“Well, how’re you agoin’ to find this place again?” Step Hen went on to inquire, “all coons look alike to me; and one part of this big timber strikes me as pretty much the same as the rest, ’specially when you see it at night time.”
“You wait, and Allan, he’ll tell you how,” broke in Giraffe, confidently. He felt sure from the way Allan spoke that he knew what he was saying; and after seeing how cleverly the Maine boy had stuck to the trail, when the marks were all Greek to himself and Step Hen, the tall scout had come to have a sincere admiration for Allan.
Besides, just then it happened that Giraffe was feeling pretty good. He had received a very high compliment from the acting scoutmaster, and that is usually a great victory for any ambitious scout.
Why, he almost forgot he was tired to death, and that his injured leg had been paining him furiously. Such an affect can mind have over matter.
“Oh!” said Allan, off-hand, and in no particular hurry to speak, because they all really needed a little breathing spell before going on, “it’s generally dead easy to mark most any place in the timber, if only you use your eyes. There’s nearly always some odd old stump of a tree standing around that you’d be apt to know again. Sometimes there happens to be a tree with a queer shape, that just catches your eye. Once noticed, it’s easy to remember the same.”
“And right now you’re meaning that pair of trees that have fallen toward each other till they look like a couple of girls going to hug,” spoke up Giraffe, quickly; eager to show that those boasted eagle eyes of his had been able to see more than just the campfire far ahead.
“Sure thing. Giraffe, and I’m glad you noticed them, because two heads are better than one, any day,” Allan went on to say.
“Even if one is—but I won’t say it,” Step Hen chuckled.
“Guess you better not,” snapped Giraffe. “But now that we’ve decided on that little tree test of memory, hadn’t we better be going ahead? I’m thinkin’ of our poor chum Bumpus, and what he may be enduring right now.”
“Yes,” declared Thad, “we’ve rested enough, and might just as well be putting our best foot forward.”