"Let's appoint ourselves a committee to take account of stock." "We made a big mistake when we were figuring on what we'd need," grumbled Dan.
"No," replied Dick, with a shake of his head.

"What we didn't allow for, in the first place, was boarding a huge eater like Hen Dutcher for a while.

Nor did we plan to have Ripley's crowd here in our absence, helping themselves and wasting almost as much as they used." "Whew!" grunted Tom disconsolately.

"We've soon got to be hitting the home trail, haven't we ?" "Or else go to bed to-morrow night on a small allowance of food," nodded Dick, "and prepared to do without food the day after that." There was much discussion that night.

Tom was for "sticking it out," doing the best possible on a diet of fish that might be caught in the pond.