d Peter paddling Mrs. Reece, and Ben Gile with the two
little girls. Everybody was so excited that all talked at once, and
nobody could hear any one else. Hope and Betty had never been camping
before, and the boys meant to show the girls all the wonders of sleeping
and eating out in the woods.

Finally they came to a "carry"--that is, a path leading from one lake to
another, across which the food and canoes have to be lugged. The girls
and Mrs. Reece carried the packs and food over, making several trips in
order to do so; and the boys and the guide, crossing their paddles under
the thwarts of the canoes and raising the blades on their shoulders,
balanced the canoes and trotted swiftly over the carry. Nothing seemed
any trouble that glorious, beautiful day--nothing too heavy, nothing too
hard. Betty and Hope could have skipped over every inch of the trail,
and they were quite sure that they could have done all the paddling,
too. And Betty did learn, in after years, not only to paddle, but also
to carry her own canoe, for she grew to be a big, strong, athletic girl,
with rosy cheeks and a quick, sure step.

Hour after hour they went from one pond to another. The ponds were
larger and wilder at each crossing, and already they were in a
wilderness of woods and lakes, and heard the whistle of the hawk, the
scream of the lonely eagle, and the crazy cries of the loon. Every once
in a while a big heron mounted lazily upward and flew off solemnly to a
place where his peace need not be disturbed.

[Illustration:
_A._ Moth.
_B._ Caterpillar.
_C._ Side view of head of moth.
_D._ and _E._ Scales from the wing of a butterfly.]

Although Hope and Peter and Jack lived all the year around in Rangeley
Village, yet they had never been so far away from home before, and to
them it seemed very wonderful. Even in the midst of it all, however,
Jack did not forget the prize Ben Gile had offered. He hurried over
carry after carry, and at the end of each one might be found flat on his
face studying some little hill of ants.

At last, after travelling five hours, they came to a halt, ravenously
hungry. Dinner was cooked and eaten, and then, after dinner, they began
their long ascent of Saddleback, for they were going to a lonely little
pond on the second highest mountain in the State of Maine. There, at
Camp-in-the-Clouds, was a cabin in which Mrs. Reece could sleep, and the
girls, too, if they wished, although they declared that they would