a!" she said. "And may the sleeve soon be about her."

Tish thought this toast was not delicate, but Percy was enchanted with
it.

It was on the evening of the fourth day of Percy's joining our camp that
the Willoughby person appeared. It happened at a most inauspicious time.
We had eaten supper and were gathered round the camp-fire and Tish had
put wet leaves on the blaze to make a smudge that would drive the
mosquitoes away. We were sitting there, Tish and I coughing and Aggie
sneezing in the smoke, when Percy came running through the woods and
stopped at the foot of a tree near by.

"Bring a club, somebody," he yelled. "I've treed the back of my coat."

Tish ran with one of the tent poles. A tepee is inconvenient for that
reason. Every time any one wants a fishing-pole or a weapon, the tent
loses part of its bony structure and sags like the face of a stout woman
who has reduced. And it turned out that Percy had treed a coon. He
climbed up after it, taking Tish's pole with him to dislodge it, and it
was at that moment that a man rode into the clearing and practically
fell off his horse. He was dirty and scratched with brambles, and his
once immaculate riding-clothes were torn. He was about to take off his
hat when he got a good look at us and changed his mind.

"Have you got anything to eat?" he asked. "I've been lost since noon
yesterday and I'm about all in."

The leaves caught fire suddenly and sent a glow into Percy's tree. I
shall never forget Aggie's agonized look or the way Tish flung on more
wet leaves in a hurry.

"I'm sorry," she said, "but supper's over."

"But surely a starving man--"

"You won't starve inside of a week," Tish snapped. "You've got enough
flesh on you for a month."

He stared at her incredulously.

"But, my good woman," he said, "I can pay for my food. Even you
itinerant folk need money now and then, don't you? Come, now, cook me a
fish; I'll pay for it. My name is Willoughby--J.K. Willoughby. Perhaps
you've heard of me."

Tish cast a swift glance into the tree. It was in shadow again and she
drew a long breath. She said afterward that the whole plan came to her
in the instant of that breath.

"We can give you something," she said indifferently. "We have a stewed
rabbit, if you care for it."

There was a wild scramble in the tree at that moment, and we thought all
was over. We learned later that Percy had made a move to climb higher,
out of the firelight, and the coon had