s of each and ordered them back to the spring for water. When
they returned Alec had begun preparations for supper.

"This evening," announced Pat, "Alec will finish his yarn about trapping
and then we'll plan for to-morrow. Will you fellows have baking-powder
biscuit or corn bread for supper?"

"Corn bread!" was the unanimous shout.

"Corn bread it is then," declared Pat. "And how will yez have the
murphies?"

"French fried!" cried Hal.

"Yez be hearing the orders av the gintle-min--corn bread and French
fried praties, Misther Cook," said Pat, turning to Alec. "I'll be mixing
the corn bread whoile ye cut the spuds. The rest av yez can bring in
wood and set the table, an' the wan who loafs most gets the least to
eat."

At once there was a grand scramble to see who could do the most, in view
of such a dire threat.

CHAPTER X

LIFE ON THE FUR TRAILS

Supper out of the way the boys made themselves comfortable and gave Alec
the word to take up his yarn.

"To begin with," said Alec, throwing a log on the fire, "when a trapper
is thinking of going into new country he generally prospects it first,
same as a prospector for gold, only he looks it over for signs of fur
instead of for minerals. Sometimes he does this in summer or early fall,
and sometimes he does it in winter, planning for the next winter. Friend
o' mine went up into Brunswick last winter, and looked over some country
which never has been trapped to amount to anything and this year he's up
there with a line over one hundred miles long."

"Jerusalem! where did he stay nights when he was looking it over?" asked
Hal.

"Wherever he happened to be," replied Alec.

"Didn't he have no tent nor nothin'?" Sparrer was round eyed with
wonder.

Alec shook his head. "Nothin' but a week's supply of grub, his axe,
rifle and blanket. That's all any good woodsman needs."

"But was it as cold as it is now?" asked Hal.

"Colder, because that part of Brunswick is consid'rable farther north.
When night came he would just dig away the snow, build a fire and when
the ground was het up move his fire back, lay some boughs down where the
fire had been, make a little bough shelter over it, build a good big
fire to reflect the heat, and turn in. Sometimes when there's a big rock
handy or an upturned tree we warm up a place a little way in front of
that and then move the fire over against it and turn in without any
shelter at all. More'n once I've slept in just a