hich they made of the wagon cover and
set beside the cabin, for two reasons: because Dick believed the
open air at all times to be good for Albert, and because he was
averse to using the cabin as a dormitory until it was thoroughly
cleansed and aired.

Albert made himself extremely useful in the task of refurbishing
the cabin. He brushed out all the dust, brought water from the
brook and scrubbed the floor, and to dry the latter built their
first fire on the hearth with pine cones and other fallen wood.
As he touched the match to it, he did not conceal his anxiety.

"The big thing to us," he said, "is whether or not this chimney
will draw. That's vital, I tell you, Dick, to a housekeeper. If
it puffs out smoke and fills the cabin with it, we're to have a
hard time and be miserable. If it draws like a porous plaster
and takes all the smoke up it, then we're to have an easy time of
it and be happy."

Both watched anxiously as Albert touched the match to some pine
shavings which were to form the kindling wood. The shavings
caught, a light blaze leaped up, there came a warning crackle,
and smoke, too, arose. Which way would it go? The little column
wavered a moment and then shot straight up the chimney. It grew
larger, but still shot straight up the chimney. The flames roared
and were drawn in the same direction.

Albert laughed and clapped his hands.

"It's to be an easy time and a happy life!" he exclaimed. "Those
old beaver hunters knew what they were about when they built this
chimney!"

"You can cook in here, Al," said Dick; "but I suggest that we
sleep in the tent until the weather grows bad."

Dick had more than one thing in mind in making this suggestion
about the tent and sleeping. The air of the cabin could be close
at night even with the window open, but in the tent with the flap
thrown back--they never closed it--they breathed only a fresh
balsamic odor, crisp with the coolness of autumn. He had watched
Albert all the time. Now and then when he had exerted himself
more than usual, the younger boy would cough, and at times he was
very tired, but Dick, however sharply he watched, did not see
again the crimson stain on the lips that he had noticed the night
of the flight from the massacre.

But the older brother, two years older only, in fact, but ten
years older, at least, in feeling, did notice a great change in
Albert, mental as well as physical. The younger boy ceased to
have periods