Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) MARK TIDD IN THE BACKWOODS Books by CLARENCE BUDINGTON KELLAND Mark Tidd in Egypt Mark Tidd in Italy Mark Tidd Mark Tidd in the Backwoods Mark Tidd in Business Mark Tidd’s Citadel Mark Tidd, Editor Mark Tidd, Manufacturer Catty Atkins, Bandmaster Catty Atkins Catty Atkins, Riverman Catty Atkins, Sailorman Catty Atkins, Financier HARPER & BROTHERS Established 1817 [Illustration: THEN I HEARD COLLINS SAY SOMETHING THAT SOUNDED LIKE “WO-OO-OF!”] MARK TIDD IN THE BACKWOODS BY CLARENCE B. KELLAND AUTHOR OF “Mark Tidd” ILLUSTRATED HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY HARPER & BROTHERS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ILLUSTRATIONS Then I Heard Collins Say Something that Sounded Like “Wo-oo-of!” Right in the Middle of It the Old Horse Jumped All His Feet Off the Ground and Started Down the Road a-Kiting My Pole Landed Good and Solid Right Between the Two Sheds, and I Swung Out and Over He Went Down, Rolling Over and Over Right Up to Uncle Hieronymous’s Feet MARK TIDD IN THE BACKWOODS CHAPTER I It all started just before school was out. One afternoon when I got home mother showed me a letter from Uncle Hieronymous, who lives in the woods back of Baldwin, on the Middle Branch of the Père Marquette River. I never had seen him, but he and mother wrote to each other quite often, and I guess she’d been telling him a good deal about me, that’s Binney Jenks, and Mark Tidd and Tallow and Plunk. Of course, Mark Tidd was most important. He always thought us out of scrapes. So what did this letter of his do but invite us all to come up to his place and stay the whole summer if we wanted to? As soon as I read it I was so excited I had to stand up and prance around the room. I couldn’t sit still. “Can we go, ma? Can we go?” I asked, over and over again, without giving her a chance to answer.