“Oh! I’m getting there, by degrees,” the other told him, with a queer look on his face that even Elmer could not understand; Perk seemed to be cherishing a secret of some sort, which he was loath to impart until he had piqued their curiosity to the utmost; that was all Elmer could settle in his mind.
“But you’re fairly dry right now, seems like,” said Amos; “how did you manage to do that, Perk, if it’s a fair question?”
“Fire, again,” chuckled the other; “nothing like it to dry you out; only it did make me feel homesick to see those flames playing so merrily, and me without a single scrap of grub to keep up my strength—that was really the worst part of the whole business, boys.”
“But with everything so soaking wet around, how did you manage to get a fire started?” demanded Wee Willie, incredulously.
“Huh! needn’t think you’ve got a foreclosure on all the woodcraft knowledge that’s lying around loose, Wee Willie,” snorted the fat chum, grimly. “Say, I’ve been taking lessons, and experimenting in some of the ways you have for making a fire. I haven’t so far been able to bring a blaze by means of a twirling stick with a bow to turn it; but shucks! it isn’t any great punkins to knock some dry wood out of an old log, and start it to going, if you’ve only got plenty of matches along; which was what I did!”
Wee Willie whistled, to indicate his surprise. Really it was next door to thrilling to know how the once dull Perk seemed to be picking up points in woodcraft; even though he did persist in still getting lost periodically.
“You’re sure a comer, Perk!” declared the tall chum. “Mebbe I’ll be glad to sit at your feet and soak in wisdom one of these days.”
“No blarney or soft soap, please, fellows,” continued the other, suspecting that they were only “joshing” him. “I hope I am improving, that’s all; and that some day I’ll even learn how to find my way back to camp on a bee-line. But whew! it was something fierce when that bolt shivered one of the big trees not so far away. I thought for sure my time had come, it sort of knocked me over, you see.”
“We had something of the same experience,” Elmer told him; “and can understand how uneasy you must have felt.”
“Only,” added Amos, quickly, “Elmer managed to pilot us to where there was a fine shelf of rock, under which we crept, so as to get out of the downpour. We didn’t dare stay under a tree, with all that lightning bursting around us.”