“Such a forest as this must be hundreds of years old,” returned Mr. Morris. “Look at that stately tree for example. It flourished probably even before your grandfather was born. What a story it could tell could it speak!”
“Probably it could tell more of the Indians than they know themselves, Uncle Joe. It’s too bad the redskins couldn’t keep a written history, isn’t it? It would make interesting reading, I’m thinking.”
Nightfall found them still in the mountains and no habitation of any sort in sight. Mr. Morris climbed a tree and took a long view of their surroundings.
“I can see no cabin,” he said, on descending to the ground. “We shall have to spend the night in the open.”
“I shan’t mind,” answered Dave. “Let us start up a roaring camp-fire and make ourselves comfortable.”
Searching around, they found a clump of bushes ten or a dozen feet in diameter. With the hatchet Dave cut out the center of the clump, leaving an opening large enough for his uncle and himself to sleep in. Over the top of the remaining brush he fastened a canvas they carried, and on the bottom of the improvised shelter he scattered some small cedar branches. The latter gave forth a clean and wholesome smell and would serve to keep the sleepers from the damp ground.
“There, that ought to make a good bunking-out place,” he declared when he had finished.
“It will, Dave.” The boy’s uncle smiled. “You were cut out for a life in the open, no doubt of that.”
While the boy was working around the brush, Joseph Morris had started the camp-fire. The dry cedar caught fire readily and soon the generous blaze made the surroundings decidedly cheerful. At the river they had paused long enough for Dave to hook a fine fish, and this they baked on a flat stone, and ate with some corn bread, washing the meal down with a drink from a nearby brook. Then the horses were cared for, and they laid down to rest.
Dave was tired and hardly had his head touched the cedar boughs when he dropped off into a profound slumber. Mr. Morris sat up a little longer, to finish a pipe of tobacco he had lit and to replenish the fire. But presently the pipe went out, the fire was fed with an extra billet of wood, and he too turned in, and in five minutes was snoring lustily.