That's the idea. Bessie's right, Margery," said Eleanor. "We have a
perfect right, and so have they, to employ any time-saving idea we
happen to get hold of. And I'm quite sure this is a good one, and that
Mr. Hastings will think of it, too."

"Well, I hope he doesn't do anything of the sort!" said Margery, wholly
converted and now enthusiastic for the plan.

"You haven't told us yet who is to go ahead," said Dolly. "I'm just
crazy to be one of the two--"

"We all are! Who wouldn't like to get out of carrying a load?" cried
two or three girls in chorus.

Eleanor laughed at the eagerness they displayed.

"It won't be all fun for the pathfinders, as we'll call them," she
said. "They've got a lot of responsibility, you see."

"What sort of responsibility?" asked Margery. "All they've got to do
is to go just as fast as they can and make a fire when they get to the
peak."

"That isn't all they've got to do, though. They've got to make a smoke
signal, for one thing, by stopping the smoke with a blanket, and then
letting it rise, straight up, three times. And they've got to go to
work and get enough wood to keep the fire going, as soon as they've
lighted it."

"But they'll be able to go along ever so easily on the trail!"

"It isn't a very well marked trail. Neither of the trails to the peak
is, for that matter. And the pathfinders, if they find they're in any
danger of making a wrong turn, must make a sign for us who follow.
That might easily save us a good many minutes in getting there. So you
see it isn't quite as easy as you thought. Now, I'll call for
volunteers. Who wants to join the pathfinders?"

Every girl there put up her hand at once, amid a chorus of laughs and
jesting remarks.

"Heavens! Well, you can't all be pathfinders, or there'd be no one to
carry the dinner! We'll have to figure out some way of picking out
two, because that's all there can be."

"We might draw lots," said Margery.

"I don't like that idea much," said Eleanor. "If you're all so anxious
to go, we ought to make it a reward of some sort--a prize. It's too
bad I didn't think of it earlier, because then we could have had a
really good competition."

She frowned thoughtfully for a moment.

"I know what we'll do," she said. "There are just eight of you, and
we'll divide all the dishes from breakfast into eight even piles. We
can do that easily. Then you shall all start together--"

"Oh, that's good!" said Do