ded to start a fire, while the two older men went up
stream a few rods to unearth a full-grown axe and a bottle of old rye,
which they had cached under a log three months before. They never
fooled with pocket-axes. They were gone so long that we sauntered up
the band, thinking it might be the rye that detained them. We found
them with their coats off, working like beavers, each with a stout,
sharpened stick. There had been an October freshet and a flood-jam at
the bend had sent the mad stream over its banks, washing the log out of
position and piling a gravel bar two feet deep over the spot where the
axe and flask should have been. About the only thing left to do was to
cut a couple of stout sticks, organize a mining company, limited and go
in; which they did. Sile was drifting into the side of the sandbar
savagely, trying to strike the axe-helve and Old Al was sinking
numberless miniature shafts from the surface in a vain attempt to
strike whisky. The company failed in about half an hour. Sile resumed
his coat and sat down on a log--which was one of his best holds, by the
way. He looked at Al; Al looked at him; then both looked at us and Sile
remarked that, if one of the boys wanted to go out to the clearings and
"borry" an axe and come back in the morning, he thought the others
could pick up wood enough to tough it out one night. Of course nobody
could stay in an open winter camp without an axe.

It was my time to come to the front. I said: "You two just go at the
camp; clean the snow off and slick up the inside. Put my shelter-cloth
with Eli's and cover the roof with them; and if you don't have just as
good a fire tonight as you ever had, you can tie me to a beech and
leave me here. Come on, Eli." And Eli did come on. And this is how we
did it: We first felled a thrifty butternut tree ten inches in
diameter, cut off three lengths at five feet each and carried them to
camp. These were the back logs. Two stout stakes were driven at the
back of the fire and the logs, on top of each other, were laid firmly
against the stakes. The latter were slanted a little back and the
largest log placed at bottom, the smallest on top, to prevent tipping
forward. A couple of short, thick sticks were laid with the ends
against the bottom log by way of fire dogs; a fore stick, five feet
long and five inches in diameter; a well built pyramid of bark, knots
and small logs completed the campfire, which sent a pleasant glow of
warmth and hea