mscoik country was becoming scarce of game. 'Siah Bolderwood did
not go back to Old Ti, either, but contented himself with making short
hunting trips around the lower part of the lake, for he spent all the
time he could spare in helping the widow and her boys to get the timber
ready for their new abode. Enoch and Bryce were determined that this new
structure should be much better than the log cabin which their father
had erected ten years before, and every timber dragged to the site by
the slow moving oxen was squared with the broad ax and carefully fitted
so as to "lock" at the corners. Some planks were sawed at the mill and
sledded to the ox-bow on the ice, too, and when the plaintive call of
the muckawis--the Indian name for the "whip-poor-will,"--ushered in the
spring, a noble company of Green Mountain Boys gathered to build the
widow's house again.

Although the new house was put up and made habitable in about ten days,
it took some time to fit window-frames, build two partitions, for there
were to be two sleeping chambers on the ground floor in this house,
which was larger than the old structure, and lay the floor of the loft,
build bunks to sleep in, make a new meal chest and dresser, and
construct other articles of furniture which were needed to replace the
stuff burned in the fire. Enoch had a mechanical turn of mind and Bryce
made an able assistant. Between them they turned out a new table,
several chairs with hide backs and seats, and even essayed a "rocker"
for their mother which, although rudely built and with its rockers not
exactly even, was declared by Mrs. Harding to be a marvel of
workmanship.

All these things had to be done besides the regular work of the farm
during the spring and summer, and the studies of the older boys were
rather neglected that year, greatly to the delight of Bryce. Indeed,
several of their mother's precious books had been destroyed by the
flames, and had it not been for the sorrow he knew she felt at their
loss, Bryce would have openly expressed his satisfaction. He was born
for the woods and fields, and although he made no objection to farmwork,
it was plain that his father's roving disposition had entered strongly
into the make-up of the lad.

He still felt injured--indeed, the feeling grew with his own
growth--because he was not allowed to join the military companies; but
Mistress Harding had finally promised that if he could trap enough game
the next winter to pay for a