y this time he was sufficiently awake to smell the bacon and hear
it sizzle and sputter in the pan. Moreover, his companions were already
kicking off their blankets, and he had the good sense to realize that
Pat meant just what he said. Still, it was hard to believe, and it was
not until he had reached for his watch that he was convinced that it
really was time to prepare for another day's tramp. Then he hastily
crawled from his blankets, his good humor fully restored, for Hal was a
good sport, and there was nothing of the shirk about him.

"I beg pardon, Pat," said he, as he joined the two shivering figures
crowding as close to the fire as they could comfortably get while they
watched Pat stir up the pancake batter. "I honestly thought you were up
to one of your old tricks and putting something across on us. Doesn't
seem as if I'd more than closed my eyes. Phew! but it's cold!"

It was. It was the hour just before the break of day when, perhaps
because the blood has not yet begun to circulate freely, the cold seems
to have reached its maximum of strength. Beyond the narrow radius of the
glow from the fire it seemed to fairly bite to the bone.

"Get busy with the axe and you'll forget it," advised Pat, adding, "It
is the courtesy of the woods to leave a little wood ready for the next
fellow who may hit camp late, as we did yesterday. You'll have just
about time enough to get warmed up before these flapjacks are ready."

"Good idea!" cried Walter, seizing an axe. "Come on, you fellows!
Sparrer can lug it in as we split it."

At the end of ten minutes Pat called them to eat, and by that time they
had forgotten the cold, for they were in a warm glow from exercise.

"I'll bet it was cold in the night," said Upton as they sat down to
bacon, flapjacks and hot chocolate.

"Right you are, my boy," replied Pat. "When I got up the second time it
was cold enough to freeze the tail off a brass monkey."

"When you got up the second time! What in the dickens were you up for?"
exclaimed Hal.

"To kape yez from freezing to death," grinned Pat. "Did yez think the
fire would feed itself?"

"I didn't think anything about it," confessed Hal. "Gee, it must have
been cold when you crawled out to start things this morning! Makes me
shiver to think of it. I guess the rest of us are the lucky little boys
to have everything started for us and a ripping good fire going before
we turned out. Do you always get up before daylight in the wo