I MEET THE STRANGER
Anyway, that was the smallest village I ever saw to have such big tracks
right near it. All I could see was two houses and the post office, and the
post office was so small that you could almost put your arm down the
chimney and open the front door. But, one thing sure, you could buy
everything you wanted in that post office. You could buy a plough or a
lollypop or anything. It smelled kind of like corn inside.
I got some lead sinkers and some crackers and a couple of chops for
Charlie Seabury, because it makes him thirsty to eat fish--that's what
he says. The man didn't have any mosquito dope, but there were some boxes
of fly paper on the counter and just happened to think that if we stayed
in our bivouac camp the next morning, it might be good to have some on
account of the flies at dinner time. So I bought a box full.
Then I said to the man, "I guess there are wild animals around here."
He said, "Wall, I reckon thar daon't be many no more. Yer ain't expectin'
ter catch 'em with fly paper, be yer?"
"Just the same," I told him, "I saw the tracks of one that must be big
enough to eat this whole village. You'd better put the village in the safe
before you go home. Safety first." You can bet I know how to jolly if it
comes to jollying. "I want to get some rope, too," I told him.
He just leaned back and pushed his great big straw hat to the back of his
head and looked over his spectacles and began to grin. He kept his
spectacles 'way down near the end of his nose.
"Ye're one of them scaouts, hey?" he said. "Yet ain't thinkin' to lead any
elephants home with that thar rope naow, be yer?"
I said, "No, I'm going to use the rope to lasso mosquitoes as long as
you haven't got any mosquito dope."
He said, "Wall naow, ye're quite a comic be'nt yer?"
I told him I was a little cut up and my mother and father couldn't do
anything with me.
"'N what else can I do fer yer?" he said, laughing all the while. "Them
tracks wuz caow tracks, youngster, so daon't yer be sceered of 'em."
I told him I wasn't scared of any tracks, not even a railroad track and
that I'd buy the village for seventy-five cents, if he'd send it C. O. D.
He just stood there laughing. Anyway, it makes me mad when grown up people
jolly scouts about tracking and signaling and all that, just as if it was
only play. Because what do _they_ know about tracks? Who ever heard of a
cow with feet like a cat? _Good night!_ And, besides, often it turns cut
that scouts are right. You wait and see.
Now the things I bought I had in a kind of a flat bundle and I hung it over
my back, because I like to have my hands free. What's the use of wasting
your hands? You'll never find anything out with your back; all your back
is good for, is bundles.
I didn't have any adventures on the way back, till I got to that spring
house in the woods. I was in such a hurry that I didn't even notice the
tracks again. That's how much I was afraid of them.
When I got to the spring house, I went in for a drink of water, and believe
me, it was good. I squeezed in, instead of opening the door wide, because
it scraped so hard on the ground that it was easier to do that than to open
it; and I did the same coming out.
I was just going to start along the path again, when I got a good idea.
That's just the way you get them, sudden like. I decided to shinny up a
tree that was there and see if I couldn't squint our camp over in the west,
because if I could once see it, maybe I'd be able to get to it by a shorter
way than by the path. I did that because it was getting late.
When I got up to the second branch I looked off to the west, but all I
could see was a little smoke curling up into the sky, and I wasn't sure
whether it was from our camp or from some house. The sun was going down
over that way and all the clouds were kind of red on the edges and the sky
looked dandy. At Temple Camp they'd be just about washing up for supper
then. I thought I could tell about where the road was, but I couldn't
decide about the camp and I was just going to shinny down and hit the
trail when I heard a kind of a sound like leaves rustling and then a funny
sort of growl, different from anything I had ever heard before. I looked
around and then I saw; coming through the woods, an animal with big spots
on it and a long tail. I guess it was almost as big as a tiger; anyway, it
was a good deal bigger than a wild cat. It was making a noise as if it was
grumbling to itself, then all of a sudden, it opened its mouth wide, as if
it was going to roar, but it didn't. It came almost up to the tree and
stood still and its tail hung on the ground and wriggled like a snake.
I have to admit that I was good and scared. I just held onto the tree and
didn't make a move; I guess I hardly breathed. Then, all of a sudden, the
branch I was standing on cracked.