Part 26 (2/2)

This was a good idea and soon, by forcing the snow down the chimney, they had the fire all but out. Of course it smoked a great deal, but this did little damage.

It was three o'clock in the morning and the snow was coming down as thickly as ever. They scarcely knew what to do, until Jed Sanborn suggested they build a camp-fire outside.

”So long as you've got plenty of firewood why not use it?” said he.

”We want a light, too.”

”Here is the acetylene gas lamp,” said Snap, picking it up from where it had fallen, near the doorway.

”And the can of carbide,” added Shep. ”This will help us to start a fresh fire, even if the wood is wet,” he continued.

”How?” questioned Jed Sanborn, who had never used such a ”new-fangled consarn,” as he called the bicycle lamp.

”I'll show you,” answered Shep. ”Just heap up some of the wood, with the little sticks on the bottom.”

The wood was heaped up and then, in a hollow in the snow underneath, Shep dumped out some of the carbide from the can. Then he lit a match, held it to the snow, to melt the latter a little, and up blazed the gas, at first slowly and then more furiously, until the fire was roaring.

”Why, how is that!” cried the old hunter. ”Never knew snow to set fire to anything in my life.”

”It is very simple, Jed,” explained Shep. ”As soon as the snow melts it turns to water, and the water, soaking the carbide, generates acetylene gas, which burns about the same as gas in a city.”

”Well, it's an easy way to start a camp-fire,” was the old hunter's comment. ”I've had lots o' trouble sometimes, when the wood was wet as it is now.”

The roaring fire made matters a little more cheerful, yet the boys felt discouraged, with the roof of the shelter broken down. Jed Sanborn did all in his power to cheer them up.

”When you go camping like this you can't expect everything to go jest right,” he said. ”You have to take the lean with the fat an' the bitter with the sweet. Now, I knowed a crowd o' men went camping out in the North Woods a few years ago. First one of the men took sick an'

had to go home, then the boat they had got to leakin' so they couldn't use it, then came a forest fire, and in running away one of 'em up an'

broke his leg. Thet was an outin' fer you!”

”Thanks, but I'd rather stay home,” said Snap. ”But I believe you,--there is no use of crying over spilt milk, as the saying goes.

What do you advise?”

”Cleaning out the place and puttin' up a good, strong roof. We can do it by night.”

”Night!” cried Whopper. ”What is it now but night?”

”No, it's morning, lad, but rather early, I admit.”

Under the old hunter's directions they went to work, and by seven o'clock had the shelter cleaned out. This gave them a chance to get at their stores and also use the fireplace once more, and they cooked a fish breakfast and made a generous pot of coffee and another of chocolate.

”We'll cut all these branches away and then build a regular pole roof,” said Jed Sanborn. ”Build it right and it will withstand any pile o' snow you kin git on it.”

He told them just what poles to cut and how to place them, and showed them the best way to put in strips of bark and bind the whole together. By nightfall they had the new roof finished, and all of the boys admitted it was much better than the other roof had been.

CHAPTER XIX

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