orthern wilderness, and had been no more able to tie
himself to a farm, and earn his bread by tilling the soil, than an
Indian. Indeed, he was more of an Indian than a white man in habits,
tastes, and feelings; he lacked only that marvelous appreciation of
signs and sounds in the forest, in which the white can never hope to
equal the red man.

"Lad, that was a near chance for you!" he said, when he saw that Enoch
was practically unhurt. "The Almighty surely brought me to this lick
jest right. I knowed you was here when I heard the shot; but as your
marm said you'd gone for a deer, I didn't s'pose you'd be huntin' for
catamounts, too! Howsomever, somethin' tol' me ter run when I heard your
gun, an' run I did."

"I didn't shoot at the wild-cat, 'Siah," said the boy, getting upon his
feet. "See yonder; there's the doe I knocked over. But the critter was
after her, too, and it madded him when I fired, I s'pose."

"And ye didn't git your gun loaded again!" exclaimed Bolderwood.

His young friend blushed with shame. "I--I didn't think. I ran over to
look at the doe, and the critter jumped at me outer the tree. Then I got
on the log and he follered me----"

"Jonas Harding's boy'd oughter known better than that," declared the old
ranger, with some vexation.

"I know it, 'Siah. Poor father told me 'nough times never to move outer
my tracks till I had loaded again. An' I reckon this'll be a lesson for
me. I--I ain't got over it yet."

"Wal," said Bolderwood, "while you git yer breath, Nuck, I'll flay that
critter and hang her up. I'm in somethin' of a hurry this mornin'; but
as the widder's needin' the meat, we won't leave the carcass to the
varmints."

"You've been to my house, 'Siah?" cried Enoch, following him across the
little glade.

"Yes. Jest stopped there on my way down from Manchester. That's how I
knew you was over here hunting."

"But if you're in a hurry, leave me to do that," said the boy. "I'm all
right now."

"You're in as big a hurry as I be, Nuck," returned the ranger, with a
grim smile. "I'm going to take you with me over to Mr. James
Breckenridge's. Ev'ry gun we kin git may count to-day, lad."

"Did mother say I could go, 'Siah?" cried the youngster, with undoubted
satisfaction in his voice. "You're the best man that I know to get her
to say 'yes'!"

Bolderwood looked up from his work with much gravity. "This ain't no
funnin' we're goin' on, Nuck. It's serious business. You kin shoot
straight,