CHAPTER VIIDOLPH MEETS SOMETHINGAfter they broke camp on the following morning, the three boys looked back to the spot where the tent had lately been pitched, and exchanged remarks concerning the strange happenings of the night.“One thing I’m glad for?” remarked Dolph; “that storm concluded it didn’t have a call in this direction. Thought I heard the faraway rumble of thunder once or twice, when it was my turn on duty; but I may have been mistaken. Anyhow, it’s a pretty enough morning to eat.”“Oh! we’ve got plenty to be thankful for,” laughed Teddy, who was feeling extra joyous it seemed. “Just think, if that big black-browed pirate had chosen to stay over with us, what a hole he’d have made in our grub chest this morning. As it is, we got off cheap by bribing him to go, with that cup of ground coffee; and as sure as you live, we even got that back again!”“Do you think we’ll make the lake by nighttime?” asked Dolph, knowing that his chum carried a little chart of the peninsula about him, and was making good use of the same in planning their various moves.“Ought to,” Teddy replied, thoughtfully, “unless we peg out too soon, with this hard business of playing the spruce blade. I can tell better by noon. If we reach that point in front of the wild cranberry marsh, we ’ll be more than half way there, and should be able to cover the balance easy enough.”“I hope we do,” Dolph went on to say.“Now, you’re thinking of trying those flies you brought along, on the bass they say inhabit that same lake, and of whopping size too,” Teddy jokingly remarked.“Oh! I acknowledge the corn,” the other admitted, candidly; “because I do happen to be mighty fond of fishing at any and all times. If I can toss a fly, and get’em, so much the better; but if they won’t whiff at the feathered lure, why, then I turn to a frog, a minnow, artificial bait, a trolling spoon, and last, but not always least, the worm. I’m bound to get fishsomeway or other, if they’re to be had.”“I wonder if we’ll meet up with him again?” mused Teddy, as he sank his paddledeep into the running water of the Manistique, and started the canoe up stream with a steady muscular push.“Meaning our big friend, Gabe?” inquired the other, following suit on his side of the boat; while Amos was already some forty feet in the van, being a most accomplished waterdog, for he had spent half of his life swimming and paddling around.“Yes, Gabe. You see he headed upstream, and that would mean he meant to keep on the same course we are following. I’d rather it was the other way; for after my shooting at him, I’m afraid he’ll feel uglier than ever toward us.”“Let him,” remarked the good-natured Dolph, easily; “we’ve done nothing to him. Anybody would have a right to bang away, if they thought a bear or a cat was sneaking about the camp. And besides, he told us he was going off; so he couldn’t very well make out that we knew it was him creeping back. For one I’m going to forget all about Gabe, except that at night-times perhaps I’ll remember to keep one eye open for intruders that ain’t cats.”“Too bad you didn’t have a chance to snap him off,” said Teddy. “He’d make a fineaddition to the pictures you’re gathering, to show what happened to us on the trip.”“Gabe happened, all right. And we ought to keep that coffee, to present to him if ever he shows up again,” Dolph went on to say, with a laugh. “I’d like to watch his face turn red, if it could get any more so than it is now, when he saw from our looks that we were on to his little wrinkle.”“Why not get a line out as we go along?” Teddy asked. “You might pick up a trout or two with an artificial minnow. There are lots of likely places. Perhaps there are black bass here, too. Most of the rivers in Michigan are full of gamey fighters. I’ve taken them out of the St. Mary’s, that gave me all the fun anybody could ever want.”“Oh! I’m not so greedy as all that, or so fish hungry, either. I like to attend to my rod when I’m fishing, and not trust to luck to have the trout or bass hook himself. Besides, I’ve got about as much as I want, keeping tabs of your paddling, and making out to match you every time. We can camp on the lake a few days, and I reckon I’ll have all the fishing I want.”“Well, I take it that’s sensible of you, after all, Dolph. Some boys, and men too,are so cracked over fishing that they get on your nerves. And as you say, paddling a canoe against this fierce current is about all any decent fellow ought to think of doing at a time. Look out for that snag; it’s got an ugly point, too. Thought at first it was the head of a water snake sticking up; or a snapping turtle, mebbe. Did you ever see any one handle a paddle like Amos? I never could learn like that. He doesn’t seem to make half the effort that we do, and yet see his boat, how it eats up against the stream.”