ahead. It was
getting dark and the woods were awful still. Every time a twig cracked
under us it seemed to make a loud noise. There were crickets chirping
too. It kind of reminded me of Temple Camp after supper. We kept
straight west because we knew that was where the tree was. I guess we
all got sort of excited as we came up near to the top of the ridge.

I said, "I'm glad the last part of our hike is through the woods. Maybe
we had a lot of fun in Bridgeboro and in Little Valley, but the woods
for me."

Pretty soon we came out into the open and there in the dusk stood the
great big tree all by itself. It seemed awful solemn like.

Westy said, "_Look!_ Away off there in the east. See?"

Oh, boy! Away, way, way off across the country we had come through was
like a shaft of dust sticking right up into the sky. It was the
searchlight on the Bridgeboro fire-house.

"Let's start a good big fire," I said, "so our folks will know we're all
right. Then we'll start home."

So we started a fire and sat around it and jollied each other and
especially Pee-wee--you know how we're always doing. And we roasted the
potatoes that we had with us and they tasted good, kind of like smoke.

After a while Westy said, "Well, here's the end of our bee-line hike and
I bet we didn't go more than about ten or twenty feet out of our path
all the way."

"That's the only way to get any fun out of a bee-line hike," I said.
"Either do it right or not at all."

After we were all rested and had eaten all our potatoes we trampled the
fire out and went up to the stateroad about a quarter of a mile away to
wait for the jitney. I was good and tired, I know that.

Warde said, "I've been sitting on the porch all summer reading
adventures, but this beats them all. And the best part is it was all
real."

"Believe me," I told him, "a real agate is an imitation compared to us."

"I'm glad I'm in the scouts," he said.

"The worst is yet to come," I told him.

He said, "I'm game."

"_You bet you are!_" all the fellows shouted.

We all looked back and said, "Good night, old tree, see you later." It
seemed as if that big tree had been with us all day and we had come to
be friends, sort of. Maybe it saw everything from up there and was
laughing to itself at all the crazy things we did, hey?

As we went along toward the stateroad Dorry said, "Let's take a hike
straight north to-morrow."

"Sure, for the North Pole," Hunt said.

"You can count