dnesday night they had the shelter of a tilt, which Skipper Zeb
called "Long Lake tilt," and on Friday evening they reached "Big Lake
tilt" and the end of the trail.

"Here we stops till Monday," Skipper Zeb announced. "'Twill give you
lads a chance to rest up."

"That's great! It's the longest and hardest hike I ever had," said
Charley. "I'll tell Dad about it when I get home, and he'll think I
could have stood the Newfoundland hike he wouldn't take me on. I'll bet
it wasn't half as hard as this one!"

"You'll be gettin' as strong as a young bear, lad, and as toughened up
as a wolvering before you leaves The Labrador," chuckled Skipper Zeb.

"Mother'll be scared when I tell her what I've done here," said Charley,
"but Dad will be proud of it. They never thought I could do _anything_
hard, and never let me do anything much. They'll know now what I can
do!"

"We never knows what we can do till we tries un," commented Skipper Zeb.

The following morning Skipper Zeb did not wake the boys, but left them
to sleep while he slipped away alone to set traps in the forest and
marshes along the lake shore. It was broad day when they awoke, and when
they had eaten Toby suggested:

"We'll be goin' out with my rifle and try shootin' at a mark."

"May I shoot?" asked Charley eagerly. "I never shot a gun in my life and
I'd like to learn!"

"'Tis easy," assured Toby. "I'll be showin' you how, and you'll be
learnin' quick."

Before they left the tilt Toby instructed Charley in how to fill the
magazine and how to manipulate the lever, impressing all the time upon
his pupil the necessity of caution, and telling tales of two or three of
his acquaintances who had been shot through the careless handling of
firearms.

When Charley had learned the rudiments of gun handling to Toby's
satisfaction, they went a little way down the lake shore, and selecting
a bank as a background, in order, Toby told Charley, that bullets that
missed the mark might not go crashing through the forest, but would be
buried in the earth, he fastened a small square of white birchbark upon
a spruce tree, to serve as a target, and retired with Charley to a
distance of about fifty yards from it.

"Now try a shot," Toby directed.

"How do you hold the rifle steady?" asked Charley who found the muzzle
wabbling woefully.

Toby, with much patience, illustrated the method of placing the feet,
the position in which to stand, how to hold the arm, and how to aim