Here at last was a surprise of unmixed blessedness for poor Dol; namely, the brotherly hospitality which is always extended to a stranger in a Maine camp, whether that be the temporary home of a millionnaire or the shanty of a poor logger.
His new friend led him into the largest of the cabins, which contained a fireplace built of huge stones, where red flames frisked around fragrant birch logs, a camp-bed of evergreen boughs about ten feet wide, a rude table, a bench, and a few stools of pine-wood.
Over the camp-fire was stooping a bright-eyed, muscular fellow, whose dress somewhat resembled Uncle Eb’s, but who had no negro blood in his veins. He was frying meat; and such tempting whiffs mingled with the steam which floated up from his pan, that Dol’s nostrils twitched, and his hungry longing grew almost unbearable as he inhaled them.
“I guess this chunk of ven’zon is about cooked, Doc,” said this personage, as Dol’s kindly host entered the hut, with him in tow, followed closely by the boys of his own camp.
“All right, then! Let’s have it!” was the reply. “I’m pretty glad our camp-fare is decent to-night, Joe, for we’ve a visitor here; a hungry bird who has strayed from his own camp, and has wandered through the forest until he looks like a death’s head. But we’ll soon fix him up; won’t we, Joe? Give him a mug of hot tea right away. Hot tea is worth a dozen of any other drink in the woods for a pick-me-up.”
A spark of fun kindled in Dol’s eyes when he heard himself described as “a hungry bird.” It brightened into an appreciative beam as the reviving tea trickled down his throat.
“Eatin’s wot he wants, I guess,” said Joe, the camp guide and cook, placing some meat and a slab of bread of his own baking on a tin plate for the guest.
Dol began on them greedily; and though the first mouthful or two threatened to sicken him, his squeamishness wore off, and he gained strength with every morsel.
“How do you like Maine venison, my boy? Like it well enough to have another piece, eh?” asked his host, when he saw that the haggard, gray look was leaving the wanderer’s face, and that the appalled, dazed expression, the result of being lost in the woods, had disappeared from his eyes.
“I think it’s the best meat I ever tasted,” answered Dol heartily. “It’s so tender, and has a splendid taste.”