Roy Blakeley, Pathfinder | Page 5

the Elks hope to have a little peace meanwhile. They thank him. In the familiar words of one of our famous patrol leaders, 'we should worry.' And we wish you all good luck in your daring enterprise."
I could see that he winked at Harry Donnelle and Harry Donnelle was laughing so hard that he couldn't make a speech. So I climbed up on Council Rock and shouted, "Hear, hear" Then I made a speech and this is it, because afterwards I wrote it out in our troop book.
The Silver Foxes thank the Ravens and the Elks for their kind wishes. I bequeath all my extra helpings of dessert to Pee-wee Harris of the Ravens-up to three helpings. After that it reverts to Vic Norris of the Elks. Reverts means goes to. Who ever reaches Bridgeboro, New Jersey, first will send out a searching part for the others. The searching party will bring their own eats. If we're never heard of again, that's a sign you won't hear from us. If we get to Bridgeboro and don't find you, that'll be a sign that you're not there. If you are there it won't be our fault. We should worry. We go forth for the sake of prosperity-I mean posterity. So please tell posterity in case we don't reach home safely. If our friends and parents are anxious, tell them to wait at Bennett's on Bridge Street, because that'll be the first place we go to.
The next day was Wednesday and we started early in the morning. The others were going to start down in the house-boat on Saturday. I think the Ravens and the Elks must have sat up all night making crazy signs on cardboard just so as to guy us. And Mr. Ellsworth helped them, too. They had the whole camp with them-even Uncle Jeb; he's manager. He used to be a trapper.
When we got out onto the main road, we saw signs tacked up on all the trees and I guess even scout in camp was there. One of the signs read, Olive oil, but not good-bye. Another one read Day-day to the brave explorers. Another one read, Don't forget to wear rubbers going through the Newburgh morass. Another one read, Beware of the treacherous Ashokan Reservoir. A lot we cared. Didn't people even make fun of Christopher Columbus?
CHAPTER IV
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