+
+That night the British occupied the part of the town that was
+north of the Saranac, and began a desultory bombardment of the
+fortification opposite. Not a very serious one, for they
+considered they could take the town at any time, but preferred to
+await the arrival of their fleet under Downie.
+
+The fight for the northern half of the town was not serious,
+merely part of Macomb's prearranged training course; but when the
+Americans retired across the Saranac, the planks of the bridges
+were torn up, loop-holed barricades were built along the southern
+bank, and no effort spared to prepare for a desperate resistance.
+
+Every man that could hold up a gun was posted on the lines of
+Plattsburg. The school-boys, even, to the number of five hundred
+formed a brigade, and were assigned to places where their
+squirrel-hunting experiences could be made of service to their
+country.
+
+Meanwhile the British had established a battery opposite Fort
+Brown. It was in a position to do some material and enormous
+moral damage. On the ninth it was nearly ready for bloody work,
+and would probably begin next morning. That night, however, an
+extraordinary event took place, and showed how far from
+terror-palsy were the motley troops in Plattsburg. A sturdy
+Vermonter, named Captain McGlassin, got permission of Ma. comb to
+attempt a very Spartan sortie.
+
+He called for fifty volunteers to go on a most hazardous
+enterprise. He got one thousand at once. Then he ordered all over
+twenty-five and under eighteen to retire. This reduced the number
+to three hundred. Then, all married men were retired, and thus
+again they were halved. Next he ordered away all who smoked --
+Ah, deep philosopher that he was! -- and from the remnant he
+selected his fifty. Among them was Rolf. Then he divulged his
+plan. It was nothing less than a dash on the new-made fort to
+spike those awful guns -- fifty men to dash into a camp of
+thirteen thousand.
+
+Again he announced, "Any who wish to withdraw now may do so." Not
+a man stirred.
+
+Twenty of those known to be expert with tools were provided with
+hammers and spikes for the guns, and Rolf was proud to be one of
+them.
+
+In a night of storm and blackness they crossed the Saranac;
+dividing in two bodies they crawled unseen, one on each side of
+the battery. Three hundred British soldiers were sleeping near,
+only the sentries peered into the storm-sleet.
+
+All was ready when McGlassin's tremendous voice was heard,
+"Charge front and rear!" Yelling, pounding, making all the noise
+they could, the American boys rushed forth. The British were
+completely surprised, the sentries were struck down, and the rest
+assured that Macomb's army was on them recoiled for a few
+minutes. The sharp click, click, click of the hammers was heard.
+An iron spike was driven into every touch hole; the guns were
+made harmless as logs and quickly wheeling, to avoid the return
+attack, these bold Yankee boys leaped from the muzzled redoubt
+and reached their own camp without losing one of their number.
+
+
+
+Chapter 80. The Bloody Saranac
+
+Sir george Prevost had had no intention of taking Plattsburg,
+till Plattsburg's navy was captured. But the moral effect of
+McGlassin's exploit must be offset at once. He decided to carry
+the city by storm -- a matter probably of three hours' work.
+
+He apportioned a regiment to each bridge, another to each ford
+near the town, another to cross the river at Pike's Cantonment,
+and yet another to cross twenty miles above, where they were to
+harry the fragments of the American as it fled.
+
+That morning Plattsburg was wakened by a renewal of the
+bombardment. The heavy firing killed a few men knocked down a few
+walls and chimneys, but did little damage to the earthworks.
+
+It was surprising to all how soon the defenders lost their
+gun-shyness. The very school-boys and their sisters went calmly
+about their business, with cannon and musket balls whistling
+overhead, striking the walls and windows, or, on rare occasions,
+dropping some rifleman who was over-rash as he worked or walked
+on the ramparts.
+
+There were big things doing in the British camp -- regiments
+marching and taking their places -- storms of rifle and cannon
+balls raging fiercely. By ten o'clock there was a lull. The
+Americans, from the grandfathers to the school- boys, were
+posted, each with his rifle and his pouch full of balls; there
+were pale faces among the youngsters, and nervous fingers, but
+there was no giving way. Many a man there was, no doubt, who,
+under the impulse of patriotism, rushed with his gun to join the
+ranks, and when the bloody front was reached, he wished in his
+heart he was safe at home. But they did not go. Something kept
+them staunch.
+
+Although the lines were complete all along the ramparts, there
+were four places where the men were massed. These were on the
+embankments opposite the bridges and the fords. Here the best
+shots were placed and among them was Rolf, with others of
+McGlassin's band.
+
+The plank of the bridges had been torn up and used with earth to
+form breastworks; but the stringers of the bridges were there,
+and a body of red-coats approaching, each of them showed plainly
+what their plan was.
+
+The farthest effective range of rifle fire in those days was
+reckoned at a hundred yards. The Americans were ordered to hold
+their fire till the enemy reached the oaks, a grove one hundred
+yards from the main bridge -- on the other bank.
+
+The British came on in perfect review-day style. Now a hush fell
+on all. The British officer in command was heard clearly giving
+his orders. How strange it must have been to the veterans of wars
+in Spain, France, and the Rhine, to advance against a force with
+whom they needed no interpreter.
+
+McGlassin's deep voice now rang along the defences, "Don't fire
+till I give the order."
+
+The red-coats came on at a trot, they reached the hundred-
+yard-mark.
+
+"Now, aim low and fire!" from McGlassin, and the rattle of the
+Yankee guns was followed by reeling ranks of red in the oaks.
+
+"Charge!" shouted the British officer and the red-coats charged
+to the bridge, but the fire from the embankment was incessant;
+the trail of the charging men was cluttered with those who fell.
+
+"Forward!" and the gallant British captain leaped on the central
+stringer of the bridge and, waving his sword, led on. Instantly
+three lines of men were formed, one on each stringer.
+
+They were only fifty yards from the barricade, with five hundred
+rifles, all concentrated on these stringers. The first to fall
+was the captain, shot through the heart, and the river bore him
+away. But on and on came the three ranks into the whistling,
+withering fire of lead. It was like slaughtering sheep. Yet on
+and on they marched steadily for half an hour. Not a man held
+back or turned, though all knew they were marching to their
+certain death. Not one of them ever reached the centre of the
+span, and those who dropped, not dead, were swallowed by the
+swollen stream. How many hundred brave men were sacrificed that
+day, no one ever knew. He who gave the word to charge was dead
+with his second and third in command and before another could
+come to change the order, the river ran red -- the bloody Saranac
+they call it ever since.
+
+The regiment was wrecked, and the assault for the time was over.
+
+Rolf had plied his rifle with the rest, but it sickened him to
+see the horrible waste of human valour. It was such ghastly work
+that he was glad indeed when a messenger came to say he was
+needed at headquarters. And in an hour he was crossing the lake
+with news and instructions for the officer in command at Burlington.
+
+
+
+Chapter 81. The Battle of Plattsburg
+
+In broad daylight he skimmed away in his one man canoe.
