Joe stole a look at Steve. Oscar only shuffled his feet.

"I say hire," remarked Perry. "Any of us could do it after a fashion, I
dare say, but you get frightfully hungry on the water and need good
stuff well cooked, and lots of it."

"Yes," agreed Steve, "any of us would make an awful mess of it.
Cooking's an art."

Oscar cleared his throat and frowned. "You'd have to pay a lot for a
cook," he said. "It isn't hard, really. I could do it--if I were going
along."

"That's so," George Hanford confirmed. But the rest seemed
unflatteringly doubtful. The silence was almost embarrassing. At last
Joe said hurriedly:

"Well, we don't have to decide that now. Besides, if you can't come with
us--um--" His voice trailed off into a relieved silence. Oscar smiled
haughtily.

"That's all right," he said. "If you prefer a cook, say so. Only, if I
did go I'd be willing to do the cooking, and I'll bet I could do it as
well as any cook you could hire. Isn't it so, Han?"

"Yes, I call you a mighty nifty cook, Ossie. I've eaten your biscuits
more than once. Flapjacks, too."

"Well," said Joe politely, "camp cooking is um--different, I guess, from