enson's name had been mentioned. Then, however, they
stirred up some more squirrels and rabbits, and in the excitement of the
chase that subject, for the time being, was forgotten.

They had brought a lunch with them, and at noon they found a convenient
spot and there built a small campfire, over which they made themselves a
can of hot chocolate, and this, with some sandwiches and some doughnuts,
constituted the repast. Andy wanted to take time to clean a couple of
the squirrels and cook them, but Jack and the others were afraid this
would take too long, and so the idea had to be abandoned.

"Gee! but this tramping through the woods gives a fellow an appetite!"
cried Andy, after he had eaten his second sandwich and his third
doughnut. "I could eat a whole rabbit or a squirrel myself." And then,
feeling in fine fettle, he proceeded to pull himself up on a near-by
tree limb and "skin the cat," as it is called by acrobatic boys.

"You look out, young man, that you don't tumble down on your head,"
warned Jack. "This ground around here is frozen pretty hard."

"If I tumble, I know where I'll land," cried Andy gleefully; and,
swinging himself back and forth on the tree limb, he suddenly let go and
came down straight on Jack's shoulders. Both went down in the snow, and
there rolled over and over, each trying to get the better of the other.
Then Fred commenced to snowball the fallen pair, and Randy joined in;
and a moment later there began a snowball fight on the part of all four
which lasted about ten minutes.

"Cease firing!" cried Fred at last, as he dug some of the snow out of
his left ear. "If this is going to be a snowballing contest, all right;
but I thought we were out to do some hunting."

"Fred surrenders, and the war is over!" cried Jack.

"Hoist the milk-blue flag and call it off!" burst out Andy gleefully.
"Throw the snowballs into the ice-cream freezer and season to taste!"

After that the four young hunters packed up their belongings and saw to
it that the campfire was completely extinguished. Then they continued on
their tramp in the vicinity of the Rick Rack River.

"I'm getting tired of hanging around this watercourse," said Fred
finally. "I believe the reports of our guns have driven all the
remaining game away. Why can't we strike off into the woods yonder and
come in on the other side of Haven Point?"

They noted the position of the sun with care, and then struck off at
right angles to the river.