tarts out west thinking he is
going on a frolic, will be mighty badly fooled," John answered. "I am
learning, but it is like the Indian who believed powder didn't amount to
much unless it was in a gun; so he filled his pipe with it. He learned a
heap."

"Ho, ho, pardners both!"

The voice came so suddenly to the young travelers, they started and
looked around questioningly. With a flying leap from some brush which
bordered the road, came an odd looking woodsman.

"Lift my ha'r if ye ain't the nearest bein' kittens of anythin' I've
clapped my old goggles on in the emygrant line in all my born days!"
Putting his hands to his sides the stranger laughed uproariously.

"Oh, it's funny, ain't it!" exclaimed John Jerome, witheringly.

"Age is not always a sign of wisdom," said Ree Kingdom in much the same
tone.

"Right ye be, lad; right ye be," said the woodsman, quieting himself.
"But I swan I'm that glad to see ye so young an' bloomin', both, that it
jes does me old eyes good. Where ye bound fer, anyhow?"

The speaker was tall and rugged, his age probably fifty years. A grizzled
beard clustered round his face and his unkempt hair hung almost to his
shoulders. On his head was a ragged coon-skin cap. All his dress was made
of skin or furs, in the crudest frontier fashion. He was not a
disagreeable appearing person, nevertheless, for his eyes twinkled
merrily as a boy's. Each in his own way, Ree and John noted these facts.

"I might say that we are going till we stop and that we came from where
we started," said John in answer to the stranger's inquiry.

"What a peart kitten ye be!" smiled the man, looking at him quizzically.

"To be honest with you, we are going to the Ohio country," said Ree
Kingdom, satisfied that the stranger wished to be friendly.

"Ye've got spunk, I swan!" the fellow exclaimed. "Don't let me be keepin'
ye though; drive along, we kin swap talk as we're movin'."

"How far do you call it to old Fort Pitt?" asked Ree.

"Well, it ain't so fer as a bird kin fly, an' its ferder than ye want to
walk in a day. If ye have good luck ye'll come on to Braddock's road
afore supper time, an' if ye don't have good luck, there's no tellin'
when ye'll get thar. It want such a great ways from here that Braddock
had _his_ bad luck. If he _hadn't_ had it--if he'd done as George
Washington wanted him to, he'd 'a' got along like grease on a hot
skillet, same as you youngsters."

"Hear that John? We will make Fo