nsed milk, twenty pounds of sugar, ten pounds of
salt, twenty pounds of coffee, a sack of beans, pepper and other spices,
and mustard. To these were added a few cans of fruit by way of
delicacies.

The food packed, they made their way to a drug store and procured a
small family chest of various medicines, and added to this several
bottles of liquor, which, however, were to be used only for medicinal
purposes, for none of the party were drinkers.

Foster Portney already had a serviceable pistol, and he now procured for
this weapon a sufficient supply of cartridges. He also bought a pistol
for Randy and a shot-gun for Earl. "The gun will be the most useful
weapon," he said, "for it will help put lots of game into our
eating-pot, and that is what we shall want."

"Won't we want a fishing-line or two?" asked Earl. "I have one in my
trunk, but it is not of much account."

"Yes, we'll buy several first-class ones, and a book of flies. Fish to a
hungry man are as acceptable as any other game," answered his uncle, and
the articles mentioned were purchased without delay.

The list was now filled, yet Foster Portney spent nearly an hour more in
picking up such odds and ends as pins, needles, spools of thread, three
good pocket compasses, and burning-glasses, a pocket notebook for each,
with pencils and some writing-paper and envelopes. Finally he took them
to a little shop on a side street, where each procured a monstrous
knapsack of oiled canvas, having straps to be placed over the shoulders
and an extra strap to come up over the front part of the head.

"What an affair!" said Randy, with a laugh. "I never saw a knapsack with
a head-piece before."

"You'll find it an easy thing to carry," said his uncle. "Try it," and
Randy did so, and was astonished to learn how much the head-strap
improved the carrying powers.

The best part of the evening was spent in packing the things they had
purchased, and it was not until after ten o'clock that the last of the
bundles were ready and duly tagged.

"Now we have only a few more things to get," said Foster Portney, "the
most important of the whole outfit;" and as Randy and Earl looked at him
blankly, he smiled in an odd way. "What could three gold hunters do
without picks, shovels, and pans?"

"To be sure!" shouted Randy, and Earl reddened over the idea that he had
not thought of the things before.

"We'll get them in the morning, for they won't have to be packed," said
the unc