d be heard,
telling of numerous little rivulets that still ran down the side of Big
Bear Mountain, though by morning most of these would have dried up.

They slept under the friendly ledges. It was, after all was said, a
pretty "rocky" bed, as Josh termed it; but since the ground outside was
so well soaked, and there was always more or less peril in the shape of
another landslide, none of the boys complained, or expressed his
feelings in more than sundry grunts.

With the coming of morning the strange camp was astir, and one by one
the boys painfully crawled out, to try to get some of the stiffness
from their limbs by jumping around and "skylarking."

About nine o'clock the hike was resumed Mr. Witherspoon did not think
it advisable to go on up the mountain any further after that avalanche;
he believed they would have just as good a time passing around the
base, and in the end making a complete circuit of the high elevation.

The day turned out to be a delightful one after the storm. It seemed as
though the air had been purified, and even in the middle of the day it
was not unpleasantly warm.

"We ought to make that little lake by the afternoon, oughtn't we, Tom?"
the scout master asked, as he plodded along at the side of the patrol
leader.

Another consultation of the map Tom carried followed, and it was
decided that they must be within a half a mile of the water. Ten
minutes later Josh declared he had caught a glimpse of the sun shining
on dancing wavelets; and shortly afterwards a sudden turn brought them
in full view of the pond.

It was hardly more than that, covering perhaps ten acres; but the boys
declared they had never set eyes on a prettier sight as they arrived on
the near shore, and proceeded to make a camp there.

"If we only had a canoe up here what a great time we'd have fishing,"
said Josh, who was particularly fond of casting a fly for a trout or
bass, and scorned to use the humble angleworm, as ordinary fishermen
do.

"What's the matter with taking a log and straddling the same?" asked
Tom. "Three of us could manage it, one to troll with a spoon, another
to cast near the shore and the third to paddle the log."

"Let's try that in the morning," suggested Josh, eagerly; "it's too
late in the day to have any great luck now. But I like the looks of
that pond--and I think we might get a good string of fish from it, if
the wind's right."

That night their fire glowed upon the border of the wate