ake the trip with
only one horse. Often, too, it was the case that the lads drove far out
of their course to pass around great obstacles, and they eventually found
that they had gone miles out of their true course. Many were the
hardships they encountered, and one adventure which they had must be
related here.

For days at a time no human being was met on those lonely mountain trails
and it was this fact which gave rise to much uneasiness when John one
day, for just a moment caught sight of a rough-appearing fellow in their
rear. He had gone back along the road to search for a bolt which was lost
from the cart box, when he chanced to look up and saw the strange fellow
a quarter of a mile away, coming toward him. The man raised his rifle and
sprang in among some trees as he caught sight of John, his movement being
so quick that the boy did not get a good look at him, and neither in
going on beyond the spot where the fellow had been, nor in returning
after he had found the lost bolt, did John see him again.

"We must be on the watch-out constantly," said Ree when told of the
incident. "I would have thought nothing of it, but for the man's desire
to hide."

"That is what I can't understand," said John, and as he thought the
matter over it added to a downcast feeling which had seized upon him. It
was by his looks more than by words that he betrayed his low-spirited
condition, then, and at other times, as day after day nothing save the
trees, great rocks and wooded hills and frowning mountain sides were
seen.

On the other hand, Ree's quiet disposition seemed almost to disappear in
the face of hardships and difficult obstacles. If the cart broke down he
whistled "Yankee Doodle," while he managed to mend it. If the road was
especially rough and their progress most unpleasantly slow, he was
certain to sing. Even Jerry could not fail to catch the spirit of his
cheerfulness no matter what bad luck they had, and from looking glum,
John would change to light-heartedness every time. Ree's smile was a
never failing remedy for his blues.

"Time enough to be blue and all put out when you have utterly failed,"
Ree exclaimed one day. "And if you only make up your mind to it, it is
the simplest thing in the world not to fail. If I were the general of an
army, I wouldn't own up that I was whipped as long as I had a breath
left. Now just suppose that Washington had given up at Valley Forge!"

"Well, I want to say that the chap who s