"If the Indians would only leave us free!" "But they will not," broke in Henry. "They say white people not make any more settlements, and it not long before they drive out those that are here." "Let them try!" said Israel dryly. "They have been trying," remarked Peleg. "There is not a day that we have not seen some signs of the Shawnees or Delawares prowling around the forts." "They have not made any open attack for some time now," suggested Israel Boone. Henry shook his head as he said: "That means they only wait. Pretty soon you see. They feel for white men like wolf feel for bear." "And that is about the same love that a dog has for a cat," suggested Peleg with a laugh. "That is it," acknowledged Henry soberly. "I never know why bear and wolf no like each other. They kill many other things, but when wolf find trail of bear he call to all his friends and they begin to chase Mr. Bear. One day I saw a pack of wolves chasing big bear." "Was the bear running from them?" inquired Israel. "Yes, he run much fast. By and by he come to place where he can go no more, then he stand up with his back to tree, and the way he cuff those wolves first one side, then on other, make me laugh." "Yes," said Peleg, "I have seen the same thing myself. It is like the feeling that Sam Oliver says the otter has for the beaver." "Or the mink for the ermine," suggested Israel. "Both mink and ermine bad as they can be," said Henry, shaking his head. "They kill all things not so strong as they." "Yes," suggested Peleg, "I think the mink and ermine are about the worst animals alive. The mink is three or four times as big as the ermine is and has a good deal more strength----" "But the ermine so quick," interrupted Henry. "He so quick," he repeated, "and he most bloodthirsty little animal in the forest. When he begin to fight he always fight on until either he is killed or mink is killed." "Sam Oliver was telling me the last time he was in the settlement," said Peleg, "that last winter he was trailing a fox that was chasing a rabbit, and when Sam came to his trap-line he heard, away off to one side, a mink scream. He says you can hear a mink scream almost a quarter of a mile away. He was trapping minks and he thought he had one caught, so he turned and started for his trap. When he got there he saw, so he said, the biggest fight he ever saw in the woods. A mink was caught in his trap and an ermine was fighting him.