The boys shook their heads; they had not had enough experience in camping out to warrant suggesting other additions to the apparently complete list made by the fellow who had been there, and knew all about the needs of those who go into the wilderness.

“All right.  If you happen to think of anything just get it, that’s all.  Look at Jerry grinning there.  I bet I know what he’s thinking about—­that all this is utter foolishness, and that we ought to start out with nothing more than we could carry on our machines, and then take pot-luck?  How about that?” demanded Frank.

“Oh! well, have it your own way, fellows,” declared Jerry, with a shrug of his shoulders; “you know my ideas about these things.  I’m the kind of a sportsman who goes into the woods as light as possible—­give me a frying pan, coffee pot, tin cup and a pie platter, some pepper and salt, some matches, a camp hatchet to cut browse for my bed, and my trusty rifle with which to supply the game, and I warrant you I can get along as well as the fellow who makes a pack-horse of himself, and totes all sorts of canned goods over the carries.”

“That sounds all mighty well in theory, but there’s mighty little practical sense about it.  A blanket is the camper’s best friend of a cool night; and even if he is lucky enough to shoot enough game to satisfy his wants, he’ll get sick of one diet in a short time.  I ought to know something about it, for I’ve tried it both ways,” declared Frank.

“Yes,” broke in Bluff at this juncture, “and you wait and see if Jerry don’t eat his share of every blessed thing we pack in—­he won’t refuse one dish.  He’s quite satisfied to turn up his nose at others carrying loads, while he goes free; but, at the same time, he eats a quarter of the grub every time.”

Both Frank and Will laughed heartily at this, in which they were joined by Nellie Langdon and Violet Milton.

“Pshaw!” scoffed Jerry, turning a bit red at the same time, “if others are silly enough to make pack-horses of themselves, and lug all such things into the primeval wilderness, why, of course, I’m willing to help dispose of them when the time comes; purely out of good-heartedness, you see, for it makes their loads lighter.  Just drop that subject, boys, and put me down for a bottle of maple syrup; for when Frank gives us some of those famous flapjacks he’s told about so often, we ought to have the proper thing to go with them.”

So they talked the thing over from beginning to end, and it looked as if the team Frank expected to engage would have their work cut out for them, hauling all this camp stuff over the roads to the point beyond the head of the lake.

The boys were evidently eager to get to work, and hence the conference presently broke up, Jerry heading in one direction, and Frank and his sister, with Bluff finding some plausible excuse for hanging on, going in another.

Later on that day, while Frank was at the big grocery store, giving orders to have the various edibles put up so as to be ready on the following morning before seven o’clock, he was interested in seeing Andy Lasher, backed by several of his pals, actually making similar purchases, though just where they secured the necessary funds, having no rich fathers to appeal to, was somewhat of a mystery.