"How far?"
"Don't know. Far."
"Well, I went in about forty feet myself," said the old hunter, "an' I didn't see any sign o' the pups, so I backed out again. If you went all the way in, Ben, I reckon it was a pretty long crawl."
"But why did you go in the den when the mother wolf was there?" asked Wilbur.
"Boy fool," said the half-witted lad, pointing at him. "Why go in if wolf not there?"
"Well," said Wilbur, on the defensive, "I should think it a whole lot safer to go in—that is, if I was going in at all—sometime when I'd be sure the mother wolf wouldn't be there."
But the other, still holding the cubs in his hands, negatived this reasoning with a vigorous shake of the head.
"Safer, wolf in," he said.
"I don't see that at all," objected Wilbur. "It can't be safer."
"You go in, in far, when wolf out. By and by wolf come, eat up legs, no can turn round for shoot."