“He won’t get none on it, you kin bet high on that,” said Dan.  “I told him I was goin’ agin him, an’ so I am.  I’ll bust his traps as fast as I kin find ’em, an’ I won’t do nothin’ but hunt fur ’em, day an’ night.”

“Now, haint you got no sense at all?” cried his father, so fiercely that Dan jumped up and turned his face toward the path, as if he were on the point of taking to his heels.

“Wal, I wanted to go pardners with him an’ he wouldn’t le’ me,” protested Dan.

“What’s the odds?  Set down thar an’ listen while somebody what knows somethin’ talks to you.  What odds does it make to you if he won’t go pardners with you?”

“Kase I want some of the money; that’s the odds it makes to me.”

“Wal, you kin have it, an’ you needn’t do no work, nuther.  I’m Dave’s pap an’ your’n too, an’ knows what’s best fur all of us.  You jest keep still an’ let Dave go on an’ ketch the birds; an’ when he’s ketched ’em an’ got the money in his pocket, then I’ll tell you what else to do.  Le’ me see:  fifty dozen birds at three dollars a dozen!  That’s—­that’s jest——­”

Godfrey straightened up, locked his fingers together, rested his elbows on his knees and looked down at the pile of ashes in the fire-place.

“It’s a heap of money, the fust thing you know,” said Dan.  “It’s fifty dollars.  Dave told me so.”

“Fifty gran’mothers!” exclaimed Godfrey.  “Dave done said that jest to make a fule of you.  It would be fifty dollars if he got only a dollar a dozen.  If he got two it would be a hundred dollars, an’ if he got three, it would be——­”

Godfrey stopped, believing that he must have made a mistake somewhere, and stared at Dan as if he were utterly bewildered.  Dan returned the stare with interest.  “A hundred dollars!” he repeated, slowly.  “That thar Dave of our’n goin’ to make a hundred dollars all by hisself!  Some on it’s mine.”

“It’s more’n that, Dannie,” said Godfrey, who, as soon as he could settle his mind to the task, went over his calculations again, adding the astounding statement—­

“An’ if he gets three dollars a dozen, he’ll get a hundred an’ fifty dollars for the lot.”

Dan’s astonishment was so great that for a few seconds he could not speak, and even his father looked puzzled and amazed.  He was certain that he had made no mistake in his mental arithmetic this time, and the magnitude of David’s prospective earnings fairly staggered him.  It made him angry to think of it.

“The idee of that triflin’ leetle Dave’s makin’ so much money,” he exclaimed, in great disgust; “an’ here’s me, who has worked an’ slaved fur a hul lifetime, an’ I’ve got jest twenty dollars.”

“Eh?” cried Dan.

Godfrey was frightened at what he had said, but he could not recall it without exciting Dan’s suspicions; so he put on a bold face and continued:—­

“Yes, I’ve got that much, an’ I worked hard fur it, too.  But a hundred an’ fifty dollars!  We must have that when it’s ’arned, Dannie.”