"Yes," broke in Bluff at this juncture, "and you wait and see if Jerry
don't eat his share of every blessed thing we pack in--he won't refuse
one dish. He's quite satisfied to turn up his nose at others carrying
loads, while he goes free; but, at the same time, he eats a quarter of
the grub every time."

Both Frank and Will laughed heartily at this, in which they were joined
by Nellie Langdon and Violet Milton.

"Pshaw!" scoffed Jerry, turning a bit red at the same time, "if others
are silly enough to make pack-horses of themselves, and lug all such
things into the primeval wilderness, why, of course, I'm willing to help
dispose of them when the time comes; purely out of good-heartedness, you
see, for it makes their loads lighter. Just drop that subject, boys, and
put me down for a bottle of maple syrup; for when Frank gives us some of
those famous flapjacks he's told about so often, we ought to have the
proper thing to go with them."

So they talked the thing over from beginning to end, and it looked as if
the team Frank expected to engage would have their work cut out for them,
hauling all this camp stuff over the roads to the point beyond the head
of the lake.

The boys were evidently eager to get to work, and hence the conference
presently broke up, Jerry heading in one direction, and Frank and his
sister, with Bluff finding some plausible excuse for hanging on, going
in another.

Later on that day, while Frank was at the big grocery store, giving