your fix, and we"re all happy as a swile on a sunny rock."
"I"m wonderful glad to have you, too," added Toby. "I gets wishin" I had some one to hunt with me, when Dad"s away. We"ll be huntin" and cruisin" about together, and have a fine time."
"It"s just great to be with you!" and Charley said it with a full and appreciative heart.
"Now, lads, help me put the boat in the water, and I"ll pull over to the Duck"s Head for Mother and Vi"let and the cargo," said Skipper Zeb.
"Whilst I"m gone, Toby, put on a fire and make the house snug."
Charley and Toby helped Skipper Zeb launch a boat, which was drawn up upon the beach below the cabin, and when he had set out for the Duck"s Head, the boys returned to the cabin, and Toby kindled a fire in a big oblong box stove.
It was a small cabin, but snug and homelike, and much more comfortable than the one they had left at Pinch-In Tickle. There was no covering upon the floor, but the boards were white and clean with much scrubbing.
Sections of old newspapers and picture pages from old magazines were pasted upon the log walls, and completely covered them. These kept out no small degree of winter wind and cold, and at the same time did duty as decorations. Charley observed with interest several guns resting upon the beams overhead.
There were no chairs in the room, and storage chests served as seats. A table occupied the center of the room, and this had doubtless been built by Skipper Zeb himself. Against the side wall was a shelf upon which stood a silent clock. At one side of the clock was a small Bible, at the other a candlestick. A bed built against a corner of the room and a dish closet completed its furnishings.
A part.i.tion across the rear of the cabin formed a second room, and built against the wall, one at each end of this room, were two beds similar to that in the living-room.
"I sleeps in this un in the big room, and you"ll be sleepin" with me,"
Toby advised. "Mother and Dad and Violet sleeps in the beds in the back room."
The rear of the entrance porch was piled with firewood ready for the stove, ranked in tiers which reached nearly to the roof, while upon the walls in front hung dog harness, several pairs of snowshoes, traps and other gear incident to a hunter"s life.
Primitive and crude as was the cabin, it appealed to Charley, doubtless in contrast to his recent experiences, as most comfortable and homelike. This feeling of comfort increased when Toby wound the clock, and it began ticking its welcome.
Toby was quite excited at his return to his winter home. He must needs see and show Charley everything inside and outside the cabin, and Charley was interested in all he saw, but most of all in the big, broad snowshoes and the dog harness.
"Where are the dogs?" Charley asked.
"We leaves un over at Tom Ham"s whilst we were at the fishin" in summer," explained Toby. "Tom Ham lives at Lucky Bight, ten miles to the nuth"ard from here. We"ll be goin" for un soon now."
"It must be fun traveling with dogs," said Charley.
"Aye, "tis that," agreed Toby, "when the weather"s fair and the travelin" is good. When the weather"s nasty with snow or high winds and frost, or when the goin" is soft, "tis hard cruisin" with dogs."
When Skipper Zeb returned at one o"clock with Mrs. Twig and Violet, and the cargo from the wrecked boat, Toby and Charley had a pot of grouse stewing upon the stove and ready for the dumplings which Mrs. Twig quickly prepared.
""Twill be fine for you lads to set some rabbit snares this evenin","
suggested Skipper Zeb, when dinner was finished. "Rabbit stew would make fine eatin". Whilst you"re gone, I"ll be snuggin" up and makin" things tidy around the house. Comin" Monday I"ll start settin" up the traps on my path, and I"m thinkin" to take you lads with me on the first round I makes. When you gets back I"m thinkin" "twill be well to get the dogs from Tom Ham"s if he don"t bring un before. He"ll have his wood hauled, and there"ll be good footin" for you lads to take the team and haul our wood by then."
This was exciting news to Charley. The dogs! How he wanted to see Eskimo sledge dogs in harness! And to set traps with a real trapper and hunter!
He could scarce wait for the time to come.
FOOTNOTES: [2] Hardtack.
[3] Similar to the Canada Jay, but with darker upper parts and head.
[4] The Hudsonian Chickadee.
