“Not a thing, that I can see,” agreed his comrade, nodding his head.
“Some of these farmers have heaps of good things laid away for winter,” proceeded Wee Willie, who was hungry, it may be assumed, at that very minute; “so, as long as we’ve got the hard cash still in our treasury, after selling our stock of ginseng roots to that firm in St. Louis we might as well do things up brown. We can fetch back a lot of fresh eggs, mebbe a home-cured ham, several live chickens for feast days, and if he’s got any honey Perk’d be almost tickled to death to have it to go with his flapjacks; because, mebbe we’ll never have any luck locating a bee-tree while up here.”
All of which goes to prove what every one knows to be a fact, that with the vast majority of boys the best part of camping consists of the “eats.” But in that respect boys do not differ greatly from those much more mature in years, since the natural man comes to the surface as soon as the primeval wilderness takes the place of civilized comforts.
When that night the subject was broached, Amos showed his sincere appreciation for his chums’ consideration.
“This is mighty fine of you, boys,” he mumbled, thickly, at the same time looking so very happy; “and you can bank on it I’ll hurry back here to stay the balance of our vacation—after I’ve seen father safe home, and just hung around a day or so to enjoy the situation.”
Mr. Codling tried weakly to protest, saying that he was already giving them too much trouble; and that another day lost would cut into the glorious time they had been anticipating; but they would not let him proceed.
“It’s all fixed up, sir, so our plans can’t be changed now,” Wee Willie assured him. “I’ve been making my stretcher on the sly, and I’ll show it to you after a bit. Besides, the sooner we get you down home the better for everybody. We can understand how wild Amos here is to have his mother know the good news, and if we can manage it, you’ll both be there by this time to-morrow night.”
The many things the boys had planned to do while in camp could wait until their duty to Mr. Codling and their chum had been fulfilled. Amos, of course, would insist on leaving his camera and flashlight apparatus behind when he took his father home. In this way he would be drawn to rejoin them later, so as to pursue those novel and interesting studies of shy wild animal life which seemed to be taking such a firm hold upon him latterly.
This program was carried out to the letter, for as luck would have it the weather proved favorable on the following morning. They closed the cabin again, and all started forth. Mr. Codling found the litter much more comfortable than the rough-and-ready one upon which he had made the trip from the big hollow tree at Perk’s woodland camp, to the cabin.
