that morning had arrived.

The sun was beginning to gild the eastern heavens when they started to
get breakfast. Larry took a look all around, after what he fancied
would be the manner of an old sea dog; and then gravely announced his
opinion as to the weather.

"Guess we're going to have another fine day of it. No sign of red in
that sunrise; and the few fleecy white clouds don't whisper rain. You
know, Phil, I'm taking considerable interest in weather predictions
these days. Got an old almanac along, to compare notes. I hazard a
guess first, and then look up what old Jerold says we're going to have."

"Well, how do his predictions pan out?" asked Phil.

"Oh! nine times out of ten it happens just the opposite to what he
says. That's the fun of the thing. He knows how to tell what the
weather ain't going to be; and to my mind that's going some. Now, what
shall we eat this morning?"

"Any of those fresh eggs left we bought from that old cracker just
outside the town limits?" asked the head of the expedition. "Half a
dozen, you say? Good! Suppose you give us an omelet for a change.
They might get broken, anyway; and we'd better have the use of 'em."

"What will you do with that awful beast out there, Phil?"

"Tony is going to look after him for me," replied the one who had shot
the bobcat thief. "He says it is a very fine skin, and that sometime
I'll be glad to have it made into a little door mat. He knows how to
take it off, and stretch it on a contrivance he expects to make. You
see, he's handy at all such things. Necessity is a great teacher. If
you just had to go hungry for two whole days, Larry, I really believe
you could do it."

"Perhaps I could," sighed the other; "but thank goodness, just at
present there's no need of fasting, while we've got all these bully
stores aboard, and that haunch of prime venison hanging up there.
Suppose you drop it down, Tony, if you don't mind climbing the tree
again. Two eggs apiece ain't going to fill the bill; and the taste I
had of that venison last night haunts me still."

At that Phil chuckled.

"Seems to me, just before we went to bed I saw you getting away with
the surplus we put in that pan," he remarked.

"Oh! that was only a little snack," replied the unabashed Larry. "This
air seems to tone up a fellow's appetite some. Given a week or two of
the open life, and I have hopes that my usual appetite will come back
to me again."

Of course the