“I never did see the sense of making a martyr out of yourself all the time you happened to be away from home, and in the woods,” he observed sagaciously when on the subject; “so some fellows might call me a sissy, or an old maid because I insist on fetching along certain things like my tooth brush, and a few more necessities.”
“Huh! like this, for instance, I suppose?” chuckled Wee Willie, appearing at the door of the cabin just then, and holding up an object which caused Elmer to laugh outright, and even Amos to smile indulgently.
“Oh! That’s my trousers’ creaser and stretcher,” blandly admitted Perk, with a grin; “but honest to goodness I never meant to fetch it along; and I don’t see how ever it got among my traps unless my sister Sue did it; she’s as full of mischief as an egg is of meat, and would think it a good joke on me to find what I’d gone and lugged all the way into the woods. Think of me creasing this horrible pair of pants, will you?”
So they acquitted honest Perk of any evil intention along the line of playing the dude when in camp. But of course Wee Willie would lose no opportunity to plague him about his “stretchers” while they were at Log Cabin Bend.
During the early afternoon Elmer disappeared.
He had told no one of his intention, and indeed they did not really miss him until he had been gone some time.
“Where do you think he’s off to?” Perk asked the tall chum, for he had left Amos to complete a rude chair upon which they were working, and strolled over to where Wee Willie was putting the finishing touches on their dining-table, an exceedingly rustic affair, but which promised to be fairly serviceable.
“Oh! that’s an easy one,” replied the other, in a low tone, and with a cautious look toward Amos. “You remember he said he meant to try to locate the man with the queer knife, if he chanced to be still hanging around in this neighborhood.”
“But why should he stay, now he’s got back his property, eh, Wee Willie?” persisted the stout boy.
“Huh! that’s harder to answer, I admit,” he was told; “unless he did chance to recognize Amos while we sat around by the blaze of the campfire, and has been unable to tear himself away. But I leave that to Elmer; if any one can unearth the tramp he will.”