whaling you ever had in your life. You're strong
enough now to stand a good licking."

Albert laughed. He thought his big brother Dick about the
greatest fellow on earth. But he paid assiduous attention to the
fire, and Dick did so, too. They kept it chiefly a great bed of
coals, never allowing the flames to rise as high as the buffalo
meat, and they watched over it twenty-four hours. In order to
keep this watch, they deserted the cabin for a night, sleeping by
turns before the fire under the frame of poles, which was no
hardship to them.

The fierce timber wolves came again in the night, attracted by
the savory odor of buffalo meat; and once they crept near and
were so threatening that Albert, whose turn it was at the watch,
became alarmed. He awakened Dick, and, in order to teach these
dangerous marauders a lesson, they shot two of them. Then the
shrewd animals, perceiving that the two-legged beasts by the fire
carried something very deadly with which they slew at a distance,
kept for a while to the forest and out of sight.

After the twenty-four hours of fire drying, the buffalo meat was
greatly reduced in weight and bulk, though it was packed as full
as ever with sustenance. It was now cured, that is, jerked, and
would keep any length of time. While the frame was ready they
jerked an elk, two mule deer, a big silver-tip bear that Dick
shot on the mountain side, and many fish that they caught in the
lake and the little river. They would scale the fish, cut them
open down the back, and then remove the bone. After that the
flesh was jerked on the scaffold in the same way that the meat of
the buffalo and deer was treated.

Before these operations were finished, the big timber wolves
began to be troublesome again. Neither boy dared to be anywhere
near the jerking stage without a rifle or revolver, and Dick
finally invented a spring pole upon which they could put the
fresh meat that was waiting its turn to be prepared--they did
not want to carry the heavy weight to the house for safety, and
then have to bring it back again.

While Dick's spring pole was his own invention, as far as he was
concerned, it was the same as that used by thousands of other
trappers and hunters. He chose a big strong sapling which Albert
and he with a great effort bent down. Then he cut off a number
of the boughs high up, and in each crotch fastened a big piece of
meat. The sapling was then allowed to spring back into plac