Then Joe went down to the stream where he had left the hide soaking, and after shaking it about in the water to free it from any sediment that might have caught on it, he lifted it up and brought it to the grass near the fire, and then folded it over to make a long narrow piece. He took hold of one end, and Jack of the other, and they twisted it and wrung out almost all the water. It was surprising to Jack now how little the hide looked like the deer skin of an hour before. Two or three times the hide was unfolded and stretched out and then doubled again and the boys put all the power of their arms into the wringing process. "The best way," said Joe, "would be to knot the skin around the limb of a tree and twist it just as hard as a man can twist; but we can't do that now." When all the water possible had been wrung from the skin, it was unfolded, and Joe told Jack to help him stretch it and get it again to something like its natural shape. They worked for some time at this, pulling against each other, across and sidewise of the skin, and one hand pulling against the other at the edges; then, when the skin had again taken somewhat the shape of the dried hide of the day before, it was spread on the grass as flat as possible. Now Joe added water to the brains in the basin which were just steaming, until he had increased the quantity of the mixture about three times; and carrying the basin over to where the hide lay, he began to take the fluid in his hand and to spread it smoothly over the hair side of the skin, rubbing it in as he did so. When Jack saw what was being done, he took hold also, and soon the whole skin was covered with the mixture, which was rubbed in and kneaded with the knuckles, especially near the edges of the hide and about the head and neck. "They say," explained Joe, "that the main part of the tanning is the way you put the brains on, and the way you work the thing dry afterward." By this time the sun was getting low. "I don't know whether we'll be able to finish this chore to-night or not," Joe said. "After the brains have been put on, it ought to be left in the sun to be set up and then it ought to be dried; but I'm afraid we can't do that. We'll have to quit now before very long." After the brains had been thoroughly applied, Joe began to fold and roll up the skin until it was in a tight ball; and then he sat down and made a cigarette. "That's about as far," he said, "as we'll be able to go to-night. Before we go to bed I'll spread the skin out, and to-morrow we'll have to let it dry in the wagon. I'm afraid it won't be much of a job of tanning: it's had to be done too fast and spread out over too much time. If we were going to lie over here to-morrow, I'd give it a good soaking in water and then start in to work it soft and dry; but that's something that'll have to wait."