"The fire kindled well on both corners. The fact was, it kindled a little too well, and it spread, and the smoke began to come back into the trap. Just before the hunter took out his match-box, he had looked around for his dog, and the fellow wasn"t anywhere to be seen. There was time now to wonder what had become of him, but no amount of whistling brought him. Then the smoke grew too thick to whistle in, and the hunter lay down to get some fresher air at the bottom of the gate. The fire spread to the logs of the roof, and began to climb down the gate, and the trap became the hottest kind of a place. It took a long time for all that; but there was plenty of excitement in watching it, and in wondering whether or not he was going to roast himself to death instead of getting out. It grew hotter and hotter, until it could hardly be endured, and the smoke was stifling. At last the hunter sprang up, and gave a shove at the gate with all his might. If he had done it before, it might have let him out sooner. The gate went over upon the ground with a crash, and one jump carried the man out of the trap. He had left his rifle outside, leaning against a tree; and there it was yet, but there was not a sign of the dog.
"He had left a big piece of deer-meat out there too; and his next thought was that he had plenty of fire to cook by, and that he wanted some supper as soon as he had been to the lake for a long drink of water. That water tasted good, now, I tell you, and so did the broiled meat afterwards; for the sun was only an hour high, and he had had an early breakfast that morning. He sat and cooked and ate, and felt better; and all the while the fire was finishing up the bear-trap, roof and all. He did his cooking on the gate; and, if he had not been able to get out when he did, the gate and roof would have cooked him."
"Oh!" exclaimed Pen. "And he wasn"t hurt a mite?"
"No," said her father; "and just as he finished eating, and rose to pick up his rifle and start for the camp, there came a yelp, yelp, yelp through the woods, and there was his dog got back again. He hadn"t come alone either; for right along behind him, travelling good and fast, were the three other hunters. The dog had been to the camp for them, and made them understand that his master was in trouble."
"Splendid!" exclaimed Susie.
"And when they saw the smoke of that fire, they all shouted and ran, till the dog gave a howl and a jump, and began to dance around the man he belonged to. He told his friends the whole story, and there was the fire to prove the truth of it; and each of them had killed a deer that day."
"And how did you ever come to know just exactly how it all happened,"
said Mrs. Stebbins, "so"t you can tell it right along, "most as if you"d been there?"
"Well," said the deacon, "I suppose it"s because I was the man that got caught in the trap; and the other three were Alvin Lucas, and Levi Stebbins, and Sarah"s brother, Marvin Trowbridge, that"s living now at Ticonderoga."
"I"d heard the story before," said aunt Sarah, "and I remember seeing that dog when he was so old he was gray."
"I guess he didn"t get turned out of the house when he was old," said Port enthusiastically; "but why didn"t you fix the trap, and set it again?"
"That"s the very thing we did; and we caught three bears in it, and one wildcat, before the snow came. Only we always took care to bait the hook before we set the trap; and n.o.body else had to set it on fire to get out of it."
"Vosh," said his mother, "as soon as I"ve finished this apple, it"ll be time for you and me to be getting ready to go home."
"That"s all," said the deacon.
CHAPTER XV.
THE NEW CHESSMEN.
Porter Hudson did not feel like going to the woods the following morning. He had a pretty clear idea that they were empty, that the bears were asleep in their trees, that the wolves had mostly been killed, that the deer had run away, and that the cougars and wildcats had gone after them. He was quite willing to go to the village with Susie, when she told him she must go and see if she could find some tidy-yarn, and some more colored wool for the last few inches of the fringe for the fur of the Mink-lake trophy.
"There"s three stores," said aunt Judith, "and you"ll be sure to find what you want at one of "em. I can remember when old Mr. McGinniss kept the only store in Benton, and it did seem sometimes as if he never had nothing in it that you wanted to buy. It was always something else that he"d picked up at a bargain, and was asking two prices for, and it didn"t make him rich neither."
The walking in the road was good enough now, and from the very outskirts of the village the paths were all that could be asked for; but Port looked at them several times with remarks about Broadway.
