s we may need--that is, provided you fellows can really go."

"You can count of me," declared Spouter promptly. "My folks said I could
do as I pleased during the holidays, provided I kept out of mischief.
And what mischief could a fellow get into in the midst of those grand
primeval forests where perhaps the woodsman has never dared to lay his
axe to the heart of the sturdy oak, and where the timid deer, in fancied
freedom, ambles through the darkening glades, and--"

"Turn off the spigot, Spouter, or you'll have us flooded!" burst out
Randy.

"Save your orations for the day before election," came from Fred.

"You can give us the rest of it, Spouter, when we are in camp some night
and have nothing to read and don't know what to do," suggested Jack.

"That's it--always cutting my rhetorical effusions short," remarked
Spouter reproachfully. "Some day, when you are aching to have me make a
speech, you'll find me dumb."

"Tell us more about this camp, Gif," cried Fred.

Thereupon Gif Garrison related all he knew concerning the camp, which
was located on a small stream of water that in the summer time ran down
to a bay emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. There was a good deal of
timber on the tract, and, so far as Gif knew, there was quite some small
game.

"I don't know about deer," he continued. "More than likely the big
animals have gone further north. But one might get a chance at a wolf or
a fox, and maybe some brook mink. We'll be sure to get plenty of rabbits
and squirrels and ducks, and most likely some partridges and maybe wild
turkeys. But, first of all, you Rovers have got to make sure that you
can go."

"Oh, we'll arrange that somehow, Gif," said Jack. "Of course, we'll want
to go home first and see our folks and cheer them up a bit. They are
pretty lonely now that our dads are over in France."

"Oh, I'm going home myself first. But we can have at least three weeks
up there, because the school is going to be closed more than a month
before and after Christmas."

Gif's announcement was such a pleasing one that the Rovers found it hard
work after that to settle down to their studies. Letters were at once
written to their mothers, and presently word came back that they might
go to the camp immediately after Christmas if they wanted to do so. Then
Jack telephoned to his sister at Clearwater Hall and got word back that
Ruth and May would go down to New York with Mary and Martha and remain
there until it was