. An Indian boy about my
own age, and the cleverest fellow with a gun or a snare or a paddle
that I ever saw. But beyond that--well, he's an Indian, so I don't
know anything more about him. He's been round here lately, selling
fish. He wraps them in wet leaves and brings them over from the
river--the Otonabee, you know. There are a lot of settlers over there
now, I 've heard, and I wish we were nearer the river ourselves. Peter
has promised to bring mother some fish to-morrow, and if he turns up
you ask him to go fox-hunting with you, and you will have good sport
after a fashion. His methods are funny, but they 're interesting, and
a day in the woods with him is always jolly." So it was arranged that
next day, if the Indian arrived, he and Dick were to go and catch the
marauding fox.

They returned to the house, Dick in great glee. All his dreams that
night were of the delight and freedom of the forests. And miles away
in the woods, an Indian lad slept beside his fire, with a basket of
fish hung up on a branch in the shadow overhead.

Next day these two were to meet. What would be the outcome of the
meeting?

CHAPTER IV.

A Day in the Woods.

The following morning Dick was up and out before even the early rising
Collinsons were stirring. It was one of those mornings in late
November which seem to be a faint, sad recollection of spring. The sun
had not yet appeared above the far-off edge where the misty forest
lands faded into mistier skies, but the promise of his approach
thrilled the leafless, songless world to deeper quiet. Everything was
hushed and dark; but in the east a clear bar of amber broadened and
brightened slowly.

Yet it would be some time, Dick knew, before it became really light.
He wandered through the frosty garden, the noise of his footsteps in
the dried leaves sounding harsh and clamorous; but save for this, and
for the lanterns which moved about the farm buildings as some of the
hands attended to the stock, the world seemed wholly given up to shade
and silence.

The air was damp and very chill, and the ghostly half-light was full of
unexpected gleams and shadows. But Dick wandered on restlessly, until
he came to the boundary of the enclosure. Here the land dipped
sharply, and the cultivated ground ended in a low stump fence. Beyond
this fence there was a small and rocky ravine, which ran up in a
constantly narrowing cleft into the very midst of the fertile fields.
On