the place was the very
picture of a cheerful retreat. Silent, strong-winged water-fowl
frequented it, and more than once Sam had caught a glimpse of a noble
figure of a moose stepping out from among the trees.

Sam, ever anxious to learn the lore of the country, was experimenting
in trapping muskrats. Finding a couple of the little beasts snared and
drowned at the doors of their own dwellings, he set to work to skin
them. His inexperienced fingers made a mess of the job.

He was sitting thus occupied on the edge of a little cut-bank, with
his feet hanging over. A clump of willows flanked him on either side.
The clear waters of the brook eddied sluggishly a few inches under his
feet.

In the middle of his bloody task, something caused him to look over
his shoulder, and there, not twenty feet from him, peering through the
willows, he saw Bela.

From a variety of causes, he blushed to the roots of his hair. For one
thing, he was thinking bitterly of her at that very moment; for
another, he saw, or imagined he saw, scorn in her eyes for his clumsy
handiwork upon the muskrat.

He hastily tossed the little carcass into the water, and then
regretted having done so.

"What are you spying on me for?" he demanded hotly.

The word was strange to Bela, but the tone conveyed its sense. She
promptly took fire from his heat.

Showing herself proudly, she said: "I not know spyin'."

"Following me around," said Sam. "Watching what I do without my
knowing."

"I follow you for cause I want talk," said Bela indignantly. "I think
maybe you got sense. If you not want talk to me, all right; I go away
again. You ain't got sense, I think. Get mad for not'ing."

Sam was a little ashamed.

"Well--I'm sorry," he muttered. "What did you want to talk about?"

She did not immediately answer. Coming closer, she dropped to her
knees on the little hummock of dry earth.

"I show you how to skin him, if you want," she suggested, pointing to
the other muskrat.

Sam swallowed his pride. "All right, go head," he replied.

Cutting off the paws of the little animal and making an incision over
his broadest end, she deftly rolled back the skin, and drew it off
inside out over his head like a glove.

Then cutting a willow stem beside her, she transformed it with two
half cuts into a little spring-frame, over which she drew the late
muskrat's over-coat. The whole operation did not consume five minutes.

"Easy enough when you know how," admi