“Ain’t you glad you didn’t go home yesterday?”
“Guess we are.”
“Ain’t a bit hungry, nor tired, now?”
“Not a bit.”
“It’s nearer five o’clock than four, and that bear must be got home and dressed to-night. I thought his leg was broken, but it was that stake dragging that made the trail, and helped greatly to tire him.”
Joe tied his legs together with the cod-line, and finding a dead spruce, they broke it down, and thrust it between his legs; Joe taking one end on his shoulders and the boys the other, they carried the carcass to the shore.
“This is a big one,” said Joe, drawing a long breath: “he weighs every bit of three hundred. Well, I’ve kept him well; he’s had all the corn he’s wanted, and the best of corn too; and there’s been any quantity of blueberries this year. Now let us take a drink at Cross-root Spring, leave our guns here, go home and get supper, then take the boat, come up and get the bear.”
“We are going to call it Quicksilver Spring now,” said Charlie: “you know what happened here.”
“Well, Quicksilver Spring, then.”
“It was a noble day’s work Uncle Isaac did that day.”