u thinking about? Do you
imagine I'm an Indian?"

"I thought you were," said Notty, very meekly; "and," he continued, "so
did all the other boys."

"Well, that's good," said Paul, laughing heartily. "What made you think
so, fellows?"

"Benny told us," explained Ned.

"Benny?" exclaimed Paul. "What put that fancy into your head?"

"I--I dreamed it," said Benny, almost ready to cry for shame and
disappointment.

"And you told all the other boys?"

"Yes, I believed it; I really did, or I never would have said it."

Then Paul laughed again--a long, hearty laugh it was, but no one helped
him. Most of the boys felt as if in some way Paul had cheated them. As
for Ned Johnston, he evidently did not believe Paul, for he began to ask
questions.

"If you're not an Indian, how do you know so much about a birch canoe?"

"Why, I've seen dozens of them in Maine, where I used to live; the
Indians make them there."

"Wild Indians?" asked Ned, and all the boys listened eagerly for the
answer.

"No," said Paul, contemptuously; "they're the tamest kind of tame ones."

This was dreadful, yet Ned thought he would try once more. "How did you
come to know so much about buffaloes?" he asked.

"I saw two in Central Park, in New York," Paul replied. "Oh, boys! boys!
you're dreadfully sold."

"Say, Paul," said Benny, edging to the front, and looking appealingly at
his friend, "you've been away out West anyhow, haven't you?--because you
told me you knew about it." Benny awaited the answer with fear and
trembling, for he felt he never would hear the end of the affair if he
did not get some help from Paul.

"No, I've never been farther West than Laketon," was the disheartening
reply. "All I know of the West I've learned from books and newspapers."

"Dear me!" sighed Benny; and for the first time in his life he wished
the bell would ring, and give him an excuse to get away. Within a moment
his wish was gratified, and he scampered up stairs very briskly, but not
before Bert Sharp had caught up with him, and called him "Smarty," and
asked him if he hadn't some more dreams that he could go about telling
as truth. Poor Benny's only consolation, as he took his seat, was that
Notty had been the first to suggest the Indian theory, and he ought
therefore to bear a part of whatever abuse might come of the mistake.

At any rate he had learned that Paul had been in Maine and New York;
certainly that was more than he had known an hour befor