Page:Hugh Pendexter--The young timber-cruisers.djvu/96



the morning the boys had an opportunity to examine the wangan. It was an old story to Bub, yet he took a delight in pointing out things to Stanley.

“The stock is low now ’cause it’s coming on summer. Next fall all these shelves will be filled. For the next month a few crews will cut and peel poplar. Has to be cut and peeled in June, you know; but we don’t go in very strong for it,” explained Bub.

The outfit consisted of an eighteen foot canoe, weighing about seventy-five pounds and four big calf-skin knapsacks. The latter were capable of holding some three bushels, but Abner divided up the supplies so that he and Charlie carried seventy-five pounds each while Stanley and Bub were required to carry about fifty each. As the canoe was to be used whenever possible and as the frequency of the streams, ponds and lakes permitted of navigation for a large part of the way the packs were only carried when falls and other obstructions 75