Giraffe showed them how by immediately starting in to collect such wood as lay conveniently at hand.
"Pile it up here, where it'll keep dry, and we can get what we need from time to time," he told them.
Many hands make light work, and as the entire half dozen boys busied themselves like a pack of beavers, before long they had accumulated such a pile of good dry fuel as pleased Giraffe exceedingly.
"That's what I call a hunky-dory lot of wood," he finally declared, when Thad had announced the they must surely have enough to see them through the night, "but better bring in a little more, boys, because you don't know how fast the fire eats it up."
As for himself, Giraffe was now ready to get his cheery blaze started.
He actually wasted a match in doing this, muttering at the time that there was no use bothering with his fire-sticks, which would come in handy later, perhaps, when the stock of matches ran low.
Well, every boy admitted that things certainly did take on a rosier hue, once that fire began to crackle and send up sparks.
"That feels good, Giraffe," said Bumpus, holding his hands out toward the blaze.
"Sure it does," the fire maker went on to say, "and we'll all feel better still after we get some grub inside. Thad, what are we going to have for supper?"
Nobody started making fun of Giraffe now. They were all pretty sharp pushed, and could sympathize with the hungry one.