ait till
he comes home to have that explained, and now I'll go to work and get
some breakfast."

Tom had used up nearly all the wood to replenish the fire, and he began
casting his eyes about the shanty to see if Elam had another pair of
shoes in waiting to be put on when his own boots became wet, and found
some moccasons with a pair of stockings neatly folded and hung beside
them. Elam had worn them once, but that did not matter. He put them on,
and, seeing Elam's axe resting in one corner, caught it up and went out
to renew his supply of fire-wood. Hearing the blows of the axe, the
horse came up and snorted at him, but could not be induced to come near.
This made it plain that the man who attempted to rob Elam would have to
leave his horse behind.

Tom chopped until his appetite began to get the better of him, and then
went in and busied himself about his breakfast. He left the door open
(for all the light that was admitted to the cabin came through a space
in the roof over the fireplace through which the smoke escaped), and
told himself that for one who had never seen the comforts of civilized
life Elam was able to copy pretty close to them. There was a table whose
top was made of boards hewed out of a log and smoothed with an axe, and
one or two three-legged stools without any backs, which proved that Elam
sometimes had company. The clothing he had worn was neatly hung up at
one corner of the cabin, and underneath was something which Tom had not
noticed before: two bundles of skins, nicely tied up and waiting to be
shipped. They were wolf-skins, and close by them lay half a dozen skins
of the beaver and otter, not enough to be tied up.

"I know what he meant when he said that I was welcome to the cabin of
Elam, the wolfer," said Tom. "Somebody has either grub-staked him and
sent him out here to catch wolves or else he is working for himself.
Now, where's the spring? I must have some water for my coffee."

Tom easily found the pail of which he was in search, and, going out
behind the cabin, he followed the path he had noticed while cutting
wood. It ran through a quiet grove of evergreens, and finally ended in a
little pool in which Elam found his water. Coming back to the cabin, he
could not find any coffee-pot, but he found a pan which seemed to have
been used for nothing but coffee, filled it with water, placed it on
coals he had raked off to one side, and covered it with one of Elam's
pictures. With his breakf