“I’ve got a better plan than that. Is your rubber blanket dry inside? Mine isn’t.”
“Yes, it’s dry enough.”
“Let’s put it on the ground to lie on, and use my rubber blanket for a tent. We can put it over a ridge-pole about two feet from the ground, and stake the edges down.”
“What will we do for blankets? It’s too cold to sleep without them.”
“We can each borrow one from Harry and Charley. They’ve got two apiece, and can spare one of them.”
Joe’s plan was evidently the only one to be adopted; and so the two boys pitched their little rubber tent, borrowed two blankets, and crept under shelter. They were decidedly wet, but they lay close together and managed to keep warm. In the morning they woke up rested and comfortable, to find a bright sun shining and their clothes dried by the heat of their bodies. Neither had taken the slightest cold, although they had run what was undoubtedly a serious risk, in spite of the fact that one does not easily take cold when camping out.
As they were enjoying their breakfast the canoeists naturally talked over the events of the previous day and night. Harry had been kept perfectly dry by his canoe-tent—one side of which he had left open, so as to have plenty of fresh air; and Charley had also been well protected from the rain by his rubber blanket, hung in the usual way over the paddle, although he had been far too warm to be comfortable.
“I’m tired of suffocating under that rubber blanket of mine, and I’ve invented a new way of covering the canoe at night, which will leave me a little air to breathe. I’ll explain it to you when we camp to-night, Joe.”
“I’m glad to hear it, for I’ve made up my mind that I’d rather be rained on than take a Turkish bath all night long under that suffocating blanket.”