“We may as well make things look as cheerful as possible,” he said, “and it’s a good deal more pleasant to have a light after the fire goes out than be in the darkness.”
“If you say the word I’ll get the stove from the cook’s quarters,” Ned suggested. “It isn’t very large, an’ I could almost handle it alone.”
“I think we’d better leave that until morning. It will take quite a while before we got it going, because coal must be brought ashore, and Roy can get us up one more meal on your fire.”
Ned was satisfied with any arrangement they might wish to make, but he insisted on having a couple of pails for fresh water to prevent the necessity of running to and fro from the spring so often, and these Vance brought with the lanterns.
The amateur cook prepared as tempting a supper as he had the dinner, and when all had done it full justice the dishes were placed outside the tent to be washed in the morning, for night had now fully come.
Ned piled the fire high with wood, for since he had an ax the labor of preparing fuel did not seem very great to a boy like him, who had always been forced to perform such laborious tasks, and then he lay down on one of the yacht’s mattresses, feeling that he had every reason to be thankful for the change in his surroundings.
“Now tell us how you happen to be here,” Roy said. “We’ve got plenty of time, for we don’t want to go to sleep immediately after supper, and when you have finished Vance and I will explain how it is the yacht came ashore with only us two as a crew.”
CHAPTER VII.
THE DISASTER.
Ned not only told the story of his being marooned, but gave a detailed account of his life from his first recollections to the present day, and when this rather long narrative was ended, Roy began according to agreement.
“Vance’s father and mine live at Tampa, in Florida, during the winter, but they haven’t come down yet. We were allowed to start ahead of the two families because just at this time it is a question to be decided whether we attend school any longer or call our education finished and go into some kind of business.