After a little while, they arrived by way of a hill, over which
they plunged into the middle of the camp. Thorpe saw three large
buildings, backed end to end, and two smaller ones, all built of
heavy logs, roofed with plank, and lighted sparsely through one or
two windows apiece. The driver pulled up opposite the space between
two of the larger buildings, and began to unload his provisions.
Thorpe set about aiding him, and so found himself for the first
time in a "cook camp."

It was a commodious building,--Thorpe had no idea a log structure
ever contained so much room. One end furnished space for two
cooking ranges and two bunks placed one over the other. Along one
side ran a broad table-shelf, with other shelves over it and numerous
barrels underneath, all filled with cans, loaves of bread, cookies,
and pies. The center was occupied by four long bench-flanked tables,
down whose middle straggled utensils containing sugar, apple-butter,
condiments, and sauces, and whose edges were set with tin dishes for
about forty men. The cook, a rather thin-faced man with a mustache,
directed where the provisions were to be stowed; and the "cookee,"
a hulking youth, assisted Thorpe and the driver to carry them in.
During the course of the work Thorpe made a mistake.

"That stuff doesn't come here," objected the cookee, indicating a
box of tobacco the newcomer was carrying. "She goes to the 'van.'"

Thorpe did not know what the "van" might be, but he replaced the
tobacco on the sleigh. In a few moments the task was finished,
with the exception of a half dozen other cases, which the driver
designated as also for the "van." The horses were unhitched, and