my personal
pack on the cart than I am for carrying it."

"Stick a pin in the chat, Tom," advised Darrin briefly, "and take
your truck off the cart. I want to begin enjoying myself."

"I'd carry twice as much as I have to, just for the sheer joy
of hearing you kick like a Texas maverick by the time you've had
the cart handles for two minutes," laughed Tom, as he took his
own parcels off the cart. "Now, David, little giant, let us see
you buckle down to your task---like a real or imitation man!"

Darry braced himself, gave a hitch, then started forward briskly.

"Get out of the way, you loiterers!" called Dave, overtaking Tom
and Greg and shoving the front end of the cart against them.
"Don't block the road!"

"That's what comes of hitching an express engine to a freight
load," grunted Reade, as he made for the side of the road, brushing
his clothes.

There was bound to be a lot of "kicking" over the work of handling
the push cart, but Dick & Co. were in high spirits this hot July
morning.

Weeks before, when first planning this trip, all had begun to
"save up" toward outfits of khaki, leggings and all, and blue
flannel shirts. These khaki clothes made the most serviceable
of all camping costumes.

"I begin to feel like a soldier," laughed Dick contentedly.

"So do I," agreed Tom Reade. "I feel like a poor dub of a soldier
who has been sent to march across a continent on the line of
the equator. I believe eggs would cook in any of my pockets!"

"Cut out all the grumbling and the discomfort talk," warned Dave
Darrin.

"Well, I don't know that I need to grumble, if you can feel contented
behind that old cart," laughed Reade. "How does it go, Darry?"

"I haven't begun to notice, as yet," replied Dave coolly.

Tom eyed him suspiciously.

"Darry," he remarked presently, "you're talented."

"In what way?" Dave inquired.

"You're one of the most talented fibbers I ever encountered.
You've been pushing that cart all of four minutes, and you pretend
that you don't notice the work."

"I expected to work when I left home," Darrin informed him. "If
I hadn't felt that I could endure a little fatigue, then I'd have
remained at home and looked for a job sleeping in a mattress factory's
show-room."

Tom subsided after that. Dave's fifteen minutes were up presently,
but he declined to accept relief at the push cart until they reached
the point where their road branched off on to the rougher highway.
Now