arner while
the latter (that means Mr. Warner) was getting the sodas ready. Then all
of a sudden Harry said:

_"Attention! Present spoons. Go!"_

So then we all started at once and that was the beginning of the big hike.
Just as I told you, it started at the top of the glasses in Warner's and
ended in the bottom of the glasses at Bennett's.

When you hear me say _M-mm-that's good_ in Bennett's, you'll know the hike
is over.

CHAPTER V

I GO ON AN ERRAND

"Now to skirt the lonesome Catskills," Harry said.

"Now to what them?" Dorry Benton asked him.

"Skirt them," he said, "that's Latin for hiking around the edge of them.
We don't want to be all the time stumbling over mountains."

"Believe _me_, if I see one in the road, I'll tell you," I said.

"And we don't want to get mixed up with panthers and wild cats either,"
Harry said. And he gave me a wink.

"There aren't any wild animals in the Catskills," Charlie Seabury said.

"There are wild flowers," I said, "but they, won't hurt anybody."

"How about poison ivy?" Westy Martin said.

All the while as we hiked along the road toward Saugerties, we kept joking
about the wild animals in the Catskills. Harry Donnelle said there used to
be lots of wild cats and foxes, but not any more. He said there were some
foxes, though.

Westy said, "I bet there are some bears; once Uncle Jeb saw a bear; he
said there weren't any foxes any more."

"I guess there are some gray ones and maybe a few silver," Harry Donnelle
said.

"Silver?" I shouted. "Oh boy!" Then I asked him what they fed on mostly.

"Mostly on ice cream sodas," he said; "they're very dangerous after a half
dozen raspberry; sodas."

We didn't go near Saugerties, because we wanted to keep in the country, so
we hit down southwest along the road that goes to Woodstock. Then we were
going to hike it south past West Hurley so we'd bunk our noses right into
the Ashokan Reservoir. And the next day we were going to spend trying to
keep out of Kingston.

When it got to be about five o'clock in the afternoon, we hit in from the
road to find a good place to camp. Maybe you think that's easy, but you
have to find a place where the drainage is good and where there's good
drinking water.

Pretty soon we found a dandy place about a quarter of a mile off the road,
and we put up our tent there.

Harry Donnelle said, "There's one kind of wild animal that I forgot to
mention and I guess we'll be hunting them al