Kindling a Camp Fire.
In the meantime Jack scoured the island for some dry wood. In this he was
not very successful, because everything was covered with snow, and when he
tried to kindle a fire in the open space in front of our hut he found the
task an exceedingly difficult one. Unfortunately we forgot to bring the
oil stove with us, and the prospect of something warm to eat was
exceedingly remote. We hadn't yet learned the trick of building a camp
fire in wet weather. After exhausting our stock of paper Fred and I
started over to Lumberville for several newspapers and a can of kerosene.
We went to old Jim Halliday's, who had befriended us on one or two
occasions the previous summer, and made known to him our troubles.
"What! A can of oil to build yer fire with? Well, ye won't git it from me.
I know a man as got blowed up apourin' oil on a fire. Why, shucks, boys,
you don't need no oil ner paper nuther on that there island. Its
chuck-full of silver birch trees, and there ain't no better kindlin' than
birch bark."
Birch bark! Why, yes, why hadn't we thought of that? We had used it for
torches the summer before and knew how nicely it burned. So back we skated
to camp, and then, peeling off a large quantity of bark from the birch
trees around us, we soon had a rousing big fire in front of the hut.
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