"Grandfather!" cried the boys, and they ran to meet him.
Soon they came back with an old man. His hair was rough and gray, but his eyes were bright under his bushy eyebrows. He wore an old brown bear skin.
"Ho, man!" called Strongarm, "come on!"
"Sit and rest, father," Burr said.
The old man sat down on the root of a tree. Burr brought him bison meat and wild honey and a horn of water.
"Eat, you are tired and hungry."
The old man ate all he wanted. Then he began to talk. He told about his wife, and the work at the stone yard and the gravel bed, and of the men who had come from far away to buy his axes.
The boys stood by and listened.
After some time Burr looked at the bag on the old man's shoulder.
"Have you a new ax in there for me?" she asked with a little laugh.