ly back to the brook, wishing
with all his might he was at home eating sweet corn and berry pie.

The trout had evidently gone to their dinners, for not one bite did poor
Billy get; and he was just falling asleep when a loud shout gave him
such a fright that he tumbled into the brook up to his knees.

"I've got him! Come and see! He's a bouncer," roared Tommy, from the
berry bushes some way off.

Billy scrambled out, and went as fast as his wet boots would let him, to
see what the prize was. He found Tommy dancing wildly round a fat gray
animal, who was fighting to get his paws out of the trap, and making a
queer noise as he struggled about.

"What is it?" asked Billy, getting behind a tree as fast as possible;
for the thing looked fierce, and he was very timid.

"A raccoon, I guess, or a big woodchuck. Won't his fur make a fine cap?
I guess the other fellows will wish they'd come with us," said Tommy,
prancing to and fro, without the least idea what to do with the
creature.

"He'll bite. We'd better run away and wait till he's dead," said Billy.

"Wish he'd got his head in, then I could carry him off; but he does look
savage, so we'll have to leave him awhile, and get him when we come
back. But he's a real beauty." And Tommy looked proudly at the bunch of
gray fur scuffling in the sand.

"Can we ever eat him?" asked hungry Billy, ready for a fried crocodile
if he could get it.

"If he's a raccoon, we can; but I don't know about woodchucks. The
fellows in my books don't seem to have caught any. He's nice and fat; we
might try him when he's dead," said Tommy, who cared more for the skin
to show than the best meal ever cooked.

The sound of a gun echoing through the wood gave Tommy a good idea,--

"Let's find the man and get him to shoot this chap; then we needn't
wait, but skin him right away, and eat him too."

Off they went to the camp; and catching up their things, the two hunters
hurried away in the direction of the sound, feeling glad to know that
some one was near them, for two or three hours of wood life made them a
little homesick.

They ran and scrambled, and listened and called; but not until they had
gone a long way up the mountain did they find the man, resting in an old
hut left by the lumbermen. The remains of his dinner were spread on the
floor, and he lay smoking, and reading a newspaper, while his dog dozed
at his feet, close to a well-filled game-bag.

He looked surprised when two dirty