rom
his mold into his pouch. But Shif'less Sol talked without ceasing, his
pleasant chatter encouraging them, as music cheers troops for battle.

"It ain't right fur me to hev to work this way," he said, "me sich a
lazy man. I ought to lay over thar on a blanket, an' go to sleep while
Jim does my share ez well ez his own."

"When I'm doin' your share, Sol Hyde," said Long Jim, "you'll be dead.
Not till then will I ever tech a finger to your work. You are a lazy
man, ez you say, an' fur sev'ral years now I've been tryin' to cure you
uv it, but I ain't made no progress that I kin see."

"I don't want you to make progress, Jim. I like to be lazy, an' jest now
I feel pow'ful fine, fed well, an' layin' here, wrapped in a blanket
before a good warm fire."

Henry went back to the cleft, and took another long look. The conditions
had not changed, save that night was coming and the wilderness was chill
and hostile. The wind blew with a steady shrieking sound, and the
driving rain struck like sleet. Leaves fell before it, and in every
depression of the earth the water stood in pools. Over this desolate
scene the faint sun was sinking and the twilight, colder and more solemn
than the day, was creeping. He looked at the wet forest and the coming
dusk, and then back at the dry hollow and the warm fire behind him. The
contrast was powerful, but only one choice was left to them.

"Boys," he said, "we'll have to make the most of tonight."

"Because we must leave our home in the morning?" said Paul.

"Yes, that's it. We'll have to take to the woods, no matter how hard it
is. Chance doesn't favor us this time. I fancy the band led by Braxton
Wyatt will make straight for our house here."

"Since it's the last dry bed I'll have fur some time I'm goin' to
sleep," said Shif'less Sol plaintively. "Everybody pesters a lazy man,
an' I mean to use the little time I hev."

"You've a right to it, Sol," said Henry, "because you've walked long and
far, and you've brought what we needed most. The sooner you and Tom go
to sleep the better. Paul, you join 'em and Jim and I will watch."

The shiftless one and the silent one turned on their sides, rested their
heads on their arms and in a minute or two were off to the land of
slumber. Paul was slower, but in a quarter of an hour or so he followed
them to the same happy region. Long Jim put out the fire, lest the gleam
of the coals through the cleft should betray their presence to a
creeping en