“Well,” said Uncle Teddy dryly, “you were so blooming sure it was a ’coon that I couldn’t contradict you very well without being impolite. ‘There’s nothing like being dead sure,’ I says to myself. And I knew you would never be satisfied until you had found out for yourself.”
The Captain, permanently abashed, retired to the rear of the line and ventured no more opinions about anything they saw, and took not the slightest interest when Hinpoha discovered a rare little moosewood maple and identified it by its beautiful green bark.
“Last lap!” shouted Pitt, consulting the map for the hundred and fortieth time. “Turn east by the twin oaks and approach the camp from the rear! Company, forward march!”
“There are the cabins now,” cried the Monkey, throwing his cap into the air. “Maybe I won’t sit down and hold my feet up, though!”
“Maybe you won’t jump around and get some firewood, though!” remarked Uncle Teddy. “End of the hike, messmates,” he shouted, executing a droll dance on his snowshoes and waving his long arms like windmills. “All together, now, three cheers and a tiger for the end of the hike!” And they gave them with a will.
The place where they were to spend that night and the next was an abandoned sugar camp. It had once been a fine grove of trees, but so many had been killed by the boring worms that it was no longer profitable. Two cabins remained standing and were used on and off by hunters during the season.
“Oh-h-h, ours is a real log cabin,” cried Sahwah, dancing around in ecstasy when quarters had been assigned. “It’s lots nicer than the old board shack the boys are going to have. I’ll feel just like Abraham Lincoln to-night, only so much more elegant, because Abraham Lincoln had to split his own rails, and we can sit at ease and let the boys tote our wood for us.”
“But—where are the beds?” cried Hinpoha, in perplexity, as they went inside.
“Why, those,” said Aunt Clara, pointing to some bin-like things ranged in a double tier along one wall. “Those are our bunks.”
“Bunks!” echoed the girls in rather a dismayed tone. “We didn’t think we’d have to sleep in bunks. We expected camp beds, at least.”