it isn't tea. I meant to give you some bread and jam. Do you think you could eat it?"

"Could we?" murmured Sammy.

"Just try us, Mrs. Handee!" exclaimed Frank, and, with another laugh, the lady of the house went out to the kitchen.

"Well, I'm sure I can't thank you boys enough for what you did for me," said Mrs. Blake, after a pause.

"It wasn't anything," replied Bob.

"Oh, yes, it was, too!" she insisted. "I thank you very much, and I want to tell your mothers what nice boys you are. Lots of young folks now-a-days don't think, or care, anything about the old folks. Seems to me, now, that I've often seen you three boys around Fairview together; haven't I?" and she looked at them closely.

"Yes'm, we're generally together," replied Sammy.

"Do you go camping together?" asked Mrs. Blake.

"Oh, yes, often," spoke Frank.

"And once we were all wrecked together on Pine Island," added Bob.

"You don't tell me!" exclaimed Mrs. Blake. "On Pine[Pg 28] Island? Why I have a brother there. Peter Jessup is his name. He's quite a hunter, too. He lives at the far end, near Woodport. Have you ever been there?"

[Pg 28]

"No, we were down at the other end," said Frank.

"Then perhaps you did not meet my brother?"

"No, not that we know of," answered Sammy.

"I'm sure he'd be glad to see you," proceeded Mrs. Blake. "He is fond of boys. When he was young he was just like you, always going off on hunting or fishing trips. If ever you go to Pine Island again I wish you'd call on him. I'll write him a letter, explaining how kind you have been to me, and I'm sure he'd be glad to see you at his hunting cabin."

"Has he a hunting cabin?" asked Bob, his eyes shining in delight.

"Indeed he has, with lots of skins, and deer horns and the like of that in it," said Mrs. 

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