best of care of them. It will do them good. They're only boys once, and they have studied well this term."
So it came about that permission was given. The boys were to take along plenty of warm clothing. As for food, Mrs. Blake said her brother had plenty in his cabin. She had written that the boys were coming, and he had laid in a good stock of provisions.
"Hurray!" cried Sammy, when the matter was settled, "we can go!"
Arrangements were made, and Jed and his larger chums promised to take the three boys to the island on the ice-boat. The lake was frozen over thickly now, and there was no danger.
School closed, Christmas came, with all its joys, and two days after the holiday the little party of three, in charge of the older boys, set off on the ice-boat.
It was a fine sunny day, though cold, and there was a good wind, so they were only a comparatively short time in getting to the upper end of Pine Island. As they neared the dock in front of the cabin where Mr. Jessup had his camp, Sammy and his chums kept a bright lookout. None of them admitted as much, but they were all thinking they might see the mysterious hermit.
"There's your friend, I guess," said Jed, as the ice-boat came up into the wind, and headed for the dock. "That's Mr. Jessup waving to you. I know him."
A tall man, with a gun under his arm, was standing on the edge of the little pier that extended out into the frozen lake.
"Yes, that's him," said Sammy, who knew the hunter from the way in which Mrs. Blake had described her brother.
"I wish we were you chaps," spoke Jim Eaton. "You'll have no end of good times here."
