Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/28

 enough to put him in a better humour with his fate. He followed on up the shore for perhaps a quarter of a mile, half expecting to find another fish. Then, coming to a spot where the stream threaded, with musical clamour, through a line of boulders which afforded him a bridge, he crossed and crept again into the woods.

Almost immediately he came upon a well-beaten trail—a path which, as his nose promptly informed him, had been made by the feet of man. Mishi's heart rose at the sight. Men, to him, meant friends and food and caresses and, above all, Merivale. With high hopes he trotted on up the path till he emerged from the woods upon the edge of a wide, sunny clearing.

Near the centre of the clearing stood a log cabin flanked by a barn and a long, low shed. At one end of the cabin a clump of tall sunflowers flamed golden in the radiant air. From the cabin chimney smoke was rising, and a most hospitable smell of pork and beans greeted Mishi's nostrils. He bounded forward joyously, thinking all his troubles at an end.

But at this very instant a big red rooster, scratching beside the barn, caught sight of the strange, tawny shape emerging from the woods. "Krree-ee-ee!" he shrilled at the top of his piercing voice, and "Kwit-kwit-kwit-eree-ee-ee!" his signal of most urgent warning and alarm. With