"The old hunter straightened up as if shot, and gazed at them"
The old man arose with the birds which he had finished plucking and cleaning, and was silent for a time while he placed them in a home-made oven for cooking. Returning to the settle he took up the conversation.
"Ye'll find naught here but woods and hills and coal."
"Have you been here long?" asked Ande, in turn becoming the inquirer.
"Nigh sixteen years."
"How does it happen that you, a hunter, should frequent this section, which is rapidly becoming civilised?"
"Well, the country is becoming more peopled the last year or so, but there is still tolerable hunting. There's black bear in plenty, and there's deer, beaver, coon, and wild birds, and then I have other reasons. This is nigh the place where my father was slain."
"Your father was a hunter, too, then?"