He was in no hurry to arouse the others.
“Let them sleep,” he said to himself, with a whimsical look on his own rather peaked face; “they need it, poor chaps; and neither of them is as used to doing without as I’ve schooled myself to be.”
So he moved about just as softly as possible while replenishing the fire; and it was really the flames snapping that finally aroused Wee Willie. He sat upright, and still rubbing one eye stared rather sheepishly at Elmer.
“Huh! a fine sentry I’d make, I guess, to sleep on my post,” he mumbled scornfully. “For five cents I’d ask some one to give me sixteen good kicks.”
“Oh! that’s far too much hard cash,” chuckled Elmer; “lots of fellows would be glad to do it for nothing, Wee Willie. But let’s forget our troubles now the morning’s come, and our unwelcome guest hasn’t returned.”
“Yes, one trouble seems to have skipped out; but there are others still,” complained the tall chum. “First there’s Perk missing, and nobody knows which way to look for him, now the trail’s all washed out. Then the second thing that makes me sad is the lack of breakfast.”
He put both hands on his stomach, and grunted dismally.
“I guess it hasn’t happened but a few times in all my whole life,” he went on to confess, “that Wee Willie has been forced to go hungry in the morning; and I want to tell you right now it’s little short of a calamity in my estimation. Why, I’ll be shaky all day long; you can’t expect to keep the furnace agoing without stoking once so often.”
“But how about that cake of chocolate each of us took along, so as to stave off starvation?” asked Elmer, maliciously.
His chum made a wry face.