226 Trails to Woods and Waters 



wounds upon the dead calf carefully, and 

 noted all the hoof prints in the trampled forest 

 carpet, he fell to examining a near-by tree 

 trunk. 



" Seems to me this tree trunk looks mighty 

 interesting, Harry," he exclaimed. "What 

 do you think about it? " 



" Looks just like all the rest of the tree 

 trunks," I replied in disgust. It annoyed me 

 that Ben should think of such trifling things 

 as how tree trunks looked at a time like this. 



" Come here, Harry," said he, " and let me 

 show you that it does not look just like all the 

 other tree trunks." 



I followed Ben's finger carefully from 

 point to point, as he showed me where the 

 bark had been scratched and torn off. At 

 each of these points was a deep scar in the 

 bark, that showed the white wood beneath. 

 Finally Ben picked two soft gray hairs from 

 beneath a sliver of bark, and held them up for 

 my inspection. 



" Look like cat hairs," I suggested. 



" Mightily," replied Ben. " They are cat 



