when
conferring pleasure upon some one else.

By the time supper was all ready Cuthbert remembered that the boy from
Michigan had not yet turned up.

"Do you remember having heard a shot some time back?" he asked Owen.

"Yes, but it was pretty far away, further than Eli could have gone, I
think; though now that you speak of it the report did come from up the
wind, and that was the direction he took on starting out. Are you
anxious about him?" replied the other, turning around from the job that
had been occupying his attention, and which was connected with placing
hemlock browse under the blanket he meant to use when the time to lie
down arrived, as well as alongside the sleeping bags of his two
companions.

"Why, no, I don't think there's any reason for that. Eli had been
accustomed to roaming the woods all his life, for he was brought up in
the lumber camps; and it would be funny if he went and lost himself up
here, where the forest is so open. I was just thinking how fond he is of
my pet dish, and what a disappointment it would be to him if you and I
developed such ferocious appetites as to lick the platter clean before
he showed up. But I reckon there's plenty all around, and we'll try and
keep his share warm. Pull up here on this log, Owen, and try that
platter. The coffee is ready too, ditto the hard-tack."

And with keen appetites the two certainly did ample justice to the meal.

By hard-tack Cuthbert really meant the regular ship biscuit used on all
sailing vessels along the seashore and the lakes--there are two brands;
one a bit more tasty than the other, and this is supposed to be for the
officers' mess; but in a pinch both fill the bill admirably, as myriads
of canoeists are willing to testify with upraised hand.

When supper had been finished, and both lads were ready to cry out
enough, it was dark.

And still no Eli.

Even then Cuthbert did not worry, for he had the utmost confidence in
the woodsman qualities of his stocky chum, and could not believe that
anything serious had happened to him.

Perhaps he had wandered far afield, and chancing upon a deer a mile or
more from camp had secured his venison; under such conditions it would
require some time to cut the animal up, and then "tote" what he wanted
of the meat over the intervening territory.

Nevertheless, he looked around at every sound as if hoping to see Eli
stalking into camp, with a proud look on his homely phiz, and a burden
of fresh