the other was successfully running. Plainly, then, this same Obed Grimes
was bound to be a credit to his family; and all those people bearing the
strange names given by Obed would some day find cause to feel proud of
having such an enterprising relative.

Obed proved to be a pretty good cook, despite the humility with which he
had remarked that of course he could not expect to compete on even terms
with fellows who had had so many better opportunities to acquire the
"knack" of things, than had come his way.

The bread was as fine as any Bandy-legs had ever eaten in his own home,
where a high-priced cook held sway over the kitchen. There was also a
meat pie that seemed delicious, both as to crust and contents, when
opened; though Obed in-formed them that it was made of canned beef, and
even displayed the recent tin jacket, with its telltale label, as
confirmation to his assertion.

"Yuh see, boys," he remarked, laughingly, "I don't want yuh to think I'd
poach a deer in the close season, and palm it off as mountain mutton,
like they do at some o' the big hotels up here in the Adirondacks, I'm
told. Course I do shoot a deer once in a while in season; and lots o'
pa'tridges, they bein' so tame yuh c'n knock them over as they sit on
the lower limb o' a tree after flushin'. I ketch wheens o' trout, too,
from time to time; but I give yuh my word I never yet killed anything
when the law was on it, never!"

When Obed said a thing in his emphatic way, he was to be relied on, Max
thought. The woods boy could look very sober at times, though, as a
rule, there was that merry gleam in his eye that told how much he loved
a joke.