the cracks.
Then he made kindly suggestions as to the furniture they should
bring--mentioning a lantern, an ax, and various other articles necessary
for a camp life. They bade him good-bye at last, and started home, now
rowing against the current and now cordelling along the river shore,
when they grew tired of rowing. In cordelling, one sits in the skiff and
steers, while the other walks on the shore, drawing the boat by a rope
over the shoulders. The work of rowing and cordelling was hard, but they
carried light and hopeful hearts. Jack was sure now that he should
overcome all obstacles and get a good education. As for Bob, he had no
hope higher than that of worrying through vulgar fractions before
settling down to hard work.

CHAPTER XVII

HOUSEKEEPING EXPERIENCES

Mrs. Dudley having gone to Cincinnati the next day to attend her sister,
who was ill, Jack was left to make his arrangements for housekeeping
with Bob. Each of the boys took two cups, two saucers, two plates, and
two knives and forks. Things were likely to get lost or broken, and
therefore they provided duplicates. Besides, they might have company to
dinner some day, and, moreover, they would need the extra dishes to
"hold things," as Jack expressed it. They took no tumblers, but each was
provided with a tin cup. Bob remembered the lantern, and Jack put in an
ax. They did not take much food; they could buy that of farmers or in
Port William. They got a "gang," or, as they called it, a "trot-line,"
to lay down in the river for catfish, perch, and shovel-nose sturgeon,
for there was no game-law then. Bob provided an iron pot to cook the
fish in, and Jack a frying-pan and tea-kettle. Their bedding consisted
of an empty tick, to be filled with straw in Judge Kane's barn, some
equally empty pillow-ticks, and a pair of brown sheets and two blankets.
But, with one thing and another, the skiff was well loaded.

A good many boys stood on the bank as they embarked, and among them was
Columbus, who had a feeling that his best friends were about to desert
him, and who would gladly have been one of the party if he could have
afforded the expense.

In the little crowd which watched the embarkation was Hank Rathbone, an
old hunter and pioneer, who made several good suggestions about their
method of loading the boat.

"But where's your stove?" he asked.

"Stove?" said Bob. "We can't take a stove in this thing. There's a big
old fire-place in the house tha