o wonder, this place is so all-fired uncanny. They used
ter say the camp was haunted; 'n' I b'lieve it."

A great gray owl, which had flown from his abiding-place in a hollow
tree near by and perched upon the roof just on the edge of the
smoke-hole, gave utterance to something which sounded like a mocking
peal of laughter.

Both men started violently.

"Blarst the owl!" said Wetherbee angrily, throwing a piece of wood
through the hole to frighten it away.

Then the play proceeded silently until finally Wetherbee, who had been
steadily winning from the first, made the last deal and threw upon the
table the lucky cards which decided him to be the victor.

"I knowed how 'twould be from the fust," said Barker; "but p'r'aps
'twon't make no great diff'rence, after all."

And the men left the camp and walked silently together to the
settlement.

Jones's Tavern, as it was called, a large white house with a piazza in
front and a long, low ell, stood in the midst of the primitive little
settlement, and was a favorite retreat of the lumbermen whenever they
had the good fortune to get out of the woods, as well as the
stopping-place of the overseers and the men with supply-teams on their
way to and from the camps.

"Here's two more fellers for the darnse," said the landlord, who was
pouring out a glass of spiced cider for a sturdy young backwoodsman who
had evidently just arrived. "A darnse is about equil to Fourth o' July,
'n' brings the boys out thicker 'n bees in a berry-pastur'. Haul up ter
the fire 'n' hev somethin' warmin'. Soft weather fur lumberin', hain't
it?"

With a nod and regretful glance at a handsome young woman who was wiping
teacups at the other end of the room, which was extremely long and had a
fireplace at one end and a cooking-stove at the other, Barker accepted
the invitation. But Wetherbee, after exchanging greetings with the
landlord and his companion, went over to speak to the young woman, and
remained talking with her in an undertone for some time.

"The kitchen eend seems ter be the most 'tractable ter the fellers, in
spite of hot cider," remarked the landlord, with a laugh. "'N' what's
the mahter with yaou, John? Yaou 'pear ter be kinder daown 't the maouth
'n' absent-minded. Must ha' been pickin' up a gal. Well, a feller that's
courtin' hain't no stranger tew affliction, thet's a fact. I wuz a
bachelder once myself."

A deep crimson overspread Barker's honest countenance, but he did not
op