Sam caught Lon’s eye, and telegraphed a message for help. Lon understood. He nodded in reply. Clasping his hands about a knee, he fell to rocking his body back and forth. Of a sudden he broke into a loud laugh. “Haw, haw, haw! If he wa’n’t jest the plumb ridiculousest old critter!” “Who was?” asked Herman Boyd. “Old man Wallowby,” chuckled Lon. “Dunno jest what made me think of him. Long before the time of you boys he was.” “I remember him,” said Mr. Kane. “Queer old codger as ever was. Folks used to say there was only three things he never seemed to get around to--washin’, workin’, or worryin’.” “Jesso!” Lon agreed; then made correction: “Say, though! There was one time he was worried, fast enough. Ever hear tell o’ the night he fit the bear?” “Fit a b’ar?” echoed the foreman. “No; new one on me.” Several of the lumberjacks, who had been listening to the talk, drew closer. “There’s two-three b’ar hangin’ ’round No. 3 camp,” one of them volunteered. “Never mind them, Jake,” interposed Mr. Kane. “Le’s hear about old Wallowby’s run-in.” Lon ran a glance about the expectant group. “Wal,” he drawled, “I dunno’s I can tell the story the way Wallowby told it to me, but I’ll try. You know, the old humbug uster give out that he was a nat’ral bonesetter, and uster wander about, foragin’ off the country and pretendin’ to look for broken bones. That’s how he got wind of old Calleck, who must ’a’ been a good deal of the same breed. Only Calleck was a yarb doctor, and a bigger freak’n Wallowby himself. He was all the while prowlin’ through the woods, diggin’ up roots for his medicines; and he called himself a hermit; and he built himself a mighty queer house off by his lonesome, a stone house, and----” “I’ve seed it,” one of the men broke in. “What’s left of it’s standin’ over on the South Fork, not ten mile from here. But ’twa’n’t all stone. Calleck got tired o’ luggin’ rock, and topped it off anyhow he could.” “Like enough!” said Lon. “I’ve never been to the house, but that’s about the fashion old Calleck’d ’a’ done any job. But I’ll get on to where Wallowby and the bear come in. Wallowby’d been cruisin’ down in the villages, and I guess he’d sorter wore out his welcome in spots. Way he put it to me was he got to longin’ for the congenial society of a brother scientist, and so he tramped off to find Calleck. He’d never seen him and he didn’t know jest where the stone house was, but everybody was amazin’ glad to give him directions and push him along; and so he moseyed up into the woods. “It was along in December, but the ground was still bare; though it had been mighty cold, and it kept gettin’ colder all the while Wallowby climbed the hills. Got dark, too, and the wind was risin’. ’Cordin’ to Wallowby ’twas perishin’ cold, and black as a cellar, before he woke to the fact that he was as good as lost.