"I don't think we could have reached the Green at a better point than
this," said Jim, "because we have different kinds of trees to make a
raft."

"It's a pity we couldn't have a boat," I said. "It would be so much
easier to manage than a raft, and it would make better time."

"I don't know as it would be any safer," remarked Jim. "You could stove
in a boat on one of those sharp rocks, but it would take something worse
than that to break up a solid raft."

"If we are going to get up so early, we might just as well turn in now,"
said Tom.

"It will be a good way to keep off the mosquitoes," I said.

But we soon found that these pests were very persistent and kept
serenading around our ears and settling on any exposed parts of our
anatomy, so that we had to keep our head ducked down under the blankets,
and thus curled up, we were soon fast asleep.

It was not uncomfortably warm, either, as there was a nip in the air
that made the blankets seem all right. We slept a little later than was
usual with us, for the deep shade of the trees shut out the rays of the
sun, and it was a half hour before Jim roused us.

"Get up, boys, or we will miss our train," he cried, and he rolled us
out of our blankets onto the ground.

We did not resent this, as it saved us the trouble of unrolling
ourselves. It did not take us long to stow our breakfast away in the
hatches and then, with an eager vim, we sprang to our work.

We had packed the necessary supplies and tools to help us in
constructing a raft. We each had an axe. There were also big spikes and
several sizes of nails. We had plenty of these. Jim led the way to the
slope of the valley, just above our camp, where grew the tall pines and
in a few minutes there was the ring of the axes as we jumped into the
work, each anxious to get his tree down before the other.

It was jolly work as I made the big yellow chips fly, and swinging into
the stroke with all the weight of my body, poised from the toes.

Jim and Tom stood squarely on their feet and struck in only with the
weight of their shoulders, and as they sent in their blows with greater
rapidity, it looked as if they would surely beat me out. But it was like
a bad stroke in rowing, and was hard on their wind and taxed their
strength.

"Oh, you're slow," grinned Jim with a gleam of his white teeth as he
glanced over his shoulder at me. "I'll have this fellow down before you
are half through."

My only reply was to sen