“I suppose it’s just because he knows how to do it, and where to place every ounce of force expended. Some fellows are born paddlers; and others seem to keep on bunglers all their lives. I guess I belong to that class,” and Dolph Bradley laughed in his jolly fashion, as though he did not mean to let such a little thing bother him, at any rate.“Oh! rats! when you know you’re better than I am by several degrees. But then we’ve got little to be ashamed of as things go. Only Amos is away up in a class all by himself. Look at the way he dips in, will you, not a sound, not a drop spilled. That’s the way to handle a paddle, when out at night after deer, with a jack; which way of huntingis knocked on the head these days in most States though, because too many deer were wounded, and ran away, only to die. I never had a chance to try it, I must say, did you, Dolph?”“Once, down in Florida, and when I wasn’t hunting deer at all, but shining ’gators along the border of a swamp. I had a darky paddling me, and he pointed to a pair of eyes that he said must be a ’gator; so I banged away, having a scatter gun, and using buckshot shells. We heard something kick, and going ashore found a young deer lying there. I was put out, because I wouldn’t have shot the little thing for any amount of money. And from that day to this I’ve kept the promise I made to myself right then and there.”“What was that?” asked Teddy, although he thought he could guess.“Never on any account to shoot at something that I didn’t have a pretty good idea as to what it was. Why, it gave me the creeps to think that it might just as well have been a little black pickaninny, staring out at our light; for there was a cabinful not far away.”Talking in this fashion, the boys beguiled the time away. Often Amos would hold up,it might be to join in the conversation; or possibly to draw their attention to some interesting object that had caught his eye. For although Amos had lived his entire life in the woods, save the short time he chanced to attend school, he had an artistic temperament, and his eye unerringly picked out beautiful vistas through the woods, which seemed to fairly ravish his soul. Indeed, more than once Teddy had openly declared that if Amos failed to become a doctor, one of these days, as his ambition led him to hope he would, he would surely turn out to be a painter; for he discovered beauties in Nature that neither of the others noticed until the woods boy called attention to them.They kept this constant motion up hour after hour. It was tiresome, of course, but then these boys had persistence well developed, and knew that if they hoped to camp that night on the lake, they must keep everlastingly at it.And just before the sun had climbed to the zenith, or as near as he meant to ascend, Teddy gave a squawk of delight.“There’s the place we’re going to spend an hour or two at, fellows, just ahead, yonder, where that tree bends down over the water.”“That’s a point of land marked on my chart. Just back of it lies a big natural cranberry marsh, where the reds grow thick in the fall; but you see, it’s so far from everywhere, that few of them ever get to market.”“I want to step back, and take a look at that same marsh myself,” remarked Dolph. “Don’t believe I ever saw a real wild cranberry bog, though I’ve been in one down in New Jersey near Barnagat, where they cultivated the berries. I was having one of those famous sneakboats built by an old bayman, and paid him a visit to try how it worked that fall, on the waters there, with a few ducks coming in. Going to land right here, Teddy?”“Amos has picked out the best place; trust his eagle eye for seeing it. Run her up alongside his canoe. That’s the ticket. Now, all ashore and stretch!”It certainly felt good to be able to stand up, and get what Teddy called the “kinks” out of their legs.As it had been decided to spend some little time here, seeing they could now easily reach their intended destination ere nightfall, Amos started a fire, meaning to have a pot of cheering coffee. Teddy busied himself about something that he had laid out to do,while on the river that morning; and Dolph, to pass the time away, sauntered back, to find a way of looking over the cranberry marsh.He came back presently, and began to take out a fishing rod, quite a stiff one in the bargain.“What’s up?” demanded Teddy, watching these preparations curiously. “Thought you said you didn’t expect to catch a fish until we got to the lake?”“Well, I don’t,” replied the other, chuckling, “you wouldn’t call frogs fish, now, would you?”