s of them loose at any
time. I've read of some remarkable ones being dug out of the earth
in various places. If this should prove to be a big meteor and we
could find where it struck, it would be a feather in the caps of
the scouts. Some old professor would be hustling up this way as
soon as we let them know at Yale or Harvard."

"Then we'll try to find where it struck!" declared Ralph.

"It would be as bad as hunting for a needle in a haystack in all
this big wilderness," ventured Bud; "though there'd be no harm in
our trying,---that is, if I'm in any shape to go with you after I've
had my little innings."

Again did Ralph wear a puzzled frown as he heard Bud make this
significant remark. He must have wondered more than ever what it
could possibly be that the other had conceived this time. On other
occasions his efforts, while ambitious, had ended in smoke, and the
rest of the boys often quizzed poor Bud most unmercifully on account
of his shortcomings. But then, all great inventors must make a
beginning. It is not expected that genius can take the saddle at
one bound. Persistence counts more in such cases than anything else.

The fellow who has faith in himself is apt to get there in the end,
no matter what grievous disappointments waylay him on his course;
that is, if he really amounts to more than a flash in the pan. Bud
sometimes comforted himself with reflections along this order. He
was not easily cast down, and that counted for a good deal.

The three scouts sat in the shack crosslegged, like so many Turks,
and chatted busily as time passed on. Ralph was easily induced
to speak of his various experiences when he used to trap in this
same neighborhood during past winters. He had run across a number
of strange things that were well worth telling; and Hugh especially
showed the keenest kind of interest in all he had to say.

Bud, like most promising candidates among those destined to become
truly great, had a habit of forgetting that there were others
present besides himself. He would fall into a reflective mood and
knit his brow as though wrestling with grave problems, upon the
solving of which the fate of nations depended.

Ralph knew all about the habits of foxes, mink, otter, weasels,
muskrats, raccoons, 'possums and divers other small fur-bearing
animals such as give up their warm coats for the purpose of keeping
ladies' hands and necks comfortable during wintry blasts. He had
had many a