Part 26 (1/2)

”So we can have a better appet.i.te for the turkey we brought along.

Fellows, don't you think we'd better eat that turkey to-day? It may not keep.”

”Turkey?” blurted Hen Dutcher, his eyes dancing with antic.i.p.ated pleasure. ”I didn't know you had any grub as fine as that.”

”I've been thinking,” proposed Prescott, ”that we might as well have some of that turkey for breakfast this morning.”

”Why, is it already cooked?” cried Hen.

”Oh, no,” d.i.c.k admitted.

”Then let's have something else for breakfast and keep the turkey until noon,” suggested Dutcher. ”I can't wait for my breakfast.”

”What do you fellows say?” asked d.i.c.k, putting it to a vote, but ignoring Hen. ”Shall it be turkey for breakfast?”

”Turkey!” solemnly voted five Grammar School boys.

”I call it a shame to treat a fellow like this,” grumbled Hen. ”To make a fellow wait so long for his breakfast when he's starving to death!”

But none of the others gave any sign that they heard. d.i.c.k went to a shelf on which lay many packages of the food they had brought with them two days before. d.i.c.k took down a plain little wooden box and stepped to the table.

”Put on about eight eggs, and boil 'em hard, will you, Greg?” d.i.c.k asked. ”Tom might tackle the coffee-making this morning. Dan and Harry can get potatoes ready.”

”But where's the turkey, then?” queried Hen, watching d.i.c.k as he opened the box.

”Right here,” proclaimed young Prescott, removing the lid.

”Why, that's--that's codfish, salted and dried!” exploded Hen.

”Well, isn't codfish Cape Cod turkey?” demanded Reade, with a grin.

”Is that the only kind of turkey you have with you?” asked Hen.

”The only kind,” smiled d.i.c.k. ”Don't you like codfish, Hen?”

”Not a little bit,” grumbled Dutcher.

”Then you can cut out breakfast, and you'll have a fine appet.i.te at noon,” offered Dan consolingly.

”It seems to me that you fellows use me as meanly as you know how,”

flared Hen. ”You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”

”We are,” Tom a.s.sured the grumbler.

Though the codfish should have been soaked over night, d.i.c.k accomplished much the same effect by repeatedly scalding it. Then he put it on to cook in boiling water, and next made a flour sauce in the way that his mother had patiently taught him. The hard boiled eggs, after being cooled in cold water, were sliced up and put over the dish when it was ready. This, with potatoes, bread and b.u.t.ter and weak coffee with condensed milk, made a meal that satisfied all hands. Hen didn't like the meal, but he ate more of it than any one else.

”What are we going to do to-day for fun?” Dan wanted to know as breakfast drew to a close.

”Shovel paths and stock up with water and firewood, I guess,” smiled d.i.c.k.

”Pshaw! I'm sorry it has to be all work, and that we can't have any fun,” remarked Harry Hazelton. ”I've just been longing to go hunting and get a rabbit for a stew.”