"Gracious, I almost forgot about it!"
"We must celebrate!"
"Sure thing! Oh, we'll have a dandy time. We can have fish, fowl and venison, and pudding and cake and nuts and apples, and lots of good things," finished Giant.
"Let us go duck hunting to-morrow and spend Christmas here," said the doctor's son, and so it was agreed.
Everything was prepared for an early start, and the four boy hunters were "up and doing" by seven o'clock in the morning.
"Phew! but ain't it cold!" ejaculated Snap, as he slapped his hands together. "I didn't calculate on such a drop in the thermometer."
It certainly was freezing weather and they bundled up well before leaving the shelter. As before, they shut up tightly, to keep out all wild animals. The deer and other game had been hung high by ropes from several tree limbs.
Of course all were on snowshoes, and they carried in their game-bags provisions enough for two good meals. Every day they found walking on snowshoes easier, and all got over the ground, or rather snow, very well.
Once over the hills back of Firefly Lake, they took to a route that was new to them, leading through a heavy belt of spruce timber and then over a sloping stretch running down to the lowlands. On the way they stirred up some rabbits and Whopper could not resist the temptation to bring one of them low.
"Now I won't have to go back empty-handed, even if I don't see another thing," he declared.