“Frogs! Oh! I see, you’ve discovered that the grunting we heard back there came from a colony of big greenbacks, eh? Well, I hope you’ve got some red flannel, or if not, then a red ibis bass fly along with you. They’ll jump at it like hot cakes; and you’ll nearly die laughing to see the circus that takes place when they find that they just can’t let go. But I see you know all about it, because you’ve shortened your line to a foot, and fastened it around your reel handle. Going to put ’em in that covered bucket, are you? Well, good luck! A dozen saddles wouldn’t be any too big a mess, Dolph. Call you when the coffee is boiling.”So Dolph went away, hurrying, for he was considerably excited over the chance to capture a mess of the frogs; because if there was one dish he was fond of, it could be set down as frogs’ legs, nicely browned; why, in his mind they were better than the finest spring chicken ever grown.Teddy went on with the task he had set out to perform; while Amos busied himself with his cooking fire, which of course differed from the usual big camp fire about which the canoe cruisers liked to sit, after their evening meal was over.Amos found stones to suit him, and built a cairn that was something like fourteen inches wide at the mouth, tapering along until at the other end it did not exceed four inches. On this he could place both frying-pan and coffee-pot, if both were to be used. And in the cavity, he proceeded to coax a red fire by adding just the proper kind and amount of small fuel.Not more than six or seven minutes had passed when the two boys were startled by hearing Dolph shouting wildly at the top of his voice; and they judged that he was coming toward the camp with all the speed he could command.“Bear! Big black bear! and chasing after me! Hurry up, and bring a gun, somebody! Quick! he’s right after me, I tell you! Whoop!” No wonder that both boys hurriedly snatched up a gun apiece, never looking to see whose these happened to be, and ran toward the spot from whence the cry for help proceeded.
CHAPTER VIIDOLPH MEETS SOMETHINGAfter they broke camp on the following morning, the three boys looked back to the spot where the tent had lately been pitched, and exchanged remarks concerning the strange happenings of the night.“One thing I’m glad for?” remarked Dolph; “that storm concluded it didn’t have a call in this direction. Thought I heard the faraway rumble of thunder once or twice, when it was my turn on duty; but I may have been mistaken. Anyhow, it’s a pretty enough morning to eat.”“Oh! we’ve got plenty to be thankful for,” laughed Teddy, who was feeling extra joyous it seemed. “Just think, if that big black-browed pirate had chosen to stay over with us, what a hole he’d have made in our grub chest this morning. As it is, we got off cheap by bribing him to go, with that cup of ground coffee; and as sure as you live, we even got that back again!”“Do you think we’ll make the lake by nighttime?” asked Dolph, knowing that his chum carried a little chart of the peninsula about him, and was making good use of the same in planning their various moves.“Ought to,” Teddy replied, thoughtfully, “unless we peg out too soon, with this hard business of playing the spruce blade. I can tell better by noon. If we reach that point in front of the wild cranberry marsh, we ’ll be more than half way there, and should be able to cover the balance easy enough.”“I hope we do,” Dolph went on to say.“Now, you’re thinking of trying those flies you brought along, on the bass they say inhabit that same lake, and of whopping size too,” Teddy jokingly remarked.“Oh! I acknowledge the corn,” the other admitted, candidly; “because I do happen to be mighty fond of fishing at any and all times. If I can toss a fly, and get’em, so much the better; but if they won’t whiff at the feathered lure, why, then I turn to a frog, a minnow, artificial bait, a trolling spoon, and last, but not always least, the worm. I’m bound to get fishsomeway or other, if they’re to be had.”“I wonder if we’ll meet up with him again?” mused Teddy, as he sank his paddledeep into the running water of the Manistique, and started the canoe up stream with a steady muscular push.“Meaning our big friend, Gabe?” inquired the other, following suit on his side of the boat; while Amos was already some forty feet in the van, being a most accomplished waterdog, for he had spent half of his life swimming and paddling around.“Yes, Gabe. You see he headed upstream, and that would mean he meant to keep on the same course we are following. I’d rather it was the other way; for after my shooting at him, I’m afraid he’ll feel uglier than ever toward us.”“Let him,” remarked the good-natured Dolph, easily; “we’ve done nothing to him. Anybody would have a right to bang away, if they thought a bear or a cat was sneaking about the camp. And besides, he told us he was going off; so he couldn’t very well make out that we knew it was him creeping back. For one I’m going to forget all about Gabe, except that at night-times perhaps I’ll remember to keep one eye open for intruders that ain’t cats.”“Too bad you didn’t have a chance to snap him off,” said Teddy. “He’d make a fineaddition to the pictures you’re gathering, to show what happened to us on the trip.”