four speckled beauties, well dipped
in batter, were sizzling merrily.

"This is the finest food I've ever had," declared Greg Holmes,
swallowing another mouthful of trout and leaning back with a contented
sigh.

"It certainly is great," agreed Dave Darrin. "Fellows, I've wasted
some of my life in the past, for I never before knew the taste
of brook trout."

"I tried 'em once," said Reade, "but they didn't taste as fine
as these. With trout, I've heard, a tremendous lot depends upon
the way they're cooked."

"Of course the cooking has a lot to do with bringing out the full
flavor," Dick admitted modestly. "But, Tom, perhaps you hadn't
done any hard work before eating trout that time. Exercise brings
hunger, and hunger is the best sauce that food can have---as we
all ought to know."

"Exercise?" repeated Tom, with a laugh. "Yes; I've had that this
afternoon, all right. You had me guessing when you told me you
had such an important job for me. I didn't know, then, that you
wanted me to boss the raft building and transporting the camp
over here. It was exercise, all right. We ought to have taken
an entire day to it."

Dick rose with the frying pan, dropping hot trout on four plates
in turn, omitting only Holmes.

"You shall have a trout out of the next serving, Greg," Dick promised.

"I'm not worrying about myself," Greg returned. "But are you
going to have anything left for yourself, Dick?"

"I'm not worrying about that, either," laughed Prescott. "It
was mighty nice of you fellows to do all the work this afternoon,
and leave me to enjoy myself all the time at sport. So the trout
belong to you fellows."

"I don't suppose you worked at all, Dick," said Tom quizzically.
"Of course whipping up and down a stream in rubber boots, over
stones and all sorts of obstacles, isn't anything like work."

"It would be pretty hard work for a fellow who didn't like trout
fishing, I suppose," Dick answered. "But, to me, it was only
so much glorious sport. Here's your trout, Greg. Who else wants
some more?"

"Don't ask foolish questions," chuckled Danny Grin.

But at last the five boys had to admit that they had eaten their
fill out of the splendid result of Dick's afternoon of sport.
There were still several trout left, all cleaned and ready to
be dipped in the batter.

"Now, you sit down at the table, and let us wait on you," urged
Greg, going over to Dick.

Dave took hold of one of young Holmes' sus