The _Happy Day_ carried the party quickly back to the cove under the hill on which Cave-in-the-Wood Camp had been established. The girls and boys landed and were met by Professor Skillings--who could be a very gallant man indeed, where ladies were concerned. He helped Mrs. Havel out of the motor boat, which Dave had brought alongside of a steep bank, where the water was deep, and which made a good landing place. "My dear Mrs. Havel! I am charmed to see you again," said the professor. "You are comfortably situated over there on the shore, I hope?" "My girls are as successful in making me comfortable as are your boys in looking after you, I believe, Professor Skillings," returned the lady, laughing. "More so--I have no doubt! More so," admitted the professor. "Treason! treason!" shouted Dave Shepard. "What's the matter with you?" demanded Wyn, who had hopped ashore behind the chaperone. "Professor Skillings is going back on us, boys," declared Dave. "Why, Professor!" cried Ferdinand. "Where would you find in all the five zones such a set of boys as we-uns?" "Five zones? Correct, my boy," declared the professor, seriously. "But name those five zones; will you, please?" "Sure!" wheezed Tubby, before Ferd could reply. "Temperate, Intemperate, Canal, Torrid, and Ozone." "Goodness gracious, Agnes!" gasped Dave. "Can you beat Tubby when he lays himself out to be real erudite?" while the others--even the professor and Mrs. Havel--could not forbear to chuckle. But Dave and Ferd got busy at once while the others laughed, and chaffed, and looked over the boys' camping arrangements. Dave was cook and Ferd made and fed the fire. These boys had all the approved Scout tricks for making fire and preparing food--they could have qualified as first-class scouts. Ferd started for an armful of wood he had cut down at the bottom of the steep bank and suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, he slipped, his feet pointed heavenward, and he skated down the bank upon the small of his back. "My goodness me!" exclaimed Frank Cameron. "Did you see that?" "Sure," said Dave, amid the laughter of the crowd. "Poor Ferdy! the whole world is against him!" "You bet it is," growled Ferd, picking himself up slowly at the bottom of the bank. "And it's an awful hard world at that." "Come on! Come on!" whined Tubby Blaisdell. "Aren't you ever going to get supper? You're wasting time." Dave was expertly cleaning fish. Wyn ran to his help, finding the flour, cracker-crumbs, and salt pork. The pan was already heating over the blaze that the unfortunate Ferdinand had started in the fireplace. "If you're so blamed hungry," said Dumont to the wailing Tubby, "start on the raw flour. It's filling, I'll be bound." "Say! I don't just want to get filled. I want to enjoy what I eat. I could be another Nebuchadnezzar and eat grass, if it was just _filling_ I wanted."