aughed.

It was now near sunset, and, as they had worked hard they would have
been thankful for supper, but there was none to be thankful for, and
they were too tired to fish again. So they concluded to go to sleep,
which their hard work made very easy, and dream of abundant harvests on
the morrow.

They gathered great armfuls of the fallen brushwood, littering the
forest, and built a heap as high as their heads, which blazed and roared
in a splendid manner, sending up, too, a column of smoke that rose far
above the trees and trailed off in the blue sky.

It was a most cheerful bonfire, and it was a happy thought for the boys
to build it, even aside from its uses as a signal, as the coming of
night in the wilderness is always most lonesome and weird.

They lay down near each other on the soft turf, and Henry watched the
red sun sink behind the black forest in the west. The strange,
sympathetic feeling for the wilderness again came into his mind. He
thought once more of the mysterious regions that lay beyond the line
where the black and red met. He could live in the woods, he was living
now without arms, even, and if he only had his rifle and ammunition he
could live in luxury. And then the wonderful freedom! That old thought
came to him with renewed force. To roam as he pleased, to stop when he
pleased and to sleep where he pleased! He would make a canoe, and float
down the great rivers to their mouths. Then he would wander far out on
the vast plains, which they say lay beyond the thousand miles of forest,
and see the buffalo in millions go thundering by. That would be a life
without care.

He fell asleep presently, but he was awakened after a while by a
long-drawn plaintive shriek answered by a similar cry. Once he would
have been alarmed by the sound, but now he knew it was panther talking
to panther. He and Paul were unarmed, but they had something as
effective as guns against panthers and that was the great bonfire which
still roared and blazed near them. He was glad now for a new reason that
they had built it high, because the panther's cry was so uncanny and
sent such a chill down one's back. He looked at Paul, but his comrade
still slept soundly, a peaceful smile showing on his face. He remembered
the words of Ross that no wild animal would trouble man if man did not
trouble him, and, rolling a little nearer to Paul, he shut his eyes and
sought sleep.

But sleep would not come, and presently he heard the c