lunch.

It was no easy task which Steve had set himself. First of all he
insisted on going out and fetching the rude table inside the tent, even
if it did crowd them a trifle.

"However could you expect a _chef_ to make biscuits, with never a
table to work at?" he threw at Toby when the latter ventured to
complain; and of course after that they allowed Steve to have his own
way, though Toby hung around to quiz him, until the other ordered him
off.

"You'll queer these delicacies if you bother me any more, Toby," he told
him severely. "Our cook says you ought almost to hold your breath when
making them, because it's always easy for them to drop. Mebbe she was
joshing me, but I don't want to be bothered and forget to put the baking
powder or the salt in."

Toby kept a roaring fire going, and finally the pan of biscuits was
popped into the oven. Steve looked a bit anxious, realizing that his
reputation as a cook was now at stake.

"Since we've got this table inside here," spoke up Jack, "we might as
well make all the use of it we can, chucking it out again in the rain
when supper is over. Here's a box one can sit on, and we'll rig up seats
for the others somehow."

"Hurrah!" cried Steve, on hearing this. "That gives my legs a chance to
keep out of snarls. I never could curl up like some fellows. But I
wonder how they're coming on inside the oven?"

"What, your legs?" exclaimed Toby, jeeringly; "why, I didn't know we
were going to be treated to roast _mutton_ today, did you, Jack?"

Steve took a peep.

"Believe me, they're beginning to turn a light brown already; and say,
they look as light as any Mary Ann ever made at our house," was his
joyous announcement.

He seemed to act as though the fate of nations depended on the
successful issue of his first camp baking. Indeed, Toby was secretly
almost as much concerned as Steve, for he dearly loved hot biscuits, and
counted himself a pretty good judge of them.

To dismiss the subject, it may be said that Steve's experiment turned
out to be a success. Jack congratulated him on making such dainty
biscuits; while Toby declared that the proof of the pudding lay in the
eating; and the fact that he was making such desperate inroads on the
stack that graced the dish in the center of the table showed his
appreciation.

So Steve was made very happy, and readily promised that there would be
no lack of fresh bread while the stock of flour held out, and that dandy
little s