When the boys met Biff Hooper and told him that the outing was assured and that Cabin Island was available, the pugilistic lad turned several handsprings in the snow by way of expressing his delight.
“Yeah!” he shouted. “That let’s me out. My Uncle Oscar and his five kids are coming to spend Christmas at our place, and it would have been up to me to entertain the little pests. Now I’m out of that! Hurray!”
“This trip seems to be popular,” remarked Frank. “Well, you’d better start figuring out what you can contribute in the way of grub. We each carry our own blankets.”
“Suits me. I’ll take all the grub, if you want.”
Next day, the four gathered at Biff Hooper’s home and, in a very businesslike manner, drew up a list of requirements for the trip, and apportioned what would be required of each. Inasmuch as Frank and Joe had secured the privilege of Cabin Island and were also giving the use of the ice-boat, Chet and Biff insisted on looking after the matter of food. Each boy was to take along whatever cooking utensils he could beg or borrow from home.
In this manner, with conferences after school and during the noon hours, the boys made their preparations for the outing, and the last days of the autumn term slowly dragged past. They had decided to leave Bayport three days before Christmas, almost immediately after school closed, and the intervening time was occupied by putting the ice-boat in readiness and accumulating everything they would need.
“We don’t want to keep trotting back to the city every day for something we’ve forgotten,” Chet pointed out.
At last, everything was in readiness. The food supplies were packed, the blankets were stowed away, the ice-boat had been overhauled, the boys had loaded skates, skis, and snowshoes on their craft, and everything had been checked over so that nothing would be forgotten. News of the proposed outing had circulated among the other boys at the Bayport high school and the Hardy boys were besieged with requests from many of their chums who wanted to accompany them. But they were obliged to refuse. The cabin was large, but it would not accommodate everybody.
Finally, school closed. There were the usual closing exercises, which the lads sat through impatiently, and then they raced toward home, for the trip to Cabin Island was definitely scheduled for the morrow.
Mrs. Hardy had taken liberties with the calendar, and when the boys came home that night they found, to their unbounded delight and astonishment, that the Christmas dinner had been set ahead. There was a turkey in the oven and the kitchen was redolent with the savory odors of a Christmas feast.