"Say, cut out
the fairy tales and get to business. Does anybody know that it
is exactly ten minutes to twelve?"
"Codfish and crullers! You don't say so!" came from Whopper. "I knew
I was getting hollow somewhere. What shall we do---go ashore and
cook dinner?"
"Might as well," came from Snap. "Our time's our own, remember.
We haven't got to hurry."
"I know just the spot, about quarter of a mile from here," said
Shep. "Our family once went there for a picnic. There's a good
spring of water there and a hollow for a fire, and everything."
"Pantry full of dishes and a tablecloth, I suppose," broke in
the irrepressible Whopper. "I do love a picnic ground where you
can pick napkins off the bushes and toothpicks, too."
The boys pushed the rowboat on its way and soon reached the spot
that Shep had mentioned, and there they tied up at a tree-root
sticking out of the river bank. Beyond was a cleared space and
a semi-circle of stones with a pole in two notched posts for a
fire and kettle. They soon had a blaze started and Whopper filled
the kettle at the spring and hung it to boil.
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