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Show 16. on the back l i d . Then Bill broke a few b i t s of biscuit into i t , and cooling i t doxm, sat on the side of his bunk and spooned i t into the baby's mouth. It gulped i t a l l doxm, and Bill thought as he undressed and "lay doxm beside the baby, spoon-feeding him's easy but getting the food to out in that spoon, now t h a t ' s going to take some thinking about. Long before i t was light, Bill crept out of bed. He pulled on his boots, tucked his heavy pants inside them, put on his heavy coat, reached up above the door for his gun, and tip-toed out into the cold mountain a i r . His Legs f e l t heavy as he shuffled blindly through piles of leaves that had.stiffened.up so with frost that he kept thinking he T«as hitting.something solid. A cold s t r i p ran right doxm his back. Hunching his shoulders, he shivered and xjalked faster. Txro pine hens rustled in a t r e e . If he had'nt been so close to the cabin to chance a shot xraking the baby, they xrould have had pine hen soup xrith dumplings tonight, He found the deer he'd hung and dressed out. Getting under i t so i t x-jas firmly settled on his back, he reached around and the thong untied/and sx>jayed lack and forth until he f e l t i t free itself from the t r e e ; bent and x*a Iking sloxfly, he carried the deer to the Dream Mine cabin, and threw i t off by the door. He l i t a match in the cabin and looked around for clothes for the baby. Everything had been packed except a gray flannel diaper hanging over a chair by the stove. He gathered up the diaper,, put it in the cradle and carried i t out and doxm to the xiiagon. The miners had staked, the old horse out and i t X'jas cropping the dry grass. Hitching the horse to the xsagon, he guided i t up to the entrance of the mine and unloaded the Logs. Then |
