_A Difficulty_
Little Tom was now in a quandary. He was on the bluff overlooking and
south of the camp, but he did not know how to get into the camp. To walk
in would be dangerous, of course. The sentinel might mistake him for an
enemy and shoot at him. A high wind was blowing from the direction of
Camp Venture, so that no call of Tom's could be heard there. It was a
little after three o'clock in the morning, very dark, very cold, and Tom
was very tired with his labor in bringing the meal down the mountain.
Finally an idea dawned in his mind.
"If I can't go to Camp Venture I can at any rate bring Camp Venture to
me," he said to himself. With that he collected some of the dry broom
straw that protruded above the snow and such sticks and other
combustibles as he could find, and set to work to build a fire.
"When the sentinel sees a fire here," he said to himself, "he'll call
the other boys, and they'll all get their guns and come out here to see
what's the matter. I'll stand up in the full glare of the light and on
the camp side of the fire, so that they can recognize me."
His plan worked to perfection. It was not five minutes after he got a
good blaze going before the whole company surrounded him.
"What is it, Tom?" they cried. "Why did you build a fire here?"
"Wait!" said Tom. "There are two bags of corn meal down there just under
the bluff. Some of you go and carry them to the house. I'm fearfully
tired and cold."
The boys quickly saw how true this was, and they plied the poor,
exhausted fellow with no more questions. He strode away to the hut,
entered it, threw down his remaining partridges, set his gun in its
customary place and stood for a few minutes with his back to the big
fire, warming himself. Presently, when the boys all came in with the
bags of meal, Jack, seeing the look of almost helpless exhaustion in
Tom's face, himself removed the blanket from the boy's shoulders, untied
it and spread it out upon the bunkful of broom straw, for by this time
Ed had got all their bedding dry again.
Meantime the Doctor went to a kettle that sat near the fire, placed it
upon some very hot coals, and a minute later dipped up a tin cup of its
contents.
"Here, Tom, drink this," he said. "It'll do you good and give you
strength."
It was a soup that Ed had made--or a broth rather--from the bones and
scraps of their bear dinners, and to Tom's exhausted system it seemed
wonderfully refreshing. Meantime Harry asked:
"Are your feet frozen, Tom?"
"No," answered the boy. "They are scarcely at all cold. You see, I've
been using them too vigorously for that. But they are dreadfully sore
and tired."
With that Harry filled their one foot tub with hot water and directing
Tom to sit down Harry himself removed the boy's boots and socks, felt of
his feet to make sure that they were not frosted, and placed them in the
hot water. The Doctor applauded the performance and when it was over,
and Tom's whole body was warm again, the boys rolled him up, not in his
own blanket alone, but in all the other blankets there were in the camp
and tumbled him into his bunk.
"There now!" said Jack, "sleep till you wake of your own accord. We'll
all keep as still as mice."
"No, don't," said Tom. "I shall sleep better if you go on talking as
usual. Then I'll know when I half wake that I'm here in camp and I'll go
to sleep again easily." Then, after the boys thought him asleep Tom
turned over and said, with much solicitude in his voice:
"Boys, I'm sorry I broke up your sleep so early this morning, but I
couldn't very well help myself."
"Never you mind about that," said Jim Chenowith. "You're on duty
now,--sleep duty,--and if you don't shut up and go to sleep I'll pour
buckets of cold water over you. We're not suffering for sleep just
because we were waked up an hour or so earlier than usual."
Tom was too tired to argue or to resist. He turned over on his side and
a minute later he was asleep.
Meantime the boys busied themselves with breakfast. Ed was still the
head cook, partly because he knew more about cooking than any body else
did, and partly because the Doctor still refused to let him work with an
axe. But all the boys helped him with this meal, as they always did when
they were in the house at the time of the preparation of meals.
"How long will it be, Doctor, before Tom will wake up hungry?" asked Ed
solicitously.
"Not more than two hours at farthest," answered the Doctor. "But why?"
"Well, I want to have something ready for him when he wakes--something
hot and appetizing."
And Ed accomplished his purpose. He gave the other boys their breakfast
of broiled bear's meat and ash cakes and then he set to work on Tom's
breakfast. He dressed two of the quails and laid them aside. Then he
mixed some of the meal and made pones of it, baking them in a skillet.
When Tom began to stir restlessly Ed raked out a fine bed of clean coals
and placed the two quails upon them to broil. They required very close
and constant attention, of course, to prevent burning, and just as Ed
was finally taking them off the fire Tom sat up in his bunk and asked:
"Hello, Ed! what's up? You've got something there that smells mighty
good to a hungry fellow like me. What is it?"
"I'll answer your questions one at a time," answered Ed. "'What's up?'
Why, you are, of course. 'What is it'--that I'm cooking? You just get
out of bed and see."
Tom obeyed. Creeping stiffly out of bed he seized the foot tub that had
stood there for two hours or more and felt of the water. It was by this
time sharply cold. Tom stripped off his clothing, soused his head into
the water and then taking a sponge, sluiced his whole body with the
nearly freezing liquid. A rapid rub down followed, and Tom called out:
"Now, Ed, bring on your breakfast as soon as you can. I'm nearly
starved."
With that he slipped again into his clothing and a minute later was
devouring a quail and a big pone of very coarse corn bread which Ed had
buttered with the scant remains of the ante-Christmas bacon drippings.
"Where are the other fellows?" asked Tom, as he ate.
"Out chopping," answered Ed.
"Did they have bacon dripping butter on their bread this morning?"
"Indeed they didn't. That was saved, by unanimous vote, for you. For but
for you there wouldn't have been any bread in Camp Venture to butter
with anything."
"Oh, well," said Tom, "but you see it isn't fair. You ought to have
divided the bacon fat--"
"Now look here, Tom," Ed broke in, "if you'll find a single boy in this
company who is growling about the breakfast he got this morning--the
best part of it due to your exertions in getting us the meal,--I'll
agree to eat that boy and all his complaints. I tell you this bacon fat
was saved for you by special request of every fellow in the camp, and
that's all there is about it. I foresaw that you'd want to divide it up,
so I put it on your bread myself instead of leaving that for you to do.
You see you can't help eating it now."
"Ed, you fellows are the very best and kindliest that ever were in this
world," said Tom, with so much of emotion that he did not venture to say
any more.
"But I say, Tom," said Ed, eager to turn the course of the talk, "where
and how did you get this meal?"
"Oh, that's a long story," answered Tom, "and the other fellows will
want to hear it, and really I can't tell it twice. Besides, now that
I've had my breakfast I'm going out to do my share of the chopping. I'll
tell you all about it while we sit around the fire to-night."