LETTER XVIII. 205 



' Is this the point from which you meant to 

 start hunting, Jocko ?' I asked. 



' No ; but I guess we can't go any further 

 to-night/ 



* How far is the log-hut ?' 



* Three miles, I guess.' 



' Very well, then, go on until we get there,' I 

 replied. 



The men grumbled, but one man must always 

 be master, and it is good to teach your men at 

 first that if they waste time by the way, they must 

 make it up after hours. And now the road led 

 over a regular boom, up to which we had to 

 bring the horses with a rush. We had built a 

 gradually rising platform in front of it, and some- 

 how or other the trap got over ; but meanwhile 

 our leader Jocko had disappeared in the dim 

 thickets. It was hard to follow him, but we did 

 it somehow the wife very silent and a little 

 frightened, the driver desperately savage, and 

 horses ' played out/ 



At last a point of light gleamed ahead of us, 

 and we could hear the rinof of an axe, and in 



O 7 



another minute we pulled up between two rough 

 log-huts, one the stable, the other the shanty. 

 There was not much to choose between them ; 

 but the shanty, built of rough logs, had a hearth 

 and shelves for sleeping-bunks, and was soon 



