a long stick, which they had obtained for a
poker. The potatoes were all burnt to a cinder.

Marco then awoke Forester, saying,

"Cousin Forester! cousin Forester! wake up. The fire has gone out, and
our potatoes are all burnt up."

Forester awoke, and, after looking at the fire, and at the charred and
blackened remains of the potatoes a moment, he took out his watch, and
said,

"Why, Marco, it is four o'clock. It is almost morning."

"Is it?" said Marco. "Then we have not got much more time to sleep. Let
us build up a good fire, and then lie down again."

"Yes," replied Forester. "We must keep up a good fire, or we shall take
cold, it is such a cool night. It looks as if it were going to rain."

"What shall we do in that case?" asked Marco.

"I don't know," replied Forester. "It would be rather a hard case for
us."

"We could stay here, I suppose," said Marco. "I don't think the rain
would come through our roof."

"No," said Forester, "not much. But then we have nothing to eat."

"Could not we get anything to eat about here?" asked Marco.

"Not very well," replied Forester. "We have got money enough, but this
is a case where money does not seem to be of any use."

"How do the men who come here in the winter to cut down the trees, get
anything to eat?" asked Marco.

"O, they bring it all with them," said Forester. "The roads are better,
in the winter, for sleds and sleighs, than they are now for wheels; for
then all the stumps and roughnesses are covered up with the snow. So,
wherever there is a camp, there is a road leading to it, and sleigh
loads of provisions are brought up for the men, from time to time, all
the winter."

"I wish one would come now," said Marco, "to us."

"I wish so too," said Forester. "But it is of no use to wish, and so we
may as well lie down and go to sleep again."

"But, Forester," said Marco, "I don't see what we are going to do if it
rains."

"Nor do I," said Forester. "But this is not the time for forming a plan.
This is the time for going to sleep. I make it a rule, in all
perplexities and troubles, when there is nothing to be done immediately
in order to get out of them, to lie down and go to sleep."

Marco said no more, and Forester was soon asleep again. Marco himself
felt so much concern about his situation that he could not go to sleep
for some time. He lay watching the flames, which were creeping slowly
around the logs which he and Forester had put upon the fi