e did happen on a real bear while we
were out on this hike?" suggested Billy Button, who was rather given to
stretches of imagination, and seeing things where they did not exist.

So they beguiled the time away as they tramped along. Gradually they
approached the great gloomy looking mountain, and it was seen that by
the time they stopped for their noon meal they would probably be at its
foot.

Tom and Carl were walking together, for somehow the boys seemed to pair
off as a general thing. Carl was looking brighter now, as though in the
excitement of the start he might have temporarily forgotten his
troubles.

"There don't seem to be so many farms up this way as we thought," Tom
observed as they found themselves walking close beside a stretch of
woodland, with a gully on the other side of the road.

"That may make it harder for us to get the supplies we'll need, I
should think," suggested Carl, who knew the leaders of the expedition
had counted on finding hospitable farmers from time to time, from whom
they could purchase bread, butter, and perhaps smoked ham or bacon,
very little of which had been carried with them--in fact no more than
would be required for a few meals.

"Yes," admitted Tom readily enough. "But then it will afford us a
chance to show our ability as scouts--and if you look at it the right
way that counts for a lot. When everything goes according to the
schedule you've arranged there isn't much credit in doing things; but
when you're up against it good and hard, and have to shut your teeth
and fight, then when you accomplish things you've got a right to feel
satisfied."

Carl knew full well there was a hidden significance beneath these words
of his chum's--and that Tom was once more trying to buoy up his hopes.

Since they had struck a portion of country not so thickly populated,
the observing scouts had commenced to notice numerous interesting
sights that attracted their attention. Soon every boy was straining
his eyesight in the hope of discovering new things among the trees, in
the air overhead, or it might be amidst the shadows of the woodland
alongside the country road.

The scout master encouraged this habit of observation all he could. He
knew that once it got a firm hold upon the average boy he could never
again pass along a road or trail in the country without making
numberless discoveries. What had once been a sealed book to his eyes
would now become as an open page.

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