here was an
ample heap of firewood beside the fire.

"I'll be ready for dinner when it's time, all right," said Dolly,
sniffing the delicious odor of the cooking ham as it rose from the
fire. "My, but that smells good!"

"I've heard some people who had to cook meals say that it spoiled their
appetites, and that they didn't enjoy meals they had to cook
themselves," said Eleanor. "But I don't believe that applies to us a
bit. You'll be able to eat with the rest of us, won't you,
Margery--you and Zara?"

"I can't speak for Zara," said Margery, laughing. "But I certainly can
for myself. Just you watch me when dinner's ready! Let's start the
coffee, Zara."

A great coffee pot had been brought, and a muslin sack full of coffee.
This sack was now put in the coffee pot, which was filled with water,
and the pot was set on the fire. There is no better way of making
coffee. The finest French drip coffee pot in the world can't equal the
brew that this simple and old-fashioned method produces. And anyone
who has ever tasted really good coffee made in such a fashion will
agree that this is so.

"Can those boys really cook, Miss Eleanor?" asked Dolly, looking toward
the other peak, whence smoke was rising steadily.

"Can't they, just!" said Eleanor, heartily. "What makes you ask that,
Dolly?"

"I don't know. It seems sort of funny for them to be able to do it,
that's all. You expect boys to do lots of other things, but cooking
seems to be a girl's business."

"Oh, there are lots of times when it's a good thing for a man to be
able to cook himself a meal, especially when he's camping out. And
they certainly can do it--those Boy Scouts."

"Have you ever tasted any of their cooking?"

"I certainly have. One day I was out for a long tramp near the city,
and I managed to lose way in some fashion. You know some of the roads
are pretty lonely, and I managed to go a long way without coming to any
sort of a house where I wanted to stop and ask them to let me have
something to eat, and I was nearly starved."

"What did you do? Wasn't there even a store where you could have
bought something?"

"I didn't find it, if there was. Well, finally I decided to try a
short cut through some woods, and I hadn't gone very far when I ran
plump into this same troop of Boy Scouts that is on the other peak now!"

"I bet you were glad to see them!"

"Indeed I was. I knew Mr. Hastings, you see, and when I told him I was
lost