+
+For five hours he paddled, and at star-peep he reached the dock
+at Burlington. The howl of a lost dog caught his ear; and when he
+traced the sound, there, on the outmost plank, with his nose to
+the skies, was the familiar form of Skookum, wailing and sadly
+alone.
+
+What a change he showed when Rolf landed; he barked, leaped,
+growled, tail-wagged, head-wagged, feet-wagged, body-wagged,
+wig-wagged and zigzagged for joy; he raced in circles, looking
+for a sacrificial hen, and finally uttered a long and
+conversational whine that doubtless was full of information for
+those who could get it out.
+
+Rolf delivered his budget at once. It was good news, but not
+conclusive. Everything depended now on MacDonough. In the morning
+all available troops should hurry to the defence of Plattsburg;
+not less than fifteen hundred men were ready to embark at daylight.
+
+That night Rolf slept with Skookum in the barracks. At daybreak,
+much to the latter's disgust, he was locked up in a cellar, and
+the troops embarked for the front.
+
+It was a brisk north wind they had to face in crossing and
+passing down the lake. There were many sturdy oarsmen at the
+sweeps, but they could not hope to reach their goal in less than
+five hours.
+
+When they were half way over, they heard the cannon roar; the
+booming became incessant; without question, a great naval battle
+was on, for this north wind was what the British had been
+awaiting.  The rowers bent to their task and added to the speed.
+Their brothers were hard pressed; they knew it, they must make
+haste. The long boats flew. In an hour they could see the masts,
+the sails, the smoke of the battle, but nothing gather of the
+portentous result. Albany and New York, as well as Plattsburg,
+were in the balance, and the oarsmen rowed and rowed and rowed.
+
+The cannon roared louder and louder, though less continuously, as
+another hour passed. Now they could see the vessels only four
+miles away. The jets of smoke were intermittent from the guns;
+masts went down. They could see it plainly. The rowers only set
+their lips and rowed and rowed and rowed.
+
+Sir George had reckoned on but one obstacle in his march to
+Albany, an obstruction named MacDonough; but he now found there
+was another called Macomb.
+
+It was obviously a waste of men to take Plattsburg by front
+assault, when he could easily force a passage of the river higher
+up and take it on the rear; and it was equally clear that when
+his fleet arrived and crushed the American fleet, it would be a
+simple matter for the war vessels to blow the town to pieces,
+without risking a man.
+
+Already a favouring wind had made it possible for Downie to leave
+Isle au Noix and sail down the lake with his gallant crew, under
+gallant canvas clouds.
+
+Tried men and true in control of every ship, out- numbering
+MacDonough, outweighing him, outpointing him in everything but
+seamanship, they came on, sure of success.
+
+Three chief moves were in MacDonough's strategy. He anchored to
+the northward of the bay, so that any fleet coming down the lake
+would have to beat up against the wind to reach him; so close to
+land that any fleet trying to flank him would come within range
+of the forts; and left only one apparent gap that a foe might try
+to use, a gap in front of which was a dangerous sunken reef. This
+was indeed a baited trap. Finally he put out cables, kedges,
+anchors, and springs, so that with the capstan he could turn his
+vessels and bring either side to bear on the foe.
+
+All was ready, that morning of September the 11th as the British
+fleet, ably handled, swung around the Cumberland Head.
+
+The young commander of the Yankee fleet now kneeled bareheaded
+with his crew and prayed to the God of Battles as only those
+going into battle pray. The gallant foe came on, and who that
+knows him doubts that he, too, raised his heart in reverent
+prayer? The first broadside from the British broke open a chicken
+coop on the Saratoga from which a game-cock flew, and, perching
+on a gun, flapped his wings and crowed; so all the seamen cheered
+at such a happy omen.
+
+Then followed the fighting, with its bravery and its horrors --
+its brutish wickedness broke loose.
+
+Early in the action, the British sloop, Finch, fell into
+MacDonough's trap and grounded on the reef.
+
+The British commander was killed, with many of his officers.
+Still, the heavy fire of the guns would have given them the
+victory, but for MacDonough's foresight in providing for swinging
+his ships. When one broadside was entirely out of action, he used
+his cables, kedges and springs, and brought the other batteries
+to bear.
+
+It was one of the most desperate naval fights the world has ever
+seen. Of the three hundred men on the British flag- ship not more
+than five, we are told, escaped uninjured; and at the close there
+was not left on any one of the eight vessels a mast that could
+carry sail, or a sail that could render service. In less than two
+hours and a half the fight was won, and the British fleet
+destroyed.
+
+To the God of Battles each had committed his cause: and the God
+of Battles had spoken.
+
+Far away to the southward in the boats were the Vermont troops
+with their general and Rolf in the foremost. Every sign of the
+fight they had watched as men whose country's fate is being tried.
+
+It was a quarter after eleven when the thunder died away; and the
+Vermonters were headed on shore, for a hasty landing, if need be,
+when down from the peak of the British flag-ship went the Union
+Jack, and the Stars and Stripes was hauled to take its place.
+
+"Thank God!" a soft, murmuring sigh ran through all the boats and
+many a bronzed and bearded cheek was wet with tears. Each man
+clasped hands with his neighbour; all were deeply moved, and even
+as an audience melted renders no applause, so none felt any wish
+to vent his deep emotion in a cheer.
+
+
+
+Chapter 82. Scouting for Macomb
+
+General Macomb knew that Sir George Prevost was a cautious and
+experienced commander. The loss of his fleet would certainly make
+a radical change in his plans, but what change? Would he make a
+flank move and dash on to Albany, or retreat to Canada, or
+entrench himself to await reinforcements at Plattsburg, or try to
+retrieve his laurels by an overwhelming assault on the town?
+
+Whatever his plan, he would set about it quickly, and Macomb
+studied the enemy's camp with a keen, discerning eye, but nothing
+suggesting a change was visible when the sun sank in the rainy west.
+
+It was vital that he know it at once when an important move was
+begun, and as soon as the night came down, a score of the
+swiftest scouts were called for. All were young men; most of them
+had been in McGlassin's band. Rolf was conspicuous among them for
+his tall figure, but there was a Vermont boy named Seymour, who
+had the reputation of being the swiftest runner of them all.
+
+They had two duties laid before them: first, to find whether
+Prevost's army was really retreating; second, what of the
+regiment he sent up the Saranac to perform the flank movement.
+
+Each was given the country he knew best. Some went westerly, some
+followed up the river. Rolf, Seymour, and Fiske, another
+Vermonter, skimmed out of Plattsburg harbour in the dusk, rounded
+Cumberland Bend, and at nine o'clock landed at Point au Roche, at
+the north side of Treadwell's Bay.
+
+Here they hid the canoe and agreeing to meet again at midnight,
+set off in three different westerly directions to strike the
+highway at different points. Seymour, as the fast racer, was
+given the northmost route; Rolf took the middle. Their signals
+were arranged -- in the woods the barred-owl cry, by the water
+the loon; and they parted.
