m Skipper Mudge o' the schooner _Lucky Hand_. I asks he last fall
when he goes home from the fishin' to get un for me in St. John's. That's
_string_, now, _that_ is! 'Twill hold the biggest rabbit on the
Labrador."

"Are rabbits so strong?" asked Charley.

"Strong enough to break string that's not stout enough to hold un,"
laughed Skipper Zeb, explaining good-naturedly: "She has to be rare
stout to hold some of un. The string Toby has last year were rotten,
'twere so old, and he loses a rare lot o' rabbits that gets in the
snares with un breakin' the twine, so I gets new string for this year."

"That'll hold un! 'Tis fine twine," agreed Toby, testing it. "Come on,
Charley! We'll set a rare lot o' snares this evenin', and have rabbit
for dinner to-morrow."

The boys hurried into their adikeys, and Toby carrying his rifle, and
Charley a light ax, which Toby selected from three or four in the shed,
the two set out.

"We can't set snares too handy to the house," advised Toby, turning into
the forest behind the cabin, with Charley following. "The dogs would
find un _too_ handy, when we gets the team home from Skipper Tom's."

A thick bramble of dwarf willows and mooseberry bushes lined the shore
between the water of the bay and the spruce forest, and to avoid this
Toby laid his course through the forest behind the tangle. Charley,
thrilled with a sense of adventure, followed Toby eagerly as he led the
way for some time in silence. This was Charley's first trapping
expedition in a real wilderness! He wondered whether there were wolves
or other wild animals lurking among the shadows, and he was glad that
Toby had his rifle.

Suddenly Toby stopped. The white surface of the snow was covered with a
thick network of tracks, among the forest trees and back among the
bramble.

"They's plenty o' rabbits here," and Toby pointed to the tracks. "I
never sees so much rabbit footin'. I'm thinkin' 'tis far enough so the
dogs'll not be findin' the snares, and we'll start to set un here."

"Are these all rabbit tracks?" asked Charley in amazement. "There must
be thousands of them!"

"Aye, there's a rare fine band of un about," agreed Toby with an
appraising glance. "Here's a fine run, now! We'll be settin' the first
snare on this run."

Toby pointed to a beaten path or runway, indicating that rabbits had
passed back and forth over it many times.

He proceeded at once to cut a spruce sapling. From the middle of one
side of thi