Tea, being the quickest drink to make, was brewed, and gulped down by the Overlanders almost as fast as Joe could, pour it.
"How fu--fu--funny you look," chattered Emma, nodding at Miss Briggs.
"If I look as funny as I feel, I must be a scream," retorted Elfreda.
"Here, here! Don't I get any of that ?" cried Hippy, coming up at a run.
Tea was served to him.
"Ah-h-h-h! Nectar of the gods! Now if some one will kindly prepare a little food, I shall offer deep and sincere thanks; then seek my downy couch for sweet repose." "Hippy is the first to thaw out," chuckled Tom.
"He always was soft, anyway," reminded Emma.
"And we are all blue-noses this morning," added Nora laughingly.
Under the warming influence of the tea, their spirits soon revived, and when the campfire was laid and set going a little distance from the small cook fire, sighs of relief were heard on all sides.
Day was just breaking when the party laid down by the fire for a much needed rest.

Pine needles were their beds that morning.

No one had the ambition to help build a lean-to, nor did one care to wait for some one else to make it.
Noon found them still asleep, with the exception of Grace, who had risen two hours earlier to get breakfast for Tom who was about to leave for his work, perhaps not to return for some weeks.

The Overlanders were to make a permanent camp further down on the Little Big Branch, and, when Tom Gray returned from his first "cruise," he was to follow the river until he found them.
"Rather indefinite," laughed Grace.

"However, you aren't much of a woodsman if you can't find us with such directions, though don't cut off the bends in the river or you surely will miss us.