+
+The woods seemed very solemn to Rolf that historic September
+night, as he strode along at speed, stopping now and again when
+he thought he heard some signal, and opened wide his mouth to
+relieve his ear-drums of the heart-beat or to still the rushing
+of his breath.
+
+In half an hour he reached the high-road. It was deserted. Then
+he heard a cry of the barred owl:
+
+Wa -- wah -- wa -- wah Wa - wah -- wa -- hooooo-aw.
+
+He replied with the last line, and the answer came a repeat of
+the whole chant, showing that it might be owl, it might be man;
+but it was not the right man, for the final response should have
+been the hooooo-aw. Rolf never knew whence it came, but gave no
+further heed.
+
+For a long time he sat in a dark corner, where he could watch the
+road. There were sounds of stir in the direction of Plattsburg.
+Then later, and much nearer, a couple of shots were fired. He
+learned afterward that those shots were meant for one of his
+friends. At length there was a faint tump ta tump ta. He drew his
+knife, stuck it deep in the ground, then held the handle in his
+teeth. This acted like a magnifier, for now he heard it plainly
+enough -- the sound of a horse at full gallop -- but so far away
+that it was five minutes before he could clearly hear it while
+standing. As the sound neared, he heard the clank of arms, and
+when it passed, Rolf knew that this was a mounted British
+officer. But why, and whither?
+
+In order to learn the rider's route, Rolf followed at a trot for
+a mile. This brought him to a hilltop, whither in the silent
+night, that fateful north wind carried still the sound
+
+te -- rump te -- rump te -- rump.
+
+As it was nearly lost, Rolf used his knife again; that brought
+the rider back within a mile it seemed, and again the hoof beat
+faded,  te -- rump te -- rump.
+
+"Bound for Canada all right," Rolf chuckled to himself. But there
+was nothing to show whether this was a mere despatch rider, or an
+advance scout, or a call for reinforcements.
+
+So again he had a long wait. About half-past ten a new and larger
+sound came from the south. The knife in the ground increased but
+did not explain it. The night was moonless, dark now, and it was
+safe to sit very near the road. In twenty minutes the sound was
+near at hand in five, a dark mass was passing along the road.
+There is no mistaking the language of drivers. There is never any
+question about such and such a voice being that of an English
+officer. There can be no doubt about the clank of heavy wheels --
+a rich, tangy voice from some one in advance said: "Oui. Parbleu,
+tows ce que je sais, c'est par la." A body of about one hundred
+Britishers, two or three wagons, guns, and a Frenchman for guide.
+Rolf thought he knew that voice; yes, he was almost sure it was
+the voice of Francios la Colle.
+
+This was important but far from conclusive. It was now eleven. He
+was due at the canoe by midnight. He made for the place as fast
+as he could go, which, on such a night, was slow, but guided by
+occasional glimpses of the stars he reached the lake, and pausing
+a furlong from the landing, he gave the rolling, quivering loon call:
+
+Ho-o-o-o-ooo-o Ho-o-o-o-ooo-o. Hooo-ooo.
+
+After ten seconds the answer came:
+
+Ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o Hoo-ooo.
+
+And again after ten seconds Rolf's reply:
+
+Hoo-ooo.
+
+Both his friends were there; Fiske with a bullet-hole through his
+arm. It seemed their duty to go back at once to headquarters with
+the meagre information and their wounded comrade. But Fiske made
+light of his trouble -- it was a mere scratch -- and reminded
+them that their orders were to make sure of the enemy's
+movements. Therefore, it was arranged that Seymour take back
+Fiske and what news they had, while Rolf went on to complete his scouting.
+
+By one o'clock he was again on the hill where he had marked the
+horseman's outward flight and the escorted guns. Now, as he
+waited, there were sounds in the north that faded, and in the
+south were similar sounds that grew. Within an hour he was
+viewing a still larger body of troops with drivers and wheels
+that clanked. There were only two explanations possible: Either
+the British were concentrating on Chazy Landing, where, protected
+from MacDonough by the north wind, they could bring enough stores
+and forces from the north to march overland independent of the
+ships, or else they were in full retreat for Canada. There was
+but one point where this could be made sure, namely, at the forks
+of the road in Chazy village. So he set out at a jog trot for
+Chazy, six miles away.
+
+The troops ahead were going three miles an hour. Rolf could go five.
+In twenty minutes he overtook them and now was embarrassed
+by their slowness. What should he do? It was nearly impossible to
+make speed through the woods in the darkness, so as to pass them.
+He was forced to content himself by marching a few yards in their rear.
+
+Once or twice when a group fell back, he was uncomfortably close
+and heard scraps of their talk.
+
+These left little doubt that the army was in retreat. Still this
+was the mere chatter of the ranks. He curbed his impatience and
+trudged with the troop. Once a man dropped back to light his
+pipe. He almost touched Rolf, and seeing a marching figure, asked
+in unmistakable accents "Oi soi matey, 'ave ye a loight?"
+
+Rolf assumed the low south country English dialect, already
+familiar through talking with prisoners, and replied: "Naow, oi
+oin't a-smowking," then gradually dropped out of sight.
+
+They were nearly two hours in reaching Chazy where they passed
+the Forks, going straight on north. Without doubt, now, the army
+was bound for Canada! Rolf sat on a fence near by as their
+footsteps went tramp, tramp, tramp -- with the wagons, clank,
+clank, clank, and were lost in the northern distance.
+
+He had seen perhaps three hundred men; there were thirteen
+thousand to account for, and he sat and waited. He did not have
+long to wait; within half an hour a much larger body of troops
+evidently was approaching from the south; several lanterns
+gleamed ahead of them, so Rolf got over the fence, but it was low
+and its pickets offered poor shelter. Farther back was Judge
+Hubbell's familiar abode with dense shrubbery. He hastened to it
+and in a minute was hidden where he could see something of the
+approaching troops. They were much like those that had gone
+before, but much more numerous, at least a regiment, and as they
+filled the village way, an officer cried "Halt!" and gave new
+orders. Evidently they were about to bivouac for the night. A
+soldier approached the picket fence to use it for firewood, but
+an officer rebuked him. Other fuel, chiefly fence rails, was
+found, and a score or more of fires were lighted on the highway
+and in the adjoining pasture. Rolf found himself in something
+like a trap, for in less than two hours now would be the dawn.
+
+The simplest way out was to go in; he crawled quietly round the
+house to the window of Mrs. Hubbell's room. These were times of
+nervous tension, and three or four taps on the pane were enough
+to arouse the good lady. Her husband had come that way more than once.
+
+"Who is it?" she demanded, through a small opening of the sash.
+
+"Rolf Kittering," he whispered, "the place is surrounded by
+soldiers; can't you hide me?"
+
+Could she? Imagine an American woman saying "No" at such a time.
+
+He slipped in quietly.
