o the lake
afterwards. I didn't know it was so far." Bet slung her pack to the
ground, and the others followed her lead.

"What's for lunch?" asked Joy Evans. "I'm starved!"

Outdoor cooking was a hobby with the girls and they soon had a fire
started. And when a bed of coals was ready, a big steak with onions
sizzled merrily.

Everybody was hungry from the long walk, and steak and sandwiches
disappeared before the onslaught of four ravenous girls.

"And here's the dessert!" Bet held up a handful of dough.

"I wouldn't call that much of a dessert," Joy shrugged with disgust.

"Wait and see! You take a little piece of it and pull it out like
this," and Bet stretched the dough into a long, narrow ribbon. "Now
please hand me those sticks I was whittling!" After rubbing the end of
the twigs in flour, Bet wound the ribbon around the end in a spiral.

"And now what?" asked Kit, as Bet passed each of them a stick with the
twisted dough on the point.

"Put them over the coals but be careful not to burn them," she
cautioned.

The girls kept the sticks turning so that the dough would cook evenly.
Suddenly Bet held hers up; "I do believe mine is done, and this is the
way you find out. If it slips off without sticking then it is done."
Bet gave the twist a little turn and it came off.

"Now that's a bread twist!" she smiled with satisfaction, as the girls
all took theirs off successfully. "Here, fill them up with jelly, and
then tell me what you think of them."

"No words can describe this!" replied Joy. "I could just live on bread
twists."

"And now let's be on our way!" Bet shouldered her pack. "It can't be
far to the lake now."

After an hour's walk they realized that something was wrong, they
should have been at the lake long ago.

"I know what we must have done," exclaimed Bet impatiently. "We took
the wrong trail away back by the road. Here's Hermit's Hut in front of
us."

"Aw, what a nuisance. I did want to go to the lake!" Joy stopped
short. "Can't we turn back and go yet?"

"No, it's too late today. It would be dark before we'd get there,"
said Shirley.

"What's Hermit's Hut? That sounds interesting. Makes me think of the
hermit's caves in Arizona," cried Kit, a joyous note in her voice.

"It's just an old hut, that's all. They say a queer old man stayed
there at one time and lived on just what he could shoot or trap in the
woods, and when he died and his body was found, there wa