Frank, the Young Naturalist

rstand, an' the way he acted a'most made me think he was crazy. Sometimes you could n't find a more jolly feller than he was; an' then, again, he would settle down into one of his gloomy spells, an' I could n't get a word out of him. He would sit by the camp-fire, an' first fall to musing; then he would cover his face with his hands, an' I could see the big, scalding tears trickle through his fingers, an' his big frame would quiver and shake like a tree in a gale of wind; then he would pull out his long, heavy huntin'-knife, an' I could see that he had several notches cut in the handle. Hewould count these over an' over again; an' I could see a dark scowl settle on his face, that would have made me tremble if I had not known that I was his only sworn friend, an' he would mutter, " ' Only seven ! only seven ! There ought to be eight. There is one left. He must not escape me. No, no; he must die !' " An' then he would sheath his knife, an' roll himself up in his blanket, an' cry himself to sleep like a child. " I had been with ole Bill a'most ten years? ever since I was a boy?but he had never told me the cause of his trouble. I did n't dare to ask him, for the ole man had curious ways sometimes, an' I knowed he wouldn't think it kind of me to go pryin' into his affairs, an' I knowed, too, that some day he would tell me all about it. " One night?we had been followin' up a bar all day?we camped on the side of a high mountain. It was very cold. The wind howled...