asy matter to get into good clothes and to get our hair cut. What
you want to do, is to watch out that some Indian barber does not cut that
long hair of yours, rather closer than you like."

It was so seldom that Ree joked, and he spoke now in so droll a way, that
Tom Fish laughed boisterously. It had been long since the boys had heard
him so merry; for, though he never mentioned that subject, the
remembrance of the scalp Big Buffalo had carried, seemed always on his
spirits, bearing him down to a melancholy, unnatural mood.

They did not understand it then; they did not know.

When the time came to raise the cabin--that is, to fit the logs in place
one upon another, after they had been dragged and rolled to the summit of
the mound, to be in readiness, Tom's help was found most valuable, and
both Ree and John appreciated his work. But notwithstanding, they would
have been better pleased had he not remained with them. He had shown so
much ill-feeling toward the Indians who had come about from time to time,
that there was reason to believe he would commit some rash act which
would make trouble for all.

They could not tell Tom they did not trust him. They could not tell him
to go. Ree's repeated cautions that they must avoid getting into
difficulty with the redskins, were the only hints that could be given.

Capt. Pipe himself and a large number of his braves visited the camp when
the cabin was nearly finished, to make the settlement for the land the
boys had engaged to buy. The young pioneers had twice sent word to him by
Indians who were passing, that they wished to make their payment and
enter into a final agreement, and he had at last sent messengers to say
that he would visit them on a certain day. On the day before Capt. Pipe's
expected visit Ree and John went hunting to secure an abundance of meat
for a feast for their guests. It was the first day they had spent away
from the hard work on their cabin, except for Sundays when they bathed
and gave their clothes needed attention, and no two boys ever enjoyed a
holiday more. There was some snow--not enough to make walking difficult,
but really an advantage to the young hunters, for it showed them the
numerous tracks of the game they sought.

To this day, men, who have heard the stories handed down from generation
to generation, of the hunters' paradise in what is now the Northern part
of Ohio, in the years before 1800, delight to tell of the abundance of
choicest