“I want to make Eugene tonight,” said Uncle Billy. “That’s why I’m stepping on her. Eugene is the town where the State University is—the college that Harvard came west to play football with a few years ago. We’ll find a good camp site just south of Eugene, and spend the night there. Tomorrow we’ll push on as far as we can toward Medford.”
“When do we get to Crater Lake?” the boys asked.
“Well, I doubt if we make Medford tomorrow. It’ll take another day. Then we’ll stock up with provisions, and try to make the lake the next day, which will be the Fourth of July. That’s the day the Park is due to open.”
“Can we get some firecrackers in Medford?”
“Sure!” the doctor laughed.
The valley grew narrower as they ran on southward, and the hills on either side seemed higher. But still the boys saw no mountains, and none of the great forest trees they’d heard about in Oregon. They reached Eugene late in the day—a lively little town, with the big, handsome buildings of the University dominating it. Still they saw no mountains.
“Well, I suppose there are some, but you got to show me,” Bennie declared.
Beyond the town, they ran the cars up a side road to a patch of woods by a stream, and hurried to make camp and get supper before it was dark.
“Let’s see how good scouts you really are,” Mr. Stone said to the boys. “One of you set up the stove and make a fire, and two of you get up the tents and blow up the sleeping bags. Uncle Bill and I will get the grub ready.”
Dumplin’ took the stove as his job, because he knew how it worked. As soon as it was set up, he hustled around for dead wood. Meanwhile Bennie and Spider strung the ropes between trees for the tents, cut pegs, and got the tents up. Then they tackled the sleeping bags. It was warm that evening, and before they had gone far they were hot.