The boys began to unload the sled, and one after another of the articles were taken out and laid on the portico. Finally, Harry drew out the panther’s skin.
“A panther!” exclaimed Mr. Winters. “Where did you buy that skin?”
“Buy it!” repeated Archie. “We didn’t buy it. Frank killed the panther that once wore this skin; with a shot-gun, too; and that isn’t all he killed, either. Look here!” and he threw out the bear and moose-skins, and finally the cubs. “He had a nice time killing that moose,” Archie went on to say, “and he came near being”——
Here he was interrupted by a look from his cousin. He was about to say, “and came near being killed himself;” but finished his sentence by saying, “He came near killing the moose at the first shot, but didn’t quite.”
Mr. Winters had seen the glances that the boys exchanged, and knew that it meant something more than they were willing to reveal; but he made no remark. After the things had all been taken out, with the exception of those that belonged to George and Harry, and the cubs had been taken into the kitchen and delivered into Aunt Hannah’s especial charge, the boys got into the sled again and started for Mr. Butler’s.
Their appearance in the village created a great commotion. After driving around to the post-office for the mail, as well as to show off the qualities of their horned horse, they started home again.
That evening was passed in a pleasant manner, in the recital of the boys’ adventures in the woods, which also formed the topic of conversation for many days. In spite of the emphatic instructions Frank had given his companions “not to say a word about his fight with the moose,” it gradually “leaked out somewhere,” as Archie expressed it, and Frank became a hero in his own family, and in the village.
Here we will leave them, only to introduce them again in other and more stirring scenes on the Western Prairies.
THE END.