get into our first camp, and begin to
take up the duties all scouts ought to learn, so they can take care of
themselves, and be of help to others in the woods. And let me tell you,
the first camp-fire is too serious a thing for you to start it off-hand.
So I positively forbid you to think of using a single match to-night
without permission."

Giraffe shrank back, looking crushed. He had been building high hopes on
having unlimited chances for carrying out his favorite diversion, once
away from the restraints of civilization. But he must learn by degrees,
possibly through sad experience, that a fire is just as terrible in the
wilderness, once it gets beyond control, as in a settled community. It
is a good servant, but a very bad master.

"How far is the lake from here, would you say, Thad?" asked Davy Jones.

"Not over two miles," was the reply. "You notice that the country is
getting wilder the further we go. And around Lake Omega they say it
beats everything, for you can't see a single house."

"How does it come that this lake, lying so close to Cranford, has never
been visited by any of you fellows?" asked Bob White, who, being a
comparative newcomer, like Allan and Thad, could not be supposed to
know as much about things as the rest of the scouts, who had been born
in Cranford, and brought up there.

"Why, you see for a long time all this country up here was owned by a
rich man, who meant to make a game preserve out of it. He even had a
high wire fence built around part of the tract, including the lake, and
kept game keepers here, so nobody could get in to steal a single fish.
But he died before he ever had a chance to finish the job; and his widow
sold the ground to a lumber concern, that never cared a thing for game.
Chances are there'll be some high old hunting around up here this Fall;
and I'm going to get in on it if I can."

It was Davy Jones who gave this information. He had a father who was
said to be a very smart lawyer; and Davy bade fair to follow in his
footsteps. At least, the boy was never asleep when anything was going
on; and he could easily subscribe to that scout injunction which
requires that a boy keep his eyes and ears open, in order to learn
things the ordinary person would never see nor hear.

Once more they took up the march, Bumpus being a little refreshed from
the halt. A couple of the other fellows kept near him from now on, and
even linked arms with the fat boy, who was universally