The doctor and Mr. Stone let the boys sleep late the next morning. The sun was high when they finally arose, and tumbled out into the ice-cold water of the creek for a good scrub with soap. After the bath, and a hot breakfast, they all felt cheerful and fairly fit again. The aches of the night before had somehow vanished, though their lips were still cracked and their noses were peeling.
“By Jiminy,” said Bennie, as he scraped the breakfast plates to feed Jeff, “I believe I’d like to climb the old mountain again, after all. I sure do hate to go away from here and admit it beat us.”
“Me, too,” said Spider.
“Well, I know when I’m licked,” Dumplin’ put in. “I guess if you’d been dizzy and if you’d slipped the way I did, you wouldn’t be so keen to go back.”
“You’ve got more weight to cart up than we have,” Spider laughed.
“That’s no joke, either,” said the doctor. “Dumplin’ needs a lot of training down before he tackles a climb like Jefferson. It isn’t his fault he was dizzy, or that he got so tired. Some people are always dizzy at high altitudes, anyhow. I wouldn’t let him try it again in his present shape. But if you other boys are game, and Stone is game, I’d like to tackle the mountain from a base camp where we tethered the horses. That will keep us here two days longer, so we won’t have time to get in to see Mount Hood close to. You’ll have to decide whether you’d rather reach the top of Jefferson, or see Hood. Those in favor say ‘Aye.’”
“Aye!”
“Aye!”
“Aye!”
“Aye!”