"If we were there now," he said, "we"d find all the flagging clear and clean of snow."
"I almost wish I could be there for an hour or so," replied Susie.
"There"d be a better chance of finding just what I want than there is here."
The stores of Benton Village, however improved they were since aunt Judith was a girl, bore no resemblance whatever to those of the great city. There was a cheese on the counter over which Susie first asked for colored wool; and the young man she spoke to took down a large pasteboard box of crewel and other stuff, and politely carried it to the front window. He set it down on a pile of home-made sausages, and lifted a bag of flour out of her way, so that she could make a search. She found one skein that would do, and only one, and she bought it.
"Now, Port, we will try the next. I"ve made a beginning."
"That"s more than I thought you would do," said he. "It"s a mixed-up sort of place."
So was store No. 2, but it had a long showcase for that description of goods, and for fishing-tackle and candies, and for a lot of stuff that looked as if it might have been intended for Christmas presents to the heathen.
"It must have been some accident," said Susie almost as soon as she looked into that collection. "Here are the very things. We needn"t go any farther."
The merchant, who was smiling across the showcase at her, knew that she was "that young lady from the city that"s visiting with Deacon Farnham"s folks, and she can skate like a bird."
He had never seen a bird skate, but he knew she was pretty, and he was sincerely proud of the fact that she found the right wool in his establishment. He was doing it up satisfactorily, when Port pointed at a box in the showcase, and asked,--
"What"s that, Mr. Rosenstein?"
"Dot is chessmen. I show you."
The box was lifted out in a twinkling, and pulled open.
"I thought as much," said Port.
They had evidently been on hand a long time, and had a forlorn and forsaken look. The white king was in two pieces, and so was one of the black horse-men; but Mr. Rosenstein said encouragingly,--
"I zell dose chessmen for two shilling. Dey cost me four. You joost dake a leetle glue"--
"Guess I can," said Port. "I"ll buy "em.--That"s what I"ve been thinking of, Susie. Vosh can beat me at checkers, but he never played a game of chess in all his life. I"ll show him something."
Mr. Rosenstein was again very much pleased, for that box had been a bad speculation; and Port and Susie were bowed out of the store a great deal.
There was not much to see in the village after that, but they strolled around for a little while. There were many people in from the surrounding country; and the jingle of sleigh-bells, and the continual coming and going of teams, made things lively.
One large double sleigh, with extravagant goose-necks, pulled up almost in front of them, and a lady"s voice called to Susie,--
"Miss Hudson!"
"Mrs. King! Good-morning. I"ve been doing some shopping."
"Hope you succeeded better than I can do. Glad I"ve met you. There are your invitations, and your aunts" and uncle"s; and if you"ll be kind enough to send over Mrs. Stebbins"s to her"--
"I"ll attend to that with pleasure," said Port, reaching out his hand for the white envelopes her own was offering.
"And you must all come," said Mrs. King. "I"m going to have my house full. You will not disappoint me? Most of "em will be young folks, but I"ll have a few grown-up people on my own account."
Susie promised faithfully, and Mrs. King drove on.
"I"d like it first-rate," said Port, as he read his own invitation to the party. "We must go, Susie. It"ll be fun."
"Of course I"ll go. Don"t you think she has a very pleasant face?"
He spoke strongly of Mrs. King"s face, and they turned to go home. The fact that a young-people"s party was getting ready to be announced at Squire King"s was a secret pretty well known and carefully kept by all Benton; but everybody was glad to get an invitation, just the same.
Twenty-three people, or perhaps twenty-four, remarked that they were very glad Squire King"s house was so large, or there wouldn"t be room in it to walk around after the folks got there. That was not all; for some of the Benton people found out, for the first time, that they were no longer considered "young people," and some of them felt as if Mrs. King had made a mistake in her reckoning. Mrs. Bunce, the doctor"s wife, asked her where she drew the line; and she said,--
"I don"t exactly know, but if they"ve got gray hair, or their children go to school"--