“Pretty fair work,” muttered Tom, “considering that these roads were built by men who had never seen any better kind.”

“We can more than double the distance,” suggested Dave, “before we go into camp for the night.”

“If we hike a couple more miles this morning, then halt, get the noon meal and rest until two o’clock,” replied young Prescott, “I think we shall do better.”

“If we’ve gone only eleven miles,” protested Darrin, “then I’m certainly good for twenty-five miles in all to-day, and I believe the rest of you are, too.”

“Wait until we’ve done eighteen or twenty miles,” Prescott proposed.  “Then we can take a vote about making it twenty-five.”

“For one thing,” Darry objected, “none of us actually walks twenty-five miles when we cover that distance.  We take turns riding on the wagon, and, as there are six of us, that means that each fellow rides something like four miles of the distance covered.”

“What Darry is driving at,” proposed Danny Grin, “is that he wants to devote himself wholly to walking hereafter.  He doesn’t care about driving the horse.”

“I’m big enough and cranky enough to do my own talking, when there is any reason for my entering into the conversation,” smiled Dave.

At a little after eleven that morning, when thirteen and a half miles had been covered, all hands were willing enough to halt and rest, prepare luncheon and rest again.

“But I still hope we shall cover the twenty-five miles to-day,” Darry insisted.

“No difficulty about that, either,” declared Harry Hazelton.  “Darry, while we are swapping stories over the campfire this evening you can take a lantern and do an extra five miles by way of an evening walk.  Then you’ll be tired enough to sleep.”

“I’ll see about it,” Darrin laughed.

“And that’s the last we’ll hear about it,” Tom predicted dryly.

“It is the experience of every military commander, so I’ve read,” Dick went on, “that a long march the first day of a big hike is no especially good sign of how the soldiers will hold out to the end.  On the contrary, military men have found that it’s better to march a shorter distance on the first day and to work up gradually to a good standard of performance.”

“All right,” agreed Hazelton.  “For one, I’m willing to take a rest after eating, and then take the afternoon for getting acquainted with this pretty grove.”

“We won’t quite do that, either, if I have my way,” Prescott laughed.  “We ought to do a few miles this afternoon, but not set out to do any record-breaking or back-breaking stunt.”

“There goes hazy’s dream up in the air,” laughed Greg.  “I just knew that Hazy was planning how to spend the afternoon napping.”

“I’ll volunteer to drive all the way, this afternoon,” Harry offered.  “That will give all of you fellows a chance to harden yourselves more on the first day.”