ice suit of clothes."

"I am thankful that we didn't meet the skunk," came from Giant.

"I remember meeting a skunk years ago---when I was a little boy,"
said Shep. "I thought it was a cat and wanted to pick it up.
I think the skunk was getting ready for me when our dog came
along and scared the thing away."

Ham Spink was indeed in a sorry plight. The smell was so bad
that none of his friends wanted to go near him, and they begged
him to keep his distance. In anger he stalked back to his camp,
and there took off the almost ruined suit and buried it in the
ground for forty-eight hours, which removed the worst of the odor.
Following the advice given, he washed himself in a mud paste,
allowing the mud to dry on him at the heat of the fire. Later
he washed the mud off and used some heavily scented toilet soap,
and thus removed the worst of the odor from his person. But it
was a good week before he felt as clean as he had previous to
the encounter with the obnoxious animal.

CHAPTER XXV

SURROUNDED BY WOLVES

From Jack Dalton the boys had heard of a beautiful silver deer,
said to be roaming the woods on the hills back of Firefly Lake,
and Whopper and Giant talked a great deal of going after the game
and seeing if they could not lay the deer low.

"I know we can do it if only we can spot the animal," said Giant.
"And think what a feather it will be in our cap."

"I am going after that deer, even if the others won't go," added
Whopper, and so it was finally decided that Whopper and the small
youth should go in quest of the silver deer, while Snap and Shep
remained at the camp, to try their hands at erecting a trap for
beavers and also some traps for birds. It may be added that deep
in the woods they had erected a bear-fall and baited the same,
but so far no bear had shown himself in that vicinity, although
the wolves had stolen the bait on two occasions.

In order to be prepared for big game, Whopper and Giant took along
one shotgun and the rifle, and also a hunting-knife. One game-bag
was filled with provisions, for they did not know how long the
outing would last.

The boys started off in the best of spirits, taking to a trail
the old hunter had pointed out to them. There had been a flurry
of snow during the night, but this was soon melted by the sun
which, at breakfast time, had come out as brightly as ever.

"What a beautiful spot this is!" said Giant, gazing back to the lake
before plungin