rdering it, as I used to, and as I have a sneaking idea
you liked to hear me," continued Pat. "Let me tell you it has cost me
something. I've talked to the trees all day long when I've been alone on
the trap line--just practicing, and even now it's easier to slip into
the old way than to stick to the new. Don't for a minute think that I am
ashamed of the old. I love it, and I always will. But I've begun to
understand what education means, and this is the first step. It isn't
easy. Don't think it. I have to keep guard on this slippery tongue every
minute. I believe it's harder than it would be to learn a foreign
language. It's up to you fellows to help me while I am here. I've used
the old brogue to-night because I knew you liked to hear it, but I'm not
going to any more unless it slips out when I am excited or my feelings
get the best of me. Now this is enough about myself. What are the plans
for the rest of my stay here?"

"Hold on," protested Upton. "You haven't told us a thing about the
woods or what luck you've had trapping, or what has become of Alec
Smith, or what we are going to do if we go up there, or who your partner
is. Now fire away and we'll make plans afterward. What are the woods
like now?"

"Two feet of snow and ten below zero when I left, and the beauty of them
is not for the tongue to tell, but for eyes to see. It's even whiter
magic than you have shown me this night, and I am not going to spoil it
by trying to tell what it is like," replied Pat.

"And the trapping?"

"Fair to good."

"Who's your partner? You haven't said a word about him."

"An old woodsman and trapper I scraped acquaintance with. He's a little
rough, but when you get to know him I think you'll like him." There was
a twinkle in Pat's eyes which neither Hal nor Walter caught.

"Now tell us about Alec Smith, and we'll let you off. How is that broken
leg, and what is he doing? Say, he must have felt good when Black
Charley confessed to having knifed The Mick! Looked pretty bad for Alec
for a while, didn't it? Is he living up to all those good resolutions he
made?"

"You bet he is!" Pat answered the last question first. "After Big Jim
and I got him out to Woodcraft Camp he stayed there doing odd jobs
around the camp until that leg was strong enough for him to go into a
lumber camp as cook. He was there a month and then quit for the trap
line. The last I heard of him he was somewhere up in the Smugglers'
Hollow country, and I gue