"No, no," said Catherine and Theodora both in a breath. "Do take the dreadful thing away! But there's something wrong about your story all the same, Tom," Kate added with a searching look at him. "I can tell when you are fibbing just as well as need be; and I shall find out what you boys are looking so funny at each other for, yet."
"You are a very knowing girl, Kate," said Tom. "But let's have some luncheon and change the subject."
"Not till you go down to the spring and wash your hands," said Catherine, "after handling that dreadful thing."
Peace having been restored by the washing of hands, luncheon was eaten.
"Yes," said Willis, "and we saw two minks and a fish-cat, as we went up the stream; but they all three got out of sight before Tom could draw a bead on them."
"Wise minks," said Ellen.
"And Willis thinks that he caught a glimpse of a 'screamer,' just as we were going through a little fir thicket," Tom remarked.
"I'm almost sure it was one," corroborated Willis. "Oh, I wish we had a lot of traps and could stay up here a fortnight. I should like two dozen mink traps and a couple of big traps."
"What do you want of such big traps?" said Kate carelessly. "To catch _deer_ in?"
"Of course not," said Willis. "No hunter around here ever sets traps for deer."
"I was thinking I had never heard of such a thing," replied Catherine, demurely.
"But how about the balm o' Gileads?" Addison asked suddenly.
"Oh, there's quite a growth of them!" replied Tom. "On the slope of the mountain, there are twenty or thirty old trees and no end of young ones coming up. I should think there was fifty acres of them altogether, shouldn't you, Willis?"
"I should," said Willis. "There would be buds enough there, though I should think it would be a stint to gather them."
"Oh, I don't think it would be such a very bad job," said Tom. "We could bend down the tops of the young trees and pick the buds off fast. I believe I could pick five or six pounds a day, anyhow."
"Five pounds would be twenty dollars, according to Addison's reckoning,"
said Theodora.
"Very fair wages for us!" said Kate. "I would even work for less."
"None of your jokes!" exclaimed Addison.
"I think that I could get a living, digging spruce gum up here," Kate went on. "Spruce gum is said to bring a dollar per pound, when nice and clean; I could dig gum days, and scrape it clean evenings, and live in the 'old slave's cabin;' that is, I could if the '_deer_' didn't scare me away," she added, with a significant glance at us boys which made us feel rather foolish.
"Kate, you are almost as knowing as your grandma!" exclaimed Tom, derisively; "and you're not a quarter as old yet. Fact, you are almost too knowing for your age."
"Don't think other folks are too knowing because you are a little backward yourself, Thomas!" cried Kate. "Your _deer_ stories are not quite right; there is something weak in them."
"Take a swallow of cold water in your mouth, Tom," said Addison, laughing.
Luncheon being disposed of, we gathered up our specimen crystals and the fragments of rose quartz, packed the crystals in moss, in the pail, and then tied up the rose quartz in one of our jackets. The latter made a rather heavy pack and, together with the pail, proved quite a load down the mountain and back through the woods to the opening. Willis took the _deer_ skin; and Tom carried the _deer_ meat. We returned across the wooded intervale, seeing no game but a partridge, which Willis shot, and reached the ford and the cabins at about four o'clock in the afternoon.
All of us were somewhat tired and sat down on the grass, or the benches, to rest awhile. The sun had already sunk near the tree-tops again; for by October 20th the afternoons are short in Maine. It was chilly, too.
"There will be a harder frost to-night than there was last night,"
Addison remarked.
Thomas brought wood and kindled a fire. "We must be stirring," he said.
"It takes a long time to get dinner."
"What are we going to have to-day for dinner?" Ellen asked.
"_Deer_ steak, I suppose," said Catherine, laughing.
"We must have those partridges that Willis shot this morning," said Addison.
"I can catch more trout," said Thomas.
"No; let's have the trout for breakfast," remarked Theodora. "They are splendid, fresh caught, for breakfast."
Willis went to get the partridges which he had hung up in a clump of hazels, a little way back of the cabins, but immediately returned, saying that they were missing. "Some creature has smelled them and pulled them down, I guess," said he.
"Suppose it was a _deer_?" asked Kate.
"Keep quiet," said Tom. "You've said enough about _deer_."
"If she says _deer_ again, let's tie that green deer hide over her head, Tom!" exclaimed Willis.
"You will not hear me say anything more, but I shall go on thinking, all the same," replied Catherine.
Theodora had gone into their cabin, to fetch our tin ware and frying-pan.
"Why!" she exclaimed, coming hastily out, in some fluster, "almost all our bread is gone!"
"Then somebody's been here," said Addison, "while we were away."
"Everything in the baskets has been pulled over," said Theodora.
We went to examine and found the baskets had really been disturbed, but nothing save bread had been removed.
"Some hungry hunter, I guess," said Addison. "Well, I hope it did him good."
"I reckon there's where the partridges went," said Tom.
"Well, he wasn't a very bad visitor," said Willis, "or he might have stolen a good deal more."
"Indeed, he might," said Theodora.
"But I wish he had left our bread and butter alone," exclaimed Ellen.
"Who knows how dirty his hands were!"
"This raid cuts our dinner down a little,--losing those partridges,"
said Tom. "So let's have our _venison_ and some eggs fried with it."
But on looking into the basket, all the eggs were found to have disappeared, save eight!