SILAS and his sister ate their breakfast by candle-light and were off on the trail before sunrise, a small, yellow dog of the name of Zeb following. Zeb was a bear-dog with a cross-eye and a serious countenance. He was, in the main, a brave but a prudent animal. One day he attacked a bear, which had been stunned by a bullet, and before he could dodge the bear struck him knocking an eye out. Strong had put it back, and since that day his dog had borne a cross-eye. Zeb had a sense of dignity highly becoming in a creature of his attainments. This morning, however, he scampered up and down the trail, whining with great joy and leaping to lick the hand of his master. "Sinth" walked spryly, a little curt in her manner, but passive and resigned. Silas carried a heavy pack, a coon in a big cage, and led a fox. When he came to soft places he set the cage down and tethered the fox, and, taking Sinth in his arms, carried her as one would carry a baby. Having gained better footing, he would let Sinth down upon a log or a mossy rock to rest and return for his treasures. After two or three hours of travel the complaining "Mis' Strong" would appear. "Seems so ye take pleasure wearin' me out on these here trails," she would say. "Why don't ye walk a little faster?" "W-whoa!" he would answer, cheerfully. "Roughlocks!" The roughlock, it should be explained, was a form of brake used by log-haulers to check their bobs on a steep hill. In the conversation of Silas it was a cautionary signal meaning hold up and proceed carefully. "You don't care if you do kill me--gallopin' through the woods here jes' like a houn' after a fox. I won't walk another step--not another step." "Rur-roughlocks!" he commanded himself, as he tied the fox and set the coon down. "Won't ride either," she would declare, with emphasis. "W-wings on, Mis' Strong?" Silas had been known to ask, in a tone of great gentleness. She would be apt to answer, "If I had wings, I'd see the last o' you." Then a little time of rest and silence, after which the big, gentle hunter would shoulder his pack and lift in his arms the slender and complaining Miss Strong and carry her up the long grade of Bear Mountain. Then he would make her comfortable and return for his pets.