s were
the lads, and he must needs take it up from the very beginning and
study with them. It was decided that they should learn both the
semaphore and Morse codes, and Doctor Joe insisted that neither he nor
the lads should consider the Second Class test satisfactorily passed
until they had not only learned the codes but could send and receive
messages at the rate of speed designated in the handbook as required
for the First Class test.

"It wouldn't be fair to the scouts in the big cities," he declared.
"They have to learn a great many things that we already know how to
do, like building fires, using the axe and knife, and tracking. Those
are things we've been doing all our lives and won't have to practise.
We must make it just as hard for ourselves to become Second Class
Scouts as it is for the city lads. So we'll make the signalling test
that much more difficult."

"I'm thinkin' that's fine now," enthused David, "and when we learn un
we'll know that much more."

"That's the idea!" said Doctor Joe. "And we'll not only learn the
sixteen principal points of the compass, but we'll learn to box the
compass to the quarter point as navigators do."

"I can box un now," grinned David.

"So can I box un!" Andy exclaimed. "Dad told me how, same as he told
Davy."

"And I can learn to box un easy," promised Jamie.

Margaret joined them one fine day in the forest behind the cabin when
they took their Second Class cooking test, and a jolly day they made
of it. It was easy enough to roast a spruce grouse on the end of a
stick. Even Jamie had done that many times. But Doctor Joe was called
upon to solve the problem of cooking potatoes without cooking
utensils, and he did it so satisfactorily that the lads practised it
every day afterward for a week.

He resorted to a simple and ordinary method. He dug a narrow trench
about six inches deep. Upon this he built a fire, which he permitted
to burn until there was a good accumulation of ashes. Then he pushed
the fire back and raked the ashes out of the trench. The potatoes
were now placed in a row at the bottom of the trench and covered with
a good layer of hot ashes. The fire was now drawn back over the ashes
that covered the potatoes and permitted to burn briskly.

At the end of an hour he brushed the fire back at one end sufficiently
to allow a long slender splinter to be pushed down through the ashes
and through a potato. The splinter did not penetrate the potato easily
a