ffed fired onions cooking, you'd say they're the best thing ever
toted into the wilderness. That's the time you showed your good sense,
Bluff, old man. Onions? Why, to be sure, and plenty of 'em. Anything
more?" he laughed.

The boys shook their heads; they had not had enough experience in camping
out to warrant suggesting other additions to the apparently complete list
made by the fellow who had been there, and knew all about the needs of
those who go into the wilderness.

"All right. If you happen to think of anything just get it, that's all.
Look at Jerry grinning there. I bet I know what he's thinking about--that
all this is utter foolishness, and that we ought to start out with
nothing more than we could carry on our machines, and then take
pot-luck? How about that?" demanded Frank.

"Oh! well, have it your own way, fellows," declared Jerry, with a shrug
of his shoulders; "you know my ideas about these things. I'm the kind of
a sportsman who goes into the woods as light as possible--give me a
frying pan, coffee pot, tin cup and a pie platter, some pepper and salt,
some matches, a camp hatchet to cut browse for my bed, and my trusty
rifle with which to supply the game, and I warrant you I can get along as
well as the fellow who makes a pack-horse of himself, and totes all sorts
of canned goods over the carries."

"That sounds all mighty well in theory, but there's mighty little
practical sense about it. A blanket is the camper's best friend of a cool
night; and even if he is lucky enough to shoot enough game to satisfy his
wants, he'll get sick of one diet in a short time. I ought to know
something about it, for I've tried it both ways," declared Frank.

"Yes," broke in Bluff at this juncture, "and you wait and see if Jerry
don't eat his share of every blessed thing we pack in--he won't refuse
one dish. He's quite satisfied to turn up his nose at others carrying
loads, while he goes free; but, at the same time, he eats a quarter of
the grub every time."

Both Frank and Will laughed heartily at this, in which they were joined
by Nellie Langdon and Violet Milton.

"Pshaw!" scoffed Jerry, turning a bit red at the same time, "if others
are silly enough to make pack-horses of themselves, and lug all such
things into the primeval wilderness, why, of course, I'm willing to help
dispose of them when the time comes; purely out of good-heartedness, you
see, for it makes their loads lighter. Just drop that subject, boys