“Gabe happened, all right. And we ought to keep that coffee, to present to him if ever he shows up again,” Dolph went on to say, with a laugh. “I’d like to watch his face turn red, if it could get any more so than it is now, when he saw from our looks that we were on to his little wrinkle.”“Why not get a line out as we go along?” Teddy asked. “You might pick up a trout or two with an artificial minnow. There are lots of likely places. Perhaps there are black bass here, too. Most of the rivers in Michigan are full of gamey fighters. I’ve taken them out of the St. Mary’s, that gave me all the fun anybody could ever want.”“Oh! I’m not so greedy as all that, or so fish hungry, either. I like to attend to my rod when I’m fishing, and not trust to luck to have the trout or bass hook himself. Besides, I’ve got about as much as I want, keeping tabs of your paddling, and making out to match you every time. We can camp on the lake a few days, and I reckon I’ll have all the fishing I want.”“Well, I take it that’s sensible of you, after all, Dolph. Some boys, and men too,are so cracked over fishing that they get on your nerves. And as you say, paddling a canoe against this fierce current is about all any decent fellow ought to think of doing at a time. Look out for that snag; it’s got an ugly point, too. Thought at first it was the head of a water snake sticking up; or a snapping turtle, mebbe. Did you ever see any one handle a paddle like Amos? I never could learn like that. He doesn’t seem to make half the effort that we do, and yet see his boat, how it eats up against the stream.”“I suppose it’s just because he knows how to do it, and where to place every ounce of force expended. Some fellows are born paddlers; and others seem to keep on bunglers all their lives. I guess I belong to that class,” and Dolph Bradley laughed in his jolly fashion, as though he did not mean to let such a little thing bother him, at any rate.“Oh! rats! when you know you’re better than I am by several degrees. But then we’ve got little to be ashamed of as things go. Only Amos is away up in a class all by himself. Look at the way he dips in, will you, not a sound, not a drop spilled. That’s the way to handle a paddle, when out at night after deer, with a jack; which way of huntingis knocked on the head these days in most States though, because too many deer were wounded, and ran away, only to die. I never had a chance to try it, I must say, did you, Dolph?”“Once, down in Florida, and when I wasn’t hunting deer at all, but shining ’gators along the border of a swamp. I had a darky paddling me, and he pointed to a pair of eyes that he said must be a ’gator; so I banged away, having a scatter gun, and using buckshot shells. We heard something kick, and going ashore found a young deer lying there. I was put out, because I wouldn’t have shot the little thing for any amount of money. And from that day to this I’ve kept the promise I made to myself right then and there.”“What was that?” asked Teddy, although he thought he could guess.“Never on any account to shoot at something that I didn’t have a pretty good idea as to what it was. Why, it gave me the creeps to think that it might just as well have been a little black pickaninny, staring out at our light; for there was a cabinful not far away.”Talking in this fashion, the boys beguiled the time away. Often Amos would hold up,it might be to join in the conversation; or possibly to draw their attention to some interesting object that had caught his eye. For although Amos had lived his entire life in the woods, save the short time he chanced to attend school, he had an artistic temperament, and his eye unerringly picked out beautiful vistas through the woods, which seemed to fairly ravish his soul. Indeed, more than once Teddy had openly declared that if Amos failed to become a doctor, one of these days, as his ambition led him to hope he would, he would surely turn out to be a painter; for he discovered beauties in Nature that neither of the others noticed until the woods boy called attention to them.They kept this constant motion up hour after hour. It was tiresome, of course, but then these boys had persistence well developed, and knew that if they hoped to camp that night on the lake, they must keep everlastingly at it.And just before the sun had climbed to the zenith, or as near as he meant to ascend, Teddy gave a squawk of delight.“There’s the place we’re going to spend an hour or two at, fellows, just ahead, yonder, where that tree bends down over the water.”“That’s a point of land marked on my chart. Just back of it lies a big natural cranberry marsh, where the reds grow thick in the fall; but you see, it’s so far from everywhere, that few of them ever get to market.”