se.

"Ever since then," continued Bandy-legs, thoughtfully, believing the
seed had doubtless fallen upon fallow ground, and would bear fruit in
season, "our cook has been actin' queer-like. She keeps alookin' under
tables all the while like she expected to see tigers and lions
acrouchin' there, ready to take a bite out of her. And she's even got to
callin' my little Nicodemus bad names. She says he's sure a chip of the
Ould Nick. That's what she told me this morning, when I was getting a
big pie she made for me yesterday, and which is safe in a box in the
wagon here."

"It seems to apply all right," commented Max, "and come to think of it,
Bandy-legs, I guess he is all of that. I never heard of a pet as full of
pranks as that cub is; and chances are Toby here will have his hands
full looking after him, once he changes owners."

"T-t-try me, that's all!" Toby remarked, with the air of one who had
made it a practical business in life to know all about wild animals, and
how best to take care of them; having heard the owner mention the sum of
ten dollars he felt as though the bargain had already been consummated,
and all that remained was for the goods to be delivered.

They loitered there by the spring for some time, and the horse seemed to
revive enough to pull through the last stage of the journey. After that
Ebenezer would have a long rest of nearly a week; and much of the return
trip would prove easier, being down-hill work.

"All aboard again!" called Max, when he thought they might as well be
starting ahead, and do some of the resting at the place they had picked
out for a camp site. So they continued along the road.

Presently they turned off the main pike, to follow a side road that
seemed to lead up into a wild stretch of country. Here an occasional
farm might be run across but as a rule there were woods, and then some
more woods, until one could tramp for miles and miles through stretches
of country where it seemed almost like the primeval wilderness.

Of course most of these trees, though of fair size, were second-growth
timber. The avaricious lumberman had long ago been through all this
section, and only in patches was it possible to find any of the original
great trees that were possibly growing a century or two back, when the
whites were wresting this land from the possession of the Indians.

"This begins to look like business," Steve remarked, when they had been
following this twisting road for more