+
+"What news?" she said. "They say that MacDonough has won
+on the Lake, but Plattsburg is taken."
+
+"No, indeed; Plattsburgh is safe; MacDonough has captured the fleet.
+I am nearly sure that the whole British army is retiring to Canada."
+
+"Thank God, thank God," she said fervently, "I knew it must be
+so; the women have met here and prayed together every day,
+morning and night. But hush!" she laid a warning finger on her
+lips and pointed up toward one of the rooms -- "British officer."
+
+She brought two blankets from a press and led up to the garret.
+At the lowest part of the roof was a tiny door to a lumber
+closet. In this Rolf spread his blankets, stretched his weary
+limbs, and soon was sound asleep.
+
+At dawn the bugles blew, the camp was astir. The officer in the
+house arose and took his post on the porch. He was there on guard
+to protect the house. His brother officers joined him. Mrs.
+Hubbell prepared breakfast. It was eaten silently, so far as Rolf
+could learn. They paid for it and, heading their regiment, went
+away northward, leaving the officer still on the porch.
+
+Presently Rolf heard a stealthy step in his garret, the closed
+door was pushed open, and Mrs. Hubbell's calm, handsome face
+appeared, as, with a reassuring nod, she set down a mug of
+coffee, some bread, and a bowl of mush and milk. And only those
+who have travelled and fasted for twelve hours when they were
+nineteen know how good it tasted.
+
+From a tiny window ventilator Rolf had a view of the road in
+front. A growing din of men prepared him for more troops, but
+still he was surprised to see ten regiments march past with all
+their stores -- a brave army, but no one could mistake their
+looks; they wore the despondent air of an army in full retreat.
+
+
+
+Chapter 83. The Last of Sir George Prevost
+
+The battle was over at Plattsburg town, though it had not been
+fought; for the spirit of MacDonough was on land and water, and
+it was felt by the British general, as well as the Yankee
+riflemen, as soon as the Union Jack had been hauled from the mast
+of the Confiance.
+
+Now Sir George Prevost had to face a momentous decision: He could
+force the passage of the Saranac and march on to Albany, but his
+communications would be cut, and he must rely on a hostile
+country for supplies. Every day drew fresh bands of riflemen from
+the hills. Before he could get to Albany their number might
+exceed his, and then what? Unless Great Britain could send a new
+army or a fleet to support him, he must meet the fate of
+Burgoyne. Prevost proposed to take no such chances and the night
+of the 11th eight hours after MacDonough's victory, he gave the
+order "Retire to Canada."
+
+To hide the move as long as possible, no change was made till
+after sundown; no hint was given to the beleaguered town; they
+must have no opportunity to reap the enormous advantages, moral
+and material, of harrying a retreating foe. They must arise in
+the morning to find the enemy safely over the border. The plan
+was perfect, and would have been literally carried out, had not
+he had to deal with a foe as clever as himself.
+
+How eagerly Rolf took in the scene on Chazy Road; how much it
+meant! how he longed to fly at his fastest famous speed with the
+stirring news. In two hours and a half he could surely let his
+leader know. And he gazed with a sort of superior pride at the
+martial pomp and bravery of the invaders driven forth.
+
+Near the last was a gallant array of gentlemen in gorgeous
+uniforms of scarlet and gold; how warlike they looked, how
+splendid beside the ill-clad riflemen of Vermont and the rude
+hunters of the Adirondacks. How much more beautiful is an iron
+sword with jewels, than a sword of plain gray steel.
+
+Dame Hubbell stood in her door as they went by. Each and all
+saluted politely; her guard was ordered to join his regiment. The
+lady waved her sun-bonnet in response to their courteous
+good-bye, and could not refrain from calling out:
+
+"How about my prophecy, Sir George, and those purses?"
+
+Rolf could not see his hostess, but he heard her voice, and he
+saw the astonishing effect:
+
+The British general reined in his horse. "A gentleman's word is
+his bond, madam," he said. "Let every officer now throw his purse
+at the lady's feet," and he set the example. A dozen rattling
+thuds were heard and a dozen officers saluting, purseless, rode
+away.
+
+A round thousand dollars in gold the lady gathered on her porch
+that morning, and to this day her grand-kin tell the tale.
+
+
+
+Chapter 84. Rolf Unmasks the Ambush
+
+Rolf's information was complete now, and all that remained was to
+report at Plattsburg. Ten regiments he had counted from his peep
+hole. The rear guard passed at ten o'clock. At eleven Mrs.
+Hubbell did a little scouting and reported that all was quiet as
+far as she could see both ways, and no enemy in sight anywhere.
+
+With a grateful hand shake he left the house to cover the
+fourteen miles that lay between Chazy and Plattsburg.
+
+Refreshed and fed, young and strong, the representative of a just
+and victorious cause, how he exulted in that run, rejoicing in
+his youth, his country, his strength, his legs, his fame as a
+runner. Starting at a stride he soon was trotting; then, when the
+noon hour came, he had covered a good six miles. Now he heard
+faint, far shots, and going more slowly was soon conscious that a
+running fight was on between his own people and the body of
+British sent westward to hold the upper Saranac.
+
+True to the instinct of the scout, his first business was to find
+out exactly what and where they were. From a thick tree top he
+saw the red-coats spotting an opening of the distant country.
+Then they were lost sight of in the woods. The desultory firing
+became volley firing, once or twice. Then there was an interval
+of silence. At length a mass of red-coats appeared on the highway
+within half a mile. They were travelling very fast, in full
+retreat, and were coming his way. On the crest of the hill over
+which the road ran, Rolf saw them suddenly drop to the ground and
+take up position to form a most dangerous ambuscade, and half a
+mile away, straggling through the woods, running or striding,
+were the men in the colours he loved. They had swept the enemy
+before them, so far, but trained troops speedily recover from a
+panic, if they have a leader of nerve, and seeing a noble chance
+in the angle of this deep-sunk road, the British fugitives turned
+like boars at bay. Not a sign of them was visible to the
+Americans. The latter were suffering from too much success. Their
+usual caution seemed to have deserted them, and trotting in a
+body they came along the narrow road, hemmed in by a forest and
+soon to be hedged with cliffs of clay. They were heading for a
+death-trap. At any price he must warn them. He slid down the
+tree, and keeping cover ran as fast as possible toward the
+ambush. It was the only hill near -- Beekman's Rise, they call
+it. As far as possible from the red-coats, but still on the hill
+that gave a view, he leaped on to a high stump and yelled as he
+never did before: "Go back, go back! A trap! A trap!" And lifting
+high his outspread hands he flung their palms toward his friends,
+the old-time signal for "go back."
+
+Not twice did they need warning. Like hunted wolves they flashed
+from view in the nearest cover. A harmless volley from the
+baffled ambush rattled amongst them, and leaping from his stump
+Rolf ran for life.
