“I wish I knew m-m-more about the country,” he stuttered. “Then we c-could leave the river and cut across lots. As it is we got to st-st-stick to the water.”
“Well,” I says, “you do the plannin’ and tell me when you’re ready to do somethin’. I’m goin’ to take a nap.”
The last I remember seeing of him he was leaning back against a tree, with his little eyes shut, and he was pinching and tugging away at his fat cheek like all-git-out. He was thinking. Next thing he’d do would be get out his jack-knife and whittle. When he did that—look out!
Collins waked me up, and he and I got into the canoe. Mark and Jiggins followed close behind us in the flatboat, and I could hear Jiggins singing away at his foolish tune, “Tum-deedle-dee-deedle-dum,” and so on, without any finish at all.
We camped that night on a sandy flat. While Jiggins and Mark got supper Collins and I fixed things up for the night. We cut a lot of boughs and twigs for our beds and pulled up the canoe and the flatboat and turned them over the supplies, so if it rained nothing would be spoiled. Then we stretched a clothes-line between two trees and threw over it a big piece of grimy canvas that Jiggins and Collins had brought along. The edges of this we pulled out and staked down so we had a pretty fair shelter. Of course, it was open at the ends, but it would keep off the dew and the rain if there wasn’t much wind. Mark came and looked at it.
“B-better dig a ditch around it,” says he.
“What for?” Collins asked.
“If it rains,” says Mark, “the d-d-ditch’ll carry off the water that runs off the t-tent. If you don’t have a d-d-ditch you’ll have a p-p-puddle right where you sleep.”
Collins allowed that sounded sensible, so we scooped out a little trench all the way around, with a canal leading away toward the river. By that time supper was ready.
When we were through eating we built up the fire so it would give light and keep us warm. Jiggins and Collins walked around to get the stiffness out of their legs and to smoke. Mark and I sat down, or, rather, laid down, close to the fire.