It was not very cheering to contemplate this useless skeleton; and the boys were about returning to their camping-place, when the idea occurred to Lucien that the bones might, at least, yield a _soup_. He, of course, communicated this idea to the others, and it was at once agreed that they should boil them and try. It was quite a happy thought. No doubt the bones, which were fresh, and not yet dry, would make an excellent soup; and all three at once set about preparing to cook it. Francois gathered sage-bushes to kindle a fire with, while Basil got hold of Lucien's little hatchet, and set to work to separate the ribs and joints of the skeleton. Lucien, seeing that there were several kinds of plants growing on the margin of the rivulet, went down to examine them--in hopes that he might find the wild onion or the prairie-turnip among them, or perhaps some other root or vegetable that might help to enrich their pottage. While all three were engaged in their separate duties, a loud exclamation from Basil drew the attention of his brothers. It was a shout of joy, followed by a wild laugh, like the laugh of a maniac! Francois and Lucien looked up in affright--thinking that something disagreeable had happened--for they could not understand why Basil should be laughing so loudly at such a time, and under such gloomy circumstances. As they looked at him he still continued to laugh, waving the hatchet around his head as if in triumph. "Come here, brothers!" shouted he; "come here! Ha! ha! ha! Here's a supper for three hungry individuals! Ha! ha! ha! What shallow fellows we are, to be sure! Why, we are as stupid as the donkey that preferred eating the hay with the bread and butter beside him. Look here! and here! and there! There's a supper for you. Ha! ha! ha!" Lucien and Francois had now arrived upon the ground; and seeing Basil point to the great joints of the buffalo, and turn them over and over, at once understood the cause of his mirth. _These joints were full of marrow_! "Pounds of it," continued Basil; "the very tit-bits of the buffalo-- enough to make suppers for a dozen of us; and yet we were going to sleep supperless, or the next thing to it--going to starve in the midst of plenty! And we have been travelling among such treasures for three days past! Why, we deserve to starve for being so simple. But come, brothers! help me to carry these great joints to the fire--I'll show you how to cook a supper."