and show ye somethin' myself."

"Good!" said the Boy. "It's a bargain. What will you show me?"

"I'll take ye over to one of _my_ ponds, in next valley, an' show ye
all the different ways of _trappin'_ beaver."

The Boy's face fell.

"But what do _I_ care about _trapping_ beaver?" he cried. "You know I
wouldn't trap anything. If I had to kill anything, I'd _shoot_ it,
and put it out of misery as quick as I could!"

"I know all that," responded Jabe. "But trappin' is somethin' ye want
to _understand_, all the same. Ye can't be an all-round woodsman 'less
ye _understand_ trappin'. An' moreover, there's some things ye learn
about wild critters in tryin' to git the better of 'em that ye can't
learn no other way."

"I guess you're right, Jabe!" answered the Boy, slowly. Knowledge he
would have, whether he liked the means of getting it or not. But the
woodsman's next words relieved him.

"I'll just show ye _how_, that's all!" said Jabe. "It's a leetle too
airly in the season yit fur actual trappin'. An' moreover, it's agin
the law. Agin the law, an' agin common sense, too, fer the fur ain't
no good, so to speak, fer a month yit. When the law an' common sense
stand together, then I'm fer the law. Come on!"

Picking up his axe, he struck straight back into the woods, in a
direction at right angles to the brook. To uninitiated eyes there was
no trail; but to Jabe, and to the Boy no less, the path was like a
trodden highway. The pace set by the backwoodsman, with his long,
slouching, loose-jointed, flat-footed stride, was a stiff one, but
the Boy, who was lean and hard, and used his feet straight-toed like
an Indian, had no fault to find with it. Neither spoke a word, as they
swung along single file through the high-arched and ancient forest,
whose shadows, so sombre all through summer, were now shot here and
there with sharp flashes of scarlet or pale gleams of aerial gold.
Once, rounding a great rock of white granite stained with faint
pinkish and yellowish reflections from the bright leaves glowing over
it, they came face to face with a tall bull moose, black and
formidable-looking as some antediluvian monster. The monster, however,
had no desire to hold the way against them. He eyed them doubtfully
for a second, and then went crashing off through the brush in frank,
undignified alarm.

For a good three miles the travellers swung onward, up a slow long
slope, and down a longer, slower one into the next valley. The