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Show 59 As Cap wiped his plate with the last biscuit, he squinted up at the old man. "Are you a real bonafide mountain man, Mr. Raintree?" "Me? No sir, I'm not a mountain man." "But you live in the mountains," Josh blurted, perplexed. "Oh, I live alone up here, all right," the man said, pursing his lips and stroking his beard. "But not to be a mountain man. Let's just say it's how I make my peace with the world. Here I have some friendship. . . . " He motioned, and the crow flew to his shoulder. Then he pointed to his shelf of books. "And in those friends on the shelf there I find a measure of wisdom and joy. What else can a man ask?" Josh and Cap exchanged glances. They suspected maybe Mr. Raintree was a little bit crazy. But at the same time he seemed nice. "We have to realize," the old man went on slowly, "that the days of the mountain men are gone. We can't go back." "Well, you still live off the land," Cap said with a snort, not about to be robbed of his dream. "In a way, I do. But every month I get the things I need from town," he said, looking pained. "I make no pretenses-I didn't fit in the town-any town, I guess." "Don't you miss your friends?" Josh was awed. "Haven't you got any family?" "Once I did," Mr. Raintree said with a clouded sigh. "But they're all gone now. And I have my other friends." He went to the door and opened it. Outside, a red fox sat studying the cabin. The sun gleamed off the fox's white chest, and |