"My gun's at home," explained Mr. Larzalere. "You see that deer was grazing by the big pine in front of my house, and when I raised the shade I must have startled him. I told my wife to get my gun quick, but I didn't dare wait for it, because I didn't want to lose sight of my deer. Tell your Uncle John to come quick's he can! I'm going back for my gun!"
As Mr. Larzalere ran for his gun, Billy flew through the house shouting: "Gerald! Betty! Selma! Everybody! Get up and see where there was a deer! Come on quick and I'll show you his tracks out in the sand! You'll have to hurry if you want to see the tracks, 'cause it's raining pitchforks!"
After chasing through the storm for an hour or more, Mr. Larzalere went home to breakfast, though broiled venison wasn't on the bill of fare.
Whether dogs drove him out of the woods, or whether the deer overheard Mr. Larzalere and Uncle John planning his downfall at one of the meetings by the "Big Stone," and walked into the village to show how little fear he had of hunters, Billy never knew, and the "Old Timer" was never again seen in that region. Whereat rejoiced Betty, the superstitious.
Soon after, Uncle John went home; but he always declared that he should have killed the deer had he stayed long enough.
CHAPTER X.
FISHING THROUGH THE ICE
It was Billy who gathered the last bunch of bluebells. He found them one November morning, their brave, delicate beauty all that remained of unforgotten blooms. The next day it was winter.
The boy welcomed the whirling snow, but when the ice began forming all along the beach, his delight was unbounded. He couldn't pity the poor sailors as Betty advised; Billy envied them. The last trip of the season, like the first perilous voyage in the spring, seemed brimming with possibilities of adventure.
Morning after morning, Billy ran to the window before he was dressed to see the waves tossing the broken ice in ridges farther and farther from the shore. How he longed to try the stretches of clear ice between the ridges! How he longed to go where the waves were dashing against the crystal wall! He wondered how much higher than his head the spray leaped toward the sun before it fell in sparkling showers all along the southern shore as far as the child could see.