By selecting hemlock and other trees that would afford a dense covering they managed by degrees to build up quite a shelter, under which they might lie without running much risk of being wet by the dews. And after the recent heavy storm all of the weather prophets seemed fully agreed that the air had surely been cleared, so that another rain was not apt to come along for some time at least.
Noon came and went.
They cooked a warm meal, thus reducing the amount of provisions on hand; but the result was worth all the sacrifice, Giraffe and Bumpus declared, as they lay on the ground afterward, hardly able to move on account of the full dinner of which they had partaken.
“Three more meals like that, and then the deluge!” said Giraffe; “but who cares for expenses? Gimme two cents’ worth of gingersnaps, as the country boy said when he wanted the girls in the store to see what a high roller he could be. If our plans turn out O. K. we hope to be where we can buy a dinner for hard cash by that time. No need of worrying any; keep a doin’ the smile-that-won’t-come-off business. We belong to the Little Sunshine Club, don’t we, boys?”
Most of them were there in the bunch, and as usual all trying to talk at once. Davy alone sat off to one side, and seemed to be trying to shut out the chatter, while he wrote in his private log book an account of their recent adventures.
“How did the grits go, Bob?” asked Bumpus, who, in order to please the Southern boy, had prepared a kettle of fine hominy, to which the other had certainly done full justice, if his three helpings counted for anything.
“Simply immense, suh, and no mistake about it,” came the hearty reply; “some of you wonder how it is every Southerner loves that good old dish, and I confess that I’m unable to supply the explanation. I only know it fo’ a fact; and that somehow they all say it seems to bring befo’ their minds’ eye a picture of hanging moss, orange trees, cotton in the field, magnolias in bloom on the green trees, and all sorts of other things connected with the South they love.”
“I don’t think there’s a part of this Union one-half so fond of their section of the country as you Southerners are, Bob,” Allan asserted.
“I reckon you’re about right, suh, when you say that. It’s always been that way with us befo’ the war and since. But Davy’s beckoning to you, Thad.”
“Well, I declare, what do you think of that for pure nerve?” muttered Giraffe, as he saw the scout in question crooking his finger, and nodding to the patrol leader, as though asking him to come over; “if the mountain won’t come to Mahomet, he has to go to the mountain. But whatever d’ye imagine ails Davy now? He don’t look sick, and in need of medicine, because he ate nearly as big a dinner as—well, as Bumpus here did.”