“Yes, and if we had some bread we’d have a sandwich if we had some ham,” laughed Lanky.
“Don’t start on me, champion kidder,” Frank rejoined. “Pick on some one your size.”
After a while the boys made down the bunks and all crawled in, first putting a log on the fire to keep the place heated overnight. Lanky wanted to know where the sleeping porch was, because he could not sleep without plenty of fresh air. Had it not been that they feared Lanky might get the better of all three of them, they would have put him outdoors so that he could have all the air he wanted.
Early in the morning they were up, and the big question of how to get water came to mind, inasmuch as they had used all the water in the two buckets in the kitchen.
An axe was brought into play, and all four of the boys proceeded to the lake, and out a distance of twenty-five feet.
There they cut a square hole, about three feet long and wide, finding that the ice was already more than four inches thick. Here they dipped the buckets and brought in fresh, cold water to wash for the day.
“Now is the time we ought to take a morning plunge. I just dote on cold water plunges,” laughed Lanky, peering into the hole.
Nothing daunted, and to even the score, Buster Billings gave Lanky a shove toward the hole in the ice.
But Lanky’s long legs took him over the hole, where his heels struck the ice at an angle, and he slid on his back several yards. Getting quickly to his feet, he saw Buster disappearing into the house. But Lanky had not taken his cold plunge.
Their breakfast was a matter of but a few minutes after their morning’s ablutions had been made. They sat up to it and partook of it with a zest. The wind had died down somewhat, though still blowing hard.