r happier than he would have been on the scout or the hunt.

The day's work was ended and all the others were sitting around the camp
fire, with the dying glow of the setting sun flooding the springs, the
marshes and the camp fire, but Paul and the master toiled zealously at
the gigantic figure that they had up-reared, supported partly with
stakes, and bearing a remote resemblance to some animal that lived a few
million years or so ago. The master had tied together some of the bones
with withes, and he and Paul were now laboriously trying to fit a
section of vertebrae into shape.

Shif'less Sol who had gone with Henry sat down by the fire, stuffed a
piece of juicy venison into his mouth and then looked with eyes of
wonder at the two workers in the cause of natural history.

"Some people 'pear to make a heap o' trouble for theirselves," he said,
"now I can't git it through my head why anybody would want to work with
a lot o' dead old bones when here's a pile o' sweet deer meat just
waitin' an' beggin' to be et up."

At that moment the attempt of Paul and the schoolmaster to reconstruct a
prehistoric beast collapsed. The figure that they had built up with so
much care and labor suddenly slipped loose somewhere, and all the bones
fell down in a heap. The master stared at them in disgust and exclaimed:

"It's no use! I can't put them together away out here in the
wilderness!"

Then he stalked over to the fire, and taking a deer steak, ate hungrily.
The steak was very tender, and gradually a look of content and peace
stole over Mr. Pennypacker's face.

"At least," he murmured, "if it's hard to be a scholar here, one can
have a glorious appetite, and it is most pleasant to gratify it."

As the dark settled down Ross said that in one day more they ought to
have all the salt the horses could carry, and then it would be best to
depart promptly and swiftly for Wareville. A half hour later all were
asleep except the sentinel.

CHAPTER VIII

THE WILD TURKEY'S GOBBLE

Henry had conducted himself so well on his first scout and, had shown
such signs of efficiency that Ross concluded to take him again the next
day. Henry's heart swelled with pride, and he was no longer worried
about Paul, because he saw that the latter's interest and ambitions were
not exactly the same as his own. Henry could not have any innate respect
for heaps of "old bones," but if Paul and the master found them worthy
of such close attention,