Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/383

 the result of abuse and hardship. Last year I was stolen out of camp—"

"By whom?" I interrupted, excitedly.

"By a vagabond who calls himself Matt Coyle," was the reply. "His old shanty leaked like a sieve, and I got wet and rusty. That's what makes me look so bad."

"How did your master get you back?"

"I heard the story about in this way: In less than an hour after I was stolen, a dirty, unkempt boy made his appearance in my master's camp, and told him that he had been fishing on the pond all the afternoon, that he knew the man who took me, and for a reward of ten dollars he would follow me up and steal me back again."

"Of course your master wasn't deceived by any such shallow trick as that!" I exclaimed.

"Well, he was. You see, he and the two young fellows who come up here with him every summer, never hire a guide. As they seldom venture more than twenty or thirty miles away from the lake, and never leave the water courses, there's really no need of a guide;