rning," declared Wyn. "You'll be satisfied
with crackers--or go without."

"Cruel lady!" quoth Frank. "I expect I'll have to accept my yoke of
eggs----"

"Only the _yolk_ of the eggs, Frank?"

"No, I mean the pair I want," laughed Frankie. "And I'll take 'em
without the toast and--'sunny side up.'"

"Good! I can't turn an egg without breaking it--never could. Now, girls!
bring your plates. I'll flop a pair of eggs onto each plate. There's
crackers in the box. Hand around your bowls. The cornmeal mush is nice,
and there is lovely milk and sugar if you want it. For 'them that likes'
there is coffee."

"M-m-m! Doesn't it smell good?" cried Grace, as the party came trooping
to the fire with their kits.

"I--I thought I'd miss the sweet butter," said Bess, sitting down
cross-legged on the already dry grass. "But somehow I've got _such_
an appetite."

"I hope the boys are having as good a time," sighed Wyn, sitting back
upon her heels and spooning up her mush, flooded with the new milk.
"Isn't this just scrumptious, Mrs. Havel?"

"It is the simple life," replied that lady, smiling. "Plenty of fresh
air, no frills, plain food--that ought to do much for you girls this
summer. I am sure if you can endure plain food and simple living for
these several weeks before us, you will all be improved in both health
and mind."

CHAPTER IX

JOHN JARLEY, EXILE

This could be no day of leisure for the Go-Ahead Club. To get settled in
camp was the first task--and that no small one.

There was the plank flooring to be laid in the big tent, the cook-tent
to be erected, and the floor laid in that. There was a sheet-iron stove
to erect, with a smoke pipe to the outside, and an asbestos "blanket" to
wrap around the pipe to keep the canvas of the tent-top from scorching.

There were the swinging shelves to put up, fastened to the ridge-pole of
the cook-tent, on which certain supplies could be kept out of the reach
of the wood mice and other small vermin. Indeed, there were a dozen and
one things of moment to see about, beside bringing over to the camp a
selection of the stores--and their extra clothes--from John Jarley's
shack by the boat landing.

Wyn was a competent girl and knew something about using a hammer and a
saw. The flooring planks for both tents had been assembled at Denton,
and were numbered; but after they got the sleepers laid Wyn realized
that she and her mates had tackled more of a task than they had
exp