"I suppose he didn't want to hurt your feelings, Fred," returned Jack.

"More than likely he knew you would feel bad to have him going off for a good time up in the woods and have you and the rest of us staying at home."

Two days pa.s.sed, and the young cadets were so busy getting ready for the examinations previous to the midwinter holidays that they had no time to pay attention to anything else. They heard that Bill Glutts was openly boasting that the _Yellow Streak_ could beat any bobsled in that vicinity and that the _Blue Moon_ had won the contest by a foul. But to this just then they paid no attention.

"I'll get at Bill later--just wait!" was the way Jack expressed himself, and the others knew that the young captain would keep his word.

On Wednesday the boys received letters from home stating that word had come in that their fathers were still in the trenches in France. No serious fighting had so far taken place in their sector, and none of them had been wounded and all were in the best of health.

"That's the best news yet," said Fred, with satisfaction, and the others agreed with him.

Gif Garrison had also received a letter, and this he read with tremendous satisfaction. His face was aglow as he called the Rover boys to him.

"I've got an important announcement to make to you fellows," he said.

"Let us go up to your rooms and talk it over."

"What is the announcement?" questioned Andy eagerly.

"I'll tell you when we are alone," answered Gif.

CHAPTER IV

SOMETHING ABOUT CEDAR LODGE

"Oh, go ahead, Gif, and get it off your chest!"

"Don't keep us waiting."

"Has some one died and left you a fortune?"

Such were some of the remarks made after Gif Garrison had said that he had an important announcement to make to the four Rover boys.

"Not another word until we get to your rooms," said Gif. "And, Andy, won't you please run off and get Spouter Powell? I just saw him heading for the gymnasium."

"All right, Gif. But don't you dare to let the others in on the secret until I get back," returned the fun-loving Rover boy, and away he sped on his errand.

A few minutes later all of the lads mentioned were a.s.sembled in the Rover boys' sitting room, some on chairs, one on a table, and two on a couch. Andy playfully started to throw a pillow at Fred, but Gif at once put up his hand in protest.

"Any horseplay, and I'll call it all off," he warned.

"I'll be good, Gif!" cried Andy reluctantly, and got rid of the pillow by using it for a back rest.

"This letter is from my Uncle Louis, who is a partner with my father in the ownership of a large tract of land not far from the seacoast," began Gif. "There is a small but comfortable bungalow on it, known as Cedar Lodge. n.o.body was going to use the Lodge this winter, and I suggested to my folks and Uncle Louis that they allow us fellows to occupy it during the holidays."

"And what did they say?" questioned Randy eagerly.

"They said I could go there if I wanted to, and I could take you Rover boys and Spouter with me, provided you could get consent to go."

"Isn't that dandy!"

"Of course we'll go, Gif. Horses couldn't hold us back!"

"How is the hunting there? Can we get a deer or a moose?"

"How do you get there?"

These were a few questions hurled at Gif after he had made his important announcement. He placed his hands over his ears in despair.

"One question at a time, please!" he begged. "What do you think I am, anyhow--an encyclopaedia? To get there you go from here to Portview, and then along the coast to a place called Timminsport. From Timminsport you have either to take a sleigh or else hike to the camp, which is about five or six miles away. There is an old fellow, named Jed Wallop, who lives near the property in a little shack some distance from the bungalow. If we want him to, he will get a sled and drive us to the place, and he will also a.s.sist us in getting settled, and in getting what stores we may need--that is, provided you fellows can really go."

"You can count of me," declared Spouter promptly. "My folks said I could do as I pleased during the holidays, provided I kept out of mischief.

And what mischief could a fellow get into in the midst of those grand primeval forests where perhaps the woodsman has never dared to lay his axe to the heart of the st.u.r.dy oak, and where the timid deer, in fancied freedom, ambles through the darkening glades, and--"

"Turn off the spigot, Spouter, or you'll have us flooded!" burst out Randy.

"Save your orations for the day before election," came from Fred.

"You can give us the rest of it, Spouter, when we are in camp some night and have nothing to read and don't know what to do," suggested Jack.

"That's it--always cutting my rhetorical effusions short," remarked Spouter reproachfully. "Some day, when you are aching to have me make a speech, you'll find me dumb."

"Tell us more about this camp, Gif," cried Fred.

Thereupon Gif Garrison related all he knew concerning the camp, which was located on a small stream of water that in the summer time ran down to a bay emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. There was a good deal of timber on the tract, and, so far as Gif knew, there was quite some small game.

"I don't know about deer," he continued. "More than likely the big animals have gone further north. But one might get a chance at a wolf or a fox, and maybe some brook mink. We'll be sure to get plenty of rabbits and squirrels and ducks, and most likely some partridges and maybe wild turkeys. But, first of all, you Rovers have got to make sure that you can go."

"Oh, we'll arrange that somehow, Gif," said Jack. "Of course, we'll want to go home first and see our folks and cheer them up a bit. They are pretty lonely now that our dads are over in France."

"Oh, I'm going home myself first. But we can have at least three weeks up there, because the school is going to be closed more than a month before and after Christmas."

Gif's announcement was such a pleasing one that the Rovers found it hard work after that to settle down to their studies. Letters were at once written to their mothers, and presently word came back that they might go to the camp immediately after Christmas if they wanted to do so. Then Jack telephoned to his sister at Clearwater Hall and got word back that Ruth and May would go down to New York with Mary and Martha and remain there until it was time to return to the girls' school.

"It's too bad we can't be at home while the girls are there," remarked Jack to his cousins. He sighed deeply.

"You mean it's too bad you can't be there while Ruth is there," put in Andy slyly.

"That's the time you struck the nail on the head!" cried Randy.

"Humph! you needn't rap me about it," returned the young captain briefly. "I guess you'd like to see the girls yourselves."

Now that they knew what they were going to do during the midwinter holidays, the Rover boys and their chums were eager to have the school session come to an end. But they did not neglect their studies, nor did Jack and Fred neglect their duties as officers.

Jack had an essay to write on "The Real Training of a Soldier," and he spent a great deal of time over this.