"Where did he come from, Toiney? Do you suppose he strayed from the coon's hole that you found in the woods, among some ledges near Big Swamp?" Colin, together with the other boys, was stooping down to examine the dead body of the wild animal which measured nearly a foot and a half from the tip of its sharp nose to the beginning of the bushy tail that was handsomely ringed with black and a shading buff-color. "Yaas, he'll com' out f'om de forêt--f'om among heem beeg tree." Toiney Leduc, letting his axe fall to the ground, waved an eloquent right arm in its flannel shirt-sleeve toward the woods beyond the clearing. "Isn't his fur long and thick--more like coarse gray hair than fur?" Nixon stroked the raccoon's shaggy coat. "Tell us how to find those ledges where the hole is? There may be some live ones in it. I'd give anything to see a live coon," urged Coombsie. "Ah! la! la! You no fin' dat ledge en dat swamp. Eet's littal black in dere, in gran' forêt--in dem big ole hood," came the dissuading answer. "He always says 'hood' for 'wood,'" explained Marcoo _sotto voce_. "Ciel! w'en you go for fin' dat hole, dat's de time you get los'--engh?" urged Toiney, suddenly very earnest. "You walkee, walkee--lak wit' eye shut--den you haf so tire' en so lonesam' you go--_deaded_." He flung out his hands with an eloquent gesture of blind despair upon the last word, which shot a warning thrill to the boys' hearts. Three of them looked rather apprehensively toward the dense woods that stretched away interminably beyond the clearing. But the fourth, Leon, was not to be intimidated by anything short of Toiney brandishing the woodchopper's axe. He paused in his gesture of slyly offering more clover to the boy with the frightened eyes. "Oh! I know the woods pretty well, Toiney," he said. "I've been far into them with my father. I can find the way to Big Swamp." "I'll bet me you' head you get los'--hein?" "Why don't you bet your own seal-head, Toiney? You can't say 'Boo!' straight." Leon scathingly pointed to the Canadian's bare, closely cropped head, dark and shiny as sealskin. "_Sapré!_ I'll no bet yous head--you Leon--for nobodee want heem, axcep' for play ping-pong," screamed the enraged Toiney. There was a general mirthful roar. Leon reddened. "Oh, come; let's 'beat it'!" he cried. "We'll never find that coon's burrow, or anything else, if we stand here chattering with a Canuck. Look at Blink! He's after something on the edge of the woods. A red squirrel, I think!" He set off in the wake of the terrier, and his companions followed, disregarding further protests in Toiney's ragged English. Once more they were immersed in the woods beyond the clearing. The terrier was barking furiously up a pine tree, on whose lowest branch sat the squirrel getting off an angry patter of "Quek-Quik! Quek-quek-quek-quik!" punctuated with shrill little cries.