“I thought I’d come home an’ git ye ready,” said Jim; “fur I knowed ye’d feel bad to meet a gentleman in yer old poor-house fixin’s.  Burn ’em or bury ’em as soon as I’m gone.  I don’t never want to see them things agin.”

Jim went off again down the river, and Mr. Benedict and Harry busied themselves in cleaning the camp, and preparing Number Ten for the reception of Mr. Balfour and his boy, having previously determined to take up their abode with Jim for the winter.  The latter had a hard afternoon.  He was tired with his night’s tramp, and languid with loss of sleep.  When he arrived at the landing he found Mr. Balfour waiting.  He had passed Mike Conlin on the way, and even while they were talking the Irishman came in sight.  After half-an-hour of busy labor, the goods and passengers were bestowed, Mike was paid for the transportation, and the closing journeys of the day were begun.

When Jim had made half of the weary row up the river, he ran into a little cove to rest and wipe the perspiration from his forehead.  Then he informed Mr. Balfour that he was not alone in the camp, and, in his own inimitable way, having first enjoined the strictest secrecy, he told the story of Mr. Benedict and his boy.

“Benedict will hunt and fish with ye better nor I can,” said he, “an’ he’s a better man nor I be any way; but I’m at yer sarvice, and ye shall have the best time in the woods that I can give ye.”

Then he enlarged upon the accomplishments of Benedict’s boy.

“He favors yer boy a little,” said Jim, eyeing the lad closely.  “Dress ‘em alike, and they wouldn’t be a bad pair o’ brothers.”

Jim did not recognize the germs of change that existed in his accidental remark, but he noticed that a shade of pain passed over the lawyer’s face.

“Where is the other little feller that ye used to brag over, Mr. Balfour?” inquired Jim.

“He’s gone, Jim; I lost him.  He died a year ago.”

Jim had no words with which to meet intelligence of this character, so he did not try to utter any; but, after a minute of silence, he said:  “That’s what floors me.  Them dies that’s got everything, and them lives that’s got nothin’—­lives through thick and thin.  It seems sort o’ strange to me that the Lord runs everything so kind o’ car’less like, when there ain’t nobody to bring it to his mind.”

Mr. Balfour made no response, and Jim resumed his oars.  But for the moon, it would have been quite dark when Number Nine was reached, but, once there, the fatigues of the journey were forgotten.  It was Thede Balfour’s first visit to the woods, and he was wild with excitement.  Mr. Benedict and Harry gave the strangers a cordial greeting.  The night was frosty and crisp, and Jim drew his boat out of the water, and permitted his stores to remain in it through the night.  A hearty supper prepared them all for sleep, and Jim led his city friends to Number Ten, to enjoy their camp by themselves.  A camp-fire, recently lighted, awaited them, and, with its flames illuminating the weird scenes around them, they went to sleep.