GO!
Buy remember, I told you that the hike didn't really begin till we got to
Catskill. The reason I don't count the hike from Temple Camp to Catskill
is because we were all the time hiking down there. It wasn't a hike, it
was a habit. I wouldn't be particular about three or four miles. Besides,
I wouldn't ask you to take them, because they've been used before. I
wouldn't give you any second hand miles.
When we got to Catskill we bought some egg powder and bacon (gee, I love
bacon) and coffee and sugar and camera films and mosquito dope and beans
and flour and chocolate. You can make a dandy sandwich putting a slice
of bacon between two slabs of chocolate. Mm-um! We had a pretty good
bivouac outfit, because the Warner twins have a balloon silk shelter that
rolls up so small won can almost put it in a fountain pen-that's what
Harry Donnelle said. Dorry Benton had his aluminum cooking set along,
saucepans, cups, dishes, coffee pot-everything fits inside of everything
else. One thing, we wouldn't starve, that was sure, because we had enough
stuff to make coffee and flapjacks for more than a week, counting six
flapjacks to every fellow and fourteen to Hunt Manners; oh boy, but that
fellow has some appetite! We had plenty of beans, too. Don't you worry
about our having plenty to eat.
When we got through shopping, we went to Warner's Drug Store for sodas.
Harry Donnelle said he'd treat us all, because maybe, those would be the
last sodas that we'd ever have. As we came along we saw Mr. Warner
standing in the doorway and he was smiling with a regular scout smile.
"There's something wrong," I said; "there's some reason for him smiling
like that."
"Have a smile for everyone you meet," Will Dawson began singing.
But, believe me, I know all the different kinds of smiles and there was
something funny about Mr. Warner's smile. When we got inside we saw a big
sign hanging on the soda fountain. It read:
A LAST FAREWELL
TO THE SILVER PLATED FOXES
BEFORE THEY ENTER THE JUNGLE
By that I knew that some of the fellows up at camp had been down to
Warner's the night before and put it there, because they knew that would
be the last store we'd go to.
Harry Donnelle said, "All right, line up." So we all sat in a row and some
summer people who were in there began to laugh. What did we care? One girl
said she wished she was a boy; girls are always saying that. So that proves
we have plenty of fun. I could see Harry Donnelle wink at Mr. Warner while
the latter (that means Mr. Warner) was getting the sodas ready. Then all
of a sudden Harry said:
_"Attention! Present spoons. Go!"_
So then we all started at once and that was the beginning of the big hike.
Just as I told you, it started at the top of the glasses in Warner's and
ended in the bottom of the glasses at Bennett's.
When you hear me say _M-mm-that's good_ in Bennett's, you'll know the hike
is over.