S'pose'n you show us the place, sonny, and we'll be
moving on."
"Oh, it wouldn't be right not to ask her first," exclaimed Malcolm.
"She'll be here in such a little while."
The man looked uneasy. Presently he walked over to the window and
scraped a peep-hole on the frosted pane with his dirty thumbnail. "Sun's
down," he said. "I'd like to get that bear's foot fixed comfortable
before it grows any darker. I'd like to mighty well. It'll take some
time to heat water to dress it. Is that cabin far from here?"
"Not if we go in at the back of the place," said Malcolm. "It's just
across the meadow, and over a little hill. If we went around by the big
front gate it would be a good deal longer."
The man shifted uneasily from one foot to another, and complained of
being hungry. He was growing desperate. For more reasons than one he did
not want to be at the station when the train came in. That long red scar
across his face had been described a number of times in the newspapers,
and he did not care to be recognised just then.
The boys could not have told how it came about, but in a few minutes
they were leading the way toward the cabin. The man had persuaded them
that it was not at all necessary to wait for their Aunt Allison's
permission, and that it was needless to trouble their grandmother. Why
should the ladies be bothered about a matter that the boys were old
enough to decide? So well had he argued, and so tactfully had he
flattered them, that when they took their way across the field, it was
with the feeling that they were doing their highest duty in getting
these homeless wayfarers to the cabin as quickly as possible, on
their own responsibility.
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