It was determined to “break camp” soon after the matin meal had been comfortably dispatched.  This did not promise to be an extraordinary feat, since they were trying to go light-handed on this expedition, and did not have many of their ordinary “traps” along, from a tent down to certain cooking utensils that had been deemed too heavy for “toting” mile after mile into the wilderness.

It makes a whole lot of difference just how fellows mean to go, when laying out the impedimenta for a trip.  If a wagon or a boat is available, all sorts of things may as well be taken along, so as to insure the maximum of comfort; but when it is known in the beginning that all they are meaning to use must be packed every mile of the way on the back of the campers, then it is high time to cut down the list to the last fraction, so far as weight and bulk are concerned.

Max and his chums had reduced this down to a real science.  For instance, having a comfortable balance at the bank, thanks to their thrift in the past,[2] money did not enter into their calculations at all.  Consequently, they had purchased a complete little outfit of aluminum cooking vessels that nested within each other and weighed next to nothing, while offering all the advantages of ordinary granite ware.  Other campers’ comforts, too, had been secured, so that they even carried a certain amount of condensed food in the shape of milk powder; evaporated eggs that could be used to make excellent omelets in case of necessity; and even soup in double cans, with a layer of unslacked lime between, which, by the addition of a little water to the lime could be heated up beautifully without the aid of a fire.

[2] “In camp on the Big Sunflower.”

When all of them started in to get busy, things quickly assumed a concentrated condition.  Each article had its regular place where it would take up the least possible space.  Why, by now every fellow had found out just how to do up his pack so that no sharp and uncomfortable edges would cut into his back; and when this condition has been reached, it means that the last word in packing has been learned.

Max himself saw to it that the fire was effectually “killed” before they quitted the scene of their night encampment.  This he did by throwing water on the hissing embers until it was quite dead.  If every party that spends a night in the wilderness took the same pains to put out their fire on leaving, many a magnificent stretch of timber would be spared from the ravages of a forest fire, that leaves only blackened tree trunks behind, and ruins thousands of acres of wooded land every year.

Although a fire may die down, and seem to have little life in it, there is no absolute surety unless water be used, that a rising wind may not fan the embers into renewed activity, until a dangerous spark is carried into some nest of dead leaves near by, and so the fire starts that man-power can seldom control.