, where
upland cranberries cover the ground in red masses; or on the edge of
marshes where bake apple berries have changed from brilliant red to
delicate salmon pink and offer a sweet and wholesome feast.

The honk and quack of wild geese and ducks, southward bound in great
flocks, disturbs the silence of every inlet and cove and bight, where
the wild fowl pause for a time to rest and feed upon the grasses.

After Thomas's departure Doctor Joe and the boys tidied and snugged
things up for the winter, and many a fine hunt they had, mornings and
evenings, in the edge of a near-by marsh through which a brook coursed
to join the sea. Hunting geese and ducks was indeed a duty, for they
must needs depend upon the hunt for no small share of their living. It
was a duty they enjoyed, however. Skill and a steady hand and a quick
eye are necessary to success, and they never failed to return with a
full bag.

The weather was now cold enough to keep the birds sweet and fresh, and
before September closed a full two score of fine fat geese were
hanging in the enclosed lean-to shed with a promise of many good
dinners in the future.

Between the hunting and the work about home there was no time to be
dawdled vainly away. When there was nothing more pressing the
wood-pile always stood suggestively near the door inviting attention,
and it was necessary to saw and split a vast deal of wood to keep the
big box stove supplied, for it had a great maw and would develop a
marvellous appetite when the weather grew cold.

No extended travelling was possible for Doctor Joe on his errands of
mercy until the sea should freeze and dogs and sledge could be called
into service. But during the fine September weather he and the boys
made two short trips up the Bay, where there was ailing in some of the
families.

In the course of these excursions they took occasion to visit
Let-in-Cove, which lay just outside Grampus River, where the new
lumber camps were situated, and also Snug Cove and Tuggle Bight, a
little farther on. At Let-in-Cove Peter and Lige Sparks, at Snug Cove
Obadiah Button and Micah Dunk, and at Tuggle Bight Seth Muggs were
enlisted in the scout troop, and a handbook left at each place. These,
indeed, with the three Anguses, were the only boys of scout age within
a radius of fifty miles of The Jug.

There was great excitement among the lads, and Doctor Joe proudly
declared that there would be no finer or more efficient troop of
sc