shouted. "Come on,
fellows, and get the pails filled! Ouch! That little imp got me, all
right! Say! he's inside my veil! Whoop! There's another! I must have
left an opening!" And for a minute or so he danced around madly, slapping
and pawing, until he had managed to dispose of the furious insects.

By the time he had adjusted his net the others were busy at work.

"Take only the lighter-colored honey. That dark stuff is old, though I
suppose it's all good still. We can't use a fifth of what there is. I
imagine I know what will happen around here to-night," said Frank.

Joe looked up and grinned.

"Bear come, sure. Smell the honey a mile away," he remarked, and Frank
nodded.

"And if we were wild to get a bear, all we'd have to do would be to sit
here and wait," remarked Will, who had, of course, snapped off a few
views while his chums were busy, particularly remembering Jerry while he
pranced around and fought the busy bees that had invaded his head net.

"I leave that to the rest," remarked Frank.

Having secured all the honey they could carry away, they once more
returned to the shore, and by degrees their sweet cargo was ferried out
to the motor-boat. Of course, more or less washing up followed, for they
were all sticky.

"What is it to be, fellows--go, or stay over?" asked Frank a little
later.

Bluff had been told about the chances for bagging a bear, but he did not
seem to care much about it.

"I say go on," he remarked indifferently.

"Bear for me," declared Jerry.

"How about you, Will?" asked Frank.

"Oh, I'm with Bluff this time. If it was in the daytime, now, and I
thought I could get a picture of the shoot, I might look at it
differently."

"You happen to have run out of flashlight cartridges, then? That's too
bad! Well, I side with Jerry," remarked Frank, smiling.

"But that makes it a tie. We'll have to toss for it, fellows," came from
Will.

"You forget Joe, here. Let him cast the deciding vote. How, Joe?"

The boy grinned, and looked affectionately at Frank.

"I like bear steak," he said simply.

"Hurrah! That settles it, then!" shouted Jerry.

They just loafed through that day.

"Take it easy, boys. Strenuous times may be ahead of us yet. Who knows?
Besides, we are doing finely. Half the time gone, and we're surely more
than half way along our journey, counting the river trip. We can easily
spare the day." And Frank set each to amusing himself after his own
particular fashio