the ten shillings.'

'Righto, Wolf,' said the faithful Raven; 'but if some'dy offered us a
drink o' milk for a hand's turn, or summat like that, I s'pose there'd
be no wrong theer?'

'No, I should think not,' replied Dick. 'That would be living on the
country in an honest sort of way, and on good scouting lines.'

'Just so,' said his fellow scout. 'I don't mind a rap how it goes, as
long as we understand one another. Now we'll look out for a good place
to mek' our fust halt.'

At the general shop of the hamlet they had made their first purchases
and broken into the ten shillings. They had bought enough flour to
fill a ration-bag for sevenpence, two ounces of tea for
twopence-halfpenny, a penny packet of baking-powder, half a pound of
brown sugar for a penny farthing, and the old woman who kept the shop
had thrown a lump of salt as big as Dick's fist in for nothing. So
they had spent elevenpence three-farthings, and their purchases were
stowed away in the linen bags which Dick and his sister had made ready
for the trip.

'Big hole in a bob for a start,' commented Chippy; 'but we must stretch
the stuff out.'

'Oh, the flour will make us a heap of chupatties,' said Dick. 'We'll
get a lot more to eat for the money than if we'd spent it in bread.'

'Rather,' said Chippy, 'an' we'll want it, too. Here's a spring. Just
the place to fill the billy.'

He filled the big tin, and then they looked round for a spot to make a
fire. Fifty or sixty yards past the spring a grassy cart road turned
aside from the track, and they went down it for a hundred yards till
they reached a quiet sunny corner.

Chippy set the billy down, and both turned to and built a fire, at
which they were now pretty expert. First they gathered a dozen
handfuls of dried grass and made a little heap. Over this heap they
built a pyramid of dried twigs and tindery sticks gathered at the foot
of the hedgerow. A match was set to the dried grass, and a little red
flame sprang swiftly up and began to curl about the twigs and sticks.
Now the boys were busy scouting here and there for large sticks to pile
again in a bigger pyramid above the burning heap, and in a corner where
hedge-cuttings had been flung in the previous winter they found plenty
of fuel. Soon they had a capital fire, and the billy was put on to
boil, while Dick turned his hand to the chupatties.

He unrolled his coat, and spread it on the ground with the lining
upwards. Upon t