t
was with a look as if he were not perceived. A discovery, which caused
his heart to quake with a terror he could not have felt, had his father
actually seen him and called to him in a loud, stern voice, to know what
he did there, and to command him to go back home.

"No, Pow-wow," again said the hunter to his cowering dog, and still
glancing keenly about him, "not a thing do I see that could either laugh
or cry; and yet, just there on the ground, in that spot of sunlight, I
do see something which looks for all the world like a boy's shadow." And
lifting his eyes to the branches of the trees above him, Jervis scanned
them narrowly to discover the particular bough to which the freak might
be ascribed. Then lowering his eyes against to the shadow on the ground,
with a look of no small wonderment, he added:

"It seems, Pow-wow, that our ears and eyes have a plot among them to
play us a trick. But, come! Let's push on home. The day grows late, and
we still have ten long miles to trudge; and Sprigg, you know, must have
a good, broad edge of daylight for looking at and playing with the young
black fox we found in our trap this morning. How our boy will kick up
his heels when he comes out to meet us, finding we have brought him so
rare a pet! But won't he, though? So up with your tail, my brave old
fellow! Up with your tail and lead on!"

But Pow-wow did not up with his tail; nor, till now, when they were
turning to go, had he ceased to glare at the spot where his young master
was standing, and whence had come that low, wild laugh. Sprigg watched
them till he could see them no longer. Then he laughed, as he had done
at home, to pluck up the spirit he had lost; laughed in such a way as to
make him imagine that, after all, it could only have been himself, who
but now had laughed. But that his father and Pow-wow could have passed
right by him without seeing him, or discovering his presence in any way,
was a circumstance certainly far from pleasant to think of; even while
the young runaway felt quite assured that had he been found there, so
far from home, he should, for that one time, at least, have been
severely punished. But there it was coming again! That sound, so like a
voice shaping in words the thoughts of his own heart.

"Pluck up, Sprigg! Pluck up! Ten long miles from home, and the old hen
and her chickens still with their bills in the dough, which Elster threw
out to them as we were climbing the fence. And now, Sprig