race.”

The Porcupines came in at our feet, a huge dark one rolling under the wire three lengths ahead. Dizzy, exhausted, and panting, he sat up straight for a moment, launched a playful quill at the bookmaker, and shambled off around the hillside.

Upon the crest of a distant hill, a single figure sat in monumental silence. It had two points at the top, and I wondered what it might be. At last I concluded that it was a rock.Throughout the long, sunny afternoon, I watched the interesting pastime with keen enjoyment. Had not my exchequer been so pitifully low, I should have staked a dime or so myself upon Salina Ann. She won three races in succession and finally retired, giddy, but triumphant.

When the last race was over, as much as four dollars had changed hands, and there were loud protests against the system of bookmaking employed. As an outsider, I was appealed to, but I declined to interfere, and, remembering the long fourteen-mile walk which lay between me and my cabin, I loosened up for the home stretch, noting, as I started, that the peculiar, pointed rock had disappeared from the opposite hill.

During the ninth mile from the Porcupine track, I was acutely conscious of observation. Little Brothers of the Woods can always feel the bright eyes that are turned upon them from the thickets. I paused several times, but heard nothing and saw nothing, though I put on my glasses and thus gained a sort of second sight.

Afterward, I meditated. Perhaps the ban upon me had been removed and the forest folk no longer feared to look at me. I made one maltese cross in my note-book, drawing a red circle about it to indicate possibilities, and entered a full account of the Porcupine race, which so far, according to my knowledge, has been described by only one other writer.

My sleep was more nearly normal that night than it had been since the lamentable occurrences chronicled in the previous chapter.

For a time, my life was as usual. I arose in the morning, just before sunrise, and took a cold bath in the lake. Then I built a fire and made coffee. I had postponed my trips to town until afternoon in order to attend the Porcupine races, and this condemned me to drink my own coffee, but many sacrifices must be made by the earnest student. I would wash the dishes, swishing them back and forth in the lake, sweep and dust the cabin, and, by nine o’clock, be ready to devote myself to literature.

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