Allan. He claimed to be a lineal
descendant of the famous Revolutionary hero who captured Ticonderoga
from the British by an early morning surprise. Ethan was very fond of
boasting of his illustrious ancestor, and on that account found himself
frequently "joshed" by his chums.

It happened that Ethan's folks were not as well off in this world's
goods as those of his chums; and he was exceedingly sensitive about this
fact. Charity was his bugbear; and he would never listen to any of the
others standing for his share of the expense, when they undertook an
expedition like the present.

Ethan was a smart chap. He knew considerable about the woods, and all
sorts of things that could be found there. And he had hit upon an
ingenious method for laying up a nice little store of money whereby he
could keep his savings bank well filled with ready cash, and thus
proudly meet his share of expenses.

In the winter he used to spend all his spare time out at a farm owned by
an uncle, where he had traps, and managed to catch quite a few little
fur-bearing denizens of the woods. Then in the summer and fall he knew
just where the choicest mushrooms could be picked day after day in the
early morning. He also had several deposits of wild ginseng and golden
seal marked down, and many pounds of the dried roots did he ship to a
distant city to be sold.

His success was enough to turn any boy's head, since he seemed to
receive a price far above the top-notch quotations for such things. The
head of the firm even took occasion to write, congratulating him on
having sent a fox skin (really a dark red), which he claimed was as fine
a _black_ fox as he had ever seen, and worth a large sum of money. On
another occasion it was to say that the dried ginseng Ethan had shipped
was simply "magnificent," and that they took pleasure in remitting a
price that they hoped would inspire him to renewed efforts.

Alas! how poor Ethan's pride would have taken a sad tumble had he ever
so much as guessed that this very accommodating fur and root dealer was
in reality an uncle of Phil Bradley, and that the whole thing was only a
nice little plot on the part of the other three boys to assist Ethan
without his knowing it.

That proved how much they thought of their chum; but should he ever
discover the humiliating truth there was likely to be some trouble, on
account of that pride of Ethan's.

It happened that Phil was an orphan, and had been left a very large