ely as a poor stick of a hunter I
want to ask Bobolink here, and Spider Sexton to walk over to that low
oak tree you can see back yonder, and fetch in what they find in the
fork. I caved on the home stretch and dropped my load there."

"Good for you, Jud!" exclaimed Paul. "I suspected something of the
kind when I saw the soiled condition of the game pockets in your
hunting-coat, and noticed that a partridge feather was sticking to
your hair. Skip along, you two, and make amends for joshing Jud so."

Of course Bobolink and Spider fairly ran, and soon came back carrying
seven plump partridges between them, at sight of which a great cheer
arose. Like all fickle crowds, the boys now applauded Jud just as
strongly as they had previously sought to poke fun at him.

"Oh! I don't deserve much credit, boys," he told them. "These birds
just tree after you scare them up, and make easy shots. If they flew
off like bullets, as they do in some parts of the country, that would
be a bag worth boasting of. But they'll taste mighty fine, all the
same, let me tell you!"

During the afternoon the scouts found many things to interest them.
Tolly Tip, of course, had to take care of the pelts he had secured
that day, and his manner of doing this interested some of the boys
considerably.

He had a great many thin boards of peculiar pattern to which the
skins were to be attached after stretching, so that they would dry in
this shape.

"Most skins ye notice are cut open an' cured that way," the old
woodsman explained to his audience, as he worked deftly with his
knife; "but some kinds are cased, bein' taken off whole, and turned
inside out to dry."

"I suppose you lay them near the fire, or out in the sun, to cure,"
remarked Tom Betts. "I know that's the way the Indians dry the
pemmican that they use in the winter for food."

"Pelts are niver cured that way," explained the trapper, "because it'd
make thim shrink. We kape the stretcher boards wid the skins out in
the open air, but in the shade where the sun don't come. Whin they git
to a certain stage it's proper to stack the same away in the cabin,
kapin' a wary eye on 'em right along to prevint mould."

All such things proved of considerable interest to the scouts, most of
whom had very little practical knowledge along these lines. They were
eager to pick up useful information wherever it could be found, and on
that account asked numerous questions, all of which Tolly Tip seemed
del