"
The plates were only slabs of bark. On each slab Nancy put a piece of
fried squirrel and a hunk of cornbread. The children sank down on one of
the bearskins to eat their first meal in their new home. By this time it
was quite dark. They could see only a few feet beyond the circle of
light made by their campfire.
Nancy shivered. She knew that they had neighbors. Tom had told her there
were seven other families living at Pigeon Creek. But the trees were so
tall, the night so black, that she had a strange feeling that they were
the only people alive for miles around.
"Don't you like it here, Mammy?" Abe asked. To him this camping out was
an adventure, but he wanted his mother to like it, too.
"I'm just feeling a little cold," she told him.
"I like it," said Sally decidedly. "But it is sort of scary. Are you
scared, Abe?"
"Me?" Abe stuck out his chest. "What is there to be scared of?"
At that moment a long-drawn-out howl came from the forest. Another
seemed to come from just beyond their campfire. Then another and
another--each howl louder and closer. The black curtain of the night
was pierced by two green spots of light.
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