jamin; and he darted away from the place and was
not seen until the next day, when he returned, bringing the flag with him.

Marlowe Mann never forgot that fourth of July on the Columbia.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MOUNTAIN LION.

One morning, as Mrs. Woods sat in her door picking over some red
whortleberries which she had gathered in the timber the day before, a
young cow came running into the yard, as if for protection. Mrs. Woods
started up, and looked in the direction from which the animal had come
running, but saw nothing to cause the alarm.

The cow looked backward, and lowed. Mrs. Woods set down her dish of red
berries, took her gun, and went out toward the timber where the cow had
been alarmed.

There was on the edge of the timber a large fir that the shingle-maker had
felled when he first built his house or shack, but had not used, owing to
the hardness of the grain. It lay on the earth, but still connected with
its high stump, forming a kind of natural fence. Around it were beds of
red phlox, red whortleberry bushes, and wild sunflowers.

The horny stump and fallen tree had been made very interesting to Mrs.
Woods in her uneventful life by a white squirrel that often had appeared
upon it, and made a pretty picture as it sat eating in the sun, its head
half covered with its bushy tail. White squirrels were not common in the
timber, and this was the only one that Mrs. Woods had ever seen.

"I wish that I could contrive to catch that there white squirrel," she
said to Gretchen one day; "it would be a sight of company for me when you
are gone. The bear used me mean, but I kind o' like all these little
children of Natur'. But I don't want no Injuns, and no more bears unless
_he_ comes back again. The schoolmaster may like Injuns, and you may, but
I don't. Think how I lost my saw; Injun and all went off together. I can
seem to see him now, goin'."

As Mrs. Woods drew near the fallen tree she looked for the white squirrel,
which was not to be seen. Suddenly the bushes near the stump moved, and
she saw the most evil-looking animal that she had ever met drawing back
slowly toward the fallen tree. It was long, and seemed to move more like
an immense serpent than an animal. It had a catlike face, with small ears
and spiteful eyes, and a half-open mouth displaying a red tongue and
sharp teeth. Its face was sly, malicious, cruel, and cowardly. It seemed
to be such an animal as would attack one in the dark. It was m