+
+Furious at their failure, a score of red-coats, reloading as they
+ran, came hot-footed after him. Down into cover of an alder swamp
+he plunged, and confident of his speed, ran on, dashing through
+thickets and mudholes. He knew that the red- coats would not
+follow far in such a place, and his comrades were near. But the
+alder thicket ended at a field. He heard the bushes crashing
+close at hand, and dashed down a little ravine at whose lower
+edge the friendly forest recommenced. That was his fatal mistake.
+The moment he took to the open there was a rattle of rifles from
+the hill above, and Rolf fell on his face as dead.
+
+It was after noontide when he fell; he must have lain unconscious
+for an hour; when he came to himself he was lying still in that
+hollow, absolutely alone. The red-coats doubtless had continued
+their flight with the Yankee boys behind them. His face was
+covered with blood. His coat was torn and bloody; his trousers
+showed a ragged rent that was reddened and sopping. His head was
+aching, and in his leg was the pain of a cripplement. He knew it
+as soon as he tried to move; his right leg was shattered below
+the knee. The other shots had grazed his arm and head; the latter
+had stunned him for a time, but did no deeper damage.
+
+He lay still for a long time, in hopes that some of his friends
+might come. He tried to raise his voice, but had no strength.
+Then he remembered the smoke signal that had saved him when he
+was lost in the woods. In spite of his wounded arm, he got out
+his flint and steel, and prepared to make a fire. But all the
+small wood he could reach was wet with recent rains. An old pine
+stump was on the bank not far away; he might cut kindling-wood
+from that to start his fire, and he reached for his knife. Alas!
+its case was empty. Had Rolf been four years younger, he might
+have broken down and wept at this. It did seem such an
+unnecessary accumulation of disasters. Without gun or knife, how
+was he to call his friends?
+
+He straightened his mangled limb in the position of least pain
+and lay for a while. The September sun fell on his back and
+warmed him. He was parched with thirst, but only thirty yards
+away was a little rill. With a long and fearful crawling on his
+breast, he dragged himself to the stream and drank till he could
+drink no more, then rested, washed his head and hands, 'and tried
+to crawl again to the warm place. But the sun had dropped behind
+the river bank, the little ravine was in shadow, and the chill of
+the grave was on the young man's pain-racked frame.
+
+Shadows crossed his brain, among them Si Sylvanne with his quaint
+sayings, and one above all was clear:
+
+"Trouble is only sent to make ye do yer best. When ye hev done
+yer best, keep calm and wait. Things is comin' all right." Yes,
+that was what he said, and the mockery of it hurt him now.
+
+The sunset slowly ended; the night wind blew; the dragging hours
+brought gloom that entered in. This seemed indeed the direst
+strait of his lot. Crippled, dying of cold, helpless, nothing to
+do but wait and die, and from his groaning lips there came the
+half-forgotten prayer his mother taught him long ago, "O God,
+have mercy on me!" and then he forgot.
+
+When he awoke, the stars were shining; he was numb with cold, but
+his mind was clear.
+
+"This is war," he thought, "and God knows we never sought it."
+And again the thought: "When I offered to serve my country, I
+offered my life. I am willing to die, but this is not a way of my
+choosing," and a blessed, forgetfulness came upon him again.
+
+But his was a stubborn-fibred race; his spark of life was not so
+quickly quenched; its blazing torch might waver, wane, and wax
+again. In the chill, dark hour when the life- lamp flickers most,
+he wakened to hear the sweet, sweet music of a dog's loud bark;
+in a minute he heard it nearer, and yet again at hand, and
+Skookum, erratic, unruly, faithful Skookum, was bounding around
+and barking madly at the calm, unblinking stars.
+
+A human "halloo" rang not far away; then others, and Skookum
+barked and barked.
+
+Now the bushes rustled near, a man came out, kneeled down, laid
+hand on the dying soldier's brow, and his heart. He opened his
+eyes, the man bent over him and softly said, "Nibowaka! it's Quonab."
+
+That night when  the victorious rangers had returned to
+Plattsburg it was a town of glad, thankful hearts, and human love
+ran strong. The thrilling stories of the day were told, the
+crucial moment, the providential way in which at every hopeless
+pass, some easy, natural miracle took place to fight their battle
+and back their country's cause. The harrying of the flying
+rear-guard, the ambuscade over the hill, the appearance of an
+American scout at the nick of time to warn them -- the shooting,
+and his disappearance -- all were discussed.
+
+Then rollicking Seymour and silent Fiske told of their scouting
+on the trail of the beaten foe; and all asked, "Where is
+Kittering?" So talk was rife, and there was one who showed a
+knife he had picked up near the ambuscade with R. K. on the
+shaft.
+
+Now a dark-faced scout rose up, stared at the knife, and quickly
+left the room. In three minutes he stood before General Macomb,
+his words were few, but from his heart:
+
+"It is my boy, Nibowaka; it is Rolf; my heart tells me. Let me go.
+I feel him praying for me to come. Let me go, general. I must go."
+
+It takes a great man to gauge the heart of a man who seldom speaks.
+"You may go, but how can you find him tonight?"
+
+"Ugh, I find him," and the Indian pointed to a little,
+prick-eared, yellow cur that sneaked at his heels.
+
+"Success to you; he was one of the best we had," said the
+general, as the Indian left, then added: "Take a couple of men
+along, and, here, take this," and he held out a flask.
+
+Thus it was that the dawning saw Rolf on a stretcher carried by
+his three scouting partners, while Skookum trotted ahead, looking
+this way and that -- they should surely not be ambushed this time.
+
+And thus the crowning misfortune, the culminating apes of
+disaster -- the loss of his knife -- the thing of all others that
+roused in Rolf the spirit of rebellion, was the way of life,
+his dungeon's key, the golden chain that haled him from the pit.
+
+
+
+Chapter 85. The Hospital, the Prisoners, and Home
+
+There were wagons and buckboards to be had, but the road was
+rough, so the three changed off as litter-bearers and brought him
+to the lake where the swift and smooth canoe was ready, and two
+hours later they carried him into the hospital at Plattsburg.
+
+The leg was set at once, his wounds were dressed, he was warmed,
+cleaned, and fed; and when the morning sun shone in the room, it
+was a room of calm and peace.
+
+The general came and sat beside him for a time, and the words he
+spoke were ample, joyful compensation for his wounds. MacDonough,
+too, passed through the ward, and the warm vibrations of his
+presence drove death from many a bed whose inmate's force ebbed
+low, whose soul was walking on the brink, was near surrender.
+
+Rolf did not fully realize it then, but long afterward it was
+clear that this was the meaning of the well-worn words, "He
+filled them with a new spirit."
+
+There was not a man in the town but believed the war was over;
+there was not a man in the town who doubted that his country's
+cause was won.