“I want to step back, and take a look at that same marsh myself,” remarked Dolph. “Don’t believe I ever saw a real wild cranberry bog, though I’ve been in one down in New Jersey near Barnagat, where they cultivated the berries. I was having one of those famous sneakboats built by an old bayman, and paid him a visit to try how it worked that fall, on the waters there, with a few ducks coming in. Going to land right here, Teddy?”“Amos has picked out the best place; trust his eagle eye for seeing it. Run her up alongside his canoe. That’s the ticket. Now, all ashore and stretch!”It certainly felt good to be able to stand up, and get what Teddy called the “kinks” out of their legs.As it had been decided to spend some little time here, seeing they could now easily reach their intended destination ere nightfall, Amos started a fire, meaning to have a pot of cheering coffee. Teddy busied himself about something that he had laid out to do,while on the river that morning; and Dolph, to pass the time away, sauntered back, to find a way of looking over the cranberry marsh.He came back presently, and began to take out a fishing rod, quite a stiff one in the bargain.“What’s up?” demanded Teddy, watching these preparations curiously. “Thought you said you didn’t expect to catch a fish until we got to the lake?”“Well, I don’t,” replied the other, chuckling, “you wouldn’t call frogs fish, now, would you?”“Frogs! Oh! I see, you’ve discovered that the grunting we heard back there came from a colony of big greenbacks, eh? Well, I hope you’ve got some red flannel, or if not, then a red ibis bass fly along with you. They’ll jump at it like hot cakes; and you’ll nearly die laughing to see the circus that takes place when they find that they just can’t let go. But I see you know all about it, because you’ve shortened your line to a foot, and fastened it around your reel handle. Going to put ’em in that covered bucket, are you? Well, good luck! A dozen saddles wouldn’t be any too big a mess, Dolph. Call you when the coffee is boiling.”So Dolph went away, hurrying, for he was considerably excited over the chance to capture a mess of the frogs; because if there was one dish he was fond of, it could be set down as frogs’ legs, nicely browned; why, in his mind they were better than the finest spring chicken ever grown.Teddy went on with the task he had set out to perform; while Amos busied himself with his cooking fire, which of course differed from the usual big camp fire about which the canoe cruisers liked to sit, after their evening meal was over.Amos found stones to suit him, and built a cairn that was something like fourteen inches wide at the mouth, tapering along until at the other end it did not exceed four inches. On this he could place both frying-pan and coffee-pot, if both were to be used. And in the cavity, he proceeded to coax a red fire by adding just the proper kind and amount of small fuel.Not more than six or seven minutes had passed when the two boys were startled by hearing Dolph shouting wildly at the top of his voice; and they judged that he was coming toward the camp with all the speed he could command.“Bear! Big black bear! and chasing after me! Hurry up, and bring a gun, somebody! Quick! he’s right after me, I tell you! Whoop!” No wonder that both boys hurriedly snatched up a gun apiece, never looking to see whose these happened to be, and ran toward the spot from whence the cry for help proceeded.
DOLPH MEETS SOMETHING
After they broke camp on the following morning, the three boys looked back to the spot where the tent had lately been pitched, and exchanged remarks concerning the strange happenings of the night.
“One thing I’m glad for?” remarked Dolph; “that storm concluded it didn’t have a call in this direction. Thought I heard the faraway rumble of thunder once or twice, when it was my turn on duty; but I may have been mistaken. Anyhow, it’s a pretty enough morning to eat.”
“Oh! we’ve got plenty to be thankful for,” laughed Teddy, who was feeling extra joyous it seemed. “Just think, if that big black-browed pirate had chosen to stay over with us, what a hole he’d have made in our grub chest this morning. As it is, we got off cheap by bribing him to go, with that cup of ground coffee; and as sure as you live, we even got that back again!”
“Do you think we’ll make the lake by nighttime?” asked Dolph, knowing that his chum carried a little chart of the peninsula about him, and was making good use of the same in planning their various moves.
“Ought to,” Teddy replied, thoughtfully, “unless we peg out too soon, with this hard business of playing the spruce blade. I can tell better by noon. If we reach that point in front of the wild cranberry marsh, we ’ll be more than half way there, and should be able to cover the balance easy enough.”
“I hope we do,” Dolph went on to say.
“Now, you’re thinking of trying those flies you brought along, on the bass they say inhabit that same lake, and of whopping size too,” Teddy jokingly remarked.
