CHAPTER XXI.

RAINY DAY--THE KITCHEN AND FIRE-HUNTING THE OPOSSUM.

IT was fortunate for the young adventurers that they had executed so promptly their intended work upon the tent, for though they had no heavy wind, the rain poured down during the whole night; and when they arose next morning, the sky was full of low scudding clouds, which promised plenty of rain for all that day, and perhaps for days to come. But, though the tent was dry as a hay loft, there were several deficiencies. They had but a meagre supply of wood, and their kitchen fire was without a shelter. The wind and rain were both chilly; and, it was plain, that without somebody's getting wet they must content themselves with a cold breakfast, and a shivering day.

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'Why did we not think of this before?" Robert querulously asked.

"Simply because we had other things to think of," replied Harold. "For my part, I am thankful that we have a dry tent."

"So am I," rejoined Robert, changing his tone.

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But I should be still more thankful if we had a place where we could sit by the fire."

"Very likely, now since we know from experience, how uncomfortable it is to be without. But I doubt if any of us would be half so thankful, were it not for being put to inconvenience. I recollect a case in point. My mother was once taken sick while we were travelling through the Indian nation. At that time the Indians were becoming hostile, and we were every day expecting them to declare war. O how troubled we all were! I remember that every morning we made it a point to say how thankful we were for spending another night, without being scalped. But afterwards, when we had returned home, and could spend our days and nights in peace, we forgot to be thankful at all."

Robert smiled at the naturalness of the description, and remarked, "Well, I think we shall be thankful now for a fire and shelter. Can we not devise some way to have them?"

The result of this conference was, that in the course of an hour they set up the boat-awning as a sort of kitchen, enclosed on three sides by the remaining bed-sheets, and having a fire at the windward gable, near which they sat very cozily on boxes and trunks brought from the tent.

Contrary to their expectation, the rain began to abate about noon, and long before sunset the sur

face of the earth was so much dried, and the drops left upon the trees and bushes so thoroughly exhaled or shaken off by a brisk wind, that the boys used the opportunity to bring in a supply of wood and lightwood. The lightwood was very rich, and split into such beautiful torch pieces, that Harold was tempted to think of a kind of sport, in which he had often engaged, and of which he was very fond. "We have been pent up all day," said he to Robert; "suppose we change the scene by taking a fire-hunt to-night."

"With all my heart," was the reply; "and 1 think no one will object to our having a fat roast pig for our Sunday's dinner."

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Probably not," Harold rejoined, "and I am still more in favour of the idea, for the reason that, as we take such game alive, we can keep it as long as we will."

Their preparation for the excursion consisted simply in splitting an armful of lightwood, which Harold tied into a bundle, to be readily slung over the shoulders by a strap. In the midst of their preparations Frank came up, and on learning their purpose, almost shouted for joy. He had so often heard Sam and William speak of the pleasure of their 'possum hunts, that it had long been the height of his ambition, as a sportsman, to engage in one; but for various reasons the convenient time had never yet come.

"O, I am so glad!" he exclaimed, with a face lighted with pleasure; "you will let me go, won't you?"

Here now was a dilemma. How could they refuse him? and yet how could they with propriety leave Mary with no other companion than poor bed-ridden Sam? The boys saw no alternative but to give up the hunt, until Robert proposed himself to stay with Mary, on condition that Frank should carry the torch and lightwood, while Harold bore the axe and gun. But to their gratification, Frank, perceiving the difficulties of the case, and ashamed to rob his brother of a place which he himself was incompetent to fill, set the matter at rest, by saying:

"No, brother, I will not go to-night; I will wait and go with cousin Harold some time when Sam gets well. But you must give me the pigs when you come back, and let me feed them every day."

They praised him sincerely for his act of selfdenial, and promised that he should be no loser on account of it. Soon as it was dark they bid him goodnight, and departed. He stood in the tent door, happy in the thought of their pleasure, and watched the animated motions of boys and dogs, as the red light flashed upon the trees, and the whole party became gradually lost from sight in the forest.

The boys had not proceeded a half mile, before the quick sharp bark, first of Mum, then of Fi

delle, gave indications of their having "treed" some kind of game. Hastening to the spot, they saw the dogs looking eagerly up a slender, tall persimmon, ind barking incessantly. For a time they could discover nothing in its branches, or on its body; and had begun almost to conclude that (in hunter's phrase) their dogs had lied, when Harold took the torch, waved it to and fro behind him, walking thus around the tree, and keeping his eyes fixed on those places where he supposed the opossum to be. Presently he cried out, "We have him! I see his eyes! Mum, poor fellow," patting his head, "you never lie, do you?" Mum wagged his expressive tail with great emphasis, as much as to say that he perfectly understood both the slander and the recantation, and that he now desired nothing but the privilege of giving that 'possum a good shake. Robert also took the light, and holding it behind him, saw amid a bunch of moss two small eyes glistening in the dark. The aim was so fair that the gun might have been used with certainty, were it not against all hunting rule; an opossum must be caught, not killed. The boys plied their axe upon the yielding wood, the eyes of the now silent dogs being fixed alternately upon the game above and the work below. The tree cracked and toppled. Mum's ears stood perfectly erect; and ere the branches had time to sway back, from their crash upon the ground, he