They had many kinds of game to choose from, and once Ross had brought a
bag of ground corn, perhaps taken by stealth from an Indian village, and
now and then Jim made from it a kind of bread. He was to bake some
to-night, in honor of the returning two, and soon the place was filled
with pleasant odors.

Twilight was deepening, the supper was almost ready, and Paul went forth
to see if Henry and Tom were yet in sight. Presently he saw them
coming--two black figures against the setting sun, with the body of a deer
that they had killed and dressed. He hastened to meet them and give them a
helping hand, and together they approached the house.

First they swung the body of the deer from a bough, and then they opened
the door. Deep silence reigned within. No friendly voice greeted them. The
heads of Jim Hart and Shif'less Sol almost touched over a square of
deerskin, at which both were looking intently. With the supper ready, and
nothing else to do, they had got out the chessmen, and were playing the
rubber. So absorbed were they that they neither heard nor saw.

"Now what under the sun is this?" exclaimed Tom Ross.

"It's a game I taught 'em while you and Henry were gone," explained Paul.
"It's called chess."

Shif'less Sol and Jim sprang up, but Sol quickly recovered his presence of
mind.

"I jest about had him cornered, an' your comin' saved him," he said.

"Cornered!" said Jim Hart. "He ain't even seed the day when he kin beat
me!"

The chessmen were put aside for the time, and five hungry beings ate as
only borderers could eat. Then Tom Ross demanded a look at the game. After
the look he asked for instruction.

"I saw a set uv them fellers once when I wuz at Fort Pitt," he said, "but
I never thought the time would come when I'd play with 'em. Push up the
fire thar a little, will you, Jim, so I kin see better."

Paul and Henry looked at each other and smiled. Soon Tom himself, the
senior of the party, was absorbed in the new game, and it was a happy
thought of Paul's to introduce it, even with the rude figures which were
the best that they could make.

Paul brought up again the next morning the subject of their weather
prospects, and Tom and Henry agreed with the others in predicting a great
deal of snow and cold.

"All signs show it," said Henry. "The rabbits are burrowing deeper than
usual under the bushes, and I notice that the birds have built their nests
uncommonly thick. I don't understand how they kn