Fuel was plentiful enough, and a rousing fire was speedily blazing on the little hump of ground, a rod in front of the tent.
"Not near enough to set anything on fire. If that hump hadn't been there, we'd have made one."
As it was, he had levelled it on top a little, and the surface so made was barely two feet across.
Sid was a little curious about such a fire-place, but decided to wait and see what his friend meant.
Wade's father was an old army officer, and had taken his boy with him on more than one "camping-out" excursion, while Sid was taking his very first lesson.
"That'll do. Now for some fish. You go ahead, while I pluck the partridges."
"Guess not. I can do that as well as you can. Give me one of 'em."
It was easy work to strip the tender game and hang it in the tent, but the boys were thoroughly tired of mere "going into camp" by the time they started for the lake.
"Hullo, Sid! If there isn't the old dug-out floating yet!"
"That thing out there by the snag? We can't get at her."