t the White settlement ye can have for nothin'."
"Say, Mr. Raften," Guy broke in, "I kin lick them all at
Deer-hunting."
Sam looked at Yan and Yan looked at Sam, then glanced at Guy, made
some perfectly diabolical signs, seized each a long knife and sprung
toward the Third War Chief, but he dodged behind Raften and commenced
his usual "Now you let me 'lone--"
Raften's eye twinkled. "Shure, I thought ye was all wan Tribe an'
paceable."
"We've got to suppress crime," retorted his son.
"Make him let me 'lone," whimpered Sapwood.
"We'll let ye off this time if ye find that Woodchuck. It's near two
days since we've had a skirmish."
"All right," and he went. Within five minutes he came running back,
beckoning. The boys got their bows and arrows, but fearing a trick
they held back. Guy dashed for his own weapons with unmistakable and
reassuring zest; then all set out for the field. Raften followed,
after asking if it would be safe for him to come along.
The grizzly old Woodchuck was there feeding in a bunch of clover. The
boys sneaked under the fence, crawling through the grass in true Injun
fashion, till the Woodchuck stood up to look around, then they lay
still; when he went down they crawled again, and all got within forty
yards. Now the old fellow seemed suspicious, so Sam said, "Next time
he feeds we all fire together." As soon, then, as the Woodchuck's
breast was replaced by the gray back, the boys got partly up and
fired. The arrows whizzed around Old Grizzly, but all missed, and he
had scrambled to his hole before they could send a second volley.
"Hallo, why didn't you hit him, Sappy?"
"I'll bet I do next time."
When they returned to Raften he received them with ridicule.
"But ye'r a poor lot o' hunters. Ye'd all starve if it wasn't for the
White settlement nearby. Faith, if ye was rale Injun ye'd sit up all
night at that hole till he come out in the morning: then ye'd get him;
an' when ye get through with that one I've got another in the high
pasture ye kin work on."
So saying, he left them, and Sam called after him:
"Say, Da; where's that note-book for Yan? He's the Chief of the
'coup-tally,' and I reckon he'll soon have a job an' need his book. I
feel it in my bones."
"I'll lave it on yer bed." Which he did, and Yan and Sam had the
pleasure of lifting it out of the window with a split stick.
XVI
How Yan Knew the Ducks Afar
One day as the great Woodpecker lay on his b
|