hat some tarnal varmint had been prowlin' round. One day I
missed a bunny, an' next day another; so on until only one was left,
a peart white and gray little scamp. Somethin' was stealin' of 'em,
an' it made me mad. So yistidday an' to-day I watched, an' finally I
plugged this black thief. Yes, he's got a glossy coat; but he's a
bad un fer all his fine looks. These black foxes are bigger,
stronger an' cunniner than red ones. In every litter you'll find a
dark one, the black sheep of the family. Because he grows so much
faster, an' steals all the food from the others, the mother jest
takes him by the nape of the neck an' chucks him out in the world to
shift fer hisself. An' it's a good thing."

The next day Wetzel told Joe they would go across country to seek
new game fields. Accordingly the two set out, and tramped
industriously until evening. They came upon a country no less
beautiful than the one they had left, though the picturesque cliffs
and rugged hills had given way to a rolling land, the luxuriance of
which was explained by the abundant springs and streams. Forests and
fields were thickly interspersed with bubbling springs, narrow and
deep streams, and here and there a small lake with a running outlet.

Wetzel had said little concerning this region, but that little was
enough to rouse all Joe's eagerness, for it was to the effect that
they were now in a country much traversed by Indians, especially
runners and hunting parties travelling from north to south. The
hunter explained that through the center of this tract ran a buffalo
road; that the buffalo always picked out the straightest, lowest and
dryest path from one range to another, and the Indians followed
these first pathfinders.

Joe and Wetzel made camp on the bank of a stream that night, and as
the lad watched the hunter build a hidden camp-fire, he peered
furtively around half expecting to see dark forms scurrying through
the forest. Wetzel was extremely cautious. He stripped pieces of
bark from fallen trees and built a little hut over his firewood. He
rubbed some powder on a piece of punk, and then with flint and steel
dropped two or three sparks on the inflammable substance. Soon he
had a blaze. He arranged the covering so that not a ray of light
escaped. When the flames had subsided, and the wood had burned down
to a glowing bed of red, he threw aside the bark, and broiled the
strips of venison they had brought with them.

They rested on a bed of