a term often used to describe the man who flings his catch of bass or
trout up on the shore to die, no matter if he is taking ten times what
he can use; or who shoots his deer in or out of season, and allows it to
lie there, wasted, on the ground, food for the foxes or wolves.

"This country seems to be rather sparsely settled up here?" remarked
Thad, after they had been moving along the shore of Lake Winthrop for
some time, looking up a desirable camp site.

"In the summer you kin see a tent now an' then, it bein' sum party as
wants ter enjy the fishin', which is prime," Eli replied; "but they
ain't many folks as keer 'bout stickin' out ther winters hyar. Ye'll
admit they must be sum cold, this far up, nigh the Canady border."

"But there must be plenty of game hereabouts, I should guess," Thad went
on. "Because, in the first place it has a gamey look to me; and then
again, you wouldn't have agreed to come along with Jim here, unless
you'd heard good accounts of the region around the Eagle Lakes."

"Jest what I has, though I hain't never be'n all over 'em myself,"
returned Eli. "But Jim hyar, he was bawn an' fetched up in this kentry;
so what he doan't know 'baout hit hain't wuth knowin', I guess, sir."

It was about the middle of the afternoon that Jim declared they had
reached the point where their tents should be pitched. Thad noticed that
the guide made not the least attempt at trying to hide the camp; indeed,
the tents could surely be seen in any direction out on the lake.

This gave him to understand that Jim was not "taking water;" he had come
here to this danger ground with the main idea of meeting his irate
father-in-law face to face, be the consequences what they might, because
his wife had begged him to; and there was as yet no sign of Jim turning
out to be what Giraffe called a "quitter."

Everybody soon found plenty to do. The rest had enough pity for Giraffe
not to enter any complaint because he seemed to shirk his share of the
ordinary labor attending the starting of the camp. They knew he had his
hands full in solving what promised to be one of the greatest puzzles he
had ever tackled.

And so he was allowed to go off himself, and work his little saw
monotonously right along. Now it was the cord that failed to hold; again
something else went back on poor Giraffe. But he kept patiently at it,
grimly determined; and even the most interested of the lot, Bumpus, with
whom the fire builder had laid hi