and hungry, he made me sit down right away, and he explained that
they were just going to have an early supper."

"That must have been good news!"

"If you knew how hungry I was, you'd believe it. Well, I never have
had a meal that tasted half so good. They had crisp bacon, and the
most delicious coffee, and real biscuit!"

"Biscuit! And had they cooked them themselves?"

"They certainly had--and they were so good and flaky they fairly melted
in my mouth. If you'd tasted that supper you'd never ask again if boys
could cook. Those boys over there today will fare just as well as we
do ourselves, and they'll have just as good a time getting the meal
ready, too."

"I guess they're better able to look after themselves than most of the
boys we know at home."

"Dinner!" cried Margery, then. "Everything else ready? We'll be all
ready for you in a jiffy now. The ham's cooked, and so are the
potatoes and the corn is all roasted!"

"We're ready whenever you are," said Eleanor, with a glance at the
"table." "Dolly, you and Bessie can send up your two smoke signals
now. I do believe we're ready to eat before they are!"

"Oh, we're going to beat them all the way!" said Dolly, happily.

Bessie and Dolly, holding the blanket together, wasted no time in
making the signal that let those on the other peak know that the Camp
Fire was ahead in another stage of the race, and, just as the second
smoke was made, a faint cheer was carried across the space between the
two peaks by the wind, which had shifted.

But it was fully twenty minutes after the girls had begun their meal
before two pillars of smoke rose from South Peak as a sign that over
there, too, the meal was ready.

"What a shame that we've got to waste a whole hour eating!" said Dolly.

"I don't call it waste. I'm dog-tired," said Margery. "I'm mighty
glad to sit down and rest, and I'm mighty hungry, too."

"So'm I," said Bessie. And there were plenty to echo that.

"Well, if no one else will say it, I will," said Margery, presently.
"This _is_ a good dinner, if I did help cook it."

"No one ever praises your cooking any more; they're too busy eating,"
said Eleanor. "You established your reputation long ago."

"Well, this was the sort of dinner you couldn't spoil," admitted
Margery, frankly. "And when people are frightfully hungry, you only
waste your time if you do any really fine cooking for them. All they
want is food, and they don't care much w