+
+Three weeks is a long time to a youth near manhood, but there was
+much of joy to while away the hours. The mothers of the town came
+and read and talked. There was news from the front. There were
+victories on the high seas. His comrades came to sit beside him;
+Seymour, the sprinter, as merry a soul as ever hankered for the
+stage and the red cups of life; Fiske, the silent, and McGlassin,
+too, with his dry, humorous talk; these were the bright and funny
+hours. There were others. There came a bright-checked Vermont
+mother whose three sons had died in service at MacDonough's guns;
+and she told of it in a calm voice, as one who speaks of her
+proudest honour. Yes, she rejoiced that God had given her three
+such sons, and had taken again His gifts in such a day of glory.
+Had England's rulers only known, that this was the spirit of the
+land that spoke, how well they might have asked: "What boots it
+if we win a few battles, and burn a few towns; it is a little
+gain and passing; for there is one thing that no armies, ships,
+or laws, or power on earth, or hell itself can down or crush --
+that alone is the thing that counts or endures -- the thing that
+permeates these men, that finds its focal centre in such souls as
+that of the Vermont mother, steadfast, proud, and rejoicing in
+her bereavement.
+
+But these were forms that came and went; there were two that
+seldom were away -- the tall and supple one of the dark face and
+the easy tread, and his yellow shadow -- the ever unpopular,
+snappish, prick-eared cur, that held by force of arms all
+territories at floor level contiguous to, under, comprised, and
+bounded by, the four square legs and corners of the bed.
+
+Quonab's nightly couch was a blanket not far away, and his daily,
+self-given task to watch the wounded and try by devious ways and
+plots to trick him into eating ever larger meals.
+
+Garrison duty was light now, so Quonab sought the woods where the
+flocks of partridge swarmed, with Skookum as his aid. It was the
+latter's joyful duty to find and tree the birds, and "yap" below,
+till Quonab came up quietly with bow and blunt arrows, to fill
+his game-bag; and thus the best of fare was ever by the invalid's
+bed.
+
+Rolf's was easily a winning fight from the first, and in a week
+he was eating well, sleeping well, and growing visibly daily
+stronger.
+
+Then on a fleckless dawn that heralded a sun triumphant, the
+Indian borrowed a drum from the bandsman, and, standing on the
+highest breastwork, he gazed across the dark waters to the
+whitening hills. There on a tiny fire he laid tobacco and
+kinnikinnik, as Gisiss the Shining One burnt the rugged world rim
+at Vermont, and, tapping softly with one stick, he gazed upward,
+after the sacrificial thread of smoke, and sang in his own tongue:
+
+"Father, I burn tobacco, I smoke to Thee. I sing for my heart is singing."
+
+Pleasant chatter of the East was current by Rolf's bedside.
+Stories of homes in the hills he heard, tales of hearths by far
+away lakes and streams, memories of golden haired children
+waiting for father's or brother's return from the wars. Wives
+came to claim their husbands, mothers to bring away their boys,
+to gain again their strength at home. And his own heart went
+back, and ever back, to the rugged farm on the shores of the
+noble George.
+
+In two weeks he was able to sit up. In three he could hobble, and
+he moved about the town when the days were warm.
+
+And now he made the acquaintance of the prisoners. They were
+closely guarded and numbered over a hundred. It gave him a
+peculiar sensation to see them there. It seemed un- American to
+hold a human captive; but he realized that it was necessary to
+keep them for use as hostages and exchanges.
+
+Some of them he found to be sullen brutes, but many were kind and
+friendly, and proved to be jolly good fellows.
+
+On the occasion of his second visit, a familiar voice saluted him
+with, "Well, Rolf! Comment ca va?" and he had the painful joy of
+greeting Francois la Colle.
+
+"You'll help me get away, Rolf, won't you?" and the little
+Frenchman whispered and winked. "I have seven little ones now on
+La Riviere, dat have no flour, and tinks dere pa is dead."
+
+"I'll do all I can, Francois," and the picture of the desolate
+home, brought a husk in his voice and a choke in his throat. He
+remembered too the musket ball that by intent had whistled
+harmless overhead. "But," he added in a shaky voice, "I cannot
+help my country's enemy to escape."
+
+Then Rolf took counsel with McGlassin, told him all about the
+affair at the mill, and McGlassin with a heart worthy of his
+mighty shoulders, entered into the spirit of the situation, went
+to General Macomb presenting such a tale and petition that six
+hours later Francis bearing a passport through the lines was
+trudging away to Canada, paroled for the rest of the war.
+
+There was another face that Rolf recognized -- hollow- cheeked,
+flabby-jowled and purplish-gray. The man was one of the oldest of
+the prisoners. He wore a white beard end moustache. He did not
+recognize Rolf, but Rolf knew him, for this was Micky Kittering.
+How he escaped from jail and joined the enemy was an episode of
+the war's first year. Rolf was shocked to see what a miserable
+wreck his uncle was. He could not do him any good. To identify
+him would have resulted in his being treated as a renegade, so on
+the plea that he was an old man, Rolf saw that the prisoner had
+extra accommodation and out of his own pocket kept him abundantly
+supplied with tobacco. Then in his heart he forgave him, and kept
+away. They never met again.
+
+The bulk of the militia had been disbanded after the great
+battle. A few of the scouts and enough men to garrison the fort
+and guard the prisoners were retained. Each day there were joyful
+partings -- the men with homes, going home. And the thought that
+ever waxed in Rolf came on in strength. He hobbled to headquarters.
+"General, can I get leave -- to go -- he hesitated -- "home?"
+
+"Why, Kittering, I didn't know you had a home. But, certainly,
+I'll give you a month's leave and pay to date."
+
+Champlain is the lake of the two winds; the north wind blows for
+six months with a few variations, and the south wind for the
+other six months with trifling.
+
+Next morning a bark canoe was seen skimming southward before as
+much north wind as it could stand, with Rolf reclining in the
+middle, Quonab at the stern, and Skookum in the bow.
+
+In two days they were at Ticonderoga. Here help was easily got at
+the portage and on the evening of the third day, Quonab put a
+rope on Skookum's neck and they landed at Hendrik's farm.
+
+The hickory logs were blazing bright, and the evening pot was
+reeking as they opened the door and found the family gathered for
+the meal.
+
+"I didn't know you had a home," the general had said. He should
+have been present now to see the wanderer's welcome. If war
+breeds such a spirit in the land, it is as much a blessing as a
+curse. The air was full of it, and the Van Trumpers, when they
+saw their hero hobble in, were melted. Love, pity, pride, and
+tenderness were surging in storms through every heart that knew.
+"Their brother, their son come back, wounded, but proven and
+glorious." Yes, Rolf had a home, and in that intoxicating
+realization he kissed them all, even Annette of the glowing
+cheeks and eyes; though in truth he paid for it, for it conjured
+up in her a shy aloofness that lasted many days.
+
+Old Hendrik sputtered around. "Och, I am smile; dis is goood,
+yah. Vere is that tam dog? Yah! tie him not, he shall dis time
+von chicken have for joy."
+
+"Marta," said Rolf, "you told me to come here if I got hurt.
