He
was close to the den.
The Woodchuck chattered his teeth and plunged to get by the boy, each
as scared as could be. Guy gave a leap of terror and fell heavily just
as the Woodchuck would have passed under him and home. But the boy
weighed nearly 100 pounds, and all that weight came with crushing
force on old Grizzly, knocking the breath out of his body. Guy
scrambled to his feet to run for his life, but he saw the Woodchuck
lying squirming, and plucked up courage enough to give him a couple
of kicks on the nose that settled him. A loud yell from the other two
boys was the first thing that assured Guy of his victory. They came
running over and found him standing like the hunter in an amateur
photograph, holding his bow in one hand and the big Woodchuck by the
tail in the other.
[Illustration: The hunter]
"Now, I guess you fellers will come to me to larn you how to kill
Woodchucks. Ain't he an old socker? I bet he weighs fifty pounds--yes,
near sixty." (It weighed about ten pounds.)
"Good boy! Bully boy! Hooray for the Third War Chief! Hooray for Chief
Sapwood!" and Guy had no cause to complain of lack of appreciation on
the part of the others.
He swelled out his chest and looked proud and haughty.
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