Part 4 (2/2)

”Isn't that dandy!”

”Of course we'll go, Gif. Horses couldn't hold us back!”

”How is the hunting there? Can we get a deer or a moose?”

”How do you get there?”

These were a few questions hurled at Gif after he had made his important announcement. He placed his hands over his ears in despair.

”One question at a time, please!” he begged. ”What do you think I am, anyhow--an encyclopaedia? To get there you go from here to Portview, and then along the coast to a place called Timminsport. From Timminsport you have either to take a sleigh or else hike to the camp, which is about five or six miles away. There is an old fellow, named Jed Wallop, who lives near the property in a little shack some distance from the bungalow. If we want him to, he will get a sled and drive us to the place, and he will also a.s.sist us in getting settled, and in getting what stores we may need--that is, provided you fellows can really go.”

”You can count of me,” declared Spouter promptly. ”My folks said I could do as I pleased during the holidays, provided I kept out of mischief.

And what mischief could a fellow get into in the midst of those grand primeval forests where perhaps the woodsman has never dared to lay his axe to the heart of the st.u.r.dy oak, and where the timid deer, in fancied freedom, ambles through the darkening glades, and--”

”Turn off the spigot, Spouter, or you'll have us flooded!” burst out Randy.

”Save your orations for the day before election,” came from Fred.

”You can give us the rest of it, Spouter, when we are in camp some night and have nothing to read and don't know what to do,” suggested Jack.

”That's it--always cutting my rhetorical effusions short,” remarked Spouter reproachfully. ”Some day, when you are aching to have me make a speech, you'll find me dumb.”

”Tell us more about this camp, Gif,” cried Fred.

Thereupon Gif Garrison related all he knew concerning the camp, which was located on a small stream of water that in the summer time ran down to a bay emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. There was a good deal of timber on the tract, and, so far as Gif knew, there was quite some small game.

”I don't know about deer,” he continued. ”More than likely the big animals have gone further north. But one might get a chance at a wolf or a fox, and maybe some brook mink. We'll be sure to get plenty of rabbits and squirrels and ducks, and most likely some partridges and maybe wild turkeys. But, first of all, you Rovers have got to make sure that you can go.”

”Oh, we'll arrange that somehow, Gif,” said Jack. ”Of course, we'll want to go home first and see our folks and cheer them up a bit. They are pretty lonely now that our dads are over in France.”

”Oh, I'm going home myself first. But we can have at least three weeks up there, because the school is going to be closed more than a month before and after Christmas.”

Gif's announcement was such a pleasing one that the Rovers found it hard work after that to settle down to their studies. Letters were at once written to their mothers, and presently word came back that they might go to the camp immediately after Christmas if they wanted to do so. Then Jack telephoned to his sister at Clearwater Hall and got word back that Ruth and May would go down to New York with Mary and Martha and remain there until it was time to return to the girls' school.

”It's too bad we can't be at home while the girls are there,” remarked Jack to his cousins. He sighed deeply.

”You mean it's too bad you can't be there while Ruth is there,” put in Andy slyly.

”That's the time you struck the nail on the head!” cried Randy.

”Humph! you needn't rap me about it,” returned the young captain briefly. ”I guess you'd like to see the girls yourselves.”

Now that they knew what they were going to do during the midwinter holidays, the Rover boys and their chums were eager to have the school session come to an end. But they did not neglect their studies, nor did Jack and Fred neglect their duties as officers.

Jack had an essay to write on ”The Real Training of a Soldier,” and he spent a great deal of time over this.

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