He had done his best shooting that day on purpose to make a large bag, fully intending that Oscar should ship the surplus birds and receive pay for them; and this was the way he took to accomplish his object. Indeed, he almost always found a way to make Oscar do just as he wanted him to do.
Having placed the game in the hands of the express agent at the depot, and sent a notice of shipment to Calkins & Son, the two boys started for home, well satisfied with their day's sport.
CHAPTER X. AN ASTOUNDING OFFER.
Oscar was very tired when he reached home that night, but he spent some hours at his bench before he went to bed. He was anxious to have his case of birds ready for delivery by the time it had been promised. So as soon as he had eaten his supper, and answered all the questions his mother had to ask regarding the man he and Sam had saved from drowning, he lighted the lamp in his shop and went to work.
Everything being ready to his hand, he made rapid progress, and when he locked his shop, at ten o'clock, he told himself that by Monday, at noon, if nothing unforeseen happened, the case would be safely mounted in Mr. Jackson's dining-room.
And so it was. It was finished at eight o'clock, and Oscar, who was a good judge of such matters, declared, with no little satisfaction, that he had never seen a finer piece of work.
There was one thing about it that did not look just right, and the boy wondered what Mr. Jackson would say when he saw it.
The wheelbarrow was again brought into requisition, and the case having been placed upon it, and covered with a sheet to protect it from the dust, Oscar trundled it off toward Mr. Jackson's house.