fed to the pigs, sure."

"Only for you I wouldn't have come. I wasn't scared of your old Dog,
anyway. Just in about two minutes more I was comin' down to kick the
stuffin' out o' him myself."

"Perhaps you'd like to go back and do it now. I'll soon call him."

"Oh, I hain't got time now, but some other time--Let's find Sam."

So they foregathered at the tree, and laden with their spoils, they
returned gloriously to camp.

V

The Deer Hunt

That evening they had a feast and turned in to sleep at the usual
hour. The night passed without special alarm. Once about daylight
Sappy called them, saying he believed there was a Bear outside, but
he had a trick of grinding his teeth in his sleep, and the other boys
told him that was the Bear he heard.

Yan went around to the mud albums and got some things he could
not make out and a new mark that gave him a sensation. He drew it
carefully. It was evidently the print of a small sharp hoof. This was
what he had hungered for so long. He shouted, "Sam--Sam--Sapwood, come
here; here's a _Deer track_."

The boys shouted back, "Ah, what you givin' us now!" "Call off your
Dog!" and so forth.

But Yan persisted. The boys were so sure it was a trick that they
would not go for some time, then the sun had risen high, shining
straight down on the track instead of across, so it became very dim.
Soon the winds, the birds and the boys themselves helped to wipe it
out. But Yan had his drawing, and persisted in spite of the teasing
that it was true.

At length Guy said aside to Sam: "Seems to me a feller that hunts
tracks so terrible serious ought to see the critter _some time_.
'Tain't right to let him go on sufferin'. _I_ think he ought to
see that Deer. We ought to help him." Here he winked a volley or two
and made signs for Sam to take Yan away.

This was easily done.

"Let's see if your Deer went out by the lower mud album." So they
walked down that way, while Guy got an old piece of sacking, stuffed
it with grass, and, hastily tying it in the form of a Deer's head,
stuck it on a stick. He put in two flat pieces of wood for ears, took
charcoal and made two black spots for eyes and one for a nose, then
around each he drew a ring of blue clay from the bed of the brook.
This soon dried and became white. Guy now set up this head in the
bushes, and when all was ready he ran swiftly and silently through the
wood to find Sam and Yan. He beckoned vigorously and called under