ON THE WAY TO THE WOODS
"Pull up here at the spring, boys, and let's all get a drink."
"Whoa! there, Ebenezer, you're going to get a little rest before we
tackle the last three miles to the camping ground we've picked out."
Max had been the first speaker, and Steve did the talking to the horse
that was drawing the wagon on which the four chums were seated. They had
come quite a distance from Carson since early morning, fully fifteen
miles along the road; and the animal between the shafts was beginning to
puff, as though well tired out. But often some of the boys had only too
gladly jumped down, and climbed hills, so as to make things easier for
the beast of burden, for which possibly Ebenezer may have been thankful,
and again he may not.
The Easter holidays had set in. Only of recent date had the Carson
school trustees settled upon the new policy of shutting the doors for a
full week at this time of year, so as to give teachers and scholars a
breathing spell before the hard work of spring examinations; and it may
be sure that the boys and girls appreciated the favor very much indeed.
With a whole week before them then, the four boys had started away early
on that morning, bent upon making a new camp, and enjoying themselves to
their full bent. Others might find pleasure in starting to play ball,
and kindred sports that the coming of a few warm days always sees take
on new life; but as for Max and his comrades, give them the open woods,
and a tent, for their sport.
The excitement over the circus animals had about died out in Carson.
After the passing of the show people began to think of other things,
though there were some of the more timid who continued to see terrible
wild beasts in every animal noticed on the roads or in the fields, such
was the reign of terror the occurrence had instituted in certain
families.
Toby was as proud as anything over his part in the affair. He believed
that it had put him in the spotlight for the time being, because every
one was talking about how queer it was all those animals should pick out
the Jucklin back yard to congregate in; and that of course always
brought up the subject of his love for collecting.
Besides, hadn't he made his chums turn green with envy when he showed
them that lovely bunch of five ten-dollar bills, which the grateful
circus proprietor had placed in his hand as a reward for sending in the
earliest news concerning the location of his missing property?
Yes, Toby was as happy as the clam is said to be at high tide. He
fairly bubbled over with an excess of spirits, and even when Bandy-legs
commenced to tease him he refused to display any temper.
In that wagon they carried most of the stuff that had been so useful on
other similar expeditions to the woods in search of enjoyment.
There was the old tent which Max had tanned after a formula of his own,
so that it had not only lost its dirty white look, but was now
guaranteed wholly waterproof. Then they had various guns, from the
reliable rifle Max owned to the newer little twelve bore Marlin
double-barreled shotgun which Steve proudly claimed could outshoot any
similar weapon ever made.
Besides they carried a full cooking assortment of kettles, fryingpans
and coffeepots. As to the provisions, well, given four hearty boys with
good appetites, an abundance of money in the treasury of the club, and
with a whole week ahead of them in the woods, and you can easily imagine
what an enormous stock of food they would be likely to lay in.
Unless something happened to deplete their stock of groceries there did
not appear to be much chance of such a thing as real hunger being known
in that camp. If they wanted fresh eggs, milk and butter, Max knew of a
farmer within two miles who would be only too glad to supply them with
all they could use, terms strictly cash with the order always.
It was now about three in the afternoon. They had a scant three miles
more to cover before arriving at their journey's end; and hence were not
in any great hurry to push along. So a little rest at the cool spring
would not come in amiss, and give poor old Ebenezer a chance to get in
condition for the last round.
As the boys lounged there and took things easy, they chatted about
numerous matters; and it was only natural that in due time the talk
should turn once more to the recent great scare Carson folks had passed
through.
"Seems to me," Max remarked, with a laugh, "that in some families for
years to come whenever they want to refer to anything that happened in
the past, it's going to be something like this: 'the year the circus
broke loose,' or else perhaps along this order: 'just a month after
those horrid wild animals terrorized the town!'"
"Yes, and they're seeing 'em yet every little while," Steve went on to
declare.
