It was dusk by that time and the path was only a thread between masses
of undergrowth. Tish said if it was the bear he would be afraid of the
fire, so we put dry leaves in the kettle and made quite a blaze. By its
light Tish read that bears in the summer are full fed and really
frolicsome and that they are awful cowards. We felt quite cheered and
brave, and Tish said if he came near to throw the fire kettle at him and
he'd probably die of fright.
It was too late to put up the tepee, so we found a clearing near the
path and decided to spend the night there. Aggie still watched the
bushes and wanted to spend the night in a tree; but Tish's calmness was
a reproach to us both, and after we had emptied the kettle and made
quite a fire to keep off animals, we unrolled our blankets and prepared
for sleep. I could have slept anywhere, although I was still rather
hungry. My last view was of Tish in the firelight grimly bending down a
sapling and fastening a rabbit snare to it.
During the night I was wakened by somebody clutching my arm. It was
Aggie who lay next to me. When I raised my head she pointed off into the
woods to our left. At a height of perhaps four feet from the ground a
ghastly red glow was moving rapidly away from us. It was not a torch; it
was more a radiance, and it moved not evenly, but jerkily. I could feel
the very hair rising on my head and it was all I could do to call Tish.
When we had roused her, however, the glow had faded entirely and she
said we had had a nightmare.
The snare the next morning contained a skunk, and we moved on as quickly
as possible, without attempting to secure the thong, of which we had
several. We gathered some puffballs to soak for breakfast and in a
clearing I found some blackberry bushes. We were very cheerful that
morning, for if we could capture rabbits and skunks, we were sure of
other things, also, and soon we would be able to add fish to our menu.
True, we had not had much time to commune with our souls, and Aggie's
arms were so sunburned that she could not bend them at the elbows. But,
as Tish said, we had already proved our contention that we could get
along without men or houses or things. Things, she said, were the curse
of modern life; we filled our lives with things instead of thoughts.
It was when we were ready to cook the puffballs that we missed the
kettle! Tish was very angry; she said it was evident that the bear was
mischievous and that all bears were thieves. (See the "Young Woodsman.")
But I recalled the glow of the night before, and more than once I caught
Aggie's eyes on me, filled with consternation. For we had seen that
kettle leaving the camp with some of our fire in it, and bears are
afraid of fire!
We reached the lake at noon and it seemed as if we might soon have time
to sit down and rest. But there was a great deal to do. Aggie was of no
assistance on account of her arms, so Tish and I put up the tent. The
"Young Woodsman" said it was easy. First you tied three long poles
together near the top and stood them up so they made a sort of triangle.
Then you cut about a dozen and filled in between the three. That looked
easy, but it took an afternoon, and our first three looked like this
first cut.
[Illustration:
AS THE FIRST THREE LOOKED
AS THEY SHOULD HAVE LOOKED]
We had caught a rabbit by noon, and Aggie being unfit for other work,
and the kettle being gone, Tish set her to roasting it. It was not
very good, but we ate some, being ravenous. The method was simplicity
itself--two forked sticks in the ground, one across to hang the rabbit
to and a fire beneath. It tasted rather smoky.
In the afternoon we finished putting up the tepee, and Tish made a
fishhook out of a hairpin and tied it to a strong creeper I had found.
But we caught no fish. We had more rabbit for supper, with some
puffballs smoked and a few huckleberries. But by that time the very
sight of a rabbit sickened me, and Aggie began to talk about broiled
beefsteak and fried spring chicken.
We had seen no sign of the bear, or whatever it was, all day, and it
seemed likely we were not to be again disturbed. But a most mysterious
thing occurred that very night.
As I have said, we had caught no fish. The lake was full of them. We sat
on a bank that evening and watched them playing leapfrog, and talked
about frying them on red-hot stones, but nothing came near the hairpin.
At last Tish made a suggestion.
"We need worms," she said. "A grasshopper loses all his spirit after
he's been immersed for an hour, but a worm will keep on wriggling and
attracting attention for half a day."
"I wanted to bring a spade," said I.
But Tish had read of a scheme for getting worms that she said the game
warden of some place or other had guaranteed officially.
"You stick a piece of wood about two feet into the ground in a likely
spot," she said, "and rub a rough piece of bark or plank across the top.
This man claims, and it sounds reasonable, that the worms think it is
raining and come up for water. All you have to do is to gather them up."
Tish found a pole for the purpose on the beach and set to work, while
Aggie and I prepared several hooks and lines. The fish were jumping
busily, and it seemed likely we should have more than we could do to
haul them in.
The experiment, however, failed entirely, for not a single worm
appeared. Tish laid it to the fact that it was very late and that the
worms were probably settled down for the night. It may have been that,
or it may have been the wrong kind of wood.
The mysterious happening was this: We rose quite early because the tepee
did not seem to be well anchored and fell down on us at daybreak. Tish
went down to the beach to examine the lines that had been out all night,
and found nothing. She was returning rather dispirited to tell us that
it would be rabbit again for breakfast, when she saw lying on a flat
stone half a dozen beautiful fish, one or two still gasping, in our lost
kettle!
Tish said she stood there, opening and shutting her mouth like the fish.
Then she gave a whoop and we came running. At first we thought they
might have been jumping and leaped out on to the beach by accident, but,
as Tish said, they would hardly have landed all together and into a
kettle that had been lost for two nights and a day. The queer thing was
that they had not been caught with a hook at all. They hadn't a mark on
them.
We were so hungry that we ate every one of them for breakfast. It was
only when we had eaten, and were sitting gorged and not caring whether
the tent was set up again or not, that we fell to wondering about the
fish. Tish fancied it might have been the driver of the spring wagon,
but decided he'd have sold us the fish at thirty cents a pound live
weight.
All day long we watched for a sign of our benefactor, but we saw
nothing. Tish set up more rabbit snares; not that she wanted rabbits,
but it had become a mania with her, and there were so many of them that
as they grew accustomed to us they sat round our camp in a ring and
criticized our housekeeping. She thought if she got a good many skins
she could have a fur robe made for her automobile. As a matter of fact
she found another use for them.
It was that night, then, that we were sitting round the camp-fire on
stones that we had brought up from the beach. We had seen nothing more
of the bear, and if we had been asked we should have said that the
nearest human being was twenty-five miles away.
Suddenly a voice came out of the woods just behind us, a man's voice.
"Please don't be alarmed," said the voice. "But may I have a little of
your fire? Mine has gone out again."
"G-g-g-good gracious!" said Aggie. "T-Tish, get your revolver!"
This was for effect. Tish had no revolver.
All of us had turned and were staring into the woods behind, but we
could see no one. After Aggie's speech about the revolver it was some
time before the voice spoke again.
"Never mind, Aggie," Tish observed, very loud. "The revolver is here and
loaded--as nice a little thirty-six as any one needs here in the woods."
She said afterward that she knew all the time there was no thirty-six
caliber revolver, but in the excitement she got it mixed with her bust
measure. Having replied to Aggie, Tish then turned in the direction of
the voice.
"Don't skulk back there," she called. "Come out, where we can see you.
If you look reliable, we'll give you some fire, of course."