CHICKENS AND MINCE PIE
It was a perfect winter day, with a dull golden glow in the sky and
only a faint breeze from the north blowing. On the ground the snow lay
to the depth of ten inches or a foot, but the wind of the week past
had almost cleared the ice on the river. Here and there were long
ridges of snow across the glare, but that was all.
The young hunters had tied long ropes to the sleds, and while Whopper
and Shep pulled one turnout, Snap and Giant dragged the other. The
sleds had polished runners, and slid over the river surface so easily
that pulling was more sport than work.
The course was down the river towards Lake Cameron, and in a very few
minutes the town neighborhood was left behind. On either side of the
frozen stream were trees and bushes, with here and there a cleared
patch or an orchard. Some boys accompanied them a short distance, but
then these dropped back, and our four young friends were left to
themselves.
"Do you remember how we stopped at Pop Lundy's orchard when we went to
the camp in the rowboat?" observed Shep.
"Yes, and how he caught us and then got us to go after the negro who
stole the watch," put in Whopper.
"I shouldn't mind having some of his apples now," said Giant. "We
ought to have taken apples along."
"There is the orchard now," cried Snap. "But there are no apples to be
had this time of year."
"As if we would dare to take them," said Whopper, with a wink of his
eye.
As they neared the spot where the orchard ran down to the river shore
they heard the sound of an axe and saw Simon Lundy chopping down an
old apple tree for firewood. The man was a very close-fisted farmer
and was rarely known to do a charitable act.
"How are you, Mr. Lundy!" called out Snap, as he brought one of the
sleds to a halt.
"How do ye do," grunted the farmer, and then gave a closer look. "Oh,
so it's you fellers ag'in, hey? Goin' campin' once more?
"We are."
"How are your apples getting along?" asked Shep, also halting.
"Didn't have sech a big crop as I expected."
"Thought you might spare us a few," suggested Whopper. "Of course
we'll pay for them, if you wish."
"Well, there hain't much profit in givin' apples away," said Simon
Lundy, pursing up his thin lips. "Got some putty good golden russets
left. How many do ye want?"
"Give us all you can spare for a quarter," said Shep, who had been
chosen treasurer of the club for the outing.
Simon Lundy led the way to his barn, and there the boys picked out
some russets and some greenings. While this was going on Mrs. Lundy
came from the house to see the visitors.
"Why, if it ain't them same boys as helped to catch that nigger!" she
cried. "Want some apples, hey? Give 'em all they want, Simon. They
deserve 'em."
"I was a--er--a--sellin' them the apples," answered the husband,
lamely, and growing a bit red in the face.
"What! Simon Lundy, ain't ye ashamed! You shan't take a cent from 'em,
not a cent! Why, the idee!"
"All right, all right, if you say so," said the farmer hastily.
"I do say so." Mrs. Lundy turned to the young hunters. "Where be you
a-goin?"
"We are going camping," answered Snap. "At the same place we were last
summer."
"Ain't you afraid o' being frizz to death?"
"Oh, I think we can stand it."
"What have ye took along to eat?"
Snap told her and she shrugged her shoulders.
"Ye ought to have brung more, boys. Now, I've jest been a-makin' some
mince pies. Wouldn't ye like one o' them?"
"Yes, indeed!" shouted Whopper, who had a weakness for that dainty. "I
can eat mince pie in the middle of my sleep."
"Then you shall have the biggest pie o' the lot," said Mrs. Lundy.
"And, Simon," she added, to her husband, "you jest kill a couple o'
fat chickens fer 'em. Maybe they won't find no game the first day they
be in camp, an' they ought to have some kind o' meat."
"It's drefful expensive!" groaned Simon Lundy.
"Shucks! These boys did us a real service, an' want 'em to know we
appreciate it," answered Mrs. Lundy briskly.
She told her husband what chickens to catch and kill, and helped pull
the feathers. Then she brought forth the still steaming mince pie,
leaving it in the stone dish in which it had been baked.
"You can leave the dish when you come back--if you think o' it," she
said, "and if ye don't, 'twon't matter much."
A little later saw the four boy hunters on their way again, the
precious mince pie resting on the top of one of the sled loads and the
apples and chickens on the other. Mrs. Lundy waved them a cheery adieu
and Simon smiled somewhat grimly.
"It nearly broke old Pop Lundy's heart to give the things away," was
Giant's comment.
"It wasn't any more than fair, after what we did for him," answered
Shep. "Say, boys, camping out with chicken and mince pie won't be bad,
will it?"
"Yum! yum!" was the only answer the others gave.