"S-s-sure thing," assented Toby, chuckling as he patted his pocket where
possibly one of those brand new ten-dollar bills snugly reposed, for
Toby believed in going prepared for anything that might happen, and
money is always a good thing to have around; "didn't the C-c-chief tell
me only y-y-yesterday that old Miss Moffat she c-c-called him up and
demanded that he c-c-come and arrest a hyena that was runnin' all around
her p-p-pasture lot; and when he hurried out there, taking one of his
men along, so's to s-s-shoot the t-t-terror, s-s-say, what d'ye think it
was but the next d-d-door neighbor's d-d-dog?"
Bandy-legs heaved a long sigh at this juncture, which of course called
attention to him.
"Hey! what ails you there?" demanded Steve.
"He does look like he mightn't be as happy as you'd think, when we're
bound on such a glorious trip up to the woods," Max remarked.
"Well, I ain't," grumbled the one who was under fire just then.
"Not feelin' sick, are you?" Toby wanted to know, for he could not
understand how anybody could fail to be bubbling over with joy when off
on such a vacation as they had ahead of them; and with fifty dollars in
hand things do look pretty rosy to a boy, it must be confessed.
"Aw! no, I could eat a house!" Bandy-legs shot back at him; "it's all
about Nicodemus again."
"Hello! What's the c-c-cute little rascal b-b-been doing now?"
"Why, you see, ever since that menagerie had to go and break loose, our
Nora, she seems more set against my bear cub than ever. I saw she was
goin' to make trouble first chance she got, and so I've been mighty
careful to keep the cub from slippin' loose from his collar, like he
used to. But that's what he went and done last night, and however the
critter ever got into the house beats me."
"What's that you say; the bear cub didn't try to run away to the woods,
but climbed in through some open window, and got in your house; is that
it, Toby?" cried Steve, holding up his hands in pretended horror, but
grinning at the same time.
"Huh! if you'd heard the yells that our Nora gave about nine o'clock
last night, when she went up to her room, you'd athought it worth while
mentioning," Bandy-legs continued, sorrowfully, yet with a twinkle of
amusement in his eye.
"Wow! that sounds kind of interesting; suppose you tell us more about
it, Bandy-legs," Steve implored, eager to hear particulars.
"Why, seems like," began the other, only too willingly, "her candle blew
out just when she got up to the door of her room, which was wide open;
so what does Nora do but feel her way in. She had some clean clothes in
one arm that she wanted to lay on her bed while she lighted her candle
again. But when she touched a hairy object that moved and whined-like,
she nearly jumped out of her skin, because she felt just dead sure it
must be one of the tigers that she always believed the circus men had
never got back."
The three other boys roared at the picture conjured up by this vivid
description, and it was a full minute before the narrator could go on
with his story.
"Nora she climbed down both flights of stairs like she had wings," he
went on to tell in his humorous fashion; "seems like she must have slid
from the top to the bottom of the upper flight. My dad ain't afraid of
anything, so me and him both armed ourselves, and we snuck up to find
out what had scared the hired girl. And there was poor Nicodemus,
asettin' all curled up on the bed, and blinkin' his little rat eyes at
the light we shoved into the room ahead of our guns."
Again there was a general laugh, as if the subject appealed to their
love for the ridiculous; and they did not consider the alarm of poor
Nora one little bit.
"Of course I laughed, and my dad did the same; but he told me then and
there he had to choose between that bear cub and a good cook; and well,
you know how it's always bound to turn out when a cook's in the scales.
Poor Nicodemus got it in the neck. He has to go."
Toby made a queer sound and again his hand might have been seen to press
against his pocket, as though he fancied he had the wherewithal right
there to purchase the long coveted pet of Bandy-legs.
"But what did you do with him?" asked Max.
"Oh! nothing yet," came the reply. "Dad he said he'd look after him
while I was gone on this trip, but he insisted that I part with my pet
as soon as I came home again. So Toby, some time we'll talk it over, and
you make me a good offer. He ought to be worth something decent, even to
circus people. Bet you that Mr. Jenks'd have paid me ten dollars for
him, spot cash."
