"Hello, there!" he cried on coming closer. "Thought you fellers was a-goin' up to the Windy Mountains?"
"We've been up—-have our camp there," answered the doctor's son.
"We came down here for a purpose."
"Everything all right at home?" asked Giant.
"Yes. We had a scare day before yesterday, though. Hicks' barn got afire, an' folks thought the town might burn down, account o' the wind. But the bucket brigade an' the engine got the fire out before anything else caught."
"Are our folks all well?" asked Snap.
"Yes; an' hopin' you are the same, as they write in letters," and the old hunter grinned. "Had much luck shootin' and picter-takin'?"
"We are well satisfied," answered Shep. "Got quite some partridge and rabbits and some deer, and a lion——-"
"Oh, sure! A lion! Suppose ye got an ellerphant, and hoppo-what-you-call-'em, too?"
"We did get a lion," said Giant. "We've got him in a pit."
"See here, son, lions don't roam these woods, an' never did. You are mistook in the beast."