anic.

'Hush, boy,' said he as it died away and went echoing in the far forest.
'I'll take care o' you. Don't be scairt. He's more 'fraid uv us than we
are o' him. He's makin' off now.'

We heard then a great crackling of dead brush on the mountain above us.
It grew fainter as we listened. In a little while the woods were silent.

'It's the ol' man o' the woods,' said Uncle Eb. 'E's out takin' a walk.'

'Will he hurt folks?' I enquired.

'Tow!' he answered, 'jest as harmless as a kitten.'

Chapter 3

Naturally there were a good many things I wanted to know about 'the
ol' man o' the woods,' but Uncle Eb would take no part in any further
conversation.

So I had to lie down beside him again and think out the problem as best
I could. My mind was never more acutely conscious and it gathered many
strange impressions, wandering in the kingdom of Fear, as I looked up
at the tree-tops. Uncle Eb had built a furious fire and the warmth of
it made me sleepy at last. Both he and old Fred had been snoring a long
time when I ceased to hear them. Uncle Eb woke me at daylight, in the
morning, and said we must be off to find the trail. He left me by the
fire a little while and went looking on all sides and came back no
wiser. We were both thirsty and started off on rough footing, without
stopping to eat. We climbed and crawled for hours, it seemed to me, and
everywhere the fallen tree trunks were heaped in our way. Uncle Eb sat
down on one of them awhile to rest.

'Like the bones o' the dead,' said he, as he took a chew of tobacco and
picked at the rotten skeleton of a fallen tree. We were both pretty well
out of breath and of hope also, if I remember rightly, when we rested
again under the low hanging boughs of a basswood for a bite of luncheon.
Uncle Eb opened the little box of honey and spread some of it on our
bread and butter. In a moment I noticed that half a dozen bees had lit
in the open box.

'Lord Harry! here's honey bees,' said he, as he covered the box so as to
keep them in, and tumbled everything else into the basket. 'Make haste
now, Willie, and follow me with all yer might,' he added.

In a minute he let out one of the bees, and started running in the
direction it flew. It went but a few feet and then rose into the
tree-top.

'He's goin' t' git up into the open air,' said Uncle Eb. 'But I've got
his bearins' an' I guess he knows the way all right.'

We took the direction indicated for a few minutes and