NOVEMBER JOE
flour and tobacco, so if we had n't took him, he'd have lit out into Maine an' sold the black fox pelt there."
"But, Joe," said Sally, "when I came on Sylvester that evening I told you of when I was trailing the robber, how was it that his tracks and the robber's was quite different?"
"Had Sylvester a pack on his back?"
"Yes. Now I think of it, he had."
"Then I dare bet that if you'd been able to look in that pack you'd 'a' found a second pair o' moccasins in it. Sylvester'd just took them off, I expect. It was snowing, were n't it?"
"Yes."
"And he held you in talk?"
"He did."
"Till the snow covered his tracks?"
"It's wonderful clear, Joe," said Mrs. Rone.
"But why should Sylvester have such a down on Val?"
Joe laughed. "Ask Val!"
"Ten years ago," said Val, "when we was both rising twenty year, I gave Sylvester a thrashing he'd likely remember. He had a dog what were n't no use and he decided to shoot it.
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