ch as I am
going to make now."

At daylight Ned saw that Dick was sleeping quietly and taking the
shotgun started out in search of a breakfast suited to a sick boy.
When he returned, an hour later, he had a brace of ducks, a little
brown Florida rabbit and a 'possum. Dick was awake when he returned
and when offered his choice of the game for his breakfast chose all
of them. Ned stewed the rabbit and broiled a duck, giving Dick a
little of each, but the 'possum looked fat and greasy and he kept it
for himself.

"Dick," said Ned after breakfast, "shall I roll that beast into the
river, or do you want his skin?"

"Want it, of course. I've got no hard feelings against him."

"Want him skinned for mounting or a rug?"

"Rug, I guess. Think I'll enjoy walking on him."

The big cat was nearly eight feet long, including his tail, and was
so heavy that Ned found skinning him a hard job. After he had
finished he had to cut a stout stick for a lever, before he could
get the carcass into the river. The bad luck of the hunters seemed
to have run out, and game began to come to them. Ducks flew over the
river beside the camp and plovers often lit on a bank near them. Ned
went out for deer and came back in an hour with half a buck on his
shoulders. When he approached the camp he saw Dick sitting up and
tossing bits of hoe-cake to a 'coon that was watching him with some
suspicion from a distance of three or four yards.

"You ought to have seen him, Ned. I had him half tamed. He took
little bits of wet hoe-cake that I threw him and rolled them up into
balls with his funny little hands before he ate them. In an hour
more I'd have had him eating out of my hand."

"He'll come back to-morrow, Dick. You've got a way with you that
wild things understand."

"It's only that I really love them and they know it."

The 'coon did come back the next day while Ned was out exploring the
bay in the canoe and, although he did not eat out of Dick's hand, he
came within a few feet of him and showed very little fear. When Ned
returned, the 'coon scrambled to the top of a little tree and looked
down on the boys in a friendly way. Day by day the 'coon became
more intimate with Dick, even to eating out of his hand, but always
scampered away when Ned came back. On the third day, as Ned came in
from an exploring trip, instead of the 'coon he found his old friend
Tom, the lynx, sitting beside Dick with the air of a trained nurse.

"Bully for you, To