This was quite an easy task, the sand was so light and dry. And ere long he had a place large enough to conceal himself and Bub.
“But,” said he, “I shall make it extend farther in, so that if the cabin is burnt over our heads, it won’t be too hot for us.”
But Bub made little headway in shovelling the sand; so Charlie finished the job for him, and then from a heap of litter, which he had before taken the precaution to scrape into a corner, he took enough to cover the fresh sand all over.
“Now,” said he, “let’s try our new cave;” and, squeezing through the hole from which he had taken the stone, Bub creeping in after him, Charlie reached out and drew the stone into its place again. Charlie was delighted.
“I like this!” he exclaimed; “it’s more like Robinson Crusoe’s cave.” 252
Bub thought he liked it too, but soon cried out, “I can’t hardly breeve; an’ it’s drefful dark.”
“It’s lucky I’ve tried it,” replied Charlie; “but I’ll fix it all nice.”
And pushing out the stone with his foot, he went up stairs, and returned with an old bayonet, with which he succeeded in dexterously working some small holes through the mortar, with which the crevices of the ill-matched stones were filled. This was so ingeniously done, that it would not be noticed; and yet enough light and air were let in to make the place tolerable for the purpose for which it was intended.
It was now past noon, and they went up stairs, and Charlie looked out again, to see if there were any signs of danger; but still “all was quiet along the Potomac.”
“I don’t think,” sagely observed Charlie, “that the Indians are ever coming back. In my opinion they have had about enough of fighting, they cleared off so quick, and there is so many of them dead.”