"Gee!" said Skinny, his eyes sticking out when he thought of the deer. "If I only had a gun!"
"It's against Massachusetts law to shoot deer. That's why they are getting so common. You have your rope. Maybe you can lasso one. There is no law against that, I guess."
"I'll do it," Skinny told him. "Bet your life the boys will be surprised when they see me bringing home a deer. Maybe I'll get two or three. Mr. Norton didn't give me a message to anybody, so it won't make any difference which way I go."
"Don't get too many. We'd like to save a few. And be careful that some bear doesn't get you," went on Mr. Richmond, laughing to see how excited Skinny was. "They are not very common, but once in a while one is seen on the mountain."
"How do you get up there?"
"Go back to Pumpkin Hook. It isn't far, and then follow the road which turns east. It will take you right to Savoy. You will find a pretty good road all the way, and you won't have any more trouble than you would going to Cheshire—unless," he added in a fierce voice that made Skinny jump, "unless A BEAR GETS YOU!"
"Now, father, don't scare the boy to death," said Mary's mother. "You know well enough there are no bears and the road to Savoy is a well-traveled one."
"Of course it is, or I shouldn't have suggested his going there. But there have been bears seen on the Savoy Mountain. I saw one myself, last year."
"Huh! I ain't afraid of no bear," put in Skinny, drawing himself up and looking fierce. "I tracked one once on Bob's Hill. It went up to Peck's Falls and hid in our cave. We smoked it out. I didn't have a gun or knife or anything, but I hit it with a snowball."
You could have hung a hat on Mary's eyes when Skinny told them that.