"That's a heap better than having it yet to come!" declared X-Ray, feeling that with the goal in sight he should be able to hold out.
They plodded along for some eight minutes or more, frequently catching glimpses of the lake beyond, and knowing that they were rapidly approaching its border. All at once X-Ray gave a cry.
"Tell me, what is that I can see over there, Phil; looks for all the world like a shack made of silver birches! See how the sun shines on its side, will you? Is that your cabin, do you think, Phil?"
"Just what it must be, X-Ray," the other told him; "they've nailed birch bark all over the sides of the log hut, you see, just to make it look rustic."
"Then we'll have to call it Birch Bark Lodge!" burst out Lub, who had a little vein of the romantic in his disposition.
"That sounds good to me!" declared Ethan.
"It goes, then, does it?" asked the delighted Lub, beginning to believe he must be waking up, to have any suggestion of his so quickly and favorably seized upon.
"Sure thing," said X-Ray Tyson. "Hurrah for Birch Bark Lodge, the home in the wilderness of the Mountain Boys."
"Don't be too quick to settle that sort of thing," advised the more cautious Phil. "For all we know there may be somebody ahead of us in the shack; and you know we couldn't well chase 'em out."
"But see here, Phil, if the cabin stands on your ground of course it's your property by right of law, no matter whoever built the shack in the start. He was only a squatter at the best," and Lub looked wise when he laid down this principle in common law which is often so exceedingly difficult to practice in the backwoods, where right of possession is nine points of the law.