"Make your mind easy, Giraffe," said Davy; "next time we'll fetch along all our mothers' preserving kettles. Fact is, there must be times when even a wash boiler looks about the regulation size, to you!"
"That's mean of you, Davy," remarked Giraffe, when he could make himself heard above the roars of laughter. "Just because I happen to have a better appetite than the rest of you, is no reason you should keep on joking a feller about it. You eat twice as much as Smithy here, and yet you think that's nothing. Well, I happen to be able to go a little further than you, that's all. Nothing to be ashamed of, is it, Thad?"
"Oh! the boys must have their fun, Giraffe; and if you're wise you'll laugh with them," Thad remarked. "When they find it doesn't bother you, the chances are they'll quit quizzing you on your eating ability. Doctor Philander said that the only danger lay in your putting to great a strain on your digestive powers."
"Well, Doctor Philander ain't here, and we seem to be getting along O. K. without a regular scout-master, too," remarked Davy Jones. "I wouldn't care if business kept on chaining him to town whenever the Silver Fox Patrol has a chance to camp out. Thad, here, keeps us subdued just about right."
The bear had not been forgotten at meal times. Thad saw to it that there was enough food given to the animal to satisfy its hunger; though Giraffe always complained that it was just ruinous the way that animal did eat into their supplies.
"Lucky you laid in an extra amount, Thad," he remarked that same evening, as he saw the captive make way with all that was placed before him. "Guess you must have had an idea we'd have company up here."
"Why, no, the boys warned me that the fresh air might sharpen up some of our appetites," replied Thad; "and I guess it has."
"That's just it," said Giraffe, quickly; "and I can't be held responsible for what this ozone does, can I, Thad? Why, ever since we started, I've just got an empty feeling down there, like the bottom had dropped out. Half an hour after I fill up, I'm hungry again. It's an awful feeling, let me tell you."
"I was just wondering," said Thad, "if those two foreigners who own this beast will ever show up to reclaim him."
"My stars! I hope so," remarked the other, looking horrified at the very thought of keeping Bruin much longer. "But what can we do to let 'em know we've got their old hairy exhibit eating us out of house and home?"