y palatable. Now, however, we should have as
much as we desired; and I explained to my companions, that by simply
boiling this water in our kettle, we should obtain the very thing we so
much stood in need of. This, as they saw, would be great news for mamma
on our return; and the prospect of making her happy, by imparting the
information, rendered all of us impatient to get back. We did not stay
a moment by the salt stream--which was a very small rivulet of blue
water, and evidently ran from some spring that bubbled up in the valley.
Not far below us, we saw where it emptied itself into the main stream
of fresh water; and, keeping down to the latter, we quenched our thirst,
and then went back to our work.

"We made all the haste we could; and our three black-tails were soon
skinned, quartered, and hung upon the trees--so as to be out of reach of
the wolves while we should be gone. We then shouldered our rifles, and
hurried back to the house."

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

CATCHING A TARTAR.

"Of course, Mary was much pleased at hearing of the discovery we had
made. One of the first requisites of a housewife is a supply of good
salt; and that we promised to obtain for her on the morrow. It was our
intention to carry the kettle up to the salt stream, and there
manufacture the article--as that would be more convenient than to bring
the water down to the house. This piece of work we laid out for the
next day. Meanwhile, as it was not yet near night, we caught Pompo, and
set off again to bring home our black-tails. This required us to make
several journeys--as we had no cart by which we could bring the deer all
at once, and each of them was as large as a good-sized heifer. We
succeeded, however, in getting all to the house before sunset--except
the skins, which we left hanging on the trees for another day. While
the boys and I had been engaged at this work, Cudjo was not idle. It
was our intention to cure the venison--not by `jerking,' as we had done
the elk-meat, but with the salt, which we were about to make on the
morrow. For this purpose, we should require a large vessel capable of
holding the pickle. We had nothing of the sort; and, of course, we were
puzzled for a while as to how we should manage without it. It was early
in the day--before we had brought in the venison--that this difficulty
occurred to us.

"`Why could we not leave it in the stream itself?' asked Harry. `The
water is very clear, and t