"Now, do a little fishing, and you'll have enough to eat fer a week," he said.
"Before you go away I want you to show us how to set some traps,
Jed," said Snap.
"I'll do that," was the answer, and the very next day the old hunter made for them a trap to catch birds, another for mink and also a beaver trap.
"When I come ag'in I'll bring you something to put in the beaver trap," said the hunter. "It's a stuff we call barkstone. The beavers can't resist it nohow. As soon as they smell it they have to walk right into the trap after it." He referred to castoreum, a liquid obtained from the beaver, or castor, itself and having a powerful odor which acts on the animal just as catnip acts on a cat.
The weather had now turned off colder and they were glad to huddle close to the camp-fire at night. Before going to bed the hunter told the boys a bear story that all pronounced a "rattler."
The building of the new cabin began in earnest the next day, and Jed Sanborn told them how it might be put together to the best advantage, and even aided in cutting down some of the necessary logs.
"I've got to go back to town to-morrow," he said. "But I'll come back here before very long. I'll bring you anything you want."
"In that case I'll make out a list," answered Snap, and did so, with the aid of the others. Jed Sanborn left the next day at noon; and it was some time before they saw him again.
"And now to get at this cabin in earnest," said Shep, after the departure of the hunter.
Jed Sanborn had shown them how they might pile up some rocks for a rude chimney, banking up the lower part outside with dirt, and this they finished first. Then the top was put on the new structure and the sides, one end having a small door and the other an even smaller window. The flooring was of hard dirt, with cedar boughs in two corners for couches. In the shack they found a rude bench and a table, and these they transferred to the cabin. When they tried their new fireplace they found it worked well, the smoke going up the rude chimney without difficulty.