“Huh! it’s all very well for you to talk that way, Jerry, because you happen to be a fine shot, and can bag your game the first clip; but what’s a fellow going to do when he finds it difficult to hit a barn?  I’d like to wager that with all your high-falutin’ talk you do more execution among the poor game than comes to my share,” answered Bluff, indignantly.

“Oh! well, have it your own way.  I’ve tried my best to show you what a genuine sportsman should be like, always giving the game a fair chance.  Didn’t I induce you to quit fishing with that murderous gang-hook last summer; and when you did finally get a bass didn’t you feel prouder than if you just ‘yanked’ him in, perhaps caught on the outside of his gills with some of that deadly jewelry?” demanded Jerry, whose one hobby was the “square deal” in all that he undertook.

“I acknowledge the corn about the gang-hook; but that has nothing to do with an up-to-date, repeating shotgun, and other things such as modern campers use.  I’ve kept posted, and I know what’s going on.  Some people seem to be asleep, and are just contented to do as their forefathers did.  I’m progressive, that’s what.”

“Well, boys,” Frank Langdon here broke in with, “suppose you postpone that old chestnut of a dispute until we’re snug in camp; and let’s talk about how the thing can be done.  The first thing is to get consent at home.”

“I don’t believe we need fear any trouble there.  Frank, you call us up on the ’phone in about an hour, and if everything’s lovely and the goose hangs high we’ll meet at my house and make definite arrangements,” said Will, whose mother was a well-to-do widow, and seldom refused her idolized son any reasonable request.

“We could go on our motor-cycles, and have a wagon bring the duffle along.  If it started at a decent hour in the morning we’d be able to get in camp by the middle of the afternoon, and have things fixed fairly well for the first night,” suggested Jerry, his eyes bright with anticipations of a delightful time ahead.

“You’ve got all the things needed, Frank; and now we’ll see what your experience up in Maine amounted to.  Say, ain’t this just glorious?  Think of it, two weeks’ outing at this beautiful time of the year, and up there in the woods where we were just planning to go next summer.  I wonder if old Jesse Wilcox has begun to set his traps yet; that’s his stamping-ground, you know, during the winter, and he makes quite a haul of muskrats, ’coons, some mink and even an otter once in a long while,” said Bluff, enthusiastically—­he was always a leading spirit in new ventures, but lacked the pertinacity of Frank.

“Don’t you worry, old fellow, I’ll be Johnny-on-the-spot when it comes to delivering the goods.  But all further talking had better be put off until we find out whether we can go or not.  So I move we adjourn, to meet again an hour from now at Will’s shack,” remarked young Langdon, always logical.