“Oh! I acknowledge the corn,” the other admitted, candidly; “because I do happen to be mighty fond of fishing at any and all times. If I can toss a fly, and get’em, so much the better; but if they won’t whiff at the feathered lure, why, then I turn to a frog, a minnow, artificial bait, a trolling spoon, and last, but not always least, the worm. I’m bound to get fishsomeway or other, if they’re to be had.”
“I wonder if we’ll meet up with him again?” mused Teddy, as he sank his paddledeep into the running water of the Manistique, and started the canoe up stream with a steady muscular push.
“Meaning our big friend, Gabe?” inquired the other, following suit on his side of the boat; while Amos was already some forty feet in the van, being a most accomplished waterdog, for he had spent half of his life swimming and paddling around.
“Yes, Gabe. You see he headed upstream, and that would mean he meant to keep on the same course we are following. I’d rather it was the other way; for after my shooting at him, I’m afraid he’ll feel uglier than ever toward us.”
“Let him,” remarked the good-natured Dolph, easily; “we’ve done nothing to him. Anybody would have a right to bang away, if they thought a bear or a cat was sneaking about the camp. And besides, he told us he was going off; so he couldn’t very well make out that we knew it was him creeping back. For one I’m going to forget all about Gabe, except that at night-times perhaps I’ll remember to keep one eye open for intruders that ain’t cats.”
“Too bad you didn’t have a chance to snap him off,” said Teddy. “He’d make a fineaddition to the pictures you’re gathering, to show what happened to us on the trip.”
“Gabe happened, all right. And we ought to keep that coffee, to present to him if ever he shows up again,” Dolph went on to say, with a laugh. “I’d like to watch his face turn red, if it could get any more so than it is now, when he saw from our looks that we were on to his little wrinkle.”
“Why not get a line out as we go along?” Teddy asked. “You might pick up a trout or two with an artificial minnow. There are lots of likely places. Perhaps there are black bass here, too. Most of the rivers in Michigan are full of gamey fighters. I’ve taken them out of the St. Mary’s, that gave me all the fun anybody could ever want.”
“Oh! I’m not so greedy as all that, or so fish hungry, either. I like to attend to my rod when I’m fishing, and not trust to luck to have the trout or bass hook himself. Besides, I’ve got about as much as I want, keeping tabs of your paddling, and making out to match you every time. We can camp on the lake a few days, and I reckon I’ll have all the fishing I want.”
“Well, I take it that’s sensible of you, after all, Dolph. Some boys, and men too,are so cracked over fishing that they get on your nerves. And as you say, paddling a canoe against this fierce current is about all any decent fellow ought to think of doing at a time. Look out for that snag; it’s got an ugly point, too. Thought at first it was the head of a water snake sticking up; or a snapping turtle, mebbe. Did you ever see any one handle a paddle like Amos? I never could learn like that. He doesn’t seem to make half the effort that we do, and yet see his boat, how it eats up against the stream.”
“I suppose it’s just because he knows how to do it, and where to place every ounce of force expended. Some fellows are born paddlers; and others seem to keep on bunglers all their lives. I guess I belong to that class,” and Dolph Bradley laughed in his jolly fashion, as though he did not mean to let such a little thing bother him, at any rate.
“Oh! rats! when you know you’re better than I am by several degrees. But then we’ve got little to be ashamed of as things go. Only Amos is away up in a class all by himself. Look at the way he dips in, will you, not a sound, not a drop spilled. That’s the way to handle a paddle, when out at night after deer, with a jack; which way of huntingis knocked on the head these days in most States though, because too many deer were wounded, and ran away, only to die. I never had a chance to try it, I must say, did you, Dolph?”
“Once, down in Florida, and when I wasn’t hunting deer at all, but shining ’gators along the border of a swamp. I had a darky paddling me, and he pointed to a pair of eyes that he said must be a ’gator; so I banged away, having a scatter gun, and using buckshot shells. We heard something kick, and going ashore found a young deer lying there. I was put out, because I wouldn’t have shot the little thing for any amount of money. And from that day to this I’ve kept the promise I made to myself right then and there.”
“What was that?” asked Teddy, although he thought he could guess.
“Never on any account to shoot at something that I didn’t have a pretty good idea as to what it was. Why, it gave me the creeps to think that it might just as well have been a little black pickaninny, staring out at our light; for there was a cabinful not far away.”
