“We can get dry wood by taking a fairly large log and chopping off the wet outside,” explained Buck. “In that way we’ll get down to the heart of it and find something that we can burn. You know where that dead log is back of the springs, and you can surely cut something dry out of that big fellow. Come on, I’ll show you.”
Buck went to the mass of canvas which had been his own tent and lifting the soggy material, felt inside for his axe, which he had no trouble in locating. The other boys procured theirs and then they went off in a body to hunt up dry wood, a seemingly impossible process. But Buck had had to deal with wet wood before in his camping experiences.
“Now, here is this log,” he told them. “The outside looks pretty wet, and it is wet. Start cutting it away in slices, this way.” With his axe he split the wood along the upper side, tearing off the wet strips and tossing them to one side. “Now, here is some that looks fairly dry,” he went on, as they cut deeper. “This stuff will do very nicely for our fire.”
The younger boys were surprised to find that there was indeed a goodly supply of dry wood in the old log and they gathered a large heap of it and took it back to the camp. Buck knew that they were going to need lots of it, for it was impossible to think of going to bed that night. The wet canvas could not be put up and the entire camp would have to be dried out. They would need wood for the entire night.
“They are all excited and won’t mind staying awake all night,” he reflected, as he carried an armful of wood back to the fireplaces.
Here he found Ted down on his knees cleaning out the wet mass of ashes which had been the evening’s fire and when these had been raked out and scattered to one side, some paper, which came from under the seat of the truck was stuffed into the stone fireplaces and the wood was piled so as to catch fire. A match was applied and the tiny spurt of flame which immediately jumped up was a very welcome one. The one faithful lamp was still going and had done its duty well.
Carefully they fed the flame with splinters of wood, and the building of the fire took care, for the log wood was not thoroughly dry, but had in it enough moisture to make it a problem. It smoked and drove them away from the fire more than once, but they were pleased to see that it did burn. Some good fuel was added in the form of a canned goods box which had been under the truck and so was not very wet. Around the blaze created by this wood they dried their clothing as much as they could.
“We can’t go to bed tonight, can we?” Tom Clayton asked.
“No, we couldn’t get the tents up tonight, because we’ll have to dry them,” replied Ted. “But the night won’t last so very long now. When we do get everything fixed up we’ll put in the daytime sleeping, if we feel that way.”
“I certainly would like to go to sleep right now!” yawned Drummer, stretching himself.