“That’s what the Indian said, and I’ve gone further since then. Well, I shall miss my dinner, that’s all, and it will be the second time I’ve done that lately. However, the first time I had nothing at all to eat; this time I have.”
“Oh, you brought your lunch along; a wise precaution when one is off for a tramp in the woods.”
“It’s only carrots and buns; not exactly a lunch, you know.”
“Carrots and buns do make rather a peculiar combination. Do you mean to say you eat the carrots raw as one does turnips sometimes?”
“I never eat them at all.”
“Then why bring them at all? I am willing to concede that they might satisfy an eye for color, but I am sure I should never select them to ease the pangs of physical hunger unless there were nothing else.”
Jack laughed. “I didn’t bring them for myself. I brought them to lure Happy with. He is our mascot, a wild fawn that got hurt and that we took into camp and kept. He got away last night and I started out to find him, so I brought the carrots and buns for him.”
“Oh, I see. Well, a wild fawn chase is as bad as a wild goose chase, you know, so I should give it up.”
“But if I don’t find him it will mean bad luck to the camp, for he is our mascot.”
“Don’t you believe it will bring bad luck. Why, I had a mascot once, a fox terrier, and all the time I had him I never sold a single picture, and the very day after he ran away I made a sale, so don’t you see it’s the having had a mascot, not the having it that brings the luck.” He spoke quite gravely, but looked up, with a twinkle in his eyes, from where he was strapping his easel together. Jack observed then that he was quite good to look upon, with shining brown eyes, a humorous mouth and a well-shaped nose. “Are you going to eat the carrots raw?” he asked as he straightened himself. “I am very curious on that point.”