famished animals gleamed in the boys' eyes as they tore the half-cooked
squirrel in two, yet each offered his share to his mother, who seemed
not to see the proffered food.

"Just a little piece, mother," coaxed the elder, and he extended an
emaciated arm from which hung the rags of a tattered shirt sleeve.

Both children were dressed in the remnants of copper-riveted overalls
and their feet were bound in strips of canvas torn from a "tarp." Their
straight black hair hung over faces sunken and sallow and from the waist
up they were naked.

The boy held the food before her as long as he could endure it, then he
tore it with his teeth in the ferocity of starvation.

"Can you _beat_ it! Can you beat _that_!" The boys did not hear
Kincaid's shocked exclamation.

It was not until he cleared his throat and called in a friendly,
reassuring voice that they learned they were not alone. Then they jumped
in fright and scurried into a near-by thicket like two scared rabbits,
each holding tight his food. But Dick Kincaid's face was one to inspire
confidence, and as he approached they came forth timidly. Their first
fright gave place to delirious joy. The smaller threw his arms about
Kincaid's long legs and hugged them in an ecstasy of delight while the
elder clung to his hand as though afraid he might vanish. The woman
merely glanced at him with vacant eyes and went on wailing.

While he took cold biscuits and bacon from his pack they told him what
had happened--briefly, simply, without the smallest attempt to color the
story for his sympathy.

"We couldn't have held out much longer, m'sieu, we're so weak." The
elder boy was the spokesman.

"And the strawberries and sarvis-berries won't be ripe for a long time
yet. It wasn't so bad till the cabin burned. We could keep warm. But we
went off in the woods to see if we could kill something, and when we
came back the cabin was burned and the baby dead. Mother went crazy more
than a month ago, I guess it was. She wouldn't let us bury the baby till
yesterday, and when we started to dig we found we could only dig a
little at a time. We got tired so quick, and besides, we had to try and
keep a fire, for we have no more matches."

"I could dig longer nor you," chimed in the younger boy boastfully. The
other smiled wanly.

"I know it, Petie, but you had more to eat. You had two trout and a bird
more nor me."

"You have a gun, then? and fish-hooks?"

"Not now. We lost our hooks