ry work in making camp. We'll have to learn to break camp in
ten minutes, and to make it in fifteen. I should say it would take us
about thirty minutes to make a landing, build a fire, cook a meal, and
get off again. There's no time to be wasted, don't you see?"

"I suppose Sir Alexander Mackenzie found that out himself when he
first went down this river," said Rob.

"I'll warrant you he did! And his lesson has stuck in the minds of all
these northern people to this day."

"Well, anyhow," commented Jesse, as one mosquito bit his hand, "I wish
they wouldn't bother me while I'm eating."

"Now if John had said that," said Uncle Dick, "it wouldn't be so
strange."

They all joined in his laughing at John, whose appetite made a
standing joke among them. But John only laughed with them and went on
with his supper. "There can't anybody bluff me out of a good meal,"
said he, "not even the mosquitoes."

"That's the idea," nodded his older adviser. "But really these insect
pests are the great drawback of this entire northern country. Perhaps
they will keep the settlers out as much as anything else. Fur-traders
and trappers and travelers like ourselves--they can't stop for them,
of course. We'll take our chances like Sir Alexander Mackenzie--eh,
boys?"

"I'm not afraid," said Jesse.

"Nor I," added John.

And indeed they finished their evening meal, which they cooked for
themselves, in fairly comfortable surroundings; and in their
mosquito-proof tent they passed an untroubled night, each in the
morning declaring that he had slept in perfect comfort.

"We'll leave the tents standing for a while," said Uncle Dick, "until
we know just when we are going to embark. The brigade may pull out any
day now. We'll have warning enough so that we can easily get ready.
But come on now and we'll go over to the boat-yard," he added. "It's
time we began to see about our own boat and to get our supplies ready
for shipping."

They followed him through the straggling town down to the edge of the
water-front, where the Athabasca, now somewhat turbulent in the high
waters of the spring, rolled rapidly by.

Here there was a rude sort of lumber-yard, to all appearance, with the
addition of a sort of rough shipyard. Chips and shavings and fragments
of boards lay all about. Here and there on trestles stood the gaunt
frames of what appeared to be rough flatboats, long, wide, and
shallow, constructed with no great art or care. There was no kee