Part 22

The body of the moose was a huge one; it must have weighed fully fourteen hundred pounds. The boys could no more have moved it than they could move a mountain. Moreover, it was now beginning to snow fine and fast.

Jonathan had a fairly good knife, however, and by using the axe they succeeded in rudely butchering the carcass and dismembering it. Even then the quarters were so heavy that their full strength was required to drag them up the bluff and load them into the wagon. The head, with its broad, branching antlers, was all that they could lift to the top of their now bulky load.

The task had taken till past four o'clock of that stormy November afternoon. Twilight was upon them, the wintry twilight of a snowstorm, before they made start; and it was long past midnight when they finally plodded home.

There were corncake and moose venison for Thanksgiving dinner.

THE END

FOOTNOTE:

[31] From the _Youth's Companion_, November 26, 1908.

[Illustration]

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS GARDEN CITY, N.Y.

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Transcriber's note:

Page x, "Swet" changed to "Swett" (By Sophie Swett)

Page 60 and 63, the wife of the parson calls herself Mrs. "Camberly" while the parson calls himself "Camberley" as each is used only once and in the spirit of marital harmony, both were retained.

Page 84, "beggers" changed to "beggars" (We are not beggars)

Page 199, period added after "Mrs" (Mrs. Burns is 'as happy as)

Page 256, "worm" is correct as printed as it is another name for a split rail fence.