ods and all his
property would be destroyed and his wife and children made destitute.

"And have you and your like not made many of our friends destitute?"
cried some of the crowd. But more showed some heart for the justice,
notably Captain Warner. Warner finally suggested that as the dry goods
store was a public benefit and was one of the few stores in the
township, it should be saved if possible; and it would be too hard at
that time of year to turn the man and his family out of their home. He
declared for taking off the roof of the prisoner's house and then
putting it on again, providing that Spencer acknowledged that it was put
on under a New Hampshire title, and that he would purchase the same at
once. Spencer, who might have felt some gratitude by this time, promised
compliance in every particular, and with great shouting and good-nature,
the roof of the house was lifted off and then put on again. And the
lesson to the Durhamites was a salutary one.

Enoch Harding and his chum left immediately after the settlement of the
case and returned to their canoe. They feared the approach of a storm
which threatened, and were desirous of building their winter camp and
getting their traps set before the forest would be full of snow and the
streams completely frozen. Both boys were very good woodsmen by this
time, for Bolderwood had been Enoch's mentor and Lot's uncle was an old
ranger who knew every trick of the forest and trail. They selected a
heavily wooded gulley not far from the Otter and built there a log
lean-to against the rocky side-hill, sheltered from the north and open
to such sunshine as might penetrate the forest. The traps were set along
the bank of the stream, some of them in the water itself, where the
boys' sharp eyes told them that the fur-bearing game of which they were
in search, were wont to pass.

A fortnight after the Durham riot, as the Yorkers were pleased to call
the visit of the Green Mountain Boys, the two friends were very cozily
fixed in the gully. One heavy snow had fallen, and their traps had begun
to repay their attention most generously. Then the Otter froze over
solidly and they had to keep the ice open about their traps with the
axe. They were in a lonely piece of wood and day after day saw nor heard
nobody but themselves. The bears had taken to their long winter sleep;
but the fierce catamount was still abroad, and at night the howling of
the wolf-pack as it followed some hard-pressed