GETTING READY
“Somebody hold me up!” exclaimed Bluff Masters, weakly. “I’m afraid
I’m going to faint!”
“Wait till you hear the particulars before you drop off,” Will advised
him.
“Then for goodness’ sake hurry up and get started,” said Jerry. “Look
at Frank’s face, would you? Just remember that Maine’s his native
State, and you can understand what good news you’ve brought him, Will.
Start in now, and explain.”
“Oh, there isn’t so very much to tell,” the other began. “Uncle has
had his letter, and it necessitates his getting a paper signed by a
certain well-to-do lumberman up in the heart of the loneliest region
in Maine. Unless this is done inside of two weeks Uncle Felix says he
stands to lose a big sum of money. And there he is, laid up with the
rheumatism so he can’t straighten up, much less take such a long
journey.”
“So he wants the outdoor chums to go in his stead; is that it, Will?”
cried Jerry, as well as he was able; for Bluff had thrown his arms
around his neck and was hugging him as savagely as any black bear
could.
“That’s all arranged,” Will announced proudly. “Kept me longer than I
meant to stay; but then I thought you’d like to have things settled.”
“And how about the expense?” asked Bluff cautiously.
“Uncle stands every cent of it!” came the reply.
“Three cheers for Uncle Felix!” exclaimed Frank; and they were given
with a vim that must have quite tickled the old traveler inside the
Milton house, who could not fail to hear the chorus and must know what
it signified.
“When do we start?” demanded Jerry.
“How long would it take us to get ready?” asked Will.
“Let’s see, it’s just ten-forty-nine now by the town clock,” Jerry
hastily observed; “I reckon eleven o’clock would fill the bill with
me. Eleven long minutes, and you can do lots in that time, when you
hustle.”
Frank laughed.
“Well, you do like to rush things, Jerry,” he remarked. “We couldn’t
go off like that on such a long journey. There are heaps and heaps of
things to be looked after; clothes to be gathered and examined, for
it’ll be pretty cold up there at this time of year; shells to be
loaded, other stuff to be bought, and packed, and all that sort of
thing. To-morrow we’ll make a start, and it’ll keep us all on the jump
even at that to get properly stocked.”
Jerry looked disgusted, and muttered to himself; but his later
judgment was likely to be to the effect that Frank knew best.
“Uncle wants you to come in and have a talk with him, first of all,”
Will went on. “He’ll give Frank the paper that has to be signed in the
presence of three witnesses—ourselves, if there are no others handy.
Then he means to put the thing in our hands to do as we please. He was
a little anxious about our having to get the consent of our parents;
but I told him that if my mother was willing I should go, the rest of
you would have no trouble at all.”
“I should say not!” declared Bluff.
“Oh, it’s hard to believe such a chance has come to us just when we
have all this time hanging heavy on our hands!” Jerry cried.
Their interview with Will’s bachelor uncle turned out very
satisfactorily. Uncle Felix was only too willing to leave everything
in the way of details in charge of Frank, whom he knew to be the
leader of the chums.
“Never mind the expense, lads,” he told them; “only get that signature
for me, and I’ll not count the cost. Besides, you can hardly know the
pleasure it gives me to offer you such a fine trip into the Big Woods
of Maine. You’ll find them well worth going all that distance to see.
It will be a great deal finer than if you were simply heading up into
the pine woods of Michigan.”
“That’s what Frank’s been telling us, sir,” declared Jerry. “Perhaps
you don’t know Frank’s home used to be in Maine; and that’s where he
learned most of what he knows about the big outdoors. He’s often said
he only wished we might have a chance to run up there and visit some
of the old stamping grounds with him.”
“Well, that’s better than I thought,” Uncle Felix told them; “and when
you come back I hope you’ll have some great stories to tell of your
adventures in the woods. I only regret that I can’t be one of the
party, because all my life I’ve been an advocate of outdoor life.”
“I expect to take a good stock of films along,” Will said, “and that
new-fangled flashlight apparatus, too, so I can try to get pictures of
game taken at night time by themselves. That’s a stunt I’ve been
reading up lately, and I’m as anxious as can be to see what I can do.”
“Well, if we want to get off by morning,” Frank warned them, “we ought
to be at work. Let’s sit down for a few minutes and figure out just
what we want to take along.”
“How about the grub?” asked Bluff; for it would be strange indeed for
him not to consider that important subject the first thing.
“We’ll make sure to get some things here, because we know what the
quality is,” Frank commented, “such as tea and coffee and a few
others; but the heavier stuff we ought to pick up after we get to the
jumping-off place. That’ll save us lots of carrying, you see.”
“Why, yes,” Jerry agreed, “we wouldn’t want to have our trunk so heavy
it couldn’t be lifted without a derrick. That was the trouble with the
first boat old Robinson Crusoe built, remember? I’ve heard of other
cases just as bad. A fellow was telling me about a time he went off on
a trip with another chap and they kept adding this and adding that to
the things that they thought they must have on their outing, till at
last they had to take two tents along and hire a team to draw the
stuff up and back.”
With that Jerry ran off, and both Frank and Bluff were not long in
following his example. Each of them had made out a long list of things
he must personally attend to in the time that remained before night.
Frank’s positive declaration that everything necessary must be
completed before they went to bed had been accepted by his chums
without a single murmur.
“Don’t try to load any shells until the last thing,” Frank had told
them all. “If there’s no time for that, we can buy what we want. As a
rule, though, all of us much prefer to get our own powder and shot,
for then we know what’s coming; and sometimes we’ve been fooled when
we used machine-made shells.”
Frank was a little anxious until he had received calls over the
telephone from both Bluff and Jerry. After they assured him that full
permission had been given by their parents, so that the last possible
doubt was removed, Frank’s spirits grew lighter.
Nothing remained to be done but get in readiness, and on the coming
morning start upon the long railroad trip to Maine.
When supper-time came four tired boys sat down to what they expected
would be their last meal with the home folks for some time. Of course
nothing was talked of around those family tables but the possibilities
that awaited them in that wonderland of game and summer tourists.
If the anxious eyes of mothers occasionally filled with unbidden tears
because of the separation to come, they bravely kept from displaying
their emotions before the others, not wishing that any regrets should
interfere with the happiness of those who were bound on such an
enjoyable journey.
Of course every boy solemnly assured his mother that he meant to be
very careful every minute of the time, knowing she would be worried;
but that there was not the slightest danger of any harm befalling
them.
Frank went the rounds, looking over the accumulation of traps, and
lightening the collections in many ways.
“Just remember,” he told them when they murmured against his decree,
“we have to tote every pound of this, and a heap of grub besides, over
each foot of the way, up and down hill, and over snow fields besides.
So leave it to me.”
In the end he had reduced every pack to its proper proportions; and
finally returned home with the understanding that they would all meet
on the station platform for the eastbound train.
Little sleep visited four pairs of eager eyes that last night under
the home roofs in the little town of Centerville.