“Cubs! listen to him, would you?” cried Step Hen. “Why, it ain’t the time of year for cubs; and if it was, I’d like to see you playin’ with any, while the old missus was alive, and hangin’ around. She’d cub you with a club, worse’n she did me; and don’t you forget it, Bumpus. Cubs! Well, what queer things you do see when you haven’t a gun,” and the way he looked at the fat boy when saying this made Bumpus bristle up immediately.
“Don’t you call me a thing, Step Hen!” he admonished, severely; at which there was a shout from the other.
“He admits it all, fellers;” Davy Jones exclaimed; “he puts on the shoe first thing. But then, Bumpus, we know you ain’t up on natural history. It’s a wonder you didn’t say that was a hippopotamus, or a crocodile, instead of a bear. You’re bound to know more about these things before you get back to Cranford again. We’ll let it go at that. How’s that supper gettin’ on, Giraffe? Anything more I c’n do to help?”
“Anything more?” echoed the cook, disdainfully; “I’d like to know the first thing you’ve done to help get it. Didn’t he say he felt one of them fits acomin’ on when we landed here, fellers; and then on top of that, you got so scared by that old bear dropping down on us, you couldn’t hardly move. I just see you helpin’, when you c’n crawl out of it. The only help you’ll give will be when supper’s ready for servin’, and then it’ll be to make way with the stuff good and hearty. I notice you never get one of them cramps right then, Davy; oh, no! They’re right handy things to have in the house, ain’t they. I’m goin’ to borrow a few sometime, see if I don’t now.”
In good time the supper was pronounced ready, Eli having assisted in its preparation; for, with nine hungry voyagers to feed, the amount that had to be prepared made the task no light one.
As usual, they made merry while disposing of the food that had been gotten ready. Some of the moose was cut up as small as possible, and made into a palatable stew. Then they had Boston baked beans; and some pretty fair biscuits, which Eli baked in the little portable oven that was carried in one of the boats. Of course coffee made a part of the supper. At home possibly few of these lads ever drank coffee more than once a day, and at breakfast at that; but here in the woods the meal would seem rather tame without the warm cup that every one looked for.
“What do you say to stopping here a day or so, boys?” asked Thad. “I’ve been talking it over with Eli, and he says we couldn’t find a better place for game. Perhaps, now, one of the rest of you may run across a moose bigger even than mine; or Bumpus here stands a chance of meeting up with his friend, the bear, who gave him that handshake in passing.”
“Excuse me,” Bumpus hastened to say; “that doesn’t mean I object to hanging out at the Hotel Log Cabin as long as the rest of you see fit; but I don’t hanker after meetin’ up with that rude black pirate again. He may be a pretty fine kind of a bear, as bears go; but I object to the breed.”
“Count us all as saying we’ll be glad of a break in the journey, Thad,” Allan remarked, just then. “Besides, we must be somewhere near where that Mr. Carson is hunting, right now; and at any time we might run up against him.”
Step Hen, Giraffe and Davy nodded their heads, as though to intimate that Allan voiced the sentiments of all when he said that.