The canoe beached noiselessly on the river's edge, the boys jumped out with a whoop, and soon luncheon and frying-pans were out of the canoes, and there was the sound of the axe chopping the dry wood, the good smell of smoke, and the sizzling of bacon. Betty and Hope went for water. The boys fetched wood. Mrs. Reece and the guide took care of the luncheon, Mrs. Reece spreading the table on the ground, and the guide frying the potatoes and bacon. "Oh, mother," said Jimmie, "what does make things taste so good out-of-doors?" "I'm sure I don't know." "And, mother," asked Betty, "what does make everything so pretty?" "You ask mother a hard question." "And oh, Mrs. Reece," exclaimed Jack, his thin, eager face shining with excitement, "everything in the world is so wonderful!" "It's all so different in the winter," said Peter, in between bites of bread-and-butter. "It isn't half so nice, but I suppose it would be lovely if we could have you and Mr. Gile--" "You dear child!" "It is about three miles above here," the guide spoke, "on the last of the Dead River Ponds, where we shall find our first camping ground. I want you to look at it." "And we'll be gone days and days." "Goody! goody!" called Betty, clapping her hands. "And we'll sleep out-of-doors, cook out-of-doors, and do everything out-of-doors." Every one smiled with her, for there was not a person there who was not looking forward with happiness to this trip. "Before we start on I'll smoke my pipe," said the old man. "Then, please, sir, won't you tell us something else?" asked Betty. "Why, I have nothing left in my head, you child." "Oh, please, sir, you said there was another cousin called the caddis-worm." "So I did," said the old man. "Fetch me that stone, Jack." He pointed to a stone lying in the water. Jack brought it to him, and he broke something off from it. "What's that?" "That's a stick," answered Betty.