r supper
an hour before, and poor Dutchy had to be content with a few cold
remnants, because the cook had declared he wouldn't prepare an extra
meal for a fellow who didn't have sense enough to know when it was meal
time.

Then it was that Uncle Ed bethought himself of the _klepalo_.

"You ought to have some sort of a dinner call," he declared, "so that
any one within a mile of camp will know when dinner is ready."

[Illustration: The _Klepalo_.]

"Did you ever hear of a _klepalo_? No? Well, I was down in
Macedonia a couple of years ago inspecting a railroad, and I stopped off
for the night at a small Bulgarian village. The next day happened to be
a _Prasdnik_, or saint's day, and the first thing in the morning I
was awakened by a peculiar clacking sound which I couldn't make out.
Calling my interpreter I found out from him that it was a _klepalo_
for calling the people to church. The people there are too poor to
afford a bell, and so in place of that they use a beam of oak hung from
a rope tied about the center, and this beam is struck with a hammer,
first on one side, and then the other. Sometimes an iron _klepalo_
is used as well, and then they strike first the beam and then the iron
bar, so as to vary the monotony of the call. I found that the wooden
_klepalo_ could be heard for a distance of about one and a half
miles over land, and the iron one for over two miles. Now we can easily
make a wooden _klepalo_ for use in this camp, and then if Dutchy,
or any of the rest of us, keep within a mile and a half of camp there
won't be any trouble with the cook."

So we built a _klepalo_, getting from Lumberville a stick of
seasoned oak, 1-1/2 inches thick, 6 inches wide and 4 feet long. A hole
was drilled into the stick at the center, and by a rope passed through
this hole the beam was suspended from a branch overhanging the camp.
Jack, the cook, regularly used this crude device to call the hungry
horde to meals.

CHAPTER VII.

SURVEYING.

One of the first things we did after getting fairly settled in our new
quarters was to make a complete survey of Willow Clump Island and its
immediate surroundings. Our surveying instruments were made as follows:

THE SURVEYING INSTRUMENT.

[Illustration: Fig. 71. Baseboard of the Surveying Instrument.]

[Illustration: Fig. 72. Sighting Blocks on the Baseboard.]

Out of a 1-inch board we cut a base 15 inches long and 4 inches wide. In
the center we sawed out a cir