Sam listened with intense interest, but Guy was at no pains to conceal his contempt.  “Oh, pshaw!  That’s no adventure—­just a whole lot of ‘s’posens’ without a blame thing doing.  Now I’ll tell you what I done.  I—­”

“Now, Hawkeye,” Sam put in, “please don’t be rough about it.  Leave out the awful things:  I ain’t well to-day.  You keep back the scary parts till to-morrow.”

“I tell you I left here and went straight as a die, an’ I seen a Woodchuck, but he wasn’t in line, so I says:  ’No, some other day.  I kin get you easy any time.’  Then I seen a Hawk going off with a Chicken, but that was off my beat, an’ I found lots o’ old stumps an’ hundreds o’ Chipmunks an’ wouldn’t be bothered with them.  Then I come to a farmhouse an’—­an’ I went around that so’s not to scare the Dog, an’ I went pretty near as far as Downey’s Dump—­yes, a little a-past it—­only to one side—­when up jumps a Partridge as big as a Turkey, an’ a hull gang of young ones—­about thirty or forty.  I bet I seen them forty rod away, an’ they all flew, but one that lighted on a tree as far as—­oh, ’cross that field, anyway.  I bet you fellers wouldn’t ‘a’ seen it at all.  Well, I jest hauled off as ca’m as ca’m an’ let him have it.  I aimed straight for his eye—­an’ that’s where I hit him. Now who gets a grand coup, for there he is!” Hawkeye unrolled his coat and turned out a bobtailed young Robin in the speckled plumage, shot through the body.

“So that’s your Partridge.  I call that a young Robin,” said the First Chief with slow emphasis.  “Rules is broke.  Killed a Song-bird.  Little Beaver, arrest the criminal.”

But Hawkeye struggled with all the ferocity born of his recent exploit, and had to be bound hand and foot while a full Council was called to try the case.  The angry protests weakened when he found how serious the Councillors were.  Finally he pleaded “guilty” and was condemned to wear a black feather of disgrace and a white feather for cowardice for three days, as well as wash the dishes for a week.  They would also have made him cook for that term, but that they had had some unhappy experiences with some dishes of Guy’s make.

“Well, I won’t do it, that’s all,” was the prisoner’s defiant retort.  “I’ll go home first.”

“And hoe the garden?  Oh, yes; I think I see you.”

“Well, I won’t do it.  You better let me ’lone.”

“Little Beaver, what do they do when an Injun won’t obey the Council?”

“Strip him of his honours.  Do you remember that stick we burned with ‘Sapwood’ on it?”

“Good idee.  We’ll burn Hawkeye for a name and dig up the old one”

“No, you won’t, you dirty mean Skunks!  Ye promised me you’d never call me that again.  I am Hawkeye.  I kin see farder’n—­n—­” and he began to weep.

“Well, will you obey the Council?”

“Yes; but I won’t wear no white feather—­I’m brave, boohoo!”