+Well, I've come, and I've brought a boat-load of stuff in case I
+cannot do my share in the fields."
+
+"Press you, my poy you didn't oughter brung dot stuff; you know
+we loff you here, and effery time it is you coom I get gladsomer,
+and dot Annette she just cried ven you vent to de war."
+
+"Oh, mother, I did not; it was you and little Hendrick!" and
+Annette turned her scarlet cheeks away.
+
+October, with its trees of flame and gold, was on the hills;
+purple and orange, the oaks and the birches; blue blocked with
+white was the sky above, and the blue, bright lake was limpid.
+
+"Oh, God of my fathers," Quonab used to pray, "when I reach the
+Happy Hunting, let it be ever the Leaf-falling Moon, for that is
+the only perfect time." And in that unmarred month of sunny sky
+and woodlands purged of every plague, there is but one menace in
+the vales. For who can bring the glowing coal to the dry-leafed
+woods without these two begetting the dread red fury that
+devastates the hills?
+
+Who can bring the fire in touch with tow and wonder at the blaze?
+Who, indeed? And would any but a dreamer expect young manhood in
+its growing strength, and girlhood just across the blush-line, to
+meet in daily meals and talk and still keep up the brother and
+sister play? It needs only a Virginia on the sea-girt island to
+turn the comrade into Paul.
+
+"Marta, I tink dot Rolf an Annette don't quarrel bad, ain't it?"
+
+"Hendrik, you vas von blind old bat-mole," said Marta, "I fink
+dat farm next ours purty good, but Rolf he say 'No Lake George no
+good.' Better he like all his folk move over on dat Hudson."
+
+
+Chapter 86. The New Era of Prosperity
+
+As November neared and his leave of absence ended, Rolf was himself
+again; had been, indeed, for two weeks, and, swinging fork or axe,
+he had helped with many an urgent job on the farm.
+
+A fine log stable they had rolled up together, with corners
+dovetailed like cabinet work, and roof of birch bark breadths
+above the hay.
+
+But there was another building, too, that Rolf had worked at night
+and day. It was no frontier shack, but a tall and towering castle,
+splendid and roomy, filled with loved ones and love. Not by the
+lake near by, not by the river of his choice, but higher up than
+the tops of the high mountains it loomed, and he built and built
+until the month was nearly gone. Then only did he venture to ask
+for aid, and Annette it was who promised to help him finish the
+building.
+
+Yes, the Lake George shore was a land of hungry farms. It was off
+the line of travel, too. It was neither Champlain nor Hudson; and
+Hendrik, after ten years' toil with barely a living to show, was
+easily convinced. Next summer they must make a new choice of home.
+But now it was back to Plattsburg.
+
+On November 1st Rolf and Quonab reported to General Macomb. There
+was little doing but preparations for the winter. There were no
+prospects of further trouble from their neighbours in the north. Most
+of the militia were already disbanded, and the two returned to
+Plattsburg, only to receive their honourable discharge, to be
+presented each with the medal of war, with an extra clasp on Rolf's
+for that dauntless dash that spiked the British guns.
+
+Wicked war with its wickedness was done at last. "The greatest evil
+that can befall a country," some call it, and yet out of this end
+came three great goods: The interstate distrust had died away, for
+now they were soldiers who had camped together, who had "drunk from
+the same canteen"; little Canada, until then a thing of shreds and
+scraps, had been fused in the furnace, welded into a young nation,
+already capable of defending her own. England, arrogant with long
+success at sea, was taught a lesson of courtesy and justice, for
+now the foe whom she had despised and insulted had shown himself
+her equal, a king of the sea-king stock. The unnecessary battle
+of New Orleans, fought two weeks after the war was officially closed,
+showed that the raw riflemen of Tennessee were more than a match for
+the seasoned veterans who had overcome the great Napoleon, and thus
+on land redeemed the Stars and Stripes.
+
+The war brought unmeasured material loss on all concerned, but some
+weighty lasting gains to two at least. On December 24, 1814, the
+Treaty of Ghent was signed and the long rides were hung up on the
+cabin walls. Nothing was said in the treaty about the cause of war --
+the right of search. Why should they speak of it? If a big boy bullies
+a smaller one and gets an unexpected knockdown blow, it is not
+necessary to have it all set forth in terms before they shake hands
+that "I, John, of the first part, to wit, the bully, do hereby
+agree, promise, and contract to refrain in future forevermore from
+bullying you, Jonathan, of the second part, to wit, the bullied.
+"That point had already been settled by the logic of events. The
+right of search was dead before the peace was born, and the very
+place of its bones is forgotten to-day.
+
+Rolf with Quonab returned to the trapping that winter; and as soon
+as the springtime came and seeding was over, he and Van Trumper
+made their choice of farms. Every dollar they could raise was
+invested in the beautiful sloping lands of the upper Hudson. Rolf
+urged the largest possible purchase now. Hendrick looked somewhat
+aghast at such a bridge-burning move. But a purchaser for his
+farm was found with unexpected promptness, one who was not on
+farming bent and the way kept opening up.
+
+The wedding did not take place till another year, when Annette was
+nineteen and Rolf twenty-one. And the home they moved to was not
+exactly a castle, but much more complete and human.
+
+This was the beginning of a new settlement. Given good land in plenty,
+and all the rest is easy; neighbours came in increasing numbers; every
+claim was taken up; Rolf and Hendrik saw themselves growing rich, and
+at length the latter was thankful for the policy that he once thought
+so rash, of securing all the land he could. Now it was his making, for
+in later years his grown-up sons were thus provided for, and kept at home.
+
+The falls of the river offered, as Rolf had foreseen, a noble chance
+for power.  Very early he had started a store and traded for fur. Now,
+with the careful savings, he was able to build his sawmill; and about
+it grew a village with a post- office that had Rolf's name on the
+signboard.
+
+Quonab had come, of course, with Rolf, but he shunned the house, and
+the more so as it grew in size. In a remote and sheltered place he
+built a wigwam of his own.
+
+Skookum was divided in his allegiance, but he solved the puzzle by
+dividing his time between them. He did not change much, but he did
+rise in a measure to the fundamental zoological fact that hens are
+not partridges; and so acquired a haughty toleration of the cackle-
+party throng that assembled in the morning at Annette's call.  Yes,
+he made even another step of progress, for on one occasion he valiantly
+routed the unenlightened dog of a neighbour, a "cur of low degree,
+"whose ideas of ornithology were as crude as his own had been in the
+beginning.
+
+All of which was greatly to his credit, for he found it hard to learn
+now; he was no longer young, and before he had seen eight springs
+dissolve the snow, he was called to the Land of Happy Hunting, where
+the porcupine is not, but where hens abound on every side, and there
+is no man near to meddle with his joy.
+
+Yet, when he died, he lived. His memory was kept ever green, for
+Skookum Number 2 was there to fill his room, and he gave place to
+Skookum 3, and so they keep their line on to this very day.
