Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/100

 “The blueberries? Yes, it is pretty late for them, but you still can find a few in the hollows,”  said Oscar, misunderstanding Hugh’s surprise. “Oh, you mean the cream? Why, that is nothing; I have a cow.”

“But how did she get here?” Hugh persisted. “By water, or through the woods?”

He thought of the journey that he himself had made and decided that, for a four-footed creature,  both routes were equally impossible.

“She must have been born hereabouts,” Oscar answered. “I found her running wild in the woods when she was still a calf. I brought her home and built her a stable and fed her for a  month or two and then”—here he indulged in the  silent chuckle that Hugh was to learn was his  only form of laughter—“and then Half-Breed  Jake sent over to say that she was his.”

“Was she?” Hugh wished to know. He felt a great interest in what had occurred between  Oscar and the pirate.

“In a way she might have been called so. You see, old Mat Henderson had a little farm up on