CHAPTER XVII
AN ADVENTURE ON SNOWSHOES
The boys had talked bear for a long time—in fact ever since they had heard of two other boys of the settlement bringing in a pair of cubs they had found in a hollow tree in the forest. They had not said much in Mrs. Parsons’ presence, but they had told the girls that they meant to get a bear, big or little, before the winter was over.
At the fort they had fallen in with a French-English trapper named Marquette. Marquette was a happy-go-lucky fellow who loved hunting and fishing better than he did eating and sleeping. He was on good terms with everybody, and all of the pioneers thought a good deal of him.
Marquette came to the log cabin one day bringing in some sweet herbs that Mrs. Parsons desired very much, and in return was given his supper and a place to sleep. From this meeting the boys were much interested in the hunter and he in the boys.
“I will show you how to make snowshoes and how to wear them,” he said one day. “Then you can go anywhere, no matter how deep the snow is.”
He was as good as his word, and when the French-Englishman went away both Joe and Harry were provided with a substantial pair of snowshoes and had been out on them three times and could use them fairly well.
It was about Christmas time that there came an extra heavy fall of snow—for in those days the snow fell heavier in Kentucky than it does to-day—why, nobody can tell, exactly. Then followed a day of thawing and then more cold weather, so the surface of the snow was covered with a thick crust.
“Just the thing for snowshoes!” cried Joe. “We can travel almost anywhere and not break through.”
“Yes; and a deer will break through at every step and so will a bear,” returned Harry. “Just the right snow for hunting.”
“If we can only find the deer and the bear.”