you can't hinder and pester according to your own sweet will one
bit. You must either obey orders or else be put under arrest and
tied in the chair."

To go into the chair to-day would be torture indeed, and the little
fellow was sobered at once.

The others soon joined us, eager to see everything by the broad
light of day, and to enter upon the task of getting settled. We had
scarcely come together before John junior appeared with the chief
features of our breakfast. The children scanned this probable
playmate very curiously, and some of us could hardly repress a smile
at his appearance. He was even more sandy than his father. Indeed
his hair and eyebrows were nearly white, but out of his red and
almost full-moon face his mother's black eyes twinkled shrewdly.
They now expressed only good-will and bashfulness. Every one of us
shook hands with him so cordially that his boy's heart was evidently
won.

Merton, to break the ice more fully, offered to show him his gun,
which he had kept within reach ever since we left the boat. It made
him feel more like a pioneer, no doubt. As he took it from its stout
cloth cover I saw John junior's eyes sparkle. Evidently a deep chord
was touched. He said, excitedly: "To-day's your time to try it. A
rabbit can't stir without leaving his tracks, and the snow is so
deep and soft that he can't get away. There's rabbits on your own
place."

"O papa," cried my boy, fairly trembling with eagerness, "can't I
go?"