on his head, the little animal backed away and growled savagely at him.

Tom presently came up with the mule, and, in two hours more, the new
specimen had been carried to the cabin and Oscar was hard at work upon
it.

This was Oscar’s last notable exploit among the foot-hills. Of course
the sport did not end with the shooting of the monarch elk, for there
were still many animals in the valley that were not represented in his
collection, and Oscar’s efforts to secure them were not always
unattended by danger.

He kept on adding to his specimens, and now and then he did something in
a quiet way that made him feel good for a week.

One of these achievements was the bagging of the wolverine which had so
often robbed his traps. The animal was fairly outdone in cunning, and
knocked over when he did not know that there was an enemy near him.

The rest of the winter was passed in much the same way as were the days
whose incidents we have so minutely described. The hunters devoted a
good deal of their time to trapping, and their pile of skins grew larger
every day.

The traditional January thaw came at last, and set the eaves to dropping
and the brook to running for a few days; and then Jack Frost reasserted
his power, and shut everything up tight again.

Many a hard storm roared through the valley after that, but the weather
gradually grew warmer, the snow melted slowly away, and finally the
grass began to appear in the sunniest places, and the drifts to look as
though the wind had scattered dust over them.

It was no longer necessary to cut down trees for the pony and mule to
feed upon. They preferred the withered grass to the innutritious buds
and twigs of the cottonwood, and the change in their diet soon began to
make a change in their appearance and spirits.

Spring was coming, but so slowly that Oscar grew tired of waiting for
it. It seemed as though the deep drifts in the gorge would never melt
away; and when they did, a roaring torrent, which showed no indications
of drying up, took their place. The grass in the valley was seen before
the gorge was passable.

The day of their deliverance was close at hand, however, and one bright
morning the guide aroused the slumbering boys by shouting out the order
to “catch up.”

This meant to cook and eat the breakfast, saddle the pony, and hitch the
mule to the wagon, which had for days been loaded and ready for the
start.

These duties consumed but little of their time, for all three worked as
if they were in a great hurry.

In less than an hour the wagon, with Tom and the guide on the seat, was
on its way down the valley, while Oscar lingered behind for a moment to
make sure that nothing had been forgotten.

It was not without a feeling of sadness that he took his last look about
the cabin in which he had spent so many happy hours.

The journey to the fort was safely and quickly accomplished.

They found Ike Barker in his dug-out, and the greeting he extended to
them was cordial, indeed.

He kept Oscar busy until midnight relating the incidents of his life in
the foot-hills; but there were some things that happened there which he
did not hear from the boy’s lips, for his modesty compelled him to leave
them out.

He heard them from the lips of Big Thompson, who finished the story
after Oscar had gone to sleep. The ranchman was delighted at what the
guide told him, and took his own way to show it.

“Mr. Barker,” said Oscar the next morning at breakfast, “I am greatly
indebted to you for your kindness, and I am sorry that I can return you
nothing but my hearty thanks. There are your mule and wagon, and if——”

“Don’t want ’em!” exclaimed the ranchman. “I’ve got better. Take ’em up
to the post an’ sell ’em for what you can get. Look here, professor,” he
added hastily, seeing that the boy was about to speak, “I know I don’t
live like one of the royal blood, but I’ve got money for all that; and,
if you think you are in danger of running short of funds, say the word
and I’ll lend you all you want. You saved Thompson’s life, and whipped
Lish the Wolfer in a fair fight; and that shows that you are a boy after
my own heart.”

Oscar, who was greatly surprised at this kind offer, could only stammer
out his thanks and reply that he did not stand in any need of pecuniary
assistance.

“Then perhaps I can help you in another way,” continued the ranchman,
who was bent on showing his regard for Oscar. “I can give your brother
something to do. I have been unfortunate myself, and I know how it seems
to have a helping hand extended in time of trouble. Tom, how would you
like to herd sheep?”

