new Winchester repeating rifle, with which they practised diligently at
a target ere the eventful day of the start dawned, though their leader
emphatically insisted that the prime pleasures of the trip were not to
be looked for in the slaughter done by their hands.

Wearing the camper's favorite dress of stout gray tweed, the trio left
Boston on a lovely September evening towards the close of the month,
taking a fast night train for Maine, brimful of enthusiasm about the
wild woods and free camp-life. The hue of their clothes was chosen with
a view to making their figures resemble the forest trunks, so that they
would be less likely to attract the notice of animals, and might get a
chance to creep upon them undetected.

About their waists were their ammunition belts, with pouches well
stocked. Their large knapsacks contained blankets, moccasins, and
various other necessaries of a camper's outfit, including heavy knitted
jerseys for chill days and nights, and rubber boots reaching high on the
legs for wear in wading and traversing swampy tracts.

About twenty-four hours later they dropped off the rattling, jingling
stage-coach which bore them over the latter part of their journey, at
the flourishing village of Greenville, on the borders of the Maine
wilds.

Here they were greeted by a view, the loveliness of which made the
English boys, who had never looked on it before, experience strange
heart-leaps.

A magnificent sheet of water nearly forty miles long and fourteen broad
lay before them, studded with islands, girt with evergreen forests and