+
+
+
+
+Quonab Goes Home
+
+The public has a kind of crawlin' common-sense, that is always
+right and fair in the end, only it's slow -- Sayings of Si Sylvanne
+
+Twenty years went by. Rolf grew and prospered. He was a man of
+substance and of family now; for store and mill were making money
+fast, and the little tow-tops came at regular intervals.
+
+And when the years had added ripeness to his thought, and the kind
+gods of gold had filled his scrip, it was that his ampler life
+began to bloom. His was a mind of the best begetting, born and
+bred of ancient, clean-blooded stock; inflexibly principled,
+trained by a God-fearing mother, nurtured in a cradle of adversity,
+schooled in a school of hardship, developed in the big outdoors,
+wise in the ways of the woods, burnt in the fire of affliction,
+forced into self- reliance, inspired with the lofty inspiration
+of sacrificial patriotism -- the good stuff of his make-up shone,
+as shines the gold in the fervent heat; the hard blows that prove
+or crush, had proved; the metal had rung true; and in the great
+valley, Rolf Kittering was a man of mark.
+
+The country's need of such is ever present and ever seeking. Those
+in power who know and measure men soon sought him out, and their
+messenger was the grisly old Si Sylvanne.
+
+Because he was a busy man, Rolf feared to add to his activities.
+Because he was a very busy man, the party new they needed him.
+So at length it was settled, and in a little while, Rolf stood
+in the Halls of Albany and grasped the hand of the ancient
+mill-man as a colleague, filling an honoured place in the
+councils of the state.
+
+Each change brought him new activities. Each year he was more
+of a public man, and his life grew larger. From Albany he went
+to New York, in the world of business and men's affairs; and
+at last in Washington, his tall, manly figure was well known,
+and his good common-sense and clean business ways were respected.
+Yet each year during hunting time he managed to spend a few weeks
+with Quonab in the woods. Tramping on their ancient trapping
+grounds, living over the days of their early hunts; and double
+zest was added when Rolf the second joined them and lived and
+loved it all.
+
+But this was no longer Kittering's life, rather the rare
+precarious interval, and more and more old Quonab realized that
+they were meeting only in the past. When the big house went up
+on the river-bank, he indeed had felt that they were at the
+parting of the ways. His respect for Nibowaka had grown to be
+almost a worship, and yet he knew that their trails had yearly
+less in common. Rolf had outgrown him; he was alone again, as
+on the day of their meeting. His years had brought a certain
+insight; and this he grasped -- that the times were changed,
+and his was the way of a bygone day.
+
+"Mine is the wisdom of the woods," he said, "but the woods are
+going fast; in a few years there will be no more trees, and my
+wisdom will be foolishness. There is in this land now a big,
+strong thing called 'trade,' that will eat up all things and
+the people themselves. You are wise enough, Nibowaka, to paddle
+with the stream, you have turned so the big giant is on your
+side, and his power is making you great. But this is not for me;
+so only I have enough to eat, and comfort to sleep, I am content
+to watch for the light."
+
+Across the valley from the big store he dwelt, in a lodge from
+which he could easily see the sunrise. Twenty-five years added
+to the fifty he spent in the land of Mayn Mayano had dimmed his
+eye, had robbed his foot of its spring, and sprinkled his brow
+with the winter rime; but they had not changed his spirit, nor
+taught him less to love the pine woods and the sunrise. Yes,
+even more than in former days did he take his song-drum to the
+rock of worship, to his idaho -- as the western red man would
+have called it. And there, because it was high and the wind
+blew cold, he made a little eastward- facing lodge.
+
+He was old and hunting was too hard for him, but there was a
+strong arm about him now; he dimly thought of it at times --
+the arm of the fifteen-year-old boy that one time he had shielded.
+There was no lack of food or blankets in the wigwam, or of freedom
+in the woods under the sun-up rock. But there was a hunger that
+not farseeing Nibowaka could appease, not even talk about. And
+Quonab built another medicine lodge to watch the sun go down
+over the hill. Sitting by a little fire to tune his song-drum,
+he often crooned to the blazing skies. "I am of the sunset now,
+I and my people," he sang, "the night is closing over us."
+
+One day a stranger came to the hills; his clothes were those of
+a white man, but his head, his feet, and his eyes -- his blood,
+his walk, and his soul were those of a red Indian of the West.
+He came from the unknown with a message to those who knew him
+not: "The Messiah was coming; the deliverer that Hiawatha bade
+them look for. He was coming in power to deliver the red race,
+and his people must sing the song of the ghost-dance till the
+spirit came, and in a vision taught them wisdom and his will!"
+
+Not to the white man, but to the lonely Indian in the hill cleft
+he came, and the song that he brought and taught him was of a
+sorrowing people seeking their father.
+
+"Father have pity on us! Our souls are hungry for Thee. There
+is nothing here to satisfy us Father we bow to Thy will."
+
+By the fire that night they sang, and prayed as the Indian
+prays -- "Father have pity and guide us." So Quonab sang the
+new song, and knew its message was for him.
+
+The stranger went on, for he was a messenger, but Quonab sang
+again and again, and then the vision came, as it must, and
+the knowledge that he sought.
+
+None saw him go, but ten miles southward on the river he met a
+hunter and said: "Tell the wise one that I have heard the new
+song. Tell him I have seen the vision. We are of the sunset,
+but the new day comes. I must see the land of Mayn Mayano,
+the dawn-land, where the sun rises out of the sea."
+
+They saw no more of him. But a day later, Rolf heard of it,
+and set out in haste next morning for Albany. Skookum the
+fourth leaped into the canoe as he pushed off. Rolf was minded
+to send him back, but the dog begged hard with his eyes and
+tail. It seemed he ought to go, when it was the old man they
+sought. At Albany they got news. "Yes, the Indian went on
+the steamboat a few days ago." At New York, Rolf made no
+attempt to track his friend, but took the Stamford boat and
+hurried to the old familiar woods, where he had lived and
+suffered and wakened as a boy.
+
+There was a house now near the rock that is yet called "Quonab's."
+From the tenants he learned that in the stillest hours of the
+night before, they had heard the beating of an Indian drum, and
+the cadence of a chant that came not from throat of white man's
+blood.
+
+In the morning when it was light Rolf hastened to the place,
+expecting to find at least an Indian camp, where once had stood
+the lodge. There was no camp; and as he climbed for a higher
+view, the Skookum of to-day gave bristling proof of fear at
+some strange object there -- a man that moved not. His long
+straight hair was nearly white, and by his side, forever still,
+lay the song-drum of his people.
+
+And those who heard the mournful strains the night before knew
+now from Rolf that it was Ouonab come back to his rest, and the
+song that he sang was the song of the ghost dance.
+
+"Pity me, Wahkonda. My soul is ever hungry. There is nothing
+here to satisfy me, I walk in darkness; Pity me, Wahkondal"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Rolf In The Woods, by Seton
+
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