VIII
THE TRAIL OF A LYNX
Evening down on The Labrador begins directly after twelve o"clock, noon, and therefore by Labrador reckoning it was already evening. It was Skipper Zeb"s intention that the boys set out immediately, and he emphasized this by bidding them:
"Bide a bit whilst I find some proper twine. The old twine you has last year Toby, lad, were not strong enough to hold rabbits when you catches un."
""Twere wonderful poor twine," agreed Toby, "and I loses half the rabbits, whatever, that gets in the snares."
Skipper Zeb began rummaging in one of the storage chests, and presently produced a ball of heavy, smooth, closely wound twine.
"There"s the best twine now I ever gets for snares," he declared with some pride, handing it to Toby. "The rabbits"ll not be breakin" _that_ twine, whatever. "Tis stout as a small cable. I gets un in July month from Skipper Mudge o" the schooner _Lucky Hand_. I asks he last fall when he goes home from the fishin" to get un for me in St. John"s. That"s _string_, now, _that_ is! "Twill hold the biggest rabbit on the Labrador."
"Are rabbits so strong?" asked Charley.
"Strong enough to break string that"s not stout enough to hold un,"
laughed Skipper Zeb, explaining good-naturedly: "She has to be rare stout to hold some of un. The string Toby has last year were rotten, "twere so old, and he loses a rare lot o" rabbits that gets in the snares with un breakin" the twine, so I gets new string for this year."
"That"ll hold un! "Tis fine twine," agreed Toby, testing it. "Come on, Charley! We"ll set a rare lot o" snares this evenin", and have rabbit for dinner to-morrow."
The boys hurried into their adikeys, and Toby carrying his rifle, and Charley a light ax, which Toby selected from three or four in the shed, the two set out.
"We can"t set snares too handy to the house," advised Toby, turning into the forest behind the cabin, with Charley following. "The dogs would find un _too_ handy, when we gets the team home from Skipper Tom"s."
A thick bramble of dwarf willows and mooseberry bushes lined the sh.o.r.e between the water of the bay and the spruce forest, and to avoid this Toby laid his course through the forest behind the tangle. Charley, thrilled with a sense of adventure, followed Toby eagerly as he led the way for some time in silence. This was Charley"s first trapping expedition in a real wilderness! He wondered whether there were wolves or other wild animals lurking among the shadows, and he was glad that Toby had his rifle.
Suddenly Toby stopped. The white surface of the snow was covered with a thick network of tracks, among the forest trees and back among the bramble.
"They"s plenty o" rabbits here," and Toby pointed to the tracks. "I never sees so much rabbit footin". I"m thinkin" "tis far enough so the dogs"ll not be findin" the snares, and we"ll start to set un here."
"Are these all rabbit tracks?" asked Charley in amazement. "There must be thousands of them!"
"Aye, there"s a rare fine band of un about," agreed Toby with an appraising glance. "Here"s a fine run, now! We"ll be settin" the first snare on this run."
Toby pointed to a beaten path or runway, indicating that rabbits had pa.s.sed back and forth over it many times.
He proceeded at once to cut a spruce sapling. From the middle of one side of this he trimmed off the branches with his ax, leaving the thick branches on both ends and on the other side. He then laid the sapling across the runway where the runway pa.s.sed between two trees, placing it in such manner that the branches on each end of the sapling supported it about eighteen inches above the snow, and the trimmed section of the sapling left an opening for the runway.
On each side of the runway he now placed an upright stick, and between the sticks and the trees on each side made a thick network of branches, that only the gateway between the sticks, with the sapling above, would be open for the pa.s.sage of rabbits, and there would be no temptation to pa.s.s around or to jump over the obstruction of branches on the upper side of the sapling.
This done, he made a slipnoose on one end of a piece of twine. The other end of the twine he tied to the sapling directly over the runway, and spreading the noose around the gateway through the barricade, stood up and surveyed his work.
"There she is, all ready for un to come along and get caught," he said with pride.
"Don"t you bait it with anything?" asked Charley, who had watched the making of the snare with much interest.
"No, we don"t bait un," explained Toby. ""Tis a runway where rabbits goes, and they"ll go right through un without bait, and get caught."