With Trapper Jim in the North Woods Part 6

Each and every one of them solemnly declared that he was firmly resolved to be unusually careful.

Finally they reached the cabin.

In the afternoon Old Jim skinned the three musquash, and showed the boys how he fastened the hides on stretching boards, which would cause them to retain their shape while they dried.

"We never put skins in the sun or near a fire to dry," he observed, seeing that most of the boys were anxious to learn all they could. "The best way is to stand 'em in the shade where the breeze can play on 'em.

But, of course, you mustn't let the pelts get wet while they're drying."

Sure enough, Jim cut up the musquash, and gave evidences of satisfaction at finding them so plump.

As the afternoon began to wane Bandy-legs surprised his chums by actually volunteering to go out and gather wood for the fire.

This was really such an unusual occurrence that Max surveyed the other curiously as he pa.s.sed out.

He wondered if Bandy-legs, generally quite lazy, had seen the error of his ways and meant to reform.

It appeared that Max was not the only one who thought this action odd, for Owen spoke of it.

"What d'ye suppose struck that boy?" he remarked.

"Never knew him to volunteer to do a thing before," declared Max.

"I should say not," Steve broke in. "Generally speaking, we have to use a stuffed club on Bandy-legs to get him to do anything but eat."

Toby chuckled.

"Gr-g-great s-s-stunt," he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, "g-g-got him anxious to t-t-try stewed m-m-m-m--" But that name was really too much for Toby, who had to be satisfied by pointing at the kettle in which Trapper Jim had placed the dismembered musquash.

At this the others laughed.

They were lounging around in the cabin at the time. A small blaze burned in the big fireplace at the bottom of the wide-throated chimney.

"What I want to know," remarked Owen, who had been examining one of the skins stretched on the thin board, "is why they fix these different ways. I've read that some skins are cured with the fur out and others with it in; some split and others dried whole."

"Glad you mentioned that," said Jim, looking pleased. "Skins are of all kinds. Some we dry cased, without cutting. I'm going to show you the whole business by degrees, if we're lucky enough--"

He stopped short in what he was saying, and seemed to c.o.c.k his head on one side, as though listening.

"Say, I guess there must be some kind of bird or animal in your old chimney, Uncle Jim," remarked Steve.

"I thought I heard it, too," Owen declared.

All listened.

"There it goes again," said Steve; "and something dropped down right then. I was thinking of that story you told us where a bear came down through the big chimney of a cabin. Wow! Listen to that, would you?"

As Steve cried out in this way, the rattling in the chimney suddenly grew into an alarming noise. Then a large object fell with a crash into the fire.

CHAPTER V.

WHAT CAME DOWN THE CHIMNEY.

"It's a bear!" whooped Steve, as he made a headlong dash for the corner where his double barrel stood.

Forgotten just then was the injunction of the old trapper that they should not shoot any thing that wore fur, as it would cheat him out of all his expected profits.

If a bear became so bold as to enter the cabin by way of the chimney he must surely be treated, with scant ceremony. Buckshot or birdshot, it mattered little which the gun contained, since at close quarters the load would carry like a large bullet.

But Steve had not even managed to lay a hand on his gun, when he was amazed to hear above the barking of the two dogs, loud shrieks of laughter from Max, Owen, and Toby.

Even the hoa.r.s.er notes of the trapper seemed to join in. And when there chanced to be a little break in all this racket, Steve caught a wailing voice crying aloud:

"Put me out! Somebody throw a bucket of water over me, and put me out!

I'm all a-fire! Why can't you help a feller?"

A figure was dancing around like mad, now slapping at his trousers leg, and then trying to reach the middle of his back, where his coat seemed to be smoldering.

It was Bandy-legs.

Steve instantly recognized his chum, and this fact, taken with the noise in the chimney, gave the thing away.

Bandy-legs had tried to play a prank on them, and, as usual, made a sorry mess of it.

While sitting there and looking at the wide-throated chimney, perhaps his mind went out to what Jim had told about the curious bear which, hunting around on the roof of a cabin to ascertain where that fine odor of hams came from, fell down the chimney.

He would climb upon the roof and lower a make-believe wildcat, fashioned out of an old moth-eaten skin Jim had thrown away.

That accounted for Bandy-legs' astonishing announcement that he would go out and gather some of the wood for the night.

It also explained to Max just why he had been stout string that lay upon the trapper's table. This would be needed in the carrying out of his trick.

But, like the incautious bear, Bandy-legs had also leaned too far over the top of the chimney. Perhaps he wanted, not to sniff the smoked hams below, as in the case of Bruin, but to hear the shouts of consternation when his make-believe bobcat landed in the fireplace, apparently jumping up and down as Bandy-legs jerked the string.

The consequence had been that he fell into the opening, and, landing on all fours, scattered the little fire in every direction.

But seeing that the boy's clothes were really on fire in several places, Max grabbed up the first thing he could think of that might be depended on to extinguish the smoldering cloth.

"Hold on, that's my supper!" shouted Trapper Jim, clutching the hand of Max before he could empty the kettle. "Here's the water-bucket; use that."

And Max did so, drenching poor dancing Bandy-legs from head to foot with the contents of the pail.

"That's the time Bandy-legs came near getting more than his share of the grub," declared Owen, who was busily engaged stamping out some of the smoldering brands that had been scattered around so promiscuously when the sprawling figure of the boy landed in their midst.

"Somebody carry that old skin outside," said Trapper Jim. "It's burning more or less, and we'll have the cabin so full of smell we won't be able to stay in it much longer."