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When they had got everything up to the cave, which took a long time,
everybody had a good breakfast. There was really enough food to last a
week, and it was lucky there were several boxes of sardines, for Floss
would take nothing else.

"It's going to be a big, big picnic," said Frank, and the girls began to
laugh. "We're going to have lots of fun."

Frank and Tom could climb like monkeys, and in about an hour's time they
had put all the food high up in a hole in the rock out of the reach of
bears or foxes.

By twelve o'clock, when the sun was as high as it could get, the snow had
disappeared, and once more there was a soft, warm breeze blowing, and
beauty everywhere.

Two days flew by and nothing happened, only at night they could hear
foxes barking in the distance. They never attack people singly, as bears
do, but they are dangerous in packs, as Tom one day found out to his
cost.

The food was getting low, and Tom thought it was time to do something.
They had found strange fruits like strawberries growing, and also some
sort of roots that tasted like nuts; but unless they could get some fish
poor Flossy would die.

So Tom started off all alone on a voyage of discovery. Frank stayed in
the cave with the girls, and they promised to be very good.