“I don’t know. I never tried it. But I am willing to do anything that
will bring me an honest living.”

“That’s the sort of spirit I like. I’ll give you forty dollars a month
and board, and a pony to ride. Yes or no?”

Tom said “Yes,” of course; and, after a short consultation, it was
decided that he should go to the post to sell his furs and see his
brother off, and then come back to the ranch on foot, and assume his
duties as sheep-herder.

Oscar afterward had a private interview with the ranchman, and left him
with the feeling that Tom could not have fallen into better hands.

Oscar spent but two days at the fort—pleasant days they were, too, and
everybody seemed glad to see him—for he was impatient to be on his way
home.

Their furs, and the mule and wagon, were disposed of without the least
trouble; and, out of the money he received, Tom gave Oscar two hundred
dollars to be handed to Mr. Smith.

It wasn’t much, Tom said, but still it would show the grocer that he
intended to make all the amends in his power.

Tom and the guide assisted him to pack his specimens, which were put
into boxes and addressed to himself at Yarmouth, and placed in the
freight wagon that was to convey them to the nearest railroad station.

There was one thing that Oscar could not take back with him, greatly to
his disappointment, and that was the fawn he had captured with the
lasso.

These little animals never live long in confinement, especially if they
have been driven hard previous to their capture; and it had died during
his absence.

Lieutenant Warwick had seen to it that the skin was carefully preserved;
but, as it had been taken off in the same manner that a butcher would
remove the hide from a slaughtered ox, and was afterward tanned with the
hair on, it was not of much value as a specimen. But then, somebody
could make a rug of it, and so it was packed up to be taken to Eaton.

At last, when everything was ready for the start, and the farewells had
all been said, Tom set out for Ike Barker’s ranch, and Oscar stepped
into the stage-coach.

His heart was by no means as light as he had supposed it would be, for
the pleasure he anticipated in once more shaking hands with his friends
in Eaton was marred by the sorrow he felt at parting from those with
whom he had so long been associated.

But one thing was certain: the last few months of his life had not been
wasted. He had earned money enough to lift the mortgage from the roof
that sheltered his mother, and he had been able to assist Tom in his
extremity. The latter was on the right track now, and Oscar fervently
hoped that he would allow no temptations to switch him off.

Sam Hynes, warned by a telegram which Oscar sent from Albany, met the
returned hunter at the depot, and stuck to him night and day during the
week he spent in Eaton, where everybody made a lion of him.

His mother, of course, was overjoyed to meet him, and listened with a
beating heart to what he had to say in regard to Tom, who, during the
rest of his life on the plains, was the regular recipient of something
that did much to sustain and encourage him in his efforts to reform—a
mother’s letters.

That week passed all too quickly for Oscar, who, at the end of it, was
once more obliged to tear himself away from home and go to work.

He had months of it before him, too, for the specimens he had secured
were all to be stuffed and mounted. He was almost overwhelmed by the
attentions he received on every hand.

It was not long before everybody in the city knew who he was and what he
had done; at least it seemed so, for everybody stared at him on the
streets, and Oscar finally began to wish that he was back in the
foot-hills, out of sight.

The committee were more than pleased with his success, and with the
appearance of his specimens; and the first year he spent in their employ
was only the beginning of a long and profitable engagement with them.

                                THE END.

[Illustration: Specimen Cover of the Gunboat Series.]

                      THE FAMOUS CASTLEMON BOOKS.

                                   BY

                            HARRY CASTLEMON.

  No author of the present day has become a greater favorite with boys
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[Illustration: Specimen Cover of the Ragged Dick Series.]

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[Illustration: Specimen Cover of the Wyoming Series.]

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   recorded by “Wade”                                               1 25

 =Lynx Hunting.= From Notes by the author of “Camping Out”          1 25

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   “Wash”                                                           1 25

                          By J. T. Trowbridge.

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                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

 1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
 2. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as
      printed.
 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Camp in the Foot-Hills, by Harry Castlemon