The boys listened, with staring eyes and open mouths, till he concluded, then making a rush, both caught him round the neck.
“Just what we’ve always been longing to do!” said Charlie. “Just what we’ve been talking, dreaming about, and telling we meant to do some time.”
The boy-nature, which had been in abeyance a long time, and kept down by hard work and anxiety, was all up now, fresh and blithe as May.
“How glad I am we got stuck!” said Charlie. “Now we’ll make money, and have a good time, both together. O, I wish Fred could go!”
“But will Joe go?” asked John.
“Will he eat when he’s hungry? He’s almost as well acquainted as I am. He’s been logging and hunting up that way. He saw a hunter last week, that came out of the woods because his folks were sick. He’s a great friend of Joe’s, and told him of places where the beavers are getting ready to build their houses, and where the moose are going to make a yard, and said, as he couldn’t go into the woods this winter, he would lend him his steel traps. I’ve got a few traps, and know where I can hire a few more, and we must make up the number we lack with dead-falls. I’ll make snow-shoes for you and John, and arrange everything. We can’t start without snow, and therefore if there’s no snow when you come home, we must wait till there is.”
“But,” asked John, “can’t we hunt round here?”
“Yes, indeed. Kill bears and wolves, and get the bounty—anywhere within fifty miles.”
“Perhaps,” said John, “we shan’t have to come to the wooden shrouds, after all.”
“I hope we shan’t. I didn’t think we should,” said Charlie.