times a day, that's fifteen meals. And thirty days would
make it 450 meals. Besides we'll eat just about double the normal number
of calories,--the way I feel already. And twice 450 meals is 900."

"Whoa, there!" begged Norris. "How much can a burro carry, anyway? We
can't take all our food, or we'll have such a pack-train we won't have
time for anything but donkey driving, and if we carry feed to keep them
going on the trail, we'll have to take more burros to pack the feed, and
they will have to have feed too, and--there's no end to it."

"Well, of course we'll fish, when we can," amended Pedro. "And we can
take compact rations, dried stuff, instead of watery canned goods.
They're just as good, aren't they? Only the water's been taken out of
them, and we can put it back in each night before we eat it. What's the
use of packing tin cans that are mostly full of water?"

"I wouldn't call canned peaches mostly water," retorted Ace, who though
less dependent than the plumper Pedro on his three square meals per day,
was even more particular what those three meals tasted like.

"It isn't only the juice," said Pedro. "The peaches themselves are half
water. Dried peaches are the same thing except for that, and two pounds
of dried peaches will go a whole heap farther than a two-pound can, let
me tell you!"

"All right," said Ace. "Dried peaches! What else? Mr. Norris, you've had
a lot of experience on these back-country trips."

"H'm!" said the young Survey man, his eyes lighting reminiscently. "Did
you ever eat black bean soup with salt pork and garlic to flavor it?"

"I have," said Pedro. "It's a meal in itself, with black rye bread and
dill pickle. And what about fried frogs' legs and watercress? Broiled
mushrooms, stewed mushrooms and onions, and crayfish soup?"

"Sounds good to me," Ace admitted. "But have we a mushroom expert in our
midst? I'm not ready to commit suicide just yet."

"Nor I," laughed Norris.

"Nobody asked you to," Pedro looked aggrieved. "Goodness knows I'm no
expert, but I do know a few kinds, and I know those few kinds for sure."

"Hot dog!" commented the Senator's son. "Go to it, ol' boy!"

"Then," Norris continued, "there've been times in my life when I didn't
turn up my nose at corned beef hash browned."

"And spuds!" Ace completed the recipe. "And onions."

"Dehydrated," Norris admitted. "Can't carry potatoes for more than the
first few days, and dried onion is just as flavorful as fres