t the old guide, who was too tall,--and on the higher,
colder elevations they found that to wear a fresh wool union suit, and
socks warm from the fire, to sleep in, was as good as an extra blanket,
if not better.

Everything was to be turn and turn about,--Ace had been the most
insistent member of the party in not leaving Long Lester to do the lion's
share,--they were obliged, each in turn, even Norris, to learn certain
fundamental rules of cookery. Long Lester got it down to this formula:

Put fresh vegetables into boiling salted water.

Put dried vegetables (peas and beans) into cold, unsalted water.

Soak dried fruit overnight.

To fry, have the pan just barely smoking.

To clean the frying pan, fill it with water and let it boil over, then
hang it up to dry. Jab greasy knives into the ground,--provided it is not
stony.

You can fry more trout in a pan if you cut off their heads.

As the boiling point drops one degree for every 800 foot rise, twenty
hours' steady cooking will not boil beans in the higher altitudes unless
you use soft water. They may be best cooked overnight in a hole lined
with coals, if put in when boiling, with the lid of the Dutch oven
covered with soil.

Three aluminum pails, nested, provided dish pan and kettles for hot and
cold water. Butter packed in pound tins kept fresh indefinitely in those
cool heights, and salt and sugar traveled well in waterproof tent silk
bags. Long Lester had figured on a minimum of a quarter of a pound each
of sugar and bacon per day per person, three pounds of pepper and
twenty-five of salt.

Of course the one thing each member carried right on his person was a
pepper tin of matches, made waterproof with a strip of adhesive tape. For
the snow fields, they also had tinted spectacles, as a precaution against
snow-blindness.

Axmanship came to be the chief measure of their campcraft. Ace had wanted
to bring one of the double-bitts he saw the lumbermen using, but the old
guide vetoed it as more dangerous to the amateur than a butcher knife in
the hands of a baby.

The light weight single-bitt was the axe he had brought for the boys,
reserving a heavier one for himself. These he had had ground thin, but so
that the blade would be thickest in the center and not stick fast in the
log. Both axe-heads wore riveted leather sheaths.

They took turn and turn about getting in the night wood. Fortunately the
boys, (Norris, too), had watched the lumbermen like lynx