girls how careful the boys had been
in selecting this camp-site. They had high, dry ground, near plenty of
fine spring water, on the same lake where the girl scouts camped, but an
arm of high land extended out into the water and separated the two
camps.

"You see, they have ample firewood about without cutting down any trees;
they get the early morning sun, and shade all the rest of the day. They
ditched the entire place to carry off all the rainwater that might wash
down from the crest during a heavy storm. And they built a refrigerator
to keep things cold; and over there they have a chicken-coop."

"A chicken coop! where did they get the chickens?" asked Julie.

"Ned had some at home and he crated them and brought them along. The
boys get fresh eggs in this way, and when the season is over, they will
kill the hens for a special occasion and eat them."

"Verny, that's what we need, a few chickens in camp," was Joan's
decision, the moment she saw the hens scratching.

"I noticed Gilly had a lot of chickens running about the barnyard. Maybe
he will loan us a few, just to provide us with eggs this summer. We can
return them in the fall, you know," ventured Julie, daringly.

"Who will buy their corn?" asked he, laughingly.

"No one. We will feed them scraps and they can scratch!" promptly
replied Julie.

"You'll starve them and then they won't lay any eggs," now said Alec,
joining the party.

"We'll smile on Hiram and get him to bring us some corn from the barn,
now and then," said Ruth.

"I came over to tell you dinner was ready to serve. We had better go
now, and eat it while it's good," said Alec.

The boys had various things hanging over the fire, but the great novelty
that caught the girl scouts' attention, at once, was the roaster upon
which a nice brown chicken was swinging before the fire.

"There! That's a fine idea. How did you make it?" asked Mrs. Vernon,
looking closely at the contraption.

Alec described to the Captain the method of making the roaster. "We took
a forked stick, as you see there, of about a two-foot length. We drove
that down into the ground about six inches. Next we took a long pole,
six or eight feet long, and drove the end down into the ground just back
of the short stick with the forks. It rested in the crotch made by the
forks so that its tapering end slanted upward at an angle, as you see
here.

"From the end of this long pole we hung the cord that holds the chicken.
Wire