ow it
affected the mother, separated from her darling so long.

She could not be longer restrained, but rushing ahead passed inside the
cabin. The boys purposely loitered. When finally they ventured to enter
it was to find the lady on her knees, with the arms of the child tightly
clasped about her neck. She had one of the wounded man's hands in hers;
and apparently the breach between them had been healed, for he was
looking upon mother and child with a love light in his eyes.

This influx of guests was getting serious, X-Ray and Lub had a regular
argument as to which one should surrender his bunk to Mazie's mother.
She would not hear of any such thing, however, and insisted that there
was plenty of room for both Mazie and herself in the one bunk.

And after she had recovered from her exposure Mrs. Merriwell insisted on
making herself useful, both in the way of a nurse, and in helping with
the cooking. As for Mazie's "daddy," he no longer looked the unhappy man
the boys had considered him; since he was not going to be called upon to
make that terrible sacrifice which he had considered was his duty.

This new arrangement left the boys more opportunity to prosecute their
various pleasures. Lub had begun to show a decided interest in certain
things connected with woodcraft, so that Ethan only too gladly accepted
every chance to explain how to follow a trail, what certain signs stood
for, what was the best way to make a fire in a storm, and dozens of
other things equally as interesting.

Of course Phil was more than ever engaged with his flashlight
photography. He had secured a startling picture of the red fox whose
tracks he had discovered; and this spurred him on to greater things.
Often Ethan kept him company, and showed that he had really started to
take a deep interest in this newer method of hunting without a gun.

Mr. Merriwell steadily grew better. He hopped around by the aid of his
crutches, and hoped to be able to walk some by the time the Mountain
Boys thought of leaving the North Woods for their home town, which was
further south, though still in the uplands.

Josh Maxfield, the guide, stayed with them. He made himself useful, and
Ethan managed to pick up quite a fund of information from the
experienced native, who had been born and bred in the pine woods.

Many were the cheery evenings they all spent, in front of the cabin if
it happened to be warm, or before the fire if the night air was chilly,
as ofte