“Aw!” drawled Ted, barely concealing his impatience. “The thing that stands by you best on a hard trip, after all, is jerky and pemmican. I think old Lester jerked some venison himself last fall, and he’s probably got it yet. And he’ll grind us some pemmican, if we get him word before he starts.”
“Gee Whiz! Those are emergency rations!” vetoed Ace.
“We’ll have to have a long distance conversation with him to-night,” said Norris. “Meantime we mustn’t forget pilot biscuit and peanut butter for a pocket lunch and shelled peanuts, of course, and rice, and tea and coffee, and sugar, and baking powder.”
“There are two things that can compactly,” conceded the Castilian boy at this point. “The best grade of canned beets and spinach are pretty solid weight. I’ll make no kick if we load on some of that until we get to the steeper grades.”
“Hey!” shouted Ace. “In all this time nobody’s mentioned bacon.”
“We took that for granted,” laughed Norris. “I’ll bet Long Lester would never start out without it, whether we told him to or not. But I’m awfully afraid we’ll use more tea than coffee. It’s bulky, and worse, it loses flavor.”
“Oh,” said Ted, “I know the answer to that. Powdered coffee isn’t one quarter so bulky, and put up in little separate tins, we keep opening them fresh, don’t you see?”
“I’ve never yet seen a powdered coffee that could compare with the real thing,” Ace complained.
“Why couldn’t Les buy the real thing and then get it powdered and sealed into little separate tins for us?”
“He could,” agreed Norris, “I suppose,—if we’re going to be as fussy as all that.” (Ace flushed.) “But with our woods’ appetites––”