By noon they found themselves on Lake Cameron. On one shore were the
grim evidences of that terrible forest fire which had nearly cost the
saw mill robber and the Felps' crowd their lives. A few spots on the
lake were clear, but at other points the snow lay from a few inches to
a foot and a half deep.
They skated to the opposite shore and stopped near the shelter of some
pines and hemlocks. All were willing to rest, and a small campfire was
built, over which they made a pot of coffee. They had brought with
them some sandwiches and some cake, and these made up the brief
noonday meal.
"Here goes for a first shot!" cried Snap, leaping to his feet with a
part of a sandwich still in his mouth. He had discovered several
rabbits near some bushes up the lake shore. Catching up his shotgun he
took careful aim and blazed away.
"Two of them!" exclaimed Shep. "Good for you, Snap!"
Snap ran forward and picked up the game. They were plump and heavy and
he held them up with pride.
"We shan't starve just yet," remarked Giant. "We are sure to get
rabbits, and partridge and wild turkeys, and there must be plenty of
fish under this ice."
All of the party were anxious to reach the former camp, to see what it
looked like, so the noonday rest did not last long. Skirting one shore
of Lake Cameron, they came to the narrow waterway that connected it
with Firefly Lake. Here the water, which usually flowed swiftly
between the rocks, was frozen up in a lumpy fashion that made skating
impossible.
"We'll have to walk the rest of the distance," announced Whopper. "We
couldn't skate on this in a million years."
"I wish we could try the snowshoes," said Giant. He knew very little
about using the articles.
"Can't do it," answered Snap. "But just you wait, we'll have more snow
before long and then the snowshoes will come in mighty handy."
They took off their skates, put them on the sleds, and started up the
rocky and frozen watercourse. The walking was treacherous and soon
Whopper went down, with Shep on top of him. The bag of apples came
over both.
"Hi! get off of me!" roared Whopper. "Do you want to crush me into a
pancake? Who threw that bag of apples?"
"You want to be careful of the loads," admonished Snap. "Don't throw
off the mince pie as you did the apples."
"Look!" yelled Giant, who had been gazing to the north of the
watercourse. "Am I mistaken, or is that a deer?"
"A deer! A deer!" cried Shep, and on the instant all of the boys
forgot about the tumble and each caught up his shotgun. It was indeed
a deer, standing among some young trees about two hundred yards
distance.
"Oh, if we can only bring it down!" said Whopper, in a whisper.
"We must bring it down," answered Shep, in an equally low voice.
"Get out of sight," warned Snap. "If he sees us he'll be of in a
jiffy."
They dropped behind some convenient bushes and then moved forward with
great caution, each with his shotgun ready to blaze away instantly.
The forward movement lasted for fully five minutes and then all raised
up cautiously and looked for the deer.
The game had disappeared!
"Where is he?" whispered Giant, gazing around in bewilderment.
"Bless me if I know," answered Snap.
The young hunters gazed in all directions and then came out into the
open.
"He is surely gone," said Shep.
"There he goes!" sang out Giant, and pointed up the lake to a clearing
an eighth of a mile away.
"And streaking it like greased lightning," added Whopper. "He'll reach
the Canadian line before he stops."
"Too bad!" growled Shep, in disgust. "I fancied we'd get him sure."
"This puts me in mind of what Jed Sanborn says," said Snap, with a
sickly grin. "'Be sure of only what is in your game bag.'"
The young hunters looked around for more deer but none were in that
vicinity and so they returned to where they had left the sleds.
"If it hadn't been that we want to get to camp we might have followed
up that deer," was Giant's comment.
"Not much use of that," answered Snap. "By the way he was running he
must have been pretty well woke up, and when that happens you know a
deer will run for miles without stopping."
All were glad when they came in sight of Fire-fly Lake. About one half
of the surface was a smooth glare of ice, the other half being covered
with ridges of snow.
To reach their old camp they had to go up the shore and around a bend
where the bushes and trees were thick. Once more they donned their
skates and went forward rapidly.
"Let us have a race!" cried Whopper, and he and Giant set off with one
sled, while Snap and Shep set off with the other.
"An extra piece of mince pie to the winning team!" cried the doctor's
son merrily as he put on an extra spurt.
Soon the turn of the shore was gained, with the sleds side by side.
Then all of the young hunters gazed ahead.
"Well, I never!"
"If this isn't too bad for anything!"
Such were the exclamations uttered. And there was good cause for their
consternation and dismay. Instead of the tidy cabin they had expected
to see, nothing but a heap of blackened logs confronted them.
The log cabin had been burnt to the ground.