hen the First War Chief heard the harrowing tale of a blighted
life, he said: 'Shucks, I didn't want that old apple. It was fished
out of the swill-barrel anyway, but 'pears to me when a feller sets
out to do a thing an' don't he's a 'dumb failure,' which ain't much
difference from a 'durn fool.'

"Now, if this heroic youth had had gumption enough to come out
flat-footed, an' instead of stealing rotten apples that the pigs has
walked on, had told his trouble to the Great Head War Chief, that
native-born noble Red-man would 'a' said: 'Sonny, quite right. When in
doubt come to Grandpa. You want to get sharp on Duck. Ugh! Good'--then
he'd 'a' took that simple youth to Downey's Hotel at Downey's Dump an'
there showed him every kind o' Duck that ever was born, an' all tagged
an' labelled. Wah! I have spoken."

And the Great Woodpecker scowled ferociously at Guy, who was vainly
searching his face for a clue, not sure but what this whole thing was
some subtle mockery. But Yan had been on the lookout for this. Sam's
face throughout had shown nothing but real and growing interest. The
good sense of this last suggestion was evident, and the result was an
expedition was formed at once for Downey's Dump, a little town five
miles away, where the railroad crossed a long bog on the Skagbog
River. Here Downey, the contractor, had carried the railroad dump
across a supposed bottomless morass and by good luck had soon made
a bottom and in consequence a small fortune, with which he built a
hotel, and was now the great man of the town for which he had done so
much.

"Guess we'll leave the Third War Chief in charge of camp," said Sam,
"an' I think we ought to go disguised as Whites."

"You mean to go back to the Settlement and join the Whites?"

"Yep, an' take a Horse an' buggy, too. It's five miles."

That was a jarring note. Yan's imagination had pictured a foot
expedition through the woods, but this was more sensible, so he
yielded.

They went to the house to report and had a loving reception from
the mother and little Minnie. The men were away. The boys quickly
harnessed a Horse and, charged also with some commissions from the
mother, they drove to Downey's Dump.

On arriving they went first to the livery-stable to put up the horse,
then to the store, where Sam delivered his mother's orders, and having
made sure that Yan had pencil, paper and rubber, they went into
Downey's. Yan's feelings were much like those of a country boy