"An' naterally," said Shif'less Sol, "he'd go whar the walkin' wuz easiest, but whar thar wuz kiver so he couldn't be seen by warriors. So he'd choose the easy slope under them big trees thar, an' go south toward that valley." "Reckon you're right," said Long Jim in a convinced tone. "That's just about what Paul would do." They descended the slope, an easy one, for a quarter of a mile, and came to a valley thickset with bushes and blackberry vines containing sharp briars. "Paul wouldn't go crashin' into a briar patch," said Long Jim. "He wouldn't, an' fur that reason he'd take this path," said Tom Ross, pointing to a narrow opening in the bushes and briars. It was evidently a trail made by animals, trodden in the course of time in order to avoid a long circuit about the thicket, but they followed it, believing that Paul had gone that way. When nearly through, Henry saw something lying in the path. He stooped and held up the stem of a rose with one or two faded petals left upon it. "It fell out o' his coat, an' he never noticed it," said Shif'less Sol. "Right, uv course," said Tom Ross. Not far beyond the thicket was a brook of uncommon beauty, a clear little stream bordered by wild flowers. "Paul would stop here to drink an' look at all these here bee-yu-ti-ful scenes," said Shif'less Sol. "He would," said Henry, "and, being terribly hungry, he would then climb that wild plum tree there beyond the oaks." "Might throw up a stick an' knock 'em down," said Long Jim. "There is no fallen wood here," said Henry, "and, being so ragingly hungry, Paul would not hunt for a stick. He'd shin up that tree at once." "Tree itself will show," said Tom Ross. "And it certainly does show," said Henry as they looked. Little pieces of the bark on the trunk were broken off, evidently by a heavy body as it had struggled upward. Shif'less Sol also found two plum skins on the ground not far from the tree. The shiftless one held them up for the others to see. "Now, ain't that Paul all over?" Tom Ross said. "Knows all about how the Carthygenians fit the French, an' how the English licked the Persians, but here he goes droppin' plum skins on the groun' fur any wanderin' warrior to see." "Don't you go to attackin' Paul," said Shif'less Sol, "'cause Paul is a scholar like me. I ain't had the opportunities fur learnin', but I take naterally to it, 'specially history. So I kin understand why Paul, thinkin' all the time about Hannibal an' Belisarry an' all them great battles a long time ago, should throw his plum skins 'roun' loose, knowin' thar ain't no Carthygenians an' Persians about these days to see 'em." "Paul is shorely a good boy," said Tom Ross, "an' ef he wants to throw plum skins, he kin. Now, we've got to figger on what he'll do next." "Let's go to the top of that hill over there," said Henry, "and take a look at the country."