f I thought it at all safe to
let such a busy little gang of hooligans as you boys go off on such an
expedition. All I could say was to point out the fact that I had given
you leave. Well, Mr. and Mrs. Dalzell gave their consent to Dan's going.
So now I hope you're satisfied."

"Satisfied? Oh, dad, thank you! This is the best Christmas ever. Thank
you! Whoop!"

With that young Prescott executed an about-face and went charging back
to where he had left his chums.

"Are you crazy?" demanded Dan curiously.

"No; but you'll be, in a minute. Dad went over to see your folks, and
they've given in. You're to go with us."

CHAPTER VI

THE LOG CABIN'S TELLTALE HEARTH

"Have we got everything?" demanded Tom Reade anxiously.

"I think so," nodded Dick.

"No one ever yet started off on any big jaunt without forgetting
something, you know," Greg explained.

"Well, let every fellow take a look around and see if he can find
anything that we ought to have, and haven't," suggested Dick.

Six pairs of eyes did some anxious searching.

It was nearly ten o'clock on the morning after Christmas. Dick & Co.
stood in Miller's grocery store, having mounted guard over an extensive
supply of groceries, meat and personal belongings. What a stack of stuff
there was!

Dick and Dave had been delegated to do the buying. Starting with a
capital of thirty dollars, they had expended a little more than nineteen
dollars with the butcher and grocer. Joe Miller, the grocer's son, had
gone to hitch up a pair of horses to a roomy truck wagon. Their
conveyance to camp, some twelve miles distant, was to cost them four
dollars, and Miller had made a low price at that. Dave, as the
treasurer of the outfit, now had nearly seven dollars left, but of
this, four would be required to pay Joe Miller for the return trip.

In addition to food supplies, each of the six boys had brought along
underclothing, shirts and an extra pair of shoes. These personal
belongings were packed in bags.

Then, besides, each boy had a roll of bedding--a pillow, sheets and old
blankets and comforters for each. There were also, either in bedding
rolls or in bags, some few toilet articles. There was also a box of old
kitchen ware. Tom Reade had brought a Rochester lamp; Greg and Dan had
contributed lanterns and Dick a dark lantern.

"I see one thing we haven't got, but ought to have," said Harry Hazelton
to Dick.

"What's that?" asked the latter.

"A shotgun. Jo