wonder what we had best do first?"

"I have an idea," said Shep. "Let us go to yonder shore and cut
some cedar boughs. We can set them on fire and each take one.
Snakes hate fire, and they'll be sure to crawl away if we advance
with the burning boughs close to the ground."

The suggestion was deemed an excellent one, and they lost no time in
carrying it out. They got the driest cedar branches possible and
set them into a blaze with little trouble. Then they went ashore
with caution, advancing in a semi-circle on the places they thought
the snakes must be.

To their amazement not a reptile was in sight! "Did you ever
see the like?" ejaculated Whopper. "Is this true, or am I dreaming?"

"I know what has happened," said Snap. "The snakes have simply gone
back to their nest."

"Well, leave them there by all means!" interposed the doctor's son.
"I wouldn't disturb their nap for the world."

With caution they moved around the camp, and lifted up the ends of
the tent, and raised their cooking utensils.

"Who wants to stay here for breakfast?" asked Snap, dryly. "Don't
all speak at once."

"Thanks, but I've engaged a place about a mile from here," answered
Whopper. "You can stay if you wish---I'll move on."

It did not take them long to get their things aboard the _Snapper_,
and keeping their eyes open, they moved along the stream. They had
scarcely covered half a mile when Snap, who was at the bow, gave a
shout.

"The lake! The lake!"

"Where?" came from the others.

"Right around the bend, on the left. Pull on, fellows, and we'll
soon be there."

Whopper and Shep bent to the oars and the turn mentioned was soon
passed. Then all saw before them a clear, deep body of water, the
farther end lost in the distance. On both sides were tall mountains,
covered with pines and other trees which came down to the water's
edge. The surface of the big lake was as smooth as glass, and just in
front of them they could see the bottom, twenty or thirty feet below.

"What a beautiful lake!" murmured Shep.

"But how wild, and how lonely!" added Giant, after a look around.

"It looks lonely because we are not used to it," answered Snap. "I
felt the same way the first time I went up to Lake Cameron and to
Firefly Lake."

"That's it," put in Whopper. "After we have tramped along the
shore, and rowed around the lake a few times, it will lose a good
deal of its strangeness."

As they advanced they noted that t