sed, Neal Farrar, with his erect figure, broad
chest, musical voice, and wide-apart gray eyes,--so clear and honest
that their glance was a beam,--proved a personage so likable that the
student adopted him as "chum," forgetting those five years which had
been a gulf between them.

Dol, whose eyes were of a more steely hue than his brother's, striking
fire readily and showing all manner of flinty lights, who had a
downright talent for mimicry, and a small share of juvenile
self-importance, came in for regard of a more indulgent and less equal
nature.

Directly he got an inkling of the desire for a forest trip which
stirred in the boys' breasts, making them yearn all day and toss all
night, Cyrus gave them both a cordial invitation to accompany him into
Maine. Mr. Farrar did not purpose returning to Europe till midwinter.
His consent was easily obtained. He presented each of his sons with a
new Winchester repeating rifle, with which they practised diligently at
a target ere the eventful day of the start dawned, though their leader
emphatically insisted that the prime pleasures of the trip were not to
be looked for in the slaughter done by their hands.

Wearing the camper's favorite dress of stout gray tweed, the trio left
Boston on a lovely September evening towards the close of the month,
taking a fast night train for Maine, brimful of enthusiasm about the
wild woods and free camp-life. The hue of their clothes was chosen with
a view to making their figures resemble the forest trunks, so that they
would be less likely to attract the notice of animals, and might get a
chance to creep upon them undetected.

About their waists were their ammunition belts, with pouches well
stocked. Their large knapsacks contained blankets, moccasins, and
various other necessaries of a camper's outfit, including heavy knitted
jerseys for chill days and nights, and rubber boots reaching high on the
legs for wear in wading and traversing swampy tracts.

About twenty-four hours later they dropped off the rattling, jingling
stage-coach which bore them over the latter part of their journey, at
the flourishing village of Greenville, on the borders of the Maine
wilds.

Here they were greeted by a view, the loveliness of which made the
English boys, who had never looked on it before, experience strange
heart-leaps.

A magnificent sheet of water nearly forty miles long and fourteen broad
lay before them, studded with islands, girt with everg