to eat."

That was enough. In another instant Julian and Provy went down the
chimney. What was a matter of fifteen feet after a thousand? Tribbs had
already lit a candle by which they could see that they were in the cabin
of some tunnel-man at work on the ridge. He had probably been in the
tunnel when the avalanche fell, and escaped, though his cabin was
buried. The three discoverers helped themselves to his larder. They
laughed and ate as at a picnic, played cards, pretended it was a
robber's cave, and finally, wrapping themselves in the miner's blankets,
slept soundly, knowing where they were, and confident also that they
could find the trail early the next morning. They did so, and without
going to their homes came directly to school--having been absent about
fifty hours. They were in high spirits, except for the thought
of approaching punishment, never dreaming to evade it by anything
miraculous in their adventures.

Such was briefly their story. Its truth was corroborated by the
discovery of the bear's carcass, by the testimony of the tunnel-man, who
found his larder mysteriously ransacked in his buried cabin, and, above
all, by the long white tongue that for many months hung from the ledge
into the valley. Nobody thought the lanky Julian a hero,--least of all
himself. Nobody suspected that Jackson Tribbs's treatment of a "slide"
had been gathered from experiments in his father's "runs"--and he was
glad they did not. The master's pardon obtained, the three truants cared
little for the opinion of Hemlock Hill. They knew THEMSELVES, that was
enough.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales of Trail and Town, by Bret Harte

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF TRAIL AND TOWN ***

***** This file should be named 2550.txt or 2550.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/5/2550/

Produced by Donald Lainson

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBE