"My name's Sandy Hopgood, although I aint no good on the hop at all." The man grinned at his little joke. "Got your outfits with you? If you have we'll dump 'em in the wagon and start. We've got nigh on to twenty miles between us an' a supper table, an' if you're too long Mrs. Hoover won't keep a blessed thing a-waitin' for you." "In that case we'd better get something to eat before we start," put in Dale, who was already hungry. "Aint no hotel around here." "Then we'll get some crackers and cheese, or something else, at the store," said Owen. "Mr. Hopgood, come and have lunch with us." "Well--er--I wouldn't mind, but the fact is I--er--I didn't bring no money with me." "That's all right--we'll stand for it." "Will you? Thanks; then I'll go." The man lumbered from the wagon and tied up his team. They were soon in the general store, and here obtained a satisfactory spread of crackers, cheese, chipped beef, and canned stuff, which the storekeeper let them eat at a table in a back room. "Blame me if that aint as good a supper as I've had in a long time," was Sandy Hopgood's comment, after he had finished the third of a pie Dale had purchased. "It's a heap sight better nor going home for the meal." "Does Mrs. Hoover run the table?" asked Dale. "Kind of--it runs itself mostly." Sandy Hopgood closed one eye suggestively. "You won't git fat up to our camp, let me tell you that." When the man had departed to bring around his turnout, Owen motioned to Dale. "I'm going to take a few eatables along," he said. "Just put the things that are in my satchel in with your own, and then we can fill mine up with food enough to last two or three days. I'm not going to starve." This was agreed to, and by the time Sandy Hopgood called for them, they had Owen's valise filled with all sorts of things to eat. The storekeeper smiled when he saw them stowing the articles away. "Reckon you know your man," he said suggestively. "Not exactly, but we've heard something," answered Dale. "Well, you'll hear more before you come away," was the storekeeper's comment. "Shouldn't wonder but what I'll see you again by the time your first month is up." "Or before," put in Owen, with a short, hard laugh. Then Sandy Hopgood drove up, and they put their trunks into the wagon and followed with their valises. "Now to see what we will see," remarked Dale, as lightly as he could. But his heart was heavy, for he realized that the prospect was far from encouraging. CHAPTER XX AT JOHN HOOVER'S HOME The road was dark as well as rough, and as the lumber wagon bumped along over the stones and tree roots, neither Dale nor Owen had much to say. Each was busy with his thoughts, wondering how they would be received by John Hoover and his wife, and what would be the outcome of this venture into the Michigan lumber district.