t next? Shall I unpack?"

"Hold up, Sid. Yes, there's the spring. Down yonder; that's where we'll
pitch our tent."

"Needn't do that, yet awhile."

"First thing always. We're not in camp till the tent's up."

"Go ahead. Don't you wish you had the tent poles here now?"

"Not if I had 'em to carry besides the other things. We can cut all we
want."

As they talked they walked, and they were now standing by the spring, on
the slope, not more than a hundred yards from the shore.

"There's the place for the tent."

"Isn't one spot as good as another?" asked Sid.

"You don't want to sleep slanting, do you? That isn't all, either. That
little hump of ground in front of it's a tiptop fire-place."

"Don't look much like one."

"You'll see. Come on and let's cut some tent poles."

Two five-foot sticks, each with a "crotch" at the upper end, were soon
set in the ground about six feet apart, and a ridge pole laid across
them.

"You haven't set 'em deep enough," said Sid. "They'd go over too easy."

"No they won't. The strength of a tent is in the canvas and pegs, not in
the poles," said Wade.

He was unrolling the great square piece of strong but light "cotton
duck," and in a moment more it was flapping over the poles.

"Stretch it well, and peg it strong. That tent won't blow down."

"Can't stand up in it."

"That isn't what it's for. In with the supplies. The sun's as bad as
rain would be, for part of 'em, spite of the tin boxes."

"Nothing extra--not even butter."

"Butter? There's one roll of it, but the bacon's the butter for us. Now
for the butcher-knives. We must ditch our tent."

"What for?"

"To drain away the water, if it rains. We must cut a V."

The apex of the V was cut pretty deeply on the slope above the tent, and
the arms were cut around it till they led out below.

"Water doesn't run up hill," said Sid. "We're drained. What next?"

"Fire."

"A day like this? Are you going to cook right away? I'd rather try the
lake for some fish."

"Of course we will. But it takes an hour for an open fire to be fit to
cook by. Got to have plenty of coals and ashes."

Fuel was plentiful enough, and a rousing fire was speedily blazing on
the little hump of ground, a rod in front of the tent.

"Not near enough to set anything on fire. If that hump hadn't been
there, we'd have made one."

As it was, he had levelled it on top a little, and the surface so made
was barely two feet across.

Sid was a