ice of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

CONTENTS

I. A GLANCE AT THE PAST
II. DAVID'S VISITORS
III. AN OFFER OF PARTNERSHIP
IV. MORE BAD NEWS
V. DAN IS ASTONISHED
VI. BRUIN'S ISLAND
VII. WHAT HAPPENED THERE
VIII. DOGS IN THE MANGER
IX. NATURAL HISTORY
X. A BEAR HUNT
XI. TRAPPING QUAILS
XII. WHERE THE POINTER WAS
XIII. TEN DOLLARS REWARD
XIV. SOME DISCOVERIES
XV. BOB'S ASPIRATIONS
XVI. DON'S HOUNDS TREE SOMETHING
XVII. CONCLUSION

CHAPTER I.

A GLANCE AT THE PAST.

"Don't worry about it, mother. It is nothing we can help."

"It seems to me that I might have helped it. If I had gone to General
Gordon when your father first spoke about that barrel with the eighty
thousand dollars in it, and told him the whole story, things might
have turned out differently. But in spite of all he said, I did not
suppose that he was in earnest."

"Neither did I. That any man in his sober senses should think of such
a thing! Why, mother, if there had been so much money buried in that
potato-patch, the General would have known it, and don't you suppose
he would have found it if he'd had to plough the field up ten feet
deep? Of course he would."

"But just think of the disgrace that has been brought upon us."

"Father is the only one who has done anything to be ashamed of, and
he made matters worse by running away. If he would come home and
attend to his business, no one would say a word to him. The General
told me so this morning."

"I am afraid you couldn't make your father believe it."

"Perhaps not, but if I knew where to find him I should try."

It was David Evans who spoke last. He and his mother were talking
over the strange incidents that had happened in the settlement during
the last few days, and which we have attempted to describe in the
preceding volume of this series. The events were brought about by a
very foolish notion which Godfrey Evans, David's father, suddenly got
into his head.

During our late war it was the custom of the people living in the
South to conceal their valuables when they heard of the approach of
the Union army. They were also careful to take the same precautions
to save their property when it became known that the rebel guerillas
were near at hand; for these worthies were oftentimes but little
better than organized bands of robbers, and the people stood as much
in fear of them as they did of the Feder