reat trees stood
almost alone on the second one of these. The sandy soil had been
gradually washed out from under the great trunks, so that the trees
proper began about fifteen feet from the ground, the space below being
occupied by a great net-work of exposed roots, some of them a foot or
two in thickness, and others varying in size all the way down to mere
threads. The freshets which had washed the earth away from the roots,
had piled a great mass of drift-wood against one side of them. Sam made
a careful examination of the place, and then all went to work. The two
boys so disposed some of the drift-wood as to make a sort of covered
passage from the edge of the bank to the two trees whose roots were
interlaced with each other. Sam cut away some of the roots with his
jackknife so as to make an entrance, and once inside the circle of outer
roots, he was not long in making a roomy hiding-place for the whole
party, immediately under the great trees.

[Illustration: JUDIE ON THE RAFT.]

"We can enlarge our house with our knives whenever we choose," he said,
"and if we stay here long enough, we must make Judie a room for herself
under the other tree, with a passage leading from this into it."

Sam said this to avoid saying something which would have alarmed and
distressed the others. In truth he knew himself to be really ill, and
believed that he would be much worse before being any better. For this
reason he knew they must have more room than the present hiding-place
afforded, and it was his plan to cut another room under the other tree,
with a very narrow passage between. "Then," thought he, "if the Indians
find us here, as I am afraid they will, they will find only poor sick
Sam here in the outer room, and won't think of hunting further." Sam
thought he was going to die at any rate, and his only care now was to
save the lives of the others. He had made them gather some mussels at
the river, and some green corn in a neighboring field, and he now said
to the two boys, "These things must be cooked. It will not do for you to
eat them raw any longer. They aren't wholesome that way, and so I've
been thinking of a plan for cooking them. The spring is down under the
lower bluff, and a fire down there won't make much smoke above the upper
banks. We must make one out of drift-wood, but we mustn't use any pine.
That smokes too much. The fire must be made in the daytime, because at
night it would be seen too far. You boys must do