Talking in this fashion, the boys beguiled the time away. Often Amos would hold up,it might be to join in the conversation; or possibly to draw their attention to some interesting object that had caught his eye. For although Amos had lived his entire life in the woods, save the short time he chanced to attend school, he had an artistic temperament, and his eye unerringly picked out beautiful vistas through the woods, which seemed to fairly ravish his soul. Indeed, more than once Teddy had openly declared that if Amos failed to become a doctor, one of these days, as his ambition led him to hope he would, he would surely turn out to be a painter; for he discovered beauties in Nature that neither of the others noticed until the woods boy called attention to them.
They kept this constant motion up hour after hour. It was tiresome, of course, but then these boys had persistence well developed, and knew that if they hoped to camp that night on the lake, they must keep everlastingly at it.
And just before the sun had climbed to the zenith, or as near as he meant to ascend, Teddy gave a squawk of delight.
“There’s the place we’re going to spend an hour or two at, fellows, just ahead, yonder, where that tree bends down over the water.”
“That’s a point of land marked on my chart. Just back of it lies a big natural cranberry marsh, where the reds grow thick in the fall; but you see, it’s so far from everywhere, that few of them ever get to market.”
“I want to step back, and take a look at that same marsh myself,” remarked Dolph. “Don’t believe I ever saw a real wild cranberry bog, though I’ve been in one down in New Jersey near Barnagat, where they cultivated the berries. I was having one of those famous sneakboats built by an old bayman, and paid him a visit to try how it worked that fall, on the waters there, with a few ducks coming in. Going to land right here, Teddy?”
“Amos has picked out the best place; trust his eagle eye for seeing it. Run her up alongside his canoe. That’s the ticket. Now, all ashore and stretch!”
It certainly felt good to be able to stand up, and get what Teddy called the “kinks” out of their legs.
As it had been decided to spend some little time here, seeing they could now easily reach their intended destination ere nightfall, Amos started a fire, meaning to have a pot of cheering coffee. Teddy busied himself about something that he had laid out to do,while on the river that morning; and Dolph, to pass the time away, sauntered back, to find a way of looking over the cranberry marsh.
He came back presently, and began to take out a fishing rod, quite a stiff one in the bargain.
“What’s up?” demanded Teddy, watching these preparations curiously. “Thought you said you didn’t expect to catch a fish until we got to the lake?”
“Well, I don’t,” replied the other, chuckling, “you wouldn’t call frogs fish, now, would you?”
“Frogs! Oh! I see, you’ve discovered that the grunting we heard back there came from a colony of big greenbacks, eh? Well, I hope you’ve got some red flannel, or if not, then a red ibis bass fly along with you. They’ll jump at it like hot cakes; and you’ll nearly die laughing to see the circus that takes place when they find that they just can’t let go. But I see you know all about it, because you’ve shortened your line to a foot, and fastened it around your reel handle. Going to put ’em in that covered bucket, are you? Well, good luck! A dozen saddles wouldn’t be any too big a mess, Dolph. Call you when the coffee is boiling.”
So Dolph went away, hurrying, for he was considerably excited over the chance to capture a mess of the frogs; because if there was one dish he was fond of, it could be set down as frogs’ legs, nicely browned; why, in his mind they were better than the finest spring chicken ever grown.
Teddy went on with the task he had set out to perform; while Amos busied himself with his cooking fire, which of course differed from the usual big camp fire about which the canoe cruisers liked to sit, after their evening meal was over.
Amos found stones to suit him, and built a cairn that was something like fourteen inches wide at the mouth, tapering along until at the other end it did not exceed four inches. On this he could place both frying-pan and coffee-pot, if both were to be used. And in the cavity, he proceeded to coax a red fire by adding just the proper kind and amount of small fuel.
Not more than six or seven minutes had passed when the two boys were startled by hearing Dolph shouting wildly at the top of his voice; and they judged that he was coming toward the camp with all the speed he could command.
“Bear! Big black bear! and chasing after me! Hurry up, and bring a gun, somebody! Quick! he’s right after me, I tell you! Whoop!” No wonder that both boys hurriedly snatched up a gun apiece, never looking to see whose these happened to be, and ran toward the spot from whence the cry for help proceeded.