g an adept with the flint and steel, Giraffe quickly had his fire
started.

"And that's the way it'll be after I've just got that one little snag
passed," he took occasion to remark, for the benefit of the fat scout,
who was hovering near by. "Everything's easy as tumbling off a log, once
you know how. P'raps you remember what a time you had learnin' to ride a
bike; and yet now you can cut around corners, and even stand on the
saddle while she's going. Well, you wait and see my smoke."

"Huh! that's all I ever will see, I'm afraid," chuckled Bumpus.

But presently Giraffe managed to drift into a more amiable humor. That
was when the coffee pot was bubbling on the fire, sending out its cheery
aroma; and the last of the eggs they had managed to buy from a potato
grower on the bank of the Aroostook were sizzling in the two large
frying-pans.

Most boys possess hearty appetites, and Giraffe was no exception to the
rule. Indeed, like most lean fellows, he had an enormous stowage
capacity somewhere about him, and could dispose of more food on occasion
than any two of his mates. Bumpus always declared he had hollow legs,
and used them for receptacles, when other places were filled to
overflowing. But not one of the scouts could remember the time when
Giraffe complained of having eaten too much. Like the crowded street
car, there was always room for more.

"Wish we'd struck this section of country an hour or two before dark,"
Bumpus ventured to remark, complacently, as he sat there with his fat
legs doubled under him, tailor-fashion and munching at the crackers and
cheese he had made a sandwich out of.

"For why?" asked Giraffe, looking up.

"Oh! a feller might have just taken a little turn around here, and
knocked over a deer, or something of the sort," Bumpus replied, with the
utmost assurance in the world; just as though such a thing were of
common occurrence in his life. "Looks right gamey around here; how's
that, Thad?"

"Oh! Jim Hasty told us that much!" declared Step Hen, before the
scoutmaster could find a chance to say anything. "Didn't you hear him
tell how every season there's been a moose or two killed within ten
miles of where we've got our camp right now. But we can't hold up yet to
do any hunting; so you'll just have to put a crimp in that sporting
spirit you've developed so suddenly, Bumpus."

"Listen to him talk, would you?" exclaimed Giraffe; "and only a little
while back you couldn't get Bumpus to