heart of the woods lover, but it was sequestered and had
about it that romance which attaches to deserted habitations that are
not tainted by the sordid environments of city life. The old buildings
had never been beautiful and it was only the atmosphere of a place
deserted which gave them a sort of romantic character.

But Nature had not been forced to evacuate the camp area; trees and tiny
patches of woodland had remained, and the things which scouts love and
seek had reasserted their supremacy there after the last of the
soldiers, and later the army of clerical workers, had gone away.

The result was a kind of jumble of man's hurried handiwork and Nature's
persistence, and the place, for a while, was a novel, nay even a
delightful, spot in which to camp.

In conference with Blythe, who seemed cheerfully agreeable to any plan,
the troop decided that each patrol should have the task of demolishing a
building, and should work under the supervision of its leader, with
Blythe as a sort of general overseer.

The whole troop, however, bunked in a small fourth building because this
would not be in process of razing. From the appearance of this little
building it had been a sort of club or meeting place. The window glass
was quite gone, as indeed was all the window glass in the camp. Near by
was a good place for their camp and cook fire. The little shack had
shelves on which the scouts kept their stores. They made beds of balsam,
scout fashion, and slept both in and out-of-doors, as the weather
dictated.

Roy was cook, as he always was on their troop enterprises. In his
forages against the stronghold of Chocolate Drop, the professional cook
at Temple Camp, he had learned much of the beloved art in which that
grinning negro excelled. The unruly flipflop tossed in air, fluttered
down into his greasy pan like a tamed bird. In Pee-wee's experiments it
had a perverse habit of alighting on his head.

Roy's spirit, indeed, seemed to pass into his cookery and give it a
flavor all its own. His bacon sizzled with joy. His coffee bubbled over
with mirth. His turnovers wore a scout smile. His baked potatoes had his
own twinkle in their eyes. His dumplings were indented with merry
dimples like those in his own cheeks.

The morning after their arrival they set to work in real earnest. They
had not a complete equipment of axes and saws, excepting their
belt-axes, but as much of the work consisted of gathering and piling the
lumber, a