Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1924-02-28

mdH ny on PItSSt LII y W La0t
ground that must have been crossed
In order to reach the nearest cover,
and turned to his aged companion in
frank admiration.
wonder If 1 ever will be as handy
as you?"
"Tain't likely-y'ur life don't de-
pend on it, like mine use'n to sixty
years ago. Y'u're far handler already
than any other man in the woods.
But woodcraft will never ag'in be
what it once't wus. People even kinda
look down on it, nowadays. They're s.
wrapped up in book rarnin' an lam
grabbin' an money graspin' that they
think it's kind of disgrace some of
'em-t' even rarn t. shoot No, no,
woodcraft will never ag'in be what it
once't wus-never ag'in."
A faint suspicion of bitterness, of
inconsistencies for scenes long gone
for the stimulating uncertainties of
the perilous trail-quavered in the
old mans tones. He stopped, plucked
off a tender shoot from q sassafras
sprout and stood chewing it medita-
lively.
"How come y'u left y'ur trau s.
open this morning?" asked Jack, 81
picked il Up where y'u jumped the
road."
The question seemed to recall the
old mans straying thoughts.
Eyes, an y'u ort' "a picked it up
long b'fore. Y'u crossed it twfce't
b'fore ever y'u come down the bluffs
,once't about a hundred yards west o.
the pheasant's nest, an ag'in q leetle
moth of whar y'u stood lookin' down
at Hen Spencer's OF cabin. Y'u didn't
hardly act like y'urse'f this mornin'-.
y'u acted kinda keerless an fur away,
like-so 1 left the trail open leetle
thar at the road an at the crick."
The young man turned away and
stood gazing out across the brush-tan-
gled hollow.
Sand me thinkin' t. take by surprise
the famous ranger that found the
trail of the great Tecumseh, when it
was hid from the best of the runners"
he said warmly-"and you was jist
playin' with me-"
At reference to the far-famed
achievement Of his younger days, the
shoulders of the old hunter seemed to
grow a little more erect, while his
dark eyes glowed with faint sugges-
ton of the fire that in his prime had
made them the hardest pair of eyes
on the border to pass unseen.
"Well, not jist playin', nuther." He
chewed hard on the sassafras sprout a
moment. 'You must "a purt nigh
run into that gal lettle bit ago?"
A statement with the force of a
questionable young man started, but
hid the movement by fumbling with
his sore shoulder. The terrified face
of the mountain girl freshened in his
mind, with the dread of discovery in
her startled eyes. He hitched the
blouse loose from his shoulder and
glanced out across the hollow without
meeting his old friends look.
"What gal?"
The old man jerked a hand toward
the opposite bluff.
CAV, I jist glimpsed one a-peakin'
along through the brush yonder an
lowed mebbe y'u might "a run acrosst
'er"
He stood chewing the sassafras
shoot and looking away down the hol-
low in the direction of Black rock.
The young man breathed easier-the
girls secret was safe. The hawklike
eyes had missed the chance meeting
seemingly the one thing they had
missed, as his next words half star
tlingly disclosed
"What did y'u make o. them tracks
y'u folIer'd yisterdy-fom them
bushes on the edge o. the cliff back O.
y'ur cabin an past the OF log? 1 seed
y'u'd ben foller'n' 'em as 1 crossed the
trail m'se'f this mornin'"
The young man bent an amazed