Toby did not make any reply, but he gulped as though he could already
see the coveted bear cub in a nice new cage, constituting one of the
attractions in his new collection, to be kept out on the farm his folks
owned some miles away from Carson, and where the offensive odors that
always go with a menagerie might not disturb any sensitive nose.
"Ever since then," continued Bandy-legs, thoughtfully, believing the
seed had doubtless fallen upon fallow ground, and would bear fruit in
season, "our cook has been actin' queer-like. She keeps alookin' under
tables all the while like she expected to see tigers and lions
acrouchin' there, ready to take a bite out of her. And she's even got to
callin' my little Nicodemus bad names. She says he's sure a chip of the
Ould Nick. That's what she told me this morning, when I was getting a
big pie she made for me yesterday, and which is safe in a box in the
wagon here."
"It seems to apply all right," commented Max, "and come to think of it,
Bandy-legs, I guess he is all of that. I never heard of a pet as full of
pranks as that cub is; and chances are Toby here will have his hands
full looking after him, once he changes owners."
"T-t-try me, that's all!" Toby remarked, with the air of one who had
made it a practical business in life to know all about wild animals, and
how best to take care of them; having heard the owner mention the sum of
ten dollars he felt as though the bargain had already been consummated,
and all that remained was for the goods to be delivered.
They loitered there by the spring for some time, and the horse seemed to
revive enough to pull through the last stage of the journey. After that
Ebenezer would have a long rest of nearly a week; and much of the return
trip would prove easier, being down-hill work.
"All aboard again!" called Max, when he thought they might as well be
starting ahead, and do some of the resting at the place they had picked
out for a camp site. So they continued along the road.
Presently they turned off the main pike, to follow a side road that
seemed to lead up into a wild stretch of country. Here an occasional
farm might be run across but as a rule there were woods, and then some
more woods, until one could tramp for miles and miles through stretches
of country where it seemed almost like the primeval wilderness.
Of course most of these trees, though of fair size, were second-growth
timber. The avaricious lumberman had long ago been through all this
section, and only in patches was it possible to find any of the original
great trees that were possibly growing a century or two back, when the
whites were wresting this land from the possession of the Indians.
"This begins to look like business," Steve remarked, when they had been
following this twisting road for more than a mile; "and I can see why
Max chose to bring us up here to do our camping. We'll hardly run
across a living soul, unless we go over to that farm to get eggs and
milk. And say, let me tell you there's considerable of small game
frisking around this neck of the woods."
"I've seen heaps of gray squirrels running up the trunks of trees, and
hiding on the far side, as they always do," Max observed.
"And three times a cottontail bounced away, once right under my feet,"
Bandy-legs added, as his quota of evidence in support of Steve's
declaration with regard to their finding all the game they would need,
if so be they felt that it would be right to do any shooting so late in
the season.
"That was a red fox we saw slinking off a little while back," Steve
continued; "and where you find that smart animal depend on it the
hunting's good; for he'd clear out if it wasn't."
"Oh! d-d-did you see that?" gasped Toby, suddenly as he thrust out a
hand, and pointed straight ahead.
Every one of them must have set eyes on the same object that had caught
his attention, for they turned and looked inquiringly at each other.
Steve even leaned back and hastily secured his gun, into which with
trembling hands he commenced to push a couple of shells that were loaded
with buckshot, a dozen to each.
"What could it have been?" Bandy-legs asked. "I just managed to ketch a
glimpse of it as it disappeared in the brush, and if you gave me a
dollar I couldn't say whether it was a brindle dog or a hyena or what!"
"That's just the way we all feel," Max told him.
It could be plainly seen, however, that the boys were more or less
excited over the prospect of some of the wild beasts from the menagerie
still being at large. Indeed, who could blame them, when there was a
prospect of running across a hungry tiger, a ravenous wolf, or perhaps a
man-eating lion at any time